Brrrt...Brrrt...Brrrt...Brrrt

The phone line continued to trill for what seemed like an eternity, almost long enough for Rowan to assume that Adrian was too busy to answer the phone. Just as he nearly gave up on the endeavor, a soft click of an answer came through the other end, though they were oddly silent.

"Hey, handsome. I was just thinking about you and wanted to hear your voice. How are you?"

Brrrrrrrrrt... Brrrrrrrrrt... Brrrrr—

You need to answer that.

Click.

"..."

Adrian answers the phone in silence, still droning off in his thoughts while the other tries to coax him with conversation. My voice...? At first Rowan's comforting dulcet tones seem so distant as he struggles to come up with anything meaningful to say. But there and then it meant the world to him. All around him the vibrant spectrum of life beams with untold wonders, even as he trains and tunnels his vision on his past mistakes and regrets. It chokes him up that Rowan's thinking of him somewhere out there, even when he's out of sight. I must mean a lot to Row...

A little bit of this could get him through the day he's having.

"Hey..." His voice croaks, but he quickly adapts, swallowing the lump in his throat.

"...How are you, babe?"

“I’m good, other than missing you.” Rowan hadn’t ignored the break in their voice, eyebrows furrowing slightly out of concern on the other end of the phone. “Adrian, is everything okay? You sound upset.” Recent memory recalled the last time he’d heard them sound choked up, when they’d visited Mount Pyre together, and so he could only assume that's where his boyfriend was now.

“I’m here for you if you need to talk, my love.” Rowan wouldn’t force it upon them, but he’d hoped that Adrian would share what was bothering them.

When they first got together, he'd wanted to keep these worlds apart. Maybe he believed it'd be easier on him. Or he was just unwilling to leave himself so vulnerable to someone else, even now. Rowan had seen through his deflection for what it was, perhaps picking up on the inflection of his voice. To think Row called by happenstance, only because he missed him. Rowan didn't deserve all of this baggage.

"I'm alright. Don't worry about me none..." He twirled a blade of grass around his digit as they conversed, feeling it drag across his skin with a tickling sensation. "Just having a crummy day." An exhausted sigh escapes him loudly and is delivered to Rowan through their receiver, giving Rowan insight into how much Adrian is talking it down.

He didn't want to go quiet on that note. "...But it means a lot that you called."

"I'll always worry about you, babe." Rowan said with a small giggle, Adrian might even be able to hear the smile in his voice. "You're my boyfriend, that's my job." Good days were few and far between nowadays, even for Rowan as he dived deeper into the madness that was becoming of Team Rocket. Some days he couldn't help but feel as though he was drowning, pushed down by waves of responsibility that had been thrust upon him.

"I'm sorry you're having a crummy day, though." There was a pause in his voice, hand covering the speaker as someone in the background was likely talking to him. "Why don't I come over and I can see what I can do to make you feel better?"