Lifeline (Scomiche)

Two

Mitch woke up with wetness dribbling from the corner of his mouth onto his pillow. The warm smell of eggs and some kind of meat pulled him away from his dreams and he began salivating as soon as his mind registered the delicious aroma. He rolled over onto his back and relaxed for a moment, the mattress squeaking annoyingly underneath him. His eyes met the clock on the wall and he tried to justify why Scott would be home making breakfast at 9am on a Saturday when he remembered that he'd taken the whole weekend off for him. He sighed in content and lay in bed just because he could, closing his eyes and floating in his happiness and lack of responsibilities until his painfully hollow stomach forced him out of bed.

"No! Don't you dare try to shower before breakfast! Come in here!"

Mitch chuckled. Of course Scott had heard the squeaky bathroom door swing open, the walls were so thin that he could have probably heard it from the hallway outside their apartment door. He snuck into the bathroom anyway to at least brush his teeth and wash the drool off of his tired face. He pulled his messy hair up out of his face and into a little bun before following Scott's voice into the kitchen.

"Hey, handsome."

"Hi, cutie. Go sit on the couch, I'll bring food out to my A+ student in a second. Do you remember anything from last night after you got home?"

"Uh...not really." Mitch plopped down on the couch and yawned widely, watching Scott make their plate in the kitchenette. He curled up into a ball and hugged his knees, pressing his legs close to his body to try and stop his stomach from aching. "I know you took two days off for me. Thanks so much. I love waking up with you still home."

"Me too. I wish it could be like this every day." He came out of the kitchenette with a plate and a glass in his hands, walking over to the couch and setting it down between them. He watched Mitch as he eyed their breakfast, the hunger in his expression so painfully obvious that it immediately confirmed Scott's suspicions that he hadn't eaten last night. The plate held a big pile of scrambled eggs and a couple of sausages, a tall glass of orange juice held in place between Scott's thighs. Mitch's mouth started watering all over again just looking at it until Scott reminded him that his food was waiting to actually be eaten. "Go ahead, Mitchie. You didn't have to wake up so early. You should take a nap after this, you must be so tired."

"I am." Mitch reached for one of the two forks balanced over the glass of juice and cut one of the sausages into a sizable piece before gratefully stuffing it into his mouth. "Mmmm. It's okay, I wanna be awake. I'm so happy and in love with life right now. Not being stressed out is fun, I can nap later."

Scott smiled at that and took his own fork, digging into their little pile of scrambled eggs while Mitch attacked the sausages. They hadn't had breakfast together in so long and he was glad that Mitch seemed to be enjoying it as much as he was. "Good. I hope you get to feel that way forever."

"Thanks, baby, me too. Do we have any plans or are we gonna have a lazy day together?" Both sounded amazing. He was an equal mix of happy and tired and he was sure he could accommodate to either one just fine.

"Oh, we definitely have plans. I'm gonna take you to the mall for sure and then we'll feel it out from there. I'm dying to take you out for lunch or dinner or both but we'll see. Whatever you want."

Mitch was so caught up in his own little world that he was surprised when Scott interrupted his fork's route to his mouth with a sweet kiss on the lips, nearly hitting him on the chin with the greasy bite of sausage. He wished Scott's lips didn't taste like the orange juice he'd smuggled from the school cafeteria but he enjoyed the kiss nonetheless. He appreciated that Scott had poured it from the tiny juice cartons into one of their glasses to try to make it look nicer but he could recognize that watery, artificial taste no matter how it was presented to him. Mitch pulled away from Scott's warm lips slowly, trying not to seem impatient in bringing his fork back to his mouth. He hoped he would have more chances to kiss him later on when his stomach wasn't screaming at him to eat.

"I do remember that now, I wasn't sure if it was in my dream or not. We're really gonna go to the mall?"

"Yup."

"To buy stuff?"

"Absolutely."

"And waste more of your money?"

"It's not a waste." Scott set his fork down on the plate and took a sip from their glass, deciding he was full. On a normal day he would have been out of the house for hours by now and he wasn't used to eating in the morning, usually just eating a big lunch instead. "I've been saving up, Mitchie, you know that. And anyway, no money spent on you is ever a waste. I mean it. You deserve everything."

Mitch rolled his eyes to himself. That was so easy to say, but they both knew that even with Scott working two jobs now they still sometimes struggled to pay bills. Not only was it stupid for Scott to pretend that no money he'd ever spent on Mitch was a waste, but the brunette could already feel impending guilt knowing that he would practically force Mitch to buy things for himself today with Scott's own hard earned money. Scott wasn't lying that he'd been saving up for a long time now but Mitch didn't bother to ask him how much he'd specifically set aside for today, knowing the response would be something along the lines of 'all the money in the world' or 'don't worry about that' or 'however much you want and need'. Mitch put on a smile for him anyway, not wanting to ruin the moment.

"That's sweet." He stabbed the last few remaining pieces of egg with his fork, cleaning off their plate. "What do I even buy, though? I think I have everything I need."

"Nuh uh! Fall is practically here already and you need some warm clothes."

"I have warm clothes."

"Well, you need warm clothes that aren't all worn out and holey. You can start wearing those at home now because I want you to have brand new clothes to wear to school."

He couldn't lie, that did sound nice. These days Mitch was too lazy to wear anything but scrubs, even though they really didn't have to for class and lecture hall. It felt okay to him since there were a couple others who did the same sometimes and if anyone asked he could always say he'd come straight from a clinical shift, not that anyone cared enough to ask. One perk of nursing school was that everyone was so tired and busy that nobody bothered to get into your business. He didn't even have too many clothes in decent condition anymore considering he hadn't bought any after he'd started wearing scrubs all the time last year, but with the fall semester progressing and the weather getting colder it probably did make sense to invest in some.

Also, it would be nice to look good at school. Some of the people he had classes with were just too pretty and he knew he could look just as nice with a little bit of effort. As convenient and low maintenance as scrubs were, he missed wearing real clothes on campus like everyone else.

"Okay, you're right. Can I get some new jeans?"

"Sure, baby. You can get whatever you want. We have all the money in the world."

Mitch chuckled, not at all surprised. He heard that line nearly every time Scott came home with a paycheck even ten dollars higher than normal but it was sweet that he was always willing to blow it all on Mitch without making him worry about a limit. He stood up and stretched lazily until Scott gave him a little smack on the butt, and Mitch wiggled it playfully before picking up their plate and glass. He left them in the sink for Scott to wash before strolling back towards their room to get ready for a much needed shower. He scanned their closet for something nice to wear afterwards and raised his voice so that Scott could hear his teasing in the living room through the wall. "All the money in the world? And you wanna spend it on me? Really, sugar daddy?"

"Yeah, really. I'm gonna spoil you so hard that you'll need another shower when we get back. Hurry up or I'll come in and get you out myself!"

Mitch laughed at Scott's silly little joke until he reached the bathroom in the hallway, leaving the door cracked open just in case Scott wanted to follow up on that. He sighed in content as he stripped out of his clothes and waited for the water to run warm. He couldn't believe what a good morning he was having and was already saddened by the thought that he wouldn't have anything like this again for weeks, maybe even months.