"I can't do anything right" from the prompts? (@kittyandco)
@kittyandco - Angst! Oh boy! I couldn’t leave it on an angsty ending. I whipped this all out off the top of my head for this!
Also when I said ‘tiny drabble paragraphs’ apparently I was a big liar, oops.
Laura peers around the door as she hears the sound of yet another book hitting the ground from the other side. Alfred had shut himself in there for hours on end trying to find whatever evidence he could after his mentor had greatly scalded him for not being able to do a simple task. Well, if you could call staking a vampire a ’simple task’ - for poor Alfred it was anything but. It wasn’t so simple to kill a vampire with the knowledge they’d once been a human wedged deep in his brain - They’d lived and breathed like him before, had their own dreams… Alfred had thought he could ease his conscience by further study on as many subjects as he could handle, he seemed to think he’d be able to impress the Professor some other way - but if anything it had made it worse.
“Alfred…? Are you alright?” Laura asks cautiously as she raps softly on the door with the back of her knuckle, opening it just enough to slide herself into the room without disturbing the poor boy - who was now running a hand through his straight, blonde hair in evident frustration. As soon as he notices her, he fumbles to return the books to their rightful position on the desk, scrambling to pick up the scattered tomes from the floor and stack them. His hands don’t seem to pick up on the action however, in fact making an even bigger mess and frustrating him even further until Laura finally sweeps over and starts helping. At first he doesn’t say anything, watching as she carefully moves the books aside and opts to sit beside him, letting him take a moment to gather himself before he finally decides to speak.
“I can’t do anything right…” He says, and Laura can hear the weight of his troubles pressing heavily on the sentence as she watches him shift beside her. “Everything I try to do always seems to make everything worse! Then whenever I try to make it right people either just laugh or-…” Laura nods in understanding, taking Alfred’s hand lightly in her own as he wipes the tears from his eyes with the sleeve of his burgundy coat. It wasn’t much, but she’d always been more of a listener. Alfred knew this and somehow just knowing she was here for him already seemed to make him feel just a bit better.
“Don’t push yourself too much…” Laura replies softly, her thumb rubbing reassuringly against the back of his hand. “I can tell you’ve really been trying, but pushing yourself like this will just make things way worse than they need to be…”
“No buts, Alfred… Whatever it is that’s shaken you up so much, you can’t just solve it in one go… These things take time… Surely you of all people must get that?” - Alfred nods and just for a second he purses his lips in concentration, as if this was just what he needed to hear. Laura thought it seemed to be, if the light squeeze he gave her hand in response was any indication. For a second, they just let the silence hang there - it seemed best while Alfred thought things over, after all she knew more than anything that he was never any good with having too much pressure placed on him.
“….Thank-you.” Alfred mutters quietly, his grey eyes finally meeting hers for the first time since she’d come in. They were still red, like he’d cried at least a few times before she’d got here - but now she could almost see the light in them that her friend usually had. “You… Wouldn’t mind sticking around a while though, would you? I… Have plenty of cleaning up to do…”
“Only if we do our two-man version of ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ again.” Laura quips back, getting up from the floor before offering a hand to help the younger boy up, which he gladly accepts with a light smile. Alright, Laura really knew what to suggest to cheer him up - she did pull off an incredible Nick Bottom every single time and it never got old, plus it’d definitely be a plus while they got everything back in order.
