...Hug?

“I’m sorry. It is important, though.”

"It doesn't feel. Safe. To go to sleep by myself. --And I'm sure I'll pass out eventually."

Yeah okay hugs. Big tight safe-feeling hugs. “That... still doesn’t sound great, honestly. You need sleep, Lev.”

"But I'm alone and I keep-- hearing things, or thinking I do-- and. I can't go to sleep if my heart is racing."

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s... a problem. Is there anything you can think of that might help?”

Lev presses his face into Martin's thigh and says something inaudible into his leg.

“Speak up, Lev.”

"You could sleep with me."

“Okay. I can... okay. Do you want, like... a short-term thing, or are you inviting me to move in, or?” Martin’s voice gets noticeably more high-pitched at the end. 

"I don't want to ask you for things you don't want or lead you on or--"

“Hey, hey, Lev, it’s okay. You can just, tell me what you want.”

"...could you? At least until I can sleep alone?"

“Yeah, of course. I just wanted a general timeframe. I can start moving in tomorrow, if you want? Doing anything more intense than eating Chinese food and sleeping tonight seems like probably a bad idea.”

"You're really good. And this relationship is incredibly ill-advised on so many levels but mostly I'm just trying to avoid having a nervous breakdown."

“Yeah, that makes sense. I’ll... try not to put too much investment into it.” And he’s totally already failed at that but he can deal with that later. 

“...You’re really good too.”

"I have put entirely too much investment into it," Lev says, "that's part of the reason it's so ill-advised. But you're so good."

“That makes sense. We should maybe talk about it once you’ve had more food and sleep? —Oh, I should probably head to the Chinese place, will you be good here for ten minutes? Or you can come with me, but you seem—“ Vague gesture. 

"I can handle ten minutes by myself."

“That’s fair.”

And, about ten minutes later, Martin comes in with Chinese food! He sets some of it in front of Lev. “Eat.”

Lev eats, slowly at first, and then realizing how hungry he is starts gobbling down fried rice.

Once he has finished eating, he pulls Martin down onto the bed so that Martin is spooning Lev.

Martin melts, a little, and holds Lev very tight. “You’re very good,” he repeats. 

Lev relaxes into Martin. "No, you're very good. --Man, I know nothing about who you've dated. Other than that they didn't tell you you were good often enough."

“I’ve had a couple boyfriends? Nothing very serious. And it wasn’t that they were bad or anything, we just didn’t really click, you know?”

Lev would probably have something to say to this but Martin is very comforting and good at cuddles and he hasn't gotten much sleep lately so he closes his eyes and falls asleep. 

And now Martin has his arms full of asleep maybe-boyfriend saying things like "soft" and "warm" and "safe" and "love you" and what sounds almost like "sir."

And now he’s not dreaming of that anymore. 

He’s dreaming of a peaceful, moonlit graveyard. He hears a woman calling from one of the open graves. It’s the only grave that has anyone in it. 

He can move, but he can’t help her. All he can do is watch.