His rapid thumping beats proved to her that he was alive. It was all him. Her palm was still placed on his chest, feeling every single beat of his. She looked up all tenderly at him and said,

"Pinch me !!! This can't be a dream".

A smile spread on his lips hearing her speak.

More than a year and a half had passed, but she hadn't changed. From a postgraduate student to the most successful entrepreneur of the year, she had taken such a huge leap in that time span, but deep down she hadn't changed a bit.

She was the same naive and innocent lamb for which he had fallen.

"Of course I will", and saying that he pulled her chin towards him and said,

"All of it is real".

His lips inched forward, but this time it didn't intend to be all polite and gentle.

He sucked hard on her lower lip and made her moan. But before she could wither away with his touch, he dug his teeth into her lip and took a small bite, like he wanted to brandish her with his mark and declare to the entire world that she was his and only his to begin with.

She tasted blood in her mouth. That metallic taste was all that she needed to believe that this was for real.

"This is me Akira, all of me", he said and took her palm and placed it on his chest again.

"Can you feel it? It still beats for you, like always. Goes crazy when I touch you, like always".

She looked at her hand placed on his chest and then she looked up at him and asked,

"Where were you all these days? Didn't you know how broken I was? Why would you even make me think that you are gone? Why would you Raymond? Why would you?"

Saying that she started hitting his chest with her fists.

He wanted to stop her and explain everything to her, but right now he knew that the best thing was to let her blurt out everything that was bottled up deep inside her heart. He wanted her to unburden her chest which was holding up all the pain, while she tried to fake a bright smile in front of the entire world for all these days.

Tugging onto his t-shirt she kept asking,

"Do you even know how much it hurts to even think that you are not going to return back? Do you even know how much these eyes of mine have cried for you? Do you even know how badly I have missed the void you had created? All those sleepless nights, I couldn't even sleep because of the thought of waking up in a world without you, was something that I couldn't bear to. Why did you do this? Why did you hide from me? Where were you all these days?"

"Where were you?"

Her tears were relentlessly soaking up the entire duvet.

She was breaking down from inside. The grip that she had on his t-shirt, loosened up. She balled her fists, wanted to punch him again, but she had no power. He had rendered her all powerless like he always did.

He saw her getting all helpless and he knew that it was all that she could do. He knew that she couldn't resist him anymore. He knew that she was on the verge of breaking, so he pulled her close to him and hugged her tight in his arms.

He ran his fingers through her hair and softly patted her back as she sobbed in his arms slowly and softly like a little ball of fur.

His human was there in his arms and that was all that he could wish for. Hugging her all tight he said,

"I wanted you so bad Akira. Do you even know how hard it was for me to not to be able to hear your voice, to not to be able to touch you for all these days? Do you even know how I passed every single day of mine without you in it?"

Saying that he kissed on her head softly.

His chin was resting on her head and drops of tears from his eyes slowly trickled down and started making her hair all wet. The moment she sensed a drop of his tear, she slowly detached herself.

Looking up deep in his eyes she could see nothing but sheer pain.

She knew it well that he loved her the same way as he did before or probably even more, but she wasn't able to understand what made him stay away from her for all this time.

Looking up at him, she asked,

"Why did you stay away Raymond?"

"Becasue I thought that was the best thing to do".