𝓌𝑒 𝒻𝑒𝓁𝓁 𝒾𝓃 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝑜𝒸𝓉𝑜𝒷𝑒𝓇 ; 𝓈𝒶𝓅𝓃𝑜𝒷𝓁𝒶𝒹𝑒

[iii.] ;; 𝓂𝒶𝓇𝒸𝒽

the first of march is nick's birthday. he flies back to texas the day before to spend it with his family, and there's a weird, lonely feeling settling into dave's bones. nick will be back on the fourth - five days, around one hundred twenty hours, seven thousand two hundred minutes - but dave will be fine. his flat is empty, just like it was back in december, except nick's stuff is everywhere, simply reminding him that someone else lives here, but that someone else isn't currently here.

which is fine. they're both adults. he lived without nick before, he can do it again for five days.

dave keeps himself busy by repeatedly cleaning. it's something he's always done, whether to distract himself or simply because he doesn't want his home to be messy. he starts with washing all of the dishes, including the ones taken from their neat places in the cabinet, and his fingers are pruned and feel disgusting once he's finished. he sweeps next, mops after, wipes down the counter and cleans inside the stove, dusts the fans, does everything he can think of doing.

once he's finished with it all, he moves onto the laundry. nick had, of course, only taken enough clothing for his trip and hadn't remembered to put his dirty clothes into his clothes basket so dave can take them down to the washing room. he slowly opens the door to nick's room, picks up sweatpants and hoodies and t-shirts, drops them in a neat pile on the floor so he can gather his own. they mix together and he vaguely wonders if he should have just got nick's clothes cleaned first.

eh. it doesn't matter.

he piles them into the clothes basket and carries them down to the washing room, tosses them in the nearest machine, pays the money and turns it on, then sits down on the bench in front of the machine, pulling his phone out to occupy himself whilst he waits. he ends up watching some of nick's videos (he misses his voice, although he'll never say it aloud), then, after realising that it's not the same, that he still misses him, moves on to idly listening in to a random true crime podcast.

around an hour later, the washing machine dings, signifying that it's done, and he stands up, stretches his legs, moves to transfer the clothes from the washing machine to the dryer. there's another hour of waiting, foot tapping against the ground as his knee bounces, showing his impatience; as soon as the dryer finishes its cycle, he's up in an instant, gathering the clothes and putting them back in the basket, leaving swiftly after.

he doesn't know why he feels so irrationally pent up, but he knows he wouldn't like to be around people (or rather, people wouldn't like to be around him when he's like this). he closes and locks his flat's door when he gets back inside, drops the clothes basket on the floor right next to the couch, and sits down cross-legged.

he separates their clothing, fingers lingering on the grey hoodie nick seems to wear all the time, and he slowly lifts it up, slips it over his head and slides his arms into the sleeves. it's a little baggy on him, though it only goes down to his hips (not like how nick wears it, just a smidge above halfway down his thighs), but it's comfortable. he can see why nick wears it all the time.

he tells himself it's just for one night, tells himself it's normal to steal your roommate's clothes because you miss them, tells himself nick'll be back soon, that he doesn't need to worry about being lonely for too long, tells himself he'll take it off before nick gets back.

to distract himself from his thoughts, he continues to fold. it doesn't take him long to finish folding the clothes, and once he's finished, he puts nick's in a neat pile on his bed and his own in his dresser. with a sigh, he collapses on his bed, plugging his phone up and curling up into a ball, trying to distract himself.

he misses nick.

he knows the other is having fun with his family, celebrating his birthday and getting to see them again, but dave is selfish, wants nick to come back and celebrate his birthday with him, wants to not feel lonely in his own goddamn house.