Scale - Tsukishima Kei

Chapter 21

"Welcome home sweetie!" My mom throws her hands up in the air as she pushes the door open for me.

"Thank you." I laugh, slipping off my shoes and holding the door open for Tsukishima to come in. "Where's dad?" I ask and my mother sighs.

"I don't even want to think about that man right now." She groans. "He's at work, being stubborn as hell."

"It's okay..." I give her a reassuring smile.

"Anyways, it's a happy day today! I'm going to start cooking for us three. You two go sit in the living room and watch something." She opens her arms and envelopes me into a hug. "I'm so glad you're back home." She says quietly before disappearing into the kitchen.

"Come on." Tsukishima grabs my hand and leads me to the living room. We sit on the couch, so close to each other that our legs and arms touch.

He wraps an arm around me, but I keep my hands in my lap.

"You can watch whatever you want." I say quietly.

I've been awake for two days now, and Tsukishima has not left my side except for school and his last volleyball game. He said he didn't want to talk about it because he wants to focus on rekindling our relationship, but I can't help but to think maybe he lost.

"I don't really want to watch anything. You can put something on." He replies and I grab the controller, switching the tv on.

I scroll through the recorded movies, trying to find what I know he likes.

Oh! There.

I press on Jurassic Park, and he snaps his neck to look at me.

"Why that one?" He asks curiously.

"Because it looked cool." I lie. His face falls but he nods, looking back up at the screen.

"I love you." He randomly says. I glance at him before scooting over on the couch to put some distance between us.

He keeps doing that. At random times, he'll just blurt out that he loves me. I don't like it. It makes me remember when I tried telling him and he...yeah.

Even though I forgave him in my head, it still hurts. The way he looked at me, the way his voice turned cold. It all hurts.

"Stop saying that..." I whisper.

"No." Is all he says before scooting over to wrap his arm around me again. "Are you tired? If you want, you can go take a nap."

"I was unconscious for weeks. I'm not exactly jumping at the idea of going to sleep." I snort and he sighs.

"I'm sorry" He mumbles.

"Stop apologizing. Stop telling me that you love me. You're like- I don't know. You're not like this." I bite the insides of my cheeks, pursing my lips.

If he was just mean and treated me like he treated other people, it would be fine. It's cute how soft he is, but it's off putting knowing it's because bad things happened.

"Then...how am I like? I thought you don't remember me." He raises an eyebrow and I mentally punch myself.

Duh, you big dummy! Now you exposed yourself.

"I-I remember little bits and pieces." I say. "Mostly it's you calling me stupid or staring at me with a blank face."

"Oh, sorry." His face falls. "Well, the fact what you got badly hurt made me realize that there's no point in trying to hide what I feel. It's what got you hurt in the first place. I know it's selfish of me, but I want to keep you by my side at all times. I want to protect you like I was supposed to. So I don't care about hiding my emotions with you anymore. I just want you." He cups my cheek with his free hand and rubs his thumb against my skin.