Augusnippets Day 29: Singing
cw: aftermath of/referenced torture and captivity
for the @augusnippets challenge // word count: 665
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Benji hummed quietly from the spare bed, an open paperback on his knee, words neglected and unread. It felt weird to watch Sahota sleep, but he couldn't take his eyes away. Every little shift, every change in breathing spiked his nerves. He was healing now, filling in, looking almost healthy, but he still wore the remnants of his weeks in the cell.
They'd almost been too late. Benji couldn't shake that. He'd still been recovering when Joy and Jer finally found Sahota, bedbound for almost a week after his own horrible ordeal, but it all felt so small when they'd carried him in.
He'd been almost skeletal, bruised up and unconscious, his torso wrapped in a hasty bandage that was oozing blood from everywhere. Benji didn't need to be in the medbay anymore by the time they got to him, but he'd moved back in anyway. Couldn't leave him alone for a second, couldn't let him wake up to being alone, because that had sure fucked him up the first few nights, and—
Sahota coughed in his sleep, and a zap went through Benji's nerves at the sound. His eyes went to the man's face, scanning for anything wrong, seeing nothing but an expression that looked almost peaceful.
Okay. Good.
He continued humming, a little louder now in an effort to calm his nerves.
The summers die, one by one. How soon they fly…
Yeesh. Maybe a little on the nose.
Good morning Baaaltimore, every day's like an ooopen door—
“Y’singing?”
Benji nearly jumped out of his skin. He hadn't realized Sahota was awake. Had he woken with the cough? Or before it? Had Benji woken him up?
“Uh. Humming,” he answered. “So kind of?”
“Mm.”
Neither of them said anything for a moment, and Benji found himself holding way too still. He was a little irritated that he couldn't tell if it was residual jitters from his stint in the cell or just regular awkwardness.
Sahota was the one to break the silence.
“You don't have to stop.”
“Yeah?” It was all he could think to say in the moment.
“Better than silence.”
Yeah. He got that much. Humming and singing under his breath had been the only way he could comfort himself, especially once they started leaving the bag on. His captors didn't like it, but it was the one thing he kept coming back to, even after they'd hit him for it a few times. Silence was a killer.
“Any requests?” he said lightly.
“Anything you want,” Sahota responded, shifting against his pillows.
“Hope you like showtunes.”
The other man let out a quiet chuckle, and Benji smiled at the sound. “Sure. You know the Flintstones theme?”
He had to keep himself from busting out laughing. The man was bedbound, he had to cut him some slack here. “That's not what I mean by showtunes,” he said. “I'm thinking more along the lines of Broadway musicals.”
Sahota's eyebrows went up slightly, though his eyes remained closed. “I liked The Lion King. Does that count?”
“The musical?”
“No, the cartoon. Is there a musical?”
This time, Benji did laugh. “Oh, you have a lot to learn.”
“Are you planning on teaching me?”
“I can go on for hours if that's what you want.”
“Beats listening to my own heartbeat.”
“Then don't say I didn't warn you.” Fuck, he wanted to launch into something fun, perform a one-man Wicked, find a way to bring the life back into Sahota---and introduce a hardcore spy man to Broadway, to boot.
But they were both exhausted, and killing silence didn't mean getting loud, not right away.
“Let me take you back to the musical that started it all,” he said. “For me, at least.”
“Yeah?”
“Promise not to laugh.”
A chuckle. “Cross my heart.”
Benji took a breath. It had been ages since he'd sang for an audience, even an audience of one. But right now, this felt like something they both needed.
“Memory, turn your face to the moonlight. Let your memory lead you, open up, enter in…”