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dianapana · 3 years ago

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SH Day 6: Marriage Agreement: ‘Til Our Contract Do Us Part

@sasuhinamonth

Hello dears, this prompt is composed of an older story that I changed a bit here and there and finished just now (it’s somewhat finished as in the ending isn’t too open, but it is open enough for me to continue if I ever wish to). I was very excited to finally use it after having it in my docs for idk maybe a year or so. It’s veeery long compared to what I usually write for these prompts but it just didn’t feel right to split it into parts anywhere.

~Love, Dia

Modern AU, OOC

Champaign

Hinata couldn’t help but sigh in relief when the waiters started walking around with trays full of Champaign glasses, it meant that the speech and toast part would come soon, that was her dad’s way of ending these events, thanking everyone for coming. Usually after the toast people drank their glasses quite fast and they all shook hands with Hiashi before leaving, considering there were about a hundred people around that would take about another hour. She made it thought the preparations for the event and the event itself which took over 7 hours, the worst parts ended, she will survive the goodbyes.

Once the trays were all empty and everyone had a glass in hand Hiashi walked to the middle of the room at what seemed to be the slowest speed possible. Everyone was watching him, nobody dared talk. For most people this wasn’t their first Hyuuga Event and they knew how things worked, and even those that attended it for the first time were smart enough to follow everyone’s lead and stay quiet.

Finally reaching his usual spot Hiashi rose his glass and started speaking. Hinata sent a small prayer to the heavens wishing the speech to be short.

“I want to start by thanking everyone for coming over tonight, especially in such a short notice” it was indeed short notice, Hyuuga events happen 2 times a year on the 20th March and 23rd September; spring and fall equinox. But Hiashi decided a month ago that a mid-June event needed to be held this year. Nobody knew why. “I hope everyone had a pleasant time today, from our oldest friends,” Hiashi said turning to the Nara and Yamanaka leaders ��to our newest friends” his eyes moved to Fugaku Uchiha “and everyone in between”

Hiashi started talking about the notion of friendship and how important bonds are in ‘our world’. Hinata could tell the speech would be a long one, and with every bullshit word coming out of her father’s mouth she wanted to roll her eyes. But she couldn’t. The elders were watching her every move, Neji and Hanabi were in the same position, having eyes on them at all times. They all had to smile and nod and act like these events are their favourite place to be, no matter how big of a lie that was. She was tired, the servant woke her up at 5 in the morning to start getting ready, her father didn’t agree with the first two dresses she had put on, the putting on and taking off, took her about 2 hours in total and was extremely exhausting despite the help from the servants. The preparations for the event also took longer than usual. Her father kept telling her how important it was for her to behave. Hinata had never been the one to cause problems during such events, no matter how much she hated them, but for some reasons, it was her that was always given the longest lectures.

The windows were open at least and the night summer wind gently blew inside. The dress Hiashi approved of was a deep red long evening gown. All the skirt layers were extremely heavy and she had been standing on high heels for longer than it should be humanly possible, the corset was so tightly tied, at times she’d have issues breathing and to top it all off the dress had long lace sleeves which were sticking to her skin. It had not been a fun dress to wear in the middle of a heatwave. Her mind was still drifting in space when all of a sudden, her father stopped talking.

“I know many of you have been wondering the reason for this event and we shall let you know. Fugaku would you mind joining me?” The Uchiha leader went to the centre of the room as well. Whispers started going around the crowd, nothing like that had ever happened before. Hinata looked to Neji trying to see if he was aware of any of that, but her cousin would not make eye contact with her. Neji’s head was lowered, his fist was clenched and the hand around the glass was white-knuckled, it was a miracle the glass hadn’t shattered in a million pieced from his grip. Neji was aware of what was about to happen and he was not pleased.

“Today is the first time in over 100 years when the Hyuuga and the Uchiha families meet in peace at an event such as this. The bond between the two is alone a motif to celebrate but we must do everything in our power to keep this bond as strong as we can which is why we have decided to bind the families together thought marriage.” Hiashi’s voice boomed with pride. The crowd’s whispers grew in intensity. Hinata looked at Hanabi, both girls looking shocked and even scared. Hanabi wanted to reach out and hold her older sister’s hand. Grip it tight and pray that they both get over this event intact, but before she could make a move Hiashi started speaking again. “Hinata, my daughter would you please come here”

All eyes turned to her. Her heart beat a thousand times per second, despite her sudden fear her body moved gracefully, her mind was in utter chaos but her body knew the drill, it obeyed whatever her father told her to do. As she was passing by people, a familiar hand gripped her for a moment, trying to say so many is such a small touch. Ino, her best friend, tried to give her all the strength she had, she wanted to assure her everything will be fine, and also thought that touch she said sorry. She said goodbye. Hinata reached her father’s side and turned towards the people. She had never been in the front of the ballroom before, had never had all the eyes on her. Hiashi put his hand on her shoulder and smiled at her, the kind of smile she had never seen before. The smile she had wished to see as a child, there was pride and content in it, but it only made Hinata’s heart break further. The emotions were not directed at her as a human, he was not proud of her, his pride came from finally finding it, a way to get rid of her. He had married her off.

“Sasuke my son, come!” Fugaku’s command was just as loud and even stiffer. Hinata found Ino’s eyes in the crowd. Her friend was crying silent tears. Seeing Ino cry made Hinata oddly detached. It was a strange sensation, she almost felt like her soul had left the body and she was watching from somewhere far away all of this happening to somebody else. The Hyuuga girl moved her eyes from her friend to the man walking towards them. Her future husband.

Once the young Uchiha stood in place Hiashi raised his glass and finished the toast. “To my beautiful daughter and her fiancé,” they cheered for her. They drank for her. And yet she didn’t. The Champaign glass was still full. She was lost… not in thought, her mind was blank but she wasn’t present either.

“Look alive princess” Came a voice from her right. Sasuke took her glass and finished it in one gulp. He placed both his and her glasses on the tray of a waiter and took her hand and kissed the back of it. People gasped and whispered. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him. With her on heels, his mouth came to her ear. “Smile sunshine. This is supposed to be the happiest day of your life. Fool them all” His voice was oddly gentle and it broke something in her. She would have cried but Sasuke was right; she had a part to play. Taking a small breath in Hinata fell in character.

Hiashi told them to do the honours and say goodbye to everyone, after all that was their engagement party. Hinata looked up at the man she would spend her life with and gave him a sweet and shy smile, she even managed to make herself blush when he smiled back at him. She smiled and blushed whenever someone congratulated them or made a comment about their engagement. From time to time, she’d steal a glance at Sasuke and look at him with what she hoped came across as admiration. They made eye contact a few times, he winked at her twice. They were both playing their parts flawlessly. One could not tell that they had never met before, that they were not indeed lovers. Fugaku called Sasuke to him and Hinata was left alone to say goodbye to the guests. A few older ladies praised her for being able to catch such a handsome husband.

The next in line was Gaara. Hinata’s heart broke a little more upon seeing him. He too looked sad, which her brain turned to something else despite knowing it not to be true. Her feelings for Gaara had not gone away as she had hoped they would after finding out that he was in a secret relationship. “I am sorry Hinata” He whispered as he kissed her cheek. There was nothing either of them could do, people were waiting in line to talk to her after Gaara. Her father and fiancé were in front. Hinata smiled and thanked him just as she had everyone else. Gaara would not save her, he couldn’t and even if he could…he wouldn’t.

Ino was one of the last people to come talk to her. She had gone to the bathroom to pull herself together after crying. The blonde was stronger than that, but she had cried for Hinata because at that moment Hinata could not afford to cry. The Yamanaka girl hugged her tightly and whispered in her ear encouragements that they both knew would not help.

Everyone had left but the Uchiha family and the main Hyuuga family. Even the Hyuuga elders had seen themselves out. Habani was nowhere to be seen. Neji, her father, Sasuke, Fugaku and Sasuke’s elder brother Itachi were all talking among themselves. To the side was Mikoto, Sasuke’s mom. Hinata was still by the door; now that everyone had left, she was unsure of what to do, under normal circumstances she would be allowed to leave and go to her room, but her father hadn’t dismissed her yet. The Uchiha woman looked to her, smiled and started walking towards her.

“You look lovely dear. I’ve been keeping my eye on you the whole event but Fugaku would not allow me to come and talk to you sooner. Come dear let’s sit down and gossip while the men talk business”. The two women walked to the first table and sat down next to each other. “The event was so long; I thought your father would never make his speech. It must have been hard for you too, staying all those hours on high heels and in that dress, what were the servants thinking giving you such a heavy and warm dress to wear; do they not know it’s summer?” Mikoto went on about trivia things a moment longer. Hinata had yet to say a word, however, her future mother-in-law didn’t seem to mind her silence, for she filled it with mindless talk.

“I know it’s a difficult time for you,” The woman said and took Hinata’s hands in hers. “They were unfair to you, they should have let you know earlier.” Mikoto touched a strand of Hinata’s hair. “You have nothing to fear. We are a good family. My son will take care of you. It will take a while for you to adjust I know, but this is not the end of the world.”

Hinata opened her mouth to say something but found her throat was so dry she couldn’t say anything. After clearing her throat, she tried again. “Will I be leaving with you tonight?” the idea of leaving tonight and not being able to say goodbye to anyone was unboreable.

“No sweetheart. The Uchiha is an old family with old traditions, you will move in with Sasuke only on the night of the wedding. It is a sin to live under the same roof before that.” Hinata nodded. At least she still had some time before that.

“When is the wedding?”

It was easy to see Mikoto was an affectionate person, she moved her chair to be closer to Hinata and hugged her. Something about the woman put her at ease, her voice and hair reminded her of Hikari, her own mother, it was a strange feeling. “The wedding will be in three months. Before that we have to pick a dress, everything else has been pretty much done, you can look over everything and make the last-minute decisions. Of course you and Sasuke will spend some time together to get to know each other and-“.She was cut off by Sasuke himself when he addressed her “Mother” Mikoto squeezed her harder one more time before letting Hinata go. The woman got to her feet and kissed Sasuke’s cheek. “Goodbye Hinata, I will see you soon dear”

She and Sasuke were now alone. He took a seat in the chair Mikoto had emptied. For a moment they didn’t talk. It was all moving along too fast for Hinata to comprehend. Just under 2 hours ago, all she wanted was the event to end so she could sleep. Nothing could have prepared her for the change her life took. It almost felt like it wasn’t real; or that it was all happening to someone else. She had not made a single decision about this.

“Tomorrow I’ll come and we will have lunch together and talk more. It has been a full and exhausting day.” His voice was just as gentle as it was when he whispered to her before. “What would you prefer we eat? I will make reservations ahead of time”

“Anything will do, I don’t mind” Hinata answered. She appreciated that he didn’t want to ‘get to know each other’ then and there. She was indeed tired and needed to think about everything a little more, in order to realize that it was all indeed real. Looking up at Sasuke she had to say she was lucky; he was very good looking and so far, had shown her kindness. If what his mother said was true her destiny wasn’t as cruel as it could have been.

He got up and extended his hand for her to take, which she did. Hand in hand they walked back to where both families were still discussing. Neji would still not look at her, Itachi offered her a kind smile, Fugaku only a nod.

“I see that the two of you hit it off.” Her father said, it appeared he was really happy with the arrangements. Sasuke nodded to her dad. Hinata was certain that if Hiashi had his way she would leave with the Uchihas that very moment and never return.

“Hinata is tired, it is quite late so we should go. I will return tomorrow at noon in order to take her out for lunch Hyuuga-san.” Sasuke had not asked permission to take her out. He had simply stated that he would. That was the moment she realized her father was no longer the one to command her. Sasuke was. She wasn’t sure if what she felt was fear or excitement.

“Yes of course. Hinata you may leave” Hiashi said but Hinata didn’t move for Sasuke was still holding onto her hand.

“I will walk her to her quarter.” Hinata barely had time to bow to what would soon be her family before Sasuke started pulling her along. “In my presence you will not follow his word. My word is absolute, his is barely wind blowing by you.” Sasuke appeared to be annoyed by the fact that her father dismissed her. “If he says go but I am standing still, you too will stay unless I decide we will leave”

“Yes.” She knew how their world worked; despite them living in the 21rst century where women were seen as equals more and more every day, their world stopped evolving. The husband was the ultimate master while the woman was a possession. First, she was owned by her father, then by her husband.

They walked quite fast when leaving the ballroom, but once they were out of sight Sasuke slowed his steps. He was aware of the difficulty of walking in heels, his mother always made sure to complain about it. Her hand in his felt small and fragile, he had never been given something to take care of, sometimes that was his and his alone. He had been against the marriage at first. He wanted to wait until he was the Uchiha head later in life before taking a wife but his father insisted, he needed to marry young and have heirs because Itachi could not. His older brother had been his father’s favourite from a young age; that was until Itachi was 18 and Sasuke 13, about 10 years ago. On his 18thbirthday Itachi gave up his title as the heir in a very public way only to than later inform his father that not only does he not want to be head but he would not be fit for the role, for he could never give heirs to the clan. Itachi’s infertility came as a shock to the whole family. Sasuke was tested as well as soon as possible but thankfully the tests proved that he would be able to have children.

Fugaku had learned in the past 10 years to accept Sasuke as his heir, his relationship with his father was better now than it had ever been, but even so they were not as close as Itachi had been with him. But Fugaku put in all his efforts to try to make Sasuke the best, he taught him everything he could and allowed Sasuke to do as he pleases as long as what he did would be useful to the family. So, when he informed Sasuke he had picked a wife for him it came to no surprise that he had chosen a girl from a very important family, a family even older than the Uchihas and just as influential. The girl was known among her people as an angel and was believed to be the most beautiful Hyuuga girl to ever be, so of course, Fugaku wanted her for his own heir.

Upon seeing Hinata for the first time that night Sasuke had concluded the rumours had not been false. He had not been disappointed in the slightest. He was actually impressed. He expected two outcomes: either the girl to cry and make a fuss about the marriage or to be the ditzy kind of girl he had seen around that throws herself at him. She had been neither. For the shortest moment she had faltered and shown her true feelings, disbelief and numbness, but she pulled herself together as soon as he spoke to her. She had acted and played her part perfectly.

The pavement was old and uneven towards the main house. Almost nothing had been altered from the time the house was built, only maintained, so cracks and unevenness in the pathways happened. Hinata was trying her best to walk over them in her heels. Normally by that point in the night, she would take her heels off but she was not alone. Noticing her slowing down Sasuke stopped.

“Would you want me to carry you?” The offer was unexpected and it made Hinata quiet for a moment which Sasuke took as ‘yes’. He slightly bent and placed an arm under her knees and the other around her back. On instinct, Hinata placed both her hands on his shoulders to steady herself.

“You didn’t have to do that” Despite saying that she was thankful. Her feet were killing her.

“How high are your heels?”

“About 6 inches. Why?”

“6 inches and I’m still 6 inches taller than you.” He made a humming sound. Hinata didn’t know what he was thinking but she didn’t try to figure it out either. It was hard enough trying to figure out what she was feeling, there was no energy or time to uncover the mysteries of Sasuke’s mind. Her body was tired but her brain was even more exhausted. At this point not really caring anymore, she placed her head on his shoulder and just enjoyed the ride. Upon getting to the main house Hinata instructed him to go to the 2nd floor to the left. There was a guard outside her door that did not stop him from entering her room but actually held the door open for him. Two servants were inside waiting to help her undress and wash before going to bed. Sasuke put her on the edge of her bed.

“Thank you for bringing me here.” Hinata said. She felt a bit shy now, not really knowing how to say goodbye to him. This was the first time a man beside her dad and Neji entered her room. Not even the guards were allowed inside.

“Goodnight Hinata, I will see you tomorrow” Sasuke said, he kissed the back of her hand once more and left. Not waiting for her reply. Once again, a choice was made for her that day, but she was grateful for it this time.

The servants were gossiping about her fiancé and how gentle and beautiful he was, about how he had looked at her and how he had carried her like she was the most precious thing in the world. They guided her to her feet and to the full-length mirror to the side of her bed.

All their words were flying around her but none of them really registered; her brain was still not processing much of anything. She was still in the ballroom holding her Champaign glass praying for her dad’s speech to be short.

The servants untied her corset and Hinata took in her first deep breath in what felt like ages. They peeled off her sleeves and pulled the skirt away from her body. She was left in her underwear and heels in front of the full-length mirror. Her arms were splotchy and red from place to place from the itchy lace, her breasts and abdomen had red traces from where the corset was too tight on her. Her panties were red to match the dress, her legs were white and smooth but they were barely holding her at that point in the high heels, they were visibly shaking. Her eyes moved back up over every inch of naked skin until it reached her face. She wasn’t sure what she expected to see there, maybe something different. Some kind of evidence of the announcement from that night, but everything looked just as it did that morning.

One of the servants had just finished putting the dress away for it to be cleaned the next day, while the other filled her bathtub with hot water, salts and oils. Hinata would usually take off her heels and walk on her own to the bath but she was still looking at herself in the mirror, her eye make-up wasn’t smudged at all, her lipstick had gone after eating and drinking halfway through the event, so she excused herself to the bathroom several hours ago to take it off, her updo had lost some of its volume and a few strands had fallen around her face. She was too close to the mirror, her image being all she saw. Hinata took a few steps back and tried to picture Sasuke next to her naked body. They would make a beautiful couple even she could admit that.

Not being able to stomach the image she had in her head anymore the Hyuuga girl finally turned around and sat on the bed for a moment to take her heels off. She walked to the bathtub and took off her underwear as well and lowered herself in the hot water. Her head was resting on a soft towel; one of the servants started taking her make-up off and cleaning her face with scrubs and putting gels on her face and gently massaging everything in.

“Haruhi, could you please put some music on?” Hinata asked the servant that was not busy at the time. A moment later soft music started playing in the background. Once the facial massage was done a charcoal mask was applied to her face and finally, her hair was taken from the updo. Mina, the servant washing her poured some warm water on her head in such a way as not to get it on her mask. Her hair was shampooed twice and conditioned and rinsed and finally, put in a towel.

Haruhi came to help with washing her body, they scrubbed at her neck, collarbones, arms, hands, breasts, back and every other part of her. Her body was rinsed and washed again, more gently with moisturizing lavender soap and rinsed again. Her facemask was taken off, the water drained from the tub and she stepped out of it allowing the servants to towel her off. Mina placed a large towel over her bedsheets and Hinata laid on her back and enjoyed as both her servants massaged every part of her body with more oils, once they were done on one side she turned on to her front and they started to work again.

Her massage was almost done when Hanabi busted through her door. Hinata lazily opened her eyes, she was tired and finally relaxed, thus on the edge of falling asleep. Her sister was in her night attire, her hair still wet from her own bath most likely. Her eyes were red, she must have cried, but she looked angry at the moment. Hinata’s servants did not stop their massage despite the company of her sister.

“How can you stay there and enjoy your massage?” Hinata asked sounding astonished.

“You had enjoyed your bath time, why shouldn’t I?” Despite all of Hinata’s efforts over the years she and Hanabi weren’t as close as she wanted. Hanabi had always resented her for being older, the firstborn, the heir. When Hanabi was 3 and Hinata 7 the younger spent her days playing and reading stories and being watched by the elder women while Hinata was studying with the men. Hanabi had asked once why that was the case and an elder said “Your sister is the heir. She has to know how to be a leader, while you my dear, you will be a wife to someone” Despite that incident, things slowly started changing over the years, Hinata lost her father’s favour and Hanabi was taught leadership skills while Hinata was toughed to cook. Despite the obvious manner in which Hiashi favoured her now, Hanabi had always felt jealous of her sister, for she always believed what that old woman said to her in her childhood, she resented Hinata for she was to be the one that would not be married off. What an irony.

“Why aren’t you upset?” Hanabi’s voice was breaking and she was shaking. “Why aren’t you angry?” her fists were clenched and she looked like she wanted to start a riot. “Why aren’t you in dad’s office demanding he change his mind?”

“There’s nothing to change Hanabi.” Hinata finally got up and gestured to the servants to leave. She took the towel and put it around her body as the two bowed and left the room, left the sisters to talk among themselves. “Dad did it in such a way that it cannot be undone.” Hinata walked to her closet looking for something to wear to bed. “He didn’t tell me before so I couldn’t contest it, and now I can’t. Everyone that matters in this world knows about it. Unless I have a good reason, a very good one, there’s nothing that can stop this. In three months I will not be here anymore” Hinata finally picked a silk shorts and tanktop combo and put it on. “And you little sister.” The older one said as she walked towards her sister “You will be a Hyuuga forever, this will be the only house you know, these will be your people.” Hinata wanted to finish her sentence with ‘just as you’ve always wanted’ but stopped herself short.

Hanabi was crying again. She had prayed and wished to be the one to stay for so many years. But she had never thought about her sister leaving. She had always been bitter and held Hinata at a distance even when the older one tried to make the gap between them disappear. She had never taken the opportunity to get to know Hinata, and now she couldn’t.

“I’m sorry.” Hanabi said and hugged Hinata. They hadn’t hugged in ages. This time it was Hinata who pushed away.

“It’s over for today. I have not yet realized that this is not a dream. We will speak tomorrow. I’m going to bed now” She was a bit angry at Hanabi for only now trying to act like a sister. She had tried before that evening too, right before Hinata’s name was called, but even then it was in a moment of weakness, of fear, it wasn’t out of love or care. For most of her life Hinata tried to convince herself that she was fine with the way her and Hanabi’s relationship was, after trying for a few years to bond with her and being rejected, Hinata became content with what they had because she believed Hanabi not to be able to connect on a deeper level. She didn’t connect with Neji or Hiashi either. But seeing that she is indeed able of that connection, that she just didn’t want it before, hurt her more than Hinata would ever admit.

Hanabi left and Mina and Haruhi peeked in Hinata’s room. “Good night Himata-hime” they said in union and Hinata wished them a goodnight as well. Them calling her hime reminded her of the way Sasuke had called her Princess. ‘Smile sunshine. Fool them all’ he had said. And she did. She smiled and fooled them.

Now that her head was finally on her pillow, hair still damp, sheets cool and comforting, the room dark and quiet she allowed herself to admit a few things out loud. “I am getting married. I will be an Uchiha. Sasuke will be my husband.” The silence in the room was deafening “I am scared.” A little voice in the back of her brain whispered ‘I am excited’ but she didn’t say it out loud. With those thoughts in mind, she fell asleep.

________________________________

The next morning felt normal. She woke up, brushed her teeth, washed her face, got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. She didn’t feel different. Upon reaching the dining room she realized for once she was the last to arrive. Hanabi was in her seat looking upset, Neji was frowning at his phone and her dad was reading something on his pad. That is what the house would look like in three months. She moved from the doorframe and all eyes turned to her. Hanabi still looked sad, Neji looked sorry and her dad was happy. Hinata walked around the table and sat in her chair.

“Good morning sunshine. How did you sleep?” Hiashi had stopped calling her sunshine when she was 4 years old and Hikari died.

“I slept very well, how about you father?”

“I did as well”

Neji was looking at Hinata almost expecting her to cry or scream. He was looking at her face trying to find proof of tears from the night before, but her face wasn’t red or puffy. She looked well-rested.

The breakfast was finally brought for them to eat and they did so in silence. Hiashi was the first to finish and instead of leaving to go do work as he would normally, he started talking.

“Sasuke will be here at noon. You should start getting ready after breakfast” Hiashi too wanted to test his daughter and see how she would address the situation. He wanted to know if he had to give her a lecture about her behaviour around the Uchiha heir.

“Yes, I know. I already thought of what I want to wear. I will change and come seek your approval as I would for an event.” Hinata said between bites. “He didn’t mention where we were going but he did say he will make reservations so I am assuming it is a dressy place despite being a lunch date”

Everyone was taken aback by her answer. Hinata had not lied, she slept very well and woke up early. She accepted her fate almost entirely, she picked what she wanted to wear and even thought about a few things she wanted to ask Sasuke. In all truthfulness, she was a bit excited but was trying to keep her expectations low, that way she would not be disappointed if this change was not for the better. The only thing she didn’t particularly like about this was not seeing Ino and Neji. They were her best friends despite Neji’s behaviour in those 2 days.

