Lily Of The Valley (Aris x Reader)

25) Wake Up Calls

The first thing I realized when I woke up was that I was in absolute hell. My everything hurt. The world was too bright, giving me a pounding headache that made registering anything possible. My stomach ached in ways that should be illegal, even out here.

I could barely groan as I sat up, leaning my head back as I tried to catch my breath. I was still groggy, barely awake and immediately being thrown into incomprehensible agony.

When I could register everything, the realization struck me. With shaky hands, I pulled the blanket down, just enough to reveal what I already knew. With the other sinking realization that nothing was hiding the once white sheets now turned red and that I barely had the ability to move anymore, I covered my mouth with my hands to muffle my sobs.

This sucks. Everything really, really sucks. Every place, every event, all of it. Something keeps happening, and I don't know if I can make it stop.

As I was biting the inside of my cheek, trying to keep unheard, I heard a familiar morning groan. My face burned like it never had before, a pit sinking in my stomach that I already couldn't feel.

“What's wrong?”he asked softly, sitting beside me. As he did, leaning against the wall and going to put a hand on my shoulder, he froze completely.

“I’m sorry,”I said through choked sobs.

“It’s okay, darling. It’s okay,”he insisted. Burying my face in my hands, I could only shake my head. “You're okay. It's okay,”he repeated. By now the only words I could say were apologies. “No need to be sorry. Alright? It's okay,”he coaxed, rubbing my back. I managed a nod that I didn't actually believe only for my head to start aching as badly as the rest of me, making me wince as I held it in my hands.

“Why don't you get cleaned up?”he suggested. Wiping my eyes, I ran out of tears to cry, the ones from a few hours before and now this being too much. As I went to get off the bed, he pulled me to his chest before effortlessly doing so. Something I couldn't help but be jealous of seeing as I can barely move at this point. “You wash off, and I’ll take care of it. It's gonna be fine.”

“Thank you,”I pathetically mumbled as he opened the door and set me on the edge of the bathtub.

“Anything for you,”he said like he does so many other times. Him saying it like this though, in an entirely new tone while doing something that would repel a lot of people without a second thought, was different. It was proof I didn't need that he always meant it.

“Thank you,”I whispered, looking up at him.

Smiling, he gently cupped my cheeks and kissed my forehead. There's nothing wrong with that of course. Nothing out of the normal here. Just a friend. A really, really good friend who I happen to let kiss me in different places and lets me do the same. It's clearly love, but you should love your friends. Maybe not like this though. Maybe not this strongly.

“I’m sorry. For arguing with you,”I blurted out as he pulled away. His face dropped at the apology, gaze turned to my feet like a guilty dog.

“You were right. I was being a jerk,”he admitted.

“Why?”

Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair. As if the reason was complicated, which maybe it was, he sat beside me as he stared at the wall, noticing but pretending not to see the way I was looking at him.

“It's always been you and I. In WICKED, on the roof, in the bunker, out here. You’ve always been the one thing I’ve known for sure. I’ve been the only one to know you so deeply. Then, I wasn't. Strangers showed up, and you bonded with them so quickly. You like them. A lot. And I don't want you to like them the way you like me. I want to be your favorite person forever. With how easily they won you over, how quickly you wanted to be around them, I realized it is possible. For someone else to be exciting while I'm boring. For someone else to make you look at them the way you look at me.”