𝚃𝙰𝙺𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙾𝙽𝙴 𝙻𝙾𝙾𝙺 𝙰𝚃 𝙷𝙸𝚂 𝙵𝚁𝙸𝙴𝙽𝙳, peter felt overcome by a wave of indifference. not that he didn’t care about ray, but quite the opposite – he had simply taught himself to be unresponsive to the pain suffered by loved ones. if one had been a piece on the mantel in the venkman household, they’d understand why.
❛ your aunt’s house that bad, huh? ❜ peter quipped.
but the quip had not worked. not that peter had expected it to: after what happened that day, he seriously doubted if he and ray would ever be able to laugh again. of course, this was silly logic. but they were broken men, broken beyond ways they had ever been before. there was no telling how long it would take to become whole again.
❛ hey, ray- ❜ he began once more, searching blindly for the off-switch of the radio before he would eventually settle on hammering bryan ferry into silence with his fist, ❛ how ‘bout you spend the night at my place, huh? beer, tv? you and me
peter’s joke wasn’t even addressed. ray was too upset to humor him. he didn’t look over until peter’s fist pounded on the radio, fear in ray’s eyes that it was too much for peter, even as tears streamed down his face. honestly, the thought of returning to his aunt’s house, as much as he loved aunt lois, made everything seem that much worse.
he was afraid to speak, fearing it would make it worse so he nodded in response. spending the night at peter’s sounded like a much better option than crying into his pillow’s at his aunt’s house. a house that reminded him that he’d given, and subsequently lost, everything only for egon to up and tear it all down in one fell swoop.
ray wiped at his eyes with the backs of his hands and looked out the window, trying his best to compose himself, though tears still streamed down his cheeks. it seemed like hours passed before they were finally at peter’s place and ray grabbed his suitcase as he got out, still worried that speaking would make him break down again and that was so unfair to peter. peter was obviously hurting, too, and peter had much more difficulty with things like this.
it wasn’t until they were finally inside peter’s that ray spoke. “thanks,” was all he managed, a shaky undertone to the single word.