TW: Panic/Anxiety attack
"Grab me a beer, would ya?" Fred pleaded as he took a seat on FP's couch. The two had been embroiled in discussions of work and the usual turbulent trials of life in general. They figured it was best to confide in each other rather than allow it all to build up.
"You see the spare room?" FP questioned proudly as he handed Fred the cold bottled beverage, gesturing towards the room with a smile upon his face before taking his seat next to Fred.
"Yeah. You renovating or something?"
FP shakes his head, removing the bottle from his lips. "Nope. It's Charlie's new room, for when he spends the night. Alice agreed to it, figured it would help me and Charlie bond, and make our co parent agreement more valid." He finished with a smirk.
"Looks good." Fred compliments, eyeing up the room once more.
"Yep. I've put up a few units with some scrap wood already, now I just need to get him w bed and some furniture but, money's pretty tight." FP explains with a slight frown before averting his gaze back to the television.
"That's actually what I came here to talk to you about." Fred reveals, taking FP by surprise.
"What do you mean?"
Fred lips curl into w suggestive smirk before moving towards the edge of the couch. "I've been speaking to my Dad and, I figured, you could take a job at the construction company."
FP eyebrows raise, a beaming smile of disbelief crossing his face as he slowly removes the bottle of beer from his pursed lips. "Are you serious?"
Fred nods. "You practically know all the ins and outs already, you'd just need a license and you're good to go. Plus I know it's hard for you finding a job since you got back."
FP's mouth remained agape as his eyes gleamed with gratitude and happiness. "I just- I just don't know what to say." He added with a soft chuckle as his eyes darted towards his best friend. He had never been shown this type of kindness before, never throughout his entire life.
He had been struggling for weeks to make ends meet and provide for Charlie, just barely scraping by and doing what could to give him the best, so being given the chance to do so easily was a huge relief.
Fred grins, taking note of the happily astonished look on FP's face. "You don't have to say anything."
•••
He walked into Alice's trailer, the door being unlocked thus making things easier, and found her sat at the dining table with a lit cigarette in one hand and the other running through her loose blonde curls.
She seemed a little worse for wear to him, looking more stressed than usual as she bounced her leg up and down under the table. She had been so preoccupied by whatever was going on in her head that she hadn't even heard him come in.
"Hey, is Charlie ready?" He calmly asks, slowly approaching her at the table as he did.
She immediately snapped around in slight shock, breathing a sigh of relief upon seeing it was him and not some random intruder.
"Uhm, yeah, he's in his room." Alice says anxiously with a little croak in her small voice. "Charlie?! Daddy's here!"
The tot responds immediately, letting his mother know he's packing up his toys, making FP laugh.
Alice continues to anxiously grip her hair through her hair through her bitten finger nails, and the state of them didn't go unnoticed by FP, it was something she only ever did when she was stressed out.
