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"You can't survive on granola bars."
Romane didn't bother pausing the show; she'd seen this part of the episode already anyways, and giving Victor her full attention right now would be too close to admitting he had a point. "They're protein bars. They have protein." And they had plenty of them, because they were Sam's favorite, and they were quick, and easy. And most importantly, eating them didn't involve leaving her room.
"I don't care. You still can't survive on granola bars."
Romane scoffed. "Says the person currently trying to survive on energy drinks."
Victor paused, looking slightly caught off guard.
He apparently hadn't thought she noticed, and she wasn't sure how to feel about that.
Well. Time to jump on that topic. "When was the last time you even left your room?"
Victor scowled. And, okay, maybe that was a bit too blatantly hypocritical of her.
"Uh, two minutes ago? To come and get you out of your room?"
Romane sighed. He was right. He was the one who had snapped out of it first, which was so much more frustrating than it should have been. She should have checked on him instead of locking herself in her room to mope. She could have done a thousand things in the past three days, instead of doing nothing. She was just…so exhausted.
Victor sat down in her desk chair and spun it around slightly. "What are you watching, anyways?"
She held up the phone wordlessly.
"Oh. Isn't that the show you were kind of annoyed at Bilal for watching without you?"
"Yeah." She smiled faintly. "I'm getting caught up. So we'll be on the same episode again when he gets back."
Victor nodded.
There was a pause.
"So. What have you been doing?"
"…Minecraft."
"For three days?"
They looked at each other.
Then Romane sighed loudly, and got to her feet. "Fine. Come on. Let's go."
"Go where?"
"Kitchen. We're eating lunch."
"Pretty sure that was my idea."
"Lunch shouldn't be an idea, Victor. It should be something that happens. Every day."
"Look who's talking."
She grinned, and gently elbowed him. "Come on. Time to force each other to be functional human beings."
Victor laughed, and followed her out.
It had started with Bilal getting an email about a conference. He was starting to get into the physics field again. (Different research focuses this time around, though; they had all had enough of dimensional travel for several lifetimes.) And the conference was a good opportunity - a great opportunity.
It was also several hours away. And sure, Bilal could have gone alone, but Sam had didn't have any more classes for a few weeks, and driving that much without any company would have been exhausting.
Romane and Victor had both had exams on the day they would've had to leave.
And Sam and Bilal had both asked if they were sure it was fine, before they left. Because, well. The four of them all had a slight bit of separation anxiety at this point. And she had smiled, and pointed out that it wasn't like she or Victor would be alone. And Victor had rolled his eyes at Sam, and told Bilal to bring him back a free pencil or something. And then everyone had hugged. And then Sam and Bilal had left.
And everything was fine, for a little bit, except-
Except, she had apparently underestimated just how much the whole thing would remind her of the other timeline. And how much her anxiety would spike with worst-case scenarios. And how easy it would be for her and Victor to fall into a pattern of isolating themselves when they both had the week off.
Because it was easy, that was the scary part. It was easy to avoid talking. It was easy to stop eating actual food. It was easy not to leave their apartment, and then it was easy not to leave her room. And trying to fix whatever had gone wrong in her head wasn't easy, and she was just…sick of trying. It was easy to do nothing, so that's what she had been doing, and now she kind of hated herself for it.
Romane exhaled slowly as she leaned against the counter, trying to get her thoughts to slow down. She glanced at Victor, who was staring at the open fridge, looking somewhat lost.
"Victor."
"Hm?"
"You okay?"
"Um…yeah. Yeah, I just-" He cracked a smile, but it looked somewhat forced. "I don't know how to make anything other than eggs. And I…don't want to make eggs."
Romane considered. "Don't want to eat eggs, or don't want to make eggs?"
"Make eggs. I would eat them, I just don't-"
"Yeah, I get it."
Victor wasn't doing great, either. And cooking eggs was a process with several steps, and if Victor was already feeling as drained as she was, she knew that would be kind of an overwhelming task.
"I can make eggs. You can…do we still have bread?"
"Yeah."
"You can get the bread, and put cheese on it. And we can have sandwiches."
Victor paused. "You're sure?"
"About the sandwiches?"
Victor rolled his eyes. "About making the eggs. You only ever make scrambled eggs. Which no one likes."
"I like scrambled eggs."
"Don't make scrambled eggs."
"I'm not. I'm making fried eggs."
"Oh. Okay." Victor reached for the cheese in the fridge, and Romane realized-
"Are you shaking?"
