Chapter 5: |Beginnings|Chapter 5

Time went on and now instead of yelling and chattering, the small apartment was now filled with soft snoring and mumbles from the four sleeping adults that had sprawled across the large sectional couch in odd but seemingly comfortable positions.  

After the quartet had finished playing games, they had decided to watch a movie, grabbing popcorn and covering themselves with blankets and getting rather comfortable. Avery was unable to watch the movie, which he was fine with, and had been simply listening to what was going on, but eventually he drifted off to sleep first. Amirah and Blaire had followed shortly after, and Nytin was left awake with Avery leaning against him, he hadn't wanted to disturb him so he simply covered them both with the weighted blanket he had brought, and went off to sleep once the movie had ended. 

The hours had gone by, and eventually the sun began to rise, shining light through the windows and right into Nytins eyes, he stirred awake and lifted his head, but couldn't lift the rest of his body, he had unconsciously laid down in the night, and Avery must have fallen back with him as he was essentially using him as a mattress, laying between his legs and resting his head on his chest, covered completely in the blanket, with only his face poking out. 

Nytin blinked, too tired to process the situation completely. He flipped his hood over his eyes and let his head fall back and had planned to simply go back to sleep, but he heard soft snoring in his ear and when he turned to see the source, Blaires face was right on his own, and her eyes had begun to open.

The two made eye contact and immediately shouted in surprise, shoving each other away. Shortly after that a domino effect had been set in motion as Blaire scrambled to get up, she ended up tripping back onto the couch, causing Amirah to wake up and sit up, while Nytin had sat up abruptly, which meant Avery had been somewhat flung back which startled him enough to wake him up, but after a few seconds he simply closed his eyes again.

Blaire stood up completely now, her face red in embarrassment, “Why were you so close to me?!”

Nytin stood up too, beads of sweat forming on his head, “No. You were close to me, I was on this side the entire time.”

The two began bickering about who was where, Blaire was somewhat yelling, and while Nytin had not raised his voice much, he was clearly flustered and frustrated. 

Avery grumbled and covered his ears, finally sitting up, now completely awake, “Stop arguing, you’re making my ears hurt..”

Both Blaire and Nytin clamped their mouths shut and in unison apologized to Avery, but their eyes still held mild hostility towards each other, neither seemed content with backing down until one of them won the ‘argument’. 

Amirah immediately noticed, crossing her arms and staring at them, her voice was stern and motherly, but not degrading in any way, “Both of you apologize, it's not that big of a deal, just an accident.”

The two hesitated before Nytin sighed and crossed his arms plopping back down on the couch, and Blaire fell back with her arms crossed, through clenched teeth they both apologized. 

Amirah seemed to deem this acceptable and smiled, “See? All is well now..” She said with a smile, “Since we’re all awake, what do you guys want for breakfast?”

Blaire immediately answered, raising her hand excitedly, “Pancakes n' toast!”

Nytin hesitated on answering, averting his gaze, “..Anything's fine..” He said softly.

Avery got up and stretched until he felt his back pop, he sighed in content and headed over to Amirah, “I’ll help you make breakfast, I kind of want to make some muffins..let me just brush my teeth.” He said and then paused, “I’ll take out some extra toothbrushes for you guys, and some other stuff so you can wash your faces when I'm done.”

There was a unison, “Thank you.” from the other three, and Avery left to go brush his teeth and wash his face, Amirah washed her hands and began taking things out of the refrigerator for breakfast and Blaire decided to watch her, sitting at the dining table that was close to the kitchen. 

Nytin was simply relaxing on the couch when he felt an off, but familiar taste in his mouth, shortly after this, a rather uncomfortable tightness built up in his throat. He got up and went to the balcony, closing the glass door behind himself. He reached into his pocket and took out a cigarette, he brought out a lighter and placed the cigarette between his lips and flicked the lighter, once the small flame rose and lit his cigarette he put it away, taking a deep breath in, the discomfort he had felt almost immediately washed away and he let out a long content sigh, watching the smoke float up into the air and dissipate. 