Seeing as nobody spoke anymore Hinata excused herself and went to her room to start getting ready. It was only 9 in the morning. Sasuke would only come in about 3 hours but there wasn’t much else she could do.

She didn’t even reach her closet to take out the outfit she had thought of wearing when Neji came into her room. He walked to her and bowed. “I’m sorry” he was apologizing for not telling her, for not being able to stop it, for the way he treated her.

“It’s ok Neji. Everything could have been worse.” She wasn’t lying. She heard of many girls that had married old and abusive men. Their whole life they were raped and beaten. She didn’t know Sasuke at all but from the 2 interactions she had with him, he didn’t appear like he would hit her. Mikoto too seemed nice enough. “What is one prison exchanged for another?” She wasn’t allowed to do much in the Hyuuga household anyways, read and study. She was a bit eager to see if she had a bit more freedom as an Uchiha and if not, she was already used to being a caged bird.

“I couldn’t convince uncle not to do that. The bond with the Uchihas was apparently necessary. And Fugaku requested you to marry his son. Uncle couldn’t deny a direct request like that. Plus...” Neji decided to stop there.

“Plus, dad would rather Hana be the leader.” Hinata continued what Neji wouldn’t say. “I know that Neji. I’ve known that for a while now.”

“If one of the leaders were to request to marry you as well uncle might need to reconsider” He didn’t sound sure at all.

“He wouldn’t change his mind. The relationship with the Uchihas is more important to him than any other family at the moment. In addition, nobody would risk their bond with both us and the Uchihas for my hand in marriage” Hinata absently replied while looking through her collection of necklaces while sitting at her vanity.

“If we ask Gaara maybe-“

“He wouldn’t. and I would never ask him either” Yesterday she might have jumped up at the idea of marring Gaara. But something changed and made her realize her feelings for Gaara were never really for the man, but the freedom he represented. Gaara was her friend, he was a leader and if he would have been her husband, he would have offered her the most freedom a woman can have in their world. “I would never ask your boyfriend to marry me” Hinata said this while watching Neji’s face in the mirror.

Her cousin blushed and looked alarmed. “You are mistaken Hina-“

“Stop” I know I’m not. Her eyes softened. “It took me a while to realize but I did. And I confirmed my suspicions when I told Gaara about my feelings a few months ago and he said he was in love with someone himself. I asked why he wasn’t marrying this girl and he replying that his relationship was taboo. I thought she was a married woman maybe, a commoner. But it clicked when I saw him look at you.” Neji was still not moving or breathing.

“I will not tell anyone about the two of you Neji. It is nobody’s business but yours.” She got up from the vanity and walked to him and hugged him. “For what is worth…I wish you both happiness.” She knew that their relationship would not be accepted in their world and her heart wept for both cousin and her friend. The world was cruel. “I hope you find a way to be happy and free” She wanted that for herself too. Happiness and freedom to find who she was and then be herself.

Neji hugged her back. “That means the world to me Hinata.” He sighed long and his body felt like it was deflating. “I hadn’t realized how it would feel to hear the words from someone other than him or me. How much I wanted someone to validate the way I feel” Neji took a step back and kissed her forehead. “I wish you happiness and freedom as well Hinata. I hope your life as an Uchiha to be better than your life as a Hyuuga has been.”

She hoped that as well. After another hug, Neji remained in her room and the two of them chatted while Mina and Haruhi were doing Hinata’s hair and make-up for her date. The dress Hinata had chosen was a black beach dress with daisies and sunflowers on the skirt. The skirt was cut on one leg to her mid-thigh. The upper part was like a tank top in the front but the back was almost bare, only a few strings places in a random pattern kept the front from falling. She would pair the dress with gold wedges and a gold choker and her normal hoop earrings. Her makeup was done also in soft golds and whites. Her hair was braided in the front like a crown and she asked Haruhi to braid some small daisies in as well. The rest of her hair was free and in waves from not drying it properly before bed. Neji had left right before she changed her clothes about 10 minutes ago. Being finally done she did as promised and went downstairs to get her father’s approval, it was still only 11 so if he had any complaints she would have the time to change, or so she thought. After knocking on his office door and being granted access Hinata opened the door only to find Sasuke in the room with her father.

Hiashi looked up at her and he only nodded his approval for her attire. Sasuke had on a white button up with the last 2 buttons undone and the sleeves rolled to his elbows and a short pair of black slacks.

“Come in Hinata, Sasuke came early so we had a talk while you were still getting ready” Hinashi beckoned her to enter the room but she didn’t move to which Sasuke smirked.

“Actually, I think we will be leaving now, seeing as she is ready as well. I will see you later Hiashi-san” Sasuke greeted the older man, took Hinata’s hand and closed the door of the office. Neither of them said anything as they walked to Sasuke’s car.

Hinata was starting to get nervous, not only for the date and being alone with Sasuke, but because she hadn’t been outside without her father or at least Neji. Sasuke opened the door of her and she got inside his car. He walked around and go into the driver’s seat. Before starting the car though, he kissed the back of her hand.

“You look lovely today as well.” He turned her hand around and kissed her wrist. “You were a good girl Hinata, not listening to you father.”

Her breath hitched due to the second kiss, no man touched her wrist before, let alone kiss it. During her talk with Neji they discussed Sasuke as well. Her cousin said that he is known to be cold and quite cruel. But he had been anything but that to her. He had been gentle and affectionate, something she had never experienced. Nobody in the Hyuuga household hugged her or kissed her hands.

Sasuke looked at her and smirked at her blush, he could tell this was the real deal and not a fake like the ones from last night’s goodbye charade. He finally started the car and drove down the Hyuuga driveway till he reached the first gate, one of the security men opened the gate for them and they continued down the driveway to the second and final gate, this was opened for them as well and they were finally on the road.

“I have never left without father or Neji the premises of the house.” Hinata admitted.

Sasuke looked at her for a split second from the corner of his eye. She was looking out the door with a small smile. “Not even to a friend’s house? I noticed you talking with the Yamanaka girl a lot. Were you never allowed to visit her just with a guard or two?”

“No. Neji always had to come along” Sasuke’s reply was a small hum. He hadn’t realized that the Hyuugas were that strict.

“I will assign my best guard to you once you move in with me. When I am at work; because unlike your father I am away from the house quite a lot, you will stay with him. You are free to go as you please as long as he’s with you”

‘You are free’ was what Hinata heard. She had wanted to be free for such a long time but now that I was so close to her, she wasn’t sure what she’d do with said freedom. The rest of the drive she spent trying to come up with what she would do the first chance she got.

The restaurant was in the centre of the city, where she had never been before. The amount of people walking around was mind-blowing. There were kids laughing, people talking walks and strolling around just because they could. Her whole life the thought of public space being dangerous had been drilled in her head. Other families could be around, they could hurt her. ‘People are mean and cruel’ that was Hiashi’s go-to answer when one of them wanted to go somewhere. Despite Hinata never really believing what her dad said, his words were on repeat in her head, so without really meaning to she took a step closer to Sasuke, held onto his arm with both hands and tried to hide away. Even if one does not believe the things they are told, if they are told them often enough, they become involuntary habits; she had been taught to think she was always in danger, paranoia was not easy to let go of.

When he had said they’d go eat at a restaurant she thought he meant one owned by the Hyuuga or by the Uchiha family, a restaurant from their respective part of Konoha. She knew what part of the city belonged to the Hyuugas and looked up what parts belonged to the Uchihas and this part wasn’t owned by either.

He noticed her stiffening in the car when he parked it. He noticed her fear and the way she clung to him for dear life. “What’s the matter Hinata?”

She looked up at him with big eyes, she looked like a deer caught in headlights. “Aren’t we in danger?” Her voice was low and trembling. Sasuke stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and took both of her hands in his. Hinata took a step in front and pressed her body to his, still trying to hide.

“Why would we be in danger?” he was genuinely confused.

“People are mean and cruel. This isn’t our territory. Someone could try to shoot at us.” The reply rolled off her tongue without much thought. She had heard them so many times they felt natural.

Sasuke placed one of her hands on his chest and the other on his back above the waistband of his pants. Hinata’s eyes grew even larger when she felt both guns. “This is neutral space. We’re not on anyone’s territory.” He said softly and let go of her hands but they stood in place. “And even if someone was to try to harm you, I’d kill them all” he whispered in her ear in the gentlest way possible. The threat should have scared her, but it made her feel secure. “I will protect you with everything I have. Nobody will dare touch a single hair from your head for the fear that I’ll destroy them all” Sasuke tucked a hair strand behind her ear as he continued to spill threats to any future danger. “Do you feel better now?” he finally asked.

“Yes” Hinata answered but couldn’t look at him. She felt silly and embarrassed for being worried. They were a few steps from the restaurant and had been standing in place being an inconvenience to people passing by. “Let’s go inside” she turned around and started walking to the door and Sasuke followed. He could see her flushed cheeks but allowed her to think she had hidden her discomfort from him. There were things on his mind, her fear had been real. She had been taught that if she were to ever leave her house she would die, her father hadn’t been above lying, traumatizing and manipulating her emotions to keep her in place and in control. He had always stayed home to work so he could keep an eye on all of them. Sasuke did not agree with his methods at all.

They were finally seated at a private table on the second floor. Hinata was looking at the menu with a sparkle in her eyes. “Do you know what you want to order?” Sasuke asked her. The restaurant was fancy enough to have steak and lobster but it also had hamburgers.

“I think I’ll take a chicken cheeseburger. I tried making one in secret home and it was good enough but I’m curious to see what a real one tastes like” She said with enthusiasm. “What about you? What are you ordering?”

“I think I’ll have a burger as well, the extra spicy one” Just as the two closed the menus the waiter came to take their order. Sasuke ordered for them the burgers and a big portion of fries and onion rings with a side of all of their 4 sauces, neither of them wanted soda so they decided to order a large bottle of water.

“You’ve never eaten a burger before?” Sasuke asked trying to go back to what she had said before.

“Only the one I made. Our cook usually makes food for 2 days so he has Tuesdays and Thursdays off. In those days I like cooking something that I want to try rather than just help him with whatever dad ordered he cooks…Most what dad wants is traditionally Japanese food and I like it, but I see some foods in movies and I want to try them.”

“So, you like watching movies?” He wanted to know what her hobbies and interests were in order to provide her with them so she wouldn’t get bored alone at the house when he was away.

“I watch a movie once every 2 weeks when Ino comes to visit me.”

“She only visited you two times a month?” He had believed the Yamanaka girl to be her best friend.

“Yes, that’s how many times father allowed her to come over…” Her voice so far had been light but it had a tint of sadness when she had revealed this last part.

“What about other hobbies. What do you do usually in a day?”

“Hobbies? Oh well, umm…Usually I wake up and if it’s a day where the cook is at work, I help him make breakfast, lunch and dinner. In between I had a few classes that the elders taught me about leadership. Neji and I usually have tea in the garden when he has the time…”

He was furious. Hiashi was killing her. He didn’t allow her to leave, but she couldn’t get visitors, she wasn’t allowed to do anything but exist. He wasn’t sure if he could wait three months for her to move it. Hinata was his and she was unhappy. He could tell Hinata was feeling a bit awkward because of her answer which is why he didn’t push it. The food came and they ate in silence. Hinata had loved her burger. She tried all 4 souses and really liked the sweet chilli and the honey mustard one. After the waiter took their empty plates Sasuke ordered dessert.

“Did you enjoy the food?”

“I did. The burger was much better than the one I made home…” Her smile had returned on her face. Despite the fact that he had been against the marriage before, Sasuke was eager for it now. From the moment he had laid his eyes on Hinata this feeling overcame him, the need to protect and please her. She was his and he would keep her safe and happy no matter what. Whatever she’d ask for he’d give her, if she wanted the moon, he’d find a way.

“I’m glad you liked it. Next time tell me what other foods you want to try and I’ll think of a place to go.” Hinata agreed. They talked a little more about the food when the dessert finally came. He had ordered a lava cake with vanilla ice cream, according to many people that was the best dessert the restaurant offered.

“There’s only one. Do you want to split it?” Hinata asked but Sasuke only shook his head and pushed the plate in front of her.

“I don’t particularly like sweets so you can eat it.” He watched her enjoy the cake. She had giggled after cutting into it and seeing the molten chocolate pour out. She had never eaten a lava cake, of course. His chest felt tight, like something was squeezing his heart and wouldn’t let go. He couldn’t stop thinking about how Hiashi had sheltered her from all these small pleasures of life, he wanted to hit the older man, but at the same time, he couldn’t wait to see Hinata experience everything for the first time. It was like watching a child, she had the same big and innocent eyes.

When Hinata finished the cake, the waiter took the plate and brought the check for which Sasuke paid but they didn’t get up to leave yet. “I have a few things for you” he said. And pulled from his pocket a new phone with the charger and its pair of headphones. “I already programmed my number there and Naruto’s; he will be your bodyguard. If anything happens during these months when you are still living with Hiashi call me and if by any chance I can’t pick up call him.”

Hinata was staring at the phone like it was alien technology. “You’re giving me a phone?”

“Yes. I want to be in touch. Sadly, I can’t come and eat with you every day so on the days we can’t meet I want you to call me. I’ll call you as well when I get home if it isn’t too late and we can talk, you can tell me about your day and such” Hinata nodded and took the phone from him and stared at it for a second longer. “You can add any number you want, Neji’s, Ino’s, your sister. It will be helpful to have them for when you come and live with me and feel lonely.”

“I can add other numbers…?” Hinata was once again hit with the realization that Sasuke was offering her freedom and she didn’t know how to take it. She was overwhelmed by the fact that she had a phone, let alone that she could use it to call Ino.

“Of course. It has an unlimited number of minutes and internet too. You can watch movies if you wish. Also, if you want to buy something online use the phone, I programmed it so it would automatically take money from my account and I’ll be notified.”

Hinata was trying her best to keep tears from spilling. For some reason the fact that he allowed her the freedom of a fully functional phone felt like a huge step, he was putting his trust in her. At that moment Hinata made a promise to never betray his trust. In the few hours that Sasuke was the one in charge of her, he had been more indulging and kinder than her father had been during 22 years.

“And the last thing” Sasuke said as he took a red velvet box out from his other pocket. He opened it and inside was the most beautiful ring she had ever seen. The band was made of white gold and it had a big red ruby in the middle and on each side three smaller diamonds. The ring wasn’t overly huge, but it was beautiful. “I didn’t have the time to give this to you yesterday, I’m sorry” Hinata shook her head, there was nothing he should apologize for.

Sasuke held out his hand for her to place hers in so he could slip the ring onto her finger. It fitted perfectly and looked gorgeous on her finger. It felt a little strange, she had never put on rings on her left hand because it was considered bad-luck, so the feeling was foreign but she knew it would go away soon enough and the ring would turn into something that brought her peace at all times just from looking at it.

“I love it thank you” The squeezing was back and more powerful this time. She was wearing his ring. He had proof to show to the world that she was his. Sasuke was the one to get up first and Hinata followed. They walked out of the restaurant and back to the car hand in hand.

It was barely 2 in the afternoon. “I’m sorry I can’t spend more time with you today.”

“It’s ok. It was more than enough. I had a wonderful time, thank you” Hinata was still looking at the ring with a smile on. It was weird how something that yesterday felt like the end of the world, today felt like the beginning. Her heart fluttered when Sasuke opened the box and showed her the ring and it violently beat in her chest as he was putting it on her finger. Maybe marrying her off was the best thing her father could do.

They reached the Hyuuga house faster than either of them would have liked. “I’m not coming inside this time” Sasuke said as he walked her to the door. Hinata just realized that that had been her first date. She saw similar scenarios in the movies she watched with Ino. The boy walked the girl to the door after their date and he would kiss her. Would Sasuke kiss her? Did she want him to? A part of her was scared but the other part of her was screaming ‘KISS ME’. But Sasuke didn’t kiss her, at least not on the lips. Just like last night he kissed her forehead and left saying goodbye.

Hinata walked inside the house and it felt even colder and duller than normally. She wasn’t sure she could survive another three months there, not when freedom with Sasuke was that close. Hinata didn’t go to tell her father she was home, instead, she ran up the stairs to her room where Mina and Harushi were waiting for her. Her servants were a few years older than her, yet Hinata had never considered them friends because Hiashi drilled the belief that servants were to be servants since she was small, but her dad had been wrong before, so maybe he was wrong on this occasion as well.

The two girls bowed to her and Hinata stopped. She wasn’t sure how to act, a sudden image from a movie popped into her mind. When one of the girls would tell the others about her crush and they’d all jump up and down and screech. So, she took in a deep breath.

“You can raise your head” she said in her normal tone. The girls did as she asked. Taking in another breath she extended her left hand for them to see the ring. “Isn’t it beautiful?” Her energy was overflowing and she couldn’t contain it anymore. She started jumping up and down and laughing.

“Today was the best day ever. He was so lovely and just everything was amazing.” Hinata took one of Mina’s hands and one of Haruhi’s and started jumping up and down. The servants looked at one another before starting to laugh too and jumping with her.

“The ring is lovely” “And he’s so handsome” “I’m glad you had a lovely date Hinata-hime” “Did he tell you when the next one will be?” The two were talking alternatively.

“He didn’t but he gave me a phone and said he’ll call everyday he can’t see me” She showed them the phone as well. Hinata wanted to call Ino as soon as possible but she didn’t know her friend’s number. Whenever she wanted to talk to Ino she’d use Neji’s phone. Hinata started walking towards the door to the hallway, she wanted to look for Neji to get him to put his number and Ino’s in her phone.

The rest of the day went by faster than most of her days do. She talked to Ino on the phone for hours then took a bath and as she was changing in her night attire her phone rang. Sasuke had kept his promise to call her when he got home. She told him about talking to Ino and asked about his own day. Their conversation wasn’t very long but it still made Hinata smile. She fell asleep with a smile on her face and thoughts of Sasuke in her mind.

________________________

The following morning the first thing she did upon waking up was to check her left hand to make sure the ring was there and that it wasn’t all just a dream. She couldn’t help but smile upon seeing the piece of jewellery.

Sasuke’s question about hobbies bothered her a little, she had never really had the means of finding a hobby, she either didn’t have the time or didn’t know what to try besides cooking recipes she made up. But now she no longer needed to attend the leadership classes, her father informed her of that at breakfast, and she now had access to the internet, she could try learning a new skill, discover what she liked to watch or read, find out something she enjoyed doing. That was on her to-do list until she met with Sasuke the next time, get a hobby.

Ino liked gardening and making flower arrangements, Hinata liked helping her around the garden as well but doing the arrangements themselves was always difficult and not particularly enjoyable. The one thing she knew she’d like was drawing but was a bit scared. She had always doodled on her notes but had never tried to do an artwork. So that was the first thing she looked up on youtube, drawing videos. She found many and every single one was more amazing than the one before.

Hinata immersed herself in the videos and all the different ways in which one could create art.

________

Despite being in the middle of work Sasuke couldn’t help but think about Hinata and the things she said during their date a few days ago. She was basically a teenager getting her first phone. Sure, she knew a shit ton about leadership, her family and their world but she knew nothing about the outside world, technology and real human relationships. She didn’t know herself either, that part, seeing her figure out who she was as a person, what she enjoyed and what she didn’t, would be lovely to watch. But Sasuke was still confused about how Hiashi thought he could shelter his heir from everything, had Hinata been the leader she would have been lost, not because she wasn’t fit for it but because she didn’t know how to navigate her way through the outside world, she didn’t know what to do when someone wasn’t giving her orders. Her father had succeeded in turning her into someone submissive not because she was weak but because she had never been given the opportunity to be independent. Hinata had amazing skills, she knew over 5 languages and was taught how to fight, but she didn’t know many basic things.

Sasuke kept thinking of the best ways to slowly expose Hinata to more of the outside world and its customs, the Yamanaka girl wasn’t as sheltered but she wasn’t exactly well versed in ‘normality’ either. Naruto would spend a lot of time with her too but he couldn’t entrust the blond to teach her things, who knows what dumb stuff he would fill her head with. Of course, the obvious solution would be his mother, she was the sanest out of everyone he knew and she could help her prepare for the life of ‘the wife of the Uchiha leader’, but he would like to assign someone that’s around their age as well, someone Hinata could consider a friend and not feel overly anxious around.

Before he could find the perfect candidate, his cousin Shisui came to inform him his father wanted to talk to him. He forced himself to focus on work, but lingering thoughts of Hinata distracted him every now and again. He was still worried about her being in the Hyuuga household still, time seemed to be moving in slow-motion, the beginning of September appeared to be years away.

________

Her eyes were sparkling as she was telling him all about the painting tutorials she watched the past three weeks, she apologized for wasting so much money on ordering acrylic paints and brushes. When Hinata mentioned the money issue his temper almost got the best of him, Hiashi had so much money, enough to have a Rolex to ear for every day of the year, yet he couldn’t allow his daughter under 100 dollars to buy paints? Not to mention, but Hinata’s perception of money was off, she apologized for spending 12 dollars on a tube of paint without knowing that the phone she ordered it with was almost a thousand times more expensive. Hiashi only ever spent money on his daughters if it fit his needs, he dressed them well so people could see their wealth, Hinata had been nothing but a trophy.

“I’m sorry I asked for your address, but I just don’t want the order to come to the Hyuuga estate, I’m sure father would destroy everything I bought…” Hinata said, the tips of her ears red, as if she was embarrassed for having him as a father. It wasn’t her that should have been embarrassed but Hiashi.

“It was a nice surprise, seeing you order and send things over to my place already made it even more obvious to me that the wedding is going to happen soon” That wasn’t a lie. When her first order of brushes and canvases arrived Sasuke asked the servants to clear a whole room downstairs, one that had a glass wall towards their garden and turn it into a painting studio. Besides what she ordered he got more, he bought every type of paint there was, acrylic, water, oil and many others. He even talked to Sai, one of his workers that is a famous painter and asked if he would be open to giving Hinata a few hours, of course, provided she was fine with the idea as well.

“H-how do you feel about the marriage…? I can’t imagine you were pleased with it…” her face was lowered, her eyes watching as she was playing with her hands in order to distract herself from the question. She was scared he’d say he hated the idea, especially since over the past month since the announcement, her feelings slowly turned to happiness and excitement.

“I was slightly annoyed when dad first told me. But I’ve changed my mind and I cannot wait” Sasuke answered and placed one of his hands on top of hers to calm her down. “It drives me mad knowing you’re stuck in that house for another 2 months. I have to constantly fight the urge to just sneak in and kidnap you” His tone was light thus turning his words into a joke, Hinata giggled at it, but Sasuke was dead serious.

“I’m glad” Hinata admitted and grabbed his hand with both of hers and brought it to her lips and kissed his knuckles. Her feelings for Sasuke were complex, they started out as indifference when they were simply just individuals belonging to the same world, then they turned to fear and maybe a light form of hate the moment Hiashi announced she had been sold off, but after spending the slightest time with him, she felt relief, admiration and gratitude towards him. He represented a better future, one with freedom and happiness, a future away from her father. Sasuke was her saviour, but even those feelings started to change, her heart would flutter whenever his voice echoed from her phone, she’d constantly check for new texts from him, the days in between their meetings were the longest, while the time spent with him seemed to be so short. Every time he kissed her hand or her forehead she wanted to grab onto his face and bring it down to her face, she wanted to hold his hand, to hug him, but the urge she had most often and the one hardest to fight was to ask for the wedding to be held earlier. Whenever Sasuke drops her off at the Hyuuga estate she wants to ask him to marry her right that moment so she could go home with him.

She spoke to Ino about her feelings and about Sasuke, Ino told her that she was so glad the Uchiha was so nice to her, but that she should be careful, her feelings appeared out of nowhere and they developed so fast, she shouldn’t get too attached to him, shouldn’t become totally dependable of him because in their world ‘love’ was never one to last. Ino’s view on love was jaded after her parents’ divorce, Ino’s father was devastated when his wife left him and his daughter was there to pick up the pieces. Hinata was aware her friend was trying to warn her and shelter her from future heart break, but the thought of Sasuke hurting her seemed outlandish.

They ate pasta this time around, and with every bite, her eyes got bigger and bigger. “This is the best thing I have ever eaten. How can something be this delicious?” She kept praising the food throughout, whenever the waiter came to ask if they needed anything else Hinata would ask him to tell the chef that he is a genius, that his food is the most amazing thing ever. Sasuke smirked and shook his head every time.

