Days Go By | lavashipping

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"You spent an entire night here?"

"Well– Sort of." Cole rubbed the back of his neck. "It's just kinda happened, it got late and I decided there was no point going home and–" He cut himself off, feeling strangely small underneath Vania's surprisingly burning gaze. Fumbling with his hands he looked away – which proved to be barely any help. Her arms were crossed, her eyes basically drilling into him.

"You look like a walking corpse... Maybe I shouldn't have let you do the project, you're ruining yourself..."

He felt all of his insides drop. "No, don't say that! It's fine, I promise!" Vania closed her eyes, sighing and tapping her fingers on her arm.

"Go home, Cole, just go home and get some rest. If you need to work on it so desperately, I could do some work for you. Please, just let me help," she said, her furious aura deflating.

"I can–"

"This isn't a question nor a request, Cole. Go home. Call someone to pick you up, actually. I don't want to see you like this. You don't have to let me do anything major, but just let me help." There wasn't anything for Cole to do but sigh and listen to her. It was either that or facing something he was too afraid to see. So, he had to call Kai (because he was the only person in the city he was close enough with besides Vania) while she kept staring at him and then put his dear project into her hands.

At least she agreed it was only for that day. It still hurt. It was like watching his child go to school for the first time. Gone. For just some little time but gone nevertheless.

He was slouching on a couch in the reception. And despite feeling like the entire world was against him, he still smiled upon seeing Kai enter. Waving to catch his attention, he stood up to go meet him halfway.

"Dude, I told you–"

"Oh, please, spare me this, Vania already gave me a lecture," Cole huffed. "Not even a hi? Didn't you miss me?"

Kai shook his head, their lips betraying them. "No hi's for misbehaviourers."

"That would be a terrible word if it was one. Does one of your history books happen to be a thesaurus?"

"Shut up." Kai pushed him towards the door, making Cole laugh out loud in the process.

"Guess I know what to give you for your birthday then."

The ride home – well, Kai's place – was shorter than usual, since Kai lived closer. 

Which was rather convenient and if–

It meant they had less time for conversation. As if that would matter, however, given the fact that it seemed Cole was going to spend some time at Kai's anyway. As they neared the end of their journey, Cole noted the wind picking up and how dark it was getting despite it wasn't even noon yet.

Kai unlocked the door, letting Cole in first, who aimed right for the couch when his feet were freed of his shoes.

"What are you doing? You can't crash on the couch, your back will hate you," Kai warned right when he noticed his intention.

Cole waved it off. "It's fine, I slept at worse places."

"Come on, you let me sleep in your bed it's only fair–"

"Then I'm not going to sleep and you won't have to worry." He had to laugh at the sour look. Especially since it was the second time he received it – from another person too. "Come on, I'm not even tired, I don't want to just toss and turn endlessly."

Kai huffed, rolling their eyes, and sat down next to him. "Then what do you want to do?"

"We could watch–" Cole turned but there wasn't anything he expected to see. "You don't have a TV?"

Kai shrugged. "Too expensive plus what would I do with it?" Then, after a sigh, they stood up and added before leaving the room, "I'll get my laptop."

Cole sat and waited, patting the couch without a thought. Since he was already rather familiar with the room, he didn't feel the need to walk around and observe it further – which on one hand resulted in him getting bored of looking around quite quickly. Luckily it didn't take Kai too long to come back, carrying an already-opened laptop. They set it down on the coffee table and turned so Cole could see the screen well along.

"Oh, look, they have The Robot Returns," Cole exclaimed, pointing at the screen. "Let's watch that."

Kai gave him an incredulous look. "Are you serious? The horror with one of the worst-ever reception? You want to watch that?"

"Come on, it'll be fun!"

"It'll drive us into an early grave if anything."

"Then what do you want to watch, smartass?"

"I don't know," Kai muttered, scrolling down, his gaze fixed on the screen. "I was kind of thinking... The Little Merlopian, maybe? At least it looks good, you know?"

"Oh, is there perhaps a particular reason why you want to watch it?"

Kai scowled at him and Cole had to fight his twitching lips. "There's no reason, it's just not absolute garbage but hey, you do you, if you want to lose two precious hours of your life, then sure, I'll oblige, but I'm not going to participate."

"As if I'm not here to sleep anyway," Cole commented, his voice low, yet Kai still heard him. They shook their head and began to stand up. However, Cole quickly caught his arm and tugged on it, getting their attention back. "No, please, don't leave, we'll watch The Little Merlopian if you want."

They sighed and something about it made Cole think it seemed rather exaggerated. "If you insist..." Sitting back down, Kai quickly chose the movie and pressed play, a satisfied smile on his lips. "What?" they asked once they noticed Cole's stare.

"You bastard did that on purpose," Cole said.

They only shrugged, turning away from him to the movie that was about to start. "I have no idea what you're talking about." Cole chuckled and shook his head in disbelief. He glanced at the window, which was now beginning to get attacked by little water droplets, setting up calming background noise. He made himself comfortable on the couch next to Kai and tried to pay attention to the movie playing in front of them but their legs were touching and his mind kind of focused purely on that little contact.