This Place Is A Shelter | Maverick and Rosie
The pen scratched away against the rough grain of the watercolour paper as Rosie stood at her desk, placing the small card to one side as she scanned over the collection of words she was amassing, vaguely aware that her ability to think coherently was getting worse by the minute. It was over 24 hours now without sleep, and even though she didn't consciously know, the medication she had forgotten to take sat unnoticed on the counter. The sensible part of her brain was exasperatedly telling her to be calm, but the post traumatic stress side of her was winning.
Walking around the small studio apartment, past books laid out on the floor, she let her eyes jump from book, to word, to the screen of her laptop as Seline silently looked on, unused to this stalking woman that was once her owner. Trying to disassociate what happened in London to Axel was becoming impossible, every time she closed her eyes, she saw the crash in Kensington, but it was Axel's face on the man who laid at her feet. Seeing Mavericks last message pop up on the network, she rubbed her eyes and quickly grabbed a pair of jeans, already wearing a white cotton top that left her looking like a lost gypsy child.
Hearing his soft knock at her door she walked over to it, unlocking each one of Axel's locks with a sharp ache, she opened the door, peering up at him with a shaky smile before stepping back, forgetting to be embarrassed about her old world apartment, the portraits on the wall, the old broken kitchen covered in piles of books. A soft meow sounded at his feet as the black kitten prowled towards him and the unfamiliar scent of his puppy. 'I'm so sorry, really, for making you come out...'