Juliana |Z.M| |A.U| (Completed)

22.

He turned around, stopping her own chain of thoughts and looked at her thoughtfully. He stepped closer, eyes never leaving hers. His right hand came up to cup her cheeks; thumb ran over her lips making her wince in pain. He leaned, kissing her not just on the forehead, but on the bruise she got when she had bashed her head yesterday. His eyes drifted downwards as he opened the blanket, pulling himself in so his toes were touching hers. His hands were freezing, the cool evident even through her shirt as he grabbed her waist and rubbed them up and down.

"Too skinny..." he muttered sadly under his breath.

She looked down at their feet, unable to hold his intense gaze and feeling too shy, too ashamed...

"Julie..." he called out, she didn't look up, and she knew she couldn't. When his index finger came down her chin to make her look up, she didn't struggle, instead she lifted her eyes but closed her eyes in the process. "Look at me please." He pleaded. And when she did, she was met with his golden-brown irises staring right through her. "You know I love you right?" she nodded, "You can trust me, Julie I'd never do anything to hurt you."

"I know..."

"Then why can't you tell me?" he huffed, "Tell me... just tell me who did this to you. I know you don't need a savior or something, but maybe I can fix this, maybe I can make it go away."

She shook her head "I ca-"

"Let me in Julie" he spoke, "Please, I'm begging here. I need you to let me in. Just tell me, I swear I won't judge." His voice sounded so desperate, "Julie, I want you, all of you. I want that part of you that refuse to even show to anyone." He leaned pressing a kiss on his forehead once again, "It kills me to see you this way, it kills me knowing that you're going through so much pain, and it kills me that you're keeping it all in. you're handling this all on your own, and you don't deserve that. Julie I'm here... please... please let me in..."

She shut her eyes, feeling them burn with the sensation of the tears building up. She opened her eyes again and swallowed... focusing on his eyes, on his careful body language... his eyebrows were drawn, lips tightly shut as he waited...

"Please. I'll get down on my knees if you'd like."

It was cold, but her heart felt warm... with each of his rambles... the less scary it seemed. She leaned up, pressing the duvet and her palms against her his chest as she shut her eyes... pressing her lips against his.. she gently pulled away, judging his reaction... his body was eased, eyes full of love and care. When she went to kiss him again, he helped her... crashing his lips against hers, deepening the kiss as his hands held her close.

Another bitter breeze, colder than the last one as he pulled back, clinging to the duvet for dear life as he tugged it around him too.

"Fucking cold." He laughed, voice cracking as he looked down at her.

"Yeah..." she spoke awkwardly, "Zayn, I-I need to tell you something." He swallowed, eyes slightly widening. She was ready, and he knew it was time. "You wanted to know, so I'll tell you." She added, determined on what she needed to do.

He nodded, stepping away and grabbing her hand, "Let's go."

+ + + + + + + + + + + +

They sat cross-legged facing each other, a mug of hot tea in her hands as he sat there patiently, waiting for her to speak.

"As you know, I grew up in an orphanage. When I was a kid, I didn't know what it was, I didn't know what having a family was, we were taught by the teachers employed there. But when I was in elementary school and I started going to public school and the teachers used to talk about family and shit, it got me curious." She paused taking a long sip from her cup. "As time went by people were telling me that I was an orphan, I didn't know what it meant, and they said I had no parents. I bottled up all my curiosity until I was thirteen. I started asking questions to Greta, she runs the orphanage. She told me I was dropped on the orphanage on thirty-first July, it was almost mid-night, a few minutes before July became August, so they named me Juliana Augustine." She smiled gently, as if reminiscing in the moment.