Flowers//Elavan

~18~

There's a saying that goes, "Slow and steady wins the race." And so, that was what Avan and Liz were doing. They were taking things at a slower pace than usual, and they've gone quite far from the awkward fumbling over words and all the uncharacteristic snapping. Long gone were the days of tiptoeing around the words husband and wife. Although, things still remained pretty platonic between them, at the very least, they were trying.

Liz and Avan have fallen back into their lunch break routine. He would knock on her door with the same curious gleam in his beautiful brown eyes. She would allow him to come in and would greet him with a warm smile, or if it was a good day, a quick hug. They wouldn't do anything too affectionate, just talk and talk until it was time for Avan to leave.

When he did leave, he would always turn to her before he left the door. A look of pure adoration would grace his features.

"I love you," he would say.

"I know," came her reply.

It wasn't the 'I love you too' that he's been yearning to hear from her lips. One would think he would be pained by her daily reply, but the fact of the matter is he isn't. Maybe she didn't love him back the same way she used to or she did but wasn't comfortable with saying it back. It didn't matter to him. What was important was that his wife knew how much he loved her. As long as she kept in her mind that she was loved, that would be enough for him for now.

Avan finished up his last pediatric case for the morning and printed out the progress chart for the child's parents to have. He rushed towards his locker room and brought out his laptop along with the brown paper bag that contained his lunch. Softly closing his locker, he jogged his way to his wife's room.

From outside her glass window, he watched as she picked at the food which the institute served her. She looked at it with a sombre look on her face, like she was quite disgusted at it.

"Mush for lunch, huh?" he joked, peaking through the door.

"You better have brought me good food, husband," she crossed her arms.

Avan had to smile at how she said the word husband. For once, it didn't sound like a curse word slipping out of her mouth. This time, it just sounded like she was dropping a fact, nothing less and nothing more.

"I brought you a quinoa bowl, wife."

She visually cringed. It wasn't like she didn't want to be called his wife because that's exactly who she was to him. Liz just wasn't used to it. To be fair, it has only been a few days since she learned of her real standing in his life.

He chuckles at her expression and pinches her cheek before taking out her food and laying it on her lap. The tray that was provided with the medical institute's food was placed at the foot of her bed as Avan took its place by Liz.

"How was your morning?" she asked as she started digging into her food.

"It was alright. I didn't get peed on today so that's good," he chuckles. "How was yours?"

"Fought a couple dragons," she chides. "But seriously, Av, it's so boring here. I wanna go home."

"No one will watch you at home," he apologetically smiles at her.

"I'm not a child," she pouts. "Take me home, Avan, please."

Liz didn't know where that came from. It was a fact that she no longer wanted to stay in the institute because it made her lonely. But that didn't necessarily mean she wanted to come home with Avan. She knew she had to at some point because being married, they had to share a residence. That, however, was not something she was jumping up and down for.

Did she trust Avan? Of course. But did she want to be sleeping in the same house and bed with him again? She didn't have an answer for that.

"I couldn't leave you alone at home without someone to take care of you especially with the whole amnesia thing," he rubs his nape. "But now that your hippocampus is nearly fully recovered, I can take you home soon."

"Yay," she softly smiles, just to satisfy him.

Avan was really looking forward to finally being able to bring her home. It would be so good to be coming home to someone again, other than Mia that is. Like she said in her vows, he would come home from a long day to her embrace and she would remind him that the night was young and it will only get better.

But he still had one problem to take care of. An Amelia-shaped problem that he still had to tell her about. He had to tell her at some point or she would remember it sooner or later. Avan would do it soon, but not yet.

Sighing in frustration, he pulls his laptop into his lap and begins typing things down. His bowl of food was only halfway done but he needed to start working on a couple reports.

Liz notices the wrinkles on his forehead and puts aside her bowl as well.

"Hubby, what's wrong?"

That endearment tugged on his heartstrings. His head snaps towards her concerned face with a huge grin on his lips.

"What did you call me?" he quirks up his eyebrows in a teasing manner.

"H-hubby?" she blushed. "I mean, you're my husband and hubby is short for husband so I guess it makes sense and uhm..."

He chuckles, "God, I love you."

She nods silently, swiping her tongue over her front teeth. Wordlessness was the only thing she could offer him when he told her that. Deep down inside, she did have love for Avan but she didn't want him to expect anything from her just yet. She needed to figure things out with herself before having to be responsible for her husband's feelings once more.

"To answer your question, nothing's wrong. I just have a lot of evaluation reports to make for my pediatric cases," he gestures to the screen.

"That's boring," Liz crinkles her nose. "Take a break."

"I'd love to but there's so much of them."

"Alexander Hamilton ended up cheating on his wife when he didn't take a break," she threatened him.

Avan lets out a good laugh at her statement before pinching her nose.

"I'm not Hamilton. I'll be fine. Look at this," he closes the file he was working on and showed her how his desktop was a picture of her in a beautiful white dress with him hugging her from behind, nose nuzzled on her cheek. "Constant reminder of what I have to lose."

Liz feels her cheeks warm up at the sight. It was probably normal for husbands to have their wives as their wallpaper. So why did it make her feel all these butterflies in the pit of her stomach?

"When was that picture taken, Hu-Avan?" she was about to say hubby again so she had to bite her tongue. It was like it rolled off her tongue so naturally after she had said it a while ago.

He smiles contentedly at the picture before lovingly looking at her.

"On our wedding day."

Liz nods, not knowing what more to say. She took a quick glance at the picture and saw the big, satisfied smile she had on her face as he affectionately nuzzled her. His brown orbs were focused on her and looked at her with so much love.

She thinks of how wonderful their life must have been together, and couldn't help but feel guilty for ruining that. So, she was going to try harder to remember.
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I'm sorry for not updating, our wifi sucks.

There are more days than I can count where it is SO hard to love myself. Unfortunately, today was one of those days. But it'll be okay. Better days will come. Ily

Hope you enjoyed this. Don't be afraid to comment down your thoughts! Lots of love! Be kind, y'all!