"What?" Victor brought his arm back down to blink at it. "Oh. Yeah."
"When was the last time you ate?"
Victor shrugged.
Romane sighed softly. "Sorry. I should've-"
Victor cut her off with a groan. "No. We are not doing this. I'm not five. It's not your job to make me leave my room and eat."
Romane glanced around, then remembered that the olive oil was in the cabinet. "Same for you, then. It's not your job to make me leave my room and eat."
"I'm not the one apologizing."
Romane let out a frustrated huff, because how was she supposed to respond to that? He was technically right. "Fine. Whatever. Can you pass me the eggs?"
Victor set the cheese on the counter, and reached for the eggs. As he set them on the counter in front of her, he glanced at her, and there was something in his gaze that might have been worry. "Romane-"
"I'm not mad at you." She responded, because she wasn't, and because she was pretty sure it was what he wanted to know.
And she was right, because she could see the visible hint of relief in his expression. "Okay."
Romane got out a pan, and poured a splash of olive oil into it. She tilted the pan back and forth, absently watching the oil slide around.
Somewhere behind her, Victor was getting out the cheese grater.
She turned on the stove, and set the pan on it.
There was silence for a few moments.
"Did Sam or Bilal text you yet? Today, I mean."
Romane nodded. "Sam did. He said everything was fine so far, and he asked how you were doing. And he sent me a video of a dog."
Victor grinned. "The one that sounded like it was talking?"
"Yeah."
"Ha. He sent me that one yesterday." Victor paused. "Did you text him back?"
"Yeah. I said you were doing good. I was lying, by the way." She deadpanned.
Victor snorted. "…thanks."
Romane figured the pan was probably hot enough for the eggs now. She cracked the first one into the pan.
"Did you text him back?"
"…he didn't text me?"
"I mean yesterday." You know what I meant, and you're terrible at lying, she didn't add, because if Victor ever figured out how unconvincing he was when trying to avoid conversations, he might try and get better at it, and everyone's lives would get a little bit more frustrating.
"No." He admitted.
Romane hummed in acknowledgement, and cracked the second egg into the pan.
Victor walked past her to grab the bread from the counter. He opened the bag, pulled out four slices, and put a clip back onto the bag.
The eggs sizzled in the pan.
Victor arranged the cheese - now shredded - onto the bread.
Romane let her gaze wander around the apartment.
Victor broke the silence again. "Do you think they're worried?"
"About you not texting?"
"Yeah."
Romane thought it over. "They probably were, until I told Sam that you were doing good. And he probably told Bilal."
Victor nodded. "Yeah. Probably."
A sudden thought occurred to her, and her gaze flickered over to Victor. "Do you want them to be worried about you?" She asked carefully.
Victor didn’t answer for a moment. Then he breathed in, and it sounded shaky to her. "I mean…not really? It's not like- I don't know. I just want…" He trailed off, staring at his hands where they rested on the counter.
Romane moved to stand next to her friend. "Okay. Rephrasing. Do you want to know they would be worried about you? Like, if something was wrong, and they knew it?""
Victor exhaled slowly. "…yeah."
"They would be." She rested a hand on Victor's arm. "So would I. We all would be."
"I know. I mean, I usually know, it's just…"
"Bad memories?"
"Yeah."
"Same."
He huffed a soft laugh. "We're a mess."
Romane cracked a smile. "Tell me something I don't know."
"…the eggs are going to burn if you don't take them out now?"
She glanced back at the pan; he was right, the eggs were done. "I knew that."
"You did not."
"Yes, I did." She held back a laugh, grabbed a spatula and scooped up the first egg. "Plate, now, quick."
Victor pushed the plate across the counter, and Romane set the egg on top of one of the bread slices.
"Is that one mine?"
"Sure. We need more than one plate, though." She eased the second egg onto the spatula, and set it on another bread slice.
"Oh, right." Victor reached for the stack of paper plates, grabbed one off the top, and set it down next to the first one.
A moment later, they both had an egg and cheese sandwich.
They ate in silence for a few minutes.
Then Romane glanced at Victor. "You want to do something after this?"
"Something, like…?"
She shrugged. "Don't know." Then she paused. "I missed you, though."
Victor took a bite of his sandwich, probably trying (and really, really failing) to hide the soft smile spreading across his face. He swallowed the bite of sandwich, and glanced back at her, eyes brighter than they'd been since Sam and Bilal left. "Same."
They grinned at each other.