A/N: Firstly I want to thank everyone for leaving reviews on the previous two chapters. Those are what motivated me to keep writing all these weird AUs I have for this ship.
A little bit of background is required for this one. This is set in a non-Beyblade universe, with Tyson and Hilary being next door neighbours since birth. The first half may feel a bit too focused on Hilary and her family, but that bit really helps set the tone for the story. This definitely would have worked better as a multi-chapter fic but then I don't think I would've ever finished it. The scenes may seem kind of short and rushed for a one-shot but I still hope that you enjoy this.
Summary: Hilary's one little rebellious adventure leads to her keeping a secret from Tyson that is bigger than his head.
Tale 05
The first time her mother took her on set, Hilary had just turned eight years old.
It was her birthday, and her grandparents had insisted that they visit them at any cost, so her mother had donned her in a new yukata and arranged her somewhat shoulder length hair and unruly bangs into the most neatly tied bun, making Hilary feel like a princess. And just as they were about to head out, her mother received a call from work and suddenly the little girl was pulled into a world that many could only dream of being a part of.
Emma Tachibana, a world famous fashion photographer, had thought about giving up her job and settling down after giving birth many a times, but her husband, Tsuyoshi, would always see through her façade and convince her to keep going, to keep following her passion until she was sure she didn't need to anymore. Emma had always tried to keep her daughter away from the glamorous yet toxic industry she was a part of, but it was only a matter of time until Hilary was swept in alongside her. On her daughter's eighth birthday, Emma received a call from one of her recent clients, who insisted that they redo some shots from a recent session as the editor of the fashion magazine had made some last minute changes to their spreads. With Tsuyoshi not scheduled to return from his overseas trip until later that night, she begrudgingly took Hilary along to the shooting venue, only to have her worst fears confirmed.
The minute the mother-daughter duo entered, scouts from different agencies were upon them in an instant.
"Oh Ms. Emma, is that your daughter?"
"Your daughter looks like an angel, Ms. Emma!"
"Ms. Emma if you ever plan on having her debut, please consider our company."
"Oh no, Ms. Emma, you must entrust your daughter to us, we have nurtured such big stars-"
Emma managed to muster all her motherly energy to shield her daughter from the vultures pouncing at them until they managed to reach a secluded space where she could breathe freely, without a business card being pushed into her face. After a few deep breaths, she knelt down to check up on Hilary, when she came face to face with her daughter, she saw that her child's face was flushed and her eyes seemed dazed with rush and excitement, the expectant look Hilary wore made Emma raise her eyebrows in surprise. In the camellia patterned white and red yukata, with her chocolate coloured hair pinned perfectly into place, and her ruby eyes holding a zealous look to match, Emma could see the same potential the scouts had seen in her daughter, and she made a mental note to never dress up Hilary if she were to tag along again in the future.
"I'm sorry Hils, it's your birthday and here we are at your Mama's office," Emma started to apologise, she knew the shoot would take a few hours and it plunged her heart with guilt knowing that her daughter would have to sit in a corner silently, on her birthday.
"It's okay! I don't mind because it looks so exciting. Not like Papa's office, which is so boring," Within a minute, her daughter's expression went from excited to deadpan, making Emma think once again that maybe her child was indeed suited for facing a camera, but she quickly brushed it aside, reaffirming to herself that Hilary will make these decisions for herself as and when she got older and Emma would support her then.
With one last apology and a quick hug, Emma straightened up and readied herself for work, leaving Hilary to sit and observe from a far off corner with her manager standing guard over her.
x
The second time Hilary was exposed to the world of fashion and photoshoots was by her mother's own accord.
It was a usual summer morning at the Tachibana household, her father had burnt his tongue yet again by drinking his coffee too fast as her mother attended to a business phone call on the porch in the background. Hilary muttered a few words of consolation to her father as she cleared up their dining table of breakfast remnants. Sundays were usually the days she handled chores so both her parents could relax and enjoy their days off. Although for her mother, a day off from work never really meant the same thing as fashion emergencies seemed to be more common than one would assume.
As Hilary started on the dishes, her mother came back into the kitchen, looking a bit confused and lost, which was an unusual look on the always focused Emma Tachibana.
"Is something wrong Mom?" Hilary asked softly both out of concern and curiosity.
Her mother pursed her lips in reply, she had registered the brunette's question but it seemed that she was wavering over how to answer it.
"Em chan, what's wrong?" This time it was her father who reiterated the question, soft yet more sternly than Hilary had.
"One of the journals that focus on celebrating photographers, want to do a cover story on me…" came her mother's unsure reply.
Both Hilary and her father exchanged looks of joy and showered her mother with congratulatory phrases.
"I know, I know, it's a great honour. They want to focus on my background you know? My shift from England to Japan and…they want me to photograph some things based on a theme…" her mother still looked a bit lost as she answered automatically, talking more to herself than the other two family members.
"That seems interesting. Of course they want to focus on the England part, everyone always wants to know that," her father replied, rolling his eyes at the obviousness of the questions and then continued, "what theme do they want you to follow?"
"This is the bit that is confusing me, they want me to photograph something or someone that I love…" Emma answered, a bit of clarity returning to her face as she settled on the seat next to her husband and faced him.
"And that is confusing because?" Tsuyoshi prodded once again, seeing that his wife was a bit more relaxed now than when she had entered the kitchen a few minutes ago.
"Well of course the one person I love the most is Hilary, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea for her photos to be printed publicly…"Her mother locked eyes with her and although Hilary felt herself blush slightly at the statement, her heart suddenly started beating faster as the thought of her face covering the front page of a magazine registered into her brain.
"Wait, I'm not the one you love the most?" Her father cried out mockingly, a fake look of betrayal settling on his face.
"Don't look so surprised Tsu kun." Emma shook her head at the antics of her husband, as she passed another unsure look in her daughter's direction.
"So the problem is that as her mother you don't want her photos to be printed in a magazine but as an artist you have to stick to your intuitions." Tsuyoshi laid down the dilemma in simple words, tapping his finger against his chin as he mused over a solution. "In that case, why don't you let the subject decide?"
