Addiction

Part 5

***Sorry it's been so long. I've posted two chapters (5 &6) to compensate. See A/N at the end of next chapter for what's coming up in this story.***

At exactly 4pm the next day, Gary was back at Robbie's room in rehab. The TV was humming in the background, the late afternoon sunshine flowing through the open window, directly on to Robbie's slouching form dozing across the bed. With his eyes shut to the world he was lost somewhere between being asleep and awake, his dreams lightly taking him away from reality: On his bed, but he's not alone. A thin, muscular arm suddenly stretches across his chest, reaching round to clamp slender long fingers on his side. Robbie looks down to find the welcome sight of a sleeping form, beautiful and peaceful. Robbie bends down to immerse his face in their hair; he inhales deeply, and smiles.

"Rob" A distant voice calls to him. He looks down at the sleeping form, they lay undisturbed and yet that voice...

"Rob?"

"Rob, mate"

Rob is finally awoken out of his reverie, but it's not unwelcome - as he opens his eyes and comes face to face with his dream. Gary's sun-soaked face is staring down at him, smiling; and Robbie can't think of anything else worth doing than just idly lying there staring up into Gary's eyes.

"ahh finally – he's alive!" Gary beams down at him. Robbie stretches out his arms tiredly, yawning with a smile.

"You came!" Robbie announced elatedly.

"Well, of course I came - I said I would; and all I can say Rob is dinner better be proper grub because I'm starving mate!" Gary winked. Robbie's stomach always did a mini backflip somewhere deep inside whenever Gary winked like that.

"I mean, I'm glad you came early" Robbie softly said. He was honestly quite worried Gary might've had second thoughts during the night and thought it best to leave it. But no, he was here and even though the dinner ended up being a rather rubbery Cheese Macaroni, they enjoyed just being comfortable in each other's company. During eating and after too, they steered away from discussing Robbie's ongoing problems once more, and instead chatted about songwriting with the band again, about music in general, and of course Gary's upcoming cosmetic surgery to fix his ear, and even the latest Netflix boxset that everyone was talking about. But no matter how many times Robbie tried to bring the conversation around to talking about 'them', Gary would find a new way to avoid it, deflecting on to something else as quickly and subtly as possible.

Robbie was growing frustrated with tiptoeing around the issue, he wanted to talk about it, get it out in the open and find out where he stood, where they both stood – once and for all...but Gary seemed so happy, Robbie didn't want to spoil it. Eventually it was time for Gary to leave, and Robbie felt the familiar pangs of loss, until Gary said he'd be back the same time tomorrow.

And he was. Gary was back, as promised. The older blond was worried Robbie would soon come to realise he was purposely trying to keep their conversations light, and it was true, Gary was; he knew it couldn't last forever but the longer he could distract Robbie from talking about 'them' the easier it was to be around him. Gary just wanted to spend time with Robbie, he wanted to make sure Robbie was ok, he wanted to help him get better; he just didn't know how to. He didn't want to upset Robbie, and he had the distinct feeling that if he let it, the conversation would lead down a path that would upset Robbie, and that would upset him.

Gary really wasn't sure if he was even doing the right thing coming to the clinic everyday but he couldn't disappoint Robbie and seeing the smile on Robbie's face every time he arrived, made his heart swell. He loved seeing that special little sparkle in Robbie's eyes, along with that adorable goofy grin, it was like having the old Robbie back again. He had spoken to the staff at the rehab clinic about Robbie's progress (after they'd quizzed him about the frequency of his visits to Robbie), and whether his visits were conducive to Robbie's recovery, and although management were obviously not impressed by Gary's frequent visits every day, the staff couldn't argue against the beneficial difference to Robbie, Gary's presence bought; Robbie had evidently been so much more 'chipper' since Gary had been visiting these last few days. It made Gary happy to know that but also concerned, since he was starting to see just how much Robbie seemed to need him there, so what would happen when he went to the UK? Those concerns stayed with Gary even after he was admitted into Robbie's now familiar room at the rehab clinic. The evening was a lot cooler tonight and for some reason that affected their conversation, their minds consumed by different worries, or perhaps the same worry – 'what next'.