Emotional Overload || Self-para
The funeral had been stressful enough, but she was a glutton for punishment it seemed, since she followed it up with the wake. Raph kept herself busy. If someone needed a drink, she got it. If they asked about a certain food, she found it. If something got spilled, she cleaned it. Anything to keep busy and to try not to focus on the grief that she had to keep absorbing. It didn’t matter how much she tried to dull her senses, the emotion was too strong even if there was the occasional laughter at a story about something Stiles had done.
Isaac trailed behind her sometimes and she knew he felt awkward. She tried to keep her eye on Jackson, stay close to him too. She’d already extended the invitation for him to stay with them for a little while- she worried about him. He was coming with them after the wake, mostly on her insistence. Raph wanted both he and Isaac close. It was Isaac who hunted her down in the back when she was trying to have a brief moments escape from all the feelings. Her hands shook a little.
He was worried.
She didn’t let herself cave yet. When people started trailing out of the bar, she packed up the food and gave some of it to Pylyp. She hugged the man tight and just barely kept herself in check. He’d been strong for her once, she could do the same for him. Someone made sure to get him home safely and the clean up started. Raph made Derek go home, told him to take care of Scott. She mothered Jackson, sat him down with a drink that she wouldn’t have minded drinking herself before going back to the cleaning.
Isaac caught onto the way her hands were shaking even more now.
He gave her a broom and dealt with the finer things.
Somehow she drove them all home. All three of them tinged with a tired sadness, almost ready to unravel. At the door, she slipped out of her shoes, too tired to care if Charlie chewed on them. She suspected the dog was still napping, if she hadn’t come running. The empath took Isaac and Jackson’s hands and lead the little party all upstairs. Without the energy to even get out of the nice clothes she’d worn to the funeral, she crawled onto the bed and tugged both males with her.
Jackson lay behind her and she pulled him in closer, tugging an arm about her waist. Isaac was at her front and she pulled him in too, curling in and putting her head to his chest and listening to the steady beat from it. She was still shaking. And she was so tired. Her eyes shut and she drifted, clinging to each werewolf with her like the support might disappear if she didn’t hold tight.