Both her parents looked at her in unison, her mother seemed doubtful still and her father looked jovial, as he always did.
"It would be kind of awkward I suppose…" Hilary replied, keeping her voice as stable as possible. Her mother had always been good at reading her expressions so the brunette tried her best to keep the excitement she was feeling in her chest from showing on her face or voice, "But then again, nobody I know or nobody in Bakuten to be exact, would ever read a Photography based journal, so there's no harm in trying." She finished
"She makes some very good points, Em chan."
There wasn't much left to debate over after that, as it was decided that Hilary would be the subject of her mother's project. She managed to play it off coolly in front of her parents, but as soon as she bid them good night and shut her room's door, she squealed into her pillow letting all her pent up energy from the day out in one go.
She fell asleep that night remembering the scene from her birthday all those years ago, when the model had walked into the shoot and everyone and everything had settled down immediately, all eyes and attention on the model only. Her younger self had been awestruck too, like everyone else, but the real amazement had hit her when even that model who had such a strong aura, had to abide by her mother's queues. When all eyes had been on the model, Hilary had watched her mother, commanding the shoot and controlling the room and discovered a side of her that she had never seen before at home. It was one of those memories that remained clearly etched in her mind, serving always as a reminder of how appealing her mother's workplace had looked to her when she was a child.
But her giddiness could only last so long, as her mother informed her next day, that she would take Hilary's photos around their house and there will be no need for them to rent a shooting venue. Her mother wanted to tell a more homely story with these set of photos, clarifying with her team from the start that she wouldn't require any assistance or any set up, Hilary was disappointed, but she had to maintain her aloofness, so she quietly went along with whatever her mother had planned. The grand scenario she had built up in her head, picturing herself as that model from all those years ago was completely doused with her mother's bucket of reality. As quickly as her interest had escalated in being the centre of the photoshoot, it faded even faster. The shoot finished uneventfully and Hilary moved on from it by the end of the week, completely forgetting about the fact that the photos would be published in a journal only read by professionals and people from the industry.
x
It was about a month later, when the sixteen year old received an intriguing email. The crust of the message was simple, they had seen her photos in a recent issue and were interested in giving her a chance to do some gravure work for a newly introduced magazine aimed towards young adults. Hilary read and reread the whole thing multiple times before the email actually registered in her head. She couldn't believe it and had to pinch her cheeks till they stung, to remind herself that she really wasn't dreaming. Any girl her age would think it surreal, that a simple set of photos of herself, wearing the most plain clothes imaginable, just lounging about her house could get her an opportunity to be a model.
She was elated, but she also knew that she should not have received the email. Her mother had asserted with her team and company time and again that if any other agency were to show interest in Hilary, they must go through Emma first. So for the teen to directly receive the mail in her personal inbox, was suspicious, but the rush she felt from the thought of taking up this offer without telling her mother was indescribable. Her father always joked around about Hilary entering her rebellious phase sooner or later, and she wondered if it had finally begun.
It was a difficult task keeping it all a secret from her mother considering how close they were. But Hilary managed it nonetheless, carrying two large cans of pepper spray in her bag and her father's number ready on speed dial on her phone, Hilary arrived at the venue mentioned in the email, well prepared to dash out of there if things went south. But to her pleasant surprise, the agency seemed decent enough, most of the staff present for the shoot were female, the person in-charge and the photographer included. The shoot in itself wasn't anything demanding, they dressed her up in a typical sailor style school uniform, the skirt length just a tad bit short for Hilary's liking but nothing to call the police over. Her bangs were pinned back and the rest of her hair was straightened, with the addition of extensions to make it fall below her waist. They barely applied any make-up on her and when she passed by the mirror, she couldn't believe how much she managed to look like someone else, while looking exactly like her self.
When the camera fixed onto her, Hilary felt herself move in a way that she didn't know she was capable of. Her face and body responded immediately to the photographer's cues, sometimes even before. She wondered if her mother had always known that she was capable of doing this, and doing it well. If so why had she kept Hilary so far away from all of this? The more she thought about her mother, the more motivated and confident she became with herself. At the end of the shoot, when the team went over the photos, she beamed when everyone showered her with compliments about her talent for modelling.
However, after the costume and the make-up was off, Hilary felt some guilt seep into her veins as she realised that she had gone and done something that she would not be able to take back, that could even possibly damage her relationship with her mother. So when it was time to leave, the brunette came clean to the manager about how her mother, Emma, was not aware about today's activity and once she found out about it, things would not be smooth sailing for anyone. The manager seemed to have worked with her mother prior to this, so she understood Hilary quite well and told her that they would happily welcome her whenever she decides to give this a try again.
The first few days of keeping it a secret from her mother was easy, Emma wasn't home most of the time and Hilary would just keep herself busy with house chores and her studies. But the more they would sit down to talk, the more difficult it became for Hilary to continue acting like she hadn't gone behind her mother's back just a week ago. She had never been a good liar, everyone around her always told her that. When it came to lying Hilary would feel her whole body freeze up, her brain panicking and coming up with the most outrageous excuses that would instantly give her away.
Just a day before the magazine in which her photos were set to appear was slated to be released, Hilary caved into her goody-two-shoes self and came clean to her mother about everything that had happened. It was the first time she had seen her mother get truly angry, the hell that broke loose in their house was something nobody in her family was prepared to handle. At first it was her mother shouting, then she shouted back, all the anger she had felt on the day of the shoot after realising that her mother had been keeping this feeling of being so much in control from her for so long, came out at once. Her father was stuck mediating between the two and it wasn't until they had the magazine in their hands the next day, that Hilary and her mother agreed to be in the same room.
There were only two photos of her spread across one full page each. This calmed her mother down considerably and even her father relaxed once he flipped through the whole issue just to make sure that there weren't any more. There was nothing particularly wrong with the photos either, in one Hilary was sitting with her legs folded towards one side and fixing her hair, a thoughtful look on her face. The other was a close up of hers from waist up, where her eyes were twinkling just the right amount and a coy smile had settled on her lips, her hair was pulled back into a high bun in this one and she remembered how tightly the dresser had tied it on the day against her feeble protests.
