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The word “What” barely fumbled out of Johnny’s mouth as he had been carelessly rolled over by Moira. As if she saw it coming, she hesitantly shushed him back to sleep to avoid him waking up and stressing over anything else, as if he hadn’t done enough today. He lied on his front, almost replicating Rollie Jr’s position before he got picked up by the Schitt’s; both arms sloppily resting by his sides, and his legs taking up the majority of their bed, and Moira’s side of the bed, which she wasn’t too pleased about. Before she could roll him any further, she decided to untie Johnny’s leather pointy shoes with her nimble fingers, squinting and pouting subconsciously while working her way through the soft sets of strings. Eventually, she yanked both shoes off, pinched them, avoiding them to go anywhere near her grey satin dressing gown, and placed them by the door, ready for Johnny to wear in the morning, or afternoon she thought, due to his heavy sleeping at 10pm.
“Don’t want any dirt on the bed do we now, Mr Rose?” raising her eyebrows slightly and looking over her shoulder to see her husband fully passed out at this point, with only his chest expanding and deflating agianst his tight, white, long sleeve button up, ever so silently. Although she had adequate skin for her age, a slight crinkle formed at the edge of Moira’s piercing stoney coloured aqua eyes as a light smile tugged at her cheek at the sight of her worn out beau.
Moira wondered back over to her side of the bed, got settled in against the headboard with a book in her lap, only to realise his belt was still on. A delicate sigh flushed from her nose as she leant over attempting, and succeeding due to her years of experience, to undo his buckle singlehandedly and slid it through all the loops of his navy tailored trousers, almost like a magic trick. She then wound the thick and weighty strip of leather around her hand to then be placed on her nightstand, and collected her black rimmed glasses, which she propped on the bridge of her nose to finally start on her book.
“Oh, screw this” Moira muttered after desperately trying to feel comfortable underneath the itchy comforter for the past ten minutes, which she thought was rather ironic. She then threw it off to where Johnny was sleeping, then leant over him once again to tuck him in, as guilt rid across her face after keeping it on herself, instead of her motionless and drained husband. After all that fath, She wiggled back from the headboard and let her messy locks blanket her pillow, then snuggled the back of her husband and draped an arm over his waist, as they both lied on their sides.
“You know what John,-“ she began to quietly state with reluctance, knowing he wasn’t listening at all but rambled to get it off her chest anyway, “and you know i hate to say this, but i guess you were right, we could’ve made more of an effort with our children. Where was Jocelyn’s poorly written, pun riddled bebe binder when we could’ve used it, hm?” her face rested with empty emotion, reminiscing and picturing what could’ve been, until a thought raided her mind. “Actually, that idea of yours to try for another a fair few years ago sounded rather rambunctious and immature” as disgust flicked her face, but left within an instant as she continued on, “nonetheless, that doesn’t sound like such an awful idea, i’d just rather not be rubbing a bebe’s buttocks clockwise… or whatever it was with my Tom Ford gloves, handcrafted from the heart of France” raising her eyebrows, like a lightbulb had appeard over her head. Moira shook her head as she snapped back to reality.
Moira decided to call it a night for all these overwhelming thoughts, leaving and entering her mind all at once, she leant over to see her husbands calming and collected face once more. She used her forearm on the pillow to prepare to give him a goodnight kiss on the cheek.
“Anyway, nighty night John-John—“.
After leaning over, she noticed a wide smile stretched across his face, with a joyful scrunch at the edges of his eyes and slowly rubbing his feet together in innocent ecstasy. That little rascal. She was adamant that he was fast asleep and that he had avoided her ranting in a whisper, turns out Johnny’s ears still have good use left in them.
He rarely got to hear Moira actually enjoy the thought of kids, as she always thought they were disobedient and gruesome, and would never help her with an opinion on fashion; not even David’s sharp eye would willingly assist when they were younger, and she wouldn’t even bother with Alexis. However, it was rare times like these that Johnny really appreciated her sessions of tranquility and care. Her deep sea of stoney aqua eyes would flood Johnny’s mind for days, even more when she acquired that ever so sweet smile that melted his heart.
