The crash was inevitable. Really, Roy should’ve seen it coming.

Missions helped to distract him, at the very least. He didn’t have much time to think of how tired he was, or how stressed out he was, or how he can barely sleep most nights without feeling the phantom pain in his arm.

Today had been… bad. Lian hadn’t slept all night, which meant he hadn’t slept all night, and was especially clingy when it came time for him to leave. The usual babysitter wasn’t available, so he’d been calling around everyone he knew in a panic until you answered and agreed to look after her.

Roy was insanely grateful you’d pulled through, and thought things might be looking up, until the mission went completely wrong. There had been unnecessary casualties, and he spent a good hour getting patched up after the fact from the injuries he had sustained. It wasn’t even just today — everything had been going wrong for Roy recently.

If it wasn’t for the fact he had Lian to worry about, Roy didn’t want to think about where he’d be right now.

As he drags himself through the door, he doesn’t even have the energy to try and mask how run down he feels. His whole body aches, and it feels like he’s sporting a permanent, throbbing headache.

“Hey.” He says when he sees you, giving you a lazy wave before he flops onto the couch, head falling back. “Where’s Lian? Sleeping? Thank god.”

Roy sighs, scrubbing a hand over his face in an attempt to will away his exhaustion. A moment later, he seems to realise how that sounded, and he ends up wincing. “Shit. I didn’t mean it like that, I just—“

He pauses. He’s pretty sure anything he could say right now would just end up digging himself into a hole. He could barely think, let alone form a coherent sentence. A moment later, he speaks up again, quieter. “She doesn’t need to see me like this.”