Memories in heart

"Arthur, it's fine now. P-Put me down." Livy said after noticing that Arthur was out of breath.

Arthur's footsteps stopped right near the stairs of their house. As it was already evening, his eyesight which had been deteriorating recently was even more chaotic. The muscles in his arms and legs protested, but luckily he didn't drop her.

"Your ankle hurts," he said.

"It doesn't hurt anymore. I think I can walk upstairs myself."

Arthur didn't say anything and could only agree, he didn't insist on continuing to carry her for fear of dropping her. He set Livy down carefully, realizing how tired he must have been just from carrying her from the car.

"If you sprain your ankle, then tomorrow it will swell." Arthur's voice sounded worried.

Livy said, "I thought it was a sprain but I was wrong. It just bumped a bit. Trust me I'm fine now. Come on I'll help you up."

Now the task has been changed, which was originally Arthur helping Livy walk, now Livy was helping Arthur. Unknowingly this made him feel funny.

He let his hand be grabbed and they climbed slowly up the stairs. From the pain in her leg, Livy winced, but she didn't show it to Arthur. This part of the stairs was used to having lots of lights to make it easier for Arthur to climb up, so Livy didn't want him to know for a second that she was lying.

In fact her ankle really hurt. Perhaps it has become a bruise by now.

"By the way, how did you know it was me?" asked Livy amidst the silence.

"Hm?"

"When you caught me, you knew it was me, right?" Livy explained.

"I didn't know it was you." Arthur gripped the banister with his sweaty hands. "I was just passing by. When I heard something was about to fall from above, I automatically moved."

"So you didn't even know that the one who fell was a human?" Livy was stunned. "I mean, if it was a rock that fell, would you catch it too?"

Arthur didn't understand Livy's way of thinking, could only frown. "I knew that it was someone who would fall, if it was a rock, why would I catch it?"

"You're right."

They arrived at the top. Livy hesitated for a long time until she finally let go of Arthur's cold and slightly bereft hand. She felt a bit strange about Arthur's temperature these past few days, his face also looked tired, but she didn't dare to ask.

Is he okay?

"You rest, dinner will be delivered to your room." Arthur said.

Livy could only agree. She didn't dare refuse to remember how angry Arthur was at the university this afternoon. Arthur wasn't the hot-tempered type who was impulsive and explosive, but he gave off a cold and intimidating tone in an oppressive manner, this made one feel mentally depressed.

"Then I'll be in. Good night." Livy headed for her door and sighed silently.

"Good night."

She didn't think Arthur would answer her, when she heard that, her face blushed. When she turned, Arthur had entered the room and the door had been tightly closed. Livy rushed into her own room and almost screamed.

"Ouch!" she complained.

She had forgotten that her ankle hurt.

Finally Livy decided to take a shower, she was wearing a bathrobe when she finished and her hair was wet. Now she has become much fresher. Then she could think of the whole incident today.

She took a note on her study table and began to write a chronology.

First, the news photos suddenly disappeared. Second, Amara helped her take the photos on the bulletin board and it turned out that she was Evander's sister. Third, she had an argument with the guard lady and almost fell, then Arthur appeared from nowhere to help her like a gallant hero. Fourth, Arthur recognized her as his wife and said that the university is hers.

Ignoring the others, Livy circled the word 'wife' with a red and her face turned bright red.

"Wife, wife, wife ..." she muttered over and over. "My God, I am Arthur's wife!"

Even though that was the reality, but before that she didn't really feel like this relationship was real because this marriage was only a contract. When Arthur said it himself in front of other people, it felt so different and she was so embarrassed. She didn't really want to admit that dhe was married in that university, but if it was like this, it didn't seem to matter.

But there was something else that confused her. Arthur said that she owned the university, what did he mean?

While seriously thinking about this, pain shot through her ankle. It was throbbing badly and the pain radiated down to the knee. Livy examined it and saw that it was really bruised. The color had changed to a ghastly dark purple and green.

"I'm sure my ankle isn't sprained, but what is this? Why is my ankle so swollen and bruised like this?"

Her ankle must have hit the steps. But when she fell, she actually didn't feel anything, and now it hurt a lot.

"Perhaps Arthur has some bruise salve. I'll look for it."

Livy changed her clothes and limped out of the room. She looked outside the room and found no one, then she crept downstairs. Below, the maids were nowhere to be seen, perhaps having rested. Luckily no one saw her go down.

Enduring the pain, she opened the wooden sideboard in the living room. She didn't know where the medicine box was exactly, but after opening most of the drawers, the medicine box came into view.

There was a lot of medicine in it, Livy read one by one the drug indications and found what she was looking for, then went upstairs.

"Are you looking for something?"

Her heart almost gave out when she heard this voice. A little more she opened the door of her room and someone caught her. She turned to see Arthur standing at the head of the stairs.

"I just wanted a drink so I'm coming down for a bit." Livy answered awkwardly.

As Arthur walked up to her, her heartbeat quickened every second. She regreted why she lied, why couldn't she just be honest when she looked for the salve downstairs? Now she felt that Arthur's cold gaze could see inside her head and she would let Arthur down if she lied.

Livy winced when Arthur was near her. She smelled alcohol from the man. Arthur suddenly grabbed her hand and raised it high. The salve was taken from her hand.

"Your ankle hurts, right?" Arthur's tone was as light as cotton.

However light it was, it still made Livy nervous that she had been caught lying. "T-That's ... I'm not lying that my ankle isn't sprained, it's just that it hurts a bit now and has bruises, so ..."

Livy didn't finish what she was saying when Arthur suddenly crouched down. Feeling Arthur's cold hand lift her leg.

