Leonardo

The concept of breaking point they taught in Chemistry class wasn't just for metals and chemical substances. It also applied to people.

Nobody was tough enough to not have one.

My mom and Zemira were the only two people who seemed to defy that principle. No matter what, they never broke down.

It was upon my return from the war that I witnessed Mom reach her breaking point. Seeing her son almost unrecognizable and with an amputated leg, Rachel Brenton lost her will and broke down.

Perhaps, seeing my mother at her most vulnerable was also a reason for me to avoid seeing Zemira. I knew I couldn't bear the sight of her scanning me, witnessing what remained of me.

What I missed calculating in my plan to avoid seeing Zemira were fate and timing. No matter how well one planned everything, some things were unquantifiable.

One such was her being in the same city as me and the other - watching her attain her breaking point.

"I can't believe I fell for your lies," I said, watching her move towards the door.

The weight of my accusation crushed me. Seeing her again woke the monster of betrayal I'd laid to rest.

"What the fuck did you say?" Zemira's retreating figure halted. She slammed the door shut and moved back. "Say it again, Leo."

Her voice wasn't loud. It was lowered, probably considering Romeo wouldn't like someone yelling at his master. The rumbling sensation I felt drumming from inside her chest was loud. Jarring.

"Tell me, what lies have I fed you?" she said. "And what realization have you attained now?"

Zemira didn't move an inch from where she stood. Heaving, she squared my face. Her blue eyes darkened as if she redirected all her anger into burning me down.

"Say it out loud, you coward." Her teeth gritted and powdered as her jaw muscles twitched.

She shoved me.

My back embraced the cold wall behind me, arresting my steps.

The way her nostrils flared, her unblinking gaze bored into my skin and her chest heaved, I was sure she'd stab me had there been any sharp objects nearby. Zemira, in her present state, wasn't a caring and loving woman.

She was a hound thirsty for blood. My blood.

"Cat got your tongue now, Leonardo Brenton?"

Something snapped at that word. The hatred I nestled in my chest against my father, my brother and my last name, erupted.

My hands gripped her shoulders. I turned her around and chiseled her to the wall I was crucified over moments ago.

Her warm breath hit the side of my face. She looked away. Then back at me.

Her heaving chest and trembling body told another story - one asking me to listen to her. Her tear-filled eyes pled me to stop treating her like a toy.

But the breaking point that I too had attained, wasn't fixable.

I couldn't undo what her words, her existence and her betrayal did to me. She'd murdered the love I had for her.

"I said I can't believe myself for falling for your lies, Zemira Ford. I can't believe how foolish I was to believe you ever loved me."

Her arms came to her rescue.

Breaking my hand-held cage, she shoved me away from her. She took a single, determined step towards me.

Her form was growing. She was determined to break me into two.

For a moment, Zemira stood. Those few seconds when might have tried composing herself before hurting me more, I felt the need to justify my actions.

"I wrote to you, Zemira. I poured my heart into those letters. The day before everything went wrong, I'd written to you. I knew something bad would happen but still... I got nothing from you. I got-"

"I never got your letters on time."

This time, her consideration for Romeo being next door disappeared. She yelled, shoving her hand inside her bag and fishing out a bunch of nearly stacked letters.

"I..." She tossed the first letter at me. "Never." The second one hit my face. "Got." The third hit my chest. "Them on time."

She didn't throw the fourth one.

Instead, she grabbed my hand and shoved it in my palm.

I looked at her tear-brimmed eyes that somehow managed to hold everything in.

With every breath she took, she palmed her chest as if easing the ache from my actions into her skin.

When I gazed at the letter in my hand, her truth came to light.

All those letters were stamped by her office in receipt. The receiving dates were later than when I'd expected them to have arrived.

The heaviness of her words and the lack of logic behind my actions snapped at me, pricking into my skin.

I punished Zemira for things I'd conjured up in my mind. She never received the letters to reply and I, with a broken body, imagined she'd used me. That she didn't love me.

How could I do this to her?

"I'm sorry, Leo." Zemira bent at my feet, picking up the letters. She folded each of them in their original form, grabbing the last one out of my hand. "I'm sorry to know that what you wrote in here didn't mean a thing to you."

