Glad You Could Make It - Ricky and Nini Oneshots

Headstones and Landmines

Headstones and Landmines

CW: Death, blood.

It shouldn't be sunny outside. It should be dark, cold, and rainy. The weather should reflect exactly what Ricky feels on the inside.

He initially thought it would be a great day, just based on the weather alone. He was traveling back after being away on a business trip for a few days, ready to return home to his girlfriend, Nini.

He was planning to take her out for a nice picnic dinner to celebrate the first real day of Spring and his homecoming, and then spend the entire night over at their house. They had just moved into her old childhood home a few months before he left. Her moms had decided to downsize and passed the house along to her. It was the house both she and Ricky grew up in, and it was full of so many memories, and it was only going to hold more. He had called her before boarding his plane, and she seemed ecstatic at the idea of his plans.

After landing, he texted her to let her know that he was getting ready to board his next flight. She didn't respond. He didn't think anything of it.

When he landed in Salt Lake, he let her know that he would be home soon. Still no response. Now slightly worried, he arrived home to the water running in the kitchen sink, and the fridge door wide open.

As he went to shut off the sink and close the fridge, that's when he saw her: collapsed on the ground unconscious, with various fruit spilled around her. She had been going to wash some fruit for their picnic when it happened. There was blood spilling from her head, and he noticed blood on the corner of the countertop as well.

Ricky didn't think as he fell to the ground to collect her in his arms, desperately trying to get her to wake up. He cried her name and her blood soaked into his skin and clothes. He had no idea how long she'd been lying here, and he became more frantic as she didn't respond. During his attempts to wake her up, he noticed he'd never felt a pulse. He was too late. He leaned against the wall, her limp cold body in his arms as he sobbed into her shirt.

*****

It was a stroke. That's what the doctors told him, caused by a burst blood vessel that would've been impossible to detect. When she collapsed, she hit her head on the countertop, which only sped up her demise. There was no way for her to know it was happening to her, but had Ricky been there, he might've been able to save her.

He cursed himself for going on the business trip, not coming home sooner, or suspecting something was wrong long before he came home.

He didn't return to their home for weeks. He couldn't do it. He stayed with his dad while they planned the funeral. He barely ate, barely slept, and barely did anything. He was a shell of himself.

*****

The day of the funeral was sunny too. It shouldn't have been. It made it seem like it was the perfect day to be outside, but all Ricky wanted was to be back inside, with Nini back in his arms. He just wished he could give her one last hug, but instead he watched as her casket got lowered to the ground. She can't hug him from six feet away. It's not the same.

She was buried right by an oak tree, a small dirt pile was right next to it to be placed back into the ground over her. She used to wrap her arms around oak trees and hug them as tight as she could. She always loved the smell of their bark, and how the sap would always get in her hair. She was buried right by an oak tree, right where she belonged. Her headstone was engraved with how she was a great daughter, friend, and partner. She was immortalized forever by those few words, but Ricky knew she was much more than that.

A chorus sang pretty words to drown out the pain and sorrow, but it was never able to mute Ricky's grief. It was evident on his face, in his actions, and his life. He would never stop grieving. He knew it was unhealthy, and Nini would never want him to feel like this, but he couldn't do anything about it. This was how he felt.