I Tripped and Fell in Love With You

Chapter 3: Tomorrow

Obito opened one of his eyes a mere fraction and wondered what sort of torture today instilled for him. Bleary at this hour, he rubbed his face several times at the scene.

Emi bustled around the kitchen with a tripod propped behind her, a nice camera on top of it. The sliding door was open to let in the early blue light. She bit her lip as she stared at the camera's screen, twisting the lens several times, pressing buttons on the side, deep in concentration.

He propped himself up on one arm.

She pinched the bottom of her shirt to keep it out of frame and pushed down on an object the camera was pointing at. The smell of coffee wafted to him. She checked the footage, sucked her teeth, and repeated the set up by placing the AeroPress over a second mug.

"What the hell am I looking at?"

She side-eyed him. "Good thing the video'll have music over it," she mumbled. "It's for a sponsored post."

"Uh-huh." Obito swung his legs over the side of the bed and grabbed his lotion from the cabinet. He checked that she was busy putting away her equipment and loading the files on her laptop before screwing off the cap and slathering it on his back and chest. It was a constant battle to keep his shirt covering him, especially when it stuck to his sticky skin. Luckily, the scars didn't bother him much today, only tight in some places. He put the lotion up and joined her, his knee bending as normal.

Obito took one of the steaming mugs and surveyed the countertops. He spun in a circle and gave up, admitting he was too tired to feel anxious about bothering her. "Sugar?"

"Oh, uhm.." He held the mug above his head as she bounced around the kitchen, checking the pantry, a few doors, then the pantry again. "Ah! Hiding all the way back there." She handed him a small container of raw sugar.

He filed the information away: clearly not a sweets person.

Emi yanked off the bedding, spun her arms until it was one big knot, and stashed it in the overhead shelf. She crawled under the table and lifted it until the metal joints snapped into place. Obito arranged the cushions for the benches and opened the back doors, sitting at the edge to kick his feet out like a little kid.

Enamored, Emi stood in the kitchen. The broom handle prodded the dimple in her cheek. She watched his back rise and fall against the background of pines. He was outlined in pale yellow against the dark brown bark. When he took a sip of coffee, his exhale came out in a cloud fighting the crisp air.

She swept the van, washed off the counters, and joined him with her laptop and coffee, setting up a hotspot from her phone.

Fuzzy auburn squirrels foraged and fought over the forest floor with tiny red birds. Emi stared at her abhorrent amount of emails. She deleted the irrelevant ones, read a few less dire ones, and opened even fewer to answer.

The vertical line blinked. She looked away from it to Obito. He drank his coffee smiling at the wildlife. His face was a mix of leftover blue and cresting orange as the sun rose. She opened a new tab and started researching.

Examples of burn scars

Difference between second and third degree burns, images

Face burn scars

Do burn scars hurt after healing

Adults with burn scars

How do scars affect you

Ptsd and scars

She clicked on the long article about the psychological aftermath of burn victims. It had a few quotes from adults in their late fifties recalling how they were treated in school, at work, by peers, by friends and family. As if experiencing the initial trauma wasn't an enormous burden, they then had to navigate bullies, judgmental stares, mocking, knowing when someone was talking about you through their obvious gesturing, and stigmatization when it came to making connections with people. Many of those in the article were single.