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Silent treatment…
You roll your eyes as Helen puts on his mask. He was angry at you, but he wasn’t one that likes to yell or tell you why. He instead gave you the silent treatment.
That’s how you would figure out when he was pissed at you. You would try to talk to him and get nothing. Not a single peep, not a single sound. Usually you could guess he was pissed when he was wearing his mask in front of you, allowing it to be easier for him to ignore you. You caught on to that fairly quickly.
The only thing he would do is look at you. He would look you in the eye, but he wouldn’t say anything. You guessed it was better than him outright ignoring you completely, but it still stung a bit okay. No matter of getting used to it would ever take away the sting you got when this happened.
Your partner didn’t understand how to properly solve issues and you knew that. But sometimes, despite your willingness to work this out with him, when he wouldn’t even do anything to tell you how to fix it, you couldn’t do anything else but wait until he wasn’t mad anymore.
But this was ridiculous. It’s been 2 days. 2 days of not even hearing a word from him. He really was dead set on playing this game, huh?
You paused as you glared at him on your seat across from him. You both were sitting in the living room and he sat on the couch in front of you, the dark wooden coffee table standing between you two. A book was in his hands and you made sure to loudly groan in frustration.
You would play his game, you damm well knew there were ways to make him talk. You groaned again and could feel his glare as he lifted his eyes off the book and stared….hard…
After a minute or two he looked back at his book. He didn’t say a word. But you knew he would, with a push, of course.
Helen didn’t like you being upset, just as much as you didn’t like him being upset. He especially didn’t like you being upset at him. He didn’t do well dealing with others people’s emotions, much less his own, so it stressed him out to figure out how to help his partner stop their pouting.
Hence why you were going full out.
You sighed and made sure to visibly pout your lips. When he looked back at you again you downcast your eyes. You fidget with a loose thread on your shirt. You could see his eyes twitch a bit, he was a perfectionist to put it lightly.
Sometimes he was a bit too much of one. If his glare at the thread was anything was to go by.
You flop back and make sure you look as deflated as possible. He was still staring. But he hadn’t put his book down yet.
He also didn’t like being interrupted, especially when reading. So this probably was making him more upset than he already was. Which doesn’t help when you didn’t know why he was even mad.
You stared at him and feel the gears in your head turn. What the heck could be the reason he was mad?!
Was it because you gave one of his new public art pieces a look that he thought meant you didn’t like it. When you put salt teasingly on his head, saying he was too salty and had no reason till now? Or even when you tripped and fell on him when he had a cup of paint water he was going to dump out, only for it to spill on the both of you?!
Honestly you thought he got over those, you thought you made it up! You didn’t want to think that maybe he was mad about all of that at the same time…it be utterly horrible trying to fix all those issues when you don’t even know if you right.
You knew you had to do something fast, before he decided to not entertain you anymore. Because that would probably leave him even more pissed!
You were so confused on what you needed to do. You wanted to talk to him again god dammit! You like his voice okay.
Maybe you said something insulting? Maybe you didn’t compliment his art enough?! MAYBE YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE ACCIDENTALLY LET OUT HIS NEXT VI- *Ahem*, his next art piece out.
(You should never tell him that they were his victims, he knew that, but he preferred you called them future art pieces. It sounded nicer and wasn’t exactly a lie. They would become art in the end)
….He did fall into the bear traps when he opened the door…the mess was horrible…
You knew he would figure it out soon, you knew he be mad. Not to mention he was one day away from being turned into a piece of beautiful (dark and sadistic) artwork!
You didn’t want to think of this no more! You would get him to talk! Even if it was the last thing you do!
You were being very obvious and you know he knew that, so you had to play a card you told yourself you never play on him.
But desperate times call for desperate measures!
You made sniffing noises, crinkle your brows, hide your face by lowering your head, and make your lip quiver as you bring your hands to wipe at your eyes.
You could audibly hear him suck in a harsh breath. You sniffed more as you could hear him set his book down. A soft thump.
