"No, no, please.... Please!"

Jim's eyes had snapped open at the first sign of distress from his slumbering roommate downstairs. First was the racing heartbeat -- nothing to be too concerned about -- but then came the muffled tears and the frantic, pleading cries.

Jim had tried to train himself not to go running to the rescue every time Sandburg had a nightmare. He was a grown man, after all, and always seemed terribly embarrassed whenever Jim did give in to his protective instincts, so Jim had promised himself to quit treating Sandburg like a child and to just let him wake up on his own. No matter how much he cried or begged.

Jim rolled his eyes and sighed as he heaved himself out of bed. Yeah, right.

He was halfway down the stairs, pulling his robe shut, when Sandburg let out a loud gasp and catapulted out of bed with an anguished wail. Jim gave a muttered curse and ran the rest of the way, only vaguely surprised when a large, Sandburg-shaped missile slammed into him just outside the French doors to the spare room and knocked him to the floor.

"Whoa, Sandburg, wake up!" Sandburg was still asleep, still crying, and his arms and legs were everywhere as he tried frantically to get to wherever he was running... or away from whatever he was running from. Jim wrapped his arms around the flailing limbs in a bear hug, barely holding him still, and continued speaking to him. "Come on, Chief, wake up, it's over, you're okay--OUCH!" A balled-up fist smacked him in the nose, but luckily it was only a glancing blow and he was more surprised than hurt.

"SANDBURG!"

That worked. Blair froze, his eyes flying open as became awake with a jerk, both wrists held firmly in Jim's hands. "What?!"

He raised a questioning eyebrow. "I could ask you that same question, Chief."

"Jim!" To his shock and surprise, Blair yanked his hands away and grabbed him around the waist, squeezing him hard. "Oh my God, Jim... you're okay!"

The sudden motion sent them both tumbling backward, smacking the back of Jim's head against the hardwood floor. He bit back his instinctive cry of pain and forced himself to endure the desperate embrace, though he did manage to struggle back to a sitting position, bringing Blair up with him. After a bit of maneuvering, he worked his way sideways until his back rested against the wall, and he secured his hold so that Blair's head was resting on his chest. "Yeah, Chief, I'm okay," he panted, resting one hand on Blair's back. "It was just a dream, come on, it's okay."

All at once, Blair seemed to notice their odd position. Jim was lying beneath him, limbs tangled up with his own, his robe gaping open to reveal only boxer shorts, and those were badly mangled by their struggle. He flushed bright red and scrambled backward, pushing away and standing up as quickly as was humanly possible. "Oh."

"You awake?" Jim asked calmly, using his senses to check his guide for any lasting physical affects from the nightmare.

"Yeah, sorry," Blair answered, shrugging embarrasedly. "Just a nightmare, you know...." He couldn't meet Jim's eyes for some reason, and he made a pathetic picture standing them with his arms hugging his chest, hair flying wildly around his head like flames backlit by moonlight, his eyes downcast. "And, um... sorry for... landing on you."

"S'okay." He stood, straightening his boxers and tying his robe with slow, nonchalant movements. "You want a cup of tea or something?"

"Huh?" Blair' s head snapped up, his eyes wide, and Jim had to bite back a grin at his shock.

"Tea...? Thought you might want to talk about it."

"Oh...." Blair bit his lip with indecision for a moment, then headed slowly back to his room. "Okay. Need my robe."

As soon as Blair's back was turned, Jim allowed his grin to break loose. It wasn't funny, he knew that. Sandburg had suffered through nightmares before, but this one was obviously a bad one, and not a laughing matter. And he wasn't laughing at the nightmare, honestly, he wasn't. He was laughing at.... Well, he wasn't sure exactly what he was laughing at, but it certainly wasn't anything inappropriate.

He put the kettle on to boil and listened with half an ear as Sandburg shuffled into the bathroom, where he splashed water on his face, rinsed out his mouth, and brushed out his tangled curls. By the time he dragged himself into the living room and sank down on the couch, the water was about ready for their tea.

Jim finished the preparations and joined him, solemnly handing Blair a steaming mug and relaxing with his own into the cushions on the other side of the couch. "So...." He took a slow, careful sip and watched as Blair did the same, his troubled eyes never leaving the surface of his mug. "Want to tell me about it?"

"I dunno, Jim, it was weird, even for me."

"Okay."

"No, I mean... it wasn't the usual, you know? No Lash, no golden fire people, no fountains, no bad guys with guns... just....weird."

"I can do weird, I have a ghost cat that follows me around."

