Sweet Night - V

THEA'S POV:

I didn't even understand how I'd gotten into this position.

Less than a week ago, I was just as terrified of men as I thought I'd ever be; less than a week ago, I was working my regular shift at the charity shop and coming home every evening to my fretting mother and auspicious father; less than a week ago, I would have never dared to go against my mama's word out of fear of upsetting her. But here I was, tottering beside the most menacing yet beautiful man to exist on the planet and breaking every rule my parents had made for me.

I still didn't know where we were going.

Snow turned to slush just as the sun turned to lingering whispers of daylight. It melted on our skin like cold, sweet kisses. My gaze flitted along the main street as one by one, shop doors were locked and shutters rolled down, market stalls dismantled and amenities packed away. But despite the dying hustle and bustle, I found my eyes returning to the figure on my right every time.

He was quiet, mulling, but there was something intensely magnetic about his silence. I couldn't tell if it was that sensual mouth of his or those penetrating, sapphire eyes, but I desperately wanted to know what he was thinking. Dark, messy strands shadowed the side of his forehead, allowing my gaze to drift to his ear piercings; most of them were studs but a beautiful, silver one dangled from his left ear, attached to a small feather, and brushed his jaw when he moved. It somehow added to his appeal tenfold.

Then there were his tattoos. Even though I'd seen them before, I'd never taken the time to appreciate the intricacies that made the Synn beside me. Ink drafted across his neck in black to the very borders of his jaw, making... flowers? They were a marvel, each one unreplicable. They wrapped around his throat like a choker and it was choker to behold, one made of leaves and petals to grace the man.

There was something so ethereally... dangerous about him.

I was so immersed in Synn's beauty that I didn't notice the woman approaching us in the street. Suddenly, he looped his fingers through my belt and drew me into his side.

I sucked in a breath.

He was so close to me I could feel the warmth of his body in the biting cold. His cologne pooled around me protectively like a blanket as the woman passed us by, with me tucked beside the gorgeous man as I tried to still my heartbeat.

Synn glanced down at me, amusement glittering in his eyes. "You're a clumsy thing, aren't you?" he said deeply.

"I-I'm," I stuttered. My cheeks flushed. "I am not."

"What were you thinking about?"

Swallowing, I rubbed my cold, numb hands together to try and create some warmth. His eyes followed the action.

"Um," I said, struggling to think of an answer, "I was just thinking that you know a bit about me but, well... I don't know very much about you."

He observed me through his lashes, then slid his long fingers through his hair, sweeping it back.

"You can ask," he replied in a rough voice. "I don't mind."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. Wringing my wrists, I gazed around to think of my first question. It had to be a good one, since I didn't know how many opportunities like this I'd get again. I hummed to myself.

"Did you always live here?" I finally asked. "In England?"

Casually, he slipped his hands into his pockets whilst keeping his eyes dead ahead. "No, I moved here nine years ago. From Málaga." So he did come from Spain. "I came with my brother."

"Your brother?" I repeated with wide eyes. For some reason, I didn't expect him to have siblings.

"Not my real brother," Synn said, "But that's the only way I can describe him. We grew up together, fought with each other, did stupid shit and got in trouble together." He refused to smile but those pools of blue lightened with every word as he glanced at me. "That's why brother fits him more than friend."

"It sounds like he means a lot to you," I said softly. He tilted his neck as if in slight disagreement with me, a less amiable expression on his face, but I understood by his words and the emotion in his eyes. Smiling to myself, I watched the lamplights grow infrequent as we reached a dark, winding path. "I don't really have anyone like that. I-I mean, I have my friend. My best friend. I love her so much, believe me, but sometimes we-we don't feel as close because I'm not allowed outside much."

I could feel his eyes against the side of my face like a pair of waves trying to uncover the treasures within the sand. "Why is that?"

Why are your parents so protective of you?

I smiled and thought back to Mama. "They like to keep me safe," I said and wrung my hands together. "You know how parents are. They worry."

Slowly, he nodded and turned back to the path. His black, tousled locks draped over his forehead as he ruminated over something, eyes focused ahead.

"It's okay though!" I tried to reassure him and leaned forward. "I-I have fun at home. Me and Papa like to cook together and I watch movies with Mama, and Papa's also a secret fan of romances so he always sneakily watches them with us when he thinks we're not looking. And I also have lots and lots of fun with Ruffles! She makes sure I'm never lonely. Gosh, she's so cute. I just wanna squish her all the time!"