He leaned over the railing as he smoked, basking in the peacefulness of the cold, early morning atmosphere. Nytin sighed, putting his head down in his arms, gathering his thoughts together and trying to make sense of them. I should've checked beforehand if he had company, it feels like I'm intruding.. He lifted his head, puffing out another breath of smoke, the other three seemed perfectly fine together, he was an outsider after all.

If he had known Avery had company, he would have come another day, but of course his temper got the better of him..again, and he stayed because he wanted to spend time with Avery, but did Avery want him there? Nytin shook his head, and sighed once more, now he was annoyed with himself for thinking about things like this, he felt..stupid. He finished his cigarette, fizzling it out in the snow that had built up on the railing. He flicked it off the balcony and didn’t seem to mind that his cloak was slightly damp due to the snow as he headed back inside and went back to the couch, closing his eyes.

Nytin felt a sense of peace, as smoking seemed to have calmed his nerves for the time being. He had sat there for about a minute or two when felt a small tap on his shoulder and looked up to see Avery smiling down at him, with a brand new toothbrush in hand, along with a towel.

"I got you a toothbrush and a towel to wash your face, you remember where everything is right?” He handed Nytin the items.

Nytin took them gratefully, “Yeah, thank you, I’ll be out in a second.” he said getting up and going to the bathroom, when he took a look at himself he realized how awful he looked. He had dark bags under his eyes, his hair was a mess, overall, he looked as if he had died and come back to life, “Woah…I look like shit.” He mumbled while inspecting himself in the mirror, “This..might take a little longer than I thought.” 

Nytin brushed his teeth and washed his face, and began tidying up his appearance, fixing his hair to the best of his ability, overall he was in the bathroom for about twenty minutes. 

Once he was finished he played around with his hair a bit, to make it look better but couldn't do much, “Looking..less..like shit..good enough.” he said and walked out. He saw Avery in the kitchen helping Amirah to the best of his ability, he was well adapted to doing things blindly, but he was not allowed to touch the stove, Amirah had to cook the food while he prepared it.

Nytin sat down at the far end of the dining table, watching the group, as he had nothing else to do. Amirah and Avery were talking amongst themselves while they made breakfast, and Blaire was playing on her phone, she was currently battling a boss and losing. Suddenly she cursed loudly and slammed her phone on the table, making Avery jump and almost drop the pancake batter he was holding. 

Amirah quickly turned to her, frowning, "Blaire! Don't do that, you scared us!" Her tone was still soft but harsh.

Blaire laughed sheepishly, "Ha..uh..mmsorry." She mumbled going back on her phone, deciding to play something else to pass the time.

Nytin snickered softly, getting a dirty look from Blaire in response. He rolled his eyes at her, but didn't say anything because he didn't want to cause trouble, Blaire raised her hand and flicked him off, and at that moment Amirah suddenly looked over, meaning she had been caught.

Amirah gave her a hard stare causing Blaire to shrink down again, resorting to simply glaring at Nytin, who grinned at her smugly. The two had a silent staring contest before Blaire rolled her eyes and flicked him off again, going back to her phone. Nytin found the entire situation mildly amusing, and quite wholesome, being that neither Amirah or Blaire were truly upset at each other, and Blaire didn't argue about what she had done wrong nor complain about getting scolded, she simply apologized, the amusing part being that she was quite the opposite towards Nytin. 

Nytin then turned his attention to Avery, who seemed to be in his own world as he helped Amirah, he had his ear buds in and Amirah had to tap him to get his attention. They eventually finished breakfast and it smelled like heaven in the small apartment, Nytin was practically drooling when they took the muffins out of the oven. Blaire had stopped paying attention to her game to look over at all the food, her stomach rumbling loudly. 

Avery took his earbuds out and began setting the table with Amirah, in total they had made pancakes, blueberry muffins, hash browns, eggs, and sausage. Amirah gave a proud 'hmph!' In triumph, "Welp! Dig in!" 

Blaire immediately grabbed a plate and started filling it with some of everything, she most likely ate more than everyone there combined, Amirah and Avery both served themselves but Nytin seemed to hesitate, and simply grabbed a muffin as it was the closest thing to him. 

