Witness Protection ✔

Feel The Sun

Today was the first truly hot day of the year. It felt like summer had arrived way too early by the way the sun was shining and the people were out and about. It was halfway through March but it seemed like July.

So, like most sunny days, Nathalia had spent the entire morning tending to the little garden. It was finally starting to come together. The flowers were growing taller every day, as well as her fruit plants. But she could only work for so long until there was nothing left to do anymore.

Literally nothing.

The nice weather also excited her. It made her remember a time when summertime meant endless possibilities. Swimming, biking, playing with friends. Those were the good days, the innocent days.

But she could do none of those things right now. Or could she?

She'd seen her bikini among her personal items when she unpacked. Darius had said yes to the carnival, so there was a chance he'd say yes to going to a swimming pool.

When she walked into the living room she found him standing in the middle of it, watching some sports game with a frown on his face. He wasn't even sitting down. She just hoped the game hadn't put him in a bad mood, although she doubted he'd let that influence any decisions he made.

"So... Is your team winning?" she asked awkwardly.

At first, he didn't react, making her think he hadn't heard her. But she should've known better, he always paid attention to everything.

"Unfortunately not," he replied after a few seconds without turning his eyes away from the screen.

"Oh," was all she could think to say. She knew absolutely nothing about sports and had no idea how to talk about them. So she just stood next to him for a while. Nothing the men on the TV did made any sense to her, but she didn't want to bother Darius with questions when he was watching it so intently.

After a minute or two the game ended and Darius seemed to realize she was still standing next to him. He now turned fully towards her and she suddenly noticed how close together they were standing now.

His grey eyes caught the sunlight indirectly, making them more enticing than ever. She'd give anything to be able to look at those eyes for the rest of her life. They seemed even lighter against his perfectly smooth skin that always appeared to be sunkissed. The stubble on his jaw was growing a little longer now, making his sculpted jaw look sharper than ever.

"Did you need anything?"

That snapped her out of her thoughts.

Shit, was I staring again? I'm such a creep.

She knew she had come in to ask him a question, but she couldn't remember what the question was.

"I wanted to ask you something, but..." she started before stopping herself. Why did she always embarrass herself like that?

"But?" he softly coaxed her.

"But I forgot what."

This earned her a hearty laugh from Darius, which she'd enjoy if she hadn't been so self-conscious at that moment.

"Alright, ask me when you remember," he said before walking off.

He laughed way more often these days compared to when they first met. He used to be so stoic all the time back then. Now he was still stoic, but in very rare moments like these, he showed her that he was a person after all. That he was even capable of feeling.

That brought her back to about a week ago, the day after he kissed her and she confronted him about it. He'd said that he wanted to kiss her. That he still wanted to. And despite them agreeing on not starting anything, the memory still brought a smile to her face every time she thought about it. He felt something for her.