SomeWhere On... (BXB)

Day 1

It's the sound he makes that tells me he's awake. He sits up, hair all over the place, and looks around his room. Murph only really looks around one half before lying back down. He groans into his pillow and tries to wrap it around his head.

"Pup, it's after noon." I say, standing up from the desk. I've cleared some of the cans of soup so I can get my computer out. Steve's giving me a lecture about how stupid I am for flying out suddenly, even if I had good reason. Even if he said the reason wasn't good enough.

So it's good to get a break from that.

I snagged some snack foods from downstairs in preparation for Murph so we didn't have to leave the room. "Wake up."

Murph's head shoots out from his pillow cocoon and looks at me. He grabs the hem of my shirt and pulls me back towards the bed. "Oh, thank God. I thought I dreamed all that." His voice shakes as he says it, and my hand slips into his. "And that would've been impressive."

"Why? You usually dream about magic powers or something?"

He doesn't say anything. His lips are pursed and he looks away.

"Wow."

He snakes his arms around my neck and pulls me into bed. "I missed you."

"M-Murph," I whisper, pulling back. "You don't get to avoid this."

"...but I want to."

"No." I unlatch his arms from around my neck. Either way, I hold one hand because it's warm and soft. "Pup, you can't do this. Pretend it didn't happen. Because it did."

He rolls to his side. "I know." Murph sits up and begins playing with my hands. "I just...didn't want you...to be disappointed in me." He eyes me for a moment before turning away, hand still in mine. "Because I wanted to do this. I wanted to be the one to succeed, without anyone's help." He rolls his head. "I mean...like, I was the one who mostly did it." Murph shakes his head and looks at me. "I wanted to show everyone I was capable."

"You are. And you don't need me to tell you that." Lying my body down with legs hanging off the side of the bed, I look at him and say, "Is that everything?"

Murph flops his head from one side to another before moving his whole body around to face me. "I want to talk to you."

I blink. "About what happened with the competition, or – "

"Last night," he harrumphs. "About us." Murph shrugs. "Because I...kind of get how you feel." He goes to support himself on his elbows. He ruffles his hair and continues, "Like...we work well together. At least, I think we do. And I'm..." He exhales. "Like...you know that feeling where...like you're waiting in line to order food, and..." His eyes dart to the ceiling. His fingers spin in the air, visually processing whatever's going on in his head. Murph's shoulders slump in defeat before he whispers, "I just... it's not the same without you here. Or when I go there. It's like half my life's been put on hold when you're back in England."

Took the words right out of my mouth.

"And, and, like, we talked about where we wanted to live. Our kid's names, even."

"Ah, yes," I say. "Good ol' Harvey, Frank, Darren – "

Murph's hand's over my mouth. He lets go of me a second later. "We decided on Lillian or Nicholas for you, and Riley for me." He grabs my collar and pulls himself towards me. "And you can't stop me from naming our children this."

I snicker. "You're so cute."

He doesn't want to hear this, though. He gets mad and says, "But I'm not letting you move here. I'll move." Murph gets off the bed and heads for the door. "End of story."