Amirah took notice and smiled encouragingly at him, "Don't be shy, you can have as much as you want." She pushed some of the food towards him to try and reassure him further.

Nytin's ears turned a bit pink, "Alright, thank you." He said softly and began serving himself, he didn't get much but it was better than nothing. 

Avery hadn't gotten much either, which Amirah caught as well but she didn't say anything. The group ate and chatted happily with each other, Blaire had already gone for seconds by the time anyone had finished their plate and Avery had finished first due to his small amount of food, Nytin was the one who brought it to attention as soon as he noticed Avery didn't move to grab anything else.

"Are you..not going to eat anymore?" 

Avery shook his head, "Uh..probably not." He laughed meekly, "I'm..still kinda full from last night." 

Nytin hummed and nodded, but still found it odd, Avery hadn't eaten much yesterday either, at least not anything that could hold him over until the morning, it made him wonder when the last time Avery had a proper meal was. He didn't have time to wonder much as loud alarms went off both with different songs, Amirah and Blaire froze and turned to their phones, as they were the source of the noise.

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"Oh shit." Blaire said dropping her fork, Amirah abruptly stood up and Blaire followed suit. 

Amirah fumbled around in her purse and grabbed her phone, "Oh my God, we were supposed to be at work ten minutes ago!" 

Avery and Nytin exchanged glances at each other as Blaire and Amirah scrambled around the house, gathering their things such as their shoes and coats. Blaire was struggling near the door, trying to get her boots on, and had ended up placing them on the wrong feet, so she had to start over.

Amirah scuttled over to Avery and hugged him, “I'm so sorry, we have to go, I totally forgot that we had work today.” She said quickly and let go turning to Nytin, “It was nice to meet you Nytin! I’ll see you guys later!” 

Blaire shouted a quick goodbye to both Avery and surprisingly Nytin after she got her boots on, and just like that the two ran out the front door and were gone, leaving a slightly awkward silence behind. Neither Avery or Nytin knew what to say, until Avery turned to Nytin with a small smile. 

“I guess you could say that alarm really jogged their memory.” His smile grew and he ended up laughing a little at his own joke.

Nytin stared at him for a moment, before the joke clicked in his brain causing a smile to spread across his lips, “Yeah, their reaction was pretty alarming to say the least.”

Avery ended up laughing a little harder, making Nytin rather proud of himself. The awkwardness dissipated quickly and Avery stood up and began picking up the dishes. There was quite a bit of breakfast left he had to put away, so he figured he'd start now rather than later. Nytin followed suit, standing up and picking up his plate, moving to go help Avery who looked up at him, confused.

“What are you doing?”

Nytin stared back, “Uhm..helping?” 

Avery shook his head and took his plate right out of his hands, “No..you’re a guest. I’ll put all this stuff away, go and sit down until I'm done cleaning.” He used a free hand to point towards the living room. 

Nytin frowned, “But..at least let me do the dishes..or something, there’s a lot for you to do..”

Avery stood his ground, “I can handle this much, you shouldn’t be the one cleaning..I can't make you do that..now go..shoo.” 

Nytin didn’t move for a few seconds before giving in, the last person he wanted to argue with was Avery. He could bicker with other people just fine, but he didn't want to upset Avery by continuously disagreeing with him. He let out a small sigh, “Alright..I’m gonna go on the balcony for a few minutes..” He reluctantly turned around and glanced back at Avery who was happily cleaning up. 

Nytin went back outside and took out another cigarette, he lit it and took a deep breath in, holding it for a few seconds before letting out a loud, long frustrated sigh. He wasn't frustrated with Avery, he was frustrated with himself, for being unable to help do anything, he was once again on the receiving end and had nothing to offer back. Once he finished his cigarette he didn’t immediately go back inside, airing himself off to rid the smell of smoke from his clothes, which he should have done earlier, but he simply forgot to. 

He suddenly heard the sliding glass door open and shut, and Avery joined him, moving to stand next to Nytin.

"See? It was easy, we used paper plates so there weren't that many dishes to do at all." He said, grinning up at Nytin. 

Nytin smiled back but still couldn't help feeling the guilt bubbling up inside him, "You sure you don’t need me to help with anything Starshine? I feel a little bad, like I'm just leeching off of your kindness.”

