what more can i say | rini au

29.

nini hears pebbles knocking at her window, and when she opens it, she sees ricky standing below her windowsill.

"i tried the front door and no one answered." he tells her when she opens the glass panes, staring down at where he stands in the grass of her yard.

"my moms don't like me answering the door at night when they're not home." she shakes her head, shaking a bit in general really as she looks out at him properly. "i must say, rocks at my window seems a little cheesy for you. usually you just send a text."

somehow nini's a lot softer in the twenty or so minutes it's been since she's left him. maybe it's the vulnerability of her emotions, but she's not angry right now. just sad.

"i can't do what i need to do here in a text. plus i wasn't sure you would answer. probably easier to convince you if i can see your face. can i come up? please?"

ricky's slow in asking, but his face is so entirely determined, his eyes so warm as he speaks, that she finds herself nodding.

"yes. you can come up. i can just get the front door though if you want? i don't know if the trellis can hold you like it used to... you're a lot bigger now." she giggles at that, smiling at the thought.

"nah i've got this." he chuckles. "you shouldn't doubt my trellis climbing skills neens." ricky grins as he looks up at her, a bit of a smirk adorning the corners of his lips.

but he hasn't forgotten his mission. so as distracted as he was by the bright way her lips upturned just then, ricky starts to climb up the wooden trellis that goes up the side of her house by her bedroom window.

unfortunately though, as nini had been afraid of- some combination of the growing age of the wood that built it up and the growing weight of his body has the structure falling back as he gets about halfway there, and as he cries out in pain, nini stares out at him, concern wide in her eyes.

"ricky!" she cries out. "oh god... i'm coming down." nini runs through the house and down the stairs, out the door and then into the side yard where she finds ricky laying on the grass.

"i guess this is why i should always listen to you?"

he tries the joke, chuckling a bit as nini shakes her head, kneeling down at his side, eyes looking over him carefully to scan for injuries.

"you should do that anyway..." she says with a laugh. "are you okay? that looked like quite the fall..."

"not so bad. i honestly wasn't that far off the ground and uh- benefits of skateboarding i guess i still have my helmet on from riding over here... so no concussion risk there." he says it like a joke but god the look on nini's face says that she hadn't even thought of the head injury as a possibility until he said it.

"no broken bones or anything?"

"no, nini, i promise i'm okay... honestly i'm so sorry for scaring you. that definitely was not the goal when i came here."

that's when she asks, sitting there on the ground next to him, more than a little overwhelmed by how absolutely terrified she'd been when she heard the wood cracking and then the scream from ricky's lips.

"ricky why did you come here? i told you i was done..."

"i know what you said, and i respect that you're upset, i do... but i'm not done. that's why i'm here, nini. i'm here to fight for you. because when i finally got the nerve up to kiss you and stop denying myself from showing you how much i love you, i accidentally screwed it up before i could say the words. i know i said it at the park but nini i love you."