Alex was lying on her bed holding her guitar, staring up at nothing as she gently strummed its strings. The last three days had been hard, but things had seemed to be slowly improving. Her shifts at the store were still being covered, so she had spent her time doing little things to make herself feel better. She watched sunrises and sunsets on the roof, made sure she ate enough, played video games with her friends, slept as much as she needed, weeded the rooftop garden, and played her guitar whenever she felt like it. Either Steph or Ryan had been with her the entire time and Steph had slept over the last few nights, so she'd been able to avoid any more nightmares as well. Little by little, she had felt herself picking up the pieces again.

But today had brought everything grinding to a halt. Despite Steph and Ryan's best efforts, they both had things to do today that they couldn't get out of, so she had been alone for most of the day. She had planned on doing laundry and playing Dust and Daylight with Riley but hadn't been able to get out of bed since Steph left that morning. That hollow, empty feeling was back, wiping out any motivation she might've had to get anything done. She could also still feel her anger, sadness, and fear seething deep in her stomach, adding an undercurrent of dread to her numbness that had drained all of her energy and kept her in bed all day.

Alex jumped at the sound of someone knocking at the door, almost dropping her guitar.

I really don't want to deal with people right now. But that might be Steph, so I have to get up.

She took a deep breath and rose from the bed, setting her guitar back in its case before shoving it under the bed. Trudging to the door, she opened it and let out a sigh of relief when she saw Steph on the other side. "Hey," she said, giving Steph a weak smile.

Steph gave her a much bigger smile as she stepped inside. "Hey. How are you feeling?"

Alex kept her eyes forward as she slowly closed the door, gripping the handle tightly. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped when she felt tears building in her eyes. After a few seconds, she felt a wave of anxiety from Steph.

Should I ask her what's wrong or wait for her to say something?

I want her to be the one to bring it up, but is she ready to do that yet?

Does she still need me to ask?

Or will that just make her close up on me again?

Alex stood in front of the door for a few more seconds, struggling to speak around the lump lodged in her throat. Then she turned toward Steph and wrapped her arms around her, burying her face in Steph's neck. Steph immediately returned the embrace, rubbing slowly circles on Alex's back as she took several shuddering breaths.

"Bad day, huh?" Steph whispered, kissing the side of Alex's head.

"Yeah," Alex said, holding Steph even tighter as her voice wavered. "I thought I was getting better but that all just…disappeared today. I felt like crap and spent the whole day in bed."

"Did those feelings from the other day come back?"

Alex nodded, her fingers wrapping around handfuls of Steph's shirt as her body tensed.

Steph sighed, moving her hand up to stroke Alex's hair until she started to relax. "That really sucks and I'm sorry that happened, but I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit here. Yeah, all those crappy feelings came back, but you got through them on your own without getting overwhelmed. That's progress."

Alex made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat. "I mean, I guess, but I just feel…silly."

"Silly?"

"Yeah. I wasted an entire day because I felt bad. I didn't even have, like, an actual problem. It was just my emotions. They're not even really real, but I still let them get to me like this."

"Emotions are powerful. You know that better than anyone." Steph pulled back from the hug but kept her arms around Alex, reaching up to brush some of Alex's hair out of her face. "You've seen how much it can hurt people when they ignore their emotions. And how much it helps when they actually deal with them. That all applies to you, too."

Alex shrugged, looking down at her hand as she started to fiddle with the sleeve of Steph's t-shirt. "Yeah, I guess. It still feels silly, though."

"Would it help to think about it another way? Like, if you met someone who was feeling the way you are and had been through everything you have, and you read their emotions and wanted to help them. What would you say to them?"

Alex frowned, forcing herself to stop fidgeting and rest her hand on Steph's shoulder instead. "I…would tell them that they've been through a lot. And that they're still going through a lot. So, they shouldn't be so hard on themselves. They're gonna have bad days, but what's important is that they keep going."

Steph nodded, giving her a warm smile. "Can you keep that in mind if you have more days like today?"

"I'll try," Alex said, returning Steph's smile before pulling her into another hug.

Steph held Alex for a moment before she stepped back and took one of Alex's hands. "Have you eaten anything today?"

Alex shook her head. "When I said I was in bed all day, I meant that literally."

"It's okay." Steph squeezed Alex's hand before leading her toward the kitchen. "But we should get you some food. It'll probably help you feel better."

Alex sat down at the table, watching as Steph leaned against the counter. "Are we talking real food or, like, a 'I'm too depressed to think so I'll eat whatever's easiest' meal?"

Steph scrunched up her face as she waved one of her hands back and forth. "I mean, real food would be best, but a depression meal is better than nothing. I think I remember putting away stuff for PB&J the other day. Will that work as a happy medium?"

Alex nodded. "Yeah, that sounds good. One question, though. Are we eating them on plates or just making them on the counter? I feel like that's an important factor in whether or not it's a depression meal."

Steph laughed and took two plates from the shelf, setting them on the table with an exaggerated motion. "These sandwiches will be made on plates, thank you very much. We're trying not to lean into the depression right now."

"Okay, but another important question. Are we going to do the dishes afterwards or let them sit in the sink for two weeks and feel bad every time we look at them?"

