burning_smile | (no subject)

[He couldn't get the idea to leave his head.]

[Dispensable.]

[Does nothing more than bring trouble.]

[They'd be better off without him--]

[He shoved himself a little farther into the space he'd hidden away in, folded into an impossibly small space between the bathtub and the toilet of the apartment and trying to keep quiet. He'd slipped out of bed undetected a few minutes ago, and figured Dirk wouldn't have been bothered by him getting up to point percy at the porcelain, but if he wasn't quiet about his fit he'd wake the bloke.]

[So he kept the light off, wedged himself away, and leaked on his arms folded around his knees, trying to keep from making any sound beyond his hitching breath.]

Jade had woken him up just after eight with his favorite breakfast-- chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage (he put maple syrup on all three). He hadn't thought to question it, because she did that sometimes on the weekends. He should have, because it was the middle of the week and not a weekend at all. But he always knew that hindsight was clearer, anyway.

They'd spend the entire day together-- he'd cleared his schedule on a whim to accommodate her request of having a family day. They went to a park, to Jade's favorite place for lunch, and out for frozen yogurt. He really should have thought to ask what was going on when she taught him how to make one of her secret recipes for dinner. But that, too, was something she just did sometimes. She worked in mysterious ways, and he'd always known that. It was like she always knew what was coming before it happened (which was why the recipes she hadn't taught him were in a book in a box under her bed, hand-written with pictures, along with an envelope with a long, long letter).

They'd both gone to bed smiling, and when he got up the following morning and there wasn't coffee brewing, he had grinned at the chance. He must have tired her out, so she slept in. He brewed up the coffee and brought two mugs into her room, and paused in the doorway. Bec was laying on the bed beside her, quiet, still and forlorn. His tail didn't wag when he lifted his head to acknowledge Jake.

He actually managed to put the mugs of coffee down rather than dropping them, and he dialed the medics before he'd even checked her pulse. He didn't call Dirk, just sent him a very simple text, uncharacteristically written.

please come over

He hadn't remembered falling asleep, though that was probably because it had happened in fairly short order after he'd stopped sobbing. There was nothing to keep him awake, really. He wasn't tired, physically, but emotionally he was entirely strung out. So he'd just instinctively leaned into Dirk's shoulder, and... now he was waking up in the same spot. He mumbled, burying his nose in the blonde's shirt.

"I'm not even tired," he explained.