"Truth?"

I lift my face to angle towards his and wait for him to continue. We still lay in Nate's bed, the aftermath of what we just did setting a warm glow throughout the room.

"The night that you fell asleep at my place, you said that you loved me in your sleep but I didn't tell you because I thought maybe I was dreaming. I've dreamt about you telling you loved me from the moment I met you. Because I've loved you from afar for so long. I was just afraid that my dreams were clouding my reality and I was no longer able to tell them apart. You do that to me, Kelly." His fingers touch my skin over my ribcage. "You're like an angel invading my dreams."

"I'm no angel," I assure him and snuggle my face back into his chest. I should acknowledge that I said those three words in my sleep but I can't say that I am surprised. Even in my unconsciousness, I have Nate on the brain.

"You are to me."

I pucker my lips on his chest, letting them linger in the sweetest way. He is the angel. I want to tell him this but he is talking again and his hand is distracting trailing up and down my spine.

"When we were in the eighth grade, you saw Logan Sanders and Justin Andrews trying to close me in my own locker. You walked right up to them and shoved them and told them to knock it off. They laughed at me but listened to you and walked away. Then during art class that day, Justin fell asleep and while the teacher wasn't watching you took a permanent marker and drew a very animated penis on his forehead. You looked right at me and whispered, "they're dicks. Now everyone will know." I don't know if you remember that, but I do."

I look up at Nate with my mouth opened in disbelief. I faintly remember the memory of it all but I never dwelled on it long. He chuckles lowly in his chest. The smile plastered on his face is enough to knock the wind completely out of me.

"I always asked myself why you did that in the first place. They were your friends and yet you were publicly outing them just for my case. They never knew you did it but still. You did it. And I will never forget that." He closes his eyes in a blissful moment before reopening them and pinning them on my upturned face. "From that day on I always thought of you as this angel placed into my life to bring me hope and happiness."

My view of him was starting to blur again and I almost laugh at the audacity that I am crying again but a ball of emotion is blocking me from doing so.

"I love you," I say for what feels like the thousands time. But this time, it feels more raw than the others. It's like a feral beast is clawing at my insides just to latch onto him.

"I love you." He bends down and connects his lips to mine. He groans lightly when my teeth bite into his lower lip and pull it, only to let it snap back to dive back in for more.

Nate lazily smiles before I bring his lips onto mine. Kissing Nate is euphoric. I'm completely enraptured when he kisses me. My whole body sings.

"Nate?"

"Hmm."

I wiggle against him to get his attention more but that only makes him pin me down harder. His mouth works its way down my neck again and his hands massages my chest in an apathetic way.

"Nate."

"What?" His head peeks up from under the covers.

"I have to pee." I bite my lip to suppress my amusement.

Nate sits back on his haunches and runs an apprehensive hand down his face. "Um..." His eyes twitched towards his door. "That could be a surprise to the household."

"Yes, I know. Which means I have to go home." I try to hide the wistfulness in my voice by placing a kiss on his shoulder. "You have to get off me."

He lets me up and I roam in the dark to find my clothes. The clock on Nate's night stands says it's now a little after two a.m. and I know that I can easily walk through my front door without my parents waking.

"You're not running, are you?"

"What?" I pull my shirt over my head and walk back over to the bed. The light blue sheets on his bed cover his lower half but leaves his beautifully sculpted chest on view. "Of course not."

"Good," he smiles a wreathed grin and leans towards my voice. His lips are already puckered when I went in for a kiss. I smile into it.

"You have your consultation today, yes?" I ask as I search his floor for my pajama pants. When they come into view settled over his own, I reach down and slip them on. Nate's presences pricks into me like needles as I finish getting dressed.

"Yes. You should come with me."

"I don't know..." I say moving back over to him on the bed. "You're parents are going to be there with you. I don't want to intrude."

"You are not intruding." Nate pushes my hair behind my ears, feeling a strand between his forefinger and thumb. "I want you there."

"Then I will be there."

"Thank you," Nate says rather pleased with himself as if he has won an argument. I shake my head with a laugh and start to walk towards his window.

"Hey, Kelly." I turn at the sound of Nate's voice, his body shadowed by the night in his now dark room.

"Yes, Nate?" I hitch his window open far enough that I can swing my leg out.

"I love you."

I'm pretty sure the warmth flowing through my body could set the sun on fire.

"I love you, too." And with that I climbed down the house and walked undisturbed through mine.

* * * * *

"Things are looking rather optimistic, Nathaniel," Nate's optometrist, Dr. Torus, proclaims as he takes a look at Nate's xrays.