“I can stay for longer today, is there anything else you’d like to try?” He asked her as they were walking around the pedestrian central part of Konoha. Hinata had been utterly confused with the concept of a part of the city denying car access, whenever they crossed a street, she’d still check for cars despite Sasuke assuring her that there was no way for one to get there. The central part was crowded and busy with people, Hinata stood a step behind Sasuke trying not to bump into anyone, looking over his shoulder at her to see if she heard his question Sasuke realized she had not, she was far too focused on not hitting anyone to concentrate on anything else. Reaching for her with his hand, he placed his arm around her waist and drew her close to his body. Her face instantly turned beet red and she looked up at him. He lowered his face towards her and Hinata’s brain picked up speed, he would surely kiss her, but there? In front of all those people? Wasn’t a public kiss a bit too much? However, his face passed by hers and only stopped when his lips were next to her ear “I asked if there is anywhere else you want to go. It’s too loud and you couldn’t hear me”

Due to her embarrassment and agitation, she simply pointed at a random building, which turned out to be a Starbucks. The two of them walked together, Sasuke still holding her by the waist, but upon walking into the café he let go, she was disappointed, but only for a moment, for he was simply letting go in order to hold her hand. Their fingers intertwined and the world fell into place, the smell of coffee wasn’t overpowering, actually, the café smelled more of chocolate. Sasuke stopped before reaching the end of the line.

“Take a look at the menu, being here for the first time can be overwhelming with all the options. If you want, we can buy so pastries as well” He already knew well that she enjoyed sweets very much. “What do you usually get?” Her eyes were glued to the menu reading all the ingredients for each beverage.

“I don’t think you’d like what I get. I get a large Americano with 3 espresso shots and no sugar.” Upon hearing his order Hinata scrunched her nose in a disgusted expression, she looked up at him. “So you drink just…black coffee, willingly?” he couldn’t help but laugh at her disbelieve “My dad drinks it that way too, says that putting anything else in coffee is blasphemy. I once asked for sugar and he got so mad… I hadn’t had coffee since then” Her story left a sour taste in his mouth.

“Maybe I’ll get a large Latte with 3 shots of espresso and one cube of sugar after all…” That conversation made him realize that there was nothing he’d hate more than her believing him and Hiashi had anything in common, he’d drink sweet coffee with milk from now until forever if it meant distancing himself from her father’s image. The change in his order made Hinata smile. “I decided as well, I want a vanilla and cinnamon Frappuccino with almond milk” Sasuke placed their orders and out a few fruit tarts as well. Their lunch date turned to a dinner date as well, which had been the longest period they had spent together in one day, thus making it especially hard when it was time for Sasuke to drop her off. Hinata watched from the hallways window as his car slowly disappeared behind the huge gates of their estate, watching him leave made her heart hurt. She knew Sasuke hated leaving her as well, still, she couldn’t help but feel abandoned.

“Are you back?” Hanabi asked as she exited the library, she probably had just finished one of her classes. All of Hinata’s bitterness towards her sister disappeared, now she only felt pity. Hanabi would be stuck in the house forever and she would be free, it was scary how one’s view on certain events could change so fast. Barely a few days ago Hinata thought she was the one being punished, but now realized it was her sister.

“Yes I’m back” Despite her pitying Hanabi, the two weren’t close enough to offer kind words of encouragement and support. “But I’m a bit tired so I’ll go to sleep”

“He didn’t hit you, did he?” it was barely a whisper, but it made Hinata’s blood boil. Her alliances changed the moment Sasuke treated her nicely, hearing Hanabi badmouth him made her want to scream at her sister, but she didn’t. She turned around slowly and smiled. “He didn’t. He would never. He won’t. he isn’t father, there is nothing about him similar to father” Hinata didn’t stay behind to hear Hanabi’s reply. She ran up the stairs and the moment her bedroom door was closed she called Sasuke, he picked up on the second ring.

“I miss you” The words were out of her mouth before she even realized, but she didn’t regret them. “I miss you” she repeated, to show to Sasuke, to herself that she meant them.

“I miss you too” his voice was softer than she had ever heard it, it was a shame she couldn’t see his expression. She closed her eyes and wished for the weeks to fly by.

________

Despite her newfound freedom in the form of a phone with full access to the internet, Hinata’s days seemed to move slower than ever. The time in-between her ‘dates’ with Sasuke were dragging on forever. She’d talk to Ino on the phone, watch videos, read from an ebook, listen to music, cook and barely 2 or 3 hours of the day would have passed. The highlight of her day was always her chat with Sasuke. Apart from their night calls, they kept texting throughout the day as well, but he was busy with work so his replies were few and far in between. Wasting time and dreaming of her future became her routine, each day seemed to be a carbon copy of the previous one. Not today, however, today was a special day, today she, Mikoto and Ino were going to choose her wedding dress. Hinata was practically bouncing, eager to leave the house, eager to try the dresses on, eager to see herself in white, the dress would be proof not only that the wedding was getting nearer, but also that it was indeed reality and not one of her daydreams.

She had been worried her father wouldn’t have allowed for it, but both Fugaku and Sasuke assure him that Naruto, her future bodyguard, was the best and he would be able to protect the three women for the day. Thankfully her father was just as excited about the wedding and would not go and do anything to potentially ruin his newfound friendship with the Uchiha head.

The plan was for Naruto and Mikoto to get to her house around noon, then they would drive to Ino’s and to the dress shop. After picking up the dress they’d go to eat and see the wedding venue and all the plans Mikoto arranged, to make sure Hinata liked everything and if she didn’t so they could change everything by the wedding which was 3 weeks away. Hinata woke up at 7, unable to contain her longing to be outside, she got dressed up, ate and has spent the last 4 hours pacing around the entrance hall.

When her father passed by her early in the morning he lectured her, telling her how she should behave, be respectful, yet vigilant because ‘people are mean and cruel’ because ‘the shop isn’t on out territory’, because ‘you are always in danger.

Neji also spent about half an hour with her talking about her feelings about the wedding, her impression of Sasuke. Her stories and happiness eased his mind and guilt, for he had not been able to stop the arranged marriage. He truthfully wished for her excitement to never die; he hoped the Uchiha household would be a proper environment for her growth.

The only one in the Hyuuga household that was not on board with the marriage was Hanabi. She continued making remarks about Sasuke’s renowned cruelness, hinting that Hinata would not know happiness in her marriage with him. She constantly asked whether he had any violent tendencies towards her, whether he ignored her, whether he cheated on her. Hinata always tried to not let her words get to her, Sasuke was wonderful and more than she had ever hope for, she had no reason to doubt him, so all of Hanabi’s words never had any impact but annoy her. Hinata always defended Sasuke and Hanabi would answer ‘my foolish sister’, patronizing her, making it seem as if she knew more than Hinata herself. Hinata tried to understand where Hanabi was coming from…all of her life she had hoped to be the heir and now she was. But Hinata’s happiness was yet another source of jealousy for Hanabi, she was slowly realizing that once again, she was the one who had the short end of the stick, thus all of her remarks weren’t for Hinata to believe, but for herself. She tried so hard to convince herself Hinata’s future was bleak and Hanabi had to pity her, not the other way around.

Once again, right before Mikoto and Naruto arrived Hanabi made a remark that hurt Hinata’s feelings, a remark which Hanabi too regretted instantly, her remorse could be read on her face, but her ego stopped her from apologizing. “Make sure you pick a pretty dress Hinata, that’s what you’ll be buried in when he kills you on the wedding night” she said loud and clear, for the servants around to hear, had Hiashi been there he would have punished Hanabi for trying to destroy the Hyuuga-Uchiha Union, but all Hinata did was give her a sad smile and answer with “Good luck to you too little sister” Their relationship could never be fixed, not when jealousy was the primal feeling Hanabi held for her, not when her ego stood in the way of a sincere apology, not when Hinata was resigned and no longer wished to try.

Mikoto came like a hurricane, she entered the house without knocking, she hugged Hinata and kissed both of her cheeks, she complimented her on her dress and make-up. Behind her was a blond young man that gave her a warm smile. “This is Naruto, he will be your bodyguard when you enter the family”

Naruto took a step closer but made no attempt to touch her, he simply smiled wider and bowed his head slightly. “It’s a pleasure to meet and protect you Miss Hinata” Naruto’s use of her name and not of Hyuuga felt odd, but freeing; she wanted to move past this family. She would not forget them, for they were part of her, they made her who she was at that moment, but she wanted to leave them and this variation of herself behind, she wanted to become independent and someone she chose to become.

After picking Ino up the group was ready to go to the dress shop, Mikoto had asked Ino to sit in the front seat for she wanted to talk to Hinata in the back. Hinata couldn’t help but notice her friend’s red cheeks whenever she looked Naruto’s way. Hinata couldn’t tell if the flushness was due to the fact that Naruto was a man Ino had never had contact with when she was young, thus she wasn’t used to his company, or whether her blush had a deeper meaning. In the backseat, Mikoto explained certain details about the wedding preparations, her tone was light and she talked without any formalities. Whenever Hinata answered it was an awkward mix of formal and informal language and she refrained from addressing Mikoto directly, for she didn’t know what to call her, Mrs Uchiha, or was that too formal for someone to be her mother-in-law in 3 weeks? Mikoto, but wasn’t that rude to address in such a manner to an older relative?

Upon reaching the dress shop, the designer working there assured the women that she had reserved the whole shop just for them. She was eager to help and to please any and all of Hinata’s requests. “Call me Sakura!” she said as they met “no need for formalities, after all I am here to help you find what you will be wearing on the most important day of your life”

Hinata tried on 5 dresses before finding ‘the one’. It was perfect in every way possible. The bodice was made entirely of lace that was a bit see-through, thus had white material around the chest area in a heart shape. The skirt was long and flowy but not overly heavy, it had beautiful lace details on the bottom of the skirt and a split on the left leg until above the knee. It was a stunning dress, but so were all the ones before, however, the moment Hinata tried it on, it felt different, it felt right. Seeing herself in the mirror her eyes got a bit misty and in her overflow of emotion turned around to hug Sakura who just finished buttoning the last button at her back. She told her how she felt the dress was the one and Sakura’s eyes got a bit misty too. This is what she did that job for, these moments in which a young woman found her perfect one and only dress to wear on her wedding day, she lived to see the happy tears and all the smiles.

“Stay here for a second, I’ll announce that this is it, this is the dress” She learned in the years of doing this job that whenever an instant click between woman-dress happened it should always be said to the party that came to help pick the dress as well so they would not criticize anything and break the magic spell of the moment. “Hinata found it, her perfect dress” Sakura said just moments before Hinata walked in wearing the most radiant smile ever, Ino screamed and ran to hug her and shower her in compliments, Mikoto watched from the side-line as the three young women discussed how perfect the dress was. After a short while, Hinata turned to Mikoto with bashful red cheeks “What do you think Mrs. Uchiha?”

Mikoto went to her and hugged her close as well. “The dress is perfect, it’s everything I hoped you’d find and more” she made a short pause for she felt this pressure in the back of her throat as id she too was about to cry. “and please, call me mother, I know that the wedding will only be in 3 weeks, but you already are my child Hinata dear” Mikoto’s kindness and warmth only made Hinata cry more. Naruto watched with a smile the whole event, he too liked Hinata from what he had seen of her, he was glad his friend was lucky enough for the arranged marriage to lead him to her. Even before he met Hinata he saw Sasuke’s expression when talking about her, he heard the soft tone in which he spoke about her and could tell that his friend held a deep affection for his fiancé.

After the dress picking event, Hinata asked for Sakura’s number to call her in the instance of the dress needing anything done day-of the wedding, that was the excuse anyway, in reality, she simply felt as if the moment they shared in the dressing room was special and wanted to try and keep in contact with her. Their next destination was the wedding hall, followed by other shops to get the wedding shoes, jewellery and her second wedding outfit in which she would change after their first dance. Just like the days in which she had dates with Sasuke, the time flew by and soon enough it was dark outside and time for them to return. After dropping Ino off, instead of driving back to the Hyuuga estate, Naruto took a sudden left turn which led to Hinata’s confusion, doubt and for the smallest second fear. Mikoto placed her hand on her knee and smiled at her, letting her know there was nothing to be afraid of. Despite being quite late, it wasn’t dark out yet, the summer sun refused to set.

The car stopped in front of a restaurant Hinata knew. “Are we getting dinner as well?” She was wondering why did they drop Ino off, maybe Mikot had something to discuss with her in private? Before she could come up with any other speculations, her car door opened and a familiar face greeted her with a smirk on. Her heart started beating faster the moment her eyes met Sasuke’s. She placed her hand in his and was smoothly pulled out of the car and into his arms. “Thank you, mother for dropping her off.” He said and then nodded towards Naruto expressing his thanks to him silently. Hinata was still in a daze and looking up at him as if he was a mere hallucination.

“I finished work earlier and Naruto told me you guys were still out so I asked him to bring you to me” He explained the situation to her and ushered her towards the entrance of the restaurant. It was the same restaurant in which they ate that pasta, out of all the things they tried together those were her favourite. Looking up at Sasuke Hinata kept wondering how Ino could expect her not to fall for him when he treated her this way, he had brought her more joy than she had experienced in her whole life, the memories she had of him were her favourite. He was slowly and steadily becoming the centre of her universe.

Since the moment they got seated and he reached out to hold her hand and slowly brush her wrist with his thumb, Hinata had been fighting the urge to simply utter ‘I love you’. Was it too fast? They met about 2 months ago, they went on dates about twice a week maybe three times if Sasuke’s work allowed for that, however they talked daily, her thoughts were filled with him. She wasn’t confused, these feelings might have started as gratitude for being saved, but they were romantic, she was in love with him, that much she knew. Sasuke noticed how distracted she was during their meal, she barely complimented the chef, but he decided not to pry yet, however, her silence during their walk after dinner bothered him more than he cared to admit. He loved how her eyes sparkled when she spoke about things she loved. She stopped walking and turned to face her, cupping her face in his hands, her eyes fluttered shut for a moment. She looked so lovely, and so utterly small and fragile, he would protect her with everything he had, he would help her build her strength enough to be able to protect herself, but even then, when she was capable, he’d do everything in his power to destroy anything that posed as a threat to her, whether physical, emotional or mental.

“What’s the matter Hinata? You’ve been in deep thought all night” he had been excited to hear all about her day, Naruto kept him updated every hour, but hearing the events from her would have been much more entertaining. Hinata looked into his eyes longingly, he wasn’t sure what she wanted but whatever it was he would give it to her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath in.

“I have been...thinking whether I should tell you something the whole night and I cannot seem to find the right answer, what do you think I should do?” her eyes were still closed, too scared to see his reaction. Sasuke was the one confused now, why would she be struggling in such a manner? She should always tell him everything, anything no matter how trivia, he wanted to know every single thought that went on in her mind.

Sasuke took a step closer to her, their bodies were almost touching and he was still affectionately holding her face. “I think you should tell me; I think you should always tell me everything” Hinata’s heart was beating out of her chest, she was scared to look into his eyes as she said it, but she wanted to see him as she said it too. Choosing to be brave today, choosing to believe that Sasuke would catch her when she fell, Hinata opened her eyes, placed both of her hands over his on her face and smiled.

“Ok, I will tell you” Her mind was made, but she still needed a second to compose herself. “I love you”

The feeling Hinata had when putting the dress on was similar to what Sasuke experienced upon hearing those words, however, the magnitude of his feeling was much stronger, it felt as if the planets aligned, as if all the events ever in the world and its history happened as they did in order to lead to this very moment. A star exploded that lead to the creation of a galaxy, to the creation of a planet, to the creation of humanity, all for this one single moment.

He had not thought in depth about his feelings for Hinata, not because he didn’t want to admit them, but rather because it was unknown territory, but the moment she uttered the words he knew them to be true on his side as well. “I’m glad” he answered, his voice cracked so he cleared his throat. “I’m glad you decided to tell me” Hinata’s smile was stunning, she had told him and he was happy, he was moved, she could see a myriad of emotions in his eyes, all slowly falling into place. Sasuke wanted to say the words back but felt oddly fearful and uncertain, he had never experienced that level of awkwardness. “I do too” he muttered feeling defeated, he had chickened out and took a shortcut, but he will try to work harder, he will be able to express his feelings.

Hinata wasn’t mad or sad or disappointed by his answer, she could tell he was trying his best and if she were honest, it was lovely seeing him be the flustered one for a change. They were still in the same position, their faces close to each other, so Hinata once again took the initiative and raised on her tip-toes and kissed him, it was merely a peck. She knew the Uchiha traditions now and wished to follow them thus not being able to fully kiss him, however, the moment felt monumental enough for a small peck to be excused, plus nobody would ever know.

Sasuke stared at her for a moment longer, she was such a complex antithesis, she was weak yet strong, afraid yet brave, clueless yet intelligent, and everything about her made him glad for all the decisions he ever took that led him to her. He was thankful to his father which without even realizing he showed, since his and Hinata’s engagement was announced he and Fugaku have been getting along much better, everything at work went smoother and he often worked harder and faster in order to get a day off to spend with her. Hinata too helped him, their relationship was equally beneficial to both, they both took and both gave.

________

All of the final preparations for the wedding were coming along beautifully, the big event was the next day, but for Hinata even that was too long, the past three months had felt longer than her whole life before her engagement. Everything was better in the Hyuuga household, Neji and her were closer than ever, for he was finally able to be fully honest with her and she too was much happier and open. Her father mostly left her alone, apart from a small incident in which he admitted that he had spoken to her doctors to have her fertility tested almost half a year ago when he and Fugaku were first talking about the union, the test came back positive, but Hinata still felt like that was a huge invasion of her privacy and complained to Sasuke, who in turn argued with both of the older men, but the deed was long done and there wasn’t much he could do but think even lower of Hiashi and treat his father coldly for a while, until Hinata assure him that she had moved past that issue. Even Hanabi stopped her remarks after the incident on the wedding-dress day. After choosing the dress she and Mikoto went out to spend time together a few more times, she even met up separately with Ino and Sakura twice. When Hinata talked about her new friendship with Sasuke he was, in her words ‘delighted’; Sasuke had hoped for the wedding dress girl to become Hinata’s friend after she first told him about her. He had wanted her to have a friend that was well-versed into normality in order to help Hinata at times navigate society, however, he wished for that friendship to bloom naturally, sure he could have done as others would, namely bribe someone into being her friend, but that would only cause issues later, plus being close to Hinata is payment enough.

The weekend before the wedding Hinata was invited to have dinner at the Uchiha estate, she and Mikoto were already very close, however, Fugaku still scared her a little while Itachi seemed nice, but maybe a bit cold and detached, unwilling to fully interact with this world. He reminded her a little of herself when she still lived at the Hyuuga household. Being able to form that connection, after dinner she sought him out and talked to him alone, trying to relate his feelings with her own. Itachi wanted to be freed from his family much like she did, however, the ties keeping him there were much stronger, he loved all of his family but could not fully function and integrate into their world of organized crime.

After her talk to Itachi ended, Fugaku apologized for breaching her privacy and welcomed her to the family. She knew how much that meant, her father had never apologized for anything, so she could only imagine how hard it must have been for Fugaku to step over his pride and ego, she appreciated it more than she let on.

The night before the wedding Hinata had a dream, in that dream, she and Sasuke were laying together on a bed just looking at each other while holding themselves close, she felt at peace with her surroundings and Sasuke’s eyes on her made her feel seen and loved. The whole dream was peaceful, they sit in silence, then talk a little followed by kisses and laughs, which would quiet down to silence and the circle would start anew.

When her servants woke her up at 5 am, she wasn’t annoyed as she normally would have been before any other event, she had taken with her the peacefulness of her dream, she had waited so long for this day it almost felt like this was just another dream too, but the scrubbing her servants did during her bath stung, letting her know that this was reality, the happiness she felt was going to be a constant, for Sasuke will make sure to keep her smiling throughout their whole lives.

Unlike the preparations for other events in which Hinata didn’t particularly care about her looks, she was very specific this time around, she and Mikoto picked together her hairstyle too, her makeup colours and every little detail. Time seemed to dilate at times and a minute felt like an eternity, while other times it felt as if it were on fast-forward, she’d close her eyes for a second and a full hour would have passed.

By 9 am she was completely done, looking at herself in the mirror she remembered the day the engagement was announced, how picturing herself next to Sasuke felt strange, but now, picturing herself without him felt unnatural, her brain and heart finally agreed and they both knew Sasuke was her everything, he would be the one and only to ever stand by her side. While she was admiring herself in the mirror Neji walked in, telling her it was time to go to the church, the wedding was about to begin.

Nothing could ruin her perfect day, not even Hiashi holding her hand proudly as he walked her down the aisle, not even Hanabi refusing to make eye contact with her, all she could see and all that mattered was Sasuke at the end of the red rug, standing tall and handsome. Everything that had happened before in her life almost didn’t matter, this was the moment her life began. She barely heard anything the priest said, her answers were mostly done on auto-pilot, only when it was the moment for the rings to be exchanged did her eyes water, hearing Sasuke say ‘I do’ was a memory she’ll treasure forever. Their first official kiss was short, much shorter than she had hoped it would be, but even that didn’t ruin her mood, for she had walked inside a Hyuuga and left an Uchiha.

It was during their first dance that Sasuke whispered “I love you” he softly into her ear, only for her alone to hear, it had taken him a bit longer than her but he got to the point in which he could express his feeling in words too, for he had told her he loved her countless times with his actions alone. “I love you too” she replied and pulled his face to her for a kiss, not caring remotely that people were watching her. She would not be punished for causing a scene, Hiashi had no more power over her and Sasuke would never cage her or treat her like an inferior. She had the freedom to do whatever she wanted, and her first choice was to kiss her husband in front of all of those people on her wedding night.

@sasuhinamonth

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delicrieux · 5 years ago

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Hello! May I have a one-shot with Kylo being injured and reader, who is part of the resistance, finds him and takes care of him? Thanks!

idk how this turned out to be 5k words but WHEW i mean if ppl want me to continue it im down so send in sum request of wat u think should happen!! xoxo gossip girl

requests are open! | masterlist | part 2.

Fear. The kind that makes it hard to breathe as if you are kept underwater; the kind that makes your muscles clench and freeze as all senses flow out one by one. Today had been almost too typical — you woke up, you trained, you talked to your comrades and learned battle strategy — and you were certain your evening walk would be just as uneventful. The breeze in your hair was playful; the setting sun provided warm light and set your surroundings in a pleasant, rosy glow. You like the fresh air; you like exploring; you like the freedom that comes with being alone in wilderness. And in turn, it serves as a reminder for why you are fighting in the first place. To preserve this peace, this freedom, that now has been tarnished when you stumble upon a body.

For a heartbeat you think he’s dead — his expression is lifeless and his face, pale as first snow, is bruised, covered in soot and dried blood. Willing your legs to move, you approach cautiously, not breathing, afraid to break the shrill, sudden silence — no birdsong, no wails of wind passing through trees… nothing. Life had, at that moment, stilled completely. But as you draw closer, grass crunching under your feet softly, you intake a breath of both relief and surprise. Dark locks of hair spray on his forehead and obscure the minuscule knit of his brows, his trembling lashes. He’s alive. The thought consumes you and you fall to your knees, skidding beside him, pushing his hair from his face and landing your palm on his forehead.

It’s awfully cold. Chilling. Almost biting at your sensitive flesh, urging you to pull away. It rolls in waves, this sudden cold, sudden sickness, as if it is a virus that spreads and you have caught it with this minimal contact. But you don’t pull away, despite the near overwhelming urge to do so, despite the fear returning with a new blow. Instead you glide your fingers down his jaw and press on his neck, breaking into a small, crooked smile once you feel a slow drum against them. He is alive, but barely. You glance about him, looking around the area. Nothing out the ordinary, no branches broken, no bushes disturbed and no trails left on the grass. How he got here is a mystery that will have to be solved a different time.

You hope he will tell you once he wakes up, if he even wakes up at all.

That, and, his name, too.

Your base is small and tugged away in a dense jungle, the tall trees and heat warding from unwanted visitors — the First Order. The compartments are small; there are barely above a few dozen people here; it serves more as a safe haven for lost wanderers looking for a cause or shelter, or a backup base in case others were destroyed and the rebels had nowhere to go. It is far away enough from war. Everyone here is, to some extent, safe.