When her parents relievedly remarked over the normalcy of both the photos, she had to roll her eyes at their reactions and remind them that her IQ was higher than theirs combined. It didn't strike Hilary as odd that despite of more than ten or so photos being finalised on the day of the shoot, only two were actually used. Paying more attention towards making up with her mother, she breezed over other doubts that may have prepared her for what the future held. With Emma agreeing to not keep offers like this away from Hilary and the latter agreeing to only going ahead with shoots that were approved by her mother, the Tachibana household settled down back into a comfortable routine after a troubling two days.
Flipping through the magazine in her free time once again, Hilary stared at her photos and the more she looked, the more irked she became by it. She started to wonder that the girl looking back at her was not her after all, with some confusion filled disdain, she slammed the magazine shut. The brunette came to the conclusion that these photos were enough proof of her teenage rebellion and she decided that she would never do something like this again. She shoved the magazine behind the books in her shelf in an attempt to completely wipe the memories of those photos from her head.
But in that moment she had no idea about how the photos would come back to haunt her.
x
The Kinomiyas had lived next door to Hilary all her life and unfortunately, their son was the same age as her, which meant that they always ended up next to each other, even when they actively tried to stay a hundred feet apart. Tyson Kinomiya had made her life a living hell from the day their mothers had introduced them as toddlers, there was photographic evidence of it too, if he wasn't pulling her hair, then he was stealing her crayons or putting bugs in her school bag. Hilary was sure she could never dislike someone as much as she did Tyson, for he embodied everything that she hated about man kind. He was arrogant, lacked basic table manners, had no concept of fear or shame, a show-off but most of all, he was handsome which automatically made him the most popular person in the small town of Bakuten and impossible to get rid off.
Hilary was unsure about the kind of diabolical pleasure their parents derived from always coupling them together, despite of both the teens making their hatred of each other known very publicly. Their shouting matches were now just considered a regular occurring around the town and Tyson's father loved to joke about how very soon it would be added as an event in the tourism pamphlet of Bakuten.
The only thing common between Tyson and Hilary was that neither of them found that joke funny.
And yet somehow walking to school together every morning was a routine the teens hadn't bothered to shake off. Considering that they had always ended up in the same class together since kindergarten, after starting elementary school Hilary's parents had decided that it worked better for their schedule if she just went to school with Tyson instead of them having to take her. Of course Hilary was planning to take this grudge against her parents to her grave, but she obliged them anyway. When they were younger, she would always be waiting for him outside her house and they would always reach school just before the warning bell rang, running and gasping for breath because Tyson was a lazy bum who could never wake up on time. But in middle school, his morning practice would require him to reach early and this elated Hilary because there was nothing that she enjoyed more than reaching somewhere well before time. A trait Tyson somehow managed to turn into a scathing insult every now and then.
It wasn't uncommon for them to end up in each other's rooms either. Sometimes her mother would make a dish for the Kinomiyas, and Hilary would be tasked with its delivery. Tyson's mother would always make her stay for some tea and snacks and usher her into his room, if he was home, without ever asking if that is where she wanted to sit. Tyson would be tasked with the same responsibilities, only her mother never shoved him into her room, he would always saunter up on his own and lean against the doorframe of her room and annoy her relentlessly until she got up and physically pushed him out their front door. If Tyson ever dropped by when she wasn't home, he would make sure to nab her alarm clock from her room or hide her completed homework into the most obscure of corners, just to get on her nerves.
So when on a fine Saturday evening, Hilary came back from an Aquarium visit with her father and noticed that her alarm clock was gone, she promptly made her way to Tyson's house, his elder brother letting her in with a grin and without asking any questions after taking one look at her seething face. She barged into his room, without knocking, and her eyes went straight to the desk where her clock was kept in plain sight. She didn't even spare the blue haired boy a glance as she picked it up, some calmness returning to her being as she felt the cool metal against her skin. She turned on her heels to shoot a menacing glare in the room owner's direction, but instead of the teenage boy sprawled across the bed, Hilary's eyes landed first on a new poster now hanging on the wall above it.
Her bright ruby eyes stared back at her.
The alarm clock slipped through her grip, crashing to the floor with a loud bang.
This caught Tyson's attention as he shot her an incredulous look, but Hilary's brain was already spiralling for her to take note of anything else.
It was her photo, from the shoot she had done some months ago that was now hanging on her nemesis' wall.
Her photo which had only been published in an A4 sized magazine but was now hanging as a full sized poster on the wall of the person she hated the most in the entire world.
Her face was staring back at her from directly above Tyson's bed.
She raised a shaky finger and pointed it towards the poster, managing only a whisper she asked him, "What is that?"
Tyson's eyes followed her finger and as they landed on the poster, a smirk settled on his face, "That's a poster, Hilary. Is it your first time seeing one?"
His sarcastic tone helped her regain some of her senses back and she blinked a few times as she tried to rephrase her questions in a way that would get through Tyson's thick skull, "Where did you get it?"
"I'm one of the few lucky ones you know," Tyson replied proudly, he leapt from his bed and crossed her to get to his desk, their shoulders brushed for a moment but Hilary was still too dazed to notice the contact. He picked up the magazine lying on top of it and continued, "they only put the pin-up in 100 copies, so I'm one of the lucky 100 people across Japan to have that up on my wall."
Hilary instantly snatched the book from his hands, ignoring his cries about being careful with it, she flipped through the pages till she came across two in the middle that had her photos on it. They were different from the ones published in the issue that she owned. One was a close up of her face where she had cupped her chin with both her hands and was smiling brightly, the other one was a shot taken from behind where she was looking over her shoulder, into the camera. She quickly looked at the cover of the magazine and saw that it was the latest issue from this month, her eyes glanced at the pin-up, which was one of the photos from the first issue, where she was smiling in a manner she had hoped Tyson would never be privy of.
