Evident

15.

The loud footsteps of Aureliano echoed through the hut as the backdoor closed behind him.

It was afternoon and I sat on the couch with Imali, sitting still while swallowing down each throb of pain in my frame.

I didn't know if Aureliano suspected that I was there last night, so I kept quite, watching him as my heart pulsate to what he'd say.

"Why do you look so tense, is your knee giving you trouble?" He muttered as he walked over to me, I inhale sharply as he stoop below me, wrap a hand around the thick skin of my thigh and proceeded to rub his thumb on the swollen bruise that has now deepen than it was before.

"Ouch.." I hiss as he stretched my leg out then bring it back as he worked it.

"It didn't look like this the last time it was healing on it's own, what happened?"

I closed my eyes and withhold a curse as he skim his thumb on the bruise, blood seeps out and glided down the skin of my leg.

"I fell on it this morning while cleaning the hut."

Fucking liar...

I ignored the voice in my head and breathed out a sigh of relieve that Aureliano didn't know that I was there last night which meant that the commander kept my identity a secret.

He breathed a long sigh then soak my bruise with alcohol, I hissed as it stings me.

"You know that you do not have to do that, I am capable of doing the work around the hut."

"I can't do that, a mean it's the least I can do for staying in your home uninvitedly."

He chuckled as he added the finishing touches then wrap a bandage around my knee.

"Quite the opposite actually."

My eyebrows connected together in a frown as I pointed to his abdomen that he got a wound from a lion. "What about you, how's your abdomen."

He stood, turn his back to me and walk over to the cabinets where he arranged back his ointments in their place.

His low-pitch voice vibrated across my skin as he replied. "I'm not wincing in pain anymore so I'd say I'm fine."

"I don't believe you." I said as I watched him moving back and forth across the room as he opened up the container he brought with him earlier.

"Believe what you want to believe darling, it ain't hurting me."

I scoffed at him. "You don't have any manners, haven't your mama ever told you to respect your elder's."

He looked over his shoulders at me and grinned, his silver blond hair swaying over those dark blue eyes.

"No she didn't, seems as if I need you to teach me."

"Now that you have decided to stay back, how do you plan on getting me on Achilles' side?"

I smirked as I watched him sharing out some food from a dish he had with him when he came back.

"I'm thinking about sharing a PowerPoint, displaying pointers as to why you should leave this place and come back home with me."

"PowerPoint huh?" He chuckled then gave me a plate which had fish and rice.

"You think it'll work, I'm thick in the head darling, which means it'll take a lot for me to learn." He sat beside me and scan his eyes over my face intently.

I leaned towards him then whispered. "I'm a fun teacher, so I might bring a few spice into the art of educating you."

He licked his lips, eyes drilling into mine that I parted my lips, easing out soft breaths as he took his time to map out my face.

"You have me. Let's hear it then."

I chuckled then eat into some rice along with the fish. I swallowed the food down with some water, cleared my throat and said.

"Your mom."

He paused his eating. Once again his body language told me that I had his attention and that his mom meant a lot to him.

"Do this for the sake of your mother Aureliano. You've left her for twenty years, she missed out on your adulthood, she's been through a lot and I'm not saying this as guilt trip but she had a stroke a year back and to be honest I didn't even know that your father and your mom had you until recently and I knew she must have missed you during those time."

"She's well now but life is too important to miss out on the persons you love."

I said to him, he was silent as he stared out at nothing, he disregard his food as he flipped out a blunt from his ear and lit it up, smoke glided into the air, he offered me some and I took it, taking three puffs and passing it back to him.

"I never thought that far into life, I was always blinded by the 'because of' and never once taking the time to think about the well-being of my mother. I..."

"She has always told me, during my darken years, going through the intense training that my father put me through, she told me that I was not a quitter. A quitter never win and a winner never quit. I knew she needed me to relay back those words to her when she felt down and right now, I feel like bloody shit that I have become so selfish."

"There's one thing that the Cpachie tribe teaches and stand by and that is humbleness, they declared me a chief last night, something that I am in no right deserving if I have treated my mother like that so thank you, Concenta."

I smiled softly at him, shivering as he drew his fingers to his mouth, puffing on the blunt as we locked eyes, the air dusted with clouds of smoke.

"Have I convinced you?"

He smirked. "I may or may not want to see you delved a bit more into that so called spice you use in your teaching, Concenta."

"So no...up your game, baby."

He rolled my name in his thick Italian accent and I shivered, his dark blue eyes twinkling with the smirk on his lips.