Title: A World of Different
Genre: Everwood
Pairing: Bright & Hannah
Setting: This is set during the season finale of Season 3, 'Where the Heart Is' of Everwood. This is just my little take on what happened during that moment before and leading up to the passionate kiss shared between Bright & Hannah. Bah! On the writers who are making us wait until fall to really see what's going to transpire between these two beloved characters.
Author: a hrefhttp/ target"blank">xjoiefulx /a>
Date: May 24, 2005
Word Count: 1,801
Author's Notes: This little piece of fiction was inspired by a href"http/ target"blank" openarms /a and a href" target"blank" vintagefairy17 /a , because of all of the squee'ing that we did in the threads of all three of our own personal journal posts we'd made with shameless sqee'ing over Bright & Hannah and how adorable Hannah is and how Bright WB'S SEX GOD. He was crowned. This is for them and all of the other Bright & Hannah fans out there who enjoyed it as much as we did.
Who was he fooling he wasn't there to shake her hand and tell her to have as good of a summer as she possibly could, he was there to tell her how he really felt about her. He was there to tell her that he too echoed the same feelings that she had for him. Topher was just a blip on the radar screen, a soon to be nobody once he'd said everything he'd have to say to her. That's part of the reason it didn't bother him so much when the little Church Monkey had bumped his arm as he'd passed him leaving, despite the awkward tense moment he'd just obviously interrupted between the two of them.
Bright ignored him as he passed obviously soreness in his actions foreshadowing his usually spastic features. He didn't care as he listened to Hannah mumble something about having to break up with him again. He'd never say it out loud, but he thought she'd looked so cute when he was standing in Amy's doorway listening to Hannah sob about being a "puppy killer". Amy was right, Hannah was braver than he would ever be because she let her heart be open, after everything that she'd been dealing with, her father and worrying over whether or not she too carried the gene for Huntington's disease, and then that whole paying God back bender she'd went on, yeah she'd been through enough to sink anyone and she still seemed hopeful, bright and same old Hannah.
Same old Hannah that he liked. He'd told Eprham before he'd left for Europe in a rare moment when he let himself actually start to accept the feelings he'd been discovering he'd developed for Hannah that he couldn't even look at her without his upstairs talking to his downstairs. And just when had she become so hot recently? The day she confided in them, her friends that her father had Huntington's disease. The night he told her that she would find someone that was perfect for her someday unlike himself because he didn't think he deserved it. The day she let him read her diary and he grinned impishly as he flipped through the pages finding her prayer to God about her father and making the bargain to eat all the vegetables she could. Her date with Topher to the dance which had succeeded in making him jealous, a feeling that he was surprised to find out had been there all along or the day he'd learned she'd broken up with Topher for good because the same feelings just weren't there.
Bright stood there in the sunny afternoon watching Hannah and trying to build up the nerve to tell her just how he really felt about her. It shouldn't be this hard for him; he'd liked dozens of other girls, women before. But somehow with Hannah everything seemed sort of different. Hannah was different from all of the others that he'd been with, partially because she was a friend before she was potentially anything else and also partially because she was just simply Hannah. He'd gone over this a dozen times in his head, played out all the different scenarios. Things would have to be different with Hannah simply because she wouldn't be like the other one's he'd been with. He knew that just like he knew she'd probably have a few ground rules regarding the obvious.
Bright shook his head hard to ward off this thought. He really didn't need to be thinking about that right now. He stood there holding the sweatshirt in his hands nervously as he approached her. His smile was warm and she matched it with one of her own with a small amount of hopefulness in it. Instinctively he reached out in a motion to hand Hannah the sweatshirt that had become his excuse for seeing her one last time before she left. Smile widening he spoke in a nervous but sweet voice to her.
"I brought you your sweater, you left it at the house."
He pushed the sweater towards her still holding it as he watched her chuckle softly and shake her head reaching out to take the sweater from him as their hands brushed against one another softly. He marveled in the feel of the softness that was Hannah's skin and wished the touch could have lasted a little longer. His thoughts were interrupted as she softly said.
"Bright, you don't have to bring me a sweater as an excuse to come and say goodbye to me."
She was smiling at him as she said this, her eyes bright and sparkling so full of hope. Hannah was always full of hope no matter what storm threatened to rock her world at any moment and that was something Bright was always both amazed with and admired about her. He'd never met anyone quite like her before and to be honest he didn't think he ever would. Hannah had walked in at the beginning of the year and somehow had changed all of their lives, especially his. She had turned out to be a really good friend. A really good friend that he now wanted something more of.
He reached out a hand and laid it on top of one of her pieces of luggage that she had stacked up there on the sidewalk, started to pick it up as he spoke again.
"You need a ride to the airport?"
Bright asked her hoping she would say yes because a part of him still wasn't ready for her to leave yet and also because this was him stalling, a way for him to find the right words to tell her what he felt.
"No thanks, Nina is taking me."
"Oh."
He let go of the handle of the piece of luggage he was about to hoist on his shoulder if she had said yes instead of her polite no thank you. Something inside him fell a little when she said this. He wasn't ready to let her go just yet, not before he told her and at this point he wasn't sure if he was going to get around to actually telling her before she left. He was starting to second-guess himself. Nervously he nodded towards her.
"Have a good time. I'll see you when you get back."
He thought about hugging her but that would be a little too personal. He wanted to be a little too personal, but he wasn't sure if he was ready right now. This was the entire point of being here in the beginning but now that he thought about it a little more the more nervous he became and he just wasn't sure if this was the right way, right before she leaves. He'd have to wait the whole entire summer until she came back before the two of them could explore this any further, whatever this was. He could wait. No, he wasn't sure. Yes, he was. He could wait. Bright could wait for Hannah, because she was worth it.
He reached out his hand and took her hand in his shaking it.
Stupid, don't shake her hand. Kiss her and tell her how you feel about her. You know that's what you want to do.
"Yeah," she echoed his thoughts, "I'll see you when I get back, too. Bye, Bright."
That sounded so final to him, the words weighed heavily on his mind.
Bye, Bright.
Something about the way she had said that didn't settle with him as he turned to walk way from her. Stopping only a mere second later he blurted out, "Screw this."
Turning back around and closing the distance between them in two long strides he took her in his arms, pressing his mouth against hers he kissed her with everything that he had inside of him, everything that had been screaming at him to do this minutes ago when he had first gotten here to this moment. He reveled in the feel of the softness that was Hannah's lips, his hands sliding around her slender body pulling hers only closer to him, wanting to feel her flush against him and tight. Picking her up he whirled her around completely aware of his babbling self in between kisses.
He'd leaned in saying anything and everything that had come into his mind and finishing with, "You got hot," before he leaned in once more hands traveling up her back, fingers playing with the hem of the shirt she was wearing slipping just slightly underneath and rubbing the soft skin of the small of her back, pulling her even closer and kissing her yet again, thoroughly searching out everything he thought she might be feeling in this given moment feeling her hands holding on tight to him.
When they broke she smiled and whispered softly almost embarrassingly but with a laziness so as not to care about it, "I feel sweaty."
Bright's eyes widened with his chuckle as he stood there holding onto her for another few small minutes before letting her go, letting his own laughter mix with hers. Yeah, oh yeah he could wait this summer out for Hannah because she was worth it and because he liked the way she kissed him back with so much heat and warmth that had matched his own. Why hadn't he tried this already? Why hadn't he just let her kiss him when she had leaned in and tried that first time? All of those questions would be answered and more later, when she returned.
Reluctantly he let her go because he knew that's what he'd have to do smiling secretly to himself and knowing by the time fall reached them once again things would be different, things would definitely be a world of different.