Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Prologue
It rained yesterday. The air was still damp and slightly cold, but Poppy did not mind. She loved the rain, she loved the smell of fresh grass and wet soil, the smell of woods brought by the little droplets of water onto her cheeks...the smell of home. She missed her childhood home so much- the quiet moments she spent wrapped in blankets at the window, tracing the water drops with her fingers, waiting for the thunder to crash. Her father would make her comfort food and they would sit together listening to the storm outside. Every now and again the smell of rain would send her back to those happier times when she felt truly loved. Yet today, that happiness seemed so distant as if it was happening in another life.
She walked with silent purpose, a bouquet of wildflowers in her hand. She had them picked out from the field near Moonbright: a colorful array of daisies, poppies, bellflowers, and forget-me-nots.
Her car was parked on the side of the road, blue as the flowers she carried. Who would have thought, she mused, that I would be someday driving this thing? Tora had taught her how to drive, fighting her stubbornness in the matter. She remembered it fondly, her thoughts drifting back to that day...
“I want you to drive to work. For your safety, kid. I don’t wanna think of ya alone on a long commute, on a bus full of people.”
“What does that have to do with anything? People are fine, I like people... my safety has been on your mind a lot lately, hasn't it?” she teased, not without a small shred of worry.
He brushed her off, “It’s a good skill to have. People are jerks, taking photos of you and shit,” he countered, a playful smile flickering for a second in his amber eyes. “You can have my car until you save enough for your own. No strings attached. I’d rather sleep at night.”
“Your car? Absolutely not! And besides... I- I don’t know how to drive,” she said, averting her eyes. “I mean I only drove my scooter and that did not end well as you may remember ... and ...” Poppy was struggling to find valid reasons. Her mind was racing, shooting warning signs everywhere. Losing sleep over my safety? Why should I be in any danger at all? Just because I know him?
“I’ll teach ya, ´s no big deal,” he cut off her ramblings and that was the end of it.
She could not say no anymore and as soon as she accepted his offer, she felt a wave of relief washing over- it meant she would have to see him again. The feeling caught her off guard, realizing at that moment she wanted to know him better- to discover who this tall, tattooed, dark-haired man standing in front of her was. She wanted to understand why he kept returning to her after their deal was closed, offering her sweets, but no explanations. He was content just watching her paint.
Tora kept his word to the letter, stopping by her apartment building daily for two months. He took her to the outskirts of the city to practice until she grew confident enough to drive on the wider and more trafficked boulevards of Narin City. The day she got her license, they celebrated at Alice’s with green tea and shrimp noodles, blissfully ignoring the older woman’s glances from behind the fully stocked bar.
Back when everything was still easy, Poppy thought, clinging to her flowers, going up the steep empty road towards the cliff at the end of the hiking trail. She breathed heavily, tiny dribbles of sweat starting to form on her forehead and neck. She concentrated on her steps, making sure not to fall on the slippery path. Almost there, she came to a full stop when she reached the edge of the forest and had the cliff in sight. Her eyes were searching for the massive rock somewhere at her left, partially hidden in the shadows of the evergreen trees behind her. There it was, a stone six feet tall and wide. Its edges were both sharp and smooth where the people touched it repeatedly- leaning against it after an exhausting hike, using it to hang their backpacks, or just simply brushing against it taking pictures.
Poppy circled the stone looking for something and soon enough, she saw the markings she knew by heart. She sighed, hoping to relieve some weight from her chest. But the sorrow she felt these days would not lessen so easily and she found herself drowned in it once more.
“I’m here, love” she whispered, softly touching the cold rock, somehow wishing it to come alive under her hands. She sat on her knees on the damp moss floor, putting the wildflowers in a small crevice. He too was wild. An animal, they said. A monster. How little they knew of him and how wrong they were… She knew because she had been looking in the eyes of the beast, past his walls of silence. There, beneath all his layers of darkness, she had found the fragility of a child, not much unlike those thin petals of red and blue. She had tamed the beast and revealed the man. For that, they both had paid their tribute to fate.
She fiddled with a long silver chain hidden under the collar of her shirt. Taking it out, the silver ring gleamed in the cold light, dangling from the chain. She fitted the ring on her finger; it was much too big of course. She clenched her fists until she felt the ring bite into her palm, reddening the soft flesh.
“You didn’t think I forgot did you?” she said to no one, feeling the knot in her throat tightening. She was again on the verge of tears, as anger and pain crashed inside her like a storm. “YOU PROMISED!” she yelled, the echo of her words carrying towards the edge of the cliff and into the abyss below. “I came here every day, as you wanted. Every damn day! And it still does not get any easier. Why Tora? Why did you leave me behind?” She was now fully crying, letting the salty streaks of tears soothe her rage, her frustration, and grief.
