Affliction | ✓

extras: noah & ella

a/n: this is just pure filth at this point hehe.

***

The One Where Noah Feels Like Shit But Ella's There To Remind Him How Wonderful He Is

June

Ella stands up after three hours of working continuously on her laptop. She stretches her arms and hears the joints crack.

It's a productive Sunday afternoon and even though, she'd welcome a quick afternoon siesta, she's been given the responsibility of making a presentation so she works, finishes adding the touches to her PowerPoint slides rather than snoozing on her bed.

It's been a long few months where she's been on the grind, trying to get in extra hours so she can get the promotion that the boss has been hinting at for a while now.

She wonders what Noah's doing. He's been quiet lately, a little less animated and talkative and he's immersed himself in work, so much that he neglected his meals and barely slept.

He's declined to meet Elio the past few times the other asked and he was barely at home. Ella didn't really have a reason to distrust him but she was worried. Worried that Noah's been distancing himself because he's hit another depressive episode.

She dials his number a little shakily, worrying her lip with her teeth. Noah picks up just when she was about to give up.

"Yeah?" he sounded stressed.

"Noah? You okay?" She asks, chewing on the skin on the tip of her finger.

"Yeah, babe." He sounded tired. "I'm okay."

No, you're not. It's almost painful how obvious it was, at this point, it was a smack to her face and she really, really wished she realized sooner.

"You coming home tonight? It's Sunday, baby."

There's a shuffle at the other end, paper rustling and then Noah speaks, "Uh, yeah. In an hour."

"That's great!" She says, a little too hearty. "Can't wait for you to be back home."

They hang up after murmuring goodbyes and she leans against the headboard of the chair in a weary sort of way.

×××

Noah slinks in with his head hung low, he glances up and catches Ella's eyes. It takes him a minute before he can muster a tired smile.

"Hey, El." He says but doesn't trudge forward to envelope her body in the warmth of his arms like he normally would. He simply stands there, metres apart with his hands in his pockets and a wary sort of expression on his face.

Ella needs to fix this.

"Hi, baby," she says, warm and sunny. She takes four large steps until she's a breath away from him. "Missed you so much." She manages to mumble out before she wraps her arms around his middle.

She feels rather than hears his shaky inhale. A minute later, his arms loosely hold her waist. They stay like that for a while, tightly entwined with one another. She's counting his heartbeats, his shallow breaths.

"What colour are you feeling?" She asks tenderly, her fingers are tracing nonsense on his chest. She feels him go rigid. This was a game they used to play often when he was going for therapy regularly.