A deal of protection

Chapter 8: Is this love? Part I

When Mae opened her eyes all she saw was a forest that expanded in all directions, she was running but she did not know from what, her clothes were ragged and ruined, she wore a shirt that had the sleeves ripped off and a few buttons missing, the dress she was wearing had some tears around it but the most notable one was the one that seemed to rip the dress so it would reach right above her knees on certain spots, she had no shoes and her hair was loose, all she was doing was running away from something, something that she did not know but scared her to her very core nonetheless, as she ran she tripped more than once but quickly got up, tripping less and less after every time she did so, even though she felt powerful the thing she was running from made her feel that no matter what she did she could not run away from, that her very existence depended on the only thing she was doing, running as much as she could, quickly crossing a pond and jumping over several fallen trees and rocks that were strewn around with the agility of a cat, she was agile and had always been, she did not get tired as easily yet here she felt as if every breath she took was burning her lungs and throat, but she kept running, and running, and running until she saw a light at the end of some trees and just before she could reach the light, the place where she could feel safe she felt how something grabbed her leg and she was pulled back, she screamed and cried as she felt that, she screamed until she passed out and...

She woke up, when she opened her eyes she saw Abel hugging her tightly as he rubbed her back, then she felt the wetness on the pillow but she could not hear what Abel was saying, but she did not need to, it was all a dream after all, a dream like the ones she had been having those last nights, but at least now she took a bit of comfort in Abel's embrace and she did the only thing her body told her to do, she hugged Abel back and she started to cry, weeping a bit as she did so, and yet Abel did not let go of her, rubbing her back as she cried her eyes out, she cried tears formed from a mix of feelings, fear, dread and a deep sadness that tore into her soul for some reason, as if she had lost something so dear to her that she could not live without and as if she had experienced something so horrible that she could not tell, and yet, despite how much she was crying Abel did not ask her what was wrong, he just hugged her tightly and said things that at the moment she did not understand but still were managing to soothe her even if it was a little bit, and she was thankful for that, she started to cry louder and Abel's embrace got even tighter, she could feel that he did care about her enough to comfort her without any questions asked, how she remembered their short conversation before she fell asleep and how he agreed to hug her while she sleeped to make her feel a bit better, how Abel knew exactly how she must be feeling as if he had lived through the same and he was helping her through the turmoil of feeling that she was in, never letting go of her as her heart was racing, her breath was short and her tears fell like droplets on a storm.

After a few more minutes she fell asleep, she was tired of crying that much and she fell back asleep, this time to a much needed dreamless sleep, and Abel could see that after she fell asleep a dumb little smile formed on her face as she kept her arms around him, and he kept his one good arm around her in a gentleness he had not shown in months until that point.

Abel's POV

He woke up when he heard soft sniffs coming from Mae as he held her while she slept, he told her he would so he did, he wouldn't shy away from giving her a bit of comfort if she needed it to fall asleep, when he heard Mae sniffing and looked down he noticed that she was crying, tears falling down her cheeks as she was mumbling incoherently as she slept, the only words he could make out was "Stop" and "No", so he used his telekinesis to gently nudge her as he embraced her using his good arm, he then started speaking.

--"Mae, everything is ok, it was just a dream, i am here to protect you" he kept repeating those words over and over again, he knew that she wasn't registering what he was saying, he knew as soon as she kept crying and started to hug him back, he gently used his telekinesis to position her arms so they would not hurt his bad hand and he kept repeating the same words as he hugged her even tighter, he wasn't thinking more than letting his own body do what it thought it should do for once, trusting his gut instinct and not really thinking much since he understood what she was experiencing the instant that Mae's weeping got loud enough for him to hear without paying much attention to it, he knew thay the only thing Mae needed right now was the knowledge that she was safe, and that's all he did, try and make her feel safe right there.