The outstretched lizard monster awoke when a patch of sunlight cascaded down onto his face. Grimacing at the intrusion, he gradually opened his eyes, adjusting to the intrusion. At first, he was disorientated, before he remembered what happened and sighed heavily. Silence, except for the slow ticking of a clock on the wall.

'11:49am'.

'Damn, I slept in all morning?' he pondered, his fronds perking at this news. 'Well, maybe you needed it fella.'

Stretching and rising with a crack of his back, he went to pee in the bathroom before stumbling into the kitchen. Only at this point did he feel the craving need in his stomach to consume food. He thought there was not much point in finding cereal at this time of the day, so he considered a brunch of rotten eggs and bloody bacon. If he could find the ingredients that is. As a matter of fact, it did not take him too long. His sister, from the times she used to cook always used to place products in certain allotments in the fridge, segregating everything off neatly. Randall used to wonder whether she was obsessive compulsory about food. Even in general. Looking around, even here, everything seemed neat and to have its place. Although he could not admit to being as ultimately equally precocious at an earlier age than her, some organization soothed him.

Although it wasn't baking, he equally enjoyed the cooking process of flipping eggs and turning the bacon rashes. The stink was wonderful as the food fried. He ate in peace that afternoon, but then wondered what to do with himself next. He was not ready yet to call his parents, particularly since it had only really been twenty four hours since his pinnacle of stress.

The sensation was alien to say the least. Randall could not remember a time when he had had nothing to do. What would keep him occupied most of the time during term time was assignments and exam preparations. During holidays, he would stay in, help around the house, bake or tinker with the assortment of mechanical appliances that the Boggs household had. But this was not his home. He'd eaten his sister's food out of necessity, not particularly for enjoyment, hoping she wouldn't mind. He thought it'd be inconsiderate if he baked unnecessarily and without permission; he'd certainly not touch the appliances unless asked, even if he thought he did have considerable skills to understand what he was doing. Boredom had struck him hard.

Not wanting to leave the flat, he noticed a pile of books on a table besides Vivienne's armchair.

'Better that than nothing'

He curled up in the chair and grabbed the book at the top of the pile. Then he remembered his broken glasses. He sighed and growled in frustration, knowing that with those broken lenses it'd probably make no difference anyway. Squinting more heavily than usual, he tried to make out the words.

'Spleen and sufficiency: a love story'

Randall curled his lip; not the particular genre of book which he was avid to read. Flicking through a few of the other titles, he noticed they were of similar agenda to the first book. He pursed the tip of his tail before rolling his eyes and delving in.

When Vivenne returned at 6 o'clock that day, he was still sat reading. Although looking almightily less stressed than he had first been, he already looked bored. Upon hearing her enter, he jumped and got onto all four of his feet. This yet reminded Vivienne that looks were deceiving; he'd need a lot more time to get over the traumatic whirlwind of the past couple of days.

She looked at him blankly

"Relax. I don't mind." She unbuttoned her coat and hung it in its usual place on the hanger. She rubbed her shoulder, fatigue closing in over her. Randall looked on, unsure of how to proceed.

"…Uh… how was your day?"

"Fine" she replied curtly. "Not particularly different from the last day. Or the day before that." It was rather unusual to know that her brother would be staying for a while. Despite enjoying his company last night, she had felt today some need to keep some of her thoughts to herself.

"What'd you like for dinner?"

"I'll eat anything. Thanks" Randall's eyes darted away from her neutral gaze. "Want me to help?"

Too tired to care much, she just shrugged. Randall took the hint and silently started to try and find his way around the kitchen. He understood that gathering anticipation for a luxuriously cooked dinner was rather fruitless given the tired look his sister sported.

It was simple but quite filling. Raw meat with a side of damp moss and spoiled vegetables. Although he kept his cool, he still noted the note of unease that pertained from the previous day. Randall knew he was welcome to stay, but he clearly saw that his sudden appearance had somewhat put his sister one edge. He didn't particularly blame her for wanting to stay this quiet for now; she had not expected to have another guest living in the house. Especially one that although was family, she had not spoken to for a rather long time. Randall sincerely hoped that it would not be like this forever; he'd want the relationship back with her that he'd had before all the university business.

She did too. Although she also knew a lot had changed since then. Whilst Randall was in the state that he was, she was reluctant to update him on the details that had happened since the cease of contact. Particularly since she had not been overly truthful the last time they had spoken on a comfortable basis.

