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DJ hadn’t gotten a full night’s sleep in weeks. Practically every night he would have nightmares. Mostly about Toppleprey and the fact that he had no idea how he was going to get out of this mess.
So that was his excuse for constantly falling asleep during class. He woke up to the feeling of someone poking him in the head. Repeatedly.
“Hmrngh?” DJ muttered, still mostly asleep.
“Oh come on, human. We don’t have time for this.”
DJ instantly recognized the voice as Superfish’s. And if his voice wasn’t telling enough. That stupid nickname would’ve been.
“Shh,” DJ mumbled into his desk that he was resting her head on. He seriously doubted it was healthy to be surviving on as little sleep as he had been for the past few weeks.
The insistent poking switched from the back of his head to his cheek, “Okay seriously, what’s wrong with you?” The witch asked.
The black haired boy finally sat up, swatting Superfish’s hand away, “Careful. You almost sounded concerned for me,”
Superfish grabbed DJ’s arm and hauled him to his feet, “Not for you. For the core. Now come on. We need to get the next ingredient today,”
DJ stumbled along with Superfish’s quick pace, still groggy with sleep. Once they reached the vespa, DJ forced himself to try to be alert enough to hang on.
He wrapped his arms around the witch’s torso and resisted the urge to rest his head on his shoulder.
They parked in some secluded area outlooking a beach. DJ got off and stared at Superfish expectantly, waiting for him to lead the way.
Instead, the witch stared right back at him like he was observing every little thing. Finally he said, “Okay what the hell is wrong with you?”
DJ just blinked up at him, now sitting on the ground since he was too tired to stay standing, “Pardon?” He deadpanned,
“You’re constantly falling asleep-” He started counting off on his fingers “-you haven’t asked me one question today, you’ve barely spoken at all, and you have crazy eye bags right now. Do you have some weird little human disease I should know about?”
The black haired boy fought the urge to roll his eyes, “No I don’t have a disease. For your information all this shit with the core has been keeping me up,”
“Oh I see. You’re scared of powerful witches like me,” A proud smirk spread across his face as though this whole thing was just a way to compliment him, “And yes I will,”
DJ couldn’t hold back his groan of annoyance, “I’m scared of giant fucking werewolves getting my cat and brother. And the fuck do you mean ‘yes I will’ Im not asking you to do anything,”
“Yes I will stay at your house to put your scared little human mind at ease,”
***
Unfortunately for DJ’s pride, Superfish held true to his promise. After trying and failing to get the next ingredient they needed (turns out the weather wasn’t right or some bullshit) Superfish dropped DJ off at home. And then a few hours later the witch appeared in his room.
“Can I keep this?” Superfish asked, holding up an anime printed hoodie of DJ’s.
DJ stared at him from where he was sitting on his bed, “Nope,”
“Well then can I keep this?” He held up a different shirt of DJ’s, this one light blue,
“I said you can borrow clothes, not raid my closet. And keep your voice down. I don't want to wake up Arun.”
Superfish decided on the clothes he was going to wear and then started to change right there.
In a nonchalant attempt to keep his eyes averted from the witch, DJ started setting up the makeshift bed on the floor. He had just finished when Superfish flopped onto the blankets, “So what are we gonna watch?”
DJ climbed into his own bed, “Nothing. I think if I don’t sleep at this very moment my brain will explode.” He shut off the lamp beside his bed, trying to ignore the nervousness he felt once it was completely dark.
Oddly enough though, the fear dissipated once he heard Superfish’s voice coming from the floor beside his bed, “What? no snacks this time?”
“Nope. Just sleeping.”
“....DJ?”
DJ was already fast asleep.
***
Superfish woke to the sounds of panicked gasps and sobs. He felt the sharp sting of panic, and a strange feeling of concern. It sounded like DJ was in pain. Immediately he sat up, taking a minute to remember where he was.
Superfish jumped to his feet, and looked at the boy sleeping in the bed. But that was it. He was sleeping. He wasn’t hurt or dying.
The fear the witch had been feeling died down slightly, only to be replaced with a feeling of completely helplessness. He could fight someone off pretty easily. But he hadn’t the first idea how to comfort someone. Much less how to comfort a sleeping person.
Superfish flicked on the lamp and looked at DJ again. He was thrashing in his bed, tears rolling down his face. He looked like he was in so much pain.
Throughout the past few weeks DJ had been having nightmares. It would be hard not to in his situation. But nothing like this one. Unlike usual this one wasn’t him getting chased down by Topplyprey or a werewolf. It was a nightmare he hadn’t had since he was 13. The nightmare about his parents death. Only this time it was worse. So much worse because Arun was there too.
Superfish rushed to DJ’s side and grabbed his arms, trying to stop him from thrashing so he wouldn’t hurt himself, “DJ,”
His voice got louder, “DJ wake up!”
Finally, he did. DJ’s eyes fluttered open to see someone hovering above him. Out of instinct, he drove his knee up into their stomach.
Only when the person let out a groan did he realize it was Superfish. The witch didn’t even seem that angry. When DJ’s vision finally focused on his face, it was filled with relief, and a remaining concern. He almost looked scared.
DJ tried to force his breaths to slow but he couldn’t. He just couldn’t. He could barely move. He could barely speak. He felt like he was shutting down.
“DJ? Hey hey you’re okay.” In a way that was way more gentle than Superfish thought he would ever be able to muster, he wiped back a strand of hair from DJ’s forehead.
DJ didn’t seem to be like he was going to do much talking at the moment. And Superfish doubted he would think of the right things to say, so instead he shifted next to DJ, and wrapped an arm around him. “I-is um.. Is this okay?”
DJ managed a nod.
Superfish wanted to comfort him more. But he didn’t know what would be considered crossing a line. He didn’t know anything when he was around DJ. It was like all his thoughts turned to mush when he was near him.
He hovered his other arm over DJ, hesitating.
Finally he couldn’t take it anymore. DJ clearly needed something and him awkwardly having one arm around him wasn’t doing shit. So he said fuck it and wrapped both arms around DJ, pulling him into his chest so DJ’s head rested on his chest.
Surprisingly, it worked, and DJ started to breathe more normally again.
Neither of them said anything after that. DJ drifted off again first, and at some point Superfish did too.
The next morning when Arun came in to check on DJ he found his little brother spooning a random teal haired guy he had never seen before. But it was the first morning Arun didn’t wake up to the sounds of screams. So, he tiptoed back out, shut the door as quietly as possible, and decided to just let them sleep.