"I remember," he said gruffly and looked aside, muttering something that sounded like, "La pequeña demonio," under his breath.

[The little demon.]

Curious, I tilted my head at him. "What does that mean?"

Synn's lips tightened and he avoided my gaze. "It's better you don't know," he answered, making me pout in disappointment. The truth was, I loved it when he spoke to me in his mother tongue; even if he were to talk about the weirdest of things, like a jellyfish trying to roller-skate, it would have still sounded eloquent if it came from his mouth. The man managed to make anything and everything sound like something an aristocrat would say.

But I still wished that he'd translate for me.

"Please can you tell me? Pretty please?" I asked with big eyes. He said nothing, merely flexing his tatted hands as we walked. "Please, please, please, Synn?"

"Don't."

I frowned as his eyes briefly fluttered shut, inhaling. When they opened, a darkness lingered in his gaze like nothing I'd seen before. Hunger.

"Don't beg like that."

My brows furrowed at his response, at the tautness of his muscles, at the vein pulsing in his jaw; I wondered if it was from the cold since he wasn't wearing a coat like me, but I concluded that it wasn't. I didn't want to annoy him or get on his nerves - I tended to do that with people.

"Oh," I said softly, "I'm sorry."

Burying my nose into the fur of my coat, I looked down at the twigs and ice-covered soil at our feet. "No, don't apologise either," Synn insisted.

"But-But I said something that made you upset-"

"You didn't."

He abruptly stopped and turned to me. I didn't know where we were but as he towered over me, casting me in his shadow, I shrunk even further into my jacket like I was melting. This was the first time I'd seen his eyes in all their glory. They were frozen pools of emotion, a pale, pale blue that reminded me of crystals. Splurges of ice were interrupted by pupils that were completely unmoving as he stared back at me. And there it was: a ripple. There was so much feeling trapped inside them.

"You just say things... that do things to me," he murmured. "Y no sé por qué, pequeña mariposa."

[And I don't know why, little butterfly.]

"Are-Are they good things or bad things?"

His lips tilted in an attractive sort of way. "Certainly not bad things."

Relieved, a small smile spread across my mouth.

"Now turn around so I can make it up to you."

"What do you mean?"

He nodded at something behind me. I didn't realise just how far we'd walked but looking left and right, I realised we'd reached a small opening in the woods.

Tentatively, I turned on my heel and my eyes widened. Snow danced in the light of a lone lamppost at the centre of a meadow before us. It was a choreographed ballet carried by the gentle wind; each flake would pirouette, leap, only to land on the untouched floors of white that covered the grass. The snow was everywhere. Perched upon a slab of stone was a bench only a few feet away from us and trees formed the rest of its borders, all watching.

Entranced, just as I was.

"It's so beautiful," I whispered and took a tentative step forward.

"It is." Synn's burning gaze traced the side of my face but I was too ecstatic to notice.

It was like a scene from a movie, skylit glitter falling from the sky to keep the world glistening as night crept in.

"It's so beautiful!" I said again, laughing this time. I grinned at him before plodding into the snow, unable to hold myself back any longer. This was what I had been waiting for all day. I stuck both my hands into the thick powder and my fingers tingled from the cold, making me laugh as I filled my palms with them. I giggled and tossed some in the air; flakes fell around me in clumps, adorning my hair like a messy crown. How did he even find a place like this?

Synn stood by the side of the meadow, eyes following my every move with precision, and as he watched me, I was suddenly struck with an idea.

"Do you wanna make snow bunnies with me?" I called excitedly.

"Snow... bunnies?"

"Yeah!" I sunk down into the snow and crossed my legs, dismissing how my jeans would get wet and cold. "It's really super easy. I can teach you!"

The man reluctantly approached and hunched down next to me, although I still appeared less than half his size. Gathering some snow in my hand, I shaped it into a ball and handed it to him. Our fingers almost brushed but I was careful not to.

"You keep this one and I'll make one for me."

He seemed dumbfounded, staring at the clump of ice in his large paws. "How is one supposed to do this?" he murmured lowly whilst watching me make another snowball for myself. When I was done, I brushed some of the snow from the ground and placed the ball down onto the foundation. Synn put his next to mine and imitated my actions.

