Hello all!
So this is the third Oneshot in the Shuffle challenge. This one actually took longer then anticipated, as I actually started with a different main plot that completely ran away with me. I spent most of my writing time yesterday writing the other fanfic idea before realizing that it had totally gotten away from the message I had taken from the song. Lol so off I went, restarting and ending up with this:)
This fanfic is also an AU fanfic, but this time a modern day one! I won't say anymore at risk of spoiling, but I stepped a little out of my comfort zone for portrayal of Mel so I hope you enjoy since this is a little bit of an experiment.
This was written to Intention by Kiiara
Intention
Thais, known as the shining capital of the Western Empire. It was the city of opportunity and offered work to people from far and wide. Main streets constantly filled with busy traffic as Thais became a round the clock destination.
Further off the beaten path was a series of side streets, fancy neighbourhoods with pretty trim and immaculate gardens. Which is why the figure in dark blue with a hood up tucked over their head in the misty sun was such an odd sight.
At first neighbours eyed the newcomer nervously, then just as quickly seems to recognize them as they spared smiles before returning to their activities. The figure suddenly turned right to jog up a path towards a stately blue house with white trim.
They strolled into the the house before reaching back to flip the hood back, revealing the face of the young woman framed by short black strands.
"I'm home!"
She shrugged off her hoodie and watched as a fat white cat jumped down from the arm of the couch to come thread through her legs, mouth opened in silent meowing. Mel laughed and scratched under the cat's chin, enjoying the feeling of the purr radiating through her fingers.
From the kitchen exited a violet haired young woman, drying her hands on a towel as she smiled brightly at Mel before raising her hands.
"Perfect timing, Edward was just about to send out a small search party. He was positive you had been gone for too long."
The signs were slow and halting, a few mistaken movements that had to be corrected but Mel understood all the same and rolled her eyes with a theatrical sigh.
"He's going to really hate it if I ever get a life that doesn't revolve around these four walls." Mel said with a snort, seeing Stella cover her mouth to muffle a giggle.
"I'm afraid you might be right. He talks about how much he wants you to be able to function again, his favourite baby cousin, but I don't think he'll be able to handle you having a life. Did I tell you, he's all panicked now that he learned that your tutor is suggesting a day trip to get you out of the city so you can test your adaptability in another environment?"
At Stella's statement Mel groaned, passing her cousins wife as she loped into the kitchen.
"Don't even talk about him, I have to deal with my tutor later as it is. I don't want to ruin a perfectly good conversation with discussion about him."
Stella came around to stand in front of Mel, shaking her head with a smile.
"I don't understand why you two fight so much and you act like you hate him. I've seen you interact outside of fighting and you act like good friends for the most part."
Mel grabbed a small chip bag out of the cupboard and took opened it to pop a chip in her mouth, leaning back against the counter comfortably as she shrugged.
"Not friends. We have an agreement, I won't kill him and he won't purposely pile more work on during our sessions." Mel quickly swallowed as her brows furrowed slightly. "Speaking of, I really don't think I need them anymore. My signing is flawless, I can drive just fine now and I've gotten accustom to all the other aspects of my new life for the most part."
Stella tilted her head.
"He says you still need more work so he stays until you don't."
"Joy." Mel muttered.
She saw Stella laugh and smiled wistfully. Her laugh had always been so light and happy, it made a person smile just hearing it.
She really wished that she could hear it herself.
A new person entered the kitchen and Mel looked up to shoot a smile at the brown haired male that grinned brightly at the two girls. He signed a greeting to Mel who gave a lazily salute as he passed her to ruffle her hair on his way to the fridge.
"I was getting worried, you were out for an hour."
"Terribly sorry about that, dad." She said teasingly, her cousin making a face of mock outrage before she saw him laugh and walk over to wrap his arms around Stella. The chocolate skinned woman leaned into her husband and Mel shook her head at their romantic and lovey behaviour although she couldn't help the fond smile that crossed her lips. She really loved her cousin, and Stella who was like a sister to her now.
On Mel's wrist her bracelet suddenly gave a flash of white to pull her out of her thoughts and Mel leaned forward to glare at the door, her bracelet going off in time to the doorbell thanks to the system that Edward had set up for her so that she could see when someone was at the door.
Stella and Edward left the kitchen to answer the door and Mel leaned back against the counter again, enjoying her chips as she ignored the presence of the new company. When a tall figure entered the room she pointedly ignored them. She wasn't able to do that for long however when several long fingers dipped into her chip bag and stole a chip.
"Hey!"
