if i can't have you || rini au

34. my person

"oh! here's a good one," the brunette girl said happily, leaning against the tree trunk as she read the magazine that she'd gotten "did you know, that you can breathe and swallow at the same time?"

she moved the magazine away and looked down to see ricky laying his head on her lap with his eyebrows shuffled together in confusion "what-no you can't?"

nini nodded "uh-huh, it says so right here!" she said, pointing to the page and turning it over for him to look at

he sat up, crossing his legs as he faced her and attempted to do it before shaking his head "nope."

"just because you don't have the ability does not mean it's impossible." she said with a playful glare

"you try it then if you're so clever." he grinned

nini attempted to do it herself, trying to focus hard before noticing the curly-haired boy stifle a laugh

"don't laugh at me!" she exclaimed, hitting him playfully as he just chuckled

"i'm sorry but your face-"

"it's rude!" she said with a playful eye roll

"aw, i'm sorry." he cooed, leaning forward as she folded her arms

"you're forgiven." nini sighed, him smiling as he looked down to pick the grass - its something she noticed that he does when he thinks about something.

she sat up from the tree trunk, putting the magazine next to her and looking at the boy anxiously...she didn't want to push him but she didn't like seeing him so stressed and hurt.

"ricky..." she began quietly, causing for him to look up at her "i-i'm really sorry to ask-but...what happened yesterday?"

the boy's expression dropped slightly and he felt his heart fall to the pit of his chest at the memory...

nini looked down "sorry-i'm sorry-"

"nini..."

"it's okay if you don't want to talk about it..." she said quickly "i-i just don't like seeing you like this and i want to know if i can help-or...if me listening to you talk about it might help-but if not it's fine-"

"nini." he said again, taking her hand to make her stop rambling "it's okay."

she exhaled slowly as he fiddled with her fingers nervously, looking down

"it was just my parents again." he said quietly

nini's face softened and a frown formed on her face as she let him keep talking

"and they got into a stupid fight about the groceries, which then turned into arguing about who's responsible and then fighting about who actually tries and-then i heard things breaking and everything was just...too much for me to handle-and i was late because i couldn't leave until things calmed down a little or at least they didn't notice..." he said, his voice small and fragile

nini rested her other hand on his "i'm sorry you have to go through this ricky...that's horrible."

"what can you do? right?" he exhaled slowly, looking up with a forced smile

she shook her head "ricky...don't act like that. not here with me." she assured him, making him sigh again "i'm glad you can come to aunt erica for things like this."

he nodded gratefully "yeah...i'm really thankful for her helping me."

"and now you also have me." she reminded him

ricky smiled genuinely, nodding "yeah, i do."

they both looked at each other before she leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek, making his smile grow