"Okay, so you basically start by adding more snow to the body of the rabbit and make it, like, an ovally shape. Or is spherical better? No, oval is better. Ignore me."

As an example, I started adding handfuls of snow to my bunny and smoothing the surface. My fingers were already numb from the cold but soft bursts of adrenaline were swirling through my veins and making it worthwhile. Cautiously, I would sneak glances at the beautiful man and his progress and was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. He looked concentrated, determined. It was endearing.

"And when you're done with that, you can start making the head. You need to get the shape right though," I said before trailing off and trying to make my own.

The wind brushed our cheeks, making them ruddy, and the snow pecked our ears, our necks, our hands. I was starting to lose complete colour in my palms. Shivering, I blew into my hands and rubbed them together. When I glanced down at Synn's creation, I could see he was having trouble with the sculpting (which I also agreed was the hardest part). Encouragingly, I smiled.

"Do you want help?"

There was a severity to his brows as he stared at the bunny's head, which was more of a misshapen ball than a skull. His gaze remained sharp, as if silently commanding the snow to morph at his will. Biting back a tiny laugh, I watched his eyes return to mine. He handed me the snow.

"Look, watch me," I gently instructed. Brushing my thumbs over the surface, I made two small depressions and added some snow to the snout, carefully crafting its head. "See? You just have to do it softly. You-You were doing really good though so I'm, um, I'm proud of you." I blushed at my own words but tried to hide it. "Do you see all the features and everything?

"Here are the cute little eyes." My fingers stroked the little hollows I'd made.

"The cute little nose." My fingers brushed the small projection.

"And here's the cute little mouth," I beamed.

With a massive smile, I turned back to Synn, only to find him already staring at me. It didn't look like he'd been paying attention to anything I'd been saying. Instead, he drank me in as if I were sweet wine, eyes unmoving and savouring every drop. It was only now that I noticed the silver chain dangling dangerously from his neck as we locked eyes, both unbreathing. Agonisingly slowly, he leaned in and a lump grew stuck in my throat.

He raised a large, inked hand to my face. I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut but couldn't beg myself enough to do so, too captivated by the focus in his gaze.

His thumb grazed my lashes and I blinked once, twice. "Las lindas ojitos," he said lowly, his voice a deep rasp that resonated within my bones.

[The cute little eyes.]

His index finger came to stop at the tip of my nose, but didn't touch. "La linda nariz pequeña."

[The cute little nose.]

His finger rested before my lips, just a centimetre away. My heart battered against my ribcage as his eyes cruised over the shape of my mouth, and I consciously licked my lips and swallowed. A soft smile crossed his face. "La linda boca pequeña," he whispered before his eyes came up to meet mine. Stunned, I sat there in the snow as flakes fell onto my cheeks and blew raspberries.

[The cute little mouth.]

"Wh-What were you saying?"

As if nothing had happened, Synn drew away and his pools of crashing blue dropped to my hands, nodding at them.

"I was saying your hands are small."

"N-No, you weren't," I breathed and he arched a sculpted brow. "You weren't!"

"Are you saying your hands aren't small?" he responded curiously.

I looked down at my trembling hands and frowned, easily distracted by his words. I had the attention span of a goldfish. "They're not small. Th-They're average sized."

"They're fucking tiny, Thea."

"Are not," I pouted.

"Everything about you is small," he muttered and returned to the head that I'd shaped for him, lifting it off my lap. That was a completely false statement. An invisible thread pulled at the corner of his mouth as if there were something amusing that I was missing. "Linda y pequeña."

[Cute and little.]

"That's not true," I said in denial. Synn hummed as if he didn't believe me and continued attaching the bunny head to the rest of the body, the rings on his fingers glinting in the lamplight. I knew I wasn't especially tall but I wouldn't describe myself as small either. I was about average height! Pushing my lips into a scowl, I waited for him to look back at me and register the expression but he refused to do so, occupying himself with his snow bunny instead. "Synn, it's not!"

"Mm?"

He didn't utter a word.

Before I knew it, I was gathering some snow in my hand and pouring it down the back of his neck.

