Will Jaeha be able to sleep? On the one hand, he's dead on his (metaphorical) feet, especially given that he'd been awake all day long already before Nightmare showed up; on the other, despite everything. Nightmare did get to him and he kind of needs to make sure Tae-gun is really here and solid in his arms.

He'll compromise by holding Tae-gun until he physically cannot stay awake.

When he finally wakes up, Tae-gun is nowhere to be seen.

...no. No no no no where'd he to where's Tae-gun his Tae-gun he jolts awake and jump off the bed and loses balance hard enough to come crashing down onto the floor and tries to get up—

And Tae-gun rushes through the door riding an ice board looking scared. "Hyung? What happened, why are you on the floor, what—"

As soon as Tae-gun is close enough Jaeha pulls him into a tight hug.

"What—hyung, what happened, you're shaking—"

"Don't leave me. Please. Please stay. Please don't leave me, Tae-gun-ah, please—" He can't bear to pull away can't bear to look at Tae-gun's face what if Tae-gun looks disgusted what if he's too clingy what if he's feeling awkward what if—

He hugs back, just as tightly. "It's okay, hyung. I'm here. I'm not going leave. I'll stay with you." What the fuck, this might be the first time he's ever seen Jaeha—he can feel wetness on the skin of his back. He pulls away to look at Jaeha's face. Is—is he crying?

Yes. Yes he is. "Don't look at me, Tae-gun-ah," he pleads, turning his face away. "Don't, don't, I don't want you to see me like this—" He's pathetic, he's so pathetic, he's making such a mess of himself and he can feel Tae-gun's worry for him, Tae-gun's love, and he feels like a pitiful worm for ever doubting it even for a second, for ever letting Nightmare get to him, for ever letting it plant even the tiniest seeds of doubt, but if Tae-gun sees how pathetic Jaeha is he'll surely leave—

"Hyung. Hyung, look at me. Jaeha-ya."

He can't say no. He can't ever, ever say no. He turns his face, reluctantly, but he fixes his gaze somewhere around Tae-gun's chin.

Good enough.

Tae-gun kisses him. "Jaeha-ya. I love you."

Oh, God, he can't keep looking, he needs to hide his face in Tae-gun's shoulder again, not that that'll help to hide his sobbing in any way. 

Tae-gun is here, Tae-gun is real, Tae-gun is his, Tae-gun loves him, he said so, Jaeha can feel it too, if there's anything that's real it's how much Tae-gun loves him, Tae-gun will never leave him, Tae-gun must never leave him, there is no Jaeha without Tae-gun, without Tae-gun he's just a hollow, empty husk, he's not even half a person, he's nothing without Tae-gun—

"Let it out, hyung. I'll be here for as long as you want me to be."

That's just making him sob harder and hug tighter, this is too much for just one person to handle, not even one person, just the tiny pitiful unperson he becomes when he's backlashed.

He lifts one hand to cup the back of Jaeha's head and run his fingers through Jaeha's hair, petting him soothingly and just being physically present for his Jaeha since he seems to need it so much.

He does. He needs it so much. He spends a while there, he's not keeping track of the time and the blackout blinds don't let any sun in so he can't even use the light to help, and he cries harder than he's cried in a long, long time, possibly ever. 

Eventually he does calm down, though, enough to stop crying, and a while after that he calms down though to be able to pull away again. "Sorry, Tae-gun-ah. I'm sorry. I just—"

"Was it Nightmare?" Tae-gun asks in a soft voice.

"...yeah."

Tae-gun nods. He doesn't ask what, exactly, Nightmare showed him. He doesn't want to dig up whatever was painful enough to cause this, and it doesn't really matter. He also doesn't ask if this has happened before, because he's pretty sure it hasn't, and that this is the first time Jaeha's gone into Nightmare with so little backlash, possibly the first time Jaeha's gone into Nightmare while he cared about anything enough to have nightmares over it. Maybe it showed Jaeha visions of Tae-gun dying, he knows he'd be fucked up if he got shown visions of the people he cares about dying, and Jaeha spent how many hours in the dungeon? Jaeha, his Jaeha, his poor Jaeha...

God, being pitied by Tae-gun is almost worse. He turns his empathy off again—he doesn't want to know, and really he shouldn't have turned it on in the first place, except he needed it, he needed more than just Tae-gun's words to be reassured, however immature and pathetic that makes him—and cups Tae-gun's cheek with a hand. "I need a shower." Not just because of the crying, he also spent several hours running around the nightmares of so many other people, he's feeling grubby and grimy and disgusting.