apartment 23 // mitchel cave

17

mitchel's p.o.v.

i woke up to angeline's arms wrapped lightly around me. her breathing was slow as she laid there, still sound asleep. she'd woken up a few times throughout the night, breathing heavily and completely shaken from a nightmare. she said it was the same every time: she'd see james and wouldn't be able to move as he made his way closer to her. she'd always wake up in a sweat and practically begging me to wake up and comfort her before he got to touch her. it had become a routine to try to help ease her back into sleep, only to then be woken up two hours later to repeat the process. still, i had to be there for her. my own sleep and health wasn't quite the top priority for me at this point. i had devoted so much time into angeline's recovery that i couldn't stop now.

i softly rubbed her back as she laid in my arms, causing her to stir a little bit and let out a quiet yawn. she opened her eyes slowly and they met mine, a soft glimmer reflecting off of them from the sun's rays peaking through the blinds. i gently moved a stray piece of her hair out of her face and behind her ear before speaking to her.

"good morning, love." i said quietly, my voice feeling raspy.

"morning..." she said, her voice weak and uninterested.

"feeling okay?" i asked her as i furrowed my brows. she broke eye contact with me and turned her body so she was staring up at the ceiling.

"i'm not really sure." she mumbled. this would happen a lot. she'd wake up in a strange mood and wouldn't really want to communicate with me at all. it was hard, seeing that all i really wanted to do was help her get through whatever she was feeling but i couldn't force her to open up. she'd have to do that on her own time when she was completely ready.

"i know what will make you feel better..." i said as i propped myself up on my elbows to look down at her. she diverted her attention towards me again, a confused look on her face.

"and what would that be?" she asked.

"that," i said tapping her nose, "is for you to wait and find out." i got up off of the sofa and slipped on a sweatshirt: i had managed to forget to take off my pants so i didn't even have to worry about that. not like i ever wore a different pair of pants anyways.

i walked out of the hallway after giving angeline one last grin.

"christian! get your sailor boy ass in here and watch angeline!" i yelled in the middle of the hallway.

"mitchel, what the fuck? i'm not a little girl!" angeline yelled back in frustration.

"no, but you're my baby." i replied, making a kissy face towards her. she flipped me off and i acted offended and hurt, but by that time christian had come running down the hallway towards me with a confused look on his face and out of breath.

"what did you want?" kras asked me.

"watch angeline, i need to run and get some things." i replied, pointing in to angeline sitting with her arms crossed on the bed.

"gotcha, dad." christian replied.

"please don't ever fucking call me dad again." i sighed.

"daddy?" christian asked with a smirk. "oh wait, i'm not angeline." he added slyly.

"just shut the fuck up and get in there." i snapped at him. i couldn't help the small smile that was teasing my lips. i couldn't ever really be mad at christian: he was definitely the jokester out of the three of us. kept us on our toes, that's for sure.

i quickly walked out of the hallway and to the front door, shutting it quickly behind me as i stepped outside and into the humid air. i climbed into the driver's side of the car and started the engine, leaving angeline to deal with christian and his antics for a bit.

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a simple trip that i had planned to only take twenty to thirty minutes ended up taking close to an hour. stupid la traffic. i walked back into the loft, bags of groceries and various items in my hands. i walked down towards my room and stopped once i made it to the door to see angeline passed out and christian sitting there on his phone.

"christian, i told you to watch her, not kill her." i laughed. he looked over at angeline suddenly with a confused look on his face.

"fuck, i've been talking to myself this whole time then..." he mumbled, trailing off. i quietly laughed at him before walking over to angeline's side. i lightly shook her shoulder, urging her to wake up, and luckily she did. her eyelids fluttered open and she let out a small groan.

"come on babe, i got you some stuff." i said with a smile. that seemed to cheer her up a little bit. she sat up on the bed as i went over to the plastic bags i had brought in with me. christian excused himself from the room, so i graciously took his spot on the bed. i sat down the bags and she eyed them curiously as she went to grab one.

"no no no, patience love." i told her. she pouted but retracted her hand and kept it at her side. i opened up one of the bags slowly, pulling out a pint of vanilla ice cream and some chocolate candies.

"are you trying to give me diabetes?" she asked with a smile.

"listen here, missy. if you're gonna be sassy i can easily take these elsewhere and eat them by myself." i warned her. she shook her head quickly and grabbed the pint of ice cream out of my hands. i pulled out a box of plastic spoons and tossed them to her.

"what's in the other bag?" she asked, pointing to the other plastic bag behind me.

"that, my love, is for later..." i said as i gave her a wink. she smirked at me and rolled her eyes.

"naughty, naughty boy..." she sighed.

"you love me though." i laughed.

"never said i didn't. but for real, thank you for all of this. you really didn't have to go out of your way to buy all this for me." she said as she scooped out a bit of the ice cream and placed it on her tongue.

"i just want you to be happy, even if i do have to wait twenty minutes in traffic for a pint of ice cream." i laughed.

"well, seeing that last night got ruined, i'll definitely let you put that other bag to use." she said with a wink.

"as long as you're comfortable, i really don't want to pressure you into doing anything you don't want to." i said warily.

"mitchel, i love you and you are the only person i'd be comfortable with. shit... it's been so long..." she said, her voice trailing off.

"yeah it has..." i replied.

"well... why wait any longer?" she looked at me with a smirk. she crawled her way closer to me on the bed so she was in my lap. her lips were dangerously close to mine. this shocked me: her mood had drastically changed from this morning.

"you know i won't argue with that." i said before crashing my lips onto hers. the taste of creamy vanilla spread on my tongue as her hands tangled their way through my hair. after months upon months, i'd never expected to be back in this situation with her, but i couldn't complain one bit. this was pure euphoria.

and the rest is left up for interpretation...