Madison didn't say anything, just hugging him tightly, her arms going around his waist. Thankfully, he hugged her back, pressing light kisses to the top of her head for a few seconds.

"Maddie, I gotta close the door. Don't want bugs."

She detached herself from him, letting him close the door before going to hug him again, this time wrapping her arms around his neck, giving him better leverage to pick her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he walked them into the kitchen, sitting Madison down on the counter. He buried his face into her chest now that she was higher than him, and let her run her fingers through his hair.

"I'm so sorry," Maddie whispered, kissing his head.

"You shouldn't be," Corpse mumbled. "I was being a dick."

"You had every right to be... hey, at least you got a killer song out of it."

He looked up at her then, "you listened to the song?"

"Of course I did."

"You liked it?"

"Corpse, I'm pretty sure I've listened to it so many times that I know all the lyrics already and it's been out for a few hours."

"I'm proud of it, I think."

"You should be proud, it's really good."

Madison rolled her thumbs over his cheeks, feeling the softness of his skin on her finger tips. She had missed him so much, nearly forgetting what he had looked like in the time she hadn't seen him.

"Maddie, what made you come here?" He was being shy about it, and she could tell he didn't want to know the answer. He had a habit of being pessimistic, and she could only imagine what he had convinced himself.

"The song, mostly. At first, I thought it was just a good song, without too much meaning. And then I heard... I heard a lyric that I had said to you during our fight, and I listened to it again, and heard more things that just kept sounding more and more like us..... and now I'm realizing it's incredibly embarrassing if I'm wrong."

"No, it's about you. About us."

"Good to know.... I just didn't want you to be alone. I wanted you to know that if I could take it back, I would in a heartbeat.... I don't regret meeting you. I don't regret seeing you in real life, but I regret the way I handled things in the end. I wish... I wish I just came here and we could've figured it out in person, and cuddled, and ended up being happy and together."

"Together, as in..."

"Yeah, as in committed to each other. But that's not the way it went last time. I wanted to make sure this time, I did the right thing."

He turned around suddenly, hands gripping the counter top across from where Madison was sitting. She watched as his shoulders sagged, and breath got heavy. Maybe she had said too much, but she couldn't worry about that now.

"Corpse, I'm not saying we are in a relationship just because I came here. We have a lot more work to do before that."

He nodded slightly, but didn't speak. She slid down from the counter gently, standing beside Corpse, seeing his eyes squeezed shut in pain.

"Corpse, did you take your medicine today?" He shook his head, now crouching on the floor, hand over his chest.

Madison immediately began the search for his pills. In their nightly conversations, Corpse had told her about his conditions, and showed her the medicines he took for each one. Because they both took so many medicines each day, they had bonded over it and promised each other they would get serious about their health problems.

She found the pill bottles, taking one of each for his GERD and fibromyalgia, not knowing which he would actually need. After helping him take them, she sat on the kitchen floor with him, waiting for something to change. He kept crying, and trying to talk to her, but she reassured him they could talk about it later, and he was more important. She tried to be as comforting as possible, holding him against her chest, and telling him it was going to be okay.

Eventually, Corpse was able to regulate his breathing again, his heartburn finally settling down. "I'm sorry," he spoke quietly.

"Don't be, baby."

".... I missed hearing you call me that."

woke up to 5k reads... you guys are insane and i love you

this chapter is so short because i have a loooonnngggg one coming tonight. dont wanna spoil anything but its gonna be good.