Their shared suffering - ELU

Worry

"I can't grow without your light
I can't grow without your love to water my roots
I can't thrive and bloom quite right
My vines are now my noose

Deprive me of the sun
I may grow but I'll be gnarled and twisted, now
Petals fall one by one
I'm tiltin', driftin', wiltin'

Wither away like bones to dust
Shrivel up, break, and combust
It's all gone and dead
Brittle, browned, and wilted
(So wilted)

What was once green is grey
Hysterical, useless, and frail
My leaves have all decayed
Morning glory now nightingale."

The next morning, Lucas' entire body hurt.
His stomach was still growling, but he tried his best to ignore it.
He sat up and looked to the side, where Eliott was supposed to be sleeping beside him.
He wasn't, the bed was empty.

Eliott was still sitting at the dinner table, working on the essay.
Lucas didn't notice any signs of sleepiness, in fact he noticed the exact opposite of that.
"Salut Lucas!", Eliott greeted him, smiling as he cupped his face to give him a dozen kisses.
His eyes were red and bags had formed under his eyes. He truly looked like he hadn't slept in days.
"Salut. Did you work on this all night long?", Lucas asked, bending down to read what Eliott had written.
"Yeah! And I'm glad it's done now", Eliott replied, letting out a relieved sigh.

The rest of the essay wasn't coherent at all.
It had nothing to do with the topic anymore, Eliott had written about everything under the sun essentially.
"You can't hand this in, mon mignon", Lucas said slowly, looking Eliott in the eyes, "Not one thing makes sense. Do you think your professors will even grade this? The beginning is good, but the rest of this isn't, because it's not on topic."

Eliott narrowed his eyes, sighing loudly. "I mean I can try, right?"
Lucas let his head sink. "No, that's not what I'm trying to say here", he said, "The point is, that nothing about this makes any sense whatsoever. You can't hand this in and expect a good grade."

Eliott took the laptop, closed it, and put it back into his bag.
"Anyway, I have to go now", he said determined, walking towards the front door.
Lucas ran after him, stopping him from walking out the door.
"What?", Eliott asked confused. "Eliott, have you looked at the clothes you're wearing? It's not Summer anymore", Lucas said, pointing to the pair of boxers Eliott was wearing.
"I actually can go out with these clothes on. Technically, we're all are going out in our boxers every single day of the week and nobody cares, so why can't I do that today? If everyone does it every day anyway, it's not weird anymore", Eliott said.

Lucas took a sharp breath in.
He needed to remind himself that Eliott usually wouldn't consider going out in anything but his boxers and a pair of socks on. Lucas was sure now that Eliott had slipped into a manic episode.
"The distinct difference is that everyone else is wearing clothes over their underwear and not running around half-naked. Eliott, do you want to catch a cold because you ran around Paris half-naked? I don't think so", Lucas countered as he looked his boyfriend dead in the eyes.
"Let's sit down on the couch and relax", he added, quickly grabbing Eliott's hand and pulling him away from the front door.

On the couch, Lucas couldn't help but look at Eliott with worry in his eyes.
"I fucking hate that", Eliott snarled, avoiding Lucas's ocean blue eyes.
"What? What exactly do you hate?", Lucas asked quietly, as if Eliott would shatter to pieces if he'd raise his voice.
"That", Eliott spoke, his voice unforgivingly loud in the quiet apartment, "The way you look at me, there's too much worry in your eyes for my liking."