You Would Never Know

XI | Love Heals the Wounds it Brings

"Come on, get down a bit." Instead of bending his knees, as I said, he crouched down, making it easier for me to get on his back. I wrapped my arms around his neck while I wrapped my legs around his waist as he supported them and got up, carrying me on his back.

I couldn't help the giggle that escaped me, being reminded of the memories we shared as kids.

"Was I always this lazy?" A fit of laughter exploded from me as I reminisced about the times he carried me back from school when I was too lazy to walk. "Do I tire you out?" I whispered in his ear.

Turning his head back to me, there was barely any space between us as he reciprocated the whispers: "You'd never." The way he said it spoke more than he did, but I let it be.

I hummed a random tune to distract me until we reached the stairs: "Wait, I don't want to sleep alone tonight." He stiffened at my words but hummed a few seconds later and carried me to his room.

"Kuma, come here!" I called out for him, and he giddily chased after us to Abel's bedroom. "Do you want the right side or the left?" I pointed to the right side for an answer.

He laid me down, and Kuma came and laid beside me. "Wait, braid my hair, please." It wasn't due to laziness but to the need to experience memories we could've repeated long ago. Abel knew what I was thinking about and was accepting of it.

I got up and turned around to accommodate his angle, and he started braiding my hair.

It felt comforting, nostalgic, and another word I never got to put my finger on.

"I missed having you around." He hummed.

"Do you realize how often you hum?" He hummed again.

A bit concerned, I asked, "Abel, are you okay?" He didn't hum as a response this time. "The tattoo is still perfect and doesn't seem like it needs a touch-up." Oh, that.

It doesn't make sense why he asks; it's not like he didn't have tabs on me day and night.

"Because I got it touched up a few months ago in London."

He reached the end of the braid and went to the bathroom to get me a hair tie.

He came back with a hair tie and a brush that we should've had from the beginning. He put the brush on the bed and offered me the hair tie, wanting me to tie it myself, but I refused. "If you start something, you'll finish it as well, right?" I didn't need to look at him to know that he caught on to the double meaning. "That's the mindset we should have during everything, especially challenges, if you think of it."

This game we're playing has two players and more that we're not sure of—well, I'm not sure of.

Because my back was facing him, I didn't pick up on his motive for picking me up and swiftly turning me around to face him before putting me back on the bed.

He looked me in the eye and came close to me—close enough for my breath to slow down. "Calm down; I'm just taking the hair brush behind you." He teasingly smiled at me while showing me the brush he took.

He crouched down while maintaining eye contact and pulled my braid forward; he brushed the end before he started tying it. I thought his teasing game would end, but it didn't. He kissed the end of the braid, and not once did his eyes waver from mine.

"There are small rewards during a challenge that keep one going, but the one you're striving for is the true motivator. So when I start something, I fully intend on finishing it because the reward awaiting is worth the sacrifices."

My intentions were loud and clear, weren't they? One of us has to. I wasn't trying to be discreet or anything; the whole night, I'd been nudging him to address the elephant in the room.