Overlap

Eponine

Vans car was warm and his presence was comforting, even when he was concentrating hard on the road leaving us in a soft silence. It was comforting.

The quiet, the tick of the indicator louder than the music he had playing. The sunlight through the open windows was warm and as I relaxed into the quiet and the comfort of the seat I felt all my tiredness catch up to me.

"Go to sleep if you like love," yawned Van again making me smirk because if either of us seemed like we needed sleep it was him, he hadn't stopped yawning all morning.

"Whats the point we'll be home in ten minutes like," i shrugged and he shrugged too, repeating something I'd heard Johnny say on the phone a thousand times before.

"Sleep where you can get it,"

So I let my head rest against the window and let my eyes flutter shut but i didnt sleep. The truth was that as tired as I might have been, as desperate for a day's sleep as I was, i didnt want to sleep now that he was here. I wanted to sit up with him all day and all night the way we usually wound up doing these days.

Perhaps thats why the first thing I did when we got home was put the kettle on, going to make him a brew, quick to try and play hostess not realising how that would make him laugh as he followed me through the flat and stood in the kitchen doorway watching me.

"Ey what dya think you're doing," he grinned coming up behind me, taking the cups out of my hands and placing them on the counter, not realising until I turned around quite how close he would be standing to me. His t-shirt brushing mine.

"Makin a brew Van what does it look like," i bit back my smile, blushing, almost shy to look up at him but not quite. When I met his gaze it was twinkling with a warmth and a mischief I hadn't realised quite how much I'd missed until I was faced with it again now. But now that I was i couldnt keep the smile from my lips as I surrendered the cups to him and rolled my eyes. "Fine, fine,"

"You're meant to be resting love," he smirked, his voice softer and lower than it had been before, the two of us simmering for a second or two, "i didnt come here so you could wait on me hand and foot you know," he said, placing the cups down on the side behind me but not once making a move to step away and release me from between him and the counter. Like he was content with our proximity, like it hadn't really been accidental at all.

"Then what did you come here to do love?" I was teasing him now, my eyes lit up with that same simmering warmth, one which left a grin on his lips, a grin which when i thought about it, i had missed a lot too.

Perhaps what i had really missed was this something I had never felt before with Van. Something none threatening and easy. Something like freedom. Not needing to worry about anything or anyone else. The two of us finally just sort of able to be ourselves, completely ourselves. There were no dark secrets between us now. There was nothing I was hiding and no one we were hiding from and perhaps that was what i had really missed.

"Already told you that lass," he said then, his smile curving a little cheekier, "so you can stop me going stir crazy durin this lockdown," he said poking the tip of my nose, pushing it in like a button.

"Think it might be a bit late for that pet," i smirked letting him turn me around and push me gently towards the kitchen doorway.

"Go on you," he chuckled, "rest..." he said, and i didnt know it but I got a feeling then when his eyes held mine again, a subtle seriousness sparkling in the midst of his teasing, that that word was going to be a running theme over the next few weeks.

But he was right, I did need rest, and the moment I sat down on Sam's settee, which I hadn't realised I missed as much as i did until I was leaning into the cushions, i felt myself sinking, melting into my own exhaustion, suddenly aching all over with relief.