Abbacchio Week Day 6: Break
Today's @abbacchioweek prompt, featuring Abba laid up with a broken foot and Narancia doing his best to be the grumpy man's caretaker XD
Being laid up was always the worst. Leone hated it, everyone knew he hated it, and thus gave him a wide berth.
Everyone except Narancia, who constantly came to bug him, asking him if he needed anything, if he needed his foot propped up because Fugo said it reduced the swelling, if he wanted a snack, if he wanted to watch something, if he was bored.
“I need to be left alone.” Leone growled over and over again.
And Narancia would shrug, leave, and then be back an hour later, repeating the list of things yet again.
As if it wasn’t bad enough to be unable to move around very well due to his broken ankle, it looked like Abbacchio would also have to endure this incessant purgatory of Narancia bugging him.
He finally snapped when Narancia offered to bring the tv or the gaming system into Leone’s room so he could play with it.
“I don’t need any of that crap, I just need to be left alone! Just go away and let me have two damn minutes of silence!”
Narancia’s face fell instantly and his shoulders slumped. He looked away like a kicked puppy and started to turn to the door. “Yeah, okay. Sorry, Abbacchio.”
And dammit if Leone didn’t feel absolutely awful after that.
He hadn’t really meant to yell at the kid, he was just frustrated, mostly with being cooped up. It always put him on edge. And really, didn’t Narancia know better by now than to pick at him?
You can’t blame the kid, he admonished himself. It wasn’t Narancia’s fault he cared.
Leone sighed, lying in bed for a long time, pondering what he should do, then finally sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, grabbing the crutches resting nearby.
He hobbled out to the living room seeing Narancia curled in one corner of the couch, staring blankly at the television. Leone felt his heart prick in guilt. He might have had a broken foot but he hadn’t intended to break the kid’s heart as well.
He sat down heavily with a grunt and Narancia glanced at him in surprise before looking away again.
Leone was silent for a long moment before he took a deep breath. “Sorry I yelled at you.”
Narancia shrugged. “I know I’m annoying, you don’t have to tell me.”
Leone rolled his eyes and reached out to ruffle the kid’s hair. “Maybe a little, but I don’t mind so much. I know you care about people, that’s a skill I’m not that great at. You should be proud.”
Narancia finally looked over at him. “You care about people too, Abbacchio,” he said firmly.
Leone was slightly taken aback, but didn’t say anything. He couldn’t deny that he cared, sometimes too much. He just wasn’t as good at showing it.
Narancia suddenly scooted around, grabbing a pillow and setting it on the coffee table so Leone could prop his broken foot up. “Here, get comfy. Let’s watch a movie. I’ll make popcorn!”
Leone smiled slightly always admiring how the kid could pop back so quickly and decided he needed to make more of an effort not to hurt him in the future.