“You promised you'd come back to me. How will I live now? Why should I want a world without you in it?” she let out between sobs, her body shivering.
Yes, his fragility frightened her then, more than the “monster” he thought he was. She saw herself in his broken soul, as she too was fractured and lost in a world where she never really felt safe. She became the sanctuary he needed the most, his light of hope as he, in the same way, became hers.
They were friends before they became lovers. Her home was their island of peace, the eye of the storm before the shadows and real monsters caught up with them. She got to know him through half-truths, reading between the lines of what little he reluctantly shared with her. She saw through his lies, but so did he through hers, exposing effortlessly her real self to him. Both were masters of facades, shields in front of the ones who hurt and deceive, and in front of the ones who threaten and kill. With each other, however, little by little those shields cracked and fell, as an unknown force drew them together.
Poppy could not help but wonder what that force was, but she did not have the strength to fight it, nor did she want to. She continued to receive him into her home, offering him kindness and making him smile with her clumsiness, teasing him, and half-joking to break any tension that might have built between them.
She had made him countless meals, watching him devour everything with the utmost passion while sitting beside her at the low table. She was growing comfortable in knowing a man that treasured her little gifts, feeling that he needed them more than he would care to admit. It seemed that everything about her was new to him, as he somehow stumbled into a strangely beautiful world so different from his own.
The day he came to her house, with his shirt speckled with blood, his fists clenched and an intense look in his eyes was the day she caught a glimpse of the dangerous Tora. The one everybody else was frightened of. She stared at him wide-eyed, her head filled with questions.
He broke the silence in a hoarse voice "Afraid of me now?”
From all the thoughts buzzing in her mind at the time, the only one that passed her lips was the one he needed to hear "Not in a million years.”
She reached for his hand, feeling the surge of electricity when they touched. Ignoring it, she pulled him closer so that she could lean into his arms, making him hug her, resting her head onto his chest, hearing the drumming of his heart. That hug took Tora by surprise, but he was longing for her touch. He let her see the broken man he was, hoping that she would not turn away from him. "You brave little woman,” he put his arms around her, while she rested her palms on his back, keeping him close. It worked as a balm and soon enough Poppy felt his muscles relax, and the tension leaving his body carrying its deadly weight somewhere else.
Later on, these hugs however intimate, were their secret language, the one they did not need to speak aloud of. They felt as natural as breathing, while they chased away their worries and fears.
“You’re pure magic, Bobby,” Tora said to her then, kissing the top of her head, sniffing through her hair. She looked up straight into his eyes and the amount of need she saw there was more than she could endure. His eyes pierced through her like molten lava, wanting, but not daring to take what they both knew was the last step into everything else.
With one hand resting on his chest, feeling his pulse quicken under her touch, Poppy reached the other hand to caress the cheek of the man that she was healing. She slid it to the back of his neck, through his dark locks, and brought him closer to her, as she kissed him, with the courage she never expected to have. He responded fiercely, parting her lips, and exploring her mouth. He threaded his fingers through her hair pressing her into him as if he was trying to capture her into his body. Tora hungered for her touch, knowing he could not bring himself to leave her.
Yet he did. When the warning came, Tora had arranged for Poppy’s safety and he dove back into the war, to put an end to it once and for all. So Poppy waited what seemed like an eternity. She waited and prayed to all the gods and goddesses she knew to bring him back safe. All was over sooner than expected, but Tora never did come back. An exhausted Gyu knocked on the door of her safe house that morning, announcing that Big Bro was missing and presumed dead in the pile of bodies that surrounded the rubbles of Balthuman manor. The world collapsed around her at that moment and she knew that she would never be whole again.
“Bobby, if the plan fails, I might not make it…” Tora said to her once. She pressed her hands on his lips wishing to stop the terrible words, but he grabbed her wrists and kissed her tiny palms. “No, you need to know. If I ever…go and don’t come back, if I’m forced to hide or run, or I don’t know... Go to the hiking trail near Moonbright. The one we walked together last time, you remember? That takes you to that cliff? The rock I showed you, with the markings… If I survive, I’ll make it there somehow. I’ll come for you or leave a message so you know how to find me. But if I don’t...if days pass and you find nothing, then please, sweetheart, please you’ll have to let me go.”
Poppy stood up, her body aching and feeling a thousand times older than two weeks ago, brushing the dirt and moss from her hands and knees. “The hell am I letting you go, Tiger,” she said to herself, directing her wrath towards unknown enemies. She will find out the truth. She will find him, alive or… not. And they will pay, the ones that took her very life from her. She made her way back to the car as night was falling over the woods, encasing everything in its darkness. She was his light once and now she would set the world on fire for him. Starting with that damn Princess.