Leon hadn’t slept easy since 1998. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, he just couldn’t rid his mind of the night terrors that plagued him. They’d shift over time, taking on whatever was paining him at the moment. Raccoon City, his late parents, the mutant monstrosities he had seen, the people he had lost.

He used to drink his nightmares away, but since he had married you and you had guided him through beating the habit, your mere presence was enough to combat the nightmares. You were the oasis of calm in his sandstorm of a mind.

But even after years of marriage and two kids, Leon would still have his nightmares and was still too stubborn to wake you when they happened. You had enough on your plate, in his opinion. Why see your husband in pain?

But that brings you to tonight, soft sniffles and grunts of frustration slowly rising you from your sleep, the sight of your husband’s sweaty back and shaking shoulders greeting you.

He was sitting at the edge of the bed, hands clenching into the mattress as he shook softly. “You’re okay… ‘s okay… jus’ a nightmare, ‘s not real. C’mon, Leon. C’mon…” You heard him murmur silently, using the calming mechanism you had taught him, his voice slurred from sleep.

He was trying so hard to be quiet. What kind of man would he be if he was sniffling so loudly that he woke up his sweetheart?