Beautiful Mess [UsUk / AmeDen]

Chapter XXII

An apartment set on the fifth floor of a tall, white building in the neighbourhood of Yale University. The door was Victorian style, light brown wood with a golden nameplate on it with Steilsson nicely engraved into it. Emilia and Lovisa quickly arrived at the Icelander's home, entering it almost silently since the rest of the building was asleep, and they didn't want to bother anyone with door slams and loud laughter.

Emilia could barely wait to get out of her work uniform, which just showed how tired she was. She placed the dark blue outfit on a hanger in the hallway and changed into her casual grey t-shirt with a random inspirational quote on it (this time, it was 'don't stop dreaming') and a skirt in the same colour. Putting on her sky blue slippers, she walked into the kitchen to make them a cup of tea - usually, they would both drink coffee together, but now it was too late for caffeine - and sat on the couch, inviting Lovisa to do the same. The Norwegian already knew she was allowed to take whatever she wanted out of Emilia's closet, since they were keen on sharing clothing with each other. She chose a long, dark blue hoodie and black, cotton pyjama pants, joining Emilia in the living room.

Turning on her flat screen television which always played those 24 hour streams of indie music on the music channel, since news were depressing and she didn't want to watch them, Emilia took a sip of tea from an aesthetic looking mug and made herself comfortable next to the Norwegian. They needed this, since they didn't spend time together like this in a long while. It was usually just work relations, they rarely had a moment to take for themselves and a couple of kind words. The music was left as a calming background noise, but the sound was still turned down so it wouldn't disturb the sleeping neighbours who lived across the hall, especially because they had small children who went to bed early. Watching a movie was an idea they easily dropped. Neither of them had the patience or an attention span long enough to concentrate on an actual plot.

"You know, in all honesty, I'm not even surprised that you fell in love with a patient of yours. Maybe I even expected it to happen one day." Lovisa was the one to spark up a conversation, glancing at her friend as she tried to find a sitting position comfortable enough. In the end, she just crossed her legs and put a small pillow behind her head, as simple as it could get. Emilia, on the other side, leaned her head against Lovisa's shoulder, cuddling up to her friend in need of comfort and affection, which made the other lightly blush. Luckily, they didn't have the bright lights on, only a small lamp on the coffee table next to the couch, so the dusty shade of pink gracing her usually pale cheeks wasn't very visible.

"How could you expect that?" Emilia wondered, closing her eyes on a moment and getting lost in the background music as well as the warmth that radiated from her Norwegian friend. Her eyes were a bit red from crying she couldn't refrain from earlier, and she wiped a few tears away before completely relaxing.

"You're a hopeless romantic who wants to save everyone, there's no surprise in you falling for someone who needs your help, someone kindhearted and artistic like you said Alfred is... You want it desperately to be a love story, I can sense it already." The other answered patiently, the tone of her voice slightly drowsy since they were both equally tired, maybe Emilia a bit more from the extra emotions adding onto the exhaustion.

Emilia let out a deep breath, mumbling something incomprehensible before almost falling asleep on the other. Realization hit her soon enough, though, and she sat up to rub the drowsiness out of her eyes, ruffling through her gorgeous silver hair, fixing it so it wouldn't bother her sight. "I hate to say it, but you have a good point..." She muttered. "But I just have to forget about it because it can't happen. That's it."

"Well, Alfred's getting discharged by the end of May, isn't that right? Then he won't be your patient anymore."

"He's in a relationship, Lovisa. And he's obviously happy in it by how he talks about that Arthur guy all the time. For all I know, he might not be into girls at all." The Icelandic girl rolled her eyes, hopeless about the situation.