Linnie flipped on the light switch as he walked inside, placing his suitcase on the couch before noticing the picture frame on the floor. He picked it up and frowned as he was reminded of his and Nora's wedding day. He stared and thought back to how it seemed like they were desperate to get married, rather than wanting to be together and enjoy the moment. He even remembered all the passive comments Nora made when his pregnancy caused his white sweater to fit slightly too small on him. Guess that's what he gets for not planning ahead.

He didn't understand fully why the photo was on the ground though. It had never been on the ground, even while they were fighting. Neither him or Nora slammed it down on the floor once. So, what was it doing there? He wished he could go wake Nora up and ask, but it was almost midnight, and she'd probably give him a black eye if he dared wake her up before 8.

Suddenly, he heard noise coming from their bedroom, the door opening making Linnie jump, his body shaking a bit expecting his wife. But instead, a man he didn't recognize stood there, glaring at Linnie hard.

"What are you doing here? You don't live here! This is Nora's house, not yours! Scram before you sleep with the fishes, little man!", the man scowled, grabbing the nearest object to defend himself.

"N-Nora? How do you know my wife's name, if I may ask? I-I don't recall us meeting.", Linnie said, looking at the man, still scared but also curious at the same time. "I-I do live here, sir. Please, I was just gone for a trip. Nora's my wife. Oh please, don't hurt me."

"Pfft..yeah ok pal. Like I'm gonna buy that. And what are you doing with that? That's not yours!", Miguel floated over to where Linnie stood, snatching it out of his hands, now getting a good look at the wedding photo, his angered face now being replaced by a look of shot. The man in front of him looked exactly like the man in the photo, standing next to Nora while a little white wedding veil rested on his head. "Wait..what?"

"Yes, I-I'm sorry. I should have said something. I'm her husband. Uhm..I'm Linnie. I-I don't think I caught yours."

"Uh..Miguel. I..uh..collect your garbage some days.", Miguel stammered, struggling to understand what was going on, "I..Nora said you left..I thought she meant you were gone or something."

"I..no..I just had to leave town for a funeral."

"What's going on out here? I'm trying to get some sleep!", Nora voice snapped, before freezing in place as Miguel and Linnie stood in the same room. Linnie looked at Nora with a puzzled look, before looking back and forth, his frown growing deeper.

"Nora? Wat is he doing here? Is he a relative of yours that I hadn't meant? What's going on here?", Linnie asked, his soft voice somewhat hinted with impatience.

"Uh..Y-Yea! Yeah! He's my cousin! His truck broke down while he was a work so I thought I'd give him a place to stay for the night!", Nora said, sweating a bit, "I-I'm glad you two are finally getting to meet each other."

"Well Nora, if you're so called cousin's work truck broke down, don't you think his company would have called someone?", Linnie asked, crossing his arms, "I-I don't understand. What's really going on here, Nora? Who is he?"

"No one, Linnie! I swear, you worry too much, haha. It's just a friend of mine. No big deal."

"Did you do anything?", Linnie's shaky voice now started off as a whisper.

"N-No! I swear! He was just here for the night!", Nora shouted, "What's wrong with you? Can't I have male friends? Or are you have possessive of me, you have to hog me all for yourself?"

"Hold on, I thought you said he didn't want anything to do with you? Have you been lying to me this whole time for sympathy points?", Miguel yelled, snapping his head towards Nora, "What's going on here? Tell us the goddamn truth!"

"Ok fine! Yes, the idiot man standing in front of us is my husband, and we do live together. I-I just thought you wouldn't want to hang around someone if you knew she was married. I-I don't even like him anymore anyways! I'd rather be with you! We had a nice night together!"

"A nice night? What does that mean?", Linnie's voice asked, before Miguel held his hand up, telling Linnie to be quiet.

"You asked me to have sex with you even though you were married. Don't you think the least you could have done was MENTION that?", Miguel asked, now looking at Nora with pure fury in his pink eyes, "Is that all you lied to me about? What else is there? Do you really have 3 kids? Is this even your house? You know what.."

Miguel went back in the bedroom to put his normal clothes back on, coming back re-adjusting his white hat, catching Linnie's attention.

"Wait? Were you two sleeping together? You didn't at least show your FRIEND the guest room, Nora?", Linnie asked, catching Miguel's attention once more. His fists balled up even more but took a deep breath. He knew better than to hit a woman…even if it was Nora.

"You know what? I think I know where I'm not welcome. I'm gonna head home to where people don't lie to me.", Miguel growled, turning towards Linnie, "You have a nice night, Linnie. I'm sorry for how I acted towards you earlier. I thought you were someone trying to break in."

"O-Oh it's alright. You have a nice night now, dear. Please be safe.", Linnie said, watching Miguel walk through the door, now glaring at Nora, "Why did you bring him here? What did I ever do to deserve that?"

"Oh come off it, Linnie! You damn well know why I did what I did.", Nora snapped, her harsh tone and attitude coming back off. However, this time, Linnie wasn't shrinking away like she wanted. He put his hands on his hips and glared at Nora, a somewhat angered look on his face.

"Oh I see. So everything I've ever done for you, and every memory we had together was all for nothing? Why didn't you just tell me you weren't happy anymore? Why do you continue to hurt me? Do you hate me?"

"You know what, Linnie? Maybe I do! You've done nothing but make my life a living hell since the day we met."