She wasn't looking at me but into her bag. Her back faced me. Her shoulders rose and fell. Her head leaned over her chest as she shook her head like trying to erase this day from her mind.

I tarnished her love for me and broke her heart. I watched as she picked up those pieces to rebuild herself.

"I'm sorry Leo." Zemira turned around. "I didn't know that you could love anyone but me. I didn't realize you'd have anyone in your life. Any woman who wasn't me."

This time, Zemira didn't hold back her tears. She didn't act strong by looking away. Nor did she try to compose herself.

She was a weeping mess.

My weeping mess.

I dragged a step towards her. She moved away and grabbed her bag.

"I don't exactly know what happened during your mission but I'm sorry you had to go through that. I know Amara must have helped you a lot and it could have resulted in something. So, I wish you and your girlfriend a happy life."

"Shhh." I grabbed her elbow and pulled her back. "You still talk a lot."

Misunderstandings parted us, widening the gap that could have easily been fixed had I talked to her. It was up to me to rectify it.

"You overthink a lot." I palmed her mouth, knowing she'd speak in between. "And come at the worst conclusions."

Zemira's eyebrows slid into her hairline. She tried speaking something, muffled.

"Amara is not my girlfriend. Get it?" I continued. "She isn't you."

Her head bobbed as she blinked away tears.

"She is not the woman I think about and smile. She is not the one who made me survive all this. You are. Amara is not my girlfriend... She isn't..."

My forehead tilted, gravitating towards her when her cold palms cupped my face, pulling me to look up.

"You, Zemira, you're my home. You're my..."

When words cemented over my lips and my eyes warmed at the sight of the woman I love, I knew I had a lot of repenting to do.

I plunged my lips over hers. Thirsty for what felt like a decade, I was drinking up from the human oasis I'd longed to hold, kiss and touch.

Her vanilla and lavender scent numbed the pain I'd felt in my chest.

She dragged me closer. Our tongues fought for dominance before submitting to each other. Tasting each other.

Everything drifted into a vacuum but us. We could hear each other heartbeats singing in unison.

I felt the tenderness of her lips again while she must have felt the roughness of mine.

In that eternity-laden moment, nothing else mattered. Nothing but us.

Zem's hand travelled lower, unbuttoning a shirt button and travelling up my chest. It warmed its way into the back of my neck.

My mind thundered at her actions, snapping me out of the trance I floated in.

I stopped playing with her plump lips. Instead, I grabbed her hand that snaked towards the second button and arrested the one coiled behind me.

What if Zemira wasn't ready to see what had become of her Leo?

She didn't know that the man who returned from his mission wasn't the man she loved. I was a broken entity, remolded to fit back into society.

Zemira wasn't aware of the changes in me that weren't just superficial but ran deep. Imbibed in each cell of my body, they narrated the story of my failure.

"Leo," she breathed as I kissed her forehead and embraced her harder, muffling her words over my chest. "I... I..."

I knew a day would come when I might have to bare myself to her but that day wasn't today.

Today I needed my redemption.

"I'm sorry for putting you through all of this, Zem," I whispered. She took a step back and watched me. "Please, say something. Anything, Zem. Don't look at me like this."

"Did I say I was done with you?"

Dragging her index finger over my lips, she tempted me with a crooked smile.

"I'm sorry. I'll stay quiet."

Zemira took hold of my bodily reins, plunging her lips over mine and swaddling me with her sweet taste and flowery scent.

I had nothing else to think or feel but her. I needed nothing else either.

For the first time in seven months, since returning from my mission, I felt content. My chest flooded with an unknown warmth. The bodily aches seeped off my skin. My scars sublimed into me, fading away.

Just by holding me in her arms, my Zem Zem had the power to make me feel whole.

~

I'm a weeping mess right now.

These two have been through so much.

And I didn't make their journey any easy.

Hope you'll enjoy their perfect reunion.

Or as they say, the one reunion they'd call a 'Do over'

Let me know in the comments, your thoughts on this chapter

Or just flood me with emojis.

Either way, I'd be over the moon <3