Protect Me, Perfect Me
Summary: Elena Hart has always been alone to face the suffering at the hands of her abusive boyfriend, Guy Gisborne. Until, one day, Allan A'Dale is there to pick up the pieces. And somehow, love blossoms.
Authors: Alice - MissedTheLastTrainHome (UnaIsNotorious on Twitter), and Sophie - (sophsayssupdude on Twitter)
Rating: T - some chapters later on will be M, but we'll notify you ahead and on the chapter so you can decided to read or not.
Pairings: Allan/OC, with Guy/OC at first. We've really tried hard to make our OC as good as possible, so please keep an open mind.
Disclaimer: WE OWN ELENA, OUR OC. Any other OC's are also ours. We don't, however, own the beauty that is Allan, or any of the Robin Hood characters.
Chapter One: Brick Walls
The brick walls were a constant reminder that Elena Hart was safe.
Founded in 1879, Sheffield University was constructed with masses of strong, russet coloured bricks. From the suburbs of the city, the brickwork of the many colleges, lecture halls and research buildings were easily visible. The city was one of the most vibrant places to be - and the University was the pinnacle of the famed environment.
As Elena walked through the doors of the campus for English students, she observed the building. Ever since she had started at the University back in September, she had relished the sight of the old, classic architecture work and basked in the safety of the English centre, a place that seemed like a second home to her.
For the 20-year-old freshman, it was a safety net for her. At University, she could hide away from her everyday life horrors. In other words, her boyfriend, Guy Gisborne; who had came with her from Nottingham. Guy - who at first was the seemingly perfect boyfriend, but many weeks later, he showed his true colours.
Controlling bastard, Elena thought, feeling her stomach clench in a combination of fear and rage. A deep purple bruise began to prickle on her ribs this morning, and it had been painful to cover up. Her skin was naturally pale so any additional bruises stood out easily. Elena often found herself wishing she was tanned, like many of the girls who studied at Sheffield - who were also gifted with tall, shapely bodies and sleek, straight hair. In comparison, the 20-year-old had dark, sienna hair and a skinny body, that often left her feeling inadequate to some of the Barbie replicas.
She passed by empty corridors, leaving her thoughts to wander of their own accord. English had always stood for her as a passion - studying it everyday gave her a sense of happiness, even though the rest of her life didn't. She approached her Seminar room, and noticing that there weren't many students inside, confidently entered.
The room was a typical study room - rows of uncomfortable plastic chairs seated in wonky rows. Elena let her obsessive compulsive side take over as she counted the chairs and frowned at how inaccurately they were placed, before walking over to her usual seat - ever so slightly isolated from everyone else, near the door.
She removed her jacket and hung it from the backrest of her chair, before sitting herself down, and retrieving her notepad and pen from the messenger bag carelessly slung over her shoulder. Waiting for her classmates to arrive, Elena took moment to review her notes from the last seminar. Her pen found its usual place, positioned loosely between her lips, while her soft waves fell forward into her face, prompting her to gently brush them behind her ear. Her eyes scanned the page as she allowed herself to become detached from the outside world, her mind focused solely on the information presented before her.
In that moment, it seemed that nothing could cause her concentration to falter, effectively breaking her trance. Nothing, that is, until the door burst open, and the calm atmosphere of the room was disturbed by the remaining students surging towards their seats. Elena glanced up, tearing her eyes from the page long enough to observe the bustling crowd of students, stifling a sigh as her peaceful demeanour vanished.
She was about to attempt to resume her revision, until she noted the door closing as the last individual entered the room. As her brain registered the identity of said individual, she realised her concentration was essentially broken beyond repair.
Allan A'Dale.
In spite of her boyfriend, Elena spent more time than she would care to admit admiring Allan - her excuse being that, because he sat across from the aisle from her, she simply couldn't help stealing the occasional peek. She found herself studying the planes of his face, noting every feature, from his slightly rugged facial hair to his extremely prominent nose - the latter of which being a feature that Elena found, in short, utterly adorable. His spiky mop of short, dirty chestnut coloured hair was always styled to perfection, much to the delight of his admirer.
However, the one aspect of Allan's physical appearance that Elena found herself most drawn to were his eyes. Eyes that were of such a vibrant, yet clear blue colour, she often found herself rendered incapable of forming a coherent sentence at the mere sight of them. They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, but, in this case, they are more than that - they are the one thing able to reduce a usually level-headed young woman into something of a mental wreck.