You made sure to make your shoulders tremble slightly and actually made yourself have a few tears slip. Letting them roll down from your eyes to your skin.
You knew he was watching the wet tear slide down your neck and onto your shirt. You could practically feel his gaze. Knowing his mesmerizing blue eyes were on you. You also knew he was debating what to do as you could hear him hesitate as he stood up.
He was hesitating on what to do. He didn’t know what to do, but he wanted to attempt.
After a few minutes, you felt weight press on the side of the empty seat beside you. Making your body slightly lean towards him as he sat down.
You knew he was being careful as you feel him carefully press a hand to your head. It was gently resting there for a bit. Petting your hair softly.
You allow yourself to freeze, pretending that you were surprised.
You had to make this believable!
You held back a victory smile as you pull your face away from your hands and look up at him. He gave you a blank stare, he most likely took it off when setting his book down. He brought his hands to wipe your tears away. The tears that were currently in your eyes.
You waited for him to say something. You waited with bated breath…
Nothing..
Come on! You full on pretended to cry in front of him just to get him to talk! It was hard to make yourself fake cry dammit!
He leaned in, pressed his forehead against yours and waited. You waited. And waited.
Still no words!?
Just his breath. Soft. A breath in, a breath out.
He parted his lips, moving near your ear, “You should have added a whimper in your voice” He whispered. You could hear a smile in his voice, despite his mostly blank face. This was amusing to him. “Otherwise it was a okay performance” He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. Pulling away with a twinkle in his eye. Then he gave a soft grin.
You didn’t know if you wanted to cry of joy or slap him. How dare he call your performance just okay?! You put your heart and soul into it!
…Why did he have to smile now too…made it hard to be mad…
You were going to ignore the fact he knew you were faking, you expected that to happen. He was good at reading you, he was good at reading people. It was always expected.
But it got him to talk to you and honestly, you couldn’t help but lean into his touch and smile. This was better than being ignored, even if he basically insulted you as his first words to you in 2 days.
You let your smile widen. It told him you knew you got caught, but that you thought you won anyway.
“Finally talking to me?” He tilted his head. “All that for this?” He asked in response. Avoiding your question with his own.
You nodded and he sighed. “You’re so weird” You just shrugged as you press your hand to his, to hold his hand on your cheek longer. You didn’t want it to go away just yet.
“I missed your voice” He didn’t say anything. But he did rub his thumb against your cheek, he was trying at the least. “Mind telling me what made you mad?”
He sighed once again. Pulling his other hand way as he grabbed a part of your shirt and held it. “You didn’t cut this lose thread off your shirt like I told you, it’s been annoying me for days”
You were ready to punch him right now.
“Seriously- That’s why you didn’t say a word to me for two days?! Straight?!” He nodded as he narrowed his eyes at the thread. “Two days ago, I told you to cut it, now you’re wearing it today and it’s still not cut”
This god damm perfectionist!
“Oh my god Hellen…you had me worried over a fucking thread?!” He nods. “Sorry” He didn’t sound sorry.
You shake your head and sigh. “You and your perfectionists tendencies”
He hummed as he leaned closer. “I will forgive you if you let me cut it off” You nod. “Go ahead”
He gets up and goes to the kitchen. Coming back with a pair of blue scissors. With a clean and quick cut, the agitating thread is gone. He sets the scissors on the coffee table and slumps into your chest. Wrapping his arms around you and snuggling into you.
“Weren’t you just mad?” He nods. “Said I forgive you if I could cut the thread. It’s gone, I cut it. You’re forgiven. Now please be quiet and let me cuddle with you. Being silent with you makes me miss this”
You don’t say a word and smile softly. You gently lay your hands onto to his head and pet his hair. You close your eyes and hum softly as you lay back with him laying on you.
Guess you’re forgiven? Let’s just hope you listen next time and cut off any opposing threads. He really should have just told you, but, you can work on that.