Sorry for such a late night (or early morning to others) post. I was at my mom's this weekend. SO BUSY.

Gonna keep this one short. I need sleep.

Thank you,

Cecilia

I Will Try To Fix You

(Coldplay: Fix You)

He didn't even knock; just sat on the close-lidded toilet with his face in his hands.

"Levi, are you alright?" Cath asked, pausing from applying shaving cream.

Levi shook his head, but looked up to give her a smile.

She had left him in bed alone that morning, trying to let him enjoy a few hours more of pleasant unconsciousness. Neither one of them had anything to say to the other to lighten the mood. Cath continued shaving her legs and Levi watched the foam dissipate in the water. Her hand shook when she heard the front door slam, and left a tiny cut just below her knee. Blood trickled down into the tub as she rinsed it off.

Levi looked at it with a blank expression for a moment, then leaned over to kiss it.

"Be more careful, sweetheart..." He muttered.

"I'm okay, it's barely anything." Cath scooted closer to him on the edge of the tub, "Are you going to be okay?"

"Eventually, maybe."

"Do you know what you want to do today?" She asked, resting her hand on his thigh, setting aside her razor.

"I want to get absolutely wasted and forget everything," Levi smiled at her hand, but it was a small, sad smile, "What do you want to do today?"

"Make sure you don't do something terrible when you're in a total drunken stupor."

"Oh, hush," He grunted.

"Seriously, let's go curl up in bed for a couple hours, and then tonight we go out and you can get totally shitfaced." Cath said, moving to finish her legs.

"Cather-"

"If it'll help, then yeah, let's pour some drinks into you. I mean, I don't want to make a habit of it, but it won't hurt this one time."

"Thanks... for, uhm, understanding."

"You don't do magic," she said, trying to smile modestly and mostly succeeding. "You are magic."

Simon stared at the 2p ladybird.

"I'm Penelope Bunce," the girl said, holding out her hand.

"I'm Simon Snow," he said, taking it.

"I know," Penelope said, and smiled.

Cath closed the book at the end of the eighth chapter. Levi breathed into her hair.

"I still don't understand how he didn't end up banging the shit Penelope..." He laughed.

"God, Levi, they're 11 in this book," she turned under his arm to face him.

"They grew up," Levi shrugged.

It took a lot to distract him. They messed around in bed for awhile, but that didn't keep busy for long. They tried taking a nap and that almost killed him. Nightmare. Cath wasn't quite sure why, but as soon as she started reading Levi's eyes were unfocused and warm.

"I'm going to get a glass of water, my throat is really starting to hurt.

She stepped downstairs into the kitchen, stopping to talk to her dad for a moment.

"Why have you guys been locked upstairs all day? I thought you were taking life by the horns and leaving the nest forever." Her dad teased.

"His grandma passed away."

"Oh, God. What happened, was she pretty old?"

"She killed herself. Levi and his sisters were at the hospital when it happened." Cath explained.

"That's horrible, poor kids..." He frowned.

Her dad wrapped her up in a hug and gave a hard squeeze.

"I hope you never have to deal with that kind of grief, Cath. There's no worse pain than that."

"Did you know someone who killed themself?" She asked.

"A friend in high school, I mean, we weren't even the closest friends, but it was hard. No one even knew he was depressed."

"Neither did they." Cath sniffled, though she didn't cry. No use losing it in front of her dad or Levi. It wasn't often that she had to be the strong one for everyone else. She felt empathetic towards her sister; it was a lot of weight on her heart to keep it together.

"We'll probably step out in a little while. I think it'll be good for him to get outside."

"Be safe." He smiled and kissed the top of her head, "I love you, Honey."

When she made her way back upstairs to Levi, she found him asleep. He his eyebrows were pulled together and his lips were just in a slight frown. People always say you shouldn't wake people from nightmares, but she couldn't stand to see him so sad looking.

He sat up straight when she shook his arm, and began bawling. Obviously, she was mistaken in waking him.

"Levi, darling, I'm sorry," Cath let him bury his face into her chest, "I'm so sorry, I didn't know what else to do."

