[Text: Keaton]: No I'm not
Ira stared blankly at the screen for a moment, sniffling a little bit and wiping his eyes on the heel of his hand as he contemplated what to say next. God, Keaton had been making him cry a hell of a lot recently. Nothing new, but-- still, he had hoped that he would have been more over the other man by this point.
It was that stupid comment about meeting the parents, about baking him a birthday cake...the normalcy that Keaton was promising him, in a life away from this tower, a life the other man seemed to be offering him now. A life Ira knew he wanted-- he wanted his future to look like being barefoot in a kitchen with kids running around, a husband, a white picket fence, no bruising on his veins and no drug-induced sweats or withdrawal symptoms every other night. But Keaton-- with Keaton? Besides, it wasn’t like the doctor could actually give him all of that, no matter how hard he tried or how much he promised. He was a slave, that’s how it would be, likely for the rest of his life. He was probably going to die before he ever got to live in a real house with a yard and two kids and a golden retriever and a husband he loved, who loved him back.
Ira pulled up facetime on his phone, reaching over and turning on the lamp on his nightstand (it was 3 AM after all-- he hadn't exactly been awake when Keaton had texted, and he hadn’t bothered turning on the lights) before calling the other man.
“You can’t ask me stuff like that,” he said quietly once Keaton had picked up, trying not to notice how red and watery his eyes looked in the thumbnail. “Please, you can’t. It hurts too much.”