"Mph."
Elliot finally began stirring as sunlight filtered through the one window in the apartment. He felt fantastic, it had been ages since he'd actually gotten a restful sleep. He needed to sleep with a body pillow more often, he noted sluggishly, opening his eyes.
Body... pillow?
No, it was just a body. Sophia. Right. Restful sleep? More like four pleasant hours, followed by fifteen exhausting minutes followed by six hours of exhaustion. Still, he had to admit that it was pleasant, if foreign, to fall asleep with a woman in his arms.
Woman... Soph?
He shook the thought from his head before it could go any farther. They were friends, categorizing her any differently even after five years was dangerous. Besides, he'd expressed interest once a couple years before he'd vanished and she had thoroughly shot him down. C'est la vie, he moved on and their friendship continued past the minor speedbump. Looking over the sleeping, drooling, psuedo-sorta-(ex?)-friend next to him, Elliot noticed a pair of eyes at the edge of the bed.
STARE
Or, in other words, (Fuckin' finally! Let's gogogo! Need to peeeeee!), her tail thumping against the floor rapidly. With a groan he pushed himself up, and jerked his hand rapidly out of Sophi's grasp before it could tighten again, before grabbing a crutch and limping his way over to the door. He didn't have a leash, and she was used to wandering outside anyway, so he simply opened the door and let her dart out. She'd probably come back, right?
Not contemplating it too long he paused to admire his new home. It was almost completely bare, aside from a few essentials such as his fridge, and stove, and microwave, all in the "living room" which also happened to be his bedroom. Off in the back was his bathroom, with a simple stand up shower, white sink, white toilet, and white medicine cabinet. Other than these: The only things that took up any space were his still-unpacked boxes, and his bed.
Reluctantly he began rooting through one of the boxes for a fresh set of clothes. He wasn't keen on showering with Sophi still in the apartment, but he could hardly hunt for a job looking like a complete mess. The outfit he selected was similar to the day before, another button down shirt (pinstripe this time) and a pair of black dress pants. He contemplated the tie, still lying where he threw it the day before, but shrugged. It wouldn't make that much of a difference.
He made his way over to the bathroom as quietly as possible, and shut the door behind him, cursing the fact that it didn't have a lock. That hadn't seemed important a day ago, of course, but at the moment he didn't want to have to deal with any shenanigans. He turned on the hot water ahead of time, warming the water up while he undressed. It wasn't a pretty sight, all skin and bones and bruises. His "good" leg looked like a battlefield, swollen and covered with gnarled purple veins. Small wonder he'd had so little luck with women over the years.
Not one to tempt fate, he carried his crutch with him into the shower, having no sort of handicap bar to steady himself. He used only a little cold water, preferring to relax in the steam and think. It was in the morning that he always tried to sort out his thoughts, trying to rid himself of distractions for the day to come.
So. Riley and Kiley seem to be as energetic as ever. Hell of a shock seeing Ollie and Zoey dressed like that at the mall, definitely wasn't going to be butting into it with them having a breakdown though. Crying women...
He sighed, beginning to lather some shampoo in his hair.
... Yeah. I need to work on improving my reaction to that. I should apologize to Soph too, again. She was a mess last night, I should have opened up instead of closing myself down. Fucking idiot as usual.
That feeling of worthlessness that overtook him in the car ride with Riley yesterday returned, and he let it was over him along with the water. It was a feeling Elliot was used to by now, he'd been consumed by it for years. Practically... nostalgia.
I should just slip away again before I make things worse.
With a snarl he turned off the water completely and shuffled over to get a towel. Mornings always seemed to end that way, just all the more reason to keep his emotional side locked away. He focused instead on drying himself off, and then... pills. His medicine cabinet was stocked full of them, most various levels of painkillers. He glanced longingly over at his narcotics, before shaking his head and settling on something easier. It took a couple minutes, sorting out the medication he needed, but a glass he always kept at the edge of the sink ensured that he didn't have to leave the bathroom and risk Sophi seeing him. He wasn't ready for that yet. In fact...
He hastily got dressed, and grabbed any medication that couldn't be bought over the counter. With a peak into the living room to ensure her eyes were still closed, he made his way across the room to his box of clothes, shoving the pills underneath. Risk managed.
Finally, Elliot sat himself on top of a box of books across the room from Sophi and got to work on attaching his prosthetic. True, the thought of slipping out and starting his day early had occurred to him, but he figured he would give her a bit of time to get up. After all, how long could it take? Five years?
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