You had never been on the front lines. You had never faced a Storm Trooper, had never seen the Force at work — if there even is such a thing, speculations speculations, nothing consistent, merely gossip — and you had never seen a dead body. Perhaps that is why you froze up so terribly at the sight of him. Perhaps that’s why you felt as if a void opened within you, swallowing up the last shred of light, of life, and leaving you hollow.

You should get used to the sight, though. There will be many dead in battle.

He’s the only one occupying a bed in the Medical Wing and he hasn’t woken up for two days now. His vitals are stable — no internal bleeding, no disease detected, nothing out of place as it seemed. But he is lost in deep sleep, constantly dreaming about something that made him tremble and muss and toss and turn, but never wake. It is entirely bizarre how his state is simply there, caused by no injury, no blow, nothing. And the more you take care of him… the more questions you get.

You eat in the cafeteria, a vast enough, pale walled space occupied by few people during lunch time. Next to you sits a blue eyed, blonde haired cherubic woman – she serves as the doctor, the only doctor here. She smiles lightly at you when you catch her gaze. You had always wondered why her name is Vendetta.

The amount of denizens is small here, so small in fact that the only ones serving under this branch is a rag tag team of scavengers, travelers, nobodies that had abandoned their old lives to fight in this war. Rebels, quite literally, with a cause. Many have taken new names. Vendetta, too, had a name before this, a life, a different purpose. Though her odd choice leads you to believe that what ever had happened to drive her here was painful and severe, deserving justice. In front of you sits a tall, bony, brown haired, brow eyed mechanic with a scar running down half of their face – Q. And beside them, July – you had never seen him smiling, had never heard his voice hold a tender note in it. He is always displeased. Always with a frown.

“Seven.” Vendetta calls you, noting your blank stare, the untouched food in your plate. Seven. You chose this because you were the seventh child in your family, and, subsequently, the seventh person to join the Resistance when this base first opened.

“She’s probably thinking about the stranger.” Q mutters, taking a sip, “His origins are…” They glance about, leaning in slightly, “ A hot topic, after all.”

“We get injured wanderers all the time.” Vendetta waves them off, “As if he’s any different.”

“I don’t think we should be so quick to dismiss him, V.” July grumbles, his voice low, the sound of crunching gravel. He sits with his arms crossed over his chest, observing the three of you with something akin to hostility, “You never know who may be working for the Order.”

“You can’t just assume that.” You pipe up, “He might just be another gambler dropped by the Floating Casino because he couldn’t pay his debts.”

“Or he might be a spy.” July stresses, glaring.

“No one knows there is a base here.” You continue, unrelenting, “Half the Resistance doesn’t know it exists, how can someone from the Order?”

“Still, I advice we exercise caution.” Q says calmly, a pleasant smile on their face — if anyone can defuse an argument before it starts, it’s them, “You never know what people are hiding, Seven.”

“Okay,” Vendetta chimes, “I will certainly not disclose this vital information when the man awakes from his comatose state. I shall make sure to confuse and frighten him further by chaining him to his bed.”

“Good.” July says.

“That is not what I had in mind, and you know it.” Q mutters, a tad disappointed, “I was thinking more along the lines of… An interview.”

“Too civil.” July mumbles, “I say we go with Vendetta’s idea.”

“That was not an idea,” She hisses, “it was sarcasm.”

“Fine, interview.” You submit, “Either way, I doubt anyone from the Order would not say they are from there. They are feared. Probably would think he has the upper hand, or something. Plus, our disguise is impeccable. We look like a research facility. Better yet, a shelter if no one wanders up to the main rooms.”

“I also sincerely doubt anyone, Order or not, is so good at lying first thing when they wake up.” Vendetta agrees.

July narrows his eyes at her, “That is an awfully naive observation to make.”

“Really now? It is a known fact that people half-asleep always tell the truth.”

Another hour of this and you feel drained and sore and with a mild headache. As much as their company has helped you, they can be a bit too eager to prove one another wrong. On most occasions you’d enjoy the chatter. Today, however, you feel too distracted to focus on anything. Q makes some good points, July argues, Vendetta and her biting comments pick at your skin. Always the blazing look in her eyes, always a certain gleam of anger hiding within her mellow, sweet tone. You excuse yourself when you finish your meal and they do not keep you from leaving. Perhaps they noticed you being out of it. Perhaps they were too caught up in their new topic – Lo and Chester’s sudden break up.

It does not take you long to come to the Medical Wing. The door shuts with a silent sweep and your heart drops – the bed is empty. Before you can do much else strong arms wrap around you from behind. With a yelp you feel a hand squeeze your throat and your breath leaves you with a helpless whine, sparks flying in your vision. Your reflexes kick in before you can control them. In a panic, you elbow your attacker in the chest and the grip loosens a bit, enough to allow you to escape and put some distance. Inhaling mouthfuls of air, you turn to the man that had been sleeping since you found him in the wilderness.

You never quite realized how tall he is, or how angry he could be. He’s confused and you see fire in his eyes, a sneer on his face, and he stands unmoving, waiting for you to try something, anything, so that he could grab you and try to kill you again.

You raise your hands, palms up —a fragile, harmless motion to indicate you mean no harm. His guard is still up. He’s heaving and his shoulders are tense, his gaze not once leaving your form, “…Hi,” You wheeze, almost voiceless, “I’m not here to hurt you.” You indicate softly. Cold, again, as if thrown into a bottomless ocean; body heavy, like a stone. You gulp. “Are you alright?” You question gently, afraid to provoke him again. “You must be tired. You’ve been out for a while.”

“Where am I?” His voice is deep and scratchy and it seems to set him off. He trembles from anger, you can almost feel the steady build up of rage in his chest, ”Who are you?”

“I’m Seven.” You introduce, “I found you outside our base. Do you know how you got here?”

He takes a threatening step forward and your arms shoot higher, “I’m not your enemy.” You insist, “You are not a prisoner here. You were dying and I wanted to help you.”

He regards you for a silent moment as if unsure whether to believe you or not. However, you sense that he will not try to hurt you, for now at least. You give him a shaky smile, trying to ease him — you cannot imagine how frightening it is to awake in some room among strangers and not knowing where you are or what had happened. “Do you…know your name?” You continue your questions, your arms slowly falling by your sides. After another pause, he nods curtly, “Good. That’s good.” you step away from his bed, “Please, lie down. You’re still recovering. No shady business, I promise.”

You are a bit surprised that he listens, but you don’t show it. He’s cautious, regarding you as if you were some dangerous animal cornering him, and his walk is sluggish. You can tell it’s hard for him to move, but don’t say anything. You doubt it would do any good. He finally sits down and just stares at you. You try to smile again, “Do you know how you got here? It’s okay if you don’t.”

“How long have I been here for?” He asks instead.

“Two full days in the base.” You say calmly, “But out there?” You vaguely motion with your head to the outside world, “I don’t know.”

Your answer unnerves him. For the first time his frown falls and he stares at you with big eyes and a trembling lip, as if a lost child not knowing what to do. That expression warps suddenly and he looks away, his hands gripping the side of the bed so tightly his knuckles turn white.

“Well, if there is…anything you need…” You start mildly, “You can call upon me. Or Vendetta. She’s the doctor here, so if you feel any pain or sickness, you should tell her. She’s sweet.” You smile, “And she will help. But right now, just try to rest…I’ll…leave you to it.”

You bolt past him to the door but– “You don’t know who I am, do you?”

You turn back to him, shaking your head lightly, “No. But it doesn’t matter. A lot of adventures come through here, lost and injured. You aren’t the first one. Now rest, please.”

He’s volatile, is what you learn upon the first days of his resurrection. His mood can change in a flip of a coin and he goes from placid to enraged in a blink of an eye. Tantrums, yelling — all signatures of a spoiled child not knowing what he has but simply wanting to break it. He’s nobility, or so your peers gossip. You hear snippets of all sorts of things, each more outrageous than the one before. The one that he is a prince kicked out of home for adultery seems to be the most popular one.

And he’s egotistical. He had not been, besides the attempted murder, that hostile and untamed towards you — the choking you told no one about as you concluded he simply felt threatened and scared. Though his other tantrums you are not so quick to chalk up as self-defense. Vendetta, exasperated, one evening told you that she somehow offended him — ”All I said is stop pouting because you need my help!” — and he, with a bruised ego, so high and mighty promptly jumped out of bed. Whatever he was trying to do backfired — perhaps he was trying to leave, or trying to grab something and to hit her with — but he slipped and fell and hit his head into the sharp corner of table. “And I said to him, oh I said: look what you’ve done now! Off to bed, quickly!” Vendetta finished bitterly, stabbing her fork idly into her food, possibly imagining his face there. His nose, much to V’s displeasure, was not broken, but an ugly gash and a dark bruise split his skin in half and he laid in bed sulking for at least a day.

As the week passed, he seemed to favor your company the most. It is not that he smiled and joked and laughed in your presence, and you were not exchanging secrets or hugging or even calling each other friends. He simply seemed to be more mellow around you, possibly because you oddly knew what to say and what to keep silent. It is as if you sensed the subtle shift of his moods; could read his expressions in a way no one could, perhaps no one tried. And you would come and visit him as often as you could when relieved of your duties — you felt responsible for him in a way, and you wondered if you would still feel this weight on your shoulders when he eventually left this place. After all it was you that had found him lying in the grass; it was you that had insisted to help him; and now, it is you that brings him food and tries to provide some comfort in a form of conversation. You don’t pry into his past, don’t even ask for his name, because you know he does not want to give it, and you won’t risk questioning in fear of another explosion of his temper. You talk about inconsequential things: what’s happening around the base, what sort of plants grow around here, what bugs could kill him before he took two steps. He especially enjoys hearing the rumors about him, even if he is too prideful to admit that they amuse him greatly.

“And what if I am?” He questions one evening, something akin to a small smile pulling at the corners of his lips. His eyes, a kind hazel color that could be beautiful if not for the persistent angry spark within them that is now, seemingly, vacant, watch you closely.

You frown softly, “Are what?” You question, “A prince?” He nods. You snort, “Well then, your majesty, I shall make sure to inform the others. What will be your first decree?”

He pretends to think, “No more slacking around.” He says sternly, “This is supposed to be a military base, isn’t it?” He ends on a cheeky note. You gulp. Ah, yes, you might have let it slip that he’s in one of the Resistance’s safe houses, though you did not disclose the coordinates.

“On a mission to make fun illegal, are you?” You ask with a raised brow.

He frowns, “Am not.”

“Are too.”

“Am not.”

“Are too!”

Childish, really, though you suppose it is better than arguing with July.

You feel it before you hear it— rain and thunder. The merciless patter on the roof and on your window. In night the sound is almost deafening — a loud roar of an engine, followed by cracks of lightning and flashes in the dark sky. You would have slept through it if not for the pins and needles washing your skin behind the warm sheets thrown on your body. You stir. Thunder roars and a flash of bright white light illuminates your room and seeps through the cracks of your lashes. Cold, again, as if standing in the middle of a storm.

You finally sit up, rubbing your face and then looking around to see if your friends are playing some sort of joke on you. You were almost certain they had dragged you outside and left you to get drenched. But you are alone in your room and you frown and shiver from the biting cold. Groggily you throw the sheets away and leave your bed, not entirely certain where you are going but there is a pull in your gut and half-asleep you follow it. You think you might still be dreaming —the rain on your dry skin feels real, though all dreams feel real until you awake. You leave the dormitories and take the elevator to the first floor. The base is silent, save for the shrill of machinery. Finally, still in your pajamas and almost fully awake, you step past the main entrance and stop.

It’s pouring, a curtain of rain obscuring the confusing contours of trees and leaves and bushes. The darkness does not help. A bleak light pulses to life once you pass the sensor and your surroundings illuminate. Thunder, lighting, more rain. You stand safe and dry under the roof, and he stands at the very edge of it, half soaking, his face kissed and washed by the rain.

You are not sure what to think. He seems lonely standing there surrounded by darkness and water. It’s whispers, or something akin to that, that urge and beseech that he does not want to be alone. You hear them somewhere in the back of your mind. If he noticed you, and he should have with the light suddenly on, he does not show it. You approach him slowly, your footsteps concealed over the heavy drum of rain.

“Not used to it, are you?” You ask, your voice followed by a bolt of thunder. He stirs, head tilting in your direction. Your heart skips a beat when your eyes meet — there is no hostility in them, no anger, just a distant sadness. You give him a soft smile, “I can tell you don’t see it often. I didn’t, either, at first. I grew up surrounded by deserts and I had not seen a drop of rain for at least eighteen years. But, here… Well, there’s no shortage of it. We have storms at least once a week. You’ll grow sick of it before you leave, trust me.”

He says nothing, still looking at you. The light sniffs out. Both of you stand unmoving.

“Why are you here?” He asks, a note of genuine confusion slipping past his calm tone.

“I… don’t know.” You admit. A frown pulls on your brows and you bite your lower lip, staring into the heavy curtain of rain, “I…I really don’t know.” You turn to him, “Why are you here?”

He doesn’t answer for a moment, savoring the silence. Then, “I got bored laying in bed.” Somehow you feel that anxiety has more to do with his sudden nightly venture, rather than actual boredom. Though, you suppose it is quite tedious doing nothing all day. You imagine he is active, judging by his built. He has a strong character and he knows what he wants (most of the time), or rather has a distinct sense of what he doesn’t want. You imagine he’d be a good commander, or leader, with his deep voice and unrelenting stare, if only he wasn’t so sensitive. He’s too unpredictable. Too uncontrollable. His emotions get the better of him too quickly for him to be unbiased. For that reason alone you deem him unfit to be a spy, or a soldier, or a figure of military power. He’d burn all he would build if that were the case. No, him being of noble birth and being stranded here as some sort of twisted punishment sounds believable enough.

“What are you thinking?” He questions, drawing you out of your thoughts. You hum, ponder whether you should be honest with him or not. “Don’t lie to me.” He says suddenly and you jolt, heart drumming painfully in your chest. For a frightening moment you figured he could read your mind. Then again, you have been spending a lot of time together. He must have noticed how gentle you are with him, how carefully you pick your words. His signature frown is back, you see it for a second when lightning strikes.

“I was thinking about your life.” You admit, “Your work. Whether you really are a royal as most of my crew mates seem to think.”

Flash. You see half a smile blooming on his lips.

“But I know you won’t tell me. Don’t worry, I get it. Ladies love a mystery.”

“What?”

It’s your turn to grin, “Oh, please, it’s almost all I hear about. Seven brought a brooding stranger with a secret past into the base. Lo…Michel… Two of your rapid admirers. I already told you that your arrival has sparked many speculations.”

“I…I haven’t…” He sounds uncertain, flustered almost, as if embarrassed, but there is no way he is, you refuse to believe it. He stumbles upon his words and lastly says nothing. You snicker silently. Another flash of lightning and you see the same confused, puppy-like look on his face you have had the pleasure of seeing once or twice. He does not shield it this time, this moment of vulnerability. He probably doesn’t see the point because darkness obscures everything again.

You extend your hand to him as a silent offering. How many things have you offered him now? Life, health, your company. He regards it, ponders a bit, lastly gently clasps his hand over yours. You jerk. Electricity courses through you and your eyes go wide, tingles rushing all over your body. Lightning strikes. You see wonder on his face, a mimic of your own surprised expression.

“Come on,” You stutter, tugging him, “you’ll catch a cold.” He follows after you. The light blinks on. You don’t know what is happening. Couldn’t have been the thunder, the feeling is not as intense. It felt more like a build up of energy; like you accidentally touched a circuit and it zapped you.

Impossible, you hear something alike his voice but not quite — it’s quiet, distant, muddy.

“Hm?”

“What?”

Once inside, the door sweeps shut behind you, “What did you say?”

“I didn’t say anything.” He sounds a bit ticked now, and you decide to drop it.

“Oh,” You mutter, “must’ve imagined it, then.”

His hand is cold in yours and you squeeze it just a bit, hoping he won’t notice and hoping that you will warm it. When you reach the Medical Wing, you tilt your head and say, “Wait here. I’ll get you dry clothes from the storage.”

But as you turn to leave he doesn’t let go, though doesn’t say anything either. He’s choked up — either he doesn’t know how to say it or doesn’t want to say it at all. He doesn’t want to be alone. Those whispers come again, ringing in your ears so quietly you aren’t sure they’re even there. You give him a soft smile, catching his gaze, “Okay, we can go together. You’ll probably stay here for at least another week, so, it’s best you know where the storage is anyway.” There’s no rush in your words, no annoyance, just simple acceptance. It eases him, relieves him of saying and admitting things he’s not willing to bring to light.

The walk is quiet and you still hold hands. His is much bigger than yours, rough, though not unpleasant. They are hands of a man that uses them often — for better, or for worse — and a twinge in your heart, a sudden thud of uncertainty, informs you that your previous speculations might have not been correct at all. His hand doesn’t feel like that of a prince (not that you would know what that would feel like), no, it feels like a hand of a soldier. But that inching of something amiss is swept away by warmth, silent happiness, a certain deliriousness that starts blooming within you and spreading all around. You feel him, somehow; feel a connection. You can’t put it into words exactly, you doubt you could ever explain it to anyone. It’s fragile. And beautiful. And maddening that such a devout emotion is sprung by something as innocent as holding hands

You wonder if he feels it. You somehow know he does.

The storage room is not big. Your hand slips from his as he chooses to stand by the doorway and you rummage to get his things. You feel braver. Perhaps it’s the tiredness that leaves you so open and bold, but searching you can’t help but ask, “So tell me…” You start, handing him some towels, “What were you actually doing? Besides being melodramatic.” You add, your lips quirking upwards.

He regards you with lively eyes and you see a grin lift his cheeks. He’s smiling, actually smiling, and you know this action is precious and rare and you can’t help but beam at him in return, “You think I was being melodramatic?” He questions.

You laugh a little, a breathless bell-like “Yes” falling from your lips as you fetch him dry clothes from the upper shelf, “All you needed was a cape to swing around.”

His expression abruptly falls and the temperature drops with it.

“Right, no cape.” You mumble, a tad disappointed, handing him his clothes.

As you make your way back, you can’t help but saying, “I just thought it would suit you, is all.”

“What else do you think would suit me?”

You raise a brow, trying to keep up with his drastic shift in moods: again, hes smiling, then he’s pensive, now he seems lighthearted, genuinely curious. “You like to ask a lot of questions.” You conclude.

He shrugs, “I’m just trying to figure out what you think of me.”

“And why are you curious?”

“Now you are the one asking a lot of questions.” He points out. You snort.

“You started it.”

“Did not.”

“Did too!”

This again, followed by quiet chuckles. You don’t turn to the Medical Wing now, instead stopping by the elevator and pressing the red button. The doors slide open. You glance at him.

“So…” You mumble, “This is not how I imagined my night going, but…” You aren’t quite sure how to finish, how to vocalize the strange swirl of emotions in your chest, “Well, goodnight.”

You step into the elevator, going to push the button—“Ben.” He says suddenly, making you flinch and turn to him. He’s not looking at you, instead staring at the floor, “My name. It’s Ben.”

Again, that same energy, that same shock you felt when you first touched his hand ignites your body with something closely akin to happiness. Trust. Bond. He trusts you. The connection you felt was not an exaggeration. He would not have given you his name otherwise.

“Goodnight, Ben.” You say softly, fighting a smile that’s trying to rise on your face, “Sweet dreams.”

“…Goodnight, Seven.”

As the elevator doors shut, you think you hear him say “Thank you”, but that might have just been your imagination.

hope you liked it! xxx

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hyperfics-ation · 5 years ago

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(6 Underground fic. idk what to call it. shameless oc insert.) *Police brutality mention*

Films: 6 Underground 2019

Word Count: 1,752

Pairing: billy!four/oc

Description: You were Arianna's first friend in New York City which is why One helped you fake your death when you get into trouble. It's never stated in the story but that's why.

Without anywhere to go, he gives you a home at the base while he assembles his team. Eventually you meet Four and he makes "dying" worth while.

When One cut all ties to his old life it was because he had a mission. A purpose to fulfill. Same goes for the rest of the team. Each member was handpicked.

Except for you.

You were never part of the plan so you didn't get a number.

Obviously this made introductions a little complicated when One introduced you to Two.

The CIA spook, already dubious about One and his motivations, raised one eyebrow and sized you up quickly.

You smiled awkwardly, sensing that a formal handshake was out of the question. "Just call me Zero," you joked halfheartedly, trying not to fidget under Two's critical gaze.

Just as you broke out in a nervous sweat, Two finally looked away and motioned for One to follow her out of the trailer. It didn't take a genius to figure out what she wanted to discuss privately.

Did One seriously believe it was a good idea to involve a civilian on what was most likely going to turn out to be a suicide mission?

What did a nobody like you really bring to the table, skill-wise?

You didn't have a good answer to either of those questions and honestly neither did One.

Anyway, faking your death had been an experience™ and the adjustment period after had been hard. One hadn't been the most sympathetic. Not outwardly. After all, you were never a part of his grand plan. You were the wrench that got thrown in the plan. You felt kinda bad about that sometimes.

···

When One was ready to go recruit Two, he thought it best you stay behind.

"Sure. I'll be fine," you reassured him with a soft smile that didn't quite reach your eyes.

The expression on his face made it very clear that he did not believe you. But he said nothing, already behind schedule.

You woke up the next morning bracing yourself to face the next couple of weeks on your own. Except you weren't alone. A big ass dog sat patiently at your bedside, tongue wagging and panting softly with a note tied to his collar.

Take care of the dog while I'm gone. P.S. Don't let him eat my stuff. -One.

You named the dog Wally.

···

Three's arrival was really something.

He was the complete opposite of Two. His easy going nature actually reminded you a lot of One. They were alike in a lot of ways, but maybe that's why they did not get along very well. Honestly, you could only stand the both of them in the same room for so long.

But he was nice. And he talked to you. Your conversations weren't anything particularly deep. One's rules forbid any of you from revealing personal details about your old lives. Mostly you discussed movies and TV shows.

Regardless, you lived for those benign conversations. They provided a brief intermission to the insane turn your life had taken.

···

One could tell you were struggling.

Wally the dog was only so much company.

You were adrift with nowhere to go, no one to turn to.

Your old life was gone and the only people left in your life was One, Two, and Three. They all had their own issues and it wasn't like you had any shared life experience with the older adults.

So maybe One had an ulterior motive when he recruited Four.

The first day the Skywalker showed up with his still healing bruises and luminous blue eyes, you laughed until your face turned red.

"Skywalker? We're not seriously going to call him that are we?" you wheezed in One's direction, swiping tears from the corner of your eye.

One opened his mouth, the perfect retort poised on his tongue before you swiftly cut him off.

"Is he a fucking Jedi? Are you are Jedi?"

Your raucous laughter had faded into barely stifled giggles as you looked at Four.

He sighed. "Are you done? I need a drink."

He brushed past you as you were still reeling from the spine tingling deep tenor of his voice paired with that accent. Now your face was flushed for a different reason.

"Hey, be easy on him. He just watched his own funeral, which was somehow more depressing than a normal funeral should be," One told you, making you feel like a dick.

···

Five was a godsend. Though, if One ever heard you admit it, you were sure his ego would explode at being compared with a god.

You were just happy to be around the closest thing to a civilian.

“You like him, don’t you? Number Four?” she asked you with a knowing grin.

Almost immediately your face went red. “I don’t know what you mean. Who? Me?”

Wow. Real subtle, you thought, cringing.

Yeah, you weren’t fooling anyone, especially Five. You wondered if any of the other ghosts knew about your crush on Four.

They did. But no one said anything.

···

Six figured it out within hours of meeting you and proceeded to tease you relentlessly.

So much for millennial solidarity.

The longer he was around, though, he became like an older brother to you. You couldn’t imagine what life would be like without him.

···

With One’s team of ghosts finally assembled, Two insisted on a mandatory training exercise to assess how well everyone worked together. You had no fucking idea why she wanted you to attend this exercise. One had already made it very clear that you were not part of the mission. But you suspected she was actually trying to do you a favor.

