𝑫𝒐𝒗𝒆. ⊱𝐶.𝐻⊰

𝐼𝐼𝐼. 𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑒.

val & dave's apartment, 5:07pm GMT.

val stood with her back against the counter, phone in hand. she was swiping through a mass of old photographs, her younger self beaming up at the camera. 

val paused on one particular photo. the quality was terrible and grainy but she loved it anyway. three small figures stood huddled together, arms wrapped around each other as best as possible over the lays of puffy coats. the young girl was stood between two boys who both had messy brown hair, ones hair significantly longer than the others. the trio all wore massive grins that showed their gappy teeth, the girl missing more than both boys somehow. 

way off in the background, among the snow covered trees stood two adults, the pair facing the camera also. the parents pulled silly faces although they could barely be seen amongst the white snow falling. 

a drop landed on val's phone screen and before she knew it she was crying. hot tears streamed down her cheeks as she stood staring with unseeing eyes. she could feel the tears fall down her face but she felt so far away that it didn't bother her like normal. 

dave must have heard her soft sobs from where ever he was in their house as he came rushing into the kitchen. he immediately knew what was wrong, just by looking her in her eyes. seeing how broken she looked made his heart ache, it wasn't the first time he had seen her like this and it certainly won't be the last. he took her phone from her grasp and laid it facedown on the counter, ignoring it buzz. 

dave scooped up the girl in his arms and slid them both down to the kitchen floor, just letting her cry and cry, he rubbed circles on her back, trying his best to sooth her the only way he knew how. "i'm sorry" she hiccuped. dave shushed the girl and continued to rub her back until her sobs faded into hiccups. 

val raised her head of out dave's chest and looked at him, seeing the softness in his eyes, the understanding, it made her want to bawl all over again. but she didn't. she was all out of for tears for now. 

"i miss them too. its okay, why don't we invite bella and daisy over? we can all have a movie night? how does that sound?" dave spoke still stroking her back. val nodded weakly before grabbing the counter to help heave herself of the floor. she meekly shuffled over to to their sofa and flopped facedown. as she could hear dave talking to presumably daisy or bella her eyes fluttered close and her breathing slowed.