Jane’s voice growled next to him; textured by the night’s sleep. It almost shocked Rob, and he suppressed a slight jolt as she appeared next to him. 

His hands barely received the pack of cigarettes tossed their way soon after. That pack found itself bouncing around in Rob’s fingers, before landing with a [i]thud[/i] on the concrete, inches from where Jane’s feet were planted. He slid himself closer to her to pick them up, and pulled one out. He would surely need one after that show of awkwardness.

“You’re welcome,” his voice softly came in response to the breakfast. It really had been nothing more than habit, but he was happy Jane appreciated the gesture. She had even gone further, asking him to go exploring for a bit. His mind locked upon her phrasing: [i]you and I[/i]. Not the band. Not a group. Them. 

[i]“I don’t want to be stuck in the room all day.”[/i]

“Me either,” he came. He turned to her and smiled. “I’d love to.”

[i]No. Too strong. For god’s sake, man.[/i]

He quickly tried to suppress the smile, turning back to the view in front of them. From their close distance, Rob could almost feel the hairs on his arms brush against hers. He wanted to badly to hold her in this moment. But it was so fleeting, as Jane turned away, leaving him alone on the balcony once more. After seeing her once again, he felt tired. She had slept and awoken in the time had spent conscious. What was he going on, now? 30 hours? It sure felt like it.

Once Jane had moved into her own room, Rob slid into his, leaving the door open and fixing up a few things. But the more he thought, the more he wanted to just sleep. If only for an hour. Or thirty minutes…something. His being awake wasn’t going to help anyone. But he needed to stay awake, didn’t he? He didn’t want Jane to wait up on him. He wanted to be with her…definitely. But each passing moment he felt more and more like a zombie. 

Eventually the decision was made for him, as he heard his name called out for him. He turned in place to see Jane entering his room…sheepishly? She walked with an air of insecurity that he hadn’t seen from her before. Her steps were less certain, her shoulders more tense. What had been the problem? It couldn’t have been something [i]he[/i] had done. No…no there wasn’t a thing he had done all day besides cook food and drop cigarettes. [i]Then what was it?[/i]

[i]”I just don't really get what being normal is anymore”[/i]

Well…[i]maybe[/i] it was something he did. 

“I should’ve said that some other way,” he said, scratching the back of his head. [i]God, he wanted to make her feel better.[/i] He wanted to reach and out hug her. Hold her. Do whatever the fuck she wanted him to do. Her hurting him was bad, but hurting her felt so much [i]worse.[/i]

He watched as her eyes darted away from his, locking onto a spot upon the floor. Shit…she looked so vulnerable for once. It made no sense. The Jane he knew wasn’t one to open herself up. She closed herself off, mostly. Maybe tried to find comfort in other people, sure…but venerability? This was an entirely new concept from her, and he was much too dense, tired, and confused to really try to understand what was the source of it. 

She turned to leave, then turned back. His name left her lips in a way that seemed to signal something important…only to be followed by:

[i]"Get some rest and we'll go out later.”[/i]

“Uh, sure,” he stammered out. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it certainly hadn’t been that. “I’ll meet you out here soon.” 

With his words she had closed the door between them, leaving him more confused that he had hoped to be this early in the day. His mind, for once, refused to process any of it. He simply walked to the bed after setting an alarm, fell under his covers, and was asleep in about two minutes. 

Two [i]hours[/i] later, the alarm rang, and he felt as if no time had passed. However, his body felt just a bit better. The edge had been shorn off his haze, and he no longer felt the need to hibernate for the rest of the day. To mellow out, he kept his lights off and placed his headphones on, playing [url=https://youtu.be/lvDrIbIOvPg?t=13s]Your Move by O’Brother[/url] as he stared at the ceiling and zoned out to the ethereal sounds and harmonies, smoking a joint as he did so. 

Afterwards, he changed out of his dirty clothes from earlier and stripped to his boxers. He marched across the apartment with a fresh change of clothes and closed the door behind him before bothering to look up. He showered diligently, keeping it as warm as he could manage to keep things soothing, before slipping out, drying off, and putting on fresh clothes. A plain white tee remained layered under a grey cardigan and black jeans, cuffed above black converses. It was a bit different than his usual style, but he felt good to have a change of clothes on for once. He pushed the sleeves up on slightly, unhappy with how they hid his forearms. 

He mashed the familiar products into his damp hair, forcing it to comply to his demands. After feeling satisfied with the way he looked, he walked into the kitchen, are brewed coffee. As soon as it was ready, he drank it: black. The vile mixture burned at his throat as he forced it down, needing the caffeine rather than the taste. He must’ve been pushing 10 cups over the past 48 hours. 

He sat in the living room and waited patiently on his phone, scrolling through different bands he had been following, before Jane came into the room. He felt so bad for earlier, even if he didn’t fully understand it. He had to find a way to make it up to her somehow today. Make her feel better without pushing himself too far. Rob realized how funny it was, how both of them were trying to figure the other out, see what was good and what was bad. It was like they had been meeting for the very first time. 

“If I sleep anymore, I won’t sleep tonight,” he said. “I’m ready whenever you are. What did you have in mind?” 

He knew it probably would’ve been best if he had at [i]least[/i] made a suggestion, but the fear of making things worse had driven him to be more passive than he’d like. And…to be honest with himself, wherever Jane wanted to go [i]would[/i] be fine. He just wanted her to be honest with him, because no matter how hard he tried to keep his expectations down, he felt more and more like that moment hours before at the doorway had meant far more than what it seemed.