His fingers touched up against hers as he took the magazine back from her clutches and dropped it back on his desk. She scowled at him and he just rolled his eyes in response, when their eyes met for a second as he went back to settle on his bed, it dawned on Hilary.
Tyson hadn't realised that she was the model yet.
She looked at him comfortably settling back in his bed and picking up the comic he was reading before she barged in. Her brain still hadn't processed the fact that the magazine was still using photos from her shoot, hell they were giving out huge posters of her face at random, and adding Tyson's interest towards it was enough to make her head explode then and there. The only thing that would bring her some peace of mind, would be not seeing her face above Tyson's bed so she decided to tackle the problem at hand first, the magazine would be dealt with later.
"You shouldn't put stuff like that up on your wall for everyone to see." She stated bossily, folding her arms across her chest. She nitpicked about his behaviour and general existence all the time so a statement like this wouldn't seem odd to Tyson.
He lowered the comic he was reading and snickered at her, raising an eyebrow he asked, "Are you jealous Hilary?"
"Jealous of what?" She spat back automatically, the look on his face was so infuriating and the fact that he was acting so obnoxious when he hadn't realised that he had her face plastered across his wall, made her blood boil and her motive of getting the poster off the wall was forgotten as she readied herself for an argument.
"Jealous that I'm into this pretty girl, and not you."
His stupidity had truly reached new heights.
"Do not flatter yourself Kinomiya, I would rather die a slow, excruciating death than have you be 'into' me." She snorted, his ability to make everything about himself never failed to amuse her.
"Sure, deny it all you want Tachibana." He taunted her, a sly grin spreading across his face.
"I have a type actually. And you're planets away from it."
"Oh please enlighten me what the great Hilary Tachibana's type is," He was laughing now, and all Hilary had wanted to do was get him to take her face off of his wall, but somehow she was never able to stay on track when it came to him and here they were talking about her preferred type of men.
"I prefer the calm and collected type, like the exchange student in our class, Rei!"
She watched triumphantly as his laugh faltered, whatever he was expecting as a reply it was clear he hadn't fathomed that she would toss a name at him. Satisfied with his annoyed reaction, Hilary picked up her now slightly damaged alarm clock, and slammed the door behind her as she exited his room. She wanted to leave before he could come up with a retort because she wasn't sure how long she would be able to keep her emotions from overflowing if they kept talking about romance. This subject had never been breached between them, of course they did bring it up in forms of various insults but they'd never talked about it. Tyson had never told her about the kind of girl he likes, and she definitely wasn't expecting it to be a dolled up version of herself. As she entered her own house and hurriedly looked for her mother, Hilary made a mental note to avoid going into Tyson's room until the poster was off the wall.
Her parents were rightfully enraged after she told them what had happened, and her mother immediately pulled up her contact from the magazine's agency and drilled them for answers. Apparently, Hime, the pen name Hilary had used for herself, had gained some popularity among their readers and they'd received multiple requests from fans to see more of her. Knowing that Hilary would not show up for any more shoots, they were just reusing whatever photos they could from her earlier shoot. The agency politely reminded them of the contract Hilary had willingly signed, giving them ownership over the photos so if they wanted to, they could sell life-sized cardboard cutouts, pin-ups of hers and posters were rudimentary. After her parents grudgingly admitted defeat, the agency had the gall to ask her mother to let Hilary come back for more shoots at which point her mother ended the call.
Hilary had never imagined that her one moment of teenage rebellion and wanting to do something out of the box, would end up messing with her life so intently.
x
Tyson had easily caught on to the fact that Hilary was annoyed by the Hime poster in his room, and despite of not really understanding the reason behind it, he made it his life's goal to bring up his favourite girl in the world whenever he could. It was infuriating on many accounts for the brunette to watch her nincompoop of a neighbour gush about her without even realising that he was talking about her, but mostly it was infuriating because up until Hime had appeared, Tyson had never expressed any interest in her and that brought upon a mixture of feelings that Hilary just didn't want to deal with yet.
It was intriguing however, that ever since her off-hand comment about her preferred type being Rei, Tyson would somehow always be around whenever she would be interacting with the exchange student. Most of the time it was in the library, as Rei would often help her with her Chinese lessons, a place that Tyson never frequented and a subject that he clearly hated, was now something he was suddenly very interested in. He would tag along with Hilary saying he needed help with his kanjis too and then sit next to her and nap the entire time. She couldn't even greet Rei in the hallway without feeling Tyson's eyes grilling into her from wherever he was.
She had many moments in the weeks that followed the day Tyson had put up the poster of her face on the wall, where she almost broke her silence and screamed into his face about how blind could he possibly be to not have noticed that she was Hime. But every time she came close to doing it, fear would hold her back. It was a new sort of feeling for her too, it was the fear of not knowing what would happen.
The fear of losing control.
But she still thought about it all the time, how Tyson would react when he found out.
Would he be embarrassed for not noticing the similarities or would he be enraged that she had kept this a secret from him for so long?
Would he still prefer Hime or would he…
Surprises had stopped affecting Hilary at this point, so when her mother walked into her room with a solemn look on her face, the teen continued to waddle through her confusing thoughts without paying any heed to the latter.
"Hils, we need to talk." Emma' stern voice forced Hilary to return her attention towards her surroundings and she didn't respond, only raised her eyebrows to show her interest.
"The agency called me yet again," Hilary rolled her eyes and her mother paused for her to say something, when she kept quiet, Emma continued, "they're well aware that you don't plan to return for any more shoots, but they are also running out of photos to reuse. So they want to make a deal with us."
Now this certainly surprised the brunette, she sat up straight and motioned for her mother to continue.
"They will release a statement that Hime is retiring from this business, but only if you do a meet and greet event in return."
"Mom, are you out of your mind? Did you already agree to this?" Hilary's voice came out a bit louder than she had originally intended and her mother winced in response.