Avery waved his hand dismissively, “Don’t worry about it, you’re honestly welcome to stay as long as you want and help yourself to whatever, I don’t mind the company.” 

Nytin seemed taken aback, “You don’t mind me being here?”

"Of course not! We're friends after all." 

Nytin didn't respond for a few seconds, staring at the ground, he looked back up at Avery, his face was full of hope and happiness, "Really?" His voice gave away the fact he genuinely didn't think Avery thought of him as a friend, it carried an undertone of sorrow, mixed with hope. 

Avery caught this very quickly, "Of course we are, why wouldn't we be?" He said with a reassuring smile, "Are..you okay? You sound..a little off.." 

"Well..It's just..you're my first friend in..I don't know..years? I can't really remember the last time I ever had a companion." Nytin said softly, then he realized he may have sounded a bit pitiful, he cleared his throat rubbing the back of his neck, "What..I'm getting at is.. I'm just really glad you're my friend is all." He said looking down at the floor not knowing where to look.

Avery stared at Nytin, "I'm really glad you're my friend too, but..are you sure you're okay?" He tried to choose his words carefully, "You've seemed a bit..out of it all morning actually..do you maybe..want to talk about anything?" 

Nytin seemed surprised Avery had taken notice of his mood, and so early on as well, he averted his gaze from Avery and simply fiddled with his hands, "Ah..well..I..just felt like I was being a bother is all." He took a breath in, "Y'know..with my temper I told you about, and I didn't ask before coming over, I just felt really bad..sorry if I made you worry." 

Nytin sighed and noticed Avery wasn't talking, and instead, he was simply staring at him while he spoke, he figured Avery must've been weirded out, or found it strange, "Sorry- is that weird? Am I..being weird?..I didn't mean to talk so much..sorry.." 

Avery shook his head, "No, I was just listening to you." His voice was gentle, and reassuring, "How about we keep talking inside..sound good?" 

Nytin didn't get to answer as Avery gently grabbed his sleeve and led him inside, "Do you like tea?" He suddenly asked, making Nytin sit down on the sofa. 

He looked up at Avery, just the simple thought that Avery wanted to listen to him made him feel better, "I love tea, haven't had it in a while though.." 

Avery smiled, "That's good, I'll make us both some Chai tea then." He grabbed an electric kettle, filling it to the top and putting it to boil. He moved around the kitchen and opened a drawer, pulling out some tea packets. The water finished boiling and he made the tea, bringing it over to Nytin, "Hopefully I made it right."

Nytin took the cup gratefully, "Thank you." He said blowing on it a little, before taking a small sip of the tea, all at once old memories replayed in his head and he moved the cup away from his lips, he took a breath in, "I..um..being like this reminded me of my family..and.." He exhaled, "I haven't seen them in a long..long time, so I just..felt..off..I..felt as if.." He looked up at Avery, who was actively listening while sipping on his tea.

He looked down at the cup in his hands, "As if it were too good to be true, I started getting worried..that I'd lose that happiness again.." His breathing wavered and his voice became small, then he felt something warm drop down from his face, and onto his hands, he was crying.

Nytin could hardly register what was happening, he flinched as he felt Avery's soft hand rest on his arm, with Avery's small gesture of comfort he gained enough confidence to continue speaking, "I know..we just met..a little while ago, but you've already helped me so much. I'm just..really thankful that I can call you my friend." 

Avery quietly put his cup down, gently removing Nytins from his hands and also placing that down before embracing him. He hadn't spoken a single word, but the simple gestures and body language he had used comforted Nytin more than anything. Nytin hesitantly put his hands on Avery's back and accepted the hug, which prompted Avery to hold him a bit tighter.

Avery then began to speak, "I'm glad you're my friend too, and just remember that I'll be here for you..and you're always welcome here..okay?" His voice was soft, and low, but Nytin could hear it just fine.

Nytin teared up more and held Avery tighter, "Okay.." His voice was barely above a whisper, he felt that at any given moment he'd crack and be unable to stop the tears that were welling up in his eyes again, but he smiled. "Thank you Starshine.." 

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