I'm Yours (Sequel to "You're mine")

Chapter 85: Lonely

Leah's POV

When the news broke of the virus, I never thought it would take over the entire world. Call me naive, but I somehow thought we would be prepared better for things like this. Instead, this virus spread like wildfires and infected the whole world. As a result, we were forced to stay indoors for weeks on end.

At first, life seemingly had stopped. People were at home, waiting for this virus to pass. But as the days turned into weeks, society seemed to catch on that this problem wasn't going to be solved in the near future. As a result, people had to start working from home.

T got a computer from school, an expensive one that would be fast enough to handle a videocall with over 20 people. Every day, she would teach classes online. During those hours, she'd lock herself up in a spare room, which she turned into a home office.

I was lucky. I didn't have to follow online classes. I had passed all my classes, I only had to finish my bachelor's thesis to graduate. Every day, I would try to spend a few hours working on it. But since I was left with Emil... I didn't have that much time.

"Pway?"

I looked to my left, Emil had walked towards me. In his hand, he was holding a toy car. I smiled a bit before closing my laptop. It seemed I wasn't going to continue today. "Do you want to play, tiger?"

He smiled at me. "Pway!"

I got up. "What do you want to do?" I looked around, his toys were scattered across the living room. "Do you want to play with cars?"

He clumsily walked back to his little corner, where all his toys were. He let himself fall on his butt and sat down. He looked at me. "Me caw."

I walked to him and sat down with him. "Ok, so that's your car," I looked in his toy chest. I went through it before retrieving another toy car. "And this is my car."

He smiled at me and started racing with his car through a parcours he made himself. As I didn't understand the track, I decided to follow his lead and thus lose the race. He laughed as he won the race. "Yay!" He exclaimed.

"Rematch?" I asked, already setting my car on the start line.

As he saw how eager I was, he seemed to catch on. He put his car next to mine and smiled at me.

"Start!" I said and we raced again. I saw he was having a hard time catching up so I faked that my car missed a turn. Emil took the lead and eventually won. "Well done, tiger," I smiled at him. "You're too good at this."

He clapped his hands excitedly.

I looked at the time and noticed some time had passed. "Hey tiger," I said before getting up. "I have to get some work done," Immediately as I said that, his smile vanished. "Play with your cars some more, I'll be right there."

He watched me go back to the dining table. He didn't say anything, but I could feel he wasn't happy I left him. But I had to work too, I couldn't spend all hours of the day with him...

I managed to work for 45 minutes. Emil had gotten quiet so I assumed everything was alright. At some point, I didn't hear any noise. I didn't hear toys, cars, blocks... I tried to tell myself he was probably looking for something else but it was hard to focus.

I sighed and got up. I walked to where I had left him and saw him looking outside. "Tiger?" I walked to him and sat down with him. I looked at what he was looking: the garden. "Do you want to go outside?"

He looked at me, then back at the garden. He shrugged.

"Tiger," I said, taking him on my lap. "What's going on?" I held him in a warm embrace. "Tell mama."

He looked down. "Pway."

"Yes, you can play outside," I got up, holding him close to my chest. I opened the door to the garden and walked outside with him. I gently put him down on the grass. "Here," I smiled at him. "You can play."

He looked around before looking at me.

"Enjoy, tiger," I then walked back inside, ready to go back to work. As I wanted to close the door a bit, I saw he went to sit down on the ground. My heart broke when I saw that. I walked back to him. "Emil," I said, but he didn't look up at me. "What's going on?"

Then a sound that broke my mother's heart: he sniffled.

I immediately went to sit down with him. "Emil," I looked at him, trying to figure out what was wrong with him. He seemed fine before... "Hey, what's wrong? Tell mama, I want to help."

He looked at me, tiny tears were rolling down his cute cheeks. He sniffled. "Pway."

I nodded. "You can play here."

He looked down. "Not me."

I frowned a bit, trying to understand what he wanted to say.

"Pway two."

"Two?" Then it clicked. "You don't want to play alone?"

He slowly nodded. "Fwiends," He looked at me. "Pway."

I gulped. "You can't see your friends, tiger," I sighed and took him back in my arms. "I'm so sorry," I kissed his head. "I'm sorry."

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"Thanks, baby," T smiled at me as I handed her a glass of wine. She sipped it before putting it on the coffee table. She wrapped her arm around me, pulling me close to her. "I enjoy this so much after a long day."

I chuckled. "A long day at work."

She looked at me. "I was working."

"I know, baby," I pecked her cheek. "I was just kidding."

She smiled before looking at the tv. "So, what shall we watch?" She asked before going through the channels. When I didn't reply, she looked back at me. "Baby?"

I looked at her. "Uhm... You can choose."

She put the remote down and looked at me. "What's going on?"

I sighed and looked away briefly. "It's Emil," I said, immediately getting a worried expression from T. "He misses his friends."

Immediately T's facial expression saddened. "Oh poor boy," She let out a breath. "This whole situation... It's so unfair."

I nodded. "He wanted to play with someone," I sighed. "I can't play constantly with him," I then looked at T. "It's almost as if..." I thought about it for a bit. "As if he feels lonely."

T nodded.

"It's so difficult to see that," I sighed. I leaned back into the couch. "I want to help him but I can't erase this virus, can I?"

T looked away for a bit before looking at me. "He wants a friend," She said, to which I nodded. "Maybe," She paused a bit. "Leah," She said, looking me in the eyes. "Why don't we adopt a second child?"