A/N: Hey, guys! This is a fanfic written by me (fuhrmanelephant on tumblr) and a friend and amazing writer (stainedbyblood). Hope you like it!
Summer settled in days ago and the air was already warmer. The raining days were long gone, and now the thoughts were usually occupied by strawberries, good wine and picnics on the beach. Behind the old mansion, the garden was always filled by fresh, colorful flowers, most of them roses. The fountains were pouring water to the grass, as the girl with the flower´s crown read her book, lying on the wet grass. She liked it like that, being surrounded by pure nature while her mind wandered around.
The girl drummed her fingers along as she would flip page after page of the book, her legs moving back and forth. Letter by letter, word by word, sentence by sentence she would fall deeper into the book as she seemed to do with every book. As if the world between the pages somehow seemed more real than her own. The breeze picked up slightly, leaving the girl in the flower crown amazed.
"Beautiful, isn´t it?" the raspy voice sent shivers down the girl´s body. She tilted her head to the side and smiled widely. The grass scratched her head softly, almost tickling her skin.
"It is. What are you doing here?" she asked as her green eyes followed his movements. The blonde laid on the grass, with their bodies very close to each other and picked the book she had placed on her chest when she looked at him.
"My parents are out, on vacation. I was alone at home and decided to see my Clover," the smirk on his lips, so soft and gentle when in contact with her´s, forced a sigh to escape through her lips.
Clove did not know how long their lips were locks. It could have been minutes or hours, though to her the difference did not matter. She pulled away, her silk black hair sprawled in a tangled like vine across his chest, forcing a small smile from the boys lips. The boy reached up to adjust the girls flower crown, seeing as it must have moved during the kiss.
His hands cascaded up her face, leaving invisible marks upon the girl that she knew even a thousand hot showers could never wash away.
"I missed you," she whispered, her eyes wandering through his face. She liked simply staring at his eyes for as long as she could – if it could be days, she would just stay there, contemplating – and run her fingertips across the boy´s jaw and neck. "You should have come here sooner."
"I wanted to," he smirked and pecked her lips, rolling over on the grass and crawling to stay on top of her. Cato brushed the dark locks of hair away from the girl´s face "But I´m here. What was that book you were reading? Or re-reading, I don´t know."
She smiled, her eyes locked on his, as if unable to tear it apart.
"Oh, so you want to know about the book, do you?" A small smirk forms upon her lips.
He nods, his fingers reaching out to cruel across her waist, as if keeping her protected in his embrace. "The day is young, darling, and I would love to hear what happens in that silly little story of yours."
She wrinkled her nose and rolled on the grass, taking the book with her. "It is a love story. Not silly," Clove stuck her tongue out at the boy childishly. The water droplets which had landed on the grass brushed on her skin and she knew that her mother would be really pissed when she saw the state of her white dress "Besides, they are just like us."
Cato raised an eyebrow and, sitting up, he crawled closer to his girl. "And how is that, angel?"
Clove let her gaze fall on the book for a moment, before grasping her fingers on the spine of the book, showing Cato the cover.
"Like I said, it is a love story. A hopeless love story. Only once in your life, I believe, can you truly fall in love with someone. When you fall, you fall hopelessly, as if tumbling through a bottomless pit with only desire and passion, if that makes any sense what so ever…" She stopped mid-sentence.
Cato furrowed his eyebrow, his fingertips brushing across her skin, back and forth, back and forth, a steady rhythm that somehow matched the beat of his heart, oh how silly that did sound.
"Continue," he asked softly, analyzing her expression and the sparkling glint on her eyes as she spoke.
Clove nodded and curled a little so her head would be resting on his lap. Looking up at him, the girl proceeded. "It is the story of a girl who has everything she needs, but only the physical things. Her heart begs for something to warm it, to make her feel loved, and until the moment she meets Peter, she is utterly alone," her voice sounded so soft that it felt like a caress. Cato could feel her breath hitting his face with the breeze, along with the fresh scent of the roses surrounding them and the earth and grass.
"Have you finished reading it yet?" she shook her head slightly and Cato pecked her nose "It sounds pretty familiar."
"It does, doesn´t it?" she giggled lowly when the boy left quick pecks on her neck.
The boy smiled, his lips leaving a messy trail across the girls satin skin, almost as if her skin was his canvas, and he knew he was free to paint anytime.
"It sounds spectacular. You know, I would not mine reading it with you sometime."
Her gaze was fixed on the sky, his warm words that were whispered into her ear exciting her even more.
"Hm, so like a date?"
He nodded softly, smirking slightly. "Yes, angel. A date under the moonlight. Just you and me," he let his fingers wander a bit lower, running down her neck to the girl´s chest. Clove closed her eyes.
"It sounds… good. Where and when?"
"Tomorrow," his fingers moved to her neck again and it was Cato´s lips´ turn to brush on her skin, caressing it like it was the most delicate thing in the world "I will pick you at 8pm. Carissa told me your mom will be out tomorrow."
"Uhm," Clove swallowed and her hand reached for his "I can read you the book if you want. Otherwise you will never finish it and I will never have it back."
He laughed quietly, his girl knew him so well. "I would love that." He whispered against her skin, his hands entangling softly in her hair.
She smiled her heart beating out of her chest as it always did when she was with him. "Mhm, okay. Yeah, my mom will be out tomorrow night." The girl whispered her mind full of only thoughts of tomorrow.
