Days Go By | lavashipping

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With each passing day, the rose-coloured glasses faded off Cole's eyes little by little. Kai made him breakfasts – breakfasts in bed even – and dinners, and he made lunches which he brought to Cole's job whenever he could. One time, he tidied his flat – including his studio, where things have their special order and Kai somehow managed to follow it perfectly without Cole ever telling them anything specific about it.

As much as Cole loved getting pampered and all the attention, he couldn't deny there was something going on. Cue the paranoia.

He wasn't really one to play detective but he had to get to the bottom of this. Was Kai trying to hint at something he managed to miss? Or maybe he was just overthinking it; maybe Kai was just being a regular amount of nice and thoughtful and he was mistaking it for something else entirely because the concept of him being loved remained unfathomable to him even after all those years.

No... No, something was surely going on.

Where did Cole mess up? He should've signed up for some cooking classes already. Sure, you shouldn't keep a score in a relationship but at some point his inaction becomes ridiculous.

Something was flying right over his head. And before he could think of a way to make it up to him, Kai would swoop in with more, more, more.

Meeting took longer than anticipated that evening – as Cole later learnt, Vania was fresh out of a visit at the jail and turned that angry passion into planning for another spring/summer season.

The text he sent to Kai about getting caught up at work remained unread.

The sudden silence turned his short bus ride into another circle of this weird emotional inferno. Cole racked his brain for whatever misstep he could've taken but he couldn't reach any conclusion. Was he too blinded to see any cracks? Was it foolish to assume there weren't any? Everything seemed fine–perfect– the vacation, even after it – despite his overworking fallback – things were going so well.

He and Kai talked, they managed to work out all the small disagreements that were normal for any relationship without an issue; they spent as much time together as they spent apart; bedroom life was fantastic – so where did it all go wrong?

Why did the happiness taste spoiled now? Was that just in his own head?

Stupid head he would love to bang against the window but he wasn't the only one taking the bus home.

When he got to his place, a faint smell of freshly made dinner lingered in the air–as became the norm–but other than that, it was silent. Empty plates waited on the table, just as a full pot waited on the cooling-down stove.

Then it all clicked together – Kai lay passed out on the couch. So when Cole disposed of his bag, he walked over to pick him up. At least one of his worries could be put to rest; he was not being ignored on purpose.

"No, no, no, no. I made dinner," Kai slurred in protest, pushing at his chest with an ant's strength, eyes not even a smidge open.

"Shh," Cole tried to soothe him. "Calm down, I saw it. But you seem to need some rest."

"I have so much rest." As defiant as their tone was, Kai let him lay them down on the bed and even snuggled into the blanket Cole put over them. "Put leftovers in the fridge." Kai yawned, flashing his teeth. "I'll save a spot for you here."

But by the time Cole could say good night, Kai was back to being dead asleep.

Cole hated to think those words, as they just never seemed to bear a nice connotation, however, they did need to talk.