Milkshake Hearts

Chapter 155: Love You

Courtney has time free through the mid-afternoon, between a silly Pit shoot with Olivia and Keith that had managed to pull her out of her sad, irritable, husband-missing slump just enough to clear her mind, and some other Games thing just before the end of the day. The silly pit shoot is Olivia and Keith's last for the day, so they pack up and head out straight after it, while she trudges back to the green room in the hope she can just hide away and scroll through her phone for a while.

Instead, she pauses just inside the doorway when she spies Shayne lying on his side across the length of the main sofa, one pillow under his head and another hugged to his chest. He's clearly deep in sleep, and it makes her heart ache and her nerves tingle – he's so tired, and instead of the irritation of earlier, she just wants to hold him.

She sighs softly, letting the last of the anger and discomfort fall from her mind as she walks slowly towards the sofa, grabbing another pillow from an armchair she walks past. He wasn't really trying to irritate her. She knows he's just as exhausted as her and he probably misses her just as much and neither of them could really do anything about what had happened on the weekend and with their clashing schedules.

She just wants to be near him, and she doesn't have it in her to deny herself. She sits down on the floor, side pressed against the front of the couch. She wedges the pillow between her shoulder and the couch, and it's not comfortable, but she lets her own head lean down onto the edge of the couch not far from his, facing him but certainly not touching him – she doesn't want to wake him – as she sits quietly in his presence.

She doesn't know who walks in God knows how long later given she doesn't tear her eyes away from watching his soft features as he sleeps, but she immediately shushes them, unsurprised to soon find Damien and Ian standing in front of her, to the side of the sofa.

"Let him sleep, he's exhausted," she whispers, Damien nodding.

"You feeling a little better?" Ian asks, in his own whisper.

"Yeah," she mumbles, settling back into silence as she leans up against the couch, hearing Damien and Ian both settling into their own respective corners of the room to rest in quiet. They weren't the only ones exhausted from their recent filming schedule.

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When Shayne had fallen asleep, he'd expected to be woken up not long later by someone coming in to mess around in the green room between shoots, given it was rarely a quiet place for long during their big, whole-cast shoot days. Instead, when he wakes from a sleep halfway between restful and stressed – he had slept the whole time, but his subconscious also spent the whole time reminding him he missed Courtney and she was mad at him –, he has to blink a few times to make sure his subconscious hasn't suddenly switched to dreaming of what he needed most.

Courtney's face is just in front of him, her head tilted to rest against the couch. It can't be comfortable, but she smiles softly - apologetically - when she realises he's awake.

"I'm sorry I got snappy, Shania. I just- I miss you," she whispers, softly. It makes his heart race and he has to fight the urge to reach for her and pull her up on the sofa so he can hold her.

"I'm sorry too. I love you," he murmurs in response. His tone is still tired, but it's heavy with emotion more than anything else, and it makes her eyes water as she sniffles lightly.

"I love you too. I just wanna- I need to hold you, and kiss you and just be with you," she answers, a little messily, feeling her heart jump in fondness when he lets one hand reach forward and start brushing through the strands of her hair.

"I need that too. I tried to hug a pillow instead of you but it wasn't the same, but we're at work so I dunno..." he trails off, but she slowly shakes her head.