𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐬

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐓𝐖𝐎.

𝑨𝒍𝒍 𝒀𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝑮𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝑾𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒊𝒔 𝑮𝒆𝒕 𝑩𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆
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It felt like you had not seen the sun in a thousand years.

Its rays, once comforting, now bore a scorching and almost painful quality as they touched your skin. Instead of giving a soothing warmth, they felt so unfamiliar they gave you this small but painfully itching urge to hurry back inside the house, hide from everything you knew.

Ruben observed with keen attention as your eyes, temporarily blinded by the light, adjusted to the bright scene before you. The sunflower field surrounding the Victoriano Manor stood proudly and perfect, as if untouched by years of neglect. The breeze gently swayed the plants, enveloping the area in a peaceful and comfortable silence. It was a perfect day.

"It's... pretty." You whispered lightly, your typically serious tone laced with both uncertainty and that childlike wonder of experiencing nature anew. You smiled at him short and rather awkward, and his heart skipped a beat. While your face was nearly expressionless, a sense of relief washed over your features, a calm peace he hadn't seen in ages. Your voice, though, had lost the smooth quality he remembered from the hospital days; it was now weak, raspy, and broken, raw from heaving and screaming. This place had undeniably taken a toll on you.

As you gazed back at the flowers, you felt his arms gently snaking around your waist. The embrace was loose and a bit awkward due to Ruben's unfamiliarity with showing physical affection; he hadn't even managed to do it properly with Laura as a child. But now, though unnatural, the contact was not unwelcome for either of you.

"I remember running through these fields as a child. The sunflowers appeared enormous, so tall. Even a bit ominous." Ruben whispered, his forehead resting on the back of your shoulder as he smoked up the feeling of your body against his. "Laura used to lift me up so I could touch them, to feel that they were just flowers. Nothing to fear"

"Sometimes I felt like they looked at me" You validated his childhood fear, a slight scrunch in your nose and a light laugh.

Ruben's smile grew wider for a second as he stood up straight and took your hand. "Come. I've got something for you" He dedicated you one of his short lived smiles and began pulling you through the sunflower field.

You walked together for a short while, perhaps ten or fifteen minutes, until you reached a clearing nestled among the sunflowers -the end of the field. Beneath a tree lay an antique picnic blanket adorned with two cups of white wine and an array of sweet treats, pastries, and even a plate of your favorite food. The sight melted your heart, and you turned to Ruben with a smile.

"This is adorable, Ruben. Thank you," you said, your voice thin in a different way; airy and imbued with a gentleness that Ruben desperately needed. For a moment, you almost asked when he found the time to prepare all this, but then you quickly remembered you were both still inside the STEM machine and he could make and unmake as he pleased.

It was a jarring realization that true peace eluded you here. For you, the knowledge that your body lay shut down somewhere in Krimson City, exposed to who knows what or whom. For him, the awareness of the torment others endured in various far away corners of his mind, latent and attempting to prevent his return. But today was for the two of you. "I thought we'd need it... you'd need it after everything you've seen here." He said as he led you to the blanked and sat down on it, looking towards the distance. He now appeared as you met him; formal clothes loosely hugging his cleanly bandaged form, and he seemed a bit more relaxed, evidenced by the light slouch of his shoulders. Still, the thoughtful frown never left his sharp features.