That Day

It had been a few days since the search for Johnathan had ended, and your life had gotten much better with him back in it. You’ve been letting him crash at your apartment since, and life with your new partner was amazing. Except for the fact that he completely took over your office, and had been working on different experiments with varying results in there.

Despite the fires he started and the time he accidentally dropped your favorite plant into a portal to an unknown dimension, you were incredibly grateful for his presence.

You’re taking a nap in your room when you’re woken by a crash. Jumping out of bed, you run to your office and see John stomping out of the room.

“Hey, what’s up?” You ask nervously.

“How can you talk to me like I’m the person I’ve always been? Like I’m not some fucked-up result of a workplace accident that can’t do anything right?” John slams a book on the floor and starts walking away. You frantically run in front of him, trying to stop him from reaching the door.

“What do you mean? You are the person you’ve always been, I don’t c-”

“Cut the bullshit.” John interjects. “You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t-” John tries to step past you but you interrupt his path again.

“You know you can’t stop me, right?” John says, reaching to pull a spot off his body.

“Yes, but the fact that I’m trying to should mean something. Please stay here, please just talk to me.” You insist, eyes watering.

“Talk about what? About how I’m a monster now, about how nobody will look at me, about how I’ve lost everything?”

“You haven’t lost me.”

“Why?” John’s voice wavers.

“Johnny…” You place a hand on his face and stroke his cheek as tears stream down your face. John’s hand slowly reaches up to rest on top of yours and he sighs. He shuffles over to the couch, sitting down and resting his face in his hands.

You hesitantly follow him, sitting down and gently placing your hand on his shoulder. Silently rubbing your thumb in circles, you look at John. Not knowing what to say but feeling a need to break the silence, you open your mouth to speak but are stopped when John’s head crashes into your chest and he tearlessly sobs. After processing what just happened, you wrap your arms tightly around him.

“I’m sorry, I…” John whimpers. You’re not really sure what to do, as you’re still unaware of what caused this, so you just rub his back.

“Johnny, I’m not really sure what’s going on, but… I’m not gonna leave you.”

“But you want to change me,” John interjects.

“What? When did I say that?” You ask, surprised.

“All the time you say that you wish you were there when it happened. You wish that you were there that day so things would be different.”

“I don’t want to change you. I love you no matter what you look like, and quite honestly I find you just as attractive now as I did before. The only reason I wish I was there was so I could have been with you and been there for you. And I wish I was there so I wouldn’t have been without you those months. It’s selfish, but I was alone and had no clue where you were. I thought I had lost the one person I had truly been in love with…” Your sentence trails off as you lift John’s chin with your hand, looking at the spot on his face that was now swirling around the edges. Smaller spots fell off every now and then, looking like tears streaming down his face.

“I’m not gonna leave you. You’re mine and I wouldn’t ask for you any other way than who you are now.” You gently stroke his cheek with your thumb and lean in to gently kiss his forehead. As your lips connect with the skin above his spot, you hear a small whine and you pull back.

“Are you okay?” You ask, worried you did something wrong.

“Yeah, I just…can you do that again?” John asks quietly. A grin spreads on your face and you place another gentle kiss on his forehead, at which John sighs contently.

Deciding that you had lifted his mood enough, you grab his face with both hands and leave small pecks all over. John squeaks and tries to pull away in response, but you assault him with kisses for a moment longer before letting him go. He shakes his head at you before sighing and placing his own hand on your face.

“You’ve always been so good with words. You know exactly what I need to hear. Thank you.” John leans in and nuzzles his head against your cheek, which makes you laugh.

“What was that?”

“Well I can’t really kiss you, unless you want to get pulled into a portal to a random dimension…it’s my compromise.” John offers.

“I love it.”