The Calm

Alan's POV

I woke up to an empty bed. I stretched an then sat up. Mittens came running and wrapped herself around my feet. "Hi Mittens." I cooed as I rubbed her fir. I stood up and went to walk but ended up tripping over Mittens. "God dammit Mittens." I cursed as she went running.

"Alan are you okay?" I heard Austin call.

"I'm fine." I said, laughing. I got up and found Austin in the kitchen. When he saw me, he rushed up and greeted me with a peck on the cheek.

"Morning beautiful." He said cheerfully.

I smiled back. "Good morning babe." I walked to the refrigerator and pulled out the eggs, ham, and cheese. "You want an omelet?"

"That sounds good." He answered. I started making his, mixing together all of the ingredients. I poured it into a pan on the stove and watched for it to cook. I turned around, and saw Austin sitting at the kitchen table watching me. He wasn't wearing a shirt, so I couldn't help but stare at all of the tattoos on his chest.

"Like my tattoos?" He asked, smiling.

I nodded. "I have a few of my own." I said, showing him my arms. He took them in his hand and observed them.

"Those are cool." He said, smiling.

"Thanks." I turned back to his omelet and flipped it. It was done cooking, so I set it on a plate and handed the plate to him. I put all of the ingredients away.

"Your not gonna eat?" Austin asked, his mouth stuffed with the omelet.

I smiled and shook my head no. I took the seat next to him, and watched him gobble his food down. As he did so, I noticed some scars on his wrist.

"Austin, what the fuck are those?!" I grabbed his wrist, causing him to drop his fork. I turned his wrist over and saw 4 fresh scars. I looked at him, a shock expression on my face.

He tried pulling his wrist away, but I kept my grasp on it. He sighed, knowing he was defeated. "I-I've been under a lot of stress lately, and cutting seems like the only thing that helps."

I brought his wrist to my lips and kissed them. "It doesn't help, what you don't know is that there slowly destroying you. If your gonna help me, I wanna help you too."

Austin smiled. "Thank you, Alan."

"My pleasure." I let go of his wrist. "What are you stressed about?"

Austin sighed and looked down. "My ex, Gielle, called last night. She... she's pregnant. Almost 9 months too. And she said she's giving it up for adoption, because she doesn't believe in abortions." Tears started filling his eyes. "I wanted to keep it though, but..."

"Austin, tell her you'll adopt it." I said softly. "I'll be more than happy to help raise a child with you."

Austin smiled. "Really?" I nodded. He stood up. "I'll go call her right now." He left the kitchen, leaving me alone. I didn't know what to do, but he came back after a few minutes.

"Were having a baby!" He shouted. He ran over to me and wrapped me in a tight hug, kissing me hard on the lips. I could feel him smile. He pulled away and let me go.

I smiled too. I left the kitchen and went into the living room and turned on the TV. Austin flopped down next to me, resting his hand on my knee.

"I have the day off, so lets talk about some of your problems." He said. "I remember you talking about your anxieties, you said you didn't like 'feeling alone'. Why do you feel like that?"

I just shrugged. "I feel like no one's ever loved me. It's more of... of a separation anxiety type thing, but at the same time it's not. It's just that I grow attached to people easily. And once I'm attached, its hard to let go."

"Well you know I'm always here for you." Austin said, cupping my face in his hands. He placed a tiny kiss on my lips.

"Lets talk about your problems." I said. "What made you turn to cutting?"

"My ex fucking wife." He spit out. "Such a stupid bitch, I turned to alcohol, but things didn't work out too well with that, so I started cutting. I really do need to stop though, because it's bad for my health."

I gave him a confused look. "What do you mean?"

He sighed. "I have this thing called Marfan Syndrome, where my connective tissues aren't... right. It gives my body an abnormal body structure." He patted his legs. "And that's why my legs are so skinny. Anyways, I also have it in my heart, it's pretty serious, I need surgery for it soon."

"How soon?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I don't know, its pretty serious. They take my heart out of my body, and then put it back in."

My eyes widened. "Well forget about my problems, lets focus on that!"

Austin shook his head no. "I promised we'd work on your problems."

"Austin right now you are my problem!" I shouted. "You could have a fucking heart attack, and it may be too late, and you could..." I stopped talking, my eyes filling up with tears. Austin rushed over to me and wrapped his arms around me.

He nuzzled his chin into the crook of my neck. "Alan, everything will be okay." He breathed against my neck. His warm breath on my neck was strangely relaxing and comforting.

"Austin-"

"I've had the disease for a long time, and nothing has happened. I'll be fine." He pulled away from me and showed me his wrist. "And I'm going to stop this. Not just for you, but for the baby too."

I smiled. "Good. I'll try and shape up too." Austin came back over and gave me a tight hug. I hugged back, and even though Austin's tight hugs always made me feel better, I couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen.