As the weeks passed, Alan had only a couple more attacks—which Eric dismissed as something like asthma—and the two had grown closer than ever. When work would run into overtime and Eric was too exhausted to travel all the way back to his own apartment, Alan allowed him to sleep on his couch until morning. They had become something more than just partners; just neither of them knew it. They often saw either other outside of work, sometimes spending the day in the park or just wasting time talking about ridiculous things until they both were on their backs on the floor, holding their stomachs as they laughed.
One particular night, they had crashed at Alan's place, having fallen asleep in his bedroom floor after rolling off the bed with their bouts of laughter. Eric had an arm draped over the smaller man, dozing heavily. Alan peeked one eye open, blushing silently at their position on the floor, before slipping from his grip and creeping quietly from the bedroom to surprise Eric with breakfast. He had learned that Eric didn't eat breakfast, something Alan hadn't been too happy about. Eric didn't take good care of his body, though he had no health problems. It irked the brunette when someone was on the path to ruining their perfect health.
The smell of freshly scrambled eggs traveled down the hallway of the apartment, the scent flirting with a hungry Eric. The brawny man grunted and cracked his eyes open, sniffing the air again before getting up from the floor and migrating to the kitchen. "Hmm…" he hummed, which for him meant good morning. Alan couldn't help but smile lightly at the gruff sound his friend made. He placed a bunch of eggs onto the platter, adding a couple pieces of French toast and then putting the plate in front of the groggy man.
"Good morning, Eric," Alan told him happily, creating a much small helping for himself and then sitting down across from Eric.
Eric yawned mid-bite and rubbed his back. "Do you remember how we ended up on the floor?" he questioned sleepily, even his eyes foggy. Alan simply shrugged, though he did faintly remember laughing madly with Eric until his upstairs neighbor told them to shut it, which only made them laugh harder. They were like a couple of teenagers, high off the night and just the jokes they cracked to each other. It was a hell of a lot of fun, and Alan personally decided that he wouldn't trade their fun times for anything else in the world.
"Ugh, it's Monday, isn't it?" Eric groaned, cutting off Alan's thoughts. Alan nodded and sighed a little. Monday was a work day and that meant they had five days until they could relax again.
Once both men finished breakfast and Alan had cleaned up, they headed to Alan's room to get dressed. Eric kept a spare outfit over at his friend's house for occasions like so. Alan shooed Eric out of the room so he could change alone; he didn't want Eric to question him about the little purple marks that were halfway up his forearm. He looked down at them and sighed quietly, once more thinking about the soul that had attacked him on his first assignment in the academy.
There was a soft knock on the door. "Alan? It's almost eight; we're going to be late," Eric said through the door.
"Coming," Alan said quickly, pulling on his clothes and fixing his hair before exiting the room. Eric followed him and soon they had reached work.
As time had worn on, Eric had begun to act better at work, and William had even personally congratulated him on the improvements of his paperwork. Alan had also congratulated him, but Eric was happier about pleasing Alan, not William.
The partners reached their conjoined office and sat down at their desks, each starting on his paperwork so they could get done as quickly as possible and maybe go home.