Healing Nova's Heart

nine: fix you

CHAPTER NINE: FIX YOU

❝ when you lose something you can't replace
        when you love someone, but it goes to waste ❞

AIMLESSLY WANDERING THE HALLS of his parents' enormous mansion was a fun pastime activity, Cam decided.

He felt the small, soft, furry head of Al rub against his shin, making him groan. "Not now, Al."

The cat cocked his head at him and mewed, giving him a face that read something like bitch, I am your biggest priority.

Cam sighed and leaned against the kitchen counter, running a hand through his knotted hair, sliding a hand down his face, making his cheeks sag weird and his lips forcibly fall into a frown.

"Is everything alright, Sir?"

Alfred stepped into his vision, speaking with a tinge of a British accent. His skin was wrinkled, and sported thin, wiry, gray hair, but Cam thought of him as a good friend despite the age difference. And despite the fact he was his butler. Chauffeur, as well. And also sometimes maid, if he was fed up with all of Cam's crap everywhere.

"I - I don't... I don't know, Alfred. I don't know."

He didn't bother correcting Alfred to call him Cam instead of sir, something he had called Cam since he was younger that was just plain weird. Sir. Too formal. He'd already tried to get Alfred to call him Cam for, like, thirteen years. Old guy was too stubborn.

"You know, Sir-"

"Cam."

"Sir, I once had a situation like yours myself many years ago."

Cam glanced at him with a blank look, eyebrows raised as he adjusted his posture.

"Well, not exactly like yours," Alfred chuckled, eyes twinkling. "But I can still recall the feeling of the heartbreak, even at my old age," Alfred remembrance sigh, pausing. "Is it okay if I share with you, Sir?"

Cam scowled at the 'sir' and pulled over a chair for him and Alfred. "If you stop calling me sir, go right ahead."

Alfred chuckled again and began to speak, his eyes somewhat misty, a soft smile on his wrinkly face. "I was around the age of twenty-three, and I finally got out of the army."

Wow, he was in the army? Cam realized he never heard much about Alfred's past. Or anything about Alfred, really.

"While I was in the army," he continued. "I had recieved a blow to the leg and hurt my back, which were a couple of the reasons that I left. Couldn't walk, and was kept in a wheelchair all day. It was awful."

Cam was listening intently, because the way Alfred told the story was so intriguing, his hands moving wildly and his foot tapping, tap tap tap on the floor. His eyes would glimmer and glisten and his smile showed true sadness and remembrance, something Cam deeply admired.

"My girlfriend was one of the most beautiful people in the world, inside and out. She stuck by me through the war, sending letter after letter. When I came back, I was hostile towards her and everyone else with my words. A lot of people left me because of my new cold and emotionless personality, and I don't blame them, but Elizabeth didn't. She had a lot of reasons why she should have though, with my harsh comments and continuous negativity. And one day..."

The old man looked like an ancient creature now, his wrinkles seeming to double and his cheeks sagging, his eyes loosing the sparkle. "She gave up on me. I don't blame her, I was an asshole. 'Get up, and live your life without me' she said, before packing her bags and leaving. My heart wasn't the same. I remember exactly what the crushing feeling felt like, the blow to the heart much more painful than the bullet to my leg. I think that's what you're going through now, correct me if I'm wrong."