your eyes ~ RUEL FAN FIC ~

Ruel's POV

I know she's engrossed in her own thoughts so I continue brushing the hair back, smoothing it donn. My hand brushes against her cheek and i impulsively jerk it back. Embarrassment trembles through me.

"Should we go up?" I suggest. 

"Sure." She says, sitting up.

We walk back upstairs in silence, and in our room the sun is shining directly onto the beds so we both lie and scroll through our phones. 

"I'm going to get ready now." She says after a while. I don't look up but hear the bathroom door close.

My tense body relaxes in the face of not having to put on an act. Not that there was much act, just acting unbothered and as if nothing matters.

 I hear the taps turn on and water splashing into the bottom of the bath. Thinking of how big it is, filling it will take a while. But it's barely five minutes before the taps go off and there's the splash of someone getting in.

"Oi, come hop in with me."

I almost cringe.

"I'm wearing a bikini idiot."

I sigh and push open the door. She's sitting on the ledge staring at me, and nods her head to the spot behind me. 

I leave the door open, pull of my shirt, climb in and sit down next to her. The water is hot and perfumed with sweet lavender.

Through the open door we can still see the city and sun so for a while we sit there, pointing things out to each other, like tiny cars zipping along strings of road, delicate sticks and leaves that are trees. 

Clouds are coming over quickly and it gets dark, a stark contrast to the warm morning in the sun.

"Rain." Says Alira, pointing out to the edge of the city where fields start sprawling, where dark misty turbines are winding down from the clouds. I nod silently, not understanding why this is so special, when I realise the reason they left their home was because of drought.

"I bet you miss home." I whisper.

"Sometimes. But I'm glad we came here."

"Why? Who would want to leave their home because of, well, natural disaster kind of, that was, you know, ruining life? You lost everything."

"I gained a lot as well."

"Like?"

Maybe I shouldn't have asked because I know the answer is bad.

"The beach. Xena. My mum, for one last time. Friends, real friends. You. Coco. Sylvie. Your parents. Wilbur." She almost laughs. 

The words 'real friends' ring in my head. And how my name came after that. What am I? What is she? We just coexist and that's ok. 

"I haven't told you much about my life." I say quietly.

"Go on then." It's an invitation to talk. So I do.

There's stuff I haven't told anyone before, stuff that I've cried about on previous occasions, things I wish didn't have to be there.

"And that's kind of... my life." It sounds to cliche, too fake. Too little, too late.

"Have you told anyone else?" Alira asks softly.

I shake my head and then look down at the water.

I don't see it but I feel it. The soft pressure of her head come down on my shoulder as she leans on me. Strands of wet hair over my arm.

I feel a weight go away, not hers but a kind of imaginary one. Someone is there, who knows what it's like to be so alone but so surrounded.