Fanboy (boyxboy)

Heal

"Wait, stop," Eli came rushing out of Clay's room after Adam so quickly that Adam expected something to be horribly wrong.

"What happened?" Adam couldn't hear anything coming from Clay's room so he hoped it couldn't be too bad.

"Nothing, just," Eli reached for the dirty sheets in Adam's arms. "You don't have to-"

"I can do laundry," Adam stepped back before Eli could take the sheets.

"I know you can, but, you don't have to do that."

"I'm just trying to help you," Adam frowned. "Is that allowed?"

"Yeah, but this is gross," Eli looked so distressed.

"I know, so let me handle it for you."

"Um, no, I mean," Eli's cheeks turned pink. "I don't want you to do it because it's gross. This is like the third time you've washed something Clay's thrown up on and I don't want you to think, um, I don't know."

"Just let me do it, okay?" Adam bit his tongue to keep from smiling. He hadn't expected Eli to be so cute over something so simple. The urge to lean forward and kiss him was so strong Adam had to turn away. "I'm good at laundry."

Adam didn't turn back to see how Eli reacted to what was possibly the stupidest thing he'd said in years. Good at laundry. It was true, at least compared to the rest of the situation.

"Thank you," Eli had followed Adam to the laundry room. He cringed as Adam rinsed the sheets in the massive laundry sink. "I'm really tired."

"I can tell," Adam but his tongue. "I mean, not in a bad way. You actually look amazing I just, you get all nervous when you're tired. Like if you let someone help you it's going to ruin everything or something."

"I do?"

"Yeah, I first noticed it before we went on tour."

"I never knew that," Eli leaned against the laundry room door. He bit his fingernail. "I feel like I'm going to forget everything."

"What else do you have to do?"

"Nothing now, Clay's asleep."

"So go to bed," Adam wrung out the sheets and stuffed them in the washing machine.

"I guess I can."

"Yeah, why not?"

"Well," Eli paused, looking like he had more to say. "I dunno. Do you ever reach that point where you're so tired but everything has gone wrong and you don't think you could sleep if you tried?"

"That's the worst," Adam set the wash cycle and turned to look at Eli. "Want a joint?"

"I can't-"

"I slept all day," Adam interrupted. "I can stay up for Clay if you need to sleep."

"That's so nice of you, but I just can't. I'm too worried he'll need me."

"Okay, I tried."

"Why are you-" Eli stopped. "I mean...how, um,are you doing?"

"I've been better," Adam tried to smile so Eli would stop giving him that nervous look. He knew it hadn't worked when Eli's expression got more worried. The urge to hug him was too strong for Adam to fight it anymore.

"So you're...oh," Eli seemed to freeze as Adam hugged him and for a moment Adam wondered if he'd done something wrong.

Then Eli relaxed, putting his head on Adam's shoulder and taking a deep breath as if he was just as happy to be there as Adam was to hold him. Adam rubbed his back and took his own deep breath so he could smell Eli's comforting smell.