Work Text:
Sometimes the universe takes it on to prove for itself that a couple could survive through sickness and health.
For Asa Fell and Anthony Crowley, this intervention came seven months into their courtship. They dined together twice a week, and each Saturday was reserved for a trip in Anthony’s old Mini, a beat-up yellow thing he drove only because he was yet to afford the sleek black vintage Bentley of his dreams. It was on one of these Saturdays, as they toured Kensington Gardens hand in hand, that Anthony felt the searing pains in his stomach, nausea and a feverish heat accompanying.
The next morning, after a rather harrowing drive to the hospital (Asa knew how to drive, of course, it had simply been quite a while) and a surgery, they were cleared to return home. It was good they came in so early, the operation went as well as it did because of Anthony’s quick self-assessment. His mum had worked as a nurse, he was well trained to spot the symptoms of a few specific conditions.
Both Asa and Anthony lived alone, and neither was particularly keen on leaving Anthony to recover in solitude, so it was simply logical that they’d set Anthony up on Asa’s guest bed. Anthony’s plants would need tending, so they came as well, and he’d need clothes, so a drawer and section of the closet were cleared. They settled into easy rhythms, and they came to share a bed as easily as they shared a pot of tea.
No words were really spoken on the matter, it was simply natural that Anthony’s flat would be sold, that Asa’s squashy furniture would mingle with darker tones of grey and red, and that space would appear in the garage for two boxes of books about astrophysics.