This Doesn't Feel Real [closed]

[chase_em]

It had been a little less than a week since his mother was attacked. The best and most attentive Healers were at her side day and night, new Potions hooked up to her veins every two hours, keeping her stable but the wounds weren't yet close to fixing themselves. It was frustrating and terrifying, Jonah never this close to tragedy before. All of his

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[dearest_ella]

Ella didn't quite give him the option of pulling away any more, meeting his shaken greeting and so uncharacteristically broken expression by pulling him back in, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and burying her face against the side of his neck, desperately clinging to something warm and solid in this cold and fleeting sort of space. Both for his sake and (as much as she tried to deny and ignore it and push it away, because this most definitely was not about her, and she was all too used to burying these flares of memories to let them get to her now when she fully intended to be the solid, supporting one) her own-

"I should've come sooner- I didn't-" Didn't know, then didn't know when, didn't know howShe pulled back just enough to catch his eye, fingers lightly curling through the disheveled curls at the back of his head. "Jonah, I'm so sorry- is she-?" She left the question hanging, flicking a quick look at the eerily still figure of the woman laid out across the bed, a stranger to her in nearly every way, yet the sight of

[dearest_ella]

As heartstring-tugging as it was to see Jonah like this, helpless and exhausted and strained with worry, there very much was a part of her that understood that need, however self-destructive it might be, to stay, that guilt-tinted desperation to be there, even when there was nothing to be done.

She gave his hand another quick squeeze and offered a tentatively apologetic look. "You don't have to go anywhere, but you should get some rest. I could- I'll be right here. I promise I'll wake you up if anything happens-"

[chase_em]

He sighed a long breath, fully knowing that Ella had every point in the world and that his eyes had been drooping for far too long now. He knew Marlow would be here in a few hours and so far, with nothing changing, maybe a few minutes of shut-eye wouldn't be so bad. He tilted his head, shifting in his seat as he looked at her.

"You're sure?" he said, looking at her with a sort of warmth growing in his chest.

They had sort of just breezed right through a pretty mega step in their relationship somehow and Jonah couldn't feel more torn about how to be in that moment. He was worried about his mum but more than happy to know she felt the same way about him-

He blinked his eyes before pressing a light kiss to her cheek.

[dearest_ella]

Ella's eyes instinctively fluttered shut as Jonah's lips pressed against her cheek, a wavering sort of smile pulling at her lips despite the generally downcast mood of the chilly waiting room, her hand reaching up to lightly cradle his face, leaning into that brush of contact and warmth.

"I'm sure. Go on," she said quietly, leaning back just enough to catch his eye with a solid, reassuring nod. "Better you sleep here than on a broom thirty feet off the ground during practice."

[chase_em]

He let out a breath of laughter, trying to imagine Angelina moving to catch him or something, if he fell from his broom. He'd fallen before. He'd manage somehow.

But still, the invitation was far too welcoming and Jonah couldn't help but fall and nestle against her lap, bringing his body up onto the seat as he tucked his hands against his chest.

"You are far more comfortable than plummeting six stories-" he reasoned, his eyes fluttering shut.