how about kindness + stanley?
i was gonna go one way with this - but then started thinking about stanley and his daughter and basically i’m a softy for silent i love you’s through actions
“Can you peel this for me, papa?”
Stanley placed his pen down and let his daughter set a roundorange into his palm. She was old enough to peel it herself, but he knewwithout her saying that she liked it better when he did it for her.
He carefully peeled the orange, starting with a thumbnailunder the skin – careful not to pierce the flesh beneath. The air around himbecame quickly scented with citrus as the skin came off in jagged spirals, itwould be good enough for zest and compost.
He was watched by bright blue eyes as he nagged at the layerof pith; normally he would not bother with it, but she did not like it and sohe sat there picking strands of it off the outside.
When it came time to take sections from the whole, they wereput into neat little piles: one for him, one for her, over and over, andsometimes the odd piece remained. It would go to her, always and withouthesitation. He never before realized how much love could go into peeling anorange.
When the war ended, he came home and everything about himfelt changed even though he looked the same to everyone else. He was alwaysdistant, always quiet, always grim, but then he became more so.
His daughter saw he had changed, knew something in him wasdifferent but she was just a child and did not know how to fix it, fix him, soshe did what they always did.
She had come into his room one day after her mother camefrom the market, and he only looked over when the bed creaked and moved withher weight sitting beside him. In her hand was an orange and she gave him asimple request, “Can you peel this for me, papa?”
Whatever fog had overtaken him lifted. He blinked, then tookthe fruit, silently nodding.
(send me character/s + word)