He shot up straight. I burst into a fit of giggles at his reaction. His every muscle grew taut, defining his physique even further as he gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. I would have called his expression attractive if it weren't for the fact he was struggling to come to terms with the ice dribbling down his spine. Gasping a short, "Fuck,", he turned to me. I covered my mouth with two hands guiltily but another squeak of laughter still escaped me.

"It-It was an accident," I awkwardly tried to reason. There was a sinister sheen to his eyes as he controlled his breathing. "I'm being serious, I- I'm sorry! I really didn't mean to!"

The tattooed man slowly rolled his shoulders in his suit and I took it as a warning sign. Scrambling, I pushed myself upwards and took one, two, three steps back.

"You'll pay for that," said Synn calmly as he rose from where he was knelt.

"I-I'm sorry," I said but my mouth was starting to hurt from smiling too hard. "I'm really sorry!"

"Yeah?" He picked up some snow and squeezed it in his hands.

"Yeah!"

"Why don't you come here and show me how sorry you are?" he suggested lowly, his eyes reflecting the moonlight that had decided to make an appearance. He gave me a dark look of amusement.

"Um... no."

I darted away and started running. His footsteps followed a second later and I squealed desperately. This was a bad idea! Bad idea, Thea! Why did I expect to possibly escape a man twice my height and built like a stallion?

Suddenly, a snowball shot past my ear and hit a tree. I spun to see Synn already making another, a wide smile spread across his mouth.

"This is unfair!" I cried. "Let's just-just keep making the s-snow bunnies!"

I zipped left and right, letting out more squeals of laughter when more snowballs came my way, but none seemed to land. I didn't know if he was doing this on purpose - playing with his prey - or if he just had a bad shot, but my gut told me it wasn't the latter. Dropping to grab some snow, I chucked the ball in his direction. I couldn't tell if it landed but I heard a swell of laughter from his side and my heart thundered even louder.

The next moment was like magic.

I turned to throw another and was momentarily starstruck. Dark, feathery strands fell about Synn's face, creating soft shadows under his cheekbones. As he moved, so did those brilliant bands, like echoes of the northern lights, only making him hauntingly more beautiful. His tattoos became silver and moved around his neck as if molten. Ethereal. And his laughter. I didn't know such a deep, rhythmic sound could escape someone. I didn't know happiness could look so pretty on a person.

Then all of a sudden, he was in front of me.

Looming over me.

And pulling me into his arms.

My eyes widened. He was touching me. Holding me.

A man was... holding me.

That was when everything splintered into a million pieces.

*****

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Hey fudglings!

AHHHHH OKAY I REALLY LIKE THIS CHAPTER BUT ALSO DON'T BUT ALSO DO-

What did you guys think? In the original, Synn takes Thea to his house but I honestly didn't like that ._. twas way too rushed and not good and I prefer this version. Thoughts on Thea? SHe's actually such a squish BRO I LOVE THE SCENE WHERE THEY'RE MAKING SNOW BUNNIES AND SYNN TALKS ABOUT HER FEATURES SJKHKJS I'd actually die. Thoughts on Synn? I LOVE THE DESCRIPTION OF HIM AT THE END he's such a pretty man I'd let him stomp on my nose and I also like how he called Carmelos his brother ,_, that's so cute. What do you guys think will happen in the next chapter?? EXCITING I LOVE THE NEXT CHAPTER SO MUCH

Is it just me who LOVES to go on walks? Because I invited my best friend and we had lunch and watched a Bollywood movie and then I forced her to go on a walk with me BUT SHE DOESN'T LIKE GOING FOR WALKS?? WHAT KINDA RUBBISH- like me and my family would normally go on walks in summer at night and it's actually such a beautiful feeling. The night air and THE LITTLE KITTIES YOU SEE ON THE ROADS I did see 10 cats one time and it was amazing I felt accomplished

Potato question of the day: what kind of music do you like to listen to?

I listen to a little bit of everything. I'd probably say I mainly listen to alternative/indie music but that could be completely wrong? I also listen to K-pop, soft rock, some pop and stuff. My favourites are probably The Neighbourhood, Glass Animals, BTS, The Weeknd, Arctic Monkeys, Chase Atlantic, Doja Cat, etc. I legit listen to everything though I do like Harry Styles' music too

Anyway, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. If you did, please do vote, comment and share this book with your friends! I love you guys!!

- Fudge x