She swatted the hand that pulled back to quick for her to catch, the black haired male in front of her shooting her a wicked smirk and tossing the chip into his mouth.
"Gyendal! You freaking jerk!"
She saw him laugh at her comment, dark green eyes sparkling with mischief as he quickly sighed a reply.
"What a cheerful greeting Mel, it's nice to see you too."
Mel gave a roll of her eyes as she pushed off the counter to stand.
"What are we doing today oh obnoxious and irritating one?"
"We're going through University application paperwork, I brought a folder with all the extra paperwork you need to look through since you're going through their assisted education program for disabled students." Gyendal signed, Mel nodding and starting out to the main living area to the long hall that led to the back patio.
Mel pushed through the back patio door to situate herself on the mini couch, Gyendal taking a seat next to her and pulling a thick folder out of his bag. The next hour was spent going through booklets of information and paperwork for her entry into the program.
"See, this is useful help. Why can't you be this helpful all the time?"
He raised a brow.
"Why I'm always useful. I help you build your patience."
"Yeah, I have Edward for that so you aren't needed. He can't even say the word deaf without mentally preparing himself as if I'm going to shatter like a glass doll. I went deaf almost a year ago, and he still can't fully process it." Mel said with a sigh.
He shrugged at her dismissal of her comment, smirking slightly.
"Oh you need my help, you're positively hopeless when it comes to winning battles to do what you want without Edward hovering over you like a haunting spirit. You really need to get a spine, it's rather sad."
Mel narrowed her eyes at the male in front of her, severely aggravated by the fact that he was unfortunately telling the truth. But never one to back down from a challenge Mel resorted to the next best thing, obnoxious comebacks.
"Bite me."
Gyendal blinked, as if taken aback by her words before a slow grin crawled across his face. The black haired male suddenly leaned in, arm moving so that his hand curved over her shoulder furthest from him as he tilted his head in mock question.
"Is that an order Mel?"
Her eyes went wide as she read his statement and she reared back, her cheeks going bright red.
"WHA-what the hell?! No!"
She saw him laugh before pulling back and turning back to the paperwork as he signed his reply without looking up.
"Just checking. I'd hate to not be a help."
Mel spluttered, glaring at Gyendal who easily ignored her.
"You're such a creep."
He gave a lazily thumbs up before going right back into business mode, Mel left to catch up with the abrupt switch as she recovered from his comment.
Stupid jerk.
The rest of the session went relatively well and that evening after Gyendal had finally left, she quickly finished having dinner and cleaning up the dishes afterwards with Edward and Stella before heading upstairs to go through the paperwork.
As the night progressed however, her work slowed until she was sitting staring blankly at the papers in front of her.
She put on a good mask, pretended everything was okay. But every minute closer to tomorrow had her nerves beginning to fray.
Tomorrow would mark exactly one year since her accident and her going deaf.
Mel sat on the corner of the loveseat, flipping idly through a magazine as she cuddled with the household cat snowball. It was evening outside and although she had managed to hide away for most of the day to watch movies with the subtitles on but they had managed to drag her out for dinner and convince her to stick around. She was quite regretting that decision however as her already thin patience was slowly being worn down but Edward fussing over her.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Edward hovering around the edge of the couch. He was pretending to read as he watched her, but the upside down book in his hand was a very clear give away that he hadn't even taken even a word of that book in.
All her muscles were tense as he finally stood and approached Mel for the millionth time that day, reaching out to set his hand on her shoulder to catch her attention as he signed to her.
"How are you do-?!"
Mel instantly ripped her shoulder free, Snowball tumbling off her lap onto the couch as she shot to her feet to face Edward.
"Would you stop?! I'm not a child or some sort of invalid! I don't need your fussing, I don't want your concern, what I want is for you to back off!"
Edward pulled back, defensiveness in his expression.
"I'm just worried about you! You've been off all day!"
"And it's not going to help with you asking me the same question every half hour Edward! I'm fine!"
Stella came rushing down the stairs at the sound of the arguing and came quickly up to Edwards side, catching his arm worriedly as she stated between the cousins.
"You're not fine! You haven't been fine in a year Mel, you changed after your accident and going..." His signing faltered and Mel's tempter spiked.
"Deaf? Is that the word you were looking for?" Mel hissed, fists clenched. "It's not that hard to say Edward, D E A F."
"I-"
"You know what? I don't care. I'm going out."
She turned and stormed to the door, grabbing her coat and shoving her feet into her brown boots as she snatched a set of keys off one of the hooks and left the house with nothing more then a flash of her cellphone to Edward and Stella to show at she was still able to be contacted.
Then with a slamming of the door Mel peeled out of the driveway and out onto the road.
