I walked into the bedroom, and my uncle closed the door behind me.

"I hear you're upsetting her?" Uncle Rico said to me.

"What? Is that what Aunt Sophie said?" I asked in shock, feeling betrayed.

We had a small disagreement, but it wasn't anything serious and we fixed it.

"Apparently she's upset because you're not giving her enough attention." Uncle Rico said.

"What? She has all my attention at all times." I argued in annoyance. "Did Aunt Sophie tell you this?"

"Yes, Sophie told me this, but you can't deny it because she's getting her information from Kiara." Uncle Rico said.

"What? Kiara has all my attention. What else would have it?" I groaned in irritation.

"Listen carefully, ok? I'm somewhat familiar with your situation. Sophie wasn't as traumatized as Kiara when she met me, but she was traumatized enough. Our girls need constant attention, ok? Especially when the wounds are still fresh." He told me.

"Uncle Rico, I'm with her at all times. What is this about not giving her attention?" I asked in utter disbelief.

Why would Kiara ever tell Sophie these things? I always give her attention, I might be doing other wrong things, but I constantly try to be there for her and give her everything she needs.

"Listen to me. They can sense any shift in other people's moods around them. If anything in the slightest has changed, she's going to know. Kiara has spent her entire life trying not to press any buttons and get herself tortured. She can silently depict what others are doing differently, even the slightest things. She's always had to do that." My uncle told me.

"I'm not doing anything wrong. We were in an argument but she's the one that pushed me away." I sighed.

"Well. Maybe the argument is what made her feel that way. But you should really look into it. Listen, it isn't fair for her to feel neglected in any sort of way. She wasn't saying anything to get you in trouble, she was just answering Sophie's questions truthfully." He told me.

"I know her intentions aren't to make me seem bad. But I just don't understand why she feels I'm not giving her enough attention. She's the one who's distanced herself this past week." I sighed, running my fingers through my hair.

"Ok, it's fine. Don't feel too upset about it. She's extra sensitive and it's probably just the argument. But make sure to switch back to the way you were before." He told me.

Not giving her enough attention? What? She's the only thing in the world that has ever had my undivided attention.

Kiara would never claim this if it wasn't true. She understood the argument and if anything I gave her more attention during it. She's not referring to the argument, what is she referring to?

Uncle Rico dragged me out of the bedroom while I was still processing. When Kiara saw my face she frowned. I just fixed my confused expression and smiled at her.

"What's wrong?" She asked me.

"Nothing, Kiwi. What're you guys up to?" I asked her, peaking into the stove.

"We're making cookies. I need the bathroom." She said, looking quite upset and walking away.

"What did I do? I don't understand." I groaned, rubbing my forehead.

"Do you blame her for thinking you're upset with her? She asked you a simple question and you completely ignored it, directing the questions back to her. Do you not trust her? Is she just a child who can't be told the bad things that are happening to you? She just wants to be there for you like you are for her." Aunt Sophie told me.

I walked over to the bathroom and I knocked on the door.

"Kiara, we need to talk." I said, forgetting not to call her by her name at this particular time.

"I'm coming, g-give me a minute." She said, clearly having been crying before I came to talk to her.

"Aw, don't cry, baby. I didn't intend to make you feel upset. That's why we have to talk. I never want to make you feel hurt. But clearly I've done something wrong and I want you to come out so we can talk about it." I said to her.

"Ok." She said softly, opening the door and revealing herself, her eyes still sad and red and her hands trembling at her sides.

"Come here." I said, pulling her to the bedroom, making her even more upset.

"I... I remember how sometimes when you're stressed out... you need to take it out on someone. S-so... you can take it out on me." She told me.

"What am I hearing, Kiara?" I asked, my heart dropping.

"I didn't mean to make you upset. I just want you to get your stress relief." She said to me.

"You never made me upset." I said.

"Then why don't you like me anymore?" She asked. "Did I gain too much weight? Am I not pretty anymore? Do you not like the haircut? What happened?" She asked, looking up at me with those big sad eyes.

"Sh... come here and give me a hug. I'm not mad at you, I love the haircut and I already told you that you'll never be any less than the most beautiful girl on the planet." I said to her, holding my arms out.

She scurried over and wrapped her arms around my waist, letting my wrap my arms around her in return and rub her back supportively. Something about this made her even more upset.

"I-it's ok. Y-you can take it out on me. Just relieve your st-str-stress. I promise I w-won't be up-up-upset." She cried, suddenly twisting around in my lap as I sat on the bed. She laid herself over my lap with her butt directly in front of me.

"I was never upset with you. Now I am." I said, picking her up off my lap and sitting her down on the bed. She sobbed and shook her head.

"I'm sorry. Stop being upset. You can do anything. I do-don't know what I did wrong. I swear I didn't mean it." She cried.

"You didn't do anything wrong until we came in here and you thought I needed to hurt you to feel better." I said, my chest twisting in pain.

"I love you, Vivi. I don't understand what you want though. I don't know what I did wrong, but you've been upset with me and I don't want you to be upset anymore." She cried.

"Kiwi, look at me, baby. Since when am I upset? I was never upset, Sweetheart." I said to her desperately.

"Y-you stopped listening to me, you stopped cuddling in bed and y-you won't tell me what's wrong. You never even look at me anymore." She cried.

"Ok. We've been in an argument for the past week, Kiara... Kiwi." I said, correcting myself with the name.

"That doesn't mean I don't love you. I still Wanna cuddle. But... You didn't even notice I got my period." She said, pouting at me.

"How would I notice that?" I asked her.

"My belly and my back hurt. I thought you would notice. It's ok. You're not mad?" She asked me.

"I'm not mad." I confirmed, feeling like the biggest jerk on the planet.

