Lesson 143- When you get hurt, don’t ignore it.

I’m sitting on Tori’s couch while he walks around the house anxiously. It’s like he doesn’t quite know what to do with himself.
“Do you want a drink? Something to eat?” He offers.
“I’m fine Tori. Come sit with me, we should talk.” I pat the couch beside me and he sighs, then nods and drops into the seat next to me.
“What do you want to talk about?” He asks quietly and I raise an eyebrow.
“I should think that’s fairly obvious, Tori. What are we going to do?” I ask. Torin hesitates.
“You can stay here, where it’s safe. It’s much more secure than the bar. No one could ever get to you here.” He says hopefully and I sigh sadly.
“Tori… You know this won’t work.” I start, but he continues.
“I… I could bring your brother here… To visit you sometimes. You wouldn’t have to worry about anything. I could bring Crash too. You could keep your phone, you could spend time in the backyard too if you wanted to go outside. It wouldn’t be so bad. I could keep you safe here.” He rambles. Eventually, I stop him with a hand on his arm.
“Tori, stop. This isn’t the answer and you know it. Locking me away didn’t work before and it isn’t going to work now. I can’t just stay and hide here forever. I appreciate you bringing me here, really. I know that this place is important to you and I’m so happy that you trust me enough to be here. But that doesn’t mean this will work out. I want to have a life Tori, I can’t just be hidden away from the world here, even if it is with you.” I say gently but firmly, leaving no place for argument. Torin sighs, clearly disappointed.
“I… I suppose I knew you would say that. But I really don’t know what else to do Rina. I want you to be safe, I need you to be safe, but I’m only one person. I can only do so much. I can’t be everywhere at once, and I can’t fight everyone. Eventually, someone will come along that I can’t resist. At least here I know I can protect you. I… I can’t risk you Rina.” Torin hesitates for a second.
“I’m in love with you. I can’t let you get hurt again.” He blurts the words out, then his ears flush red.

Torin drops his gaze from mine, but they only land on the bandage on my face and his expression looks pained. My heart is racing. Hearing him say he loves me… Well it’s almost perfect, and there’s no more binding spell either. But he still wants to cloister me away, and I’m a little worried that confessing my own feelings will only make that worse. We need a solution first, because right now, neither of us are safe, and if I can’t find a solution, I can’t keep letting him risk himself and his bar or home or me. I don’t want to leave him, but I’ll do it if I have to. And if I have to walk away from him, I don’t want to give him false hope. But I can’t bring myself to break his heart right now and reject him either, particularly since that seems to be exactly what he’s expecting from me. So instead of answering, I shuffle across the couch until I’m right up next to him, and wrap my arms around him in a tight hug.

Torin’s arms immediately wrap around me and I go to rest my head on his chest, but he flinches. I stop and pull back, frowning.
“Tori?” I prompt. He shakes his head stubbornly.
“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.” He answers, reaching out to me again, clearly wanting to go back to our embrace that was cut short. But I can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong.
“Torin.” I repeat firmly, refusing to be put off so easily. He sighs.
“It’s really nothing, just a few bruises probably. The magic those witches were throwing had quite a bit of force behind them. I might be immune to the fire damage, benefits of being demonic I suppose, but a hard blow is still a hard blow.” He explains. My brow furrows in concern.
“Why didn’t you say you were hurt? Show me, I need to make sure you’re alright.” I insist. Torin shakes his head.
“I’m fine. You got hurt much worse. It’s no big deal.” He insists. I prop my hands on my hips and glare.
“Torin! Show me right now. I can’t trust you to take care of yourself properly, you didn’t even mention you were hurt! Plus a bruise would have to be pretty bad for you to flinch like that!” I argue. Torin seems very reluctant.
“But… Does it have to be now? We were…” He trails off then drops his eyes to his lap uncomfortably.
“Yes it has to be now! I can’t believe you didn’t say something sooner. You need to TELL me when you’re hurt Tori. It’s not fair if you worry over me and I’m not allowed to do the same for you. Now show me!” I demand. Torin looks contrite and tugs at his collar a little bit, pulling it down far enough for me to see the edge of a dark bruise. I gasp and move in closer.
“Tori! That looks so painful! Is that the only one?” I ask. He hesitates.
“There might be a… Few more.” He admits. I cross my arms over my chest.
“Show me.” I demand. He hesitates again but I’m losing patience. I’m worried about him damn it!
“Tori, so help me if you don’t show me your injuries in the next ten seconds I’m going to go marching out the front door to find a doctor for you.” I threaten. Torin’s eyes go wide.
“That’s not safe! And I don’t need a doctor!” he insists.
“Then show me so I can be sure too.” I plead. Finally he nods reluctantly. He starts to unbutton his shirt, glancing at me awkwardly and blushing.

It occurs to me that I just spent the last few minutes basically arguing for Torin to take off his shirt… Oops? Although by the time he’s got the buttons half undone I can’t say I regret my decision for two reasons. One, the bruises are AWFUL. There are at least a dozen of them, all about the size of my fist and they are so dark they’re almost black. A few of them look like they might be swollen too. I bet if I checked his back there would be a few there too. His arms as well. The poor thing! He needs an ice pack or something, maybe several. An ice bath? Although that sounds super uncomfortable it would probably be the easiest way to ice all his injuries. Torin clears his throat awkwardly at my staring and I have to fight the urge to giggle as my attention is drawn to the second reason why I don’t regret this. Even past the injuries, Tori looks damn good. I do my best to behave.
“You should really put ice on those or something.” I point out and Torin shrugs.
“Uh… Maybe… I guess. But we were… Talking. It can wait a little longer.” He decides. His ears are now bright red and he looks so incredibly shy. He’s adorable. Smiling, I lean in close again. Now that I can see his injuries, I’m careful not to poke anything tender when I hug him, much more gently this time. Torin tenses up for a second, then gives a relieved sigh and pulls me closer so I’m practically in his lap. He rests his chin in my hair.
“I was really worried about you tonight.” He whispers. I smile against him.
“I know, but Tori, I was worried about you too. Please take care of yourself. I feel terrible that you got hurt trying to protect me.” I say guiltily. Torin makes a sound that I’m fairly sure is just a general disagreement, but he doesn’t say anything. Probably because he knows that I’m right.