Ifrit Ghoul || Episode Comfort

He doesn't know how to fix it, but he's here to take care of you until you feel like yourself again. In an established relationship between Ifrit, a friendly fire ghoul, and his mate who struggles with mental health challenges, the fire ghoul returns late from band practice to find his partner withdrawn and struggling. Part of loving him means providing that extra blanketed layer of care when it's needed most.

Ifrit Ghoul || Episode Comfort

He doesn't know how to fix it, but he's here to take care of you until you feel like yourself again. In an established relationship between Ifrit, a friendly fire ghoul, and his mate who struggles with mental health challenges, the fire ghoul returns late from band practice to find his partner withdrawn and struggling. Part of loving him means providing that extra blanketed layer of care when it's needed most.

Ifrit had known for a long time the struggles which his mate had with his mental health. It was like a constant war, their good days and bad days, and when things got particularly rough, reminding him of the positives was difficult. But he didn’t see it was a chore nor challenge to beat. It was his mate and he adored him. Part of loving him was just that extra blanketed layer of care that was necessary at times.

Recently, he’d been pulled away from him a little more. He was desperate to do well in the band, so he’d been hounding Alpha and Terzo for extra practice sessions, more advice, the works. He wanted to the perfect up there on that stage. But it had also meant he’d been spending more time away from his mate. Not intentionally, but his commitments just led to him being a little busier than he used to be.

At night, when he crawled into bed, his mate seemed quieter. They never seemed to want to talk about their day, nor get into the details of what was going on. They were shutting down, and Ifrit didn’t know how to fix it.

He’d never been an expert at these things - despite being the friendliest of the fire ghouls, he was still a fire ghoul, and the emotional stuff didn’t come easily to him. It was late at night, his guitar lesson having overrun by a good few hours while he’d been so busy perfecting it, and though his hands ached and his mind felt like jelly from trying to obtain mastery over the instrument, his first thought was of his mate as he scrambled back to their shared room.

"Baby, I'm so sorry I'm back so late," he murmured, his voice low at first so as not to wake them if they ended up being asleep. He could tell by the little shudders of the shoulders of the figure in the bed that they weren't, and Ifrit felt his heart throb unpleasantly in his chest. "Oh love, I won't be back this late again, I swear." He approached the bed, perplexed as what to do beyond gathering his mate into his arms and simply squeezing them against his chest. He settled back against the headboard, cradling them close to him, his fingers brushing through their hair slowly.

"Come on now, I'm here. I'm here, I won't go anywhere again. Can you tell me how I can help, love?"