#request filled!

He had nightmares too, and everyone knew. Given his upbringing, he was bound to have dreams of his mother’s ice, his father’s fist, and the pot of boiling water in a surreal version of his father’s house. They were worse when he was younger and held onto those memories with fear and loathing. Now he’s doing a little better, and the nightmares happen less. They still happen though, just as real and devastating as the last.

“You get it,” Ochako tells softly, a little ashamed. “So… is it okay if I stay here with you?”

It’s hard to be alone after a nightmare. He gets it, even though he doesn’t get why she went to him instead of the others and why he was scared to ask. But he isn’t going to turn her away.

So she stays on his futon upon his insistence, while he settles for his spare duvet and pillows folded up on the tatami some ways away from her. He isn’t sure if she falls asleep then, or if she lies there awake like he does, mind swirling with questions that pile up the longer he stares at the ceiling.

She leaves him at daybreak, before anyone sees. Just a thanks, I’ll see you in class, a quiet bow of her head. When they do see each other in class she’s smiling and her eyes are dry. Not a single mention of her having any troubles with anything apart from the normal things in class. Shouto wonders if he had helped at all.

*

Weeks pass without anything happening, but it happens again: a timid knock on his door at 2.30 AM that he answers after a beat.

When he opens his door, Ochako is already turning away. “I’m sorry, I thought you were sound asleep,” she says, a slight blush rising on her tear-stained cheeks. “If you have trouble sleeping, I’ll go back to my room.”

He shakes his head. “You can stay here.”

She hesitates at the threshold, but she goes in, padding softly behind him as he leads the way. He arranges his futon a bit before letting her lie down underneath his covers.

“What about you?”

He gestures to the hardback novel in his hands. “I’m not sleepy.”

“Okay.” Her voice comes out as an exhausted sigh. When she was wide awake and frightened outside her door, now her eyes are half-lidded and heavy as she struggles to stare at him. “Get to bed with me when you are.”

Before he can ask what she means (because it jolts his senses past awake), her eyes flutter closed and her breathing evens out immediately. It’s a relief that she’s asleep so quickly, so quietly; she’s had dark circles under her eyes for days that she refused to explain other than staying up for homework. He guesses that her nights aren’t that peaceful since they last met.

He watches her for some time, staring at her face and listening to her breathing for any signs of distress. He stops when he’s sure her sleep is dreamless, and when anxiety releases its hold on his heart at that knowledge. This surprises him; he didn’t even know he was worried for her.

Hours later, a weight on his shoulders stirs him from his sleep.

Ochako is up, placing a blanket over him as he slumps over on his desk. “I told you to get to bed when you felt sleepy,” she mumbles. “Now your back is going to hurt all day like an old man and it’ll be ‘cause of me.”

He wonders if he imagines the petulant tone of her voice, and the aggravated sigh that comes after it when she leaves. He smiles anyway, and only feels a little regretful when she turns out to be correct about his back.

*

Time passes again, with both of them pretending that nothing has happened. It’s a little harder for her, though, with her focus faltering during combat training and her eyebags getting deeper as the days pass. Shouto isn’t the only one who notices, but she’s able to laugh it off to stop the prodding.

One afternoon, he tugs on her sleeve while the others aren’t looking. “You’re not sleeping well,” he says.

She shakes her head. “I won’t bother you about it, though,” she says, the bright smile on her mouth a mismatch for her tired eyes. “I can handle it. They’re not… that bad anymore.”

They must be, judging by the waver in her voice. “Come in when you feel like it,” he says quietly. “I’ll leave my door unlocked.”

She looks up at him guiltily, not affirming anything before she turns and answers a question Asui throws at her. She might not take him up on his offer–he’s worried that he’s being pushy, forcing her into an uncomfortable situation. But he’s more worried for her than anything else.

*

But his door opens in the middle of the night. And the following nights, in irregular succession, in irregular hours in the night until daybreak before anyone notices.

Ochako sleeps only a few hours with him, but it must be good sleep because she doesn’t appear as tired. Her smiles look more honest too.