Her grip on the wheel was tight, eyes wet although she refused to let herself acknowledge it as tears. Her brain was on autopilot as she made her way to where she had been going since the accident that had deafened her as her way to connect to what she had lost. She just needed to get away, she couldn't handle this.
Mel followed the roads up through the city before suddenly pulling off through several side roads onto a gravel path that led outside the city. She drove all the way out to a bluff where she parked her car looking out over the city below. Hands trembling slightly she reached into her glove compartment and withdrew a CD, one of her favourites from before the accident.
She put the cd in, turning volume and base up as close to max as she dared before climbing out of her car and hopping up on the hood. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes and she allowed her head to droop forward as the base vibrated through her body.
This is what she was reduced to, trapped in her world of silence as she struggled to fight her way back to the word she could never fully be part of again. Didn't ever know what everyone was saying but knew they were talking so loud. It felt like every day she was drowning alone, no one to anchor her as the bitterness swept her out.
All of this because she had been late for work. Running across the intersection just as someone ran a red light, she had ever seen it coming and when it was all over the driver had walked away unscathed while she had been left in a two week coma. When she woke up she had lost a part of her world, lost in the silence.
She had expected to be able to sit out here as long as she wanted without disturbance when she felt a different sort of rumbling in the ground. Blinking she turned to face the road, watching as a black sports car carefully pulled onto the side of the bluff, Mel letting out a growl as she realized who was coming to invade her peace.
"Gyendal! What the hell do you want?!" She shouted angrily as she watched him get out of his car.
Much to her frustration he ignored her words, hands shoved deep into his leather coats pockets as he strolled over and stopped in front of her.
"Next time call someone when you want to take off like that." He said, slow enough that she could read his words.
"What are you doing here?" Mel bit out.
"You do foolish thungs when you're angry, I figure that if your cousins aren't around to handle it someone else might as well make sure nothing you do is damaging." He signed, having pulled his hands out of his pockets for easier conversation.
"I don't need a babysitter." She sneered, fists clenched in her lap.
"Well then it's a good thing I'm not here to be one isn't it?" Gyendal signed back, Mel looking away with a hiss.
"Just leave, I don't want to deal with you."
"I'm not going anywhere Mel, not when you're like this."
Mel snarled through her teeth, eyes blazing.
"Goddess, what is wrong with you people! I'm not going to shatter the moment someone gets out of my face about this for five flipping minutes, I'm so sick of being babied and treated like an invalid just because I'm deaf! I don't need a pity friend so get out of my face and leave me alone!"
Mel moved to shove off her car hood, but to hands slammed down on the car on either side of her, her eyes widening in shock as Gyendal loomed over her. She slowly leaned back as the black haired male in front of her leaned into her space.
"I want to make something crystal clear to you Mel, I never was and I never will be a 'pity friend'." Each word was clearly enunciated and Mel could easily read what he was saying perfectly. "That was never my intention behind any of this, you of all people should know that I don't waste my time like that."
Mel was riding on her anger, to keep herself from hitting the emotional crashpoint and so she threw a challenge at the feet of the man before her without thought, pain bubbling up inside her with the desire to lash out.
"Really? Because I happen to remember reading Edward's lips in the reflection of the window when he pulled you aside and asked you to "be a friend" since I was 'all alone' and he was worried about me." Mel spat. "You aren't doing this for pity? Prove it."
In hindsight her words were rather stupid. Gyendal wasn't a personality that played pretty word games, he knew what he wanted and he went for it.
Gyendal's eyes narrowed dangerously, and he tilted his head slightly as he slowly replied.
"You, really need to learn how to shut up."
Mel never got the chance to react as he took advantage of her concentration reading his words and pressed his lips to hers.
Frozen in shock, she never reacted as he moved his lips across hers. After a moment of her lack of reaction he slowed, then began to shift back from her. That was all it took to snap Mel out of her frozen state as she surged forward after him and kissed him hard.
It was exhilarating, the sudden clarity to the chaos that had filled her mind as she grabbed onto his arms that caged her in on either side.
Finally they slowed and stopped, both catching their breath as Mel leaned forward to rest her forehead against his shoulder. After a minute he reached up, pulling her back so that she could see his hands as he signed.
"This was never pity, and if that didn't prove it I don't know what will."
Mel's hands gravitated to grip the open ends of his coat, pulling him closer as she allowed a hint of a smile.
"Not to worry, I think that quite perfectly cleared up your intentions."
So what did you think? Reviews are welcome! Flames shall be laughed at, posted for others to laugh at, and ignored as I continue writing stories.
