Have You Ever? BounPrem Collab w/ @kookie_di_Angelo **COMPLETE**

Chapter Ten: See My Worth

Boun Point of View

"Boun?"

"Huh?"

I stared dumbly at Lay but quickly recovered the moment I realized from that dubious yet slightly amused expression on his face, that he must've been talking to me and I totally ignored him.

"Sorry," I apologized. "You were saying?"

We were having a meeting regarding the filming schedule. Though it was work, hanging out with Lay was fun.

I was impressed with his work ethic, the passion he showed in film, and his eagerness to learn about my craft.

Lay shook his head and smiled. "It's fine. Whatever you were thinking, you seemed happy about it."

Prem's face flashed in my head and I grinned once more.

"Yeah, I'm always happy when I'm," I trailed off, "But this isn't the time or the place to be thinking about such things."

An obvious tint in Lay's cheeks appeared before he spoke again, "Whatever you're thinking, if it makes you appear that happy, you shouldn't apologize for thinking about it."

Touché.

"Okay, I won't."

"As I was saying, we won't start filming for another month, but I was hoping I could stop by your shop, take a few photos of you and your crew, go over the tattoo process from start to finish." Lay repeated, "Oh, and for the next month while you're working on your clients perhaps you can come across a tattoo with a very unique powerful meaning behind it, and we can include it in the documentary."

"Have you ever considered getting a tattoo?" I asked him curiously.

"Yeah," The warm tint filled Lay's cheeks once again, "but you may think it's silly."

"I've done some pretty silly tattoos in my time," I laughed, "and you don't strike me as the type to get something silly."

He seemed hesitant for a moment, before speaking.

"It has to do with my mom and our bond." He finally admitted shyly, "It's an animal."

"Like a mama bear and baby cub? Or something else?" I chuckled a little.

One day last week, I witnessed Lay interact with his mom, it was clear he was a mama's boy. But I couldn't fault him for it, I was one too.

"Sort of." He murmured.

"Wolf? Cheetah?" He shook his head, and I became even more curious. Who's more protective than a mama bear, wolf, or cheetah?

"A kangaroo." He softly confessed.

"I would have never guessed that." I mused aloud. "Why a kangaroo?"

"It fits us." Lay started to explain, "See, I was born extremely premature. A micro preemie."

A micro preemie is a baby who is born weighing less than 1 pound, 12 ounces (800 grams), or before 26 weeks gestation.

"I was in the NICU for over seven months, but my mom was by my side every single day, even after she was discharged. She told me she wished at the time she was a kangaroo, so she could put me in her pouch and keep me with her always, instead of relying on an incubator." He laughed a little, "I don't know, I guess I became a bit infatuated with kangaroos and Australia because of that." He added with a shrug, "When I found out that a baby kangaroo doesn't leave their mother's pouch until after seven months, it just made more sense to me."