Maureen had watched the latest fight with a brave face, like she always did. She had known Billy since they were just little kids, growing up in the same orphanage together. Billy and Maureen were a pair. From the moment they met, they were inseparable. Their first tattoo's were of matching swallows on their necks, just below the ear. The swallow represents love, care and affection, showing the loyalty of the person always returning to them. The bird also represents freedom and hope.
She was used to watching him get boxed around, but this fight in particular had her very worried and relieved when it was over and Billy had remained undefeated. Meeting her husband in the bathroom after the fight, her green eyes scanned over his injuries, taking them all in before releasing a sigh.
His blue eyes had lifted to glance at himself in the mirror of the bathroom and she watched silently as he washed his bruised and gashed knuckles before pouring a sterile solution over them. He nipped down on the inside of his cheek as he fought back a groan and lifted up a piece of gauze to begin cleaning the cut at his mouth and eye.
Crossing the room and filling the distance between them, she finally spoke. "Billy.." The tone of her voice easily suggested that she was worried, her hand coming up to gently cup his cheek as her lips brushed against his softly. Taking the gauze from his hand, she resumed the job of cleaning up the cuts on his face, like she would often do for him after he sustained injuries in a fight. Leila was home with their nanny, Gloria, and Maureen just hoped that their daughter was in bed asleep and had not watched the fight on TV.
His hand settled on her narrow waist and their eyes meet, forehead touching, her hand holding gauze stilled for a moment. Trying so hard to express to him with her features just how much he had scared her tonight. But he knew. She knew he knew. This was their life, it had always been their life. "I don't think I need stitches, do you?" His voice cut through the air with a crack of a smile to lighten the mood, and it worked briefly, causing a small smile to appear on Maureen's lips. "No, baby, you don't need stitches."
She felt his hand move from her slender waist and brush several long curls of hair out of her face, his eyes had never really left hers this entire time. This was all routine to them now. Billy would fight, get punched up and bloody, and then Maureen would clean him up and tend to his wounds and they would go on living in their 'Billy The Great' bubble.
Once he was as cleaned and fixed up as he was going to get, he slowly shifted into a standing position, feeling all of his muscles ache with the results of the boxing match. Maureen turned to toss the bloody gauzes in the trash can and turned to look back at Billy, smiling as his arms moved around her waist and pulled her towards him. Though he was considerate enough to not put his bloody and sweaty body on her dress, she was certain that he had learnt his lesson from the first couple of times that he done it. No matter how bloody and beaten he was, there was no way he was allowed to mess with her clothes, not when they cost the amount of money that they did. Not that he cared about the cost of things. That was the whole reason he done this. To take care of her and to give her the life that they never had growing up.
Truth be told, they both kind of got off on the fighting. It fuelled some kind of primal passion and desire inside of the both of them. Billy had been undefeated for so long, it was hard to keep a level head about certain things. How could you imagine losing at all, when you're finally on top of the world? On top of the game. When you have never lost, and you are on top of your game, you don't see it coming when the game suddenly changes and you lose it all.