It’s when Skyler leaves him alone on the Sotally Tober, taking with her the promised extensive shopping list, that Angelo caves. [break][break]

Soggy notes are spread out over the kitchen table to dry, making it easy – and much too tempting – for blue eyes to scan over the numbers glaring up at him. [break][break]

He counts it once, twice… Three times over in his head, but no matter how many times he adds it up or shuffles the damp bills around, the total stays the same. [break][break]

The realisation sinks in like a heavy stone in his chest, tempting gravity to try and pull him down onto one of the chairs. Hands press against the table, stubbornly refusing to sit as he leans his weight onto the sturdy surface, mind swimming without any such mooring. [break][break]

Because Skyler had just so casually thrust a near two weeks’ worth of hard courier work into his hands. Half of the payment for one day of her earnings. [break][break]

It’s not as if he was ignorant to the minimum wage that he scrapes together but standing in someone else’s shoes, even for a day, hits Angelo like a Hammer Arm to the gut. [break][break]

Suddenly, what he longs for seems so far out of reach. A dream flying away on outstretched wings as the path before him leads him away from it and down an increasingly tight road; as oppressive as a quicksand pit, threatening to mercilessly devour in darkness. [break][break]

Something desperate within him greedily scrapes together memories, moments and desires he’d accumulated like a dragon’s precious hoard. He doesn’t want to let them go… [break][break]

That's when Angelo hears it, a tether within his chest that had pulled increasingly taut and frayed over the last year, snapping. [break][break]

---

[break][break]

By the time the sound of footsteps padding through the small apartment announces Skyler’s return, Angelo is already in the kitchen. The courier readying the pots and pans with a familiar clatter, while Sammy is expertly avoided underfoot; nothing seemingly out of the ordinary. [break][break]

Autopilot having kicked in as soon as he’d heard the key in the door.[break][break]

---

[break][break]

“Hm…?” A distracted hum rumbles from his throat as an unseeing gaze is pulled away from the bubbling pot in front of him, Skyler snagging his attention with arms winding tight around his waist. Absentmindedly, he leans into the warmth, finding comfort in the quiet intimacy of something solid behind him. In having her at his back. “Yeah, good job, babe. You might make junior assistant yet.”[break][break]

With a subtle movement, one hand still automatically stirring the pot, Angelo drapes the other over Skyler’s shoulders; tucking her into his side with an amused sigh. Smiling. [break][break]

“And that’s different from most days - how?” His words, his lips, kiss the top of damp blonde curls. [break][break]

He had to change some things but this…? [break][break]

This, Angelo thought as blue eyes drift shut, momentarily drowning himself in her comforting scent, you. I wouldn’t trade… [break][break]

Even if you’re the biggest pain in the ass I’ve ever met.


[break][break]

+ skyler dross // EMPLOYMENT: ACT I[break][break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]