"Then it is settled," The boy began, his fingers continuing down her chest and across her ribcage lightly. "It's a date."
Clove contained her breath as the boy´s fingers moved lower and lower, touching her burning skin. "Cato…"
He bit his bottom lip to contain a chuckle. "Yes, angel?" he asked innocently, as if he had no idea that his touch was driving her crazy.
"Stop teasing me," her attempt to make a firm order was to be heard under the sound of the door of the house being opened. Clove literally sat up with a jump, looking around with wide, startled eyes. "My mom! What is she doing here already?"
Cato immediately pulled his hands away, returning them back to his side as he himself sat up as well, not wanting to be banned from their residence because his angel's mom saw something.
"Hm. Work perhaps?"
The girl shook her head, her nails digging into the wet dirt, noticing how close that was. "No, she normally stays at work until later, though maybe she got let off earlier, I suppose."
He nodded, grabbing the girl´s hand and giving it a gentle, reassuring squeeze, as if to tell her mind to stop worrying. It was funny how fluster his angel could get though.
"C´mon, stand up," he told her, standing up himself and helping her.
Clove pecked his lips and muttered a "thank you, Blondie," before running inside the house to her bedroom. Cato stayed on the garden, waiting for the girl or her cousin to come to find him. There was no reason to worry about Clove´s mother, she hated the garden and didn´t step in there in years.
Minutes later, Cato started hearing voices from inside the mansion. He was now sitting against the wall, just right next to the glass door and he recognized his angel´s voice, weak and defeated. Hearing her like that sent him twinges of pain right to his heart, but the boy knew that the relationship between Clove and her mother was never good and his girl had already lost the hope to make that woman proud of her.
Cato hesitated a moment, his body seeming to have a mind entirely of his own. Within a second, he had opened the glass door and stepped inside his angel's house. This was unknown territory for him and he was beyond worried, but he would do anything for her. So he continued walking, back into the depths of her house, in search for his angel.
Clove twitched in pain, both mentally and physically of course, but she has not won a fight against her mom in years so she gave up trying to win. Now it was all about self-defense. The scars her mom had given her were evident, though she wished nothing more but to make her mom proud. But the thought of running away with Cato seemed to appear half way through the night.
Cato headed to what he thought was the living room, letting the voices guide him to the direction they were coming for. And when he saw it, it was like the animal inside him, the sleeping beast sleeping peacefully, had woken up. The woman had her hand raised and the sound he heard in the following seconds made his blood freeze, to burst into flames in next.
Clove winced and closed her eyes, cupping her cheek, which was now marked by her mother´s cruel hand.
Cato clenched his teeth, storming into the room. His blood was boiling and everything that he had built up, all his sanity, was gone in an instant.
"How dare you!" He shouted, attacking his angel's mother. His hands gripped her cold wrists, his height making him tower over her. He was shaking with rage, in utter disbelief about what had happened. No way was he letting his angel stay with his poor excuse for a mother. No way in hell.
Clove's eyes widen as she watched the two, her hand still on her cheek for support. She could feel her cheek swelling up.
"Who are you?" the woman shouted angrily, trying to jerk away from the huge blonde, but his grip was too strong. Cato clenched his jaw and he glared down at the woman. Who does she thinks she is? He asks himself.
Clove stared at them in disbelief, whispering the only word she was capable to pronounce in a moment like that. "Cato…" she wanted to scream his name, find the strength to pull him away from his mother and tell everything was alright. But she would be lying, and something Clove never was and never would be was a liar.
Cato's eyes were ablaze, the lady in front of him was disgusting.
"Listen to me," he begins, almost spitting the words in the women's face. "You are ugly. You do not touch, Clove, not anymore okay? And if you even talk to her, or lay a finger on her… Mark my words. I will kill you."
Clove's gaze turned to the floor, her mouth open though no words seemed to come out. How could they. She was watching her boyfriend and her mother fight, though the protectiveness that Cato showed made Clove warm on the inside.
"Who are you?" the woman repeated and Cato grabbed her other wrist when she tried to slap him with her free hand. Just like she did to Clove, and just like she wouldn´t do never again.
"I am someone who cares about your daughter, unlike you! And I will make sure no one hurts her, and that includes you, your heartless bitch," he pushed the woman away so hard she bumped on the couch and fell on the floor. Clove took a deep breath and ran towards the boy, taking his hand on hers and running out of the house with him.
"Clove! Come back here!" the screams of her mother made her shrink as she ran, but Clove didn´t look back. Everything, the whole plan she was determined to follow, would be ruined if she did.
Cato held his angel's hand tightly as they ran out of the house. Once they were far enough away, he turned to face her, examining her cheek thoroughly.
"You´re okay?" He asks under his breath. Clove kept her expression flat, her dreams at night of running away with Cato seeming to haunt in brain in this very moment. She did not say anything, in fear that if she did say anything, she would completely fall apart. "I love you," Cato whispered softly. You see, they were special. They saved the 'I love you' s and only said them when extreme situations were happening or were ahead. So it was weird how easily those three words seemed to roll of his tongue.
The girl tilted her head slightly to side, almost as if she was both analyzing and admiring him at the same time.
"I love you too. Cato," her voice is sweet as always, like music to his ears, but there is something underneath it "Let´s run away from here. Just you and me," and Cato could swear that nothing had ever sounded so good.
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