Binding Hearts [3]

4.

He wanted to be the one thing Miray couldn't bear to be without.

He wanted to be the person she always missed.

Miss...

Vince's world had shifted the moment Miray started missing him, needing his presence.

Vince felt his eyes closing, Miray's face was the last image etched in his mind before he lost consciousness, yet it was the first vision that greeted him in the depths of his unconsciousness as his mind drifted to blissful memories of Miray.

*****

[TB]

Miray is almost 2 years old, and Vince is almost 12.

From the moment Miray could toddle, she made it a habit to wait eagerly for her brothers at the door when they returned from school, ready to envelop them in hugs. 

It was a gesture that warmed Vince's heart, though he never let on just how much he cherished it.

He loved the feeling of being eagerly awaited by someone. It made him feel as though he truly belonged, giving him a sense of home and family.

While he found comfort in Miray's cheerful greetings and eagerness, he kept his feelings guarded.

Vince loved his sister just as much he loved his brothers, but he couldn't allow himself to become too attached. 

He believed they were all too good for him, a belief reinforced by his father's cruelty and constant reminders of his worthlessness.

He was nothing but a mistake.

An unwanted presence in this world that should never have existed.

Vince's heart had constructed walls, thick and too tall they seemed to almost reach the sky and far too high to scale.

Cause he was too afraid of being abandoned... again.

He always found himself haunted by dreams of abandonment, a recurring nightmare that refused to release its grip on his subconscious.

Each night, as his subconscious plunged into the depths of darkness, his nightmares played out scenes of rejection and solitude, mercilessly ripping apart the facade of strength he tried so hard to maintain.

Despite his efforts to reassure himself that he could manage alone and didn't need anyone, his dreams revealed the opposite truth. 

Vince was consumed by fear—fear that his siblings would leave him, echoing the abandonment he had experienced from his own mother.

He was scared.

So he kept guarded.

He always kept a safe distance.

His brothers understood and respected the emotional boundaries he set. Like Vince, they were not openly affectionate, which suited him well.

But Miray never did.

Miray was different.

She was openly affectionate and unafraid to express her love in whatever ways a two-year-old could. While that might be expected of a child her age, Vince couldn't help but compare her to Noah, whom he had helped raise. Unlike Miray, Noah displayed affection more subtly, in line with Vince's own reserved nature.

Noah resembled Luke and Damian in being sweet and affectionate yet not outwardly expressive of those emotions.

Miray, however, never grasped the concept of keeping her distance. He would glare at her, and she would simply smile back. He would attempt to subtly push her away, but she would only cling to him tighter.