pitythetrumper

There were very few things that could keep Freddie from the chessboard for long. In fact, until the first time it had happened, he hadn't thought there was anything that could keep him from the rec room and the board. And then Prior got sick. He was still adamant that it didn't make things different, but he couldn't help but be a little bit of a mother hen. He hated the thought of Prior being sick and his only options were either ignoring it entirely or doing something about it.

Fear suggested the former, but common sense demanded the latter.

Prior had a fever and so Freddie left the front door open in the hopes that they could get a breeze through the hut. That was the one problem with living out here. There was no air conditioning outside of the Compound, at least as far as he knew.

"What else can I do?" He was hovering and he knew it, but Prior was in no position to argue.

Freddie had more than his share of bruises, but he was actually feeling a little good about them. Funny, he'd never thought about actually forming any kind of relationship with Anatoly and yet here he was, becoming the man's confidante. The more he thought about it, though, the more he kind of understood that their shared history made it so they understood each other when many other people might not, even the people closest to them.

The idea of going home, of seeing the people that mattered most to them, Freddie understood that intimately. He didn't have a family, but he knew how he would have felt going home to see Florence if Florence had still been on speaking terms with him. He'd had never wanted to leave.

It was because of all that that he had a smile on his face when he walked into Prior's. A small smile. He didn't want to hurt his split lip.

Freddie was grateful that Prior's place wasn't very far. It meant that he could stumble his way from Trixa's place over to Prior's without falling into the snow more than once or twice. He was brushing his face off by the time he finally crashed against the door and he didn't bother to knock before opening it and making his way to the bed.

"Hi honey, I'm home." He laughed at himself and planted facedown on the bed. It was only when he felt the cold draft that he realized he'd forgotten to close the door.