(I can’t find motivation to finish the next chapter of my fic so I kinda wrote this and thought on sharing this. Takes place before Ghost if you’re wondering, also kinda a little Vithur because they deserve love.) (.)
Slender hands shook their way through the cupboard, careful to not make too much noise, his fingers curled around the cracked old ceramic, the cold touched his warm fingertips and he melted with it hoping to ease his pain. The white hands took the mug out of its place and with a small clicking sound, he put it on the table. Next, his tired steps reached the coffee machine, he took the jar and watched how the liquid inside moved as if it wanted to make its way out, as if it was trapped or in jail, Arthur could relate with the coffee.
As hard as it was, with one hand he poured himself a cup of coffee, enough to drown on it, black as his thoughts and cold as his remaining hand. His gaze met the bitter and got lost on a sea of nothingness, was he even awake? He couldn’t tell when time right now felt like an illusion, and he wished he was living an illusion, a bad dream that went too far, but the sound of his heart beat constantly drumming at his ears dragged him to realize how real it all was, so he hated it.
He took a sip, it fell bitter into his stomach, it reached heavily his head but no amount of caffeine was enough to keep the sleepy young mechanic’s eyes open. Sip after sip, he finished his pool of coffee leaving only the dryish dust at the bottom of the cup, he moved the cup to his left, then to the right and saw sluggishly how it moved too, he tried imagine figures with the remainings, but the only thing he witnessed was a storm of shapeless bitterness.
“Arthur, what are you doing awake?”
Vivi sleepy voice called from kitchen’s entrance, her pajamas always oversized hung from her shoulders and the way they were folded made clear that she had been asleep just a moment ago. Blue hair ran in waves all over her head marking the spot were she met the pillow. The young woman had been staying at his house as his personal nurse, she basically proclaimed herself his nurse and she won’t accept a no for answer, either way she’ll make her way inside Arthur’s room to make sure that he got at least eight minutes of sleep, it was easier letting her take care of him than dealing with his angry uncle.
“Nothing, I’m just… finishing stuff.” he stated placing the empty mug next to him. “I’ll be done in short.”
She rubbed open her tired eyes, and not eating his words, she went to Arthur and grabbed him by his shoulders pushing him out of there. “You’re going to bed, now. No buts this time, mister.”
“Wait! I’ll make coffee.” she stopped pulling, he got her attention.
“One hour, then you’re off to bed.”
He filled the glass jar with tap water, right in the middle he stopped.
“What are you building anyway, I doubt is a car this time.” she leaned on the table, trusting it all her weight. “You just finished the swag van.”
“Don’t call my van like that...” he laughed. Arthur stopped the water and with a wet hand he tried to lift up the jar but it slipped to almost crash on the floor, but just when he expected the glass to shatter, Vivi quickly kept him from getting cuts. “and I’m building a hand…”
His nurse took the jar and poured the water on the machine’s container. “A hand?”
“Yeah, a mechanical hand.” his tone lowered, feeling useless. He scratched the back of his neck to distract him.
“Like, for the garage? Just like that hand from Iron Man? That’s freaking cool, Arthie!”
Arthur denied. “No, Vivi, a hand for me.”
She opened the doors of the bar, found the decaf coffee and she put three spoons on the filter. “Don’t you like your prosthetic? I haven’t seen you wear it in a while, the doctor said it would be useful once you get used to it.”
“I don’t care what the doc said.” Arthur explained with as much poison he could express on his voice. “They aren’t the ones that are using it anyway.”
Vivi frowned closing the machine’s cover, she pressed on trying to swallow her commentaries against Arthur’s statements.
“I understand, honey, but they literally studied for this several years, you should listen to them a little-”
“That’s what nobody understands! Because you’re not wearing a piece of plastic for the rest of your life!” he made a hard fist and punched the table causing Vivi to step back. “I feel useless Vivi! I’m not worth it! Not anymore at least… I’m a single handed freak that sooner or later will be left to rot! Just like- just like I’m leaving him...”
A tear rolled his face, and he hated it. Then other tears followed it, but he couldn’t hate them as well. He sobbed, he sobbed so bad that the pressure on his chest seemed tighter with every breath until the air would leave his body if nobody stopped him. And he wished for somebody to calm him down, he wished for the storm to let him rest in peace and not steal away his dreams.
“Oh, honey.” Her sleeves wrapped around Arthur’s thin body and she buried her face on his boney chest. Vivi’s cheeks were well pressed on him that she could feel his broken heart beat, beating so desperately fast as if it was about to stop at any moment, a detuned drum that needed direction again, she wanted to correct his inner orchestra.
Again her sleeve acted cleaning up his face, her pajama’s fabric was soft touching his dry and dirty face, Vivi’s hand run all across his factions and she treated them with a killer delicacy.
“You’re not useless.” she took his head and made eye contact, his dead and tired and broken eyes met her vivid and healing ones. “You’re not rotting away.” she cleaned the last tear. “You’re worth more than you think, don’t tell yourself otherwise.”
Arthur only nodded. Vivi warmed up a smile.
“I’ll serve coffee.” he said. “How much sugar would you like?”
“Two spoons, you know.”
But he put three, she always served her own coffee wrong.
Two cups in hand, he gave her one and they both drank it up. Arthur managed a small hug crossing his arm behind her back.
“How is it?”
“With the right amount of sugar.” she smiled and sipped one last time. “I told you I know my business.”
