Bruised

10.

She gathered an armful of supplies and dropped them on the bedside table.

"Stay still," she ordered, dragging her bin closer. He didn't have time to answer before she grabbed a disinfectant wipe and pressed it against the gash on his brow.

He winced. She winced. Her entire body ached empathetically, and she had to fight to keep her eyes open and hand steady instead of flinching away. When she pulled the wipe away, it had turned red. She gagged, dropping it into the bin and reaching for another.

Leon watched her the entire time she cleaned and bandaged his cut. When she pulled away, her eyes finally met his and he smiled a crooked, swollen smile at her.

"Where would I be without you?" he muttered.

"Probably bleeding to death in a gutter somewhere," she replied.

She handed him icepacks for his face before moving to his ribcage. She was scared to peel his shirt back, but she knew it had to be done.

When she saw the bruises there, she inhaled sharply.

"Leon," she murmured.

"Natalie," he replied in the same tone. Her eyes flicked to his.

"I don't know why you keep fighting if it ends with you looking like this," she said. She reached for an icepack and his whole body jolted when she placed it on his ribs. He laughed, then winced, then placed a hand over hers.

"That's cold," he said. When she didn't reply, he released a tight breath. "I don't know. The money, obviously, but also the adrenaline. The feeling I get when I push myself to my limit and keep going. Or when I knock a man double my size to the ground, and he takes back all his stupid insults from before the match. Proving the people who underestimated me wrong. There's so much good in it."

"And so much bad," Natalie said, tracing a finger over his bruised chest. She didn't register what she was doing at first—touching Leon's bare chest—and when she did, her whole face turned hot. She pulled away. "You're going to kill yourself one day."

He grabbed her wrist before she could move too far, then flinched at the pain from the movement. Her eyes softened and she moved closer, seating herself on the edge of the mattress so that he didn't have to strain himself too much.

"Hey, come on, I'm not that dumb. I just got unlucky this time," he said, his voice breathless. "It won't happen again. The last thing I want to do is make you worry."

She looked away, feeling her pulse quicken. Of course, she worried about him. He was her—something.

She didn't know how to describe their relationship in words. Only in feelings. And he made her feel like she was falling from the sky and melting into a puddle all at once.

"I got caught off-guard," he continued. "The guy was bigger than me, but I was faster. But then, I don't know. I saw this girl in the crowd."

Natalie's heart felt like it stopped. She frowned, staring a hole into the floor of her bedroom. Of course, he was distracted by a girl. How else would the almighty Leon be beaten?

She wondered what the girl must have looked like. Long, sleek hair. Perfect figure. A petite nose.

"She looked like you," Leon finished.

She blinked, unsure if she'd heard right, then turned to meet his eyes. He watched her, his expression entirely serious.

"It wasn't you, obviously," he said. "But it was too late, the guy got me right in the head, and at that point, it was too late to defend myself. Things moved quick."