Set You Free (CANEM)

XXXVIII

It was the first night Can had slept in a bed in a year.

He did not realise how beautiful it was to come home and lay his head down and be completely relaxed, completely surrounded by the smell of her house.

He had dimmed the lights in the living room and taken up the sofa, but it was enough. He knew she could be just above him as she slept in her bedroom and he lay upwards facing the wide ceiling.

It was moments like these that were the worst parts of his day.

He was alone with his thoughts.

The guilt, the sadness, the longing.

How he could have done everything differently.

How he messed up.

Putting the adequate pillow behind his head, Can pressed his eyes tightly closed and waited for the night to swallow him whole.

-

Sanem smiled softly to herself.

The first thing the morning greeted her with was Can laying downstairs on her sofa. He looked out for the count. The large man was strewn across the small pillows and looked like an adult on children's furniture.

In recent days, it was nice to watch him sleep because it didn't make her tense. She loved him but she still couldn't admit it to herself. Admiring him while he slept let her know he was there with her, while he wasn't aware of it. 

She wrapped her robe around herself and made a coffee. 

She didn't drink tea anymore.

She told herself not to wake him as he looked so content asleep but it was nearing the late morning. Even she had slept in later than normal. Sanem poured a little coffee into another mug and walked, bare feet against cold wood, across the room to the unconscious zombie.

That was when she saw it and she stopped in her tracks, the coffee nearly spilling onto the floor.

Her eyes widened.

Seeing him up close, she could now see it clearer.

She could see him and what he clutched in his hand.

Her bandana.

The familiar yellow and blue material that she remembered, outlined in pink.

How did he still have this?

His hands grasped tightly in a fist like motion around the fabric, claiming it as his. She stared to the bandana and back to him countless times until she was met with his wide eyes.

"Sanem?"

As if it was a ritual, he put the fabric in his pocket as he stretched, completely oblivious to her knowledge of its existence. To him, she did not know.

"What are you doing?" He insisted again.

He was met with a blank face until she finally covered her shock.

"I-Uh-I" She whispered. "Kahve?"

She placed the mug into his now bare hand, to his perplexed expression, and exited the room as quickly as she could.

-

He met her again some hours later when he walked through the garden to find the usual guests for the day. Ceycey, Deren and Bulut, the new caretaker of her grounds. He seemed to have an interest in the company as well as the rest of them so any new faces were welcomed. He seemed to be a nice enough man.