“Joh- Johnathan Michael Rose, you better erase that smirk clean off your face“ Moira flustered and snarled in a lower tone to get any sort of pregnancy ideas out of his head, not that she bothered about David or Alexis’ sleep pattern in this moment of time. Johnny couldn’t help but let a staggered exhale of laughter out through his nose, making Moira squirm in anger behind him.
Still resting her head on her raised forearm, Johnny took the opportunity to slowly turn around and just about open his heavy eyes, to see Moira furrowing her brows in annoyance.
Johnny had always wanted a third child, maybe a 11 year old would be nice at this point, and would’ve suited the hole in his parental wishes. He just wanted one more chance with a child, as he knew that greed had engulfed quality time with their children. However, this was well against Moira’s comfort zone, she made it well aware to Johnny that she was finished even after the first one, the second may have been by luck.
Not until a moment later, when she noticed he was facing her, she had relaxed in guilt, knowing it was what John had longed for, but it just wasn’t right for her. His heart instantly sunk in sympathy for making Moira annoyed. They both stared into each others eyes for only a second, not so much for Johnny, as his eyes were ever so slowly fluttering open to try and stay awake. For as brief as that moment was, they knew both needed this talk about their lives as parents.
“I’m sorry dear, I just wish I could’ve raised-“
“I?” Johnny cut Moira off from finishing her sentence, she too, was looking back on their poor parenthood.
“You weren’t alone in this sweetheart, the majority of this was on me” Johnny comforted her, with his thumb brushing along Moira’s cheekbone, alongside his fingers gently holding her jawline.
“Don’t wishfully think, Moira. It will only lead to disappointment. We can’t be looking back anymore, I mean, look where we are now” Johnny signalled carelessly to the room they were in with his other hand that wasn’t acting as another pillow next to his head. Moira could only look and listen, as tears balanced along her eyelashes.
“Oh sweetheart…” He sighed, then gently wrapped his tender hand round the back of her head and let her cuddle and sniffle in his chest, as his lips where perfectly in line to give her a few forehead kisses. The words “I’m fine John” wearily crept from Moira’s trembling mouth and contained at least three sniffles, which made Johnny disagree with her statement.
“Well, thats hard to believe. Please don’t let this phase you honey, I understand it can be a little tough sometimes, remembering things we don’t want to remember,”. His chest deflated, and held his sobbing wife near his heart, where she’d metaphorically been the whole time.
“The kids Moira, they’re so proud of you. Alexis came to me with a smile reaching from ear to ear after that singles week event, saying how she couldn’t have done it with out you. Same goes with David, that little dilemma you had about Christmas World,he wouldn’t have met Patrick, and his store wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for you” Johnny took a deep breath, he’d never had to comfort Moira this much as she never had many inner issues that were ‘worth crying over’ from her perspective. Once again, Johnny would disagree with that too, but they never had time to express these bottled emotions as the press and wealth swamped their spiritual intimacy.
“Do I even need to mention how proud of you right now?” Johnny sarcastically questioned, attempting to lighten the mood after Moira’s spasms of sniffles had finally come to a halt, yet there was no response. For a moment, he took Moira away from his chest and gazed at her inflated eyes, they were also extremely tiresome like Johnny’s, she could barely keep them open.
“You are my rock, Moira”
Johnny’s voice was ever so soothing as it arose from his lungs, yet it was burly and meaningful. Whether it was flirtatious, meaningful, or humorous, it was like a free sleeping pill.
She looked up for the first time, her eyes bleeding internal pain. Nothing was said by her, she meagrely pushed herself up to give Johnny a kiss before collapsing her head next to his chest again. She was so weak after having this unusual weight lifted off her shoulders. She was so very weak, yet had so much purity and willingness to help others, and John.
“Thank you”
Her appreciation barely escaped her mouth, but was desperate to mention it nonetheless, Johnny so very deserved it, and always will.
They both dozed in each others arms, despite Johnny’s discomfort in his daily clothes, they ever so slowly and quietly switched off, preparing for a chilled day out tomorrow.