The self defense pointers were useful, you supposed. Being paired with Four was… embarrassing and definitely Two’s idea of a joke.

On the other hand, you were finally seeing a different side of Four. A more arrogant, carefree side that made you laugh not to mention pine a hundred times harder than you were before.

Just when you were starting to have fun throwing Four around on a mat, Two steered you towards a makeshift gun range.

It had been a while since you held a gun and considering what happened the last time you did…

Needless to say you were pretty shaky afterwards, teetering on the verge of spiralling into a flashback and Four couldn’t help but notice.

···

Later, when you were hunkered down in One’s office mindlessly rewatching Leave It To Beaver episodes Four surprised you by joining you.

He didn’t say anything for a while, content to just sit and watch the little TV as you tried to ignore him.

"So how did you get pulled into all this, really?" he spoke up, finally as the credits started rolling.

You took your time answering. That was the billion dollar question that One had repeatedly forbid any of them from answering. Except, you wanted to tell someone if only to justify being a ghost. If you could get anyone on the team to believe that someone as unremarkable as you wouldn't be here if you had a choice.

You steadfastly avoided looking into his curious green eyes.

"I grew up in a small town. I was fairly popular in school. Got good grades. I was accepted into a good University in a big city..."

Oh boy, you were veering into monologue territory and you could feel the old wounds tearing open.

"There was… this cop. At a protest. He assaulted me and it was... bad. I woke up in the hospital with this guy telling me to keep my mouth shut. He… he threatened me. For weeks. Him and his buddies. Painted me as a criminal even though I didn’t fucking do anything wrong. Finally I just said 'fuck it' and made a whole video about what this asshole did to me. Which turned out to be a mistake. Shocker, I know. He cornered me the next day and he was drunk-"

You bit your lip hard, desperately fighting back tears. Four’s gaze burned where you could feel it on your face. God, what was he thinking right now? You wanted to know. He had been silent so far, listening intently as you told him about the worst moment of your life.

“Fucking pigs,” he muttered under his breath, his lip curling in disgust.

Swallowing the lump of emotion building in your throat, you continued, "I defended myself. And that's how One found me. Over this cop's dead body. I was going to go to jail because who would ever believe I killed a cop in self defense? So, One helped me fake my death and gave me a second chance. To this day, I still have no idea why he was there when I needed him the most. It wasn't even to recruit me. He just helped me because he could. The whole Turgistan thing came later."

At last, you glanced at Four from the corner of your eye to see his reaction.

His brows were knitted together and he had a serious expression on his face you weren’t accustomed to seeing him sport before.

“I’m glad One was there to help you or I might not have ever met you.”

This boy was too good to be true.

“I'd like to get to know you better, if that’s alright.”

You were quietly crying at this point, but you nodded, smiling through the tears. “I’d like that.”

Read Part II here

#6 underground netflix #6 underground movie #6 underground #billy #four #four!billy/oc #four!6underground/oc #ben hardy imagine #ben hardy #ben hardy/oc #ficlet #ben hardy x reader #four x reader #billy x reader #four!6underground x reader #four!billy x reader #posted on a03

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gamerwoo · 5 years ago

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[SF9 Imprinted] Zuho: Scary

Anonymous asked: Zuho, something fluff ig but i cant think of something specific 😅

Anonymous asked: Can I request an imprinted thing for Zuho? Preferably fluffy ending but with angst at the beginning? Maybe with the mate being terrified of him when they find out he’s a werewolf, but they’re trying to be okay with if? Then something happens where the mate is in danger and he saves them and then they start to trust him more? Is that too specific? 😬

Characters: Zuho x female reader

Genre/warnings: werewolf au, college au, angst, fluff, small mention of homophobia at the beginning, alcohol, drugs, idk just a lot of like stereotypical partying stuff and sad shit

Word count: 5,589

Summary: Juho knew that imprinting wouldn’t necessarily be easy since nobody believed in werewolves, but he didn’t expect it to be this difficult. It wasn’t that you didn’t believe in them -- you very much did -- you were just terrified of getting close to him. He assumed you were afraid of him because he was a werewolf, but it was much more than that.

a/n: i’ve written the “mate is afraid of werewolves” trope like, way too much, so i did edit the idea quite a bit. there is angst and fluff, and reader is kinda scared in a way, but it’s not exactly what was requested but i hope it’s still fine lmao (and if the storyline seems familiar it’s because i kinda yoinked what i had done for minho before bc i thought that would fit pretty well)

Previous | Next | Imprinted Masterlist

“What are you doing?” Juho demanded. He was damn near ready to rip Chani’s head off when he saw you lean over and peek out from behind the younger boy. His expression softened for a moment as he saw how wide your eyes got, but he had to focus on Chani. The pup was the reason he was sent out, anyway. “You have school today, you idiot.”

“Juho--”

“You can’t just run away whenever you feel like it, y’know.” Juho continued, scolding the younger boy like a parent would. He stopped when he was in front of Chani, but his attention was mostly on you in his peripherals. He could see the way you played with your fingers and seemed like you wanted to sneak away while he was distracted. “Your grades will slip, your parents will start suspecting things, and--”

“Calm down,” you mumbled, wanting to stick up for Chani but also worried about drawing attention to yourself. You had never been afraid of anyone or anything, but you were afraid of Juho -- just not for the reason one might expect. “The kid needed a break.”

Chani frowned, mumbling, “Don’t call me that.”

Juho’s eyes flickered between you and the younger boy, “A break from what?”

“Some kid was giving him and Hansol shit,” you explained as Chani’s cheeks heated up from embarrassment, “and Chani almost shifted on him for picking on his mate. He came to me because I’m the only one that actually listens to his problems.”

“We listen!” Juho insisted. “And...since when are you and _____ friends anyway, huh?”

You gave Juho a look like you weren’t buying that statement, “You were just accusing him for ‘skipping school for no reason’.”

It was times like this when Juho realized you definitely weren’t the bad person everyone seemed to think you were -- as if you being afraid wasn’t a giveaway that you actually had feelings. You were a good person with – from what he could tell – good intentions, that made poor choices. He still didn’t know why you made those choices, but he wasn’t giving up on his mission to find out. But that would have to wait until after he got you to trust him.

Juho sat in the grass across from the two of you, letting his backpack fall from his shoulders, “What was he picking on the two of you for?”

“For the exact reason you think: we’re dating,” he mumbled, staring at his lap. “And I’m not embarrassed by him or that we’re dating, I just don’t get why people have to be so...I dunno.”

“I know, people can be really ignorant,” the older wolf sighed after Chani sat down beside him in the grass -- you stayed standing. “I’m glad you don’t feel anything negative about imprinting on Hansol. Love is love no matter what, and there’s nothing wrong with you and Hansol being together. Did he say anything back?”

“I left before he could say anything,” Chani sighed, toying with his fingers. “If I stayed any longer, I would’ve shifted. I was shaking so much…”

“Well, I’m not happy you ditched school, but I’m glad you made it here and calmed down,” Juho nodded, reaching over to place a hand on Chani’s shoulder. Then he looked at you, his brown eyes giving you a grateful look. “Thanks, _____.”

You just shrugged, “Don’t thank me, I do this all the time.”

Juho turned back to Chani, “I’ll bring you home when I’m done with classes, okay?”

“I’ll keep an eye on him,” you promised.

“No, you’re going to class,” he stated, giving you a hard look so you knew he wasn’t backing down. “Inseong’s tutoring in the library until 4pm, so Chani can go sit with him.”

You scoffed, crossing your arms over your chest, “Since when do you think you’re the boss of me, Baek Juho?”

After the whole car incident, Juho was surprised that you’d stand up to him like that. He’d always known you were typically snarky and stubborn with a bad attitude, but he also knew you were afraid of him. You avoided him like the plague, and especially after punching Inseong’s car right in front of you, he hadn’t seen you even on campus for two weeks. So...maybe you weren’t afraid of him? Or maybe Chani had helped him out and put in a good word?

He still was’t even sure when Chani befriended you.

“She sure told you,” Chani chuckled, making you smirk.

Juho frowed, grabbing the back of Chani’s neck and beginning to push him back toward campus, “Just get to class!”

After bringing Chani home, Juho went home to take a quick nap before he started his homework. Well, “quick nap” ended up lasting five hours. When he woke up, he just felt something…off. It was a typical feeling he got with you as a mate, but it never failed to make his heart race as he was always worrying that you were in danger.

You were a “bad girl” type. You drove a motorcycle, you skipped class, you smoked and drank and you were rumored to do drugs -- which Juho found out was true but it was never anything hard. Actually, the first time Juho met you, he thought you were trying to sell drugs to Hyunggu from Hui’s pack. And that day, after the two of you made eye contact, you turned and booked it in the other direction. He knew you knew what he was, and he knew you were afraid.

“Going out to to find _____?” Dawon guessed as Juho rushed to put his shoes on by the door.

“Don’t wait up.” he joked lightly as he left the house.

He followed the pull as he drove, leading him to some frat house that was clearly having a party. He should’ve known you’d go out on a Friday night, but he ended up sleeping for too long and couldn’t stop you from going. Now, he’d have to find you in the party and fight you to go home.

He went inside, trying to keep to himself, as he just wanted to get you and get out. The crowd was bigger than it usually was, but he knew he could find you just from the pull – normally, he could also just track you with your scent, but it was difficult to pick out over the alcohol and drugs, though it was still faintly in his nose.

After a few minutes of searching, he finally found you in the middle of the sweaty bodies that were gathered to dance in the living room. You smelled strongly of weed and alcohol, but he was just glad you weren’t passed out or something.

It made him kind of sad he only ever saw you smiling and carefree at parties. He wished he could have fun with you and make you smile like this, but it was hard when you actively avoided him and seemed to have fear in your eyes whenever you saw him.

He frowned as he grabbed your wrist and started bringing you to the exit, feeling a bit bad that he was going to be the cause of the smile being wiped from your face.

“Hey!” you whined when you felt yourself being dragged away from your “friends”. You looked up and saw it was Juho, and you tried your best to pull away. “Hey! Juho! Let me go!”

“You know you shouldn’t be here,” he sighed, knowing he sounded more like a parent than anything else. “I’m bringing you home, _____.”

You figured a werewolf would be more fun; more daring. Why was Juho being such a killjoy?

“Whyyyyy?” you groaned, dragging out the last letter until Juho had to turn around and put a hand over your mouth.

It was high time Juho worked this out with you. How long had he been chasing after you and trying to get you to like him? And he was still nowhere near getting closer to you. He wanted to know why you did bad things like party an unhealthy amount and rely on getting high to feel happy. He knew you weren’t a bad person, so why would you do bad things?

“When I get you home, we’re having a talk,” he stated, indicating he’d have no backtalk about it. He turned back around, this time holding your waist firmly as he guided you out, supporting most of your weight as you wobbled. “I’ll have somebody come pick up your motorcycle.”

“No, I wanna--”

Before you could finish your slurred protest, Juho had turned around, and easily held you over his shoulder, carrying you to his car. You didn’t even bother saying anything, your body hanging limply as he walked. Part of you actually enjoyed the closeness, and you found yourself pouting when he put you down.

“What?” he asked at your expression as he opened the car. “Is this about your bike?”

“No,” you huffed, crossing your arms over your chest.

“So what’s the problem?”

“You let me go!”

He blinked a few times as he processed your words, and then the corners of his mouth tugged up in a smile, his inner wolf rumbling with joy, “I’m sorry. Get in the car, okay?”

You complied, letting him help you just because you liked the tingles his skin left on yours before he buckled you up and closed the door. Once he got in on his own side, he started up the car. You shifted in your seat, pulling your knees to your chest while you stared at him. Maybe if you knew how good it felt to have him touch you, you wouldn’t be so afraid.

No, you’d be even more afraid. You were just too drunk to remember why you avoided Juho.

“Yes?” he chuckled as he pulled away from the side of the road and started toward your apartment.

“How do you always find me?” you wondered.

He reached over to pat your knee, “We’ve already had this conversation, _____.”

Before he could take his hand back, you grabbed it and held in in your own. While Juho’s eyes widened, and he let out a soft, involuntary purr, you didn’t see the big deal in your sloppy mindset.

“What’s this for?” he wondered, his cheeks staining pink.

“I like when you’re close to me,” you admitted with a hiccup at the end that made Juho smile. “Don’t laugh at me.”

“I’m not,” he promised, though he was laughing when he spoke, “I just think you’re being cute.”

“I’m cute?” you repeated, to which he nodded. “Nobody’s ever called me that… Huh…”

Juho glanced over at you, and saw you were smiling to yourself. He just left the conversation there, wanting to get you home as quickly as possible, and it was better if you were in a good mood.

Once at your apartment building, Juho parked his car where he usually did, and called Youngbin to pick up your motorcycle as he carried you on his back up to your floor. He unlocked the door for you as you softly played with his hair, the smile never leaving his face. Finally inside, he carefully set you down on the floor.

Your apartment was extremely small. It was a tiny studio apartment, so your bedroom, living room, and kitchen were all one room. You were thankful you at least had a bathroom, but you didn’t even have a tub – just a very small shower that didn’t even have hot water half the time. You worked one job that wasn’t very good – if you didn’t count the dealing you did on the side – and you were also trying to go to college in an attempt to turn your life around. You were lucky enough to even get this place. You were just happy you weren’t homeless.

“Youngbin’s getting your bike, and he’ll park it in the parking garage.” he told you as you stumbled your way toward your small dresser. “Where’re you going?”

You yanked open one of the drawers before tossing your tight crop top off of your body, letting it drop haphazardly to the floor. Juho just watched, shaking his head as you somehow almost fell over trying to get a over-sized t-shirt out of the drawer.

He walked up to you in only a few steps, taking the shirt from you and turning it right-side-out, “Arms up.”

You complied willingly, enjoying the feeling of having someone care for you. Juho smiled fondly at you as you just stood in front of him in your shorts, and a black bra. He figured he would’ve felt sort of weird being around you while you were half-naked, but he didn’t really care. He just saw it as him taking care of you.

He pulled the shirt over your head before he went into the bathroom in search of something to clean your makeup off your face. While he did that, you took your shorts off and sat down on the mattress, waiting patiently for him.

As soon as Juho sat down across from you, you closed your eyes so he could take off your makeup for you, “Why are you being nice to me? Don’t you hate me like everyone else?”

“I don’t hate you, _____.” he replied, softly wiping off your foundation when you released his wrist. “Don’t you hate me? You always seem so...afraid of me. Is it because I’m a werewolf?”

“No,” you mumbled, closing your eyes so he could clear off the eye makeup, “it’s not that you’re a werewolf. I’m afraid of how I feel.”

“How you feel?” he chuckled. “What does that mean?”

“I think I love you.”

Juho paused, pulling his hand away to look at you. You opened your eyes when you realized he wasn’t putting the wipe to your face again, but you didn’t understand the surprise and confusion on his face. You just stared back at him neutrally.

“You’re afraid that you love me?” he wondered quietly, his voice soft like a faint breeze in the middle of the night. “Why?”

You shrugged like a child, but your response was much less playful. “I've never felt the way I do about you toward anyone else. You make me feel...all weird. But a good weird, so that makes it bad. And you’re a werewolf which is supposed to be strong and cool and badass and like, that makes it even worse because I’m even more attracted to you because of it. I don’t wanna love anybody.”

“_____, why don’t you want to be in love?”

Instead of answering his question, you let out a huff. “Juho, you should go home.”

“I’m staying the whole night to make sure you’re okay in the morning,” he replied, taking the hint that you didn’t want to talk about it, and finishing wiping off your face instead. “Youngbin has to come get your motorcycle keys anyway.”

“But Juho--”

“No ‘but Juho’,” he said, cutting you off. “I don’t hate you, and I don’t care if you're afraid of your feelings for me. I can help you be better if you’ll let me.”

“If you get closer to me, you’ll just get your life ruined,” you blabbered, tripping over your own words as your emotions got the best of you – it didn’t help that you weren’t sober yet, either. “Why won’t you just listen to me?”

“Why don’t you?” he chuckled despite the fact you were clearly upset. “_____, I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. I know you know how imprinting works; I love you no matter what, and I always will. I just don’t like the things you do, but that can be changed.”

“What if it’s too late for me?” you asked, sniffling from the tears that started to fill your eyes.

“It’s not, I promise,” he told you as he stood up to throw the makeup wipe away. “Now lay down, okay?”

You sighed but did as he said, curling up like usual.

Juho was surprised you opened up, even if it was just a little bit. He was getting somewhere, so that was good. Not a lot of it made much sense to him, but it was still something. It also didn’t explain why you were always partying and getting high, but he was sure that would fall into place somewhere. He just had to be patient.

He walked over to the couch, figuring he could sit there until you fell asleep. However you waved him over despite the fact you didn’t even seem to want him to stay to begin with. You just couldn’t resist that feeling of having someone want you around. It was new for you, and you weren’t sober yet. Your mind wasn’t thinking right, so you just went with what your heart felt.

He sat on the mattress, leaning his back against the wall. You pulled him to lay down before laying your head on his shoulder and closing your eyes, deciding your mate was much more comfortable than the cheap pillows you slept on.

As Juho listened to your breathing, you listened to his heartbeat that lulled you to sleep. Juho looked down at your sleeping face, brushing some hair from it.

“I just want to help you, _____…” he sighed, pressing a soft kiss to your forehead.

It was too early for Juho to be having bad feelings. It was the middle of the day on a Thursday, why was he having bad feelings? He had to find out, so he left the campus to go to your apartment and check up on you.

Thankfully, your motorcycle was in it’s usual space, and he sensed your presence when he got to your door. He knocked, calling your name, but he got no answer. He could hear your heartbeat, but he still panicked, knowing you could’ve passed out or something.

He managed to get the door open without using his strength to break it -- your apartment wasn’t really the best or safest place -- and almost cried when he saw you standing in the kitchen with a bowl in one hand, and a lighter in the other. The room was full of smoke, and completely smelled like weed, but fuck, you were okay.

“_____,” he sighed in relief as he closed the door and walked over to you quickly, “why aren’t you at work?”

You just shrugged, putting the bowl back to your lips. Juho quickly pulled it away from you, noticing your bloodshot eyes, and the way they didn’t completely focus on him when you looked at him. There was no doubt in his mind you were completely baked, but he’d never seen you this high, even at a party.

“Don’t shrug at me, give me answers!” he demanded, gripping your shoulders, looking at you with worry. “What happened?”

“I got fired, okay!” you burst, shoving him away angrily. “I had to sell at work because I have no fucking money, and somebody got mad at me because I wouldn’t sell their shit to Chani. They snitched on me to my boss, so I got fired. And now…”

As you spoke, your anger dissipated to fear and sadness. You shook your head, covering your face while you squeezed your eyes shut to keep the tears that filled your eyes from spilling over. This one time, you couldn’t keep your tough front up, and it both frightened and worried Juho. He’d never seen you really cry until now, and he’d never heard your voice break like it had. He’d seen you afraid before, but never this kind of scared or upset.

“I’m going to be homeless, Juho.” you laughed weakly, rubbing your glassy eyes before you looked at up at him. “I’m broke. I fucked up again, and for the second time in my life, I’ll be homeless.”

Second? Juho shook his head, realizing that wasn’t the big issue here. The issue was getting you to come down, and calm down. He took your hand, bringing you to the couch with him to sit. You continued to wipe under your eyes to keep tears from falling, but you’d swipe away the ones that managed to escape, hoping Juho didn’t notice.

But he did notice. He noticed how your lower lip quivered, and your hands shook, and your expression tried to play it off like it was some kind of dumb joke but your eyes were full of fear and uncertainty. It scared him to see you so vulnerable, but he knew this was a step in the right direction.

“_____, listen to me,” he said softly, cupping your face in his hands, forcing you to look into his eyes, “everything will be okay.”

You scoffed, shaking your head as you continued to play it off like everything was okay – something you wouldn’t have been able to manage if you weren’t on drugs that always made you feel giggly, “No it won’t. I know I fucked up, and I know this is a sign that I’ll always be how I am.”

“That’s not true. You can change, you just need help,” he insisted.

You just snorted, pushing his arms away, “I wanna do it on my own. I’ll drag you down with me.”

He sighed deeply, realizing he had to just have this talk with you, “_____, you have to tell me where all of this is coming from. Why do you think so lowly of yourself?”

So you broke and told him, giggling through the whole thing because you found it all funny in a sick, twisted way. You and your life was just one giant shit show, and that was why you didn’t want to fall in love with anyone. You knew you’d ruin that poor person’s life because you were a walking train wreck that couldn’t be fixed. Your parents were killed in a car crash, but none of your family wanted to take you in. Your grandparents were too old to care for you, and your aunt and uncle had kids of their own. They planned on putting you up for adoption, so you ran away before they could. You were on your own at fifteen, going to different women and children shelters until you’d overstayed your welcome. You graduated high school at seventeen, somehow managing to pass your classes. You got accepted to a university because you managed to keep your grades up, but you didn’t have the money to support yourself. That was when you started selling drugs for a girl that stayed at the shelter you were staying in at the time.

From there, you built a name for yourself, and eventually stemmed away from her to do your own thing. You managed to get an apartment – a shitty one, but still your own place – before you landed the job taking orders and answering the phone at a rundown pizzeria nearby. And that was where you were up until the very moment you were fired. After that, everything you slowly built up, while it was very small things to anybody else, came crashing down.

Juho listened to your story without interruptions, though he didn’t like the way you kept laughing and crying at the same time. He almost thought you were hysterical, but you still kept your cool and never panicked.

At the end, he shook his head, missing one thing, “So…why do you go party and get high all the time?”

“Coping,” you shrugged, like it was no big deal. “When I do that, I don’t have to think about…this.” you said, gesturing around you. “My life’s completely fucked, Juho. Who would want this?”

While you giggled about your joke of a life, Juho chewed on his lip, trying to think of the best actions to take. He’d definitely have to bring you to his place, though he knew that the alpha wouldn’t be the happiest about it since Ellie was living with them now. But where did he go from there? There was hardly room for his pack of nine plus Inseong’s mate. How would they fit another person?

“I’ll fix this,” Juho nodded, speaking to both you and himself.

“Stop trying to fix things for me,” you muttered, reaching for the bowl he had put on the coffee table. “I told you that I don’t want to fall in love, and you hanging around isn’t helping that. I’m a lost cause anyway.”

“You,” he began sharply, taking your hand reaching for the drugs, and forcing you to look at him again so you’d know he was serious, his eyes turning a bright red that almost hypnotized you, “are far from a lost cause. I will help you, even if it’s the last thing I ever do. And I don’t care if you don’t want to fall in love because you’re afraid that you’ll sabotage yourself. I’m not going anywhere. In fact, the first thing I’m doing is bringing you to my place.”

So he picked you up on his back, and brought you to his car. He figured your bike would be safe in the garage until somebody came back for it, so he left with the few clothes you had, and whatever small number of other belongings you had.

You were still completely baked when you got to Youngbin’s, and the wolves’ noses scrunched up before you even entered. When they saw you, they finally understood where the smell was coming from.

“Why would you bring her here like that?” Inseong demanded. “Ellie’s upstairs, and--”

Juho told you to go to the only bedroom in the apartment before he explained the situation to his pack. They had to admit, they felt bad previously judging you, so they let Juho do whatever he had to do.

After Juho got you a bottle of water, he went to check on you. You were staring at the bed like you were staring at buried treasure. He just stood beside you, watching you until you finally noticed his presence.

“Do you see this?!” you gasped, gesturing to the bed. “You have a bed frame! Holy shit, you guys are like, loaded!”

He chuckled, opening the water bottle for you, “Sure, _____. Drink some water, please.”

You took the bottle without complaint since you were starting to get cotton mouth. You drank almost half the bottle before handing it back and flopping down on the bed. Juho screwed the cap back on as he sat beside you, trying to think about what to say next.

“I know I’ll regret this when I’m sober,” you said out of nowhere, staring at the floor like you were spaced out. Juho just looked at you, waiting for you to continue. You looked over at him, your eyes still bloodshot and glossy. “Please don’t make fun of me for it later.”

“I never would,” he swore, placing a warm hand over one of yours. “But you need to stop running away from me to try to save me or yourself or whoever. I’m going to love you no matter what, and I want to help you get better.”

