I love her.

I truly do.

Even as she lay there, I loved her. I loved her more than I knew. Even after all the stress I've gone through, the lack of sleep over the last few months; even after deadlifting live animals with no prior experience; even after all the embarrassing family dinners where I couldn't even move their chairs because of how heavy they were. After all that, I loved her with every beat of my heart. I didn't tell her that enough. I wish I told her that more.

I don't appreciate her enough. She took care of all the heavy work at home; fixing broken sinks, filling holes in the roof, even repairing the old 1976 Plymouth Volare my dad got me as an 18th birthday present. My feelings of insecurity only worsened after I complained online, like some kind of coward who couldn't figure it out himself. I whined about my insecurities to every stranger possible, thinking they'd side with me and that they'd Miraculously provide some solution. Instead, I found out I was just being an insensitive prick who didn't even bother to learn his wife's culture.

I promise I'll do better. I'll do everything better. I'll fix the sink, I'll fill the holes in our roof. I'll fix that damn car I should've replaced as soon as I could afford it. just please... Please get up.

She didn't even see it coming. I've seen her deadlift my uncle, a hefty man to say it nicely. She could've folded people like this as soon as they looked at her, but she didn't. Instead, they hit her over the head with God knows what, and she fell. And I realized how much I had been falling behind. How much of my weight I'd been letting her pull. Tonight, it's my turn.

Over the last few months, I hadn't bulked up much. I hadn't bulked up any, really, I just toned out. I was still as skinny as before, but now I had some definition to it. Compared to my wife, I'm still as meekly looking as I've always been. Maybe that's why they got so close, why they mocked me. because they thought I was just some meekly weirdo.

As soon as the first one got close enough, I pulled back, and my hand snapped forward, like a rubber band. His lower jaw almost collided with the back of his neck, as my fingers snaps against his chin. before he could even realize he'd been hit, I swung with my other hand, open palmed, and slapped the shit out of him. It wasn't as hard as my first throw, the adrenaline had already begun to wear off, but it still knocked him over. Even though it left my hand red, it still felt pretty damn good.
But my head hurt pretty bad. The second and third guy jumped me, forcing my head into cold rock, trying to hold me down, as they hit and punched me, trying to get me to stop moving. But I didn't. I grabbed the second one's hand and pulled, bringing the side of his head to my face. I bit down, snaring cheek and pulled layers of skin off his face. He tried to pull back, but I didn't let him. I pulled his hand again, bringing his head even closer, until I could see his ear. As quickly as my body could, I extended my neck and bit his ear, pulling my head back into the chilled cement below, banging it down as his ear stretched taut.
I rolled my body, pulling him with me, until he was against the ground, and I began beating on him. I lifted and dropped my hands over and over and over and over again until the only distinguishable feature about him was the stretched and reddened ear.

I'm not sure where the first guy went, and to be honest I didn't really notice he was gone. I rolled back off the guy I had beaten, and then rolled again until I was on my stomach, and i pushed against the ground. My hands hurt, they were red, and the bones literally shook trying to support my weight, but I pushed up. I pushed until I could lift my foot under me and push against the ground until I was upright. I turned to see her. She was still beautiful, if you'd believe it. Maybe more so than before. Maybe I saw more of it after tonight. Either way, I saw the best woman I could have ever asked for. The woman who saw my insecurities and tried to help me beat them. The woman who helped around the house because she called it home. The woman who chose me and let me choose her.

Tonight, would be special. Tonight, would be, if you'd believe it, one of my happiest memories. I was happy I could finally be helpful, glad I could love her the same way she loved me. Tonight's events would have made any Orc proud.

And tomorrow we're buying a new car.