Marry. Ride. Love.

the consequences that this thought might bring

*Isabella*

I hadn't been able to just go to bed, even though he had told me to. I had stayed on the sofa and waited. Still, I had eventually fallen asleep and now jerked up as I could hear the front door open and then heard heavy breathing. I heard footsteps, then the kitchen light came on and a chair was pulled across the floor.

"Tino?", I immediately pushed myself up from the sofa.

"Bella. I told you to go to sleep!" he grumbled, sitting up and pulling a bag of peas out of the freezer to put on his eye.

I walked around him, gasping for air.

"Tino!" his face looked like he had just had a boxing match. And lost "Shit, what happened?", I didn't even dare to touch him because I was afraid to hurt him.

"I told you I'd sort it out. And he looks worse."

"It's not a contest, who looks more..."

"Believe me, it's important to me. And more importantly, he's not going to come near you again." he dropped his head forward in exhaustion.

I had never really noticed that he was older than me. At that moment, though, he looked very old. Just tired.

I pulled a chair in front of him and softly laid my hands under his chin. I let my head drop forward a little so he could rest his forehead against mine. He took an exhausted and very deep breath. He even trusted me so much that he closed his eyes.

"Tino?", I whispered, holding up his battered face.

"Huh?" he grumbled, I could hear how tired he was.

"Thanks.".

"For what?"

"For fighting with him. For me."

"I didn't get into a fight with him. I beat him into thinking he'd better not come near you again and made him pay for your tears. After all, if I'd had a fight with him, he would have had something to say about it. Then he would have had a chance. But he never did."

"Then where do your injuries come from?", I whispered.

"He fought back. But no one hurts my wife without getting a taste of what it means from me."

"Thank you.", I repeated and pressed a gentle kiss on his nose.

Then I carefully lifted his face a little and felt my heart begin to race. His eyes met mine immediately and I forgot for a moment about the last two weeks.

"Thank you, Tino.", I breathed before placing my lips on his.

He returned the kiss immediately and, with one hand, pulled me onto his lap as well.

I let it happen, allowing the closeness and deepening the kiss even more.

It was our first real kiss.

My heart beat up to my throat in the face of it. My fingers slid from his jaw to his hair until he sucked in the air sharply and broke the kiss briefly.

I looked at him worriedly and let my fingers slide back to his jaw.

"Maybe I took a hit there," he grumbled as I got up from his lap.

"I'll take care of your injuries now," I said, not accepting any resistance.

By now I knew my way around the kitchen well enough to know where the Band-Aids and bandages were.

So I gathered everything up and spread it out on the table before he pulled me back onto his lap. I didn't say anything to him, but this time I didn't let him kiss me again, but started to clean the wounds on his face before I started to bandage them and put plasters on them.