«𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀»

➙Can you repeat that? - Gareth (Request!!)

(I should finish the separate endings but I'm not really in the mood for angst right now ahaha. Also this is based off the "The first I love you" preference :>>)

It was a day like every other. Nothing exciting, the regular school day. You were happy to finally have your free time, flopping down onto the couch that was standing in your living room. Your parents were gone for the whole week, so you wouldn't be bothered for the rest of it. You already closed all the blinds, the only light source was the small lamp standing on the desk beside the living room table, illuminating the room which was completely silent. You sighed, spreading all of your limbs and relaxing your whole body. It hurt a little, since the P.E teacher wasn't necessarily going easy on you guys today. Your muscles were exhausted, and you were glad that your activities were all done for now.

As you were smiling to yourself, you noticed how tired you really were. So you thought to yourself, 'a little nap can't hurt, can it?' so naturally, that's exactly what you did.

Unexpectedly, a knock woke you from your light slumber. How long have you been asleep? It can't be your parents, who would knock on the door and interrupt your moment of peace? Not caring about your current appearance you zombie walked towards the door, wincing slightly as the bright sunlight hit you from outside, making you rub your eyes in response.

"Oh I'm sorry, did I wake you up?", you hear a voice coming from right in front of you, but you were having a hard time getting your eyes used to the light. Well, that was until you recognized the voice.

"Hm? Gareth, is that you?", you asked, confused. Surely enough, you opened your eyes to see that it was really your boyfriend standing in front of you, but they widened as soon as you saw the condition he was in. His nose was bleeding and he had bruises all over his body, which was easily noticeable due to his clothes being ripped. His eye was blue, and he seemed to have a hard time standing on his left leg.

"Oh dear, what happened? Are you okay? Oh gosh, of course you're not, come inside please.", you stumble, and he chuckles slightly. 'At least he's able to laugh about that.', you thought as you helped him onto the nearest chair, supporting him from the side with his arm over your shoulders. As soon as he was sat, you went up to the windows and opened the blinds and turned off the lamp.

"I'll be right back.", you signaled him to stay in place, getting your parents first aid kit, which you never thought you were going to use (Which changed as Gareth became your boyfriend cough cough). Aside from that, you got a towel and held it under the sink for a few seconds, so he could cool his bruises.

"Gareth, I don't know what you did, but this doesn't look good at all.", you sighed, and he nodded.

"I had this fight with a classmate because he wouldn't stop bothering me after school. I just told him to go and annoy someone else since he loved doing it so much and he punched me, and I guess that's how it started.", he explained, shrugging his shoulders slightly.

"You shouldn't have said that to him.", you said, while cleaning up his bloody nose, giving him a tissue to stop the bleeding.

"I know.", he shrugged, playing with his fingers slightly.

"Then why did you do it?", you asked, taking his face in your hands and lifting it slightly for you to look into his eyes. Which was harder than expected, because he kept avoiding your gaze.

"I don't know. I guess I just kinda snapped, you know I can't have it when someone bothers me like that.", he said while looking onto the floor, trying to look at everything but your face. You nod, giving him the wet towel to hold against his blue eye, while you cleaned the blood off of his arms. There were small wounds everywhere on his body, and you sigh.

"This might seem weird but could you take your shirt off? It's ripped and you still have some wounds there.", you mumbled, receiving a slight nod from him. As you looked up at him, you caught his face turning red, while he still avoided your face. You stood up, getting another towel from the bathroom, wetting it in the kitchen sink.

When you came back, Gareth was sitting on the chair with his shirt folded on the couch, and you smiled a little. You approached him, getting yourself a chair as well and sat down behind him. His back was covered in blue marks, and there were a few bleeding spots, and you shook your head slightly.
'Unbelievable.', you thought to yourself.

You started cleaning the blood off his lower back, working yourself up his body with every bruise. When you went to wipe it off a particular spot on his shoulder blade he flinched and hissed slightly, making you pull your hand back in surprise.

"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry!", you said, concerned that you hurt him.

"It's fine.", he muttered, his voice sounding like he had his teeth gritted. You stood up from your chair and went to get in front of him another time, lifting his head once again.

"I love you, please start taking better care of yourself", you whispered, making him widen his eyes in surprise. This sentence just seemed to wake everything up, and his blue orbs wandered up to meet yours.

"W-What?", he stuttered quietly, but still loud enough for you to hear. You chuckled slightly, booping his nose, amused at his shook expression.

"You heard me, I love you soooo much", you exaggerated on the o, making your voice sound a little like how you would talk to a small child. His face stayed in shock, which made you worry for a small second.

"Can you please say that again?", he mumbled, and he looked like he was star-struck. Now you burst out in small giggles, happy that it did something to him.

"I loveeee youuuu", you sang to him, and his mouth went from :0 to :D

"I-I love you too-", he whispered, before standing up and wrapping his arms around you. You smiled, before remembering that you still weren't done with cleaning him up.

"Pretty boy, you're still bloody! Listen child, we can continue this when I'm done with patching you back up, but this is the number one priority right now.", you explained, making him pout.

"I just wanted some affection...", he said quietly, stopping mid sentence as he saw the warning look on your face.

"Okay, I'm sorry. But seriously, thank you for doing this. I love you so much.", he whispered, making you smile. You pressed a small kiss onto his nose, making him smile as well.

I love you more.