"Leave it." Levi gripped the top of the Jager bottle and glared at the bartender, extraordinarily out of character for him. He hadn't even had a drink yet.

"Better pay for that shit then, kid." The bartender glared back, folding his arms.

They grumbled at one another until they worked it out, while Cath kept quietly to herself, nervous that someone would call her out on her sister's fake ID.

"Cather," Levi said, eyes wide from taking his first shot. "I don't want to embarrass myself in front of you."

"Okay."

"I mean, I don't want you to think-"

"Levi, I understand. Just try to forget and relax, we can deal with everything tomorrow. I won't take anything you do when you're drunk too seriously."

"Why are you so okay with this?" He asked, fiddling with his glass.

"Because I don't know what else to do."

Cath sat and watched Levi throw back another shot and then another. He started to perk up a little and began talking to everyone around them, including the bartender he had just been arguing with. After his sixth shot, she decided to confiscate the bottle.

"CATHER! YOU SHOULD HAVE DRINK TOO!" Levi suggested in his all-caps-over-excited-not-quite-yelling drunk voice.

"No, no, no, I'm driving us home tonight."

"C'MON CATHER, PLEEEEEEASE? HOW ABOUT JUST ONE DRINK?"

"That's not a good idea." She smiled patiently at him.

"Hey, honey, how about you just spin over this way and have a drink with me instead?" A man tapped her shoulder and spun her seat to face him. He was tall, muscle-y and fairly good-looking, but he seemed a bit older than her, maybe pushing 30.

"Oh, no. I'm really okay." Cath shook her head and turned back to her drunken noodle of a boyfriend.

"C'mon, hon, it'll be fun." He turned her seat again.

"I said 'no.' I'm here with my boyfriend."

"That guy?" The man guffawed, "Come hang out with a real man."

"HEY WHAT'S GOING ON?" Levi giggled and threw his arms over Cath's shoulders in a way that let him rest his chin on top of her head.

"I was just trying to get this young lady to have a drink with me."

"PSH- YEAH RIGHT. CATHER WON'T EVEN DRINK WITH ME, SHE'S A ROCK. A PREEEETTY ROCK." Levi buried his nose in her hair.

"Nice..." The man rolled his eyes and grabbed for her hand, "C'mon let's go somewhere else. We don't need to be around this bullshit."

"Stop it." Cath snapped, yanking her hand away, elbowing Levi in the hip in the process, "Let's go."

They began to leave from the busy bar, but the man drunkenly reached out for Cath's wrist, startling her.

"HEY!" Levi yelled, angry now, "GO AWAY." (Not very menacingly though.)

The drunk man hit Levi in the cheek.
"C'MON CATHER WE'RE LEAVING." Levi announced, having forgotten that they were already making their way out and starting to storm out.

Cath began to follow, beginning to feel too overwhelmed by the atmosphere and the man harassing them, but stopped cold at the hand slapping her ass.

Levi, though completely trashed, reacted much faster than she had expected. His fist hit the man in the jaw, and the man hit the floor almost immediately. The bar went quiet and everyone was looking at them. The bartender had his hand on the phone ready to call for security.

"We were just leaving..." Cath mumbled, embarrassed and a little afraid, "He might need some help leaving though..."

When they got to the car, Cath couldn't look at Levi until they were out of the parking lot.

"What was that?" She sighed, feeling tired and stressed. Not to mention the surprising throb of pain on her butt.

"SORRY-" he paused, "-Sorry. I don't really know what came over me. I promise you, I never wanted to hurt anybody."
"But how'd you hit him so hard? He fell down as soon as you hit him."

"Kind of..." He held his head for a moment as if to keep it in place, "luck, and kind of background fighting knowledge. My dad likes to watch boxing, I learned a little bit from it..."

"It's not your fault, you know. You're stressed and you're drunk. Too much was happening at once," Cath nodded, justifying it to herself more than to him, "You just scared me."

"I'm sorry, Sweetheart." Levi brushed her hand with his, "I just love you so much."

"Let's just get you to bed as soon as possible. You should go out like a light tonight."

"Cather."

"Hm?

"Tell me you love me."

"You know that I do." She looked over at him and smiled.

"Cather."

"I love you too, Levi."