ideal location [ch.15]
[a/n: at long last, chapter fifteen of ideal location! all previous chapters can be found here. please enjoy!]
You suppose that it was only a matter of time before something had to happen, for the feeling of misery to worm its way into the air. Out of breath, the unkept grass ensured you were to be swearing at every step, sliding in territory that was familiar, but filled with so many unknowns. Every moment had led you back to this so-called starting point, rain pounding against the Earth as water gathered in the uneven dirt.
After saying goodbye in the late afternoon, you were practically skipping back home after a long math lecture, hopeful to have a quiet night in. The weather had taken a quick turn for the worse, grey clouds filing in overhead, and with just this knowledge alone, it poked at you to get inside just a little quicker.
“Nathan?” The apartment foyer was empty, curtains still drawn apart from the morning. A bit suspicious, you slip inside further, allowing the door to shut behind you.
“Hello?” You did a once over, the small apartment leaving little places for someone to go, and when you finally entered the last place he could be hiding, your entire body freezes and a chill runs the length of your spine.
“Nathan!” Cold air billows after your scream, frantic hands pushing aside overgrown shrubbery and dangling tree branches, hanging overhead on by the thinnest thread. Your shouts all fall upon deaf ears, as the weather overcame any of your working senses. Moving on adrenaline, you push onwards, your feet sinking further into the landscape the more you struggled.
After the events of the previous night, you never would have guessed this would happen so soon. You had finally felt that the both of you were on the same page, pinkies intertwined as you promised everything would be alright.
None of this ever would have crossed your mind, blind sighted by such an exaggerated reaction, but willing to encourage and support in any way that you feasibly could.
“Nathan Hale!” It’s scary, and you’re scared to death, pulling hair away from your face as the rain slicked it to your scalp.
Finally, after a flicker of lightning, you can see in the distance, that little red schoolhouse. Your heart leaps to your throat, giving in to the adrenaline once more as you slide downhill, yelping as you lose your footing on more than one occasion.
This is nothing like the night that Nathan had carried you through these woods, and your solemn wish for his hold now. You wanted to see this to the end, and you wanted to do it together. Not like this.
The inconsistent flares of lightning would be your only source of light, and as you bargain your time to arrive just short of the door, you are alarmed to find it ajar. It’s a find that terrifies you down to your very core, swallowing bile as you take shelter in the doorframe, just under the overhang, away from the thundering storm.
“Nathan?” Your voice actually trembles, wary as to what you were to discover when you arrived. When you had returned from class, unable to find Nathan anywhere, you knew there really was only one place he knew by heart, outside your place- at least on foot.
The place where he seemingly was dropped without warning, the place where you had met him.
In the shadows, windows allowing some of the unsteady light inside, a figure moves. Yelping, you are hit with the realization all at once that this wasn’t Nathan, knowing he would have immediately answered the moment you called his name.
This person’s silhouette doesn’t match the man you’ve harbored in your apartment the past few days, and the more you try to convince yourself that this was no more than a terrible waking nightmare, the man just stares back at you.
While Nathan was tall, this man was taller, more built than the wrestler, though, not by much. And the craziest thing of all was that he was wearing a military uniform, the royal blue on his arms and shoulders coming into focus after your vision blurs. Swallowing thickly, you take a hesitant step backward, faltering and frightened beyond comprehension.
Then, just as you go to absolutely book it, someone appears behind you, completely out of breath, and gasping for air. You spin around, horrified, thinking you’re now cornered between two people you didn’t know.
“y/n,” They wheeze, and grateful once more for the storm, a flash of lightning casts light upon a familiar face, and you can feel the relief wash over you at once. Running down the stairs and over to the blonde, and he stands, scooping you up into his arms once your hands have reached his grasp.
“I’m so sorry,” He’s shouting, but only so you can hear him over the rain. The storm had plowed through unexpectedly, and the moment you couldn’t find him as the skies opened, it caused you to take action, straight away.
“I had this bad feeling, and then for some reason I had an insatiable compulsion to come back here,” A hand comes to cradle your head to his chest, and you grip fistfuls of his shirt, holding him as if you could never let go.
And all at once, the notion hit you like a freight train, comprehending that it would be damn near impossible to ever say goodbye to Nathan Hale. If you thought this was the end, you would never be able to cope with such an ending to this chapter of your life.
“I got lost, and then I couldn’t see the path anymore. And this weather, I- “
Nathan falters, and you uncertainly break away from his hold, warily calling his name, but his gaze is fixated on something just over your head, blue eyes wide as if he was staring at a ghost.
With your back to the schoolhouse, you had temporarily forgotten about the man, going to warn Nathan, when one last time, lightening flares, and you catch a glint of tears in the man’s eyes.
You half-turn, still in his hold but anxious to see just what he was so enthralled by, you were instantly met with the idea that this was all one elaborate prank being played on you.
“Captain,” The voice hums, just loud enough to be heard over the rain. Nathan, on reflex, drops his hands from your back and jumps into a firm salute, leaving you utterly confused and detached from the entire interaction.
“At ease, kid. No need for formalities,” He takes the stairs down, stopping just shy of the two of you, and Nathan relaxes, but the tension in his shoulders was enough to keep him rooted to his spot in the dirt.
“How, I…” Is all he can say, and your eyes blink once, then twice, taking in the man as he stands before you, seemingly kind but alarmingly intimidating.
“Maybe you can explain what’s goin’ on?”
He smiles brightly at Nathan, then gives him a pat on his shoulder, as if he was elated to see him.
“What is happening.” Your voice is small, but when he turns to you, the instantaneous understanding grabs you and shakes your shoulders violently. The man offers you his hand, and you stare blankly at it, unwavering as the urge to cry overcomes your sanities.
“y/n,” Nathan nudges you gently, unsure as to your reaction, but at his brief contact, you take his hand, overwhelmed and feeling insane at the same time.
“y/n.” He says to himself, giving your palm one, then two, then, finally, a third shake.
“Thomas Knowlton, a pleasure.”