He doesn’t know how he agreed to sleep next to her when he was fine sleeping on the floor as before. All he knows is that he put up a fight and she put up an even harder fight, and she refused to sleep unless he’s on the futon too. He agrees after some negotiations, including a barrier of pillows between them and a strict schedule of her coming and going so that no-one finds out. It’s probably for the better, because his futon is more comfortable than the floor, she quiets down when he relents, and the weight of her next to him unexpectedly makes sleeping easier for him too.

He wonders if any of this is proper, though. He’s sure at least that they’ll get in trouble if anyone finds out.

Well… nobody found out so far. If they already had (he suspects Midoriya has, at least, with the curious way he looks at the two of them), no-one is saying a word because their quiet nights together continue.

The nightmares stop.

*

Until, they start again. For him, anyway.

It’s the usual thing, unexciting to think about in the day but completely terrifying when he’s immersed in it. He is a child, there’s a maze. Touya’s lost somewhere. Mother is crying. Endeavor is out to kill him. Same old, same old.

He wakes up releasing a deep breath, eyes and forehead damp, head throbbing in protest. He covers his eyes with one hand, forcing clarity into his senses, relishing in the safety of the quiet night.

Except–

“N-no–don’t go, don’t go–”

The sound is soft and heartbreaking and cuts through the haze in his head in an instant. He wonders if it’s part of his nightmare that Ochako’s crying in her sleep, breathing ragged and uneven, face contorted like she’s devastated. The minutes pass in anxious wakefulness, though, and Ochako’s nightmare continues.

Shouto uncovers his hand, reaches past the buffer pillow between him and Ochako. “Uraraka–”

“Please don’t leave me, please–no, NO!”

She bolts upright, a startled scream piercing through the air between them. Her eyes fly open, her hand coming up to cover her mouth by pure instinct, even though it’s clear that it takes her a moment to fully wake up from the nightmare she just had.

Bewildered eyes fall on him, and then on his hand on her shoulder. He can feel the surge of relief within her.

With watery eyes, she faces him and breaks down. “T-Todoroki-kun–”

At the sound of her voice, his body moves to hold her close, one arm going around her trembling form, the other cradling the back of her head to support her as she buries her face into his shoulder. She whimpers softly, weakly, not enough to wake the neighbors but enough to sting his chest with how broken she sounded.

“Please… please don’t leave me,” she whispers, as tears continue to stain his shirt. “Please don’t leave me trapped there alone again.”

She’s frightened, speaking as if she’s still trapped in that imaginary space. He wonders if she’s speaking with him or the hallucinations, especially with how tightly her eyes are closed and how she shrinks herself further in his arms.

But he gets it. It’s hard to be alone after a nightmare. It’s hard to drift in and out of wakefulness, knowing that you’ll face the darkness by yourself either way. But she isn’t alone anymore, and neither is he. He’ll have a lot to tell her when she wakes up.

For the meantime though, he lets her hold on to him as long as she wants. Lets her whimper, and cry, and grip and soak his shirt to the point of ruin. He strokes her hair and her back through it. At some point her breathing slows down.

“I’m here,” he says into her ear. “You don’t have to be alone anymore.”

Lance turned to look at Keith, all batting eyelashes and coy smiles barely visible from behind a bare shoulder. “I wouldn’t have pegged you for sleep sex. Just how far were you going to go with me unconscious, hm?” A quick kiss against the cheek was his answer, followed by more fluttering kisses peppered down his jaw. “You’re always so eager.”

“I could say the same about you,” Keith finally spoke, voice gruff. “You’re always so wet,” he commented, unceremoniously slipping his hand beneath Lance’s boxers, easily sinking a finger to the second knuckle. The wet dreams always escalated quickly. Lance had a feeling it reflected his own impatience with Keith in reality. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you soaked another pair of boxers.”

“And whose fault is that?” Lance huffs, gently rocking against the finger inside of him, working it deeper.

Keith pulled away just enough for Lance’s eyes to adjust and make out his features, make out his cocky grin full of teeth as he said, “I guess I should take responsibility, huh? Take care of you?”

“You’d be the absolute worst Alpha if you didn’t.”

“But I thought you liked being teased? Pushed to the edge, only to be pulled back—again and again.” As Keith mumbled in the space between them, his hands made slow work of Lance’s underwear, tossing it from underneath the comforter afterwards. “Or do you just like teasing me?”