“It’s not the help,” you shook your head, “it’s the getting close to people. If my family didn’t want me…I can’t see why you would.”

“Well, I do,” he stated surely, moving his hand off of yours in favor of putting an arm around your shoulders and pulling you to his side. “You’re always taking gambles; doing things you shouldn’t do. Consider this a gamble.”

“My biggest one yet,” you giggled, back to your drug-induced self.

“Alright, you need to sleep this off,” he decided, gently guiding you to lay down. “I’ll check up on you soon, okay?”

You were almost giddy from getting to sleep in a bed that was off the floor. Juho tucked you in before pressing a kiss to your forehead, “Come find me if you need anything.”

“Thanks, Juho.”

“Anything for you.”

Juho opened the door as soon as you sat up, looking around the room. Unfortunately, you remembered everything, and you were immediately embarrassed as soon as he entered the room. Your face heated up as you cast your eyes downward, but he was able to tell how you were feeling.

“We don’t have to talk about it, you know,” he told you, slipping into the room and closing the door behind him.

“So what, we just move on from it like it didn’t happen?” you asked with a scoff. “I know we have to talk about it.”

“I promise I won’t ever leave you,” he declared, sitting on the edge of the bed beside where you were laying. “I know it’s still scary for you, but you have to trust me. I’ll help you find a new job, I’ll help you find a place to live, and I’ll help you get sober.”

“What if I ruin your life too?” you asked quietly, staring at your lap that was still covered with a blanket.

“The only way my life can be ruined is if you leave it,” he said, giving you a warm half-smile. “You know, when you were drunk, you told me you liked being around me.”

Your cheeks blushed a deeper red, refusing to meet his gaze, “Well, drunk _____ also doesn’t make the best decisions. She’s not to be trusted.”

“I know you meant it. You feel the pull, _____. Don’t resist the puuuuull,” he sang playfully, leaning in as he tried to look at your blushing face.

You laughed, shoving him away lightly, “Dude, quit it!”

“I know you love the affection, _____. You fell asleep on me, you held my hand, and you complained when I didn’t carry you. Just…stop trying to keep me away. If I didn’t mean what I said, I would’ve given up already. I love you now, and I always will. I won’t go anywhere.”

You finally glanced up at him after a few moments of not saying anything, and just mulling over his words. He raised his eyebrows expectantly.

“You better not tell anyone I was clingy,” was all you said.

“Are,” he corrected, brushing some hair from your face, and smirking when you leaned into his touch. “You are clingy. But I love it.”

A few months later, everything was different. You not only worked at a cute little boutique near campus, but you snagged a side job tutoring a few underclassmen since you were great with math after dealing drugs for those few years – and boy, did some of these kids pay well.

You were able to buy a nicer studio apartment in a better neighborhood – you still didn’t have a bed frame, but you had a decent mattress to sleep on – which made both you and Juho feel better about you living alone. You kept insisting on him moving in, but he refused until he managed to get a job to help pay rent.

“And where do you think you’re going, _____?” Juho smirked as he walked in on you checking yourself out in the mirror hung on your wall.

You spun around, raising an eyebrow as you slowly walked toward him hands on your hips, “Are you in charge of me?”

“Considering I can pick you up well over my head,” he hummed, shutting the door behind him as he entered, “I’d say I can. You promised to quit parties, _____.”

“I also promised to let Dawon borrow my motorcycle, yet that never happened either,” you pointed out. “It won’t be as bad if you come with me, right?”

Your mate made a face, his nose scrunching up at the mere thought of the scents that would attack his nostrils, “Still bad.”

Juho was not at all what you thought werewolves would be. He wasn’t dangerous or badass. He was a cat dad -- which was ironic since he was basically a giant dog -- who liked staying in and cuddling. He purred when you played with his hair, and his want for kisses never seemed to run out -- even if you did have a reputation to keep up. Juho was a soft and clingy werewolf, and you absolutely loved him more for it.

“I won’t bite this time!” you promised.

“Look, since you’re all dressed up,” he began with a smile creeping onto his face, “how about we go out tonight? We haven’t been on a date in a while.”

You couldn’t be happier with the way things were going with Juho. You wished you’d let him into your life properly a long time ago.

“Like where?” you quizzed.

“Where do you feel like going.”

“Party.”

He sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose, “You’re impossible.”

“We already knew this, yes,” you nodded with a laugh. “C’mon, Juho, please?”

He groaned, rubbing his face with his hands, “For three hours, and you’re only allowed three drinks; no drugs.”

You grinned, grabbing his hand as you raced for the door, “Can we take my bike?”

“Can I drive?” he wondered.

You snorted as you dragged him to the stairs, thinking the elevator wasn’t fast enough for your liking, “No.”

He rolled his eyes playfully, matching his tone, “You love that bike more than me.”

“I love you way more, I swear,” you laughed.

Because you did, and you both thanked whatever greater power was out there that fate brought you two together.

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hopetofantasy · 4 years ago

Text

‘Wandering Romance’ - Part 3

- A future with child fic -

Square Filled: Future, Family, Past lovers Ship: Sander Driesen/Robbe Ijzermans Trigger Warnings (if applicable): mentions of abuse, toxic relationships, minimal self harm. Created for @skamevents

Summary: “A perfect, tight little family. But happy. Until one unfortunate day in May, in the year that David turned six.”

In the future, Robbe and Sander have a son named David. The only tie they have left with each other, actually. Because our lovers split up years ago, due to mistakes that were made in the past.

So is their love strong enough to sustain a healthy friendship? Will they find their way to each other again or break all connections for good?

Also available on AO3

——————————————————

CHAPTER 3: 'No one feels the same'

——————————————————

It was the sound of crying that woke him up.

He wasn’t dreaming anyways, because his dreams were reflections of his mind. And his mind didn’t want to cooperate, at least not for the last few hours. He knew why, though. He just didn’t wanted to acknowledge it. He wasn’t even entirely aware of drifting back to awareness. He didn’t want to face the world. The world was filled with empty pain and love lost. True love felt like an illusion, even when he tasted it for a while.

It all tasted sour now...

He slowly hauled his tired body of his yellow, crumpled sheets and tried to identify where the sound came from. Some lingering thoughts forming on the outskirts of his empty mind. ‘Why was this happening?’ ‘Why did it sound like such an agonizing heartbreaking thing?’ ‘This feels so deep, too deep...’

He simply didn’t know.

He acted on instinct, when he crawled towards the mop of curls, bouncing on top of a blubbering mess. Legs tangled into the soft blanket, a hollowed ball of sorrow on the barely fitting mattress, nails unconsciously scratching the arms, leaving deep red marks. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be permanent. Even when the pain felt like it was. But he simply couldn’t ignore it.

He felt it too.

His own heart broke at the sobs.

A mirror to his own feelings.

“Robbe...”

No answer. Just the sound of pain put away for too long, underneath multiple steel layers. A sudden halt to the loudest sobs. Softer tears streaming down the angelic face. Him even crawling deeper into himself. Unclear mumblings. A nail struck harder into the white skin.

A slight drop of red.

Sander couldn’t ignore that. He immediately grabbed the other’s hands, pulling them towards the side. As a result, causing the soft body to fall into his own. An older pattern from days long before. When they looked at each other for hours on end, forgot the world ever existed and their bedroom air was filled with laughter or passion. Sander didn’t want- he didn’t try to reflect.

He tried. But he failed.

“Robbe, wake up! WAKE UP!”

Dark brown eyes shot open to meet the green. Teary, tired and hollow. Things Sander knew best. He felt like somewhat of a specialist in these feelings, unfortunately, not by choice. Fate had dealt him a bad hand. But never for this love. True love, his mind whispered. For the silent boy staring at the deep green of his soul. The one who immediately crawled closer to his warmth.

Who brushed softly over the broken, red skinned knuckles of his right hand.

Who silently whispered “sorry” to him.

Who didn’t even need to do that.

Who pulled his face closer.

Laid hands on his side.

Breathed on his lips.

Took one second.

And eventually...

Made Chernobyl happen.

-^-

Only few hours earlier, they were met with different feeling: enthusiasm.

“God, I missed you two”, the raven haired boy exclaimed, while grasping at both his and Robbe’s arm. It had been too long, though, when they truly had a boy’s night. A real night of good clean fun. Just with the five of them.

Unfortunately, life happened. Jobs happened. Kids happened. Well, maybe not unfortunately, gratefully, but it was just hard to say goodbye to your youth. And say hello to responsibilities. To unpaid bills on the counter. To tired days alone.

To broken minds in the night.

Yeah, okay, Sander, time to tone you down a little.

“Yeah, boys, we really need to do that trip we’re always talking about. That road trip to nowhere. Just a week without anything, like we said right?”, the beach blonde answered. His answer lighting up all the faces around the table.

Aaron was bouncing his head to the idea, always eager to explore more, to learn more. Robbe looked at him with puzzled eyes. Thank god that their son had a sleepover, because this was probably going to be an eventful night.

Moyo barked out his roaring laugh. “Like we don’t keep planning that thing, over and over again. Last time we brought it up, it was right before Robbe started dating someone else again. The time before, Jens decided to spew out a couple of kids. And then that time we came up with it, the whole thing with N-”

The brown skinned boy suddenly stopped, winching at his unfinished sentence. They all knew what he meant, though. It had been just a couple of nights before Noor’s death. One of the few magical ‘before’ moments they collectively remembered. Like they could survive anything. Knowing that they were there, filled by drunken laughter, silly jokes and endless teasing. The prologue to the rest of their lives. They didn’t know at the time.

He tried to examine his friend’s face, catching Robbe doing the exact same thing. They had conversations about this. Maybe Moyo never truly knew, what she had meant to him, himself. There had been lingering somethings in the past. Treaded paths not taken. Careful whispers, loaded glances and brushed lips, too subtle if you didn’t had the knack to pick it up. But the ex-couple did.

He saw how Moyo gripped his glass tighter, urging the gold liquid through his throat. He coughed, asked the rest if they needed anything and walked away with the platter of empty drinks. A glimpse of shiny eyes. Leaving an awkward silence between the squad.

It was Jens, who eventually broke it.

“I think he never got over it, you know?”, looking at his trembling hands.

“Who ever did?”, the other curly boy answered hoarsely.

“We never did. It wouldn’t have been fair to her.”

Sander nodded along.

Sometimes, he caught himself looking at his son, with a heavy breath, seeing her in his features. Reopening all the old wounds from before. But then, his heart would fill with unconditional love again, because, thank god they still had a part of Noor on this world. Readily to love. To see how he would grow. How he would blossom into more than he already gave today. Pride.

“I miss her.”

“Me too.”

Loss is a part of you, it never leaves.

“Guys...”, Jens choked out next. “... I need to say... I’m sorry...”

Again, a curveball they hadn’t anticipated. The boy’s eyes were slowly filling up with tears. They all remained silent, nodding along, knowing that this was something Jens needed to say. The group were never big on feelings, but this sure felt like a beginning. Therapy. Catharsis. A peace of mind.

“I’m sorry.”, the dark haired started rambling. “This is hard for me to admit. But, I should’ve never kept David a secret for you all. I mean, it’s just... Noor wanted to have some time... to deal with all of this, right? She panicked the moment the stick turned blue. I never knew who the guy was and she never told me, either. But then she made me promise never to tell anyone, even you all.

Noor tried to fade into the background more, so nobody would ask what was happening. I shouldn’t have supported that decision... But it’s what she wanted. Trying to set up a stable life. A 9 to 5 job, a savings account and an own apartment. She even took the crappy job at the art school, that paid less than her talents were worth. But she was happy, you know?”

Sander felt the urge to lay a hand on Jens’ shoulder. Robbe seemed to have the same thought, because he was already doing it. They really needed to stop with this telepathy thing. It was starting to freak him out. They weren’t a couple anymore.

“I... I loved her like a sister. I thought she was going to be a great mom. And I was there as the fun uncle, not necessarily the father figure. Noor didn’t want that. She could do it on her own. “I can change the diaper myself, idiot”, she’d yell at me, while throwing some of the baby powder in my face. “I don’t need a babysitter, Jens.” “Go live your life.” She would laugh at the things I did. She was always stubborn like that, you know?”

A collective, watery smile.

The way Jens told this story, though, it felt as if she was standing right next to them. Her presence felt so tangible. Sander could feel her, rolling her eyes, screaming things like “Are you really all crying over me, now, almost a decade later? Dude, wtf, have some fun. Talk about tv shows. Cars. Beer. Idk. Not death. What the hell, people? Get some shots!” Hands would be thrown.

He wanted to revel in that ghostly warmth. Celebrate her life. Find a perfect spot to spray a huge, damn mural. Instead, he said: “Jens. We know how she was. Please, don’t say sorry. We know how you tried. We know she was stubborn. She would say the same if she was here. You never did something wrong. Sometimes fate is just an a-hole. She shouldn’t have died so young. You couldn’t have known.”

He pinched the raven boy’s arm, trying to make him look up. He was met with a face filled with pain. “One day, we will tell David about her story. All together. He’s smart, he knows a lot of biology already and next year, he’ll get sex education in school. We’ll have to tell him some time how he came to be, who he is and what he means to us, right? We can do that.”

“Together”

The deep brown found his, exactly like they should. He knew Robbe said those words, before his mind registered them. As if he was thinking with his heart. As if he ever stopped thinking with his heart. His other hand trailed towards the other, knowing it would be there without question. And their fingers intertwined.

Then he saw that a certain someone had eavesdropped on their conversation.

Moyo had took a while to come up for air again...

They had let him.

Because they understood.

-^-

Conversation had become more of an option rather than a necessity. Faces started to blur, music roared in his brain and sweat drops rolled from his skin. After the bar, they’d found their way to the city centre, to some obscure underground club Moyo said ‘was the bomb’. The atmosphere felt invigorating, as if a painting came to life. Filled with colors, vibes and feelings. Much more of an extreme Bosch than a calming Monet.

A few shots in, Aaron somehow caught the eye of a beautiful brunette. Since he’d never truly grown out of his awkward phase, it had been a blast to see that train wreck happening. And in no way, they were gonna save him from that situation. It was too funny to let it slide.

It almost felt like the old times. Almost.

Because as intoxicated as he was, he felt his burning gaze. He didn’t had to look. He knew what he would see if he decided to turn towards his ex-lover. An excruciating mix of hurt, pining and lust. A reflection of his. They knew each other better than any other soul on the world, so it came as no surprise that they felt similar about the whole situation.

He just didn’t know if he wanted to open that can of worms.

Ever since the David Bowie performance by their son, there had been something more. Even more longing, even more hurt, even more doubt. But Robbe had a boyfriend. The exes shared a beautiful son. They were divorced. They couldn’t just do what they wanted, without consequences. There were others involved. Sander just didn’t know how long he could it hold off anymore.

On cue with his thoughts, the boys suddenly decided to ditch them both, to buy some stuff from a backdoor dealer. Something to take the edge off, he guessed. They’d eventually come back, but that wouldn’t negate the predicament they’d put him in. He didn’t dare to move inside his ex’ neighborhood. He didn’t want to leave him alone either. So he was stuck either way.

The answer came in the form of a drunk body colliding with his, punching him right off the barstool. The helping hand, the held breath, the brown eyes. His soulmate’s eyes. What was it with them? What made them so interesting? So filled with love and passion and hurt and just so many emotions at the same time. He once tried to put them on paper, but he never got them right.

His brain couldn’t function anymore.

He let his hands do the work. They grasped the shirt in front of him, a vaguely familiar black one, and pulled hard. His shiny lips just one breath away and Robbe was already closing his eyes, moaning loudly. Moaning his name. Sending all kinds of emotions through his body. He just needed to take that next step. Slowly... pulling... in...

Before Robbe was roughly pushed away from him.

“I need to talk to you, NOW!!!” A rough voice yelled.

“Okay...” The other answered carefully.

And Robbe was pulled away, leaving a nauseous Sander behind.

-^-

He didn’t meant to eavesdrop.

He didn’t.

Really.

He never thought he was gonna hear Robbe argue with his boyfriend.

It clicked in his brain, the minute he bought some water and went outside for some fresh air. Sobering him up a little. Second guessing what he was about to do, a few minutes ago. To maybe ruin the careful friendship they developed, after so much pain and memories. Maybe it was better to be saved by the bell than to make that mistake again.

But then he heard him.

“... kissing your ex!”

“I wasn’t kissing my ex, Wouter!”

“You were about to! Don’t bullshit me, Robbe. This is one of the reasons you broke up with me, didn’t you? To get back together with that lowlife?”

Excuse me?! What was he insinuating? He was a productive member of society, thank you. His work brought in enough to pay his bills, take care of his son and even save some up for later. He wasn’t a lowli-

Hold up, did Robbe’s boyfriend just say that they BROKE UP?!

“He’s not a lowlife! He’s my ex, he’s the father of my child and he’s not the reason we broke up either!” Robbe retaliated right away.

“Then why did we, Robbe? I don’t get it. I thought we were good together...” Wouter seemed to try another approach. Whispers instead of yelling. He could see the body language changing from a harsh, defensive stance to a softer approach. It made Sander’s skin crawl. He didn’t know why. It was some sort of vibe that was just... off.

“We weren’t good together. I don’t know if you noticed, but we were NEVER good together. And you know exactly why...”

Wouter held up his hand, trying to touch Robbe’s cheek, wanting to calm him down. Yet, that last one immediately slapped the hand away. He could see how it affected the now-apparent-ex. How the hands started to form fists. The eyes started to flinch. Similar to a bull preparing to strike towards the matador.

“Oh yeah? You thought we were never good together, huh? What are you insinuating? I picked you off the metaphorical street, Robbe, because you were so heartbroken over someone who didn’t even think twice about dumping you. Even with your collective history. I build you back up to the man you are now. I made sure you were loved, that you had your needs filled, that you could call me whenever you wanted. And I did that, didn’t I. Right?!”

A flash of doubt on the other’s face. His expression filled with contradictory emotions, his body freezing at the featherlight touch of Wouter’s finger trailing his cheek and his eyes... Sander never saw them this pained. Eventually, after a short silence, the brown haired boy whispered: “You did that, yes. And I’m grateful for that. But you did other things too. I... I just can’t anymore. I can’t.”

“What can you do anymore, Robbe? What? US? YOU MEAN US?!”, the other started yelling again.

“Stop yelling, Wouter”, the other said calmly. (Fearfully?)

“What’s wrong, baby. You used to love when I yelled at you. You used to love to be yell to. My name, over and over again. After I made you come, over and over again. You never begged me to stop, remember? You wanted more. More of the harsh words, the cuffs, the pushing, the burn inside, the pain, right? I remember not having a safe word at one time. That time was fun, no?”

Sander suddenly felt furious. What the actual f? Was this dipshit really saying what he was thinking right now? No safe word? Pain? Burn inside? What the hell did Wouter do to him? He saw how the expression on the man’s face changed to a cold, emotionless look. The look of something dangerous. Something that rang all the alarms in his brain. His whole body started to prepare, to release inner anger. To fight.

“I... I...”

“You want me, right?”, the other said, with venom in his mouth. “You still want me. You can’t stop thinking about me. Even after what I did to you. You keep coming back for more. You want it, Robbe, face it. You want the pain. You love the pain. You love receiving it.

Even when you say ‘no’,

I know you want it.

Last time, last time was a mistake, you know that. You shouldn’t have said ‘no’. You didn’t mean it. I wouldn’t have drank. I wouldn’t have trying to go to your son’s room. You wouldn’t have fell by pulling me. Then you wouldn’t have had the bruises, the cuts. The broken bones. If you just had let me, I could’ve-”

He never got to finish that sentence.

Because, after that, a flash of beach blonde hair moved into the man’s vision.

An ex-lover. A father. A man with bottled up agony, hurt and anger.

Someone who needed a perfect release.

And Wouter?

Seemed to be the perfect victim.

Excellent even, to liberate him from that pent-up energy.

So for Sander, the world temporarily turned black.

Until only the color red was left.

-^-

Chernobyl was beautiful at first.

Chernobyl was love second.

Chernobyl was warmth as a third.

But then Chernobyl was also pain.

Agony.

Heart breaking.

A nuclear disaster.

Which Sander discovered the following morning.

When he turned around to kiss his boy.

His beautiful ex-turned-lover-again.

And found the bed empty.

#wtfock #wtfam #skambingo #skamevents #part 3 of 4

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eyeslikefoxglove · 4 years ago

Text

Episode 14 - WangXian are a (v soft) Battle Couple & Foxglove is hella mad

Hi! Welcome to episode 14. I should be studying. It’s day two of morning runs, so my soul has left my body already, send help. Yesterday I went to buy plants with my mum and got so excited I just whacked on a bunch of eyeshadow because I haven’t seen the outside in weeks, I’m also wearing makeup today, because I have nowhere to go, but I really need to finish this bb cream before it goes bad, so my parents are getting my full fresh faced “woke up like this and put on mascara” routine (which is a fucking lie because I’m wearing at least three blushes and two highlighters). I’m determined to get this bitch down in under five minutes so I can have another five to do eyeshadow, I have way too much eyeshadow to not wear it (I have way too much everything except maybe mascara and eyebrow stuff).

Yes, if y’all were wondering I am in fact a makeup magpie. ANYWAY BACK TO THE ACTUAL THING WE ALL CAME HERE FOR.

(Btw further down I discuss once again how shitty I think the Yunmeng sibs’ parents are if that causes an issue for you)

Ok ok ok, so I was talking with damnpoe-2187 here about how we found that sometimes WWX crossed from gremlin into asshole when he tried to get LWJ riled up. Like in the Cold Springs, putting our shippers hearts aside, that was a dick move and he should have stopped undressing the second LWJ went from annoyed to incredibly uncomfortable. I find this scene the complete opposite, a show of character development if you will. It is kind of similar in that they’re both hurt, and alone (although this time is much more serious) and there was some undressing going on; however WWX here behaves like a fool in love considerate person and knowing how uncomfortable LWJ already is tries to make it easier for him. They’re also super soft and I’m weak.

A brief interlude from my one track mind: That pond is full of corpses isn’t it? Or at least the remnants of the Murder Turtle’s meals I suppose. Damn right WWX should not have gone into the water with an open wound, but think no one should go swimming in there without a full hazmat suit tbh (I want to pump them full of antibiotics at this point ngl)

So I love this tiny montage (is it even a montage) of the, getting themselves ready to kill the Murder Turtle.

Teamwooooooork.

Listen, I have read a few fics in which their mind-meld stays in place due to reasons and I need me more of those.

Ok, turtles don’t work that way, but then again, giant murder snake-Trex-turtle so that’s low on my list of priorities. What’s not low is the fact that this guy is knee deep into pretty much a mass grave and I want to take a few showers just watching him.

Yeah, I know exactly what he’s smelling and suddenly I hope I don’t have meat for lunch today tbh.

The screaming sword has always been fucking creepy and does LWJ’s fist clench mean that he’s also hearing them?

BATTLE COUPLE! BATTLE COUPLE! BATTLE COUPLE!

So I know killing the thing took them something like six hours. And while it feels quite a long time in the show, I think that, if they cut the scene with idk, JC running towards Lotus Pier, then back to them, then back to JC, but now the sun is in a different position, back to them, but now the blood from LWJ’s hand has dripped down his arm; and so on a so forth it’d convey more clearly how long it took for the Murder Turtle to die. I know fuck all about cinematography tho so feel free to ignore all this if it is in fact an abomination.

Tiiiiiiny interlude here to say that Yiling Patriarch!WWX is probably one of my favourite character archetypes. He’s slightly creepy, slightly amoral (smiling while torturing and murdering bad guys is still amoral ok), more than a bit on the Dark Side, cocky, smirky, a bit of an asshole a BAMF, a rebel with cause and yet he will still do the right thing, not despite his nature, but because of it. He’s kind of like a Chipped Spike? But you know, he doesn’t need electroshock to behave.

I just want a fic where he’s this Dark Lord of Evil in everyone’s eyes however the ‘good guys’ take a break from trying to off him because a bigger threat just popped up and they have no choice but to ask for his help. He agrees, keeps being his charming self while also saving everyone’s asses, LWJ is smitten.

TL;DR: The Necromancer is hot. Oh and nobody dare deny LWJ has a Yiling Patriarch kink.

