Love On Fire

Name

I sit on a leather couch in the middle of Maxim's spacious apartment as he walks around getting supplies.

He leaves for a moment before coming back shirtless and holding a first aide kit. His stomach has cuts and small bruises and his face holds a small scratch on his cheek.

He sits beside me and opens the first aide kit before feeling the objects in it with his fingers.

I stare mindlessly at him before they drift to his apartment. The colorful glass causing a yellowish glow in the late night lighting around the apartment, no need to actual turn any lights on.

He has a dining table, with low wooden chairs, a sofa and an arm chair, a large kitchen counter with bar top, and crisscrossed wooden panels on his ceiling giving an open layout.

"Can you take off your shirt?" Maxim whispers causing me to sway my head back to him to see his eyes fixated on my face.

"Hm?" I ask, my mind not catching onto what he said.

"I-I, I don't to make you feel uncomfortable or anything, I j-just." He starts stammering worsening my headache. I scrunch my eyes together slightly before chuckling lowly.

"I didn't hear what you said." I tell him with a small smile. His face flushes as he looks away for a second slightly embarrassed.

"Oh, I asked to take off your shirt...so I can tend to your wounds." He repeats.

"It's okay, I can do it myself." I mumble as I start to take off my shirt, revealing my above average chest size in a black silk bra and my injuries.

"You could barely walk, forget it." He lectures before preparing to disinfect my wounds. I take a sip of my water before setting it back down to see Maxim stare at me.

"What?" I ask as I see his hands twitch slightly.

"Where are you hurt?" He asks.

I slowly reach for his warm hand and place it on my bare stomach, dragging his rugged fingertips against my skin to all my injuries. I feel his palm start to tense as I drag his hand higher past my breast, to right over them where lies a bruise from the bat and cut from the broken glass.

"Okay." He whispers before clearing his throat and grabbing the disinfectant, raising it to start with my arms that hold multiple bruises and cuts.

"This is gonna sting." He warns before pressing the pad against my skin. My face twitches slightly but my body never moves.

"Are you okay?" He asks concerned.

"Yeah." I whisper with a small smile. With that he continues with both my arms before moving to my torso, than my face that holds a large cut on the side of my head, lip, and cheek. He finished my lip and cheek rather quickly before placing a butterfly stitch on my forehead, pulling the cut together.

(Play song)

"You have pretty good hands for a blind guy." I joke closing my eyes from the sting.

"I used to patch up my dad." He explains lowly. I look at his face, the yellow glow from the windows illuminating it as he looks at me.

"Yeah? He ran around in a mask too?" I ask trying to talk through the pain.

"He was a boxer...took a lot of beatings." He whispers before getting me a ice pack for my swollen cheek.

"So this whole time you could patch yourself up." I scorn him as he puts the ice pack against my cheek.

He chuckles lowly as I stuck in a breath at the feeling of the cold against my aggravated nerves. "Ow." I whisper before chuckling too.

"This isn't gonna heal well." I groan as I take the ice pack from his hand.