from august to december

chapter seventeen

a cloudy summer day, the air cool, fall would start soon, and it would rain more often, august was starting to come to an end.

and with more rain, more clouds, there would also be more thunderstorms, at least where eli lived.
he was anxious about it, but not as much as he used to be.

maybe because tonight, as the rain was again heavily hitting the windows, he wasn't alone, he was comfortably laying on eden's grey couch, a thick blanket wrapped around his body, with a cup of green tea in his hand.

eli wasn't shaking, nor were his hands trembling as he turned his head to look over at his friend.

"did you meet val today?" he suddenly asked, his voice barely being a whisper as he didn't want to disrupt the pleasant atmosphere they both had created.

"yes, yes i did," eden responded, sipping from his cup, returning the curious gaze from the other, as he also wanted to know why he asked.

"h-how was it?"

the black haired giggled a little and hit the others shoulder softly.

"oh, you know the usual, we were talking about life."

eli chuckled in return, but a worried expression tainted his face.
maybe he visited his grave?

but right now, that's not what eli wanted to talk about, he may have been confused about eden and his strange behavior, but he was always the kind of person to just push problems away until they grew bigger and bigger until he couldn't overlook them anymore.

and that was probably what had gotten him into the mental health clinic in the first place, his ability to ignore the pain he had caused to his own body and to just pretend it never happened.

that was also something that connected these men, being able to just pretend certain things never happened, the only contrast being that one knew he was pretending, while the other completely believed every syllable of his own lies.

so he just responded with a simple "sounds good." as he carefully blew on the hot tea, not wanting to burn his tongue again.

he wondered if he should open up about the things that had happened to him, and that wasn't hard for him.

even though people were always abusing eli's bubbly and open personality, he never lost that ability to be kind to everyone, to be warm.

not like yuri.
or shino, eventually.

so he just spoke about it, as if deep in his heart, he wished for eden to care about him, when he actually knew eden didn't know how to care for anything.

"how have you been?" the black haired cut him off as he saw the other take a breath.

he released said breath as inconspicuous as possible.

"good, i've been good. just still a little disoriented." he explained, trying to smile, suddenly he was glad he didn't speak about today's occurrence, maybe eden wouldn't get it.

people never hated eden for anything he did, simply because he knew to talk his way out of everything.

the sounds of a thunder filled the room, eli gripped the white blanket tighter and the other noticed, so he moved closer to him to be his comfort.

it worked.
the eden effect always worked.

at least for eli.

"i'm happy you're back out, you can stay as long as you want," the black haired whispered with a thin voice, he sounded genuine and rested his head on the red haired's shoulder.