Childish Fears

Bruises

Once lunch came around Hugo found Ivo sitting in the hall next to his locker, nibbling quietly on his lunch and reading.

"Hey there, you wanna sit with me during lunch?" Hugo asked, crouching beside him.

Ivo looked up and blushed slightly, mumbling, "I uh... I wouldn't want to bother your friends, it's okay"

Hugo sat beside him gently nudging his arm "they don't mind, they actually want to meet you."

Ivo stared up at him, nodding quietly "o-okay"

Hugo smiled and helped him up, leading him to his lunch table, "hey guys, this is Ivo"

Ivo waved sheepishly, sitting beside Hugo quietly, smiling as the boys introduced themselves. Hugo smiled as he talked with the others, noticing Ivo barely spoke with the others, but looked content nonetheless. Over the next few days Ivo only came to the lunch table when Hugo invited him.

"Hey, Ivo, it's alright if you just come to the table on your own, we like you" Taylor said one day as Ivo sat down.

"Uh.. okay" Ivo said quietly, smiling at them as he sat down.

One day, Ivo didn't show up like he usually did, Hugo had seen him that morning reading in front of his English class. 'I hope he's okay' he thought, walking through the school trying to find the other.

Eventually he found Ivo in an empty boot room, holding his shoulder and appearing to be crying.

"Hey, you alright?" Hugo asked, walking in and sitting beside him.

"I-I'm fine, i-it's just a bruise" Ivo sniffled, trying to hide his tears.

"It doesn't seem like a simple bruise" Hugo said, gently removing the other's sweater and rolling up his T-shirt sleeve, "in fact that looks downright nasty"

"It looks worse than it should be, I have hemophilia" Ivo explained, looking away and wiping his eyes, "so I bruise easily and it looks horrible"

"What happened?" Hugo asked, the bruise was almost the size of Ivo's small hand.

"Some boys were messing around in the hall and pushing each other around, one bumped into me and I hit the lockers hard" he said, wincing as the other touched it.

"We should put ice on this, it'll help slow the swelling" Hugo said quietly.

Ivo nodded, standing up and following him to the nurses to get an icepack. Ivo reached forward, holding his sweater tightly and looking up at Hugo, who smiled at him, taking his hand gently, "you can hold my hand if you want."

Ivo blushed and looked down, letting the other hold his hand, "o-okay"