Guard My Heart [ManxMan]

.six.

O R T I Z

I woke up to knocking on my door. Assuming it was Marco I got up and opened the door. He still looked sick but a little better. There was a sheen of sweat on his forehead and he looked tired still.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. There are people at the door." He said, leaning against the door frame for support. I walked out, helping Marco back to the couch and heard the knock. I looked at the time, 9 a.m. I must have when to bed later than I thought.

I opened the door, still in nothing but the shorts I slept in, "What is it?" I asked as I looked at the two men at my door, one of them was Ezio, the other was his roommate, Noah.

"We heard he was sick so we brought some soup." Ezio said, holding out the covered pot of what looked like chicken noodle soup.

"Thank you, he'll appreciate it." Marco coughed a little from the living room and broke into a fit of coughs.

With a few parting words they walked away and I closed the door, taking the soup to the kitchen.

"They dropped off some soup, would you like any?" I asked popping off the top, it was still steaming, they made it fresh.

Marco just nodded from where he sat on the couch.

I made him and myself a bowl . Getting his medicine to give to him as I sat beside him on the couch. He took his medicine and we ate the soup in silence. It was great, Ezio was a talented cook and I got some of my recipes from him.

Again, I spent the rest of the day taking care of Marco but when he laid down to take another nap, I decided to go to the gym.

I spent an hour there, working out and practicing with knives.

When I was done, I decided to take a shower in the locker room instead of back at the apartment. When I walked into the shower area I heard two men talking.

"I heard the psycho got sick." One of them said. It wasn't uncommon for some people to gossip like high school girls so I didn't think anything of it, and they obviously didn't notice me because they kept talking.

"Yeah, maybe it'll kill him so we don't have to worry about him stabbing us in the back."

Now I was curious about who they were talking about, so I listened closely, not even turning on the shower yet.

"I feel bad for Ortiz, having to take care of him."

I felt myself freeze as I realized exactly who they were talking about. My blood boiled, they didn't know what the hell they were talking about.

I stomped over to them, punching the first one in the face and the other in the stomach in one move.

They fell to the floor, not expecting the attack, "Talk shit about Marco one more time and you won't have a tongue to talk with anymore." I threatened lowly.

One of them, the smaller one that took a blow to the stomach nodded, looking scared of me, the bigger one just glared as he stood up.

I waited for him to attack back but he just said, "Fine, have fun with the psycho."

With that I tackled him to the ground and proceeded to beat him up.

* * *

When I was back at the apartment, clean and refreshed from beating the shit out of the dumbass who talked shit about Marco, I saw that Marco was still asleep.

I started to think why I had done it, stick up for Marco. Maybe it was because they had no idea what they were talking about, Marco hadn't told me his story but I knew it was traumatizing enough to give him violent nightmares. I cared about him and a part of me knew he cared about me even if he never came out and said it.

Marco started to stir on the couch, stretching with a groan before sitting up and looking around. He coughed a few times before his eyes landed on me, "What happened to your cheek?"

I frowned, I didn't think that piece of shit got a good enough hit but when I turned to look at my reflection in the microwave I saw a bruise forming. 

"I got in a fight at the gym." I said, taking a drink of my water.

"Is the other guy okay?" 

I chuckled, "I hope not."

He didn't question anymore and turned on the radio, sitting back on the couch and coughing quietly to himself.

"Feeling any better?" I asked him, taking a seat beside him.

He nodded his head, "Yeah."

I got up and grabbed a book, turning on the radio when he asked. I read and he listened to the radio, classical like always. After about an hour we ate and sat back down on the couch, being lazy the rest of the day. Marco ended up falling asleep again, on my shoulder.

I would have to work the next day but I was happy to stay home and take care of Marco, especially if it meant I got to read most of the day.

He woke up halfway through his nap and looked at me, seeming to process that I had been his pillow.

"Sorry." He apologized.

"It's fine." I said honestly.

He decided to go to bed then after taking medicine.

I heated up a bowl of chicken noodle soup for my self before getting some sleep.