4 Roommates

One of Those Days

When Emma gets home, the house is silent. Which normally that would make sense, but Jacks coat and shoes are at the door, and yet there is no sign of him anywhere.

"Jack? You home?" she yells.

When there is no response she goes and checks his room, but finds the door closed. "Jack love, you in there?" she asks after knocking.

A soft "yeah" comes from the room.

"Alright well can I come in?"

"I'm fine. You don't have to do that" comes the muffled reply.

"I know I don't, but I would like to please" says Emma

A pause. Then, "Okay you can come in"

Emma opens the door to find Jacks room completely dark. There are clothes all over the floor and she can just barely see Jacks head peaking out of the blankets of his bed. Emma walks over to the side of the bed and pulls the comforter back to reveal Jacks face. She pushes his hair back from his face and rests her hand on the side of his face.

He looks up at her. "Um hi. What time is it?" he asks quietly.

"Its almost 4 in the afternoon. Are you feeling sick today?" she asks, sitting down while running her hands through his hair.

"Oh, um no. I'm not sick. I'm just not feeling great today. I think I'm just tired. Like mentally tired and kind of empty" says Jack.

"Aw sweety I'm sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No. Or probably not. I don't know. I don't want to take up your time" he says and pulls up the blankets higher and then turns over.

Emma's face falls. "Jack, love, you are never taking up too much of my time. Especially if you aren't feeling good. I love you so much and I want to make sure you are okay. And if you aren't then I'll be here to support you"

"You are too nice to me you know. I don't know why you are, but I don't deserve it." Jack says into the pillow.

"Well that's just not true, you deserve all the love in the world" says Emma. "Can I snuggle you for a bit?" Jack just nods in response. Emma pulls up the covers and slips behind Jack, moving her arm under his head and wrapping her other arm around him.

They lay there in silence for a few minutes, until Emma starts to feel Jacks shoulders shake and a growing wetness on her arm. She then sits up a bit and starts to rub his shoulder. "Oh, hey shh Jack it's okay. You're alright honey." At this, Jack turns around and grabs onto her, hiding his face in her neck, tears streaming down his face. Emma starts to rock them back and forth while rubbing Jacks back and telling him its going to be okay. They stay like this until Jack stops crying. He pulls back and looks up at Emma. "I love you so much" he says, his voice all garbled from crying.

Emma smiles down at him and kisses his forehead "I love you too. Did you wanna talk about it? If not that's good too, but I wanted to give you the option"

He wipes his eyes, "Oh um, yeah talking could be good." He pauses. Then, "I woke up today and the thought of getting up sounded like a lot of work and I just didn't really feel like. So, I stayed in bed for a little bit, hoping that it would feel easier later. But that didn't happen, and I just started to feel guilty and lazy for being in bed for so long, which just made me feel worse. And then I don't know how it happened, but I guess I stayed in bed up until now." He reaches up and grabs his hair, "Fuck, I'm so useless. Even now getting up sounds terrible but I know I should and that just makes it worse."

She grabs his hands "Woah hey Jack listen to me okay. You are not useless or lazy or any other thing your mind has decided to tell you today. You are having a rough day, but that doesn't make you a bad person and I still love you very much. Nothing is ever going to change that. Now how about we go and get you into the shower or even a bath or we can go and get you some food okay? Does any of that sound good to you?"

"I love you too" a pause, then "A bath sounds kinda nice actually."

Emma kisses his forehead "well then that is exactly what we will do". She uses her grip on his hands to pull him up and out of bed. Once up, she leads him by the hand and takes him into the bathroom. Jack sits on the toilet and Emma goes and starts the bath. "Okay love did you want me to stay with you? If not that's good too, but I can stay and even help if you want. I can also just go and grab you some clothes and then stay out in the living room."

"Can you stay please? I've been alone all day and don't want to be anymore"

"Of course I can! It would be my pleasure and I wouldn't have offered otherwise. I'm going to grab you some nice comfy clothes okay and I'll be back in a minute" She leaves the room and goes to grab Jack some clothes and picks out jogging pants, a t-shirt, and a big sweater. When Emma gets back, she sees that Jack has removed his pyjama shirt, but is still in his pants, looking down at his lap. "You planning on bathing in your pants and undies? I guess it saves from having to do laundry but I'm still not sure how effective that would be. "says Emma from the door. Jack just smiles and shakes his head. Emma chuckles, "No? Well then, I guess we've got to get you out of those pants. And I mean that in the least sexy way possible" she says with a grin and then winks at him.

Jack groans "Oh god. I've decided I no longer want you here if you are going to be such a dork."

"Psh you love it don't even lie"

"This is true, but that was still terrible, and I stand by that"

"Fair enough. Now come on let's get you in the bath and wash all the sad away" She goes to reach for his pants "Is this okay?" At his nod she starts to pull his pants down and he lifts his hips to help with it. Once they are off, she grabs his hands and pulls him up so he's standing. Jack then goes and steps into the bath and sinks down into the bubbly water, groaning at the heat of it.

"Feel good?" asks Emma.

"Mmm so good" says Jack as he wiggles lower.

"Well that's good. Now you can just sit back and let me take care of you for a bit. You deserve to feel nice and be taken care of on a bad day."

Normally Jack would protest that he can take care of him self but being taken care of sounds perfect right now, so he stays quiet and just smiles at her and nods. Emma smiles back at him and takes a washcloth and pours soap on it. Once its all lathered up, she starts to gently wash his body, spending more time on the spots he leans into and less on the ones he shies away from. The room is silent except for the sound of the water swishing around. Once the front is all done, she asks him to lean forwards and supports his torso with her other arm. As she rubs his back with the washcloth, he leans more and more towards her and becomes jelly in her hands. "You like your back rubbed hey?" she asks. She just gets a mumbled but very pleased response and a nod of his head. She just chuckles and continues for a bit more. Once she's done, she grabs the shampoo and starts to wash his hair. Jack leans into this as well and by the time she has finished and rinsed it all out, he is close to falling asleep. Emma coaxes him out of the tub and gets him to sit on the toilet lid again so that she can towel him off. She then assists him into his clothes and kisses him on the nose as soon as she pulls the sweater over his head.

The two of them walk out of the bathroom hand in hand, and Emma takes Jack over to the couch and gets him all settled in before going to make him a grilled cheese sandwich, which just so happens to be one of his favourites. After that is done, she brings it over to him and then snuggles up with him on the couch. Pickles decided to join them to see if he can mooch any food from Jack, but once the food was gone, he stayed for some pets and snuggles.

A while later both Tyson and Ollie come home, and when seeing all the snuggles on the couch they decide to join. As soon as Tyson sits down, he gets an armful of very snuggly Jack. Once everyone is caught up on what's going on, they order some pizza and then spend the rest of the evening snuggling, watching movies, listening to music, and making sure Jack feels loved.