Suddenly, I'm a fiend and you're all I need

[sleepingpills]

Declan didn't want to be here. He had more important things to do, more important places to be. He had so many responsibilities, and here he was driving down to Henrietta to yell at his idiot younger brother for his shitty life decisions yet again.

He'd given no warning for this visit. Ronan wouldn't answer the phone if he called anyway, and if he had any inkling that Declan would show up, he certainly wouldn't be there. At least Declan could visit Matthew after this, and he'd be here for church the next morning, so it wasn't as if the trip would be wasted even if Ronan was ... himself.

Rapping sharply at the door to Monmouth, Declan stood slightly to the side so that he wouldn't be visible to anyone peeking to see who was at the door. He'd learned his lesson about that.

Comments

[sphecophobic]

Gansey was already having a rough night even before there was a knock on the door. Ronan had been in a mood earlier, which meant Gansey took the brunt of it, and that he was out- which he was entirely entitled to do. He hadn't actually attempted to give him a curfew, no matter how attractive the idea could be at times. But it left Gansey sliding from frustration to worry and through guilt as he tried to focus on the math problems that were the last of his homework, and not think about Ronan and that need to keep him safe.

There's that itch under his skin, the ache in his heart, that makes him feel hollow inside. An awareness that portents an inability to sleep for another night, and midnight calls to Adam many hours later; anxiety he couldn't let anyone else see. And so he shuttered it in his heart and tried to focus on the numbers on the page. But its an agonizing struggle, and really the knock on the door almost saves him from himself, at least for a moment or two.

Really no one he wanted to be there would hide from the doorway like that, but he's not thinking about Declan, he's hoping for Ronan. He takes the half-step outside, just past the front doors of Monmouth. Knocking was more gesture than requirement half the time anyway, if they were honest.

"Declan. I wasn't expecting you," he smiles, slick and breezy. That way it almost seems easy as he adjusts his glasses against the bridge of his nose. But the mask he wears has just a touch of an edge that curls his mouth and glints in his hazel eyes.

"I can save you time- he's not here," he offers, looking up at him with that cant of his chin to the side. "Or do you want to see for yourself?"

If he's honest, he thinks that sometimes part of the reason he dislikes Declan these days is because he says Gansey's fears outloud. The ones where he's not doing enough.