Steph rolled her eyes and leaned across the table to gently shove Alex's shoulder. "We'll wash them because we're not giving into the depression. Come on, dude, you gotta keep up."

"Okay, fine, I get it," Alex said, laughing as she brushed Steph's hand away. She reached for the loaf of bread and jar of peanut butter that Steph set in front of her. "Actually making a sandwich is a step up for me, though. I've definitely had days when I didn't have the energy to put anything together, so I just ate some peanut butter off a spoon and called it good enough."

Steph laughed as she sat down at the table and started to assemble her own sandwich. "Oh, I've definitely had those days, too. One of my other go-to's for those is ramen. Not cooked ramen. Just, like, breaking off little bits of it right out of the bag and eating it like chips."

"I see that and raise you stale cereal without any milk. Eaten right out of the box."

"Oh, I can beat that easy. Three pieces of bologna."

"Eaten how? Laid flat? Each piece separately?"

"No, I stacked them and rolled them up."

Alex pulled a face as she laughed. "Oh, gross, okay, that one wins just because of how you ate it."

"Whoo! Yes, I am the depression meal champion!" Steph clapped her hands and shook them triumphantly. "Do I get another trophy to put with my foosball one?"

Alex raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you sure that's something you wanna show off?"

"Hmm, okay, yeah, fair point. Maybe that can just stay between us. Also." Steph paused, pointing the butter knife she was using the spread peanut butter at Alex. "This isn't a challenge for you to come up with a worse depression meal than mine, yeah? We're trying to get away from those."

"Oh, don't worry, I don't even want to try to top that. I'll stick with my peanut butter spoon and old cereal if I have to." Alex looked down at the sandwich on the plate in front of her, her face turning thoughtful. "The sad part is that I actually know how to cook pretty well. I just haven't actually had a kitchen or the energy to cook for a really long time."

Steph grinned as she gestured around them. "You have one now! And Ryan and I can help, so the energy part doesn't matter anymore. Do you wanna try to make something?"

Alex frowned, drumming her fingers on the table. "I'm not sure. My mom is the one who taught me how to cook, so I don't know if it would make me feel better or worse."

"Yeah, that makes sense. But if you decide you want to, just let me know. I'd be down to help with whatever you wanna try."

"I will." Alex reached over to squeeze Steph's hand, giving her a grateful smile. "How was work today? Also, side note, thank you for figuring out how to cover my shifts while I work on…everything."

Steph shrugged as she returned Alex's smile. "It's no big deal. I got your back, dude. And work was mostly business as usual, except that Val bit someone."

"She did? What happened?"

"I was in the booth for most of the day, so I didn't actually see it happen, just heard the yelling afterwards. They said she bit them out of nowhere but that usually means they tried to pet her several times and she hissed at them, but they didn't listen and tried again. They got pissed when I told them it was their fault." Steph raised her shoulders and lifted her hands with her palms facing up. "Sorry, dude, not much I can do if you're just gonna ignore her telling you to back off. Luckily, they left right after that and Val was okay, just a little spooked from the yelling. She followed me around for the rest of the day, which was kinda nice. She's a pretty good co-DJ." Steph paused, frowning as she looked down and started playing with the twist tie from the bread bag. "And having her with me helped when I got worried about you not answering my texts."

Alex winced and let her head fall into her hands. "Yeah. I fucked that up. Again. I'm sorry." She sighed and reached to take Steph's hand in both of hers, waiting to speak until their eyes met. "I'm going to work on that, I promise."

Steph nodded, holding Alex's gaze for a few seconds before looking down at their hands. "I'm not trying to control you and I don't need an update on everything you do or every place you go. I just want to know that you're okay. Especially when you're having a hard time."

"I know. I get it." Alex bent down to kiss the back of Steph's hand, squeezing it gently as she glanced back up at Steph. "I'm going to do better, I promise. And I'm glad you had Val with you today."

"Yeah, me, too." Steph smiled at her before gesturing at their food with her free hand. "I think we should probably actually eat these at some point, though."

Alex nodded and let go of Steph's hand to pick up her sandwich. She chewed and swallowed a few bites before she paused, her brow creasing slightly as she mulled over a thought. "You said having Val helped you today, right? Maybe it'd be good for me to get a pet, too. I couldn't get out of bed all day but if I had to get up to take care of someone else, I think that would help. And then I wouldn't have to be alone here even when you and Ryan are busy."

Steph beamed at her. "That's a great idea! Do you know what you'd want to get?"

"Maybe…a cat?"

"Yes, Val can have a sibling! If you're up for it, we can get the stuff you'll need from the pet store after we eat. And there's an animal shelter in a town nearby that Ryan can drive us to later." Steph stopped and held up her hands with her palms facing Alex. "As long as you wanna move that fast, obviously. Since you literally only just thought of it. You can definitely think about it more first if you want."

Alex grinned and shook her head. "No, let's do it tonight. I'm really excited about this now."

"Yes!" Steph held up her hand for Alex to give her a high five. "Okay, first we finish eating, and then we start Operation: Cat Sibling."

Alex hesitated as she was about to hit Steph's hand. "Can we keep workshopping the name?"

Steph rolled her eyes and finished the high five. "We can come up with a better one on the way. But we gotta hurry so we have time to hit the pet store and make it to the shelter before they close tonight."