Blair cracked a smile at that. "Yeah, I guess you do." His fingers tightened around his mug and he sighed deeply, shooting a nervous glance at his friend and roommate. "Okay.... Well.... We were in this single-story house, right? We lived there, it wasn't the loft and I don't think it was in Cascade but we lived there. Together. And you had on glasses, which doesn't make any sense, but you did. And all of the walls and floors were weird colors, like bright neon pink and green, but we liked it anyway. And we had a pool. We had some people over, I don't know who it was.... it might have been Simon and Joel, or maybe Rafe and some woman, I don't know. I can't remember. And I was trying to make some dinner only I accidentally caught the stove on fire and I couldn't call the fire department. I mean, I wanted to, but I couldn't move. And you and everybody came in and were yelling and panicking and pointing at the fire only nobody did anything. And then you tried to extinguish it with one of those portable things, you know, the red ones? Only the fire was too big and you got too close and it swallowed you up, my God, Jim I just watched and it just... you burned and you were screaming and trying to get away but it just swallowed you up, and we were all screaming. And then the grim reaper came, and he was this skeleton in a big black cape with a scythe, just like in horror movies, and he was chanting and waving his arms around and I knew he was gonna take you, Jim, and I was crying because I didn't want.... It was my fault, and I didn't want him to take you. So I got down on my knees and the fire was still burning but I got on my knees and I was begging him not to take you, and he turned to me and he spoke to me in this gravelly voice and he said if I could defeat him, he wouldn't take you, and then we played Rock Paper Scissors -- Rock Paper Scissors, Jim! -- to save your life, and I won and he chanted and you rose up out of the ashes and it was a miracle, but the fire was still burning, we were all burning, and he just laughed and laughed...."

Jim had been staring at him this whole time, his mouth slowly falling open, wondering somewhere in the back of his head how Sandburg could get all of that out without taking a breath, but now Sandburg was beginning to hyperventilate, so he put down his mug and scooted closer, carefully taking Sandburg's mug, too, and placing it on the coffee table. "Okay, okay, Sandburg, calm down. It's over, right? Just a dream. Come on, breathe, its okay."

"And we were all dying in the fire, Jim," Blair was saying. His eyes were bulging and he was gasping for breath, his hands clenched into fists, and he kept talking, bulldozing over Jim's attempts to calm him. "And the walls and floors were pink, Jim. Bright pink and green, and he was laughing! And the house was all wrong, there was something about the house.... We had a.... There was only one bedroom with one bed. We had a vibrating heart bed, Jim, like something you'd see in Vegas. The bedroom had pink walls and a reddish carpet, and it was a vibrating bed with a heart-shaped headboard, but it didn't matter, because we were all burning in our pink kitchen, and he was laughing because it didn't matter that I won, because we burned...."

"SANDBURG!" He gave up, finally, just just grabbed Sandburg by the ears and yanked him close, right in his face and screamed at him, and Blair gave a startled sort of... squeak and finally shut up.

"Are you calm?"

And Sandburg nodded a little, but he was lying because his eyes still wide and bulging, and his breathing was still too strained.

"Breathe."

He breathed.

"In and out. Slowly."

So Blair did what he was told -- closed his eyes and breathed, and his hands came up to wrap around Jim's wrists and his head fell forward so Jim's chin was resting on the top of his head, and they lay they together, Blair in Jim's arms, both of them just... breathing.

"You calm?" Jim asked again, when Blair's body finally relaxed.

"Yeah," came the quiet answer, muffled by Jim's chest. Blair shifted just a little -- just enough to get his face out of Jim's chest, but he didn't pull away and Jim just let his arms settle around him and tighten into a comforting hug. "Sorry," Blair said.

"S'okay. You know... I don't mind."

"No?"

"No. I, um.... This is kind of nice. Lying here, I mean. ... With you."

"Yeah...." Blair's arms came up and tentatively wrapped around him, the fingers of one hand cupping the back of his neck. "Nice." He lifted his head and met Jim's eyes, every emotion plain in their deep blue depths. Fear, uncertainty, doubt, hope... and love.

Jim smiled at him and lowered his head just slightly in invitation. "You see something you like, Chief?"

Blair smiled, and Jim felt his heart fill with warmth and joy. "Yeah," came the answer, breathed into his mouth in a sweet kiss.

They explored one another slowly, leisurely, with lips, hands, and tongues. When Jim came back to his senses, he found himself still on his back, his hands playing idly in the long curls as Blair nuzzled his chest with one stubbled cheek. "Well.... That was definitely one of your stranger dreams, Chief," he said teasingly. "Pink walls and floors? No wonder you freaked out."

Blair let out a kind of snorting laugh. "Yeah. Bright pink. And neon green."

"And a... vibrating heart bed? What the hell was that?!"

"Ummm...." Now Blair did try to pull away, but Jim just tightened his arms and held on. "Jim...."

"Come on, Sandburg. Is this some secret fantasy of yours? I never knew you had a secret life as a lounge lizard. You got any white tuxedos I don't know about? Blow-up dolls?"

"Jesus, James...."

Jim shut him up with another kiss.