Oh my, this is the part when I always get teary eyed.

WUJI ON A CELLO? DO YOU WANT TO KILL ME?

“Why hasn’t Jiang Cheng shown up and rescued me yet?” THIS IS ALL THE PROOF I NEED THAT WWX IS THE BABY SIBLING.

“Lan Zhan sing me a song”

IT IS HAPPENING, STAY FUCKING CALM EVERYBODY (I’m crying)

That slideshow of their best moments set to WuJi is a masterpiece, and also, it kind of drives home the point of “how tf did we go from flirting during summer camp to this mess”?

(Btw if that’s YiBo humming he’s got one hell of a deep voice)

Ok ok ok, so this moment had me spitting up my tea the first time I watched it. Believe it or not my dumbass thought these people were actually serious with the censorship and we’d get scraps of their actual relationship. Lots of charged moments like in some other western tv shows I’ve seen when two dudes have chemistry but “they’re not gay”, no longing glances, no tender touches, no being unbelievably soft with each other; just you know, amped up, because if I’m not mistaken you can be arrested in China for “promoting the gay”. I mean, they changed the beginning when people insult MXY’s sexuality to insulting his mental health; no one would think “ah yes, the gays are good” when they hear it used as a slur, but they still erased it completely. One of the things I thought they’d fully take away was WangXian, I mean, the into/outro is named Wuji, which, you know, still a mishmash of their names, but not their ship name. It is such a significant part of the story with all the “what’s the song name? Figure it out yourself” that if something were going to give away that they’re married with a kid it would be that. I thought we’d get an artful fade to black BEFORE LWJ would say the name not after. And also, YiBo is enunciating it so clearly that, even with the sound muffled and the blurriness I, who don’t speak Chinese, can make out the two syllables. That’s deliberate, I can say “WangXian” loud and clear without moving my lips too much. At this point in time I must assume someone in charge of looking for censorship violations in the show is a fan and just ignored it.

Censorship person 1: dude, isn’t that a bit too gay, maybe you shouldn’t greenlight it.

Censorship person 2: shut the fuck up, sit here and watch.

*a full rundown of the whole of CQL later*

Censorship person 1: oh my god they’re so in love and they deserve to be happy.

Back to the commentary: I’m sorry but I have a mighty need of a WWX & Peacock friendship ok? This might be me just wanting WWX and LWJ to make other friends besides each other but I think that the Peacock is just bitchy enough to not take any of WWX’s bullshit.

And the Yunmeng bros timing for banter strikes yet again.

That’s terrible quality fake blood btw.

@ Yunmeng disciples: STOP SHOOTING FUCKING KITES PLEASE AND THANK YOU

Oooof even with a change of clothes our boy is still looking rough as hell.

MY LOVELY YUNMENG SIBS BEING SOFT AND HAPPY WITH EACH OTHER.

It hurts my soul that the second JFM starts praising WWX for surviving the Murder Turtle our boy’s knee-jerk reaction is to start praising JC in return. It is instinctive, how many times must this have happened for him to know his brother won’t even get scraps of praise? (Seriously fuck their parents)

It was going so well, I mean, JFM had a point warning him to not say things in anger. But I thought he was going to tell him that it is because sometimes he’ll hurt someone without wanting to, yet, this asshole decided to, once again, remind his kid he thinks he’s a failure.

And here comes Mme Yu who I can only assume had a servant posted at the door to warn her when WWX woke so she could throw some verbal abuse at him. I mean, she must have been missing it.

And JFM’s misogynistic bullshit strikes once again, because why defend ALL your kids when you can insult your wife.

(Every time someone berates WWX for “intervening” I want to scream. I mean, seeing this I can believe why the society as a whole thought genocide was a good idea.)

I love how they use their kids as props in their fight, I mean it’s not like they have feelings or anything. This woman is gaslight-y as hell too “you don’t love your kid because I gave birth to him”, you can’t tell me saying that in front of the son she’s supposed to love isn’t going to hurt him. And she knows it, I mean, besides the Wen attack I’ve never seen her hit the kids (although I very much doubt she hasn’t), so a good part of the abuse must be verbal. There’s no fucking way a person who regularly uses words that way won’t realise where she’s aiming those arrows. Which means to her (to both) the kids are collateral.

But FR, the barely-out-of-adolescence disaster bi necromancer PTSDing all over the place and living in a mass grave was a better parent than any of the current adults in this thing.

Which brings me to another point, Shijie is textbook “the oldest sibling is just another parent” and I’m making myself very angry.

[this is when I start frothing at the mouth and itching to write a modern-girl(and friends)-dropped-in-CQL because someone has to be a positive adult influence in these kids’ lives and it sure as shit ain’t the ones in the actual show.]

CAN WE STOP BRINGING PEOPLE’S DEAD PARENTS INTO THE FIGHT?

*deep breath*

I am going to feed JFM & Mme Yu each other’s spleens. Look, listen, look and listen, let’s first talk about how calmly they lay out the facts of their lives, one is only loved because he’s been brought up in the shadow of his dead parents, the other knows with certainty his father dislikes him and his mother uses him as leverage in marital disputes. When have these two not exploded their emotions all over the place? Fucking never. Yet here they are, talking about this bullshit like some bout of inconvenient weather. They’re used to it!

And now let’s talk about yet again siblings-are-just-extra-parents, with an added pile of WWX’s terrible self awareness that, to the man who brought him up, his worth is due to his dead parents. Again I’m extrapolating, but with the amount of times Mme Yu brings up his parents in such a negative light I refuse to believe JFM hasn’t made all the “you’re so much like your parents” comments to him every time WWX does something right. I mean, telling an orphan about their parents if they ask is a good thing, but WWX seems starved for stories about his them, which leads me to believe JFM refuses to talk about the topic except to make those little comments. What a fucking stellar way to give someone all the trauma if you ask me. May also explain a lot of WWX’s self worth issues if the biggest praise he’s ever heard is that he resembles dead people, yes, people who were loved, but they’re dead, and it doesn’t look like any adult has bothered to go and differentiate WWX from ZSSR&WCZ.

I’m just really mad, despite all the silly anecdotes I put in here my parents are fucking great at parenting, so I know what good parents should look like, and this ain’t it.

Ok, so I made myself angry and I don’t know if I should move onto the next episode now or wait till tomorrow but thanks for reading!

#the untamed #cql #mdzs #mdzs live action #foxglove watches cql #foxglove watches the untamed #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian #jiang yanli #jiang cheng #yunmeng shuangjie #yunmeng trio #yunmeng siblings #yunmeng bros #Foxglove is hella mad #good parenting? Less likely than you think

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itsclydebitches · 5 years ago

Text

Lovely Good Omens fandom! Many of you have asked for/mentioned having a text version of the Yelp reviews, which if I were a better person I would have remembered to include in the first place. Better late than never? So here’s a version below and I also threw this up on AO3 so there are options. For the record, I’m not at all trained in transcribing visual media, so if anyone wants to add to/edit/do whatever to this post, especially to make it more accessible, you have carte blanche to do so 👍

Also I typed this up in a hurry so, as always, apologies for any typos.

Tagging: @lethargicdolphin, @marithlizard, @pearwaldorf

A.Z. Fell and Co. Antiquarian and Unusual Books

Recommended Reviews

Lindsay F.

London, United Kingdom

71 friends

3000 reviews

9874 photos

So I slipped into this place because I spotted my ex across the street and would have rather chugged a cocktail of bleach, lighter fluid, and a condensed solution of all my middle school years then talk to that asshole. Owner was on me the second I walked through the door and I thought he was gonna be one of those ‘Either buy something or get out’ types. Nah. I spilled the story, said I really wasn’t looking to purchase anything, and he LIT UP like nobody’s business. He gave me tea and promised I’d never run into my ex again. Which is a super sketchy promise on its own and also should have been hilarious coming from a guy a century behind in style.

...Kinda believed him though.

Marina G.

London, United Kingdom

0 friends

33 reviews

48 photos

Pretty sure this guy wants a library, not a bookshop. I mean, he’s nice and all when you first come in, but trying to actually buy a book? Good fucking luck. He’s too busy to see you right now (for the record he’s super bad at pretending to be busy). Or claims that this book has already been put on reserve (then why wasn’t it in the reserve pile...?). Or the price suddenly jumped an obscene amount. Or he just straight up hems and haws until you get fed up and leave. I watched him pull a novel straight out of a woman’s hands once when she claimed that price was no object and she wouldn’t be leaving the store until she’d purchased it. You’d think she was trying to kidnap one of the guy’s kids!

So yeah. Feel like popping in to browse, maybe take pictures for your research, all while making quiet conversation with someone who quite frankly knows his stuff? This is the place for you. Want to actually buy something? Go elsewhere. Pretty sure Fell doesn’t even own a cash register. At least I’ve never seen one.

He wants a library and I’d honestly tell him as much if he didn’t scare me just a little bit...

Aaron S.

New York, NY

68 friends

212 reviews

337 photos

I stayed here for three days once. Found a bathroom off the romance section and a chair hidden away in the back. Way comfier than my mattress at home. Mostly played iPhone games and kept real quiet at night. Experiment ended when I popped out for breakfast and didn’t make it back before a random 10:00am closing. Don’t think the owner ever realized what was up.

Hana S.

London, United Kingdom

112 friends

115 reviews

208 photos

I really love this place. I’ve been coming here since I moved to London, about twelve years ago, and it’s one of the most soothing bookstores I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting. Yeah, you hear talk of weird things going on at Fell’s, but really? We could all do with a bit more quirky in our lives. And Fell provides that in spades: Annual plants that never seem to wither, let alone die. The smell of incense mixing with cocoa. Strange books tucked horizontally into the shelves, feeling like they have a touch of magic to them. Nonsensical conversations taking place in dark corners (I’m talking candid chats about the apocalypse and whether angels could actually bless all the rains down in Africa. I swear Fell and his boyfriend are the religion Mythbusters or something.) I’m going to sound like a total nerd here for a moment, but it feels like some sort of liminal space. You know when you were a kid and you were just desperate to receive your Hogwarts letter? Or find your own wardrobe to Narnia? That’s what walking into Fell’s feels like. Like you’ve finally found that portal and can stay as long as you like, provided you don’t try to take anything back with you into the ‘real’ world. Hell, maybe that’s why he won’t let anyone buy his books.

Robert T.

Union City, CA

4 friends

26 reviews

3 photos

There’s a snake?? In this shop?? A reALLY MASSIVE SNAKE????? What are y’all doing talkin’ about your meet cutes and shit someone call pest control!

Malini D.

London, United Kingdom

0 friends

48 reviews

99 photos

I’m not gonna pretend I have anything to say about whether this is a good bookstore or not, but if you ever want knitting help you should definitely stop by. Mr. Fell knows an absurd amount about crafts for a guy who looks like my grandpa and he’s now replaced Youtube as my go-to for alleviating “Omg please fix this how the hell did I manage to reverse the pattern??” panic. For the record, I didn’t just wander up to a random bookseller one day and demand that he help me salvage the ruins of my first sweater. I’d taken a seat inside to wait out a storm, had my messy sleeve stuffed into my purse, and he’d offered the help. Bit of a bastard about things like gauge and color--not everyone wants to wear tartan, dude--but you get used to that. He means well. Said I should come back to show him the finished piece, which I did. Things just kind of spiraled from there. He’s an absolute treasure trove of knowledge once you get him talking and a muffin to boot. If he were twenty years younger and in any way straight I would have asked him out in a heartbeat. As it is I’m considering setting him up with Grandpa.

Tiffany L.

London, United Kingdom

132 friends

312 reviews

34 photos

I’m not really a book person myself but I followed my wife in with our seventh-month old and was kinda embarrassed when he started making a fuss. Normally I’m full Badass Mom mode while in public--I’ve got a kid to feed, change, sooth, and you all can damn well deal with it--but this place was so quiet Liam seemed extra loud in comparison. I was about to take him back out when a man appeared out of nowhere. The owner I guess, based on how some of these other reviews describe him. Older gentleman with clothes out of some period piece. Anyway, he scoops Liam into his arms like he was born for it and started bouncing. Our fussy, temperamental, drama queen Liam settled in an instant and my wife got to browse to her heart’s content. I don’t know how he did it, but that man is an absolute angel. Full stars for that moment alone.

Gillian L.

The Hague, The Netherlands

283 friends

256 reviews

60 photos

Anyone know if the old Bentley parked out front is for sale?

Update: It’s really, really, really not

Billy H.

Austen, TX

40 friends

2073 reviews

774 photos

QUEER BOOKS QUEER BOOKS QUEER BOOKS QUEER BOOKS QUEER BOOKS QUEER BOOKS QUEER BOOKS QUEER BOOKS QUEER BOOKS QUEER BOOKS QUEER BOOKS QUEER BOOKS SO MANY QUEER BOOKS!!!

Gabriela G.

London, United Kingdom

3 friends

22 reviews

1 photos

Run by this delightfully frumpy guy who sometimes hands out biscuits from a sewing tin like my gran used to. He asked me if I was looking for anything in particular and I told him my name was Jared, I was 19, but sadly I’d never learned how to read. I have NEVER seen a man more confused in my life. 10/10 would meme him again.

Colie A.

Enola, PA

201 friends

2778 reviews

10382 photos

I’m setting the record straight here since there are a bunch of reviews claiming it’s just London folklore: there is a snake at A.Z. Fell’s. Must be an exotic pet he usually keeps upstairs because I’ve only ever seen it twice. Is it big? Yes. Scary? Fuck yes, but I’ve never seen it do anything more than give a warning hiss at this drunk who wandered in and started yelling. (Are snakes good guard dogs? This one is.) The other time he was just chilling on top of one of the shelves. Snoozing, I guess. I asked Mr. Fell if I could pet him and he said maybe after he woke up, but then I had to get to class and all.

Afraid of snakes? Steer clear. Otherwise I’d really recommend popping in and seeing if he’s around. Idk, maybe I’m just a snake fan but he looks super sweet and chill. Life is short. Boop the snake snoot.

Jeremy W.

London, United Kingdom

86 friends

409 reviews

12 photos

I live down the street from A.Z. Fell’s and let me tell you, this place is spooky as fuck. All sorts of weird lights and noises coming from it. At all times of the day and night too. Either this bowtie wearing bookworm has one crazy sex life or the place is haunted. Jury’s out on which.

Heather Ki.

London, United Kingdom

0 friends

3852 reviews

1 photos

This shop smells. Not that old book smell either, oh no, but like something is molding. I took my little Johnny in here to try and get him interested in something other than those damned video games and I walk into what smells like a whole cloud of toxic mold! My boy has a weak constitution as it is and if he comes down with anything I will be pressing charges, you mark my words.

Jo. W.

London, United Kingdom

32 friends

410 reviews

61 photos

Hey, does anyone want to talk about the fact that this place burned down last month? As in, completely up in flames, I saw it happen, nothing but a smoking husk afterwards? Does no one else remember this??

Tiggi N.

London, United Kingdom

32 friends

33 reviews

24 photos

Has anyone read this guy’s opening hours? I included a photo above: “I open the shop on most days about 9:30AM perhaps 10:AM. While occasionally I have opened the shop as early as 8, I have been known not to open until 1.” Absolutely insane. This guy’s a madman and I love him. If anyone actually manages to get into this place please let me know because I need to shake Fell’s hand.

Mackenzie J.

City Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom

807 friends

2592 reviews

13218 photos

I told my girlfriend this shop’s got a snake named Anthony and she didn’t believe me. Going back for proof next week.

Update: got the snake selfie!!!!!!!!

Penny O.

Chicago, IL

87 friends

557 reviews

16 photos

Caught the owner snogging some hot twink behind the cookbooks. Well done, my dude.

#good omens #ineffable husbands #air conditioning #good omens fic

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hazthediv · 5 years ago

Text

Kisses

Requested by anonymous: Hi, idk if you take requests but if you do could you do like a angst to fluff where the reader and harrison are in the same friend group and he always liked her and flirted with her they kissed a few times but then suddenly he realised he actually felt smth for her so he shut it down but then he sees her talking with other guys and gets jealous so he gets mad at her but it ends in fluff???

Pairing: Harrison Osterfield X Fem!Reader

Word Count: 3.8k

Warnings: Alcohol, a bar fight, some really badly written angst

A/N: I’ve rewritten this like three times and I still can’t seem to make it better so whatever, here it is haha

It all begun months ago – years even. When you had met Haz and his group of friends back in boarding school. You had kinda been friends the moment you had met but only that. You were closer to your girlfriends who were actually friends with him. That meant you often hung out with him and the boys but still you weren’t particularly close to him.

The first time you had kissed Haz was back at prom. You had drunk a little too much and you had danced with him all night. His lips had found yours at the end of the night, as the DJ had announced the last song. The kiss had tasted of alcohol and his lips had been soft against yours as he had kissed you almost hungrily.

It had happened again at your first college party, a few months later. And then it became frequent. Well, you didn’t see Haz frequently but when you did you always found yourself kissing him as if your life depended on it. Welp.

Tonight was not going to be different. At least you hoped. You were kind of into Haz and you liked kissing him once in a while. After all, he’s an attractive guy, who could blame you?

Your friends were coming to your place to pre-drink so you got ready listening to music as you waited for them. When they arrived, you drank with them, slowly getting tipsy, slowly getting excited for the night that was to come.

The club you were going to – Annabel’s Mayfair – was a fancy club and you were surprised that you’d even be able to go. Thanks to Haz though. The Uber ride to get there was spent listening to music, chatting with the driver who was extremely nice, explaining to you all how he had become an Uber driver.

He dropped you off in front of the doors of the club. Haz was waiting there, standing next to the bouncer. He was on his cellphone and he looked up from it as you all walked towards him. Your friends all hugged him, greeting him. When he pulled away from Laura, he looked at you for the first time that night. Your heart skipped a beat as you smiled to him.

“Hey there”, he greeted you.

“Hey.”

You just stood there for a moment, feeling awkward underneath his icy gaze.

“No hugs for me?” he asked, his brow cocked.

You chuckled as you stepped towards him, hugging him. “You div.”

He laughed in your ear as you pulled away. He looked at your face and his brows knit together. His hands fell to his side and he looked away. That sudden change of behaviour made you feel strange inside and you looked down to your feet.

You got in the club, the music already loud in there. You tried not to look at Haz, who was now stubbornly avoiding your gaze. You parted ways, you ended up with your three girlfriends. You drank some more, ordering shots with Laura, Mae and Harper. You also talked with Tom (yeah, Tom Holland, the perks of being in the same group of friends as Haz) but not once did you talk with Haz. It was almost like he was avoiding you.

It felt strange and you would be lying if you were to say that it didn’t hurt you. But you sucked it up, pretending that you were fine as you spent the rest of the night with your friends, the ones that actually talked to you.

Towards the end of the night, you found yourself standing in front of Haz. He had come out of nowhere and you were stunned to see him. He smiled softly, his eyes slowly taking in your features. His smile then fell and he looked away.

“What’s up, asshat”, you said, not even caring about the insult that had slipped from your lips.

His brows furrowed. “Hey.”

You mimicked his expression. “Have you been avoiding me, Osterfield?”

He looked away, gulping. “No, I … Why would I?”

You moved to stand in the direction he was looking at so he wouldn’t have the choice but to look at you. “I don’t know, you’ve been acting strange all night.”

“I haven’t.” His eyes fell to his feet. “Listen. I think it’s better if we stop, you know, if we stop kissing each time we… uh… go out.”

Your heart fell and you looked away. “Oh.”

Tom arrived then, throwing an arm around Haz’s shoulders. He had a goofy grin on his lips and it took him a moment to realize that he had just interrupted something.

You wondered when tears had started pricking at your eyes as you looked up to Tom, smiling sadly. “I’m going now.” Your eyes trailed to Haz as you blinked a couple of times. “Bye, Haz.”

“Woah”, Tom said. “Are you guys okay?”

You didn’t reply as you started walking away, making your way through the dancefloor. You took your phone out of your pocket to call for an Uber, never once stopping. And the part that hurt you the most was that Haz didn’t walk after you. He didn’t try to stop you.

You stepped outside as your Uber arrived. You got in, looking towards the doors of the club, hoping that Haz – anyone – was going to come check on you but nobody did. You cursed yourself mentally for having run away as the Uber driver started driving away. You hadn’t even told your friends that you had left.

You texted the group chat to tell them you were on the way home. Mae texted back a couple of minutes later.

Mae: Already? Didn’t u say u wanted to go back with Haz?

You had did. You had told the three girls about how you had developed a crush on Haz. After all, kissing him once in a while had gotten into your head.

You: Haz told me we shouldn’t kiss anymore so I guess he doesn’t have a crush on me.

Mae: Oof :/

You put your phone away, looking out the window as the driver turned on your street, slowly coming to a stop in front of your flat. You thanked him and got out, climbing the stairs to your door. You unlocked the door and got in, kicking your shoes off as you directly moved toward your room. You plopped yourself down on your bed, your thoughts wandering back to Haz.

What had changed? Why didn’t he want to kiss you anymore? It was just some harmless fun… Right? Unless he had met someone? That was the only explanation that you could come up with as you slowly drifted to sleep.

The next morning, you woke up feeling a little out of place. As if something was wrong. It took you a moment to remember what had happened with Haz. Your heart sank again and you hid your face in your pillow, trying to figure out when things had gone wrong.

You had gone out the week before and everything had been okay. You had danced together and kissed and he had even asked you to come back to his place but you had said no. Because you hadn’t yet realized about your crush and you kept repeating to yourself that you couldn’t have a one night stand with one of your friends.

Whatever.

For the next few days, you tried not to think about Haz. Which was quite harder than it looked. Somehow, each time you looked at your social media, he was there, in a story or on a picture. He was always there, behind your screen, smiling from ear to ear. It made you think that maybe Haz didn’t care about you at all. Maybe he truly had someone else in his life now.

You went on with your life, going to work and hanging out with your friends. Until one day your friends decided to go out again, with the whole group of friends. Meaning Haz would be there.

At first, you didn’t want to go. You told your friends but they weren’t having none of it. They kept telling you that you should go and make Haz jealous. Which sounded like a really good idea until you actually had to do it.

You finally decided to go, a part of you hoping that maybe you could talk to Haz. To ask why things had changed. Because even though it’d been a while you were still thinking about it. And you deserved an explanation right?

This time, you only went to a pub. Because your group of friends wanted to catch up. Which was better this way if you were being honest. It would be easier to talk to Haz that way.

You got there, looking around the pub to search for Haz. You found your group of friends and you walked towards them. You were disappointed to see that Haz was nowhere to be seen.

You sat with your friends, talking to them a little. Mae noticed how you kept looking around and she understood that you probably were waiting for Haz to arrive. So she put a drink in front of you and sent an apologetic smile your way. You tried to ignore her because you didn’t want her to know how disappointed you were. Which was way harder to do than it looked.

So Haz wasn’t coming after all. Maybe he didn’t want to see you so he had figured it was better not to come. Whatever his reason was, it made you feel sick inside. Didn’t you even deserve an explanation?

You downed your drink to Mae’s dismay before getting up, telling your friends that you had to go to the bathroom.

You went to the bathroom, taking your time on the way. You needed some time to think and to get over the fact that Haz wasn’t coming. It was the least you could do if you wanted to have some fun tonight and to not be a burden to your friends.

Before you left the bathroom, you looked at yourself in the mirror, taking a couple of deep breaths to get the courage to step out. Once you did, you moved towards the bar, where you ordered yourself a beer.

As you waited for your beer, you looked around the pub, your eyes falling on the booth where your friends were sitting. You were stunned to see that Haz was there and he was looking your way.

“Can I get something to drink for the pretty lady?” a voice said behind you.

You glanced at the guy who had talked to you before looking back at Haz who was now talking to Mae and Tom.

“Uh, already ordered a beer”, you chuckled.

“Crap”, the guy laughed and you noticed he had dimples when he smiled. Which you found totally adorable.

His grey eyes found yours again. You smiled to him as the bartender gave you your beer.

“There you go”, you said, taking a sip.

The guy smiled, tilting his head to the side. “I’m Gavin”, he softly said. “You are?”

“Y/n.” You shook his hand, your cheeks turning red as he smiled again.

“Well, Y/n, you have a beautiful smile”, Gavin complimented you.