"Oh yeah? How so? I have tried so hard to keep you happy. Taking care of the children and buying you liquor even though you really can't control yourself. You know, you're the whole reason while our children are too scared to visit us. Because they don't know how drunk you'll be when you show up!"

"First of all, I am an adult. I have the right to drink just as much as you do. I'm sick of you acting like my fucking father every time I have a drink. I'm over 21, the kids are fucking gone, get over it!", Nora shouted, getting closer to Linnie, "You hadn't done shit to make me happy. Taking care of the kids YOU begged me to have with you and provided for your wife is the bare fucking minimum. If anything, I'm busting my ass to keep YOU happy, since YOU were the one that wanted to start a family I didn't even want."

"B-but why? Why hit me instead of telling me what's wrong? Why do you continue to go out of your way to hurt me in order to get what you want. It's not fair, Nora! I did nothing to you!"

"That's just life, Linnie! Nothing's fair, especially if you don't ever work for it. I don't remember seeing you work a day in your life ever since we had gotten married. What happened to that daycare job you used to have?"

"Don't you remember? It shut down because it stopped receiving funding. A-and I had to start staying home so I could take care of the kids."

"Doesn't mean you still couldn't go get a job, you useless piece of shit.", Nora snarled, "You've never done anything to help me around here, and we're never intimate anymore. Maybe, if you had worked a little bit harder to keep me happy, then maybe we wouldn't have this problem!"

"B-but what about my needs?"

"Excuse you-?", Nora's growled really lowered, her fists glancing up as Linnie kept ranting.

"First off, if you were really unhappy with me, I-I honestly think you should have said something. We could have worked it out, o-or we could have gotten a divorce. Now that the kids have moved out, I don't have any problems with it if you don't. Second, it's always been about you, ever since we married. You've never stopped complaining about your first husband, or the wife HE has now, and you think it's ok to take it out of me?", Linnie ranted, thick tears now falling from his face, pissing Nora off even more, "W-what did I do to deserve this? I-I honestly thought having kids would make you love me again. Am I not enough for you?"

Nora was done putting up with his backtalk. Her fists tightened up as she charged towards Linnie like an angry bull, forcing him to get back against the wall, where she had him pinned. She smacked him on the face before she continued.

"Stop the crying, you piece of shit. I'm the one that should be crying right now. You have no right to talk to your own wife like that!", Nora snarled, Linnie's confidence now flowing out rapidly, "I've got something to say to you, Princess Linnie. I've never loved you. The only reason I married your sorry ass was because I was so afraid of being lonely, and you were the only person that would even look in my direction. But now, you're no longer useful to me. I honestly don't' know why I allow you to keep living with me, especially with that ungrateful, nasty little attitude of yours."

"Because I'm your husband! A-and even if you don't want me around, then maybe it was your fault for marrying someone you did NOT LOVE!"

Nora just about had it with Linnie. She grabbed his sweater and pulled him closer, now allowing all her anger to take control. She punched him in the stomach and let go, his back colliding with the glass coffee table next to him.

"N-Nora! Please stop! I-I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean to speak to you like that! Please!", Linnie yelled, now crying his eyes out. Nora picked him up and slammed him back against the wall, slamming him over and over again until he nose started bleeding, throwing him back on the ground. She continued to scream and kick him as he begged for mercy, Nora showing no signs of stopping. She picked up and punched his face over and over, until he earned a black eye and his nose kept bleeding even more. She gave him one final, but brutal blow on his stomach, causing him to land on the coffee table's glass.

"Don't you EVER speak to your wife like that, again! I'm the one that pays the bills around here, so I'm the one that's allowed to do whatever the hell or bring whoever the hell I want over! I'm done!", Nora snarled, "Now, I'm going to bed. Don't bother coming in the room. Sleep on the couch for all I care. Goodnight now."

Linnie didn't say anything in response as Nora slammed the bedroom door shut, barely able to even more. He inched around in hopes to find the cell phone that fell out of his pants pocket, the phone barely out of reach. He winced as his stomach ached, causing himself to stay still, nearly passing out on his spot.

Just when he thought he was going to die, there was a loud knock at the front door, opening to find the next door neighbor scurrying next to him, dialing 911 on the phone he was reaching. After a short while, Linnie felt his body being lifted, a white light now blinding his vision..

The next morning, Linnie lied in the hospital bed, bandaged all over him. While most fairies would have recovered by now, Linnie's injuries were so severe that the doctors said it would take a few days for him to recover. That, on top of his recovery system not being the greatest anyway, gave him time to think over what his life had become. Despite Nora flat out telling him she didn't love him, he couldn't help but feel a bit bad over the way he had spoken to her.

"Special delivery.", one of the nurses said, placing a large thing of roses on the table next to him "These came for you, Mr. Cosma."

"O-Oh! Thank you, ma'am.", Linnie said, giving a weak smile before the nurse left, a card lying next to the roses. Though his body still ached, Linnie managed to grab out the card, reading it with a small smile on his face.

Linnie-

I'm sorry. I lost control last night and promise to never do it again I'll keep my self in check next time we fight. Hope you get better soon.

Your wife, Nora.

Despite a bad feeling in his stomach, Linnie still smiled at the card. Even though it was no where close to a real apology, it at least showed at she somewhat still cared for him. But although he knew he still loved Nora, he also wasn't sure if he could keep living like this. Maybe it was time to get a lawyer involved…