I stood off in a corner of the too white doctor's office and cock my head at the black and white glowing pictures of Nate's eyes.

"We will go through here--" Dr. Torus points to a microscopic spot on the xray-- "And by doing this, we will be able to restore the nerves to produce color along with lighting enhancement." He takes down the xrays and replaces them with new ones. "Then we will go through your Occipital lobe to finish the works. We predict that if the surgery goes as plan, you will have full functioning sight."

"You're going through his brain? So he's having brain surgery as well?" I suddenly ask but catch myself by smiling apologetically at Nate's parents who give me watery smiles back. Nate's mother hasn't stopped crying since we entered the building.

Dr. Torus appraises me in my little corner. "Yes. Nathaniel will go through two procedures in one. It's a very complex procedure but I have the best of the best working beside me. You know the anatomy of the brain?"

I told myself I would just be a bystander during this appointment so I was thankful when Nate's hand extended towards me. I grab onto it like it's my lifeline and station myself at his side.

"My girlfriend is going to be a doctor," Nate states proudly. "Better question him while you can, babe. He's all yours until Nora checks us out at the front desk."

I blush madly, my attention going between Nate's doctor and his parents before smiling down at Nate himself. He is in high spirits today and I can only imagine it is from the hopeful news of seeing again tagged onto last night. Sex can do that for a person.

"You look familiar," Nate's doctor observes as he looks between Nate and me, an amused grin plastered on his face. "Do you volunteer here?"

"Yes, I do, but my father is Dr. Sean Henderson. He attends a lot of the hospital related parties. I sometimes tag along." I almost want to roll my eyes but don't because my father is a very respected man and my mother and I are very proud of all that he has accomplished in his years of medical research.

"Aw, the Neurosurgeon. Yes, very smart man. His studies on deep brain stimulation are rather intriguing."

"I would have to agree," I say back and look over at Nate's parents apologetically because this consultation was supposed to be about their son. But they show no sign of annoyance. They both smile lovingly back at me.

"So, you think this could be it, Dr. T?" Nate questions. His fingers anxiously play with mine as he waits for the answer.

"My team and I have high hopes. There's of course the precautions and side effects we have gone over but the results have been miraculous on patients older than yourself." He shuts off the xray machine and takes a seat in front of Nate with his ophthalmoscope in hand. "I'm going to shine this in both eyes really fast. You're going to want to close your eyes but restrain from doing so."

"I know the drill," he says and his grip on my hand increases. I rub his back with my other one.

I watch as Nate's doctor shines the tool in Nate's eyes and my heart seizes when Nate tries his hardest not to dodge it. With skills a great doctor should have, Dr. Torus apologizes profusely and continues counts down until he clicks the light off and pushes away from a watery eyed Nate.

"It will get better, son," Tim says just as optimistic as the doctor.

"Soon this will all be over," Lucy pipes in.

"Yeah," I add quietly next to him. "Just imagine how great that will be."

"Soon I'll get to see you," Nate surprises me by saying. I am used to him saying these sort of things in private when it's just him and I but never around other people. My eyes lock onto him and I am loss for words. I can hear Lucy 'aw' in the background but everything else is muffled. His finger traces little patterns on the center of my palm but several swirls make my lungs constrict with air.

Nate is tracing hearts over and over again on my palm and it takes everything in me not to tear up at this sweet man who loves me just as much as I love him.

"That's a goal to strive for," Dr. Torus interrupts with a hearty laugh. He pats Nate's back and shakes both of his parents hands before exiting the room.

Nate hops off of the examination table and instantly grabs a hold of my arm so that I can lead him to his parents car. I feel bad for taking the place of whom I suppose would be his mother in this sort of situation but Lucy fondly rubs my back as she and Tim head to the desk to check Nate out.

"You'll have the surgery in six days?" I question as Nate and I walk into the waiting room to wait for his parents.

"Yup." He takes out his walking stick and extends it. "Six long days of continuing to use this."

The tapping still sets the pace of my heartbeat.

"This will soon be over, Nate. It will be like it never happened." My heart clenches but I try to ignore it and focus on the stunning boy in front of me. No matter the outtake of all of this, it will never actually, truly, erase that it did, in fact, happen.

Something tells me that if he never became blind, I wouldn't have paid much attention to him because he would be just another face in the crowd. Even with me partnered up with him in class, I wouldn't have taken such an intense interest if I hadn't have known exactly how he's became blind. But maybe I would have. His soul calls to mine, after all.

My life would be so different if I could have made myself forget.

And that realization makes me feel uneasy because I can never imagine not loving Nathaniel Haynes.