From hate to love (BxB) COMPLETED √

Chapter 10b - The kiss

Armin had been the first to wake up. And he had been watching Kristof ever since. Observed how the other's chest moved up and down every time he breathed in and out. How his lips moved in his sleep. How he looked so peaceful.

Armin brought his hand up and slowly stretched out to touch Kristof. Hesitantly, he caressed the man's arm, oh so very gently. He didn't want to wake the older one up!

He then reached out for Kristof's cheek and softly touched the scar with his index finger, feeling the lumpy flawed skin underneath his fingertip. He brushed his finger over the indentation a couple of times. It felt smooth and quite soft.

When Armin looked at his husband, he was a little shocked to see that Kristof wasn't asleep anymore! He was watching Armin as Armin was watching him.

Armin quickly pulled his finger away as if he had been caught doing something naughty.

Kristof tried to read the younger's facial expression, but he found it difficult. However, he was pretty sure he didn't see any disgust in his eyes. Not anymore.

"You never asked me how I got my scars," Kristof said.

"I could not do such a daring thing."

"Do you want to know?"

Armin nodded. "Yes... Uh... Will you tell me, please?"

"Of course. I want to share everything with you. It happened a long time ago. On my seventh birthday, actually. My parents said that we would go somewhere nice as a surprise. But during the carriage ride towards that special surprise, we got robbed by a group of men. I heard people screaming and then saw my parents looking at each other with the most terrifying look in their eyes."

Kristof rolled over and supported himself on an elbow as he faced Armin and continued:

"Mom and dad told me to leave and run away to safety. When I stepped out of the carriage, scared beyond words, I saw blood everywhere. The carriage drivers had been killed. Then one of the men got me in his sight and my parents yelled at me to run. So... I did."

"..."

"While running away, I looked back and saw my mother getting stabbed. She screamed so loud. I can still hear it... that shriek she let out. A second later, I heard my father's last cry too. I then ran as fast as I could. But during my escape, I tripped and fell in a deep ditch."

Armin could see it still hurt Kristof to talk about it. He could also understand why he had a hard time talking about it as it all sounded absolutely horrible! It gave Armin shivers. He found it hard to listen to. Everybody could only see Kristof's physical scars, but he now knew that this man had lost something far more important than good looks that day.

His lip started to tremble when he imagined a little boy running and looking back to see his mother getting murdered.

"Actually, it was that fall that saved me, because the robbers couldn't find me that way. While I rolled down in the ditch, I must have scraped my face against something hard. Maybe it was a rock, I don't know, I can't remember it. I passed out during the fall."

Armin felt the tears prickling behind his eyes while listening to Kristof's tragic story.

"I woke up days later in a small forest cottage of a woman named Isoldi. She became like a mother to me during the next few years that followed. She'd found me injured. My hand was smashed and was buried underneath a pile of stones. She couldn't save it, so she had to amputate it..."

Armin felt sick. Sick when he thought about the tales in town. This poor man had lost his parents, who'd sacrificed themselves to rescue him! Yet the people spread gossip about how his own mother had chopped his hand off with an ax. It wasn't fair!