The Deal I Made With Theodore Nott - NL x TN

38

——————✧◦ ★ ◦✧——————

Visiting my parents was always uncomfortable, but today especially so.

I'd only ever visited them with my Nan, no one else. So Theo and Dove were truly going in blind. There was a sense of embarrassment I felt. I didn't want to feel it, but it was there. My parents weren't normal, they would never be normal again.

As we walk in the smell of hospital fills my senses. It wasn't a pleasant smell but it also didn't smell awful either, it just reminded me of things I try hard not to remember.

"Hello Neville, I see you've brought some mates today. Augusta isn't joining you?" The very kind and very nosy receptionist noted. I'd hoped Miss Tally wouldn't acknowledge me when we walked into the hospital, but of course nothing goes my way.

"No, she's on business right now." I replied while writing my name down on the visitors sheet. I felt Theo approach the welcome desk behind me.

"Hello, I'm Neville's boyfriend Theo." He offered his hand out to the older woman and she shook it with a broad smile on her face.

"I didn't know you had a boyfriend Neville, and such a handsome one too." She said with a tinge of blush on her cheeks.
"My name is Tallia Breeks, but you can call me Miss Tally."

"Nice to meet you Miss Tally." Theo replied with a broad smile.

"And you must be the lovely Dove Rosier I've heard so much about." Tally began.

That was my cue it was time to keep moving.

"Nice to meet you-" Dove's words were quickly cut off by me dragging her and Theo with me.
"Neville, that was so rude!"

I walked silently through the ward with Dove and Theo trailing behind me. An uncomfortable aura wrapped around them like a thick oil but I could tell they were too nervous to speak up about it. As we approached the door to my parent's room I turned towards them with a long shaky sigh.

"Okay, go ahead. Get all your questions out now." I spoke while rocking onto the balls of my feet. I fiddled with my hands and did everything in my power to avoid their eyes.

Theo coughed awkwardly so Dove took the initiative to talk first.
"So, you've talked about me with the nurses?"

"Yeah well, I've been coming here all my life. Miss Tally has worked here since I was five." I replied unenthusiastically. Dove usually had more to say, and Theo was almost always impossible to silence.

It's your fault.
You're making them uncomfortable.
This isn't normal.

"You can both stay out here if you want?" I wondered outloud.

"No thanks, can we go in now?" Theo asked.

I looked up at him and he tilted his head at me as he awaited my answer. That content, puppy like, expression resting on his face. He smiled warmly at me then reached out for my hand, squeezing it in his as if he knew it was the exact thing I needed from him.

"Sure- but just-"

"Neville, it's going to be okay." Dove cooed.

I took one last deep breathe before I pushed through the door. The room was the same as it always was. It felt a comfortable temperature- almost warm. The scent of the eucalyptus candles on the bedside table was strong and welcoming, like a hug. The sound of a record player echoed off the four walls playing the same song it had been repeating for the last 19 years.

I looked towards my parents, both sitting so still in their usual beds. Their hair was prematurely greying and their weight lessened with each year I visited.

"Uhm so yeah- parents this is Theo and Dove. Theo and Dove this is parents." I said as I motioned between them.

My father hummed to the notes of the song, looking blankly out the window. He was tortured the longest, he never seemed to notice me. My mum looked towards me when I spoke, a soft smile tugging at her lips. It hurt seeing her grin, because it wasn't her. It wasn't that painful looking cheeky smile she had in photos. She wasn't smiling at me, she didn't even know who I was.

"Can they hear us if we spoke to them?" Dove asked. I wish she had asked out in the hall. When I was in this room I felt like I couldn't breathe, it felt like the warm candle scented air was like deep space. Feeling cold in my lungs as if it lacked real oxygen.

"Y-yeah. They won't understand it or reply though." I replied.

Theo immediately sat in the chair beside my mum's bed, he gently lifted her hand towards his lips. I watched as he left a soft kiss on her knuckles before returning her hand to her lap and patting it in comfort. She smiled fondly at him and he smiled back at her.

Dove was mostly silent, she walked around the room looking at the picture frames on the table as she hummed with my father to the song. For some reason the silence wasn't uncomfortable, it was almost... peaceful.

I pulled a chair up next to Theo and sat beside him. His hand immediately intertwined with my own but his eyes stayed locked on my mother. His smile wasn't fake, most people would fake a smile around my parents. Theo looked at my mum with a fondness I'd never seen before.

She reached into the drawer next to her bed. I knew what she was searching for, she'd done the same action every year for 19 years so it was hard to forget.

"Sorry, she's just going to give me a droobles wrapper like she normally does." I noted.

"Droobles? Does she do it every time?" Theo questioned.

My mum finally found what she was searching for as she leaned forward once again.
"Yeah- she doesn't recognize me but for some reason she always gives me a Droobles wrapper. The healers say it's her way of showing she cares in her own way."

But she didn't hand me the wrapper, she held out her hand to Theo instead. He was cautious at first but accepted the gift with an open hand. My mum didn't stop there though, she then guided his hand towards me.

I tentatively placed my hand in Theo's, unsure of what she was really trying to achieve. My stomach did flips when she sandwiched our hands between her own. She smiled cheerfully at the both of us.

Tears were itching my eyes but I was pulled out of my own emotion when I heard Theo choking up beside me. He tried his best to fight back his sobs, even wiping his face with his other sleeve as he refused to remove his hand from mine and my mum's.

"I'll take good care of him, I promise." He said to my mother. My mother whom I was embarrassed of.

A mother I have when Theo has none.