ᵢₘₐgᵢₙₑ ➳ Michael Gray [ON HOLD]

➳ thirteen - the illness

《 we pretend that we don't care, but we care 》

➳

Arabella awoke to the familiar sight of her beloved Hades cuddled into her chest. Her phone vibrated from its place on the bedside table. She moved closer, being careful not to shift too much, and made an attempt to receive the object responsible for her sudden awakening. However, her efforts fell short as she heard a hefty sigh from the small animal besides her before Hades removed himself from her side, heading to sit by the door to her room.

He made no attempts to leave despite the door being slightly ajar, instead glancing back at the brunette who giggled and raised her brows at him. He was probably thinking about breakfast.

She checked her messages quickly to ensure that she hadn't missed anything overly important. She had a few from her tour group chat about how they couldn't wait for the next event they would preform at together, one from Grace in the girl's chat complaining about how they hadn't seen each other for a while and demanding that they meet up asap.

And then the notification that had been the original disruption of her slumber, alerting her that Michael had a meeting with Tommy and a potential business partner that day.

Michael had kindly taken an opportunity to link his schedule with Arabella's calendar as a result of the night a few weeks ago. It was more so him being merciful on himself that doing Arabella a favour. He didn't think he could stand to have another screaming match with her anytime soon - she had definitely proven that she could and most certainly would stand her ground on multiple occasions.

The female quickly shot a message to the chat, agreeing that they needed a meet up soon, suggesting a girls night at the weekend and silently planning to bring Polly along with her, before closing her phone and dragging herself out of bed.

Hades whimpered softly at her, it being her biggest motivation to leave her precious bed, as he refused to leave without her. She cooed at him and pecked his head before padding down the hall. She gently patted her leg, an adoring look on her face as Hades was quick to run after her, and made her way towards the staircase.

She couldn't help but roll her eyes as she glanced behind her at the door of Michael's bedroom, it being shut as usual, but then a puzzled feeling overcame her as she caught sight of Lennox laid on his front and softly nosing at the door of Michael's office, which was tightly shut. The dog whimpered and stared at the door with pleading eyes.

Arabella furrowed her brows before her eyes widened in concern as she heard a loud thud followed by coughing and cursing. She was quick to open the door and peak her head into her fiancé's office, something that she would have never usually dared to do out of respect for his privacy, but her concern for him overpowered that.

She pouted out of sadness as she caught sight of Michael, hunched over his desk and hugging his head, panting slightly with his eyes clenched shut. The man's skin had paled considerably and she could hear little faint coughs come from him as he whined into his folded arms. His shirt was untucked and his tie loosened to the point where it barely passed off as a knot, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows.