The Struggles Of Waiting ✔

NINETEEN

2075

 "Would you sit still for two minutes please?" Alexander asked with a sigh, glaring jokingly at Jaden. Alex sat on the floor in front of him with a butter knife. Jaden squirmed on the sofa and wrinkled his nose at him. "I can't help you if you keep moving."

"It's itchy," Jaden argued and moved to scratch his leg with a cast covered hand.

Alex carefully moved the other man's hand away and grabbed the cast on his thigh. Every couple of hours Jaden would ask him to grab the butter knife from the table next to him and scratch under the casts. It was all a part of looking after him.

Isaac and his family had given him leave to look after Jaden. Technically, he wasn't even hired by them anymore, but it wasn't as thought he needed to money. After the accident, he'd decided to open his account back up again so they would have everything they needed.

Jaden's parents came by whenever they could, but they couldn't help much due to their age. Alex had volunteered to help immediately. It was part of their relationship now. As soulmates, they looked after each other, helped each other through everything.

Jaden let out a groan when Alex stuck the knife into the cast and he held back a laugh. Every time they did, Jaden made the same noise. "You good over there?" he asked, smiling at him.

Jaden nodded. "One day I'll be able to do this myself," he said.

"One more week," Alex replied.

"That's too long," Jaden said with a groan. "At least you're good at this."

"It's just sticking a butter knife in a cast."

"But it feels so good!"

Alexander laughed at him and shook his head. The voice in the back of his head whispered about how grateful he was that it was just the butter knife this time around. Next time it would be something worse, like the toilet. For the first few weeks after Jaden was allowed to go home there had been a carer with them to show Alex everything he had to do.

Some of it was okay, like feeding him and scratching underneath his casts. Helping him into clothes was always a struggle, but they eventually got used to it. The toilet was the worst. Jaden couldn't move his arms properly because of the casts, but he wasn't going to think about it.

It wasn't what he'd expected when he'd found out that they were soulmates. He'd wanted happy times and movie marathons and holding each other while they slept. Instead, he helped Jaden with everything. They couldn't even sleep in the same bed because Alex was too scared of hurting him in his sleep.

He never said any of it to Jaden. What would the man think if he learned that Alex was still so upset even after finding his soulmate? He hoped it would get better when Jaden recovered completely. Only one more week and he would finally have more use of his hands and arms. Maybe then it would be better, easier.

Guilt was a constant weight in his stomach. He shouldn't be feeling so annoyed with everything, not when Jaden was struggling. It was worse for him. The pain, the humiliation of having to get Alex to do everything for him. There were nights where Alex would rock him to sleep through his tears. And there he was, sitting there and hating it.

He supposed he would have to get used to it. It was all a part of being soulmates, looking after one another, especially at their worst. The universe had just decided to give them the worst straight away. At least he would have practice the next time something happened.

"Alright, I'm good," Jaden said as he sunk further into the couch. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Alex replied, placing the butter knife on the coffee table behind him.