Snakes and Roses|| Rosekiller || ✔️

36. Beaches

WARNING: talks of grief, mentions of weight loss/ disordered eating and hallucinations/ seeing someone that isn't there

Evan:

Evan knows better than anyone that grief is not linear, that some days are better than others, some days are worse and some days are numb.

Barty's grief certainly isn't linear, but none of it has been good.

Three days after Regulus died, Evan managed to get Barty off of firewhiskey and sobering him up. He knew that could be a slippery slope, and he wasn't going to sit by and watch Barty fall into bad habits.

One week after Regulus died, Barty had barely left Evan's bed, to the point that Evan had to magic Barty's bed from his room into Evan's room so that he had somewhere to sleep, and he wasn't eating, it was a fight for Evan to get water into him.

Two weeks after Regulus died, Barty finally had a full meal, but he still didn't say anything. It hurt Evan to watch the man he loves deteriorate like this, in the way he's sure he deteriorated over Christmas. It's almost unbearable, but Evan knew whatever pain he was feeling, Barty's was worse.

So Evan never once left Barty to deal with his grief alone, he brought Barty all his meals, told him about his day, he'd try and dress him in new clothes everyday, but that didn't always happen, he tried to keep on top of Barty's hygiene, but it's difficult to look after someone when they won't cooperate with you.

A month after Regulus died, Evan almost had to do a double take when he saw Barty sitting up in bed. "You're back"

It's the first thing Barty had said in a month and his voice was hoarse from lack of use.

Evan had to hold down the excitement he felt at being able to hear Evan's voice again "sorry, Kit and I were studying" Evan replies

"Don't need to apologise" Barty shrugs and swings his legs over the side of the bed. "Fancy a smoke?" Asks Barty

Evan steps into the room, closing the door behind him before he nods slowly "sure thing" Evan replies

"Actually, mind helping me shower first?" Asks Barty and Evan nods again

Evan helps Barty out of bed and they head into the bathroom. Barty removes the pyjamas he's been living in the past few days and it hurts Evan's heart to see how slim he's gotten from refusing to eat, Evan can see his rib cage poking through his skin and Evan has to look away

Evan turns the shower on and removes his own clothes before stepping into the shower with Barty. He watches as Barty stands under the stream of water, embracing it as it runs down his skin and all Evan can think is how beautiful he is.

Evan lathers the shampoo into Barty's hair, scrubbing through to his scalp and helping to rinse it out. He helps Barty wash his body several times over before he finally feels clean, and then he helps shampoo his hair once more before he was finally satisfied.

Once Barty was out of the shower, Evan helped shave the stubble that had managed to grow all over his chin, his upper lips, travelling to his cheeks and meeting at his sideburns. It doesn't suit his baby face, and Evan is glad to be getting rid of it.

"I have an idea" Evan says

"That's dangerous" Barty quips with a grin that makes Evan smile

"I want to take you somewhere" Evan states

"Now?" Asks Barty

"Yeah, do you mind?" Asks Evan

Barty thinks about it for a moment before slowly nodding "can I smoke there?" Asks Barty and Evan nods with a smile