[ Soulmates. ]

Chapter 5.

Madeleine woke up, slowly opening his eyes and looking around. "Espresso..?" He'd call out for the man.
Espresso stepped into the room, carrying a plate of food and holding a bouquet of yellow roses. "Just in time, good morning sleeping beauty." Espresso handed Madeleine the plate, setting the bouquet on the side-table.

"How'd you sleep, Madeleine?" Espresso sipped a cup of coffee, looking at the man. "Pretty good, actually..you?" Madeleine took a bite of the egg. "I slept for a good hour or two before waking up again, so I decided to meet with Pure Vanilla. He said that he wasn't sure if your health will be improving, but your strength definitely will." Espresso looked down.

"Ah, I see..then, as long as my strength improves, I'll have enough power to fight through it..And I know I'll win, because.." Madeleine looked down at his food, going silent before continuing. "..because you'll be there, standing beside me the entire time.." Madeleine smiled.
Espresso gave Madeleine a warm smile, standing up. "I'll go find a vase to put the roses in, I won't take long." Espresso walked out of the room and down the hall, leaving Madeleine in the room by himself.

"..I'm sorry, Espresso.." Madeleine mumbled before covering his mouth, coughing harshly. Madeleine coughed and coughed, blood splattering onto his palm. The coughing slowly died down and Madeleine pulled his hand away from his mouth, staring at his palm. "..."
Madeleine reached over, grabbing a tissue from the side-table and wiping the blood off his palm, throwing it in the trash.

After what felt like an hour, but was probably only 5 minutes, Espresso walked back in with a vase full of water in his hand. "Sorry that took longer than I expected." Espresso huffed, placing the vase on the side-table.
"No worries! It's fine." Madeleine smiled up at Espresso, the brown haired man smiled back. "The roses are already dying, I'm sorry.." Espresso grabbed the bouquet, unwrapping it and placing it in the vase.

"I'm just happy that you kept your word and actually brought roses.." Madeleine chuckled. "I am a man of my word, you know." Espresso kissed Madeleine's forehead. "I know." Madeleine looked at Espresso.

"Well, since we can't really go anywhere, I'll bring you art supplies tomorrow to draw, or would you like to do something different instead?" Espresso grabbed his coffee, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I don't mind, as long as you're with me." Madeleine placed the empty plate on the side-table, pulling Espresso into a kiss.
Espresso looked into Madeleine's eyes before closing his own, kissing back. Madeleine deepened the kiss, closing his eyes as well, pushing Espresso down onto the hospital bed. The two separated for air, both of them panting as they looked into each other's eyes.

"..I love you, Madeleine." Espresso wrapped his arms around the back of Madeleine's neck. "I love you too, Espresso." Madeleine laid next to Espresso, wrapping his arms around the man protectively. "Doesn't this feel familiar?" Madeleine mumbled, closing his eyes. "Yeah, it does.." Espresso smiled, looking up at Madeleine.
"By the way, you still have that jacket from middle school, right?" Madeleine opened his eyes, looking down at Espresso.

"Of course I do, why wouldn't I?" Espresso scoffed. "I was just wondering. You should let me spray my cologne on it so you can remember me no matter what~" Madeleine teased, smiling.
Espresso laughed a bit. "You say that as if you're gonna leave one day, idiot." Espresso went silent after that, the painful realization just settling in. It wouldn't be like this forever.

"..I won't. And even if I do, I'm sure you'll be strong enough to live on your own. You can sleep in my bed when you get lonely, and eventually..you'll move on. You'll find someone to love you, someone to grow old with." Madeleine cupped Espresso's cheek.

"I want to grow old with you, Madeleine. Not someone else.." Espresso frowned, looking down, his voice wavering. "Hey, hey..it'll be okay. You can live in my house if you want! I have a bunch of pictures in my closet I took of us in middle school, so you'll always remember me." Madeleine kissed Espresso's forehead.

"I don't want to have to live in your house.." Espresso felt sorrow stinging his heart. "I want to be able to see you everyday, I want to see your smile until the day I die..." Espresso mumbled. "Then that means I have to become even stronger, so I don't let you down. But..don't be sad one day if I lose my first battle." Madeleine lifted Espresso's chin, pressing his forehead against the man's.

"..I want to enjoy hearing your voice and feeling your heartbeat while I can, then." Espresso closed his eyes, placing a hand on Madeleine's chest. "Good.." Madeleine smiled, patting Espresso's head. "Let's spend the last of my days together." Madeleine kissed Espresso.

"I couldn't agree more." Espresso kissed back. "By the way, what time is it?" Madeleine sat up. "Oh." Espresso sat up as well, checking his watch. "4:38 PM. We still have time to do stuff together, so we can't let it go to waste. We can create a bucket list." Espresso suggested. "Yeah, let's do that!" Madeleine smiled.

"Alright, what should we do?" Espresso grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from his pocket. "Well, we should draw together." Madeleine tilted his head, thinking. Espresso wrote it down. "Oh! We could share embarrassing stories of us from when we were kids!" Madeleine laughed. "You're an idiot.." Espresso smiled. "And we could go to the upcoming festival together." Madeleine looked at Espresso.

"Let's watch the fireworks together. And after that we could go stargazing." Madeleine looked into Espresso's eyes. "That sounds nice.." Espresso shared the gaze for a moment before writing them down. "Alright- is that all?" Espresso looked back up at Madeleine.
"Yea, I think that's all we could do together before my time is up." Madeleine nodded.

"Then, I'm looking forward to it.."

———————————————————————————

1016 words.