Becoming Agent Rider

Hills Phase

Snake growled as he was pulled from his sleep at 0400 hours for the second time in as many days. Someone had just thrown their heavy boot at him. Blearily glaring at the offending object, he heard someone struggling in their sleep. Cub. Sighing, he realized that Wolf had thrown the boot to wake him up faster. It had been decided last night that he was the best person to deal with Cub's nightmares the next time it happened. Besides, there was a reason that he was the unit medic. Rubbing his eyes, Snake sat up to look at the source of his disturbed rest. Instantly, he was on his feet. Wolf really hadn't been exaggerating when he had described the results of Cub's nightmares. Hesitantly, Snake reached out a hand to shake the boy's shoulder. And froze. Not because Cub's reaction had startled him. Wolf had given him plenty of warning to prepare him for the boy's behavior. Rather, it was because he didn't want to make any movements to disorient the boy further.

"Snake?" Cub whispered hoarsely, panting as he slowly started to recognize his surroundings.

"Yeah," he whispered back.

"Sorry to wake you," Cub said quietly, eyes downcast.

"It's fine," Snake assured the boy. "Was it the same as last night?"

"No."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Cub shook his head. He studied the boy, trying to think of what might prevent Cub from wanting to talk about his problems. Didn't all teens complain about how horrible their life was? Then again, he had never once heard the boy complain. Not even when Wolf took his foulest temper out on the boy during the most miserable of training exercises. Finally, Snake advised on the only thing he could think of. "Everyone has nightmares, Cub. Even soldiers. There's no shame in having them. It helps to talk about it."

Cub gave him an amused look. "I'm not ashamed."

"Then, why don't you talk about it?" Snake asked confusedly.

"Because it's personal," Cub replied. "And complicated. Classified too."

Snake sighed. Everything came back to trust and clearance level. They had really messed up the first time. Now, he couldn't even help the boy by getting him to talk. Maybe he could still help some other way. Hopefully. "Creating a routine before going to bed might reduce the frequency of the nightmares."