In an attempt not to lose my self control and kiss the life out of her, I avoided looking at her too much and now I'm missing large details about her well-being.

"I'm a jerk." I sighed.

"Don't say that, Vivi. It's ok. It's over." She said to me with a shrug.

"Come here." I said, hoping she would come hug me.

She hugged me and then started crying again.

"You know why I was upset when I came out of here with Uncle Rico?" I asked.

"Why?" She asked me.

"Because he told me I might not be giving you enough attention. And he was right. But I never want to hurt you or make you feel neglected." I said to her.

"I know. But why won't you look at me anymore?" She asked.

"I can't help it. I can't. I want to look at you every second of everyday. But I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable by constantly staring and touching you." I said to her.

Truth be told I knew she wasn't uncomfortable with that. I just couldn't tell her that I wasn't looking at her in hopes of not getting the urge to kiss her every two seconds.

"It's not making me uncomfortable." She told me.

"It isn't?" I asked, even though I knew that.

"No." She confirmed.

"I want to make it up to you. As soon as my aunt and uncle go home, do you want me to give you a massage and see if that'll help your back?" I asked her, instantly hating myself for this suggestion.

I was an idiot, it was official.

"Yes please. And can I have a heating pad?" She asked me.

"Yes, of course." I smiled, getting up and carrying my little kiwi back to the kitchen to grab the heating pad.

"Can Kiara and I sit on the couch with Uncle Rico and get to know him better? Are the cookies good with you?" I asked Sophie.

"Of course." She said, smiling at me and rubbing my arm, knowing Kiara and I were going through some complicated and confusing stuff right now.

I carried Kiara to the couch and plugged the heating pad in, putting it over her belly and rubbing her lower back for her. She leaned against me and faced Uncle Rico who was beside me.

"Uncle Rico... how come you wanted to be a doctor?" She asked him.

"I liked being able to fix things. And I was good at learning stuff about the human body, I thought it was interesting. So I combined the two and I got medicine. It feels good to be able to take an injury and fix it. To see a patient sick and then watch them walk out healthy." He said.

"What about soccer?" She asked.

"I love soccer because it's fun. Whenever I'm stressed out, it's fun to move around, run through a field and get all that stress out. Exercise has always helped me get my mind off things. So whenever I played soccer, I just got lost in the game, I didn't have to worry about anything else in my life that was troubling me." He explained to her.

"I don't know what I like to do yet... like what I could make my whole life about." She explained.

"No ideas?" He asked her.

"No.... my whole life has always been about training so that I could just serve someone for the rest of my life. But, I don't want that." She said.

"Well you have all the time in the world to decide." He said. "You like cooking."

"Yeah. I love to cook with Fifi. And I like cooking so we can enjoy the food. But it's not something I want to dedicate my life to." She explained.

"It's just a hobby." I said for her.

"Yeah exactly." She agreed.

"What other hobbies do you have?" Uncle Rico asked her.

"I like to read sometimes. Only if it's a good story... and I like to go on hikes with Vivi." She explained.

"Those are some good hobbies. Now just build on that. Figure out more about what you love to do. And then you might figure out what you want to do." He said to her.

"Coco can you tell me about Arabella?" Kiwi requested.

"Arabella. Well, she's a writer. She's written two novels and published them. And she's very, very smart. She's caring and supportive. She's desperate for a sister, but she's only got all these boys around. She has her daughters now though, but they're different." He explained.

"She wants a sister?" Kiara asked.

"Yeah, that's why she's so eager to meet you. Because you'd be the first sister to her in the family." Uncle Rico explained.

"Me?" Kiara asked, subconsciously rubbing my chest.

As they continued this conversation, I got too distracted to pay attention. This girl was rubbing my chest and my abs. Luckily no one was aware except for me. Not to mention her occasional shifting around in my lap. I was about to die and no one had any kind of clue. They were all super into the conversation.

"Vidal. Go check on the cookies for me, Sweetheart." Aunt Sophie said in a somewhat urgent tone.

When I looked up, I saw her with her eyes wide. She knew what was going on. Kiara was too innocent to realize what she was doing to me. It was crazy how innocent she was despite where she was before she came into my life.

"Vivi. You ok?" She asked me.

"Yeah, sorry, baby. Just one second." I said, kissing her on the forehead and trying not to sound too strained.

She kissed me on the cheek before letting me go and I ran off, trying not to let anyone see what was going on down there. I checked on the cookies and calmed myself down and then I went back, Kiara cuddled into me again and I kissed her soft cheek. She smiled at me and then continued her conversation. I just zoned out, playing with her hair and wondering how long it would be until I could just kiss my girl. I wondered if she'd even be ok with that this early on in whatever this relationship was.

Does she want to kiss me like I want to kiss her?

She's still not ready regardless. She still thought I would need to hurt her to relieve stress.

She's confused. She needs time.

But dear God, she's absolutely breathtaking, how am I expected not to kiss her?

Somehow we were sitting there for hours and I was going around in circles in my head about whether she loved me in a way that meant she genuinely wanted to get intimate or if it was just an attachment to me because I was the most comfortable person around.

"Vivi... You ok?" She asked me, running her fingers through my hair.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" I asked her, kissing her forehead and pulling myself away from my thoughts.

"They're leaving, you haven't spoken for so long." She said to me.

"Sorry. I was just thinking." I said to her.

"Oh. Ok." She said, kissing my forehead and making my heart squeeze in delight. The feeling it gave me when she did that was very warm and fuzzy. "I love you."

I pulled her into my lap, rubbing her back and squeezing her to me. I really hoped this love that she felt for me was romantic. I couldn't lose her to another jerk. But I might have to. I wanted her for myself. But if she didn't want me as a boyfriend or husband, I'd have to get through that somehow. No matter how much it hurt.