That strange quickly staling phase in the apartment of 3C continued for around two weeks. Randall would sleep in rather late, eat breakfast and pick up novel after novel which he found absolutely tiresome until Vivienne returned home from work. In a short time span, the rather peaceful and comforting décor and atmosphere of the apartment had become a strain to his eyes and cramped. He didn't even know what day it was anymore; it all seemed to blur together now. However, despite these feelings, he felt too much of a burden to mention this to his sister. Even if he also hated this emptiness in his life.

His life had halted to a standstill. He could not go back yet the lack of progress moving forward was slowly dwindling the passion to learn that once burned in efficacy. Randall wondered whether the amount of sleep he was getting was affecting his depression and social anxiety, or whether it was some kind of new outlook that told him he was destined for a future life of this failure. Ultimately though, it was the latter thoughts that scared him more; Randall had never predicted this. He was always the good student, full of beans, ready to take on almost any theoretical problem. Now, even his love of mechanical tinkering was drifting away.

"Vivienne I can't take much more of this."

"I know. Don't think that I don't know what you do all day." She looked down on him, not with sympathy this time, but with a hardened glint in her eye. Then she took a sip of her coffee before almost balancing it with her plump fingers. "This needs to stop Randall."

"I know it does…"

"It's for your own good. Hiding away doesn't make it any better." She sighed. "Believe me, they've been times that I've been there." Randall felt his eyes getting wetter. He inwardly fought against the barrier spill, winning this time. God, with the amount of practice he'd had with this, he considered himself an expert now.

Vivienne put the coffee down and tentatively placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You need to phone mom and dad. Now."

The hot sting of panic protruded through his chest, clamping his stomach and driving sweat to his wet his brow.

"I-I know, but I-I don't think I can." He breathed in deeply. Vivienne sighed and moved quickly away. Randall thought she had moved on to another task. Heck with the few times this conversation had already tried to come to light the past few days, Vivienne had every right to be frustrated with him. All he had done was shrug it off, pretended it wasn't a reality. But even he had to admit he was done with that.

Vivienne came back through with a cordless phone in her hand. It was already dialing, judging from the soft noise coming from the earpiece.

'Shit, no going back now'. Randall gulped inaudibly. His tail twitched in short bursts, clearly giving away his overwhelming anxiety. Vivienne just handed him the phone and gave a hint of a smile.

"You'll be fine."

He clasped the earpiece to the side of his head, the receiver feeling clammy in his gradually warming fingers.

"Hello?" The feminine tones of the voice on the other end of the phone told him it was his mother. His tongue licked his lips and he willed his voice to respond.

"….h-hi mom." The silence on both ends was torturous for a few seconds.

"Randall, where have you been? We expected you to call earlier than this."

"I've…. been busy, not really been able to get to the phone." He whispered, lying through his teeth. "I-I'm staying with Vivienne."

"Hmm… guess I should have known." Her reply had a trace of venom. Only a trace yet Randall heard it like a cannon on a battlefield.

"I-I-I guess the d-dean has called."

"… Yes." Randall felt the sinking in the pit of his stomach at the indication of her disappointment. "I need to know. Did she have anything to do with this?"

Randall immediately came to his sister's defense. "Wha-what? Of course not! Why would you thi-"

"Well it's only a natural inclination to think, considering your sister abandoned a similar scenario and ended up in a predicament."

"She isn't in a predicament. She's doing fine. Great by the looks of things on my end." Randall jumped back in, his confidence growing.

"Sorry to think that. But we cannot hide our disappointment. We do not really understand your motives behind this, so naturally we jump to that conclusion."

Randall sighed, not knowing what else to say. His mother continued after a few moments of quiet.

"Your father is not particularly pleased. If it was not you sister, what happened?"

"It…. doesn't matter. I just couldn't stay." Randall replied with difficulty. Thankfully his mother did not push further, but something told him a future request may mean he would have to break down that barrier. Later though. This was already stressful enough.

"We will need to talk about this properly soon. Thankyou for letting us know son… even if it has been two weeks." Then the phone went dead. Randall breathed out, releasing tension he did not know had accumulated. His rigid fronds drooped in relaxation. Despite a few residual feelings of anxiety for the many conversations that would no doubtily come between him and his parents, he was relieved to find it was not as bad a conversation as he would have predicted before.

He was moving forward, and Randall took at least some comfort in this.