A Wall Between

Chapter 33

Cooper opened his mouth wide as a look of realisation came over his face. "Food. Right. Abra told me to eat. I've still only had coffee today."

"Sleep if you can. Food. Exercise," Sasha reminded him.

Cooper took the plate. "I'll eat this now. Thank you."

Sasha nodded and headed back to his room. It was kind of nice to be able to take care of someone else for once. He liked being helpful, it was just kind of hard to do most of the time. He got overwhelmed easily and he wasn't all that tall or strong. What could he do for anyone that they couldn't just do for themselves? He was always afraid that even if he did try to be helpful, he'd just get in the way or do something wrong.

Maybe things would be different now, though. He could help Cooper when he got overwhelmed or forgetful and maybe he could help the others too. He didn't really know his neighbours because he didn't talk to people, but he'd grown up here so he knew the area well. Plus his parents lived here, so he could borrow stuff, which was kind of his parents helping more than him, but still.

Sasha was looking forward to the move more and more. At first, moving in with the others had felt like a compromise on his ideal arrangement of going back to being neighbours but in a better place. Now he was starting to realise that he'd just been scared of change and this was actually better. Probably. Hopefully.

When he checked in on Cooper a couple of hours later, he was snuggled up in his blankets on the sofa, playing on a tablet someone had given him, which was probably a more socially acceptable way to entertain a guest than putting them to work cleaning the windows. Sasha went and sat down behind him on the arm of the sofa so that he could watch him play.

Cooper won his game, set the tablet down on his lap, and reached back to wrap his arms around Sasha as best as he was able. He tilted his head back to look up at him. "Hey."

Sasha bent down and planted a kiss on Cooper's forehead. "Hey."

"I think your parents are sick of me. They gave me this and then went and sat out on the deck and shut the doors."

Sasha turned to look out towards the deck. They were sitting out there. They never sat out there. "I think probably they're not annoyed, just..." Sasha shrugged. "They're good people, but they don't really get it, you know? They never really knew what to do with me and they probably didn't know what to do with you either."

"I can be a bit much. I don't blame them."

"It's not anyone's fault, I guess." Sasha tugged on Cooper's arm. "Come on. Come back to my room and we can play games next to each other."

"Mm. That sounds nice."

They headed back to Sasha's room and they cuddled up on the bed, side by side, Cooper with the tablet and Sasha with his laptop. Cooper was much less fidgety now that he had the tablet to focus on, but he still moved around a lot, sometimes laying on his stomach, braced up on his elbows, sometimes laying on his back with the tablet held up in front of his face, sometimes on his side, facing Sasha, his attention just as much on what Sasha was doing as it was on his own game.

Sasha didn't mind the movement, though. Cooper didn't seem agitated anymore and that had been what had really bothered Sasha. He could be a bit of an emotional sponge, so negative emotions were hard for him to be around.

An alarm went off on Cooper's phone, he gave Sasha a quick hug, and he headed out to give Piper an afternoon run.

With everything that had been happening, Sasha hadn't had much chance to really, truly relax in a while now. He felt like he was just waiting for the next thing to happen. Now that Cooper was out, he was just waiting for him to come home, and part of Sasha's brain was determined to stay focused on that even if nothing was required of him when Cooper did get back.

And that was fine, he had to remind himself. Or... not fine, but normal, or at least normal for him. This would be the roughest time, when everyone was stressed and there was a lot going on, and then there would be a transitional period when they were building new routines and getting used to living together, and then things would be okay again. Hopefully, anyway. There was just this irritating part of Sasha's brain that wouldn't stop piping up to fret over how he felt bad and it was terrible at remembering that he had good reason for that.

Sasha snuck out of his room when he heard the front door open and shut and ran into Cooper in the hallway. He was all sweaty and flushed from his run, which should have been gross more than anything, but disgust certainly wasn't the feeling it stirred in Sasha.

Sasha bapped his fingertips against the sweat-damp hair that clung just above Cooper's ear.

"Yeah, sorry," Cooper said. "I need a shower."

There was a part of Sasha that really, really, really wanted to ask Cooper if they could have that shower together, but his parents were just down the hall and he definitely wasn't in the best frame of mind to be getting into something like that. But there would be a shower at the new place in a bathroom only he and Cooper would share. There could be future shenanigans...

Sasha patted Cooper's chest where the sweat had plastered his shirt to it. "Go shower, sweaty boy."

Sasha went back to his room and stretched out on his back on his bed. He didn't feel great right now, but the future would be good. He'd decided that. No more probablys, maybes, or hopefullys. It just would be.