“Y-You … what do you want?”

Arthur tried to blink his eyes to see the bruises on her ankle, unfortunately he couldn't see clearly. Without answering her, he took out his phone and turned on the flashlight, he could just barely make out the bruises. Then he read on the medicine bottle in his hand, but couldn't read anything and stood up.

"Right? It's just a light bruise. I-I don't want to trouble you for this little thing, so I want to take care of it myself." Livy haltingly explained. "That's totally fine."

Arthur didn't look at her, nor did he say anything.

Livy was getting nervous. She spoke while looking at the floor uneasily, "A-Actually it's my fault for not being honest. But that's the reason, because I ... didn't want to make you—"

Before Livy could finish her sentence, a weight fell on her shoulders and she staggered backwards. She was startled when she realized Arthur's body was falling towards her and immediately balanced on her feet.

"A-Arthur? Arthur? What's wrong? You okay?" she asked anxiously.

Arthur didn't answer. Livy felt him breathe heavily against her shoulder while groaning under his breath and didn't seem like he would be standing up anytime soon. She tried to held him and accidentally touched his icy cold skin. She gasped.

"W-Why is your body so cold? You sick? Are you in pain? Hang on. I-I will call for help." Livy tried to push Arthur, but what happened was Arthur's body slumped deeper into her.

Livy felt her aching ankle take a heavy weight and she hissed. She held Arthur on her shoulders as hard as she could to keep them from falling, but her strength was not strong enough. Feeling herself almost slump, Livy panicked even more, before Arthur's hands finally reached the wall behind her and held her down.

Arthur lifted his head weakly, Livy could finally see his pale face. Sweat formed on his forehead and cheeks. His skin was as white as paper, his brows furrowed and his breaths shallow.

Livy wiped away the sweat worriedly, her skin coming into contact with the cold body temperature again. She was scared.

Arthur took a slow breath, letting the tense waves in his head subside, before opening his eyes. He met Livy's worried gaze. In the next minute he managed to keep his balance steady and stand on his own feet.

"Sorry ... just feeling dizzy all of a sudden," he said hoarsely.

Her gaze was still worried. "Have you had frequent headaches these past few days? Your body is also so cold. Are you sick? Wanna go to the hospital?"

Arthur didn't answer right away, he paused to watch Livy's face form in the chaotic fog. Her worried voice resounded in his mind.

After a few moments he replied, "No need. I'm a bit drunk. That's fine."

"Are you sure?"

If Arthur could see clearly, maybe he would see the anxiety not only in Livy's voice, even in her expression too.

Arthur nodded, and changed the subject, "This salve may have expired."

Livy watched Arthur coldly dump the salve into the trash can. She herself was confused why she was not surprised. If Arthur says it's expired, then it is. Right now she was too focused on Arthur's dry lips and unfocused eyes.

He didn't look fine in her eyes, but she didn't dare bring up the topic he had diverted.

After throwing away the salve, Arthur didn't say anything else, it seemed he wasn't in a good mood either. He looked at Livy with an unfocused gaze and Livy noticed that his eyes were duller than usual. Then he finally turned around and returned to the room.

"???"

Livy was confused because she was left like that.

When she returned to the room, her heart still felt uneasy. She clasped her own hands, feeling the lingering coldness in them. Seeing how pale Arthur looked with his cold body temperature and how he almost passed out, she was sure Arthur was sick.

It can't be just because of alcohol, right?

***

"What? At this late hour?" Evander asked over the phone when Arthur asked him to find some bruise salve.

"Yes, have someone drive it to my house."

"Hold on, you hurt? Instead of salve, maybe I can send Dave to your house."

"Salve." Arthur's voice grew somewhat impatient.

"Okay, okay. I'll get the salve and have someone deliver it. But if the bruise is bad, go to the doctor immediately."

"Mn."

Call ended. Arthur shook his wine glass and stared straight at the window. He had taken four doses of sleeping pills at once and two pills of painkillers, but they had all failed to ease the tense nerves in his eyes and allow him to sleep. It was only when he drank the wine that the effect of the alcohol spreading through his bloodstream made the stab pain in his head slowly resolve.

Compared to a gap, his current vision was like a small gap between two nearly closed doors. There is only a small hole visible, while the others are black. Every time he strained his eyes to see something, the nerves around his eyes tensed and it would be followed by an intense headache.

This is a bit annoying.

No matter how often he experienced this, he was still not used to being blind.

***

After the medicines was delivered by someone, Arthur personally delivered it to Livy's room. He was holding on to the wall like a baby learning to walk. The distance between his room and hers was not far, but he felt a bit slow getting there. He immediately knocked on the door after arriving at his 'wife' room, because several times there was no answer, he just opened the knob. And true to his guess, Livy did not lock the door.

Arthur could dimly see the pile of blankets on the bed, Livy's entire body was engulfed in it and only the ends of her hair remained on the top of her head.

Is she feeling cold?

Arthur looked at the plastic that had various kinds of bruise medicine in it. It seemed that Evander bought almost all the different brands. If Livy sleeps, does he have to give these medicines tomorrow?

Arthur slowly made his way to the bed, right on the side where Livy was facing. He pulled the top blanket up slowly until Livy's face was visible. The nightlight was shining softly on her face, if Arthur could see clearly, he would be able to see this girl's pure beauty. He reached out, fixing her hair that was scattered across that delicate face and held his breath.

"Do you remember me? Even then or now, you look the same." Arthur smiled bitterly.

He put the medicines down. Without looking at Livy twice, he left. Gone with the memories he kept in his heart and waiting to be revealed.

... to be continued ...