Elly was cutting vegetables for their dinner when she yelped. "Ow!" She groaned and set the knife aside, staring numbly down at the blood oozing from her finger.
Hizashi exclaimed softly, coming up behind her to take her hand. "Oh no," he whimpered. "Poor baby. Let's go fix it."
"I'm okay, really."
"Nuh uh." He led her into the bathroom and insisted on washing her hand himself. Elly could not have loved him any more in this moment. He dried the cut, then looked down at her with serious, green-spiralled eyes. "I need to disinfect, love. It'll sting a little."
She bit her lip, tears welling in her eyes which he didn't see as he was grabbing the peroxide from the cabinet and a couple of cotton balls. When he faced her again he almost dropped them both.
"Ah, baby! You okay? Does it hurt bad? I didn't mean to scare you..?"
"No, Zashi, it's not that." She clutched the front of his shirt with her other hand, sniffling. "It's just that you're - you're so kind. And - and no one's ever treated me like this."
He held her gently, rubbing her back in calm little circles. "Then you deserve it all the more."
"It's just a tiny cut - "
"On my <i>precious baby's finger</i>." He took her hand and held it out, dabbing it with the soaked cotton ball and blowing on it to tske away the sting. "Listen, I know you hear your parents a lot in your head."
She flinched, not from the pain of the wound but his apt observation. "Yeah."
Hizashi began wrapping her finger in a strip of clean bandage. "It'll take a long time before their voices fade, if they do at all. In the meantime, I'm gonna be here to love you like you need." He smiled, then kissed her finger. "All better."
"I will be," she whispered tearfully.
No comments:
Post a Comment