You looked down at your beer as your cheeks turned even darker. “Thank you.”

Gavin just looked at you for a moment until you looked up, your eyes finding his. “Actually, I wanted to ask you, can I have your phone number?”

You hesitated a little but eventually gave him your number after having glanced toward Haz, your eyes finding the blue gaze you kept seeing in your dreams. If you wanted to make Haz jealous you knew you had to begin somewhere. “Text me”, you told Gavin once your eyes landed back on him. You boldly kissed his cheek before walking back to your table.

Haz was staring at you and you noticed how he had clenched his jaw as you got closer to the table. You smiled to him, a cold smile, and he looked down to the table.

“Hey, Haz”, you greeted him.

He looked up at you, his eyes dark. “Hey.”

You sat down next to him, as close as you could. He avoided your gaze, looking up to Tom, quietly asking for help.

You decided not to push him more, even though you were suddenly very angry. You didn’t know where that came from – maybe it came from the fact that he had been staring at you as if he was jealous when there was nothing between the two of you, especially now that you guys couldn’t even kiss anymore.

The night went on as you chatted with your friends, glancing to Gavin once in a while, smiling to him as you tried to see if that would make Haz jealous. And indeed, each time you looked back to Haz, he was already staring, his brows furrowed.

You ignored it for most of the night but as you drank more and more, it began making you even angrier. And your patience was slowly wearing off.

You got up from the table, moving towards the bathroom. Your eyes caught Gavin’s gaze, who moved toward you. From the corner of your eyes you could see Haz staring at you so you stopped walking, waiting for Gavin to catch up with you.

Once the guy did, you shot a look to Haz, whose eyes were still on you. Great. Time to put on a show.

“Hey so, I know you told me to text you but I was thinking that…” Gavin began but you grabbed him by the cheeks and pressed your lips on his.

He didn’t move for a moment, a little startled but then he relaxed into your touch, kissing you back. But not for long.

“Leave her alone”, Haz spat, pushing Gavin away.

Gavin chuckled, raising his hands. “You didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend, Y/n.”

“He’s not my boyfriend”, you growled, looking at Haz. “Leave me alone, Osterfield.”

“It’s time to go home”, Haz said.

You chuckled dryly as Gavin talked. “She told you to leave her alone, mate.”

“And I’m telling you to mind your fucking business”, Haz spat, venom dripping from his words.

Gavin pushed Haz as the blue-eyed boy tried to grab your arm. Things were getting out of hands but all you could do was to stand there. You watched as Haz hit Gavin and Gavin grabbed Haz, pushing him against the wall. That’s when you reacted. You tried to step between the two guys but Mae arrived behind you, pulling you away.

Gavin hit Haz, right on the cheekbone and you stared as a drop of blood rolled down Haz’s cheek.

“Hey, woah”, you yelled, getting out of Mae’s grip to push Gavin, whose fist was raised again, ready to hit Haz.

You noticed light glistening on a ring which explained why the blow had cut Haz’s cheek.

“Stop that”, you said, getting between the two guys.

Gavin chuckled dryly. “You know what, Y/n? You ain’t worth it”, he growled before walking away, his friends waiting for him a couple of meters away.

You watched him walk away for a moment, before looking around. Mae was standing behind you, her mouth agape. Behind her was Tom, who was walking your way, a concerned look on his face.

You turned around to look to Haz. “What the fuck is your problem, Osterfield?” you enquired, your voice harsh.

Haz shut his eyes before punching the wall.

“Woah, calm the fuck down”, you spat. “I’m calling an Uber and we’re leaving and I’m giving you a single chance to explain what the fuck is wrong with you before I fucking punch you myself, okay?”

Haz looked at you and you were surprised to see that his eyes held sadness. Lots of it. Your anger died down and you were just left standing there, looking at him.

“It’s not like you’d care”, Haz mumbled before walking away, toward the door.

You followed him, walking past Mae and Tom, not once glancing their way. The two of them didn’t try to stop you, knowing damn well that you and Haz had to talk.

You had to wait a full five minutes before the Uber arrived, a five minute that felt like an eternity as Haz and you both just stood there in silence. Haz was staring at his feet and he looked like a lost puppy. You almost wanted to take his hand in yours, to reassure him. Almost.

The ride was even more silent, if that was possible. Haz was looking out the window, his hand resting on the seat between the two of you. You wanted to reach out and put your hand over his… but you didn’t. You couldn’t, not after what had just happened.

The Uber dropped you at your place and you got out, thanking the driver. You moved toward the door but Haz didn’t follow you. You turned around, your eyes searching for Haz’s gaze but he was looking at his feet.

“What are you doing?” you asked.

Haz looked up at you. “Why did you kiss that guy?”

You scoffed. “Why did I kiss that guy? Why do you even care?”

Haz shook his head. “Are you serious?”

You took a deep breath, closing your eyes. “Let’s get inside, I wouldn’t want my neighbours to hear us fight.”

You opened your eyes to see Haz staring at you. He sighed deeply before moving toward you.

You fumbled for your keys, unlocking the door and then walking in. Haz hesitated before following you. You shut the door behind him, locking it before turning towards him.

“So, care to explain?” you told him.

He glanced at you before chuckling dryly. “You’re oblivious, aren’t you?”

You furrowed your brows. “Why’s that?”

Haz walked toward the living room, running a tired hand through his hair.

“Why’s that?” you repeated.

“I have feelings for you!” Haz burst out.

The silence that followed was the heaviest you had experienced in your life. “What?” you eventually let out.

“I’ve got feelings for you”, Haz said, his voice lower.

You gulped. “Then why did you tell me we couldn’t kiss anymore?” you whispered.

Haz shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, I had this plan in my mind but things didn’t go as I thought they would”, he admitted.

You sighed, suddenly feeling drained. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”

You moved to the bathroom, where you took a wash cloth that you wet before moving back to the living room. Haz was now sitting on your couch, his chin resting on his closed fist. You sat next to him, slowly raising your hand toward the blood on his cheek.

“Mind if I…” you trailed off.

He glanced at you. “Go on.”

You gently washed the dry blood from his cheek and then washed the small cut, earning you a grunt from Haz.

“You’re gonna have one hell of a bruise on there”, you murmured as Haz glanced at you.

He chuckled looking down at his closed fists on his thighs. “Right.”

You put down the cloth, silence spreading between the two of you. What were you supposed to say now? That you were sorry for being oblivious and not realizing that he had feelings for you when he had been the one to say he didn’t want to kiss you anymore?

Haz saved you by talking first.

“You know”, he softly said. “I had this plan to ask you out on a proper date but then you ran away and I didn’t know what to do.”

“You could have just texted me, you know?” you replied. “Or you could have followed me.”

“I didn’t know what to say”, Haz admitted. “And it’s not like we’ve texted before, we barely talk outside of our group of friends.”

“Well, that doesn’t mean we aren’t friends, right?”

Haz glanced at you. “If we were, I’m pretty sure I’ve ruined it by now.”

You held his gaze before looking away, your eyes landing on the wash cloth that was stained with blood as his gaze stayed glued on your profile. “I don’t think you have”, you finally said.

Haz looked away as the silence spread again. You figured it was your turn to speak now.

“I ran away because you hurt me”, you slowly said. “I kinda have feelings for you too and… hearing you saying that you didn’t want to kiss me anymore… it hurt me, you know.”

Haz chuckled. “I couldn’t have chosen my words in a worse way.”

You chuckled too. “I gotta admit I overreacted. And…” you paused, searching for your words. “I was trying to make you jealous. With Gavin. Didn’t think it would lead to a bar fight.”

“Sorry about that”, Haz apologized. “I… I don’t know what happened.”

“It’s okay, don’t worry”, you whispered.

“You know, I had planned to tell you we couldn’t kiss in bars anymore”, he explained. “Not like we couldn’t kiss anymore. And then I wanted to ask you out. I don’t know, it sounded great in my head.” He chuckled. “Guess I was wrong.”

You gently put a hand on his thigh. He looked at you, his eyes falling to your lips before finding your eyes again. There was a softness in his gaze in which you knew you could get lost if you were to let yourself go. His eyes made you think of the blue of the sky on a summer evening, when the sun had just set and the first stars were appearing up there. His eyes were truly the most beautiful thing about him, if you were being honest and now they were staring at you and all you could do was stare back.

Haz slowly leaned in. His hand found your cheek. He gently brushed your cheek with his thumb as his lips hesitantly found yours. You kissed softly, your lips barely touching. The kiss was entirely different from what you were used to. Kissing Haz usually was more tongue and hands trailing on your body. But right now, it was soft, hesitant and the total opposite of what you were used to but at the same time so much better than anything you had experienced before.

You pulled apart slowly, your eyes fluttering opened to find Haz already looking at you.

“Hey”, he whispered and you chuckled.

He rested his forehead against yours and you shut your eyes.

“Will you go out with me?” he enquired, hope intertwined with his words.

You laughed. “Yes, you div, I will.”

“Great”, he chuckled.

Haz kissed you again and you could feel him smiling through the kiss.

“Next time begin with that”, you murmured when you pulled apart to catch your breath. “Instead of saying some stupid shit.”

He chuckled, nodding. “I promise I will.”

You smiled to him before pressing your lips against his again.

Leave some feedback here! You can also send me a request or just talk to me about how Haz is going to be the death of all of us!

Taglist:

#kisses #harrison osterfield imagine #harrison osterfield oneshot #harrison osterfield request #harrison osterfield fanfic #harrison osterfield fanfiction #harrison osterfield fic #harrison osterfield x you #harrison osterfield x reader #harrison osterfield angst #harrison osterfield fluff #angst to fluff au #userkavvy #usersophs

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itsybitsybatsyspider · 6 years ago

Text

Everywhere I Go Part 1

Summary: Peter Parker x mutant!reader. Y/N has lived on the streets of Queens for a long time now, and never in her whole life would she have thought she would save a superhero who needed saving. Much less that the encounter would lead to something more.

Word Count: 3k words.

Warning(s): swearing, little bit of violence.

Notes: Y/N is a mutant who can control sound, frequencies, and vibrations. It leads to a whole list of badass stuff and im super excited to write about it! She also has enhanced hearing, which shows up a lot, so i thought i’d explain that so you dont get confused later. Also, idk if the action scenes are any good, so please comment and enjoy reading!!

The morning was cold, as it was during the early spring, and a sharp breeze flew over you and made you shiver. You pulled the covers closer to you, eyes shut, but the wind was persistent. Finally giving up, your eyes snapped open and you threw off the covers. Your eyes were greeted with the sight of a dense fog blanketed over the city of Queens, and another cool breeze rushed past you. You sat up and sighed, thinking about what the day could bring. Once you were ready to get up, you got off of the hammock you were sleeping in and planted your feet on the cold cement of the building’s roof.

This was your home. For the time being of course, till you decided that you wanted a change in scenery and move once again. Nothing was ever really permanent for you. You were always on the move and never really staying in one place for long. The only place that you were at the longest was Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, and even then it didn’t last long. Luckily though, all the time you spent there was all the time you needed to get a grip on your powers. It was hard at first, but you eventually were able to control what was yours. Then after you learned, you were ready to leave the school. Even though it was the closest thing to home you had. But you were too dangerous to be around and you never knew what would cause you to lose control. You couldn’t bear to hurt anymore people than you already have, which is why you left. It was a hard choice, but the best choice.

It was relieving to say the least when you told Professor Xavier and he understood your decision. He wasn’t happy with it, but he understood; and that was all you needed. So you left. And you looked back on it every day, wishing that there was another option. But there wasn’t.

You sighed once more and stood up, walking towards the little box closet that had all of your clothes in it you opened it up. It was just an average day. You threw on a grey t-shirt on top of your undershirt and put on your signature leather jacket as always. Tugging on your boots and slinging on your slip on backpack, you were ready for the day. You made your way to the door, and began the descent to the street and as soon as you reached the first floor that had an elevator, you decided to just take the elevator instead of waste time walking down all of the flights of stairs. When you reached the bottom and made your way out of the front door of the apartment building, you started the trek to school, and thus the day began. The walk down to the subway was uneventful, as was the actual ride on the subway. You had long put in the earbuds to your phone, that was now blaring music in your ears, which were blocking out the head banging vibrations that called for your attention.

For you to use them for anything whether it was to collapse a building or lull somebody to sleep, you still pressed on and ignored them. You kept your head down, not wanting to attract any attention, and assumed that nobody noticed you, but you were wrong. While you were cringing at all of the vibrations, a boy who you’d known since the beginning of freshman year, noticed the faces you were making. His eyebrows scrunched in confusion and worry, and you saw him looking at you out of the corner of your eye. Your head whipped around to look at him, and he ducked his head, obviously embarrassed at being caught.

It was Peter Parker.

He brushed his hand through his brown curls, trying to brush off the fact that you caught him looking at you, but you just smirked and looked away. Pretending that it didn’t happen. The subway pulled up to your stop, and both you and Peter got off, not saying a word to each other. Both of you walked off into the direction of school and the sounds of the streets around you intensified. You cringed again and denied the attention of the vibrations. Peter noticed, but didn’t say a word. Finally, Midtown High came into view and you blasted the music in your ears for another few minutes before school had the chance to start, and all the way to the door, the vibrations called you for attention. You ignored them. Peter was no longer next to you, he had gotten caught up in the school crowd and he was no longer in sight. You easily navigate the crowds and make your way to homeroom when you bump into Miles. He’s a kid at the mutant school, who wanted to experience public school like any other teenager, but he still lives with the other mutants. He was nice for the most part, but you found him just a bit annoying. He just started as a freshman and had transferred from Xavier’s school after winter break, and he thought everything about high school was great. He was in at least three clubs that you knew of. His grey eyes brightened in recognition as he saw you.

“Y/N! Hey! How’s it going?” He asked.

“Hey Miles, I’m doing good.” You said. “How about you?” Miles shrugged. “Not bad. Still getting the hang of you-know-what.” You nodded. Miles had a tail. Which would complicate things and sometimes do weird stuff depending on his mood. Like knock over a beaker in chemistry when he’s flustered or whipping somebody in gym class when he’s angry. He usually tucks it into his pants or wrapped around his waist every day, but sometimes it would come loose.

“Yeah, I get it.” you said. Another cringe appeared on your face.

“Do you need aspirin or ibuprofen?”

“No. I can deal with it. You should head to class. School is almost starting.”

Miles nodded.”Yeup. You’re right! I should get going. See you around Y/N!” “See ya.” You mumbled as you watched him run off to class. You turned and trudged towards world history, dreading the day, and wishing that it’d just be over already.

The hours went by slowly and with each piece of assignment you got for homework was another groan out of you.

It was 8:30

Then it was 9:30

10:30

And when lunch came around you couldn’t be happier when you discovered that it was Teriyaki Wednesday, best day of the week. Then English happened, and physics class, and marching band. And as unsurprising as it was, marching band was probably the hardest class. You didn’t know why you signed up for it, but you couldn’t help it! It was fun and you enjoyed playing music even if it did give you headaches.

There were a few incidents at the beginning of the school year involving a tuba and a timpani drum, but that wasn’t important right now. In chemistry, you were focused on your assignment, something to do with turning copper pennies a gold color, when you noticed Peter ducking beneath his desk and opening a drawer to pour something inside it.

What on earth was Parker doing?

You could hear fizzling from inside the drawer and the teacher said something, causing Peter to look up and close the drawer. You made a mental note to check what was inside later. You actually paid attention in chemistry this time instead of nodding off, stealing glances at Peter to see if he would open up the drawer again.

He didn’t.

You didn’t see Peter for the rest of the day, but he was on your mind on and off. So by the time school was over, you rushed out of the school’s doors and looked around. To see if anybody was out as well, of course. Specifically, Peter. But he was nowhere in sight.

You sighed. Maybe you could come back to the school later to check out the drawer. Unless somebody didn’t clean it out by then. But for now, you settled for going back to your “place”. You walked through the football field and back to the subway station, putting your earbuds back in your ears.

Just Watch by Anna Mae was just starting to play when the subway arrived at your stopped and you got off to go visit the Buttercup Cafe.

You walked through the doors, greeted by the welcoming smell of coffee and wood, and went to the counter to talk to your favorite barista. “Hey Jolie! How’s it going?” You said with a smile on your face. A girl with fuzzy black hair turned at the mention of her name, and a grin broke out in her face.

“Hey hun! I’m doing good. Did you just come from school? You didn’t ditch I hope.” she asked with her Northwestern accent. Jolie was a good friend of yours, who you’d known since the day you were on the streets. She was the only person to offer you some food and a place to stay, and with it being your first day, you happily agreed. She took care of you when you got hurt and gave you tips in both your romantic life and mutant life. Even though she wasn’t a mutant herself. But sometimes, you swore that she could read your mind or tell what you were thinking or feeling just from one look; it was beyond crazy. And it was downright scary sometimes. Jolie was the one to understand who and what you are and never judged you for it. But the only thing she did judge you on, was whether or not you got enough food to eat. And if you didn’t, she’d invite you over again and give you some left overs from the cafe. She was over all like a sister to you, and you were glad to have her in your life.

“No, I didn’t ditch. I actually was there the whole day and didn’t fall asleep once. I did come close of course, but someone woke me up.” You slipped off your backpack and took out your physics homework. “Did anything interesting happen while I was gone?” you asked. Jolie shook her head, making her hair bounce. She was wearing a flower printed bandana headband, white tank top, and high waisted shorts. An iconic outfit as always. “Nope, same’ ol, same’ ol.” she started to clean the coffee machine, “But, I was able to get this for you.” You looked up from your homework and Jolie finished cleaning the machine before going to the back. She beckoned for you to follow and, excitedly, you got out of your chair. A smile drawn on your face. You went to the back room, where the food for the cafe was prepped, and saw Jolie pull out something from behind the dish bins. It was a guitar case.

“What? Are you serious?” You say as you walk up to Jolie and inspect the case, joy bubbling inside of you.

“Yep! It’s all yours! I was able to pay for it from my saved tips. You said you never had one, but hun, the way you play guitar it’s like you were born to play it.”

You chuckled. “Yeah well, you know the reason why I play so well.” Jolie gave you a sly grin. “Of course I know! I’m not an idiot. I just thought it’d be nice if you had a guitar of your own. That way you wouldn’t have to borrow from somebody every time Open Mic Night came around. Plus, I thought it’d be good if you could play from time to time. Outside of Mic Nights of course.”

Your mouth hung open, speechless, but you quickly regained the ability to speak. “Yeah! That’d be awesome!” You gave the chocolate-colored girl a hug. “Thank you Jolie! This means so much to me!”

“Heh! No problem kiddo.”

You released Jolie from your embrace and gave her a smile as she handed the worn case to you. Gripping the handle you walked out of the room and went back to your seat, placing the case right next to your backpack.

A few hours passed by without you even noticing. Funny how when you’re in school the hours crawl by slowly, but when you’re doing nothing and just hanging out they flow right past you. By the time you walked out of the Buttercup, it was already dark and you had been sitting in there on your laptop, scrolling through Pinterest and Tumblr for five hours.

Where did the time go?

You walked out, shouldering your slip-on, gripping your new guitar, and sipping the experimental coffee Jolie gave you. Just another thing that you loved about her.

Once you were outside, you closed your eyes and took in a deep breath. Breathing in the crisp night air. It was drizzling and the sounds of the pitter patter calmed you. It really made the vibrations in your head quiet down to a low hum. You closed your eyes and just stood there, taking it all in.

The sound of the rain.

The sirens in the distance and the thrum of cars.

The chatter of thousands of people or the whistle of a single person.

The buzz of neon lights.

The howl of the wind.

The rustle of the trees or the huff of a police horse.

The rhythm of footsteps in the subway stations below you.

The whine of a train’s brakes.

The cooing of pigeons.

The scitter of alley rats.

And if you listened even closer, you could even hear the clinking of glasses, filled with champagne.

The clatter of silverware on plates.

People laughing and talking.

A group of girls cheering into the night.

Music thumping.

Boys wrestling each other.

Someone talking on the phone.

A stray dog sniffing through trash.

And then back to the rain.

You opened your eyes. This was why you lived in New York. The night life was the best thing, and you believed that sometimes it was even better than the day. You took another sip of coffee. The coffee smoothing over your tongue, leaving a savory taste in your mouth after you swallowed it. It had been a good day, you decided, as you walked off into the direction of your “house”. Maybe the Mysterious Drawer can wait till tomorrow, cause for now you just wanted to listen. You were halfway home when you heard it.

Thwip

You nodded you head, and smiled. You had heard the sound a couple dozen times before, for it was the signature sound of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. The superhero himself from Queens. You didn’t know how you felt about Spider-Man or vigilantes in general, after listening to J. Jonah Jameson’s spiels, but you held a respect for them that only someone with powers could have. You heard something swing from the web, and land somewhere nearby, but you refused to listen any longer. Cause whatever it was, it was none of your business and if wasn’t your business, you didn’t want anything to do with it. Shrugging off the sense that something was happening, you continued on your way, drinking your coffee. But sooner or later, you wished that you hadn’t shrugged off that feeling. For barely a minute later, you heard the sound of metal clicking and scuffling. A shiver went down your spine.

You had heard this before.

Dropping your guitar case behind a dumpster, you ran towards the sound of the commotion, hoping that you weren’t too late. Slinging your backpack in front of you, you struggled to open up one of the zipper pockets that held a piece of fabric that nobody knew about except for you and Jolie.

“Give me your wallet!’’ a gruff voice said.

“Dude, I swear I don’t have my wallet on me right now!”

You struggled to pull on the makeshift mask single-handedly, since your other hand was occupied still holding the coffee.

“If you don’t give me what I want right now, I’m gonna blow your brains out!”

“Okay, okay! Jeez!”

Adrenaline began to flow through you as you raced toward the sound of the voices with astonishing accuracy. After what seemed like hours you came upon the alley, mask slipped on your face, to see a man with baggy pants that sagged to his knees sticking up a kid with a gun. The kid was mostly covered in shadows, but you could see that he was pinned up against the wall, the gun pointed at the base of his neck. Disgust and horror crawled onto your face.

“Hey, bitch!”

The man turned around. A permanent scowl set on his face as he saw you.

“Maybe you shouldn’t be messing with kids on my block. Otherwise, you wouldn’t get hurt.” You growled at the mugger. He turned around to face you, gun still on the kid.

“Fuck off you little shit.” He said. “ Run home.”

You shrugged, refusing to let the words get to you. “Ah, if only I actually had a house to go back to.” You glared at him. “It’s time for you to go. Leave the kid alone and I promise I won’t hurt you too badly.”

The mugger scoffed.

“Yeah, right. Like you can do shit to me.” He turned back to the kid. You could hear the creak from the gun as the man tightened his grasp on the trigger. Fear flared in your stomach.

“Well let’s see.” the man turned back to you. “Duck!”

Time slowed down as your hand flung outward, throwing the cup of coffee at the thug. The kid, catching on quickly to your shout, ducked beneath the man’s arm and hit his wrist, making him drop his gun right when the coffee splashed all over him. He screamed in pain at the searing heat of the liquid, and at that moment you summoned the vibrations and sounds from all around you and solidified them. Turning them into a fighting force by shoving them at the man, causing him to fly backwards and into the brick wall from the sheer power. Knocking him out.

You didn’t even break a sweat.

The kid however was watching you with wide eyes, chest heaving and mouth slack-jawed. And only then, when he was standing in the light, did you see who he was.

Peter Parker

You groaned and exhaled a sigh. This whole day was just revolving around Peter Parker wasn’t it? Peter looking at you on the subway, Peter pouring something into the mysterious drawer, Peter noticing you and your headaches, and now Peter being the kid you saved from getting shot.

“Unbelievable.” you whisper.

Turning around, not even saying anything to Peter, you grab your guitar case and leave. Stripping off your mask once you were a few meters away from the alley, you grumble. This whole Peter Parker thing just kept getting weirder and weirder. And as you walked away, you wondered what that boy was doing in an alley with no pants and no shoes and wearing weird, clunky, matching bracelets.

ooh boy! Nearly caught him in his Spidey suit! I wonder how Peter’s gonna react to be saved by a masked vigilante when he’s a masked vigilante too! And he didn’t lose his backpack this time!!! Hope to update sometime these next few weeks!! Bye!

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