Pick-Me-Up [Kodi]

[Deleted]

Fuck... What was Kodi supposed to do? He had always had a large vocabulary, but when it came to saying the right thing to make someone feel better, he always came up blank. He felt sort of speechless, like... Nothing he said would make a difference. Gryph was suffering, and part of that was his fault... Kodi's.

"Babe..." he croaked. "It's not fair t'you t'keep all that stuff locked up. Y... You've helped burden so many of my problems, it's only fair that I do the same." Again, Kodi twisted Gryph's words into thinking he was the worst part of this whole situation. "I... I can handle it, love. We can carry your burden together..." If Gryph would even let him, which it seemed like he was unwilling to do. Ugh, the selfless moron... "You're not," he insisted, trying to stress that point. Sure, Gryph had done questionably stupid things (like dating Kodi), but he wasn't dumb. "You got into fuckin' college, dumb people can't do that."

He looked into the flames as Gryph poked the fire, watching the logs burn and listening to the crackle. "E... Everyone has t'go through shit at some point in their lives," he murmured, resting his hand back over Gryph's and leaning in against him. It had gotten dark since they'd started the evening, and Kodi glanced up at the constellations dotting the sky. "Maybe... Maybe soon some of the stress will go away, and it'll be more manageable. You're strong, babe... I just have t'believe you're gonna be alright." Optimism. Just be optimistic. Kodi tilted his face inward and took a deep breath of Gryph's scent, and closed his eyes. "I love you."

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

There probably wasn't much Kodi could come up with that would make Gryph much happier - at least not permenantly. And that really couldn't be helped, given the situation. And yes, it was partly Kodi's fault, but that was just a fragment of the problem, even if it was a rather large one. It wasn't like he could ignore him though, seeing as the other boy was usually the best at cheering him up these days... see, even thinking like that made Gryph think he was being selfish. Like he was just using Kodi, which wasn't the case but his judgement and thoughts were more than clouded at the moment.

He took a good long look at Kodi as he spoke, but he still just felt like... like he shouldn't try sharing his problems. It wasn't like that had helped in the past... "...I don't know." He was very unwilling. He just ignored the college thing. "I'm not going to back and forth this." He had his own (heavily-influenced) beliefs, and Kodi could have his. They didn't have to match.

"Or maybe their whole lives," He muttered, hopefully too quiet for Kodi to catch the self-pity. He felt their hands touching and turned his over, interlinking their fingers. It was odd, having Kodi being more positive than Gryphon. Sadly, that didn't make it any easier to believe him. Or at least... agree. His face screwed up slightly, smelling in the woodsmoke resting more on Kodi. "It's great if you believe that, but..." Come on, he had to at least try to be more sanguine. He closed his eyes as well, "I love you too, love." He pecked the younger boy's head, "Thank you, I know I'm not helping myself with this, but I really appreciate you helping me."