Clothed in our grief

Chapter twenty one

"Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have yelled at you. You said you found it in a dumpster, and I believe you. Sorry for yelling at you.." You mumbled out, wiping strands of wet hair out of your face while Damian copied your actions, running his fingers through thick dark hair.

"And we're still standing out here in the rain, why?" He replied to you, tinges of impatience in his voice as he takes no notice of you apologizing to him. Yes, this bothers you. But lately? You can't seem to pay much mind to it. As in, this has become a normal thing that you've dealt with about Damian. He gets arrogant, plays things off as him not caring about it.

But when he walks past you and his hand just slightly brushes against your own for literally less than a second? It's an unfamiliar feeling that you're not exactly familiar used to comparing to your emotions on Damian strike your head. His hand just barely brushes against yours as he walks away from the Bookstore, your chest grows warm aside from all the cold rain water drenching everything.

Makes you stop everything you were thinking about, and stutter your words that break your train of thought. And you knew Damian probably just planned on going home, to be out of the rain most likely. But when you words stumble across your tongue, it's too late to take them back and you've already made the invitation.

"D-Do you want to stay a little bit? My shift doesn't start until another hour." You said, shoving your hands into your wet and soggy pockets while pointing the toe of your boot to a rock and nudging it a little bit while you waited for Damian to answer you.

He turned around, slowly at best. Crossed his arms and gave you a look that basically screamed, what are you doing? One minute, you're yelling at him and accusing him of stealing a ring. Not just any ring, but a family ring. The next? He doesn't know if he thinks this counts as you asking him out on a date, or just your way of making up for it.

"C'mon, you must live pretty far. At least wait till the rain clears up." You have a point, and Damian knows you do. But just to spite you, Damian would walk all the way home without taking any buses or taxi's. Just to spite anybody, really. But instead? He finds himself agreeing with you, not exactly heartfully really, but none the less? He's walking ahead of you into the Bookstore anyways.

**

Alright, so maybe Damian didn't stay for more than fifteen minutes. He stayed long enough for hot coffee and a single piece of cake that he more or less picked at with a plastic fork. It was weird, because the entire time he didn't seem like he was really there. He'd talk to you, but ask you about fencing. God, he's gotta be the only friend you have that actually cares about fencing.

And whenever you caught him scowling at nothing or just spacing off on the wall behind you, you'd ask him if everything's alright. He'd call your concerns ridiculous and irrelevant, but everything was fine.

He asked which part of fencing did you take in the most, and you responded with sabre. At that, he seemed to smirk a bit. Why? Sabre is one of the more aggressive parts of fencing. The sabre sword is different from all the others, it's slightly more curved and has the handle that's more different and easier to hold. You always found epee handles too confusing, and hates having the wire a chord through your suit that would let out a loud dinging sound if you were the one who lost the bout. Thankfully, that only happens to you when you aren't paying attention, or you let it happen.

What you like about Sabre fencing is you can score by using the edge of the blade, instead of only the tip of the blade. And that's exactly why sabre fencing is more more of a faster and offensive type of fencing. Somebody is always moving before the other person, and when you aren't on the offensive side? You're only trying to be a stronger offense. Self defense? What's self defense? All jokes aside, if you have to fight on the defense, you will. But it doesn't happen often.