Kellen felt numb. He felt so exhausted from his emotional outburst that he could barely lift a fork to his lips, but he needed to. Rhys was babying him, and that only added the heavy weight on his shoulders.
He should be able to take care of himself, of feeling himself and making sure he was okay. He'd been able to do this before. Had always been able to do this before. He'd never really had people who he could fully rely on when he'd been on the front lines, outside of Brent, but Brent wasn't always at his side. Brent was a busy man, so Kellen had to go through the bursts of anxiety and worry on his own mostly.
He felt terrible for putting this weight on Rhys, and tried to apologise for it too.
Rhys wouldn't let him.
They were both rubbed a little raw, not as smooth around the edges right now, so Rhys wasn't as polite as he normally was about it. Not as sweet.