"Listen, Hils. No listen to me first," Emma put up her hand, gesturing for Hilary to not interrupt her, "it would be a small event, they will pick only around 20 fans or so through a lottery. All you have to do is hand over a few signed photos and smile at them. You don't even have to shake their hands! Imagine just an hour or so of fake smiling and none of your photos will ever get turned into wall sized posters or be printed anywhere ever again."
"And what if someone recognises me, what happens then?" Hilary cried out, the only thought swirling around in her mind was coming face to face with Tyson when her heart was not prepared for it.
"You should have thought about that when you snuck off to do this in the first place!"
The brunette was lost for words. There was no denying her mother's statement, but how could she have known all those months ago, that things would turn out the way they had.
It wasn't until dinner later that night, that her mother brought up the subject again and explained the details more calmly. It did seem like the best way to end things properly, the agency had stated clearly in their contract that they would not reuse or reproduce her photos from this point onwards and would stop contacting her for further shoots. The lottery ticket would be awarded completely randomly to twenty people from all over Japan and the event would not require her to shake hands or click photos with the attendees, she would just need to hand over her signed photos. When her mother pushed them a bit further, they agreed to let her dress up the way she wanted to and Hilary decided that she would use any item she could find in her wardrobe to hide her face the best she could.
When she thought about it more while sitting in the bath, she realised that Tyson had lucked out with the poster because the odds had been one in hundred but this time, it would just be impossible for him to get the ticket, with the odds being one in twenty. Thinking about it all logically seemed to calm her nerves and made her warm up to the whole idea even more. Although she did wonder what kind of people would show up and the level of creepy she would have to deal with, the thought of the whole ordeal just ending after this made her happier than anything ever could.
But Hilary should've understood by now, the universe would not let things go her way.
x
A few days after the lottery tickets had been released with the magazine issue, she exited her house to find Tyson standing right outside the door. He usually waited at the end of their street so she was surprised to bump into him so suddenly, this cannot be good, she thought to herself as a sense of dread settled in and around her.
"Good morning Hilary!" He chirped, grinning from ear to ear as they fell into step with each other.
"Good morning." She greeted him back, albeit the morning cheer he was so intensely radiating. This is not good, this can't be good was all that kept revolving in her head as she started to feel anxious and nervous with each step they took.
"You wouldn't believe what a morning I've had," Tyson continued in the same cheery tone from before, he didn't wait for her to respond as he reached into his blazer's pocket and pulled out the piece of paper that almost gave Hilary a heart attack on the spot.
The tiny voice in her head who had been trying to tell her that this would happen, the one she had been so adamantly ignoring till now, finally triumphed.
"Can you believe, only twenty lottery tickets were distributed across Japan so when I opened my issue in the morning, I totally was not expecting this to fall right out!"
Hilary wanted to scream at him that she hadn't been expecting it either, but her voice seemed to have disappeared.
"It must be fate. Hime and me, are just meant to meet, you know?"
"Hime and I," She managed to correct him quietly, despite her whole being shutting down at least she could take solace in the fact that her brain would always automatically correct grammatical errors.
"Whatever, I can't believe I have to wait two whole weeks to see her. You better enjoy the next two weeks with me Hilary, 'cause once I get Hime to fall for me, you won't be seeing me around much."
Hilary didn't know if she was supposed to laugh or cry over his statements, so she did neither.
The rest of the day was a blur. For the first time in her life, Hilary did not pay attention in class. Her hands moved on their own as she mindlessly scribbled whatever their teacher was saying, not even a single letter registering in her head. She didn't even notice when one period ended and when the next one began, when her friends dragged her off to the rooftop for lunch, when she changed into and out of PE clothes, when Tyson dropped her off at her doorstep with the sky turning orange in the background. She didn't notice when her mother called her down for dinner, when she entered the bath, when her dad came up to check on her before bed.
Hilary didn't even notice the next day begin and end.
Only one thought going round and round in her head, in two weeks time Tyson would never speak to her again.
"I think you're making a big deal about nothing," Emma remarked over dinner, three days before the event.
"Mom, you don't get it. So can you please just stay out of-"
"You're going to wear that beach hat, your hair will be tucked inside it properly, you'll be wearing tinted glasses, there is no way Tyson will recognise you." Her mother interrupted her haughtily.
Ever since the truth about the magazine continuing to publish her photos had come out, Hilary had had more arguments and disagreements with her mother than ever. In the past two weeks, with the brunette being extremely distant with everyone, her mother's attempts to involve her in conversation were getting aggressive by the day.
And to top it off, Hilary had Tyson to deal with at school. At least she was sure that he didn't understand what she was going through at all, so she'd decided to cut him some slack later. She wasn't intentionally cold shouldering him of course, she just didn't know how she was supposed to feel around him anymore. All her life, she had wanted nothing more than to get rid of him and his presence and now that that day was finally approaching, she couldn't bring herself to face it. She couldn't bring herself to imagine what her mornings would be like without Tyson waiting for her at the same spot every time, what her time in school would be like without Tyson tailing her around and annoying her at every opportunity, what her evenings would be like without Tyson forcing her to take a detour on their way back for some snacks or an ice-cream. She used to think it would be peaceful, that she would be happy, but she'd never imagined that on the contrary even the thought of it would make her heart ache so terribly.
With thoughts like this running in a loop around her head, Hilary's disinterest in her surroundings, more importantly in Tyson, had seemed to struck a nerve with the blue haired teen. He was going out of his way to catch her attention, annoying her in ways that she hadn't thought possible, but unfortunately she couldn't reward him with the one reaction he was desperately seeking from her. Tyson and Hilary hadn't had an argument in over two weeks and Hilary wasn't sure if she enjoyed this new kind of pin drop silence that came with them not screaming their heads off at each other just yet.
Her mother had started to drum her fingers on the table, and the sound reached Hilary's ears a bit late, finally breaking her train of thought. It seemed that Emma had expected a reply for her previous statement, which Hilary in order to avoid losing her temper at her mom yet again had chosen to ignore. The sound of her mother's fingers hitting the table arrhythmically awoke something inside the brunette and she tightly curled up her fists.
