Rain & Ice

Arranged Marriage Pt. 3

Y/n's P.O.V.

"I'd love to go on a date with you... but our wedding literally starts in a few hours." I remind Five. It was about the middle of the night now, maybe around twelve or one in the morning. "Well then, we'll just have to work with the time schedule we have." We stroll quietly around the hallways as he swings our connected hands playfully and I giggle.

"And how do you suppose we do that? We can't really go anywhere..." That's when I get the perfect idea. "Wait, a picnic! We can have it in the garden. I know the best spot that I used to go to as a little girl." I propose. He looks down at me and smiles. "That sounds perfect." He whispers.

I can feel my smile growing bigger as my steps intertwine with a small skip of joy in between as we make our way to the kitchen. As we approach he doors, I tiptoe remembering that the chef sleeps in the next room. I open the door slowly and cringe as it creaks before I push it wide open.

"Well, now that we've made it, what do we bring?" Five whispers. I look at him. "Have you ever had a picnic?" I ask. He hesitates with his mouth open, waiting for the words to come out. "U-um, no. No, not really." He looks down. I smile to myself. Even this boy has never had a picnic in his life which I find incredulous, he just looked so cute.

I take a stand in front of him and put my hands over his shoulders. "Hey," I said in an undertone. "It's okay. Not everybody has had a picnic. I know my great-aunt hasn't, that's why she's so uptight." A sliver of a smile appears on his face at the last part. I caress his cheek with my hand and he leans into it before looking up at me.

"Well to be honest, it's not just that. Really, it's that I've never really had much of a childhood growing up. It was more of just training and training. But for what? I always asked and my father would never tell me. It's like he could sense something bad was coming." I listen silently. 

I take my arms off him and wrap them around his waist instead, decoding to stay silent. Sometimes instead of trying to give advice, it's better to stay silent. He hugs me back and we stay in that position for a while. "Okay, as much as I love this position, we should probably hurry." Five mumbles.

Right. I grab a basket and a few small things for us to snack on before leading us to the garden. As a little girl, I always brought a worker to come out and have a picnic with me so I wasn't lonely. Sure I had siblings but they were just babies.

I turn around a few hedges and stop at one that's towering over both Five and I. I feel carefully for the brass knob and open the wooden door that leads to the secret garden with a view of a small pond. There were fireflies in the air lighting the way as Five and I set the checkered blanket flat on the ground and snacked quietly.

"Well since I don't really know you that much, other than the fact that you're absolutely gorgeous, how about some ice breakers?" I put an effort to suppress the smile on my face but it fails. "Alright. You go first." I agree. "What's your favorite color?" He asks. I roll my eyes. "You could ask any question and you ask the most basic one." I comment.

He scoffs. "Well what else did you expect me to ask? 'Have you ever killed a man?'" He says, playfully pushing me. I laugh and push him back before we get into a small wrestling match ending with him on top.

Then it was like everything went quiet. The crickets faded into the background as I stared back into a dark forest all summed up in a small circle, belonging to the eyes of the one and only Five Hargreeves.

"You're so beautiful." The words tumble out of his mouth like a sigh I can feel on my lips before I feel the softness of his own. "I think I'm in love." We sit back up with me on his lap facing him. I press a kiss to his temple, his cheek, then his lips.

"I think I love you." He whispers. I look into his eyes. "Well, I definitely love you now." I smile. He smirks back in response, oh that smirk. "Well I love you more than you love me." I scoff lightly.

"Oh yeah, bet."