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“Jesus fucking Christ, be careful!!” She hissed for the second time glaring at him. He was currently focused on the bandage coiling around her ankle. He had been checking on it for the last ten minutes, adjusting and tightening the thing until she cursed and threatened to send him to sleep on the couch.
He chuckled. His stubborn Jude, always throwing daggers at people at the smallest inconvenience. Unfortunately for her, it only made him want to tease her even more. “Maybe if someone hadn’t been running around, she wouldn’t have sprained her ankle and we wouldn’t be here.”
“Ok first of all I wasn’t running around, those damned imps were chasing the cat and someone needed to stop them.” Jude groaned laying back on the couch. “Second of all, it wasn’t my fault that the floor was all wet because some god decided it was a nice moment to send a storm.”
“Those imps as you call them are your students, love.” He said, finally leaving her poor limb alone and tugging it back under the fluffy blanket. “And that kitten was scared, you can’t really blame him.”
Cardan couldn’t help the grin that left his face as Jude squinted at said cat, now dry and comfortably sleeping on the opposite couch. Besides, he was no fool. The real reason she was so pissed had less to do with her kindergarten kids making a mess or his choice to take the animal with them, and more with the embarrassment of falling in front of the entire group.
While he liked to keep his students inside reading fairy-tales or drawing, Jude preferred taking hers out to the front yard to do all kinds of activities. The children adored her, even when she was kind of scary sometimes. As for Cardan, he loved to watch her from the window. Her energy, her spirit. It was hypnotizing.
The day before though, a storm took Jude’s group by surprise in the middle of a class, forcing them to hide under a dome and wait for it to be over. It all happened too quickly. A thunder roared, making the windows tremble. A stray cat, visibly terrified, ran across the yard looking for shelter. Three children bolted behind it, yelling something Cardan couldn’t understand. In less than a second Jude had hurried behind them urging them to return. Somehow, she missed a hole on the ground that was covered by the rain.
Even behind a window and the sound of the rain, his heart missed a beat as he faintly heard Jude’s scream as her foot twisted and she fell. He was only half-aware of his voice telling his students to remain on their seats before he ran out of the classroom.
The doctor had sent her home for the rest of the week since her ankle was significantly injured. Some scars and bruises ran up her left arm, as she’d landed on top of it.
So here he was, taking care of his grumpy girlfriend who seemed incapable of staying still for more than two minutes. Cardan started to get up when Jude stopped him by tugging his sleeve.
“Why don’t you call the school and say you’re ill?” She pouted. “You can’t leave me alone with that beast.”
“I’m sure you’ll be safe. If it tries to set the place on fire though, call me.”
He had no intentions of returning back to the school, but the principal agreed to grant him a couple of days off to take care of Jude in exchange for helping him organize some documents they used for class. An easy task Cardan could finish at home. So he picked them up and returned to the apartment, just stopping a moment to buy some cookies Jude adored.
By the time he parked the car back at home it had started to rain again, barely giving him time to get inside before getting all soaked.
“Jude?” He called, taking off his wet coat and dropping it over a chair.
Cardan frowned at her lack of answer, walking to the living room and fighting to bite back a chuckle at the sight of her.
Curled adorably under the blanket and messy hair framing that face that filled him with so much peace, Jude rested in the same spot he’d left her, except she was now deeply asleep. The kitten tucked in the crook of her neck. So much for a wild beast, he thought.
Taking off his shoes and not bothering to turn on the lights, he slid into the narrow space between her back and the couch and held her tenderly. He cooed as he felt her shift, burying his nose in the wild curls. She was warm and the scent of her violet soap covered her skin. The raindrops hit the window in an almost rhythmic pace.
After a few minutes Jude mumbled his name, barely awake. The cat protested as she turned her head to him. “I was ambushed by the monster.” He grinned at the grogginess in her voice.
“I can see that.” Trying to be as gentle as possible, he moved the little creature to the hollow spot between their feet where it immediately returned to sleep. Taking advantage of the free spot, Cardan caressed the skin of her neck with his nose. “Maybe I envy him just a little.”
She flashed him a teasing smile, fully turning so she could face him with still hooded eyes. He didn’t miss the small wince that crossed her face. “Do you now?”
He nodded before surveying her, frowning. “How are you feeling? Does it still hurt?”
Jude shrugged, “Only a little. It’ll pass.”
Cardan sighed, circling her with his arms again. “I’ll be here… Making sure you don’t attempt to follow another cat to the top of the building or something.”
She nudged him with a scoff. “Why don’t you make sure to tell your jokes when your throat is not at my hand’s reach?”
“Kinky.” he purred over her mouth, pressing their bodies tighter before taking her lower lip between his teeth, letting it go before she could deepen the kiss. “But as tempting as your hands around my neck might be, you need to rest.”
“I’ve been resting the whole day.” She whined, letting her head fall back on the pillow. Her eyes tell another story though, starting to close again.
Taking the blanket to cover them both, he cupped her cheek with a hand, pressing a kiss to her brow. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise. Now go to sleep, wife.”
“Wife, huh?” Jude breathed, her voice almost unintelligible “You missed a step there.”
“Did I? My sleep deprived mind is probably playing tricks on me.”
She grinned a little but didn’t answer back, her breathing evened.
Maybe he was just getting ahead of things. Or maybe not, since a small ring had spent already a month hidden on top of a shelf Jude couldn’t reach. Waiting.
Cardan wasn’t so sure yet of what the right moment would be, he’d spent so much of his life surrounded by uncertainty. But looking at her in his arms, all disheveled and with pillow lines on her cheek, he knew there was no way he wished to be elsewhere.
As rain thickened outside, he laid his head next to hers and caressed her cheek again, “Marry me, Jude Duarte.”