"Mom, you don't understand, so please just stop." Hilary stated as calmly as she could, her mother's eyebrows twitched with annoyance in response.
"What don't I-"
"Em chan, just drop it for now." Her father cut her off very sternly, but the damage had already been done.
Hilary got up abruptly, taking both her parents by surprise as they stared at her. Her fists were curled so tightly that her knuckles were now starting to turn white. Every feeling, every emotion she had been locking up in the past two weeks had now made its way to her eyes in the form of stinging tears that slowly slid down her cheeks.
"Mom, do you really think you would be able to fool Dad into not recognising you if you put on a big, stupid hat and some googles?"
x
She checked her reflection for a third time in the mirror before making her way back to the meeting room. Her hair was completely fixed under the broad-rimmed white hat, with only her bangs falling across her forehead. The representative of the magazine agency, the same lady who had been the in-charge at her shoot, had been adamant about not letting Hilary wear dark sunglasses, despite of the brunette throwing a huge tantrum about it. Her mother had decided to stay home, as they had both concluded it would be a difficult situation if Tyson saw her around, and without her mother backing her demands, Hilary had no choice but to give in to the request of letting the sunglasses slide, so when she sat down at her designated position behind a long table, she felt as if she was naked.
If Tyson were to enter the room right now, he would know instantly, that it was her and not the girl he'd been so excited to meet.
But a contract was a contract, so once the assisting staff gave the signal that all lottery ticket holders had arrived, Hilary had no choice but to oblige. She hoped that the manager sitting next to her and the few other staffs hovering about couldn't hear the loud thumps of her heartbeat as the door opened to let the first fan in.
To her surprise, it was a girl, probably the same age as her. She felt her body relax slightly as the girl walked up to her excitedly, as soon as she neared the table, she started talking about how much inspiration she had taken from Hime's photos and how it was sad to see her go. As she had been expecting creepy old men, this girl brought in a wave of relief over the brunette and she decided to play her part well. She nodded to everything the girl was saying and while handing over her signed photo, she even replied with a thank you. After the girl exited, the manager next to her remarked that Hilary was indeed a natural at this, which the brunette promptly ignored.
After the first meeting, Hilary felt herself settle well in the role that had been designated for her. Although each time the door would open, the dread of locking eyes with Tyson would take over for a few seconds, subsiding only when she saw who it was that had entered the room. Most of her fans seemed to be middle school and high school girls, which completely amazed her. They all told her how much they looked up to her and how much they valued her fashion advice, to which Hilary politely played along, knowing full well that this so-called advice had probably been cooked up by the magazine's writers and had nothing to do with her. It did however instil some confidence in her, that girls her age seemed to appreciate her features and even considered her beautiful.
With only one or two weird men making an appearance, Hilary didn't even feel the time go by and it wasn't until the staff announced that only one fan was remaining, that she realised that the worse was yet to come.
She knew that this had to be Tyson, so Hilary fiddled with her hat till she was sure her eyes were completely shaded and fixed her gaze to the ground, as long as she didn't meet his eyes she would not be found out, is what she had decided upon. Next to her, the manager eyed her hurried actions a bit suspiciously, but did not make any comments about her staring contest with the ground.
The door opened and Hilary's eyes immediately recognised the pair of red, beaten down sneakers. She had to stop the urge to look up at him and roll her eyes and chide him about how if he really wanted to 'get' Hime, he should've worn better shoes. She reminded herself yet again, that she had to avoid eye contact with him at any cost, even if it meant staring at his sneakers for the next few minutes despite of how much her heart begged her to sneak a look at his face to see what kind of an expression was on it.
Was he looking happy, because he was finally in the same room as his Hime?
Had he ever looked this happy when he was in a room with just her?
The manager nudged her harshly and Hilary snapped back from her thoughts. Of course, she was supposed to be handing over her signed photo. She picked up the last set of the photo kept in front of her and held out her hands in his direction, managing to keep her eyes on the ground, even though there was a voice screaming in her head, begging her to look up at him. When he took the photo from her, his fingers didn't brush against hers like they usually did and the action felt out of place to Hilary. Even his 'thank you' was a stuttering murmur, and not as smooth as he had been claiming he would be for the past few weeks. She wanted more than anything to take a look at this Tyson, who was standing not in front of her, but in front of Hime and was a nervous wreck.
Tyson didn't seem to mind that Hime hadn't looked up at him even once, after accepting the signed photo and muttering a few words of thank you and encouragement awkwardly, he turned around to leave. Hilary looked up as soon as he turned his back towards her and had to restrain herself from letting a loud sigh, because it was finally over.
Tyson would probably tell her a twisted and exaggerated version of this meeting come tomorrow and she'd have to stop herself from laughing out loud at him, she thought. But it was over, there would be no more photos of Hime in any magazine, eventually Tyson would also move on and find someone else to gush over, and Hilary would never have to feel like she could lose control over the situation, control over their relationship ever again.
The relief must've been visible on her face, as one of the staff also assuming that the event was over turned on the electric fan that was kept at the edge of the table that Hilary was sitting behind. She had asked at the beginning to keep it switched off for the entirety of the event to avoid risking her hat flying off from her head.
And her fear was confirmed the minute the fan was switched on, before Hilary could react and put up her hand to hold the hat in place, it flew straight into Tyson's hands.
He halted and caught the hat effortlessly, turning around to return it to her, and then their eyes met.
Tyson froze.
Hilary got up quickly, almost knocking over the chair she was sitting in, "Tyson, I can explain…"
At first his face was completely blank, then a mixture of confusion, hesitation and hurt flashed through his eyes.
And a second later, there was only rage.
He let go of the hat and it fell slowly to the ground. His hands curled into fists and the photo she had just handed over to him, crumpled under the pressure, eventually slipping through his grasp and falling next to her hat.
"Don't."
x
Hilary found herself gradually settling into her new routine, a life without Tyson.
