Blackout. [COMPLETED]

Instinct.

"I'm so sorry," I mumbled apologetically, holding the cover of a book loose in my hands. "I didn't mean to break it."

"It's fine, Ay," David said reassuringly. "I didn't like that book much anyway."

"But its an antique."

"Ayla, I promise it's fine. I really don't mind." He took the book from my hands to stop me fidgeting and watched as I twiddled my thumbs nervously. He tilted my chin up with his finger and looked down at me through his golden eyes. "Okay?"

I shrugged, looking away. "Fine."

"Good," he said smiling, grazing his hand across my jaw, then dropping it to his side. "So what did you think of Austin yesterday?" He walked around to the shelf behind me and shoved the book on top of a pile of others.

"He seemed nice. I saw my reflection on the bonnet of his car which was a bit weird," I replied, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear and remembering what I looked like. I ran my finger across my nose, as if to feel if my freckles were still there.

"Oh, really? I forgot you hadn't seen yourself, you should have told me." David rested his head on my shoulder from behind me, and wrapped his arms around my waist. "What did you think?"

"It was fabulous, I'm beautiful," I hummed sarcastically, pushing his arms away and walking through into the kitchen. I took an apple from a bowl and rubbed it onto the cotton of my shirt, checking for any bruises. I held another fruit out to him. "You?" I said, offering him an apple.

"I don't know, I'm alright," he said, looking at his reflection in his phone. He ran his hand through his floppy, dark hair and watched as it settled. I resisted the urge to laugh as I held out the fruit and watched him straightening his eyebrows with his finger. 

"I was, um, offering you an apple," I said to him, putting it down on the counter in front of me. He looked up at the fruit and quickly shoved his phone into his pocket.

"Yeah, sorry, I know. I was checking for reception," he muttered, grabbing the fruit and rubbing it on the hem of his shirt and walking out into the library.

I bit into the apple and wiped my lips with the back of my hand, sitting down on a small wooden stall in the corner. I turned the fruit in my hands as I chewed.

"You okay?" he asked me, leaning against the doorframe, twirling the apple by the stalk between his fingers. I couldn't stop thinking about the patient.

"Yeah, I'm great. Just a bit cold," I lied. Apart from my hands, that were a little cold from the apple, I was actually a bit too warm. David nodded, putting his apple on a little table by the door and pulling a soft, thick, woolen blanket out from under one of the sofa cushions. He came over and slipped it over my shoulders, pulling it around me and kneeling down.

"Why didn't you tell me this was here last night so that I didn't freeze to death in my sleep?" I asked, smiling. I pulled the blanket up to my chin and, feeling my cool hands against my neck, rubbed them together to warm them up.

"Why are you so cold? Are you okay?" David asked, a tone of concern ringing through his voice. I leant forwards so that my forehead was against his, and looked down into his eyes.

"I'm fine," I whispered. "Stop worrying about me." I opened my arms and wrapped them around him, so that we were both encased in a warm coccoon. 

Looking up at the fairy lights above us, I admired how he had decorated his home with them. Even when they were turned off, like now, they looked like vines wrapping around the lights and the doorframes, and when they were turned on the bulbs glowed like flowers.