“I’d never,” Lance lied smoothly. His breath hitched as sharp teeth nipped right above where his scent gland was, neck stretching to tempt Keith, to get those teeth to sink in and bond them—

“Liars don’t get laid.” Lance whined softly as he felt Keith disentangle himself, taking his body warmth and gentle touches with him. The rabbit tried to scoot back, hoping to feel hot skin against his again, but it seemed like Keith put quite a bit of distance between them. He huffed, shooting the wolf a seething glare that was hard to make out in the dark before facing away from him. He didn’t need Keith! He could get himself off just fine, had been since before Keith came into his life.

And so he maneuvered himself until he was face down on the mattress, ass up and knees spread—dream Keith’s favorite position. But Lance was certain his mind was just stereotyping the wolf, especially since he had never actually done anything with him. He’s quick to take a hand to his cock and slide two fingers inside of himself, voice extra loud to egg Keith on. The comforter covered him, but it didn’t hide the motion of him fingering himself. He easily reached places Keith couldn’t, but lacked in girth, making him unsatisfied as he soaked his fingers in slick and used pre-cum to pump his fist easier.

His noises echoed around them, and he could barely make out Keith’s ragged breathing. Lance wondered if the wolf had touched himself and turned his head to sneak a glance, only to see Keith was statue still, except for his twitching ears and wagging tail. He seemed completely content with just watching Lance and that irritated the rabbit because he wanted Keith to lose it, wanted him to mount him like the horny Alpha he could be sometimes.

And maybe his dissatisfaction showed on his face because Keith was grinning cheekily and saying, “You know what you gotta say. If you really want it.”

Lance would usually say something snarky, drag out his submission a little longer, but he did really want it. “M’sorry, Keith. Sorry for lying about teasing you.”

The result was instant. Comforter thrown aside to expose Lance to his cold bedroom air, he didn’t have time to complain as Keith found his place behind him, gently tugging his fingers away and interlocking their hands before pressing them against the pillow Lance rested on. Seconds afterwards, Keith was slowly sinking his cock into him, filling him in ways no one else had before. They sat in silence when Keith’s hips met Lance’s ass, breathing heavily.

Lance fucked himself on Keith, impatient. He managed a few shallow thrusts before a hand was gripping his hip hard enough to bruise, stilling his movements. He groaned. “Come on, Keith. Don’t wanna wait anymore.”

“If I move, I’m gonna knot you in ten seconds.”

“That’s fine. We can just go again.”

“You’re insatiable.”

“You take too long.”

Keith growled, pulled back, and snapped his hips forward, jolting Lance. The rabbit squealed in surprise, digging his fingers into the pillow as Keith set a fast pace—one that kept Lance too preoccupied to do anything else but make wanton noises. His body was like a rag doll; it jerked every time Keith buried himself to the hilt. He couldn’t even try to match Keith’s movements, so when the wolf stopped suddenly, Lance took the opportunity to roll his hips.

“You’re really cute with your ears. Wish you’d let them out more.” Keith took one chestnut brown lop ear between his teeth, tugging it. Lance didn’t even notice he’d let his guard down so much. “And your tail.” His tail wiggled fiercely, brushing against Keith’s stomach.

“So you can bite on them whenever you want? No thanks,” Lance snarked, voice breathless.

Keith tugged a bit harder on his ear, causing him to hiss and his eyes to water. Whatever biting insult he had died on his tongue as Keith picked up the pace once more, mouth never leaving his ear. He felt the wolf’s long-awaited knot beginning to form, catching on his rim every other thrust. The pace slowed, shifting to more rolling than pistoning. Lance panted and worked with Keith to tie them, immediately melting when Keith couldn’t pull back anymore, knot swelling inside of him. The wolf let go of his spit-soaked ear and pressed wet lips against the nape of neck.

“Gotta take care of you,” Keith mumbled, hand not in Lance’s own reaching between his legs. Somewhere along the way, Lance forgot about his own climax and allowed Keith to wrap his hand against his own, moving both of them to bring Lance over the edge. It didn’t take long, a few strokes and well-placed swipes of the thumb had Lance keening in seconds, spilling onto his sheets and clenching around Keith. He hummed as he felt the first spurts of cum in him—

And then he woke up, sweaty and sticky and frustrated.