A few days in, and school was starting to seem normal again. She could leave whenever she wanted in the morning, there were no detours and stupid races along the way. During classes, there were no random balls of paper disrupting her note taking, no outrageous counters to her statements and answers. And just as she had made her peace with his antics all those years ago, she made peace with the lack of them too. The only thing she couldn't get used to was that whenever Tyson passed her in school, his eyes seemed to look past her, as if she had stopped existing for him. Hilary realised then, why there were so many songs, poems and novels written about heartache. It was the kind of feeling that couldn't be shaken off. Every time she closed her eyes, Tyson's blank eyes would stare at her like she didn't matter anymore.
Thoughts about how she could have handled things differently clouded her mind constantly. She should have told him the truth the day she saw the poster in his room. She should have told him the truth whenever he talked to her about Hime. She should have told him the truth when he received the lottery ticket. She should have run after him after he left the room. She should have apologised for lying to him.
She never should have kept a secret from him.
The only way to avoid thinking about what could have been, was to drown herself in chores and homework. She didn't let her parents do anything around the house, from cooking all three meals to cleaning every inch of their home every day, Hilary was doing everything she could to keep herself distracted from her reality.
So when she ended up sleeping in late on a Saturday, neither of her parents bothered to wake her as they both left for their respective meetings. She was immediately upset when she woke up and saw that it was almost noon and she hadn't even begun vacuuming the living room. She leapt out of bed hoping to give an earful to whichever parent crossed paths with her first, but was disappointed to find both the culprits missing in action. She noticed that the sink was empty and her mother had left her a note informing her of the meals packed and kept inside the fridge. The feeling of not having a purpose for the day started to settle inside of Hilary. When she opened the fridge and her eyes fell onto a different packed container with another note in her mother's handwriting stuck on top of it.
'URGENT: Tsu kun please don't forget to hand this over to Yoshie chan before you leave!'
Of course her father had forgotten to drop off the box at the Kinomiyas, Hilary still wondered why her mother trusted him with such tasks despite of how openly absent minded her father always was. She frowned, her mother rarely left notes with 'urgent' written on them so this must be important, she wasn't sure if she was ready to face Tyson but she was also not in the mood to listen to her parents argue once they got back, so she bit her tongue and decided to hand over the container next door. After quickly gulping down a glass of juice and changing out of her pyjamas, Hilary made her way to the Kinomiyas and the sigh of relief that escaped her lips when it was Tyson's mother who answered the door, did not go unnoticed by her neighbour.
Yoshie took the box from Hilary's hands and without waiting for the brunette to reply to her question about whether she was busy or not, Hilary was as always pulled inside by her. Thankfully Yoshie did not push Hilary into Tyson's room as was the norm, but took her to the kitchen. A brief explanation from Tyson's mother informed Hilary that there was a big Kinomiya family get together happening tonight and poor Yoshie was in charge of cooking everything because her husband wasn't home and both her sons were absolutely useless in the kitchen. Seeing how frazzled Tyson's mother looked, Hilary decided to stay and help her as much as she could. Yoshie shared the recipes she was planning on making with her and Hilary began with the basic preparation, chopping vegetables and cleaning the meat. They worked mostly in silence, with Yoshie occasionally asking her questions about school and such.
After they finished, Yoshie insisted on making tea and snacks for Hilary as a gesture of thanks. They sat in the living room and watched a sitcom, laughing and discussing the show.
It was during a commercial break when Yoshie spoke to her softly, "You know, Hilary, sometimes when the men in my family don't listen to me, I don't really give them a choice."
Hilary stared at Tyson's mother, a little too surprised by her statement to respond.
"Tyson is in his room, in case you were wondering." Yoshie added, smiling. She cleared up their tea cups and went back to the kitchen to continue her cooking marathon.
Hilary sat in silence for a few minutes, trying to make sense of what had just happened and what she was supposed to do now. She was used to Yoshie taking her side during arguments but this went a little beyond that.
Deciding that she had done enough socialising for the day, Hilary decided to make her exit but when she reached the door, her eyes wandered towards the staircase that led up to Tyson's room and she started to have second thoughts about leaving. Maybe she should listen to Yoshie, she thought, and force Tyson to at least listen to her side of the story and if after that he still decided to not be friends with her then at least she would know that she had done everything she could have. She took a deep breath to calm herself and with all her newfound confidence and determination, Hilary made her way towards Tyson's room. Stopping in front of his door, she contemplated whether she should knock or barge in like she usually did and decided to go with the former as things were far from usual between them.
She knocked lightly and took a step back when she heard him drag his feet towards the door.
"Mom, how many times do I have to tell you that I don't care if you fry or roast the por-"
He stopped shouting as soon as he saw that it was not his mother who had knocked but Hilary. She watched as his grip on the doorknob tightened and a deep scowl settled on his face.
Somehow all the confidence she had felt up until a few minutes before suddenly vanished into thin air. With all the courage she could muster, Hilary said the first thing that came to her mind.
"Hi."
Tyson seemed taken aback by her casual greeting and after a minute of trying to make sense of it, he replied just as awkwardly, "Hi."
"Can I come in?" It was truly a strange feeling, asking for permission to enter his room, probably for the first time ever. But Hilary was just relaying on her mouth to move on its own, since her brain had completely given up after taking one look at Tyson.
"Sure…" He answered, still as awkward as earlier, but some of his anger seemed to have subsided. Though his brows remained furrowed, he moved aside to let her in and shut the door behind her.
The first thing she noticed after entering was that the Hime poster was gone, she had finally accomplished the goal she had set for herself all those weeks ago, but somehow it didn't make her feel as triumphant as it should have.
Hilary was hoping that if the door remained open, the two of them would need to maintain a certain level of maturity so that his mother did not need to come up to intervene, as was usually the case between them. But with it shut, she had no idea where their talk would go. She reminded herself as she sat down on one side of Tyson's bed, that she hadn't headed back home when she had the chance to so she needed to see this through until the end, even if it meant not knowing if things were under control or not.
Tyson also settled on his bed after her, but more towards the edge, putting more than needed distance between them. If it had been any other day, he would've gone back to playing whatever game he had been playing before she disturbed him but oddly enough he seemed to be waiting for her to start speaking. He wasn't looking in her direction, but Hilary could tell he was more alert than usual.
