Alright so, Hi. It's been a while *nervous laugh*I'M SO SORRY.To be honest, I had been diagnosed with Anorexia and was going through hell for the past year and a half, so I had to halt all of my stories.But I decided to finish all of the incomplete ones one at a time, giving enough importance to them all. While I was going through my unfinished files, this story popped up as an incomplete oneshot that I decided to edit and publish for you to read!It's a Subaru x Tatara story (I was experimenting lmao)Please please send me reviews, they make me super happy!On with the story now!
Written in the stars.
"Why does he always cover his face?"
If the strawberry blond maiden was to sit and count how many times she had been asked this question in all her time as his partner, it would take her an eternity and a day.
Still, resisting the temptation to roll her eyes, she would smile and say,
"Because he's shy."
This wasn't entirely a lie, albeit not the complete truth.
It had intrigued her how he had always been alone whenever she had seen him in her younger days, never uttering a word, never with anyone.
Just a lone wolf.
And perhaps fate wanted her to find out just as much, because after being appointed as a heavenly commander, she was quickly assigned to be his companion.
Strict by his principles and avoiding social gatherings, he had never disagreed to anything she had said, almost irritatingly so.
At one point in their time together, Subaru recalled having very rudely asked him to at least hold a few opinions of his own, something she came to regret after seeing - well more like reading - the crestfallen expression his face.
Thinking back, maybe she had just wanted him to open up to her.
After calming down, Subaru realised one thing.
Nobody would willingly wear a cloth over the part of their being that held most most was definitely a secret and/or a difficult past behind all of it.
It was out of character for her to even raise her voice, but it had just happened. Learning from the incident, she decided to try and understand him better, to be an actual partner, not just for namesake.
Everytime they patrolled the streets, the blond would hear giggles and snickers directed to the duo. Even though the snow haired, cat eared six century old commander would pretend it didn't bother him, she wasn't one to be fooled.
So, keeping in mind the attention she would draw, Subaru made possibly the most difficult decisions of her life.
From a woman who had always tried to keep attention a mile's radius away from her, she became one with it.
A gaudy dress complete with a corset and bonnet secured in place , she stood out to most people and they found her strange, overdressed and an all round psycho.
Which was her motive exactly.
The gesture didn't fall on blind eyes at all; Tatara was quick to notice that she had tackled his attention drawing issue by worsening the matter in a smart way.
Birds of a feather flock together?
Even though it was a rash way to help, he was grateful and felt as though she had extended an offer of friendship.
To which he obliged.
He began to ease in her presence, occasionally smiling, laughing and being more expressive. After years of being shrouded in darkness all alone, he was being guided towards the light.
Happiness was probably an understatement.
In time, she was able to read his emotions better, then form words with just an expression on his face and after a while, Subaru could even predict how he would react to a particular situation.
She never questioned his identity, trusting that he would reveal everything at his own pace. But that did not quell the now twenty something year old woman's curiosity.
That was, until one day she saw it.
On a mission, things had taken a turn for the worst, when Subaru had injured herself and was caught by one of the Class S impurities that laughed maniacally, crushing her in its grasp.
At the site of her shrieking in pain, Tatara grew more furious, his entire body seething with anger.
In a fit of insane rage, ropes of white energy began to surround him and with a loud scream, the mask tore of his face.
His skin was sheet white, dry and scaly like that of a snake. Golden scales appeared in a cluster of two to many decorating his visage like tiny jewels. His eyes were large and appeared a light shade under the crimsom sky of Magano.
His strength was unmatchable to anybody.
After annihilating the beast, Subaru landed on the rocky hard ground with a thud. Tatara raced the where she was, sitting down beside her injured body.
His eyebrows furrowed in confusion at her look of surprise.
"Your face..." She had whispered, more to herself than him.
He gasped in realization and frantically looked for a way to cover what he had always considered a hideously disfigured part of him.
Without conscious knowledge of her acts, Subaru reached for his face, tracing a finger down the scaly flesh.
He turned to look at her in alarm, flinching at the sudden contact, but easing into her touch.
She caressed his skin with her fingertips, a smile adorning her elegant feminine features.
"So beautiful..."
No mask could ever hide the fusion of surprise and embarrassment that decorated the heavenly commander's face at that particular moment.
Never in nearly a thousand years had anybody called him beautiful.
Still, she sensed his discomfort without his cover and tore a portion of her own clothing to work as a substitute.
He had always kept the piece of cloth with him no matter where he went after that.
A relic of his precious partner.
She would never forget that day, sitting under the bitter and dark sky of the den of impurities, listening to his story of 600 years. She leaned on him, placing her head on his firm shoulders.
After years of wandering, he had found his place at last.
By her side.
That day hence, he never left her side and she, his. Wherever they were assigned, they'd go together and face troubles hand in hand.
She introduced him to different food and found that he enjoyed eating bread crusts. She'd bring packets of them for her partner whenever she could.
But one thing had never left her mind since that day.
His beautiful face.
She often found herself staring at him, imagining how he looked under the mask at that moment, how every reaction he made would appear. And at his quizzical expression, she would shyly look away.
A seed had been sown in her heart that had taken over every waking thought in her mind and she couldn't for the life of her, figure how to get rid of it.
Still, life went on.
They were comfortable in each other's company, sharing the same residence to drown out each other's loneliness.
Inseparable, everyone called them. Subaru took quite a liking to that word.
She pushed open the door of her dining room, still in her night robes.
It was a new day and yet the goddess could hardly keep her eyes open after the tiresome mission they had taken care of.
Tatara raised his head from the packet of bread crusts to greet his housemate, one that had she not known him for those many years, she'd never even have noticed.
She stood at their large table, absent mindedly trying to cut an apple, lost in her own thoughts of the man that sat across the room, mindlessly munching on his favorite snack.
So, Subaru wasn't surprised when she had distractedly, sliced right through her palm.
That's what you get for harbouring unnecessary thoughts.
A hand on her shoulder yanked her back to reality, Tatara stood behind her with in concern, the site of blood dripping down her hand evidently worrying him.
Had he always noticed her like that? She wondered.
He pulled the cloth off his face without second thought, quickly trying to stop the blood that gushed out without a sign of stopping.
And just like that, she was smitten again.
His beautifully scaled skin, his sharp features, amber irises concentrated on bandaging her wound, it all drew her to him in this clichéd sort of way.
And she knew better than to resist it.
As her fingers ran along the side of his face, she knew he felt something too.
Something he couldn't hide on his bare face. It seemed to be to her advantage that he wasn't aware of how to hide his emotions without hiding behind his mask.
She loved it.
The maiden realized that it was experimenting in those ungodly hours of the night, under warm blankets and dimly lit bedrooms when she had slowly begun to unravel under his gentle touch, that he had breathed life into her boring, meaningless existence.
And the only form of gratitude he appreciated was her in his arms whenever possible and at all times, not more than a meters distance away from him.
It was only on a day of reporting, when she stood talking to Arima about everything, that she really understood what her heart was saying to her.
Doesn't that mean you love him? He asked her with a warm smile on his face, one rare for a brat like him.
And that was that.
Their journey was never something to write a story about, nor was it a mind blowing tale to be passed over generations, but to her, it was everything she had wished for without ever even knowing it.
It felt as if the universe was drawing me to you from the first time I saw you, he said to her one night, fingers tracing her spine in adoration.
Like we were written in the stars.
And she knew then, that always, would always mean something in between them.
Till death do us part, she whispered before closing her eyes to the world, laying in the arms of the man she now knew she loved.
Happiness, truly, was an understatement.
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you liked it!