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It's not often that they have time for this.
Tangled up in one another's limbs, skin against skin, as they simply hold one another. It's something she'd never realized how good it could be until she had it. That feeling of safety, as she rested her head against Alex's collarbone and listened to him breathe, listened to his heartbeat as he lived .
Silently, as Alex breathes around her, Farah’s fingers silently trace over keloid lines and patches of gnarled flesh.
One of the scars she finds on his left arm piques her interest enough to break the silence. It’s buried under his tattoos and clearly old, nearly smoothed over despite being nearly five centimeters in length. “How did you get this one?” She asks as she runs her index finger along it, watching his muscles twitch at the touch.
“Hm?” He shifts a bit, clearly drowsy, but recognition lights in his eyes when he follows her finger. “Oh, heh, not my brightest moment.” His head flops back down, chin settling back in amongst her hair as he lets out a thoughtful noise. “I think I was like… ten, maybe? Climbed a tree, got scared, couldn’t get down. Ended up losing my footing and fell out.” He chuckles as he speaks, stopping only long enough to let his mouth split in a small yawn.
“Was it bad?” Her finger traces it again, something so benign compared to the rest of his scars.
“Well, as a kid, sure. Bled like a mother, had to be rushed to the ER. More stitches than I can even remember now.” An injury that scarred him so deeply, and yet… he can laugh about it now.
It’s still astounding.
“But now… Eh, well, it’s got nothing on that knife to the ribs I got back in the square.” His arms flex when he says that, and her eyes dart down to one of his freshest scars, an ugly thing from a rusty, notched blade.
A blade he’d taken for her.
A second time, she almost lost him.
He never seemed to mind his scars, laughed about them, and told the memories of them as though he were fond .
But in truth, his scars scared her, his flippancy terrifying.
Because she had no idea how many more he’d incur for her?
She was not naive enough to think it would be none.