Prompt: (branding, heat exhaustion, Fire)
Fandom: Reese

Reese shifted uncomfortably as he, Jeremy, and Michael all sat in the living room. They needed to talk but none of them wanted to.

Reese finally sighed. "So... Halloween's coming."

The boys flinched a little which made him sigh again.

"Come on guys, we need to talk about it."

"We already have!" Michael argued back. "We're past that!"

Jeremy nodded. "Yeah! I don't understand why you're pushing this?"

Reese looked at Jeremy for a moment before nodding. "I'm glad you two have gotten past that but it's not what I'm referring to."

They looked confused as he shifted.

"There was a fire that night..."

Their eyes widened. "Oh man... Rich... He's probably going to have it rough..."

Michael nodded. "Maybe we should have him over? Try and distract him?"

Jeremy hummed. "Maybe... Or just go trick or-treating?"

Reese watched them both discuss how to help Rich and smiled a little but looked a bit sad as he listened.

---

Later that night, he was lying in bed in a sweat, tossing and turning and coughing harshly as he struggled.

Jeremy was awoken by the fire alarms blaring through the house and the overwhelming fear he was feeling from Reese.

He checked his door but found it was cool to the touch and opened it.

There was no smell of smoke.

No glowing of a fire.

Just the noise.

He saw his dad come out of his room panicked but saw Jeremy just standing there confused and noticed the lack of danger as well.

Jeremy looked at him and his dad knew what the look meant and just nodded as he went to deal with the alarms.

Jeremy pushed open Reese's room and found him thrashing in his sleep and crying as he coughed and shook.

Jeremy's eyes widened as he realized and he shook Reese until he jerked awake, coughing and hacking on what his mind said was smoke.

"Reese, it's okay, you're okay." Jeremy hugged him as Reese sobbed, shaking. "...You wanted to talk about it because you're struggling with it... aren't you?"

Reese slowly nodded.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I... I wanted to but... Rich was more affected than I was so I just..."

"Reese, you're just as important. You were affected a lot that night. By more than just the fire. We both were... If you're up to it... let's talk about it?"

Reese looked at him for a moment before smiling a little and nodding. "Y-Yeah... lets... let's talk."