The very same blue eyes surveyed the room, before wandering to her. He tried, with great difficulty, not to let on that he had been waiting for the moment he set foot in the room with great anticipation, just so he could be greeted by her smile on his arrival.
"Alright?" Allan said, accompanied by a small smile and a friendly nod.
Elena reciprocated, deciding to keep the conversation short with a simple, "Hello,"
He took his seat, and quietly waited for the seminar to begin. His conduct inside the university building was the polar opposite to the way Elena noted he behaved around campus. During seminars and lectures, and the moments preceding and following them, he was demure, and extremely focused. He knuckled down and studied hard, in comparison to his usual antics outside of class.
He was relatively well-known for being a chatty, extroverted character, never seen without a smile on his face. He was renowned by those he knew for having a cheeky side to him, a side which many grew to resent as they became the butt of his witty remarks. Elena enjoyed seeing him like this, as his radiating positivity was one of the few things capable of brightening her day - his contagious happiness serving as a distraction from the helplessness she felt on a daily basis.
Although he seemed popular, he liked to keep his friendship circle small, consisting of the flitty types who didn't stick around for long and could easily be replaced. She knew of close friends outside of Sheffield that he socialised with regularly, but he didn't associate with anybody on campus more than Will Scarlet - who Elena took to be his best friend. She and Allan had mutual feelings for one another: they were not friends. They were close acquaintances, but neither considered the other to be a friend, as such. They engaged in short, but sweet conversations after seminars and lectures. However, their knowledge of each other's lives was minimal, if not non-existent.
With a clatter, the main door to the lecture room opened once again, and the lecturer entered - his arms piled high with what could be easily perceived as copies of Shakespeare's complete works. Elena's face lit up - she'd studied the famous poet as part of her A-Levels, and every piece of work she returned on him had been splashed with praise.
"Good morning, students," The lecturer's voice boomed around the room. The voice belonged to no other than John Little, the larger-than-life character whose size reflected his wide knowledge of the English language.
A murmur of response reverberated. Elena didn't say anything - not out of rudeness, but out of truth. In all honesty, she hadn't had a good morning (until Allan had acknowledged her, that is). Several victimising texts from Guy had jolted her awake and she'd heaved a sigh of exasperation as she'd abruptly shut it away into her pocket, like she did (or tried to do) with every other cause of pain in her life.
In the background, the 20-year-old could hear John burst into today's lecture. She felt her mind take off. She wasn't in the room anymore - she was on a jet, flying into the skies to escape from University life. On her flight would be Allan A'Dale, a gigantic case of dusty, vintage books and a traditional ice cream machine, where she could help herself freely to as much ice cream as she wanted and regret nothing.
Perhaps they'd go to California, or Paris. They'd get away somewhere busy and thrumming of excitement - somewhere with a heart of electric atmosphere, yet teaming with secluded, peaceful hideaways. She'd spend weeks at the sea, writing novels and reports on whatever she wanted. Allan would become her friend, her confidant, and maybe...more.
They'd have to conceal their identities of course. Elena's dark hair would be bleached to a faded honey, and Allan would wear edgy reading glasses: the dream was becoming so visually clear in Elena's head that she was fearing for her sanity.
"...this leads me to my next point: your task for this month is to work in pairs and make a presentation on a Shakespeare work of your choice. You'll find a help sheet online on the work platform."
Elena lifted herself upright. She'd evidently missed a crucial part of the seminar. Cursing under her breath, she twirled her pen around between her fingers and scribbled down what John Little had just announced.
"Now," Looking at his laptop, the older lecturer smirked at the class, "contrast to popular choice, I will pair you all up myself. Friendship groups will not be taken into consideration."
Elena snorted to herself. She didn't have a "group", so it didn't make a difference whoever she was put with. She could hear boys at the back of the class protesting in high-pitched voices, an edge of sarcasm added to their cries. A small, soft smile grew on her lips - the boys could be contagious, even though their banter never included her.
"Allan, I'd like you to be with Elena, please..." John's voice cut through her thoughts like glass.
The smile quickly disappeared off Elena's face.
A/N: We've been planning this for so long, so we'd really appreciate reviews. If you have the time to subscribe, please do so. We want this to be successful as there is a LOT of exciting chapters coming up and you will honestly not be disappointed by the romance and hurt/comfort. Thank you so much for reading! Love Alice and Sophie :)