"All I can say is that I'm sorry," Hilary began, trying to keep her voice from breaking. She watched as he fought the urge to roll his eyes in response so the brunette took this as a queue to continue, "I never meant to lie to you or keep this a secret from you. Tyson, it was supposed to be a one time thing, I did something stupid to prove something absolutely irrelevant to my Mom and I just had no idea it would turn out like this."
"You know we've known each other for a long time Hilary," Tyson shot back immediately, she could tell he was struggling to keep his voice down, "and I'm not saying that we're friends or that we get along well. But I have never lied like this to you about anything."
"I know that. I'm sorry, please believe me when I say I never meant to lie to you." Hilary whispered, she could feel her eyes water and voice strain and the last thing she wanted to do was cry in front of Tyson.
"Please don't start crying, that's not fair to me at all." Tyson groaned loudly and Hilary was more surprised to know that he was watching her closely enough to tell that she was close to tears.
"I know that too." She murmured in reply and paused to take a deep breath, trying to compose herself before she spoke again, "I always thought it was a one time thing, it wasn't until I saw the poster in your room that I found out that the magazine was still publishing my photos. And we really tried to get them to stop, but I had willingly signed the contract so we had no control over the photos or their usage."
She stopped to catch her breath, she wanted to get the truth out without any interruptions. She watched as his frown softened slightly after her explanation and felt some of the confidence she had felt earlier return to her, maybe there was a chance that he would understand everything after all.
"After the first shoot, I never went back for more. Slightly because my mother was so upset by my actions and mostly because I realised that I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would." Hilary accepted, more to herself than to Tyson. When she snuck a glance at him again, she saw he looked more disgruntled now than angry and she felt her body relax. She could do this, she told herself, she could fix this.
"So what was last week about?" Tyson asked, he looked like he was trying to scowl at her in an attempt to hide his curiosity, that almost made her break into a grin.
"We struck a deal with them. They assured us they would stop printing my photos if I appeared for that one event, and well it's finally over."
She watched as he mulled over her words, scratching the back of his head out of habit. Hilary concluded that she had been forgiven but Tyson would probably try to play the victim for a little while longer to get special treatment which she was willing to go along with solely because not having him around this past week had been so painful.
"I still don't understand why you waited so long to tell me the truth." Tyson grumbled after a while making Hilary realise that there were still things left to be clarified.
"I admit that, that wasn't a good move on my part. I tried to, but I was just so afraid of what would happen and well-" She stopped suddenly, biting her tongue to keep herself from spilling out the real reason why she had kept the secret from him for so long.
"Well what?" Tyson had been watching her closely so it shouldn't have amazed her when he caught on to her slip up.
"Well…" She let her eyes fall downwards, she could feel the warmth spreading across her cheeks and using up all her remaining courage, Hilary managed to finish the sentence, "well you seemed to like Hime more than you like me so I didn't want to take that away from you."
Guilt flashed through his chocolate eyes as he started to understand the weight of his own actions. He struggled to speak for a few minutes, opening his mouth and then closing it again, constantly running his hand through his hair. It was relieving for her to know that this statement was just as embarrassing for him to hear as it had been for her to speak.
"It's not like that," he blurted out finally, "it's not that I like Hime more than you. Hime was just a pretty face to look at and you're- I mean you'e pretty too, of course, because you are Hime-"
Hilary felt her blush deepen at his words. He was stumbling and fidgeting and his ears were tinged with pink from embarrassment. Not only was this the first time that Tyson had called her pretty to her face but also her first time seeing him get so nervous and flustered. The Tyson Kinomiya who had always emanated confidence and arrogance was now struggling to form a coherent sentence in front of her, not Hime, in front of Hilary and she concluded that she quite liked this look on him.
"Argh! What I wanna say is that I'm sorry if my words hurt you." He finally managed to say.
She couldn't stop herself from beaming at him in response, while he couldn't seem to keep her gaze as he turned away quickly, murmuring something to himself about this being bad for his heart.
It was done, they'd both said what they wanted to say without breaking into an argument. This was possibly the most civil and understanding conversation the two had had, Hilary thought to herself.
It struck her then that the moment wouldn't be perfect if she didn't get back at him for how he had treated her last week, so Hilary let her eyes wander over her surroundings in hopes of finding the perfect prop to use against him, when they landed on the loose scrunchie wrapped around her wrist. She grinned to herself, satisfied with the idea that had popped into her head, Hilary took the scrunchie and pulled her hair back completely, tying it up into a high bun similar to how it had been in one of her more popular Hime photos. Resting her palms in the space between them, she leaned towards him, the grin from earlier now a coaxing smile.
"Well, you should just be glad that Hime is finally on your bed and not on your wall."
The look on his face was priceless.
His mouth hung open, the pink from his ears managed to spread all across his face, his eyes opening wide with surprise as he took in the scene in front of him. Hilary knew she would never forget this look on Tyson, neither would she ever forget that all she had to do was behave like she had done on the day of the shoot to make Tyson weak in the knees. Their arguments would never be the same from this point onwards.
As suddenly as the idea had appeared in her head, Tyson recovered from his embarrassment. An arrogant smirk formed on his face as he mimicked her movement and leaned into her, resting his forehead against hers. Hilary felt her pulse quicken and her face turn completely red like Tyson's had a few moments ago. His smirk widened as he lifted one of his hands and reached out to touch her hair, running his fingers across the nape of her neck, he finally found his way up to the bun and Hilary had to stop herself from letting out a whimper at his touch. He pulled at the scrunchie, letting her hair fall back into its natural state.
"Actually, I'll take Hilary over Hime any day."
Fin.
A/N:This whole fic was written for that last line. Also I've based all my assumptions about the Japanese fashion/media industry from watching Followers, Smile Down the Runway and Tada Doesn't Fall in Love, so they're probably not accurate at all.
As always reviews will be appreciated, thank you for reading!
