Elijah looked up when he felt his arms on him. "Y-you're s-supposed to be lay..laying down.' His old stutter was back as he was trying to calm himself. "P-please.. it.. isn't yo.your fault. Whatever.. happened..w-was all mine."

Anthony hugged him tighter. He knew that he should be laying down and resting right now, but that didn't take priority for him. "I'm sure it wasn't your fault," he said, still trying to comfort him. "if— if he's an asshole, then that's his fault. Not yours."

Elijah clung to him even though he knew he should be getting Anthony to lay down. "He was always so understanding and kind. If he changed his mind.. it had to be something. I-I don't know what.. but.. it has to be something about me. I'm sorry.. I need to stop crying.. it's just.. I feel like I lost a good friend..' He buried his face into his shoulder. "Even if.. he said we couldn't be friends.. he was always there.. when I needed someone to talk to... before.. "

Anthony should've just stayed silent. Then this would've never happened. "It's okay," he tried to soothe him. He stayed silent for a moment. "I mean— maybe he isn't actually a dick? Maybe I got him mixed up with someone or something? That's a thought." He was almost certain that that wasn't true, but he also knew that he was delirious as hell and probably prone to spouting lies. Really, though, he was just trying to get Elijah to stop crying and make him feel better.

He sniffed and smiled weakly at Anthony. "No.. p-perhaps.. he was just nice.. because I'm the constable.. and he couldn't hide it any more.." But he did check on him when he was sick and helped him with that baby. He truly believed the man was good, and it was him that was the problem. Elijah wished so strongly he could make sense of it, but he felt knowing why Gabriel suddenly hated him wouldn't make him feel better. His hands guided Anthony to lay back and he wiped his tears. "Ignore me.. I'm just.. an overly sensitive fool. I'll be ok soon."

Anthony frowned as Elijah made him lay down again. "You're not any of those things," he said. "I mean, I'd be pretty sad too if I found out that my friend hated me. Doesn't make me a fool." Anthony shook his head as if to emphasize the point he was making. "Just— you shouldn't believe what I said about him. I was probably making it up."

Elijah smiled weakly at Anthony and shook his head. "You don't have to say that, if it happened.. I believe you. I know you have trouble making friends. I just.. I mean, I know most people have another side to them. It was just sad to see he had one like that.' That was an understatement but he wanted to play it off for his boyfriend's sake.

"I can imagine," Anthony said. He didn't really know what to say, anymore. Everything remotely 'comforting' he could think of just sounded kind of rude once he actually started thinking about it. "it's probably...terrible for you to hear that your friend's like that..." he was still not the best at comforting people and it was obvious. "but...there's still a lot of people who care about you. I mean, I'm not saying that you should just get over it or something, I just— don't listen to me."

He touched his hand and sniffed. "Please, don't.. worry about it. I mean.. I haven't even really spoken to him in a while. I haven't needed a shoulder to cry on.. since I met you." He rubbed at his cheek weakly but smiled sadly at him. "I'm just.. choked up. I need a little time to calm down and relax.. you are helping me. Just existing.. you help me.'

Against the wishes of his own body and health, Anthony sat up and hugged Elijah again. "It's okay," he tried yet again to comfort or soothe him. "I'm— glad that I'm helping you. Really. You help me all the time, it's about time I try and do something for you in return." Anthony laughed a bit awkwardly, trying to make this all less tense, and failing.