One. More. Chapter! AAHHH! It's almost over! I don't know how to feel.

-Ash

6 Weeks Later…

Astrid and I sat together on my hospital bed and worked on the art in front of us. My easel was set up so that the two of us could easily paint together, and I didn't have to struggle standing up or anything. I added texture to the trees on the canvas as Astrid added various brightly colored waves in the ocean I had set up for her.

She glanced over at me. "You think Abby is going to like our art?"

Shrugging, I licked my lips with a hum. "Not sure. I hope she appreciates the effort though. Not much I can do creatively like being cooped up here."

"She will certainly appreciate anything you do. You're like her golden student," Astrid replied with a snort.

I shot her a sideways glance. "You think so, huh? She talked about how she thought you were improving a lot."

Her lips twitched at the corner of her mouth into a smirk. "No thanks to you."

"I can't take all of the credit. Maybe you're just a good student."

Astrid let out an amused sigh. "I think you're just a great teacher. Not everyone would put up with me."

That earned her a laugh. "Wow, you think I 'put up' with you?"

"You did at first, did you not?"

I quirked a brow and stopped painting to turn to her. "You know I had a huge crush on you, right?"

Her face fell flat, and she glared at me. "You're not serious."

I snorted. "Why do you think I was so nervous around you?"

"Because you were scared of me."

Shaking my head, I took her paint brush from her hand in order to get her to fully look at me. "No. I thought you were so out of my league. I thought you were beautiful and strong. Yes, I was a little intimidated by your strength, but I was also intimidated because I liked you."

Astrid scoffed at my words. "Really? I shat on you all the time. Why would you like me?"

I offered her a slight shrug of my shoulder. "You acknowledged my existence. You didn't push me against the lockers or call me names. You'd brush me off, sure, but not really in an aggressive way, but more in a dominant way. You saw me as a human being… and I really appreciated that."

She chewed her lip and glanced away from me. "I didn't—I didn't beat you up or push you around because I felt bad for you. I didn't want to look like I was being nice though, so I would be a bitch to… instill fear into you, I guess. I felt bad about it though. I always thought that youwerekindacute…" she grumbled the last part and snatched her paint brush back from my hand. She turned her attention back to the water on the canvas and started back her brush strokes.

I grinned. "What was that last part?"

She puffed out her cheeks. "Nothing," she murmured.

"You thought I was cute? Is that what you said?" I teased as I nudged her with my elbow.

Astrid shot a warning glare back in my direction. "You're going to mess me up and ruin this entire painting. We're going to get a zero on our landscape project because of you."

"Just admit that you thought I was cute. Say it clearly," I chimed.

"No. You're definitely not cute," she growled.

Placing a hand over my chest in mock hurt, I gaped at her. How dare she!? "What? What an awful thing to say to your boyfriend."

"Stooop! You're distracting me."

"Because I'm cute?"

"No, cause you're annoying."

I gasped. She rolled her eyes. I was totally (not) offended by her remark. Scooting her paints away from her, I began back on my own section of the canvas. Her jaw dropped as she slowly turned her head towards me. I glanced back over at her. "What?"

"Did you just take my paint?"

"No."

"Yes, you did."

"Okay, so, maybe I did. What're you going to do about it? You don't get to paint unless you call me cute."

Her eyes narrowed at me. I knew I was asking for shit, but it was kind of becoming a game. A dangerous game. But I was willing to play it. "Give me my paints, Haddock," she sneered.

"Using my last name isn't going to scare me."

Her voice lowered. "Give. Me. My. Paint."

I turned to her. "Fine," I took an extra brush and stuck it into the blue paint. I lifted up the brush and plopped a blue paint drop right on the tip of her nose. She gaped at me before gritting her teeth.

Damn, I was in trouble.

She took her paint brush and dipped it into the green paint. My eyes widened. "What are you doing? You're going to mix the colors!"

"You know what's not cute about you, Haddock," she said in an eerily calm voice.

Noticing the smirk on her face and the cock of her brow, I gulped my nervousness down my throat. "What?"

"These," she popped a dot on my cheek with her brush, "little," dot, "adorable," dot, "freckles," dot, "on each of your cheeks," dot.

I flared my nostrils, trying to keep myself from cracking up at her response. "You don't say?"

"Mmhmm," she hummed as she stole her blue paint back from me.

"You know why I think you are cute?"

"Hmm?"

I set the paint brush down and cupped her cheek to face me. "Because you're perfect in every way," I whispered before pulling forward for her lips to meet mine. Her mouth melted against mine. Kissing Astrid was something I would never grow tired of. Ever. She made me feel a whirlwind of emotions every time our lips touched. She was mine. I was hers. That's all I could ever want.

Physical therapy had been a bitch for sure, but I made it through. When sitting on the high stool and moving my leg up and down, I certainly wanted everything to end. It was so painful. Constantly, I had to have heat on the stump and rub on it to make the pain decrease. Phantom limb was the worst. My joints ached from the trauma, and that made physical therapy so much worse. Getting the strength back into my leg muscles sucked, but it was worth it in the end.

After a week of standing on my prosthetic with a strap around my waist, it was time to try to stand with a little help, but not completely being held up. I was antsy to put my own weight on it. The nurse wrapped the strap around itself and pulled it through the metal to steady it. I sat there and observed her actions so that I could learn to do them myself. She tightened the loop before glancing up at me. "Too much?"

I shook my head. "No, that feels fine."

With a bob of her head, she finished her actions and stood up in front of me. She smiled. "Alright, are you ready?"

Nodding, I started to shift in my chair and pushed against the arm rests of the wheelchair to put a little weight onto my new appendage. The nurse glanced back at Astrid with a smile. "Would you like to do the honors?"

Astrid's brows shot up. "M-Me? I don't know what I'm doing."

The nurse chuckled at her. "You're really muscular. I'm sure you're stronger than me. All you have to do is hold him up, okay?"

My girlfriend looked back at me with worried etched in her features. "Are… Are you okay with me doing this?"

"Of course," I replied with a smile. "I trust you more than anyone."

Her cheeks pinked a little. "D-Don't say that out loud."

I snorted at her. "Okay, yeah. My bad. Sorry for trusting you."

"You're a turd," she grumbled.

The nurse giggled at our exchange before guiding Astrid over towards me. Wrapping my arms around her neck, I pulled myself closer to the edge of the chair. Astrid placed her arms around my waist and helped me stand up. She slid her arms up to my shoulders, and I hobbled towards her. Putting most of my weight on my good foot, I limped towards her as she slowly guided me forwards. I hissed and winced a bit at the pressure on my stump.

Astrid gazed at me. "Am I doing okay?"

"Yeah, it feels so weird though. But it's not you."

"Okay," she pulled away a little bit and held onto my forearms.

I stumbled a smidge but recovered quickly. Astrid couldn't hide her snort. Glancing up, I smirked at her. "Yeah, yeah, laugh at the crippled dweeb."

"You can't help that you're a crippled dweeb."

I grinned before letting her pull me along with her as I limped towards her, careful about how much weight I placed on the prosthetic. "I think I'll get better at this."

"I think so too."

I trotted on the treadmill, holding myself up on the side rails. Trying to keep my balance was proving difficult, but somehow I managed. I pushed more weight onto my prosthetic. Leaning forward a tad bit, I tried to leverage myself without so much push on the side railing. I was going to be able to walk on my own soon, even if it was the last thing I did.