Alex looked around his and Yassen's unofficially part-time-shared apartment and felt a look of dismay come upon his face.
"Yassen?" he called, questioningly. "Are you home?"
Usually, when Alex had been gone for a few days, he came home to see the apartment covered in origami - all kinds of colors, patterns, shapes, sizes. It always disappeared or was replaced within a week - Alex had no idea what happened to the old collections, but he was pretty sure Yassen didn't throw them away - but this time, he came home to… nothing. And as far as Alex knew, Yassen hadn't been away while he was on mission, so coming home to an apparently empty house was… disturbing.
Alex walked further into the house. He wasn't especially on guard - nothing looked out of place, except for the lack of origami.
"Yassen?" Alex said, seeing him lying on his side on the couch, face towards the couch's back and eyes closed. "What's wrong?"
Yassen's eyes scrunched and he turned to lie on his face, but didn't speak.
Alex set his bag down by the side of the couch. "Yassen?" he asked softly, gently resting a hand on Yassen's shoulder. "I'm home."
"Hi," Yassen finally mumbled. "I know."
Alex glanced around the apartment and into the kitchen. He turned back to Yassen, and took stock.
"Honey Love, have you changed or eaten since I've been gone?" Alex asked gently. "Have you showered?"
Yassen shook his head, barely.
"Could you eat a little now that I'm back?"
Yassen attempted a shrug of his shoulders.
"I'm going to go change, and then I'm going to get some food. I'm going to bring you some fruit, too - those apples I bought on Tuesday should still be good," Alex said.
When Alex returned, in sweatpants and tank top and with plates in hand, Yassen was just as he'd left him.
Alex sighed. "Honey Love, I brought you an apple. It's cut up in little pieces, and there's also peanut butter."
Yassen slowly squirmed so that he was curled up in the corner of the couch and facing Alex. "Thank you," he mumbled, taking the offered food.
Alex sat on the other end of the couch, facing Yassen, and was about to take a bite of his chicken nuggets until he noticed how Yassen was simply staring at his plate.
"We could be - dinner buddies?" Alex suggested slowly. Yassen looked at him. "I'll count to three and then we'll take a bite at the same time."
Yassen took a moment but then nodded, and Alex began counting off. "One… Two… Three… Bite," Alex said, and as he'd hoped, they both ate.
Somehow, Alex got Yassen through his entire apple that way. He was relieved that it had worked. This had never happened with Yassen before that Alex knew of - though it was possible that it had happened before Alex took up a significant portion of his time. After Ian's death, Alex had sometimes had episodes where he couldn't work up energy to move or take care of himself, and Jack would do things with him to get him to function. After Jack's death, the episodes had become more frequent, and the Pleasures hadn't known how to help him. But he'd felt comfortable enough with Ben to share what helped, and now he was using Jack's techniques to help Yassen.
Alex got Yassen into the bath, and washed his hair - he wasn't going to try to get Yassen to shower on his own just yet, or to hold Yassen up and wash him - and then washed himself, then got them both in clothes to sleep in and got to bed.
And in the morning, if Yassen chose to talk about whatever had triggered his episode, Alex would listen with open ears. Otherwise, he would just keep on, and keep an eye out for Yassen.
