To Write Love On His Arms

o14

“Matty, can you come over here?” Austin called out from the living room. Matty didn’t hear the TV playing in the background, but he could hear the seriousness in his husband’s voice which sort of worried him. “Now.”

Matty got up from his and Austin’s king sized bed, walking to the living room where he found the tattooed man quietly sitting on the couch, playing with his tattooed fingers. “What’s wrong, Aus?”

Austin sighed heavily, not once making eye contact with Matty. “W-why did you tell Dr. Fisher that I-I’m doing the p-procedure?” he asked in a whisper.

“Aus—“

“Why, Matty? What’s so important that you told him that I would still continue doing the operation, huh?” Austin nearly shouted, finally looking at Matty. Austin’s once happy brown eyes looked so lifeless, so…hopeless.

“Because your heart is not gonna last much longer, Austin! He told me like he didn’t give two shits. Austin, I-I don’t want your heart to fail so soon, I don’t want you g-gone.”

“I-I,” Austin said, not knowing what else to say. He couldn’t believe that this is was exactly why Matty told Dr. Fisher that he was doing the operation, because he didn’t have much longer to live. “I-I didn’t know.”

Matty hugged Austin, trying to hold back the river of tears that were threatening to spill down. “You deserve to live a long happy life, love. I don’t want you to die anytime soon. You always said to do what I wanna do, and this is what I wanna do. I want you to live the rest of your life without your heart getting in the way. I want you to have fun riding rollercoasters without your heart failing by the first drop. I want you to be able to play baseball like you used to. I want you to do whatever you couldn’t without your damn heart in the way of that.”

“Are you sure this is what you want?” Austin questioned in a whisper tone. Although all those things did sound nice to do, he just wished he could do that and still have his amazing husband by his side.

“Yes.”