He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t tired; it had been a long fourteen-hour day or thereabouts, a bulk order set to be finished, and all the finer finishing touches to be done before he was fully satisfied. So he was physically and mentally exhausted, hands and neck and shoulders aching, and hunger that he had ignored for so long that now his appetite was gone.
So he might have passed out in an armchair or bed in his clothes like it was the old days and there was no one here to judge him for it, but he could hear the faint chug of the kettle from the kitchen as he came back in, and the first thing he saw was Daffy, head in her hands. She looked up, the tear-tracks shining. Something in his chest twisted, and his mouth went dry. He wanted to reach out to her, but, well – I need to talk to you was never going to be anything good, was it?
Somewhere deep in his gut he had been half-expecting it, since her upset about the pregnancy, that one day the other shoe would drop. And he had tried to tell himself that she didn’t seem so miserable any more, that things were settling into place, that there was more anticipation than dread now – but maybe he’d been wrong.
Still – Elias nodded, brow creased in his own apprehension of this conversation. “Here?” he asked, standing uselessly where he was until Daff confirmed it. Maybe it was because of the last time she had cried here, but a kitchen table talk felt strangely damning.
So he might have passed out in an armchair or bed in his clothes like it was the old days and there was no one here to judge him for it, but he could hear the faint chug of the kettle from the kitchen as he came back in, and the first thing he saw was Daffy, head in her hands. She looked up, the tear-tracks shining. Something in his chest twisted, and his mouth went dry. He wanted to reach out to her, but, well – I need to talk to you was never going to be anything good, was it?
Somewhere deep in his gut he had been half-expecting it, since her upset about the pregnancy, that one day the other shoe would drop. And he had tried to tell himself that she didn’t seem so miserable any more, that things were settling into place, that there was more anticipation than dread now – but maybe he’d been wrong.
Still – Elias nodded, brow creased in his own apprehension of this conversation. “Here?” he asked, standing uselessly where he was until Daff confirmed it. Maybe it was because of the last time she had cried here, but a kitchen table talk felt strangely damning.
look ANOTHER beautiful bee!set <3