HATTY X READER - BUMPY SEAT

The seat was bumpy, and you hated it.

Outside of your window seat, through the panel of glass was a line of green oaks, perfectly placed against each other. Trees were good for climbing. They were also very pretty. But you couldn’t climb at the moment. You could barely even move in this uncomfortable bus ride, where everyone was screaming and shouting in the background. The noise was unbearable, and you’re getting to the point of standing up to scream right back at them. One more kick to your seat and you’ll be sent over the edge, like a big tidal wave onto a beach of helpless civilians. It didn’t help that no one wanted to sit next to you, either.

Well… that’s how you viewed it anyways. The real case was that you were the last on this broken hunker of a vehicle, and every seat but this one was taken, which wasn’t the biggest problem in the world. At the moment, though, it was the worst thing that’s happened to you, and you were so close to exploding in anger right then and there at your friends.

Friends don’t do that though, so you laid low and crossed your arms in defiance to your naturally quiet nature.

The seat was bumpy, and you hated it.

Minutes passed, and your level of anger stayed… well, level. It was tiring to keep it all down. That was a lie, it wasn’t just tiring - it was downright exhausting. Especially when Gregory behind you kept shoving his seatmate back and forth, back and forth, what was wrong with this kid? Doesn’t he know any manners? You’d say he should know to respect his elders, but he’s practically ageless. Come to think of it, you’re practically ageless. The only time you ever bother to remember your age is your birthday, and there hasn’t been one of those for, what, a year or so now? Everyone else gets birthdays. Why haven’t you gotten a birthday? The one in charge of all the birthdays is Hatty, and you haven’t talked to Hatty for a couple of days, let alone seen him walking around. “He’s been busy,” Harrison had said. “It’s a good idea not to bother him.”

Get a load of that. Your only, best friend has been too busy for you. The thought nearly makes you scream and cry at the same time. Yet, you can’t do that right now - you’re on a bus of already screaming and crying people, though they’re most likely crying for joy instead of sadness like you. It feels lonely, being on this bus, no one to give you any sort of conversation or jokes. No one to hold your hand or give you hugs. No one to drink hot cocoa with over a fire.

The seat was bumpy, and you hated it.

A sudden shout brought you out of your thoughts, and you leaned over the empty seat to check out what happened down the aisle.

When you mentioned hot cocoa, you didn’t actually mean it. Poor Jamie had caught herself slipping and sliding up and down the bus, covered in the delicious liquid you all so enjoyed. How did they even make hot coco on this tramp of a bus? Did they, what, bring along a microwave and some cocoa packets? You know that Jeffrey always has a supply of water bottles on hand, for whatever reason. Bringing yourself back to your seated position, staring out the window, you continued to let your mind wander. Anything to distract you from this crazy bus full of… loud people and their loudness.

Everyone has a special talent like Jeffrey. Jamie herself was a hula hoop expert, and she’s definitely got the body and mindset for it. Her athletic ability is incredible. She’s also really sweaty.

Harrison was a marine biologist, which meant he studied lots of underwater animals. No wonder he spends so much time around Jamie since she reeks of fish all the time.

You tried to remember what your special talent was, but you couldn’t. Nothing came to mind. What was that talent you had? You were sure it was good. Something amazing. Something that you know Hatty liked in you. Something that would make him want you as a best friend. What was it, what was it…

…Hey, who just sat down? You glance over to the person who took the seat next to you and blink, expressionless.

Speak of the devil, it’s Hatty.

…

…The seat was bumpy, and you hated it.

You always examined the most uncritical things when you were with Hatty. How white your skin was. How your fingers were positioned. How blank you looked compared to everyone else. How his eyes slowly gleamed when he saw you. How his arm now rested against yours and how the fabric of his coat nuzzled on your skin-

Wait wait wait hold on. Hold on.

"Hatty?" You try to speak, but nothing comes out but the stutter of the H a couple of times. He quickly responds to it, looking over towards you and tilting his head a tad. Just a tad. A proper gentlemanly act, of course.

"Hm? Is there something troubling you?" Your best friend questioned, a hint of worry in his voice, and you stared at him with confused eyes for just another moment, before shaking your head and turning back towards the window. You must look pretty pathetic, not welcoming your best friends touch against your arm. You also look sad. Very, very sad. But you don’t just look it. You feel it, also.

You want to talk to Hatty about why he’s been ignoring you for two days straight, but he’s acting so calm and oblivious to it that it’s impossible to even speak. Why, why does Hatty have to make you clam up at the worst times? Is this a curse? You’re so full of emotion right now, but you have no way to show it, nothing to portray or compare to, there’s nothing, nothing but this anger and sadness and confusion. It’s killing you.

The feel of his hand against yours causes your mind to go blank for just a second, and that’s all Hatty needs to know that something is seriously up with you.

"What’s the matter?" He asks, gripping your hand just a bit tighter, but you refuse to look at him. Why would he want to help you anyways? It’ll be more of a bother for him to be bothered with all of this bothering that’s bothering you… if that even makes any sense. His firm hold is kind of derailing you from your thoughts right now.

What you mean to think is that talking to him is the last thing you want to do right now. After being thrown away for days like you’re some sort of a toy, no contact or anything with him, and he acts like it’s all okay… it would understandably, moderately upset you to the point of being completely fed up and angry to boiling point. It escalated pretty quickly. Maybe your special talent was being overridden with thoughts that would possibly destroy most of the friendships you’ve formed with everyone on this bus.

"Nothing." You retort, no bitter or venom spat out to him, but with enough sass in your sassy little tone that he seems taken back. But then he’s right there again, like he always was, right next to you, and you can feel every little fold of material on that blasted coat of his. Hatty was always good at making you feel like you’re stone in his touch, and he could always keep you close to him that way. But there wasn’t any touch for two days, so this sudden grasp of your hand closer to his chest was completely unexpected. You accidentally locked eyes with him, his two beautiful black eyes you’ve always known stare right back into your dull ones.

"What’s the matter?" He asked again, and it feels like the entire bus screeching behind you has faded into the distance, and it’s just you and him. Hatty and you. You can barely even remember what just happened in the last two minutes or why you were mad at everyone in the whole world, but it’s like he sees right through you. It’s like you can tell him everything. It’s like it always has been.

The seat was bumpy, and you hated it.

"You left me," you quietly spoke, voice hoarse and dripping with repressed feelings, "and you never said a word."

Now, if Hatty’s eyes had the ability to grow eleven times larger than they usually were, which you should be glad he doesn’t, because that would be absolutely terrifying, they would have. His grip on your hand loosened, and you took it back and shook it out, because ow, seriously Hatty?

You scanned his expression for some sort of… well, anything. Hatty had a tremendous reputation for being able to look like he has no emotion when he’s feeling the angriest of all angry people who ever angered. One time, Hatty nearly picked up a rock with a bug on it, but you were there to stop him in time before he squashed the poor thing. He was depressed for days afterwards, thinking about how reckless he was when he was angry. You comforted him in his time of need with movies and popcorn. He did the same for you, like when the time you got sand in your eyes. You cried for hours and hours and Hatty was there the entire time trying to convince you to wash your eyes out with water, but who puts water in their eyes? He was being weird. Come on Hatty, don’t be so weird. Even though you rejected his advice, he stuck by you, rubbing your back and comforting you.

Comfort was what you always got from him.

And that’s exactly what Hatty resorted to when he clumsily pulled you over to him and gave you a personal space invader- or in other words, a hug. His arms were large around you. You could smell the flowers he had help Ginger pick before the bus ride on his jacket. There was also the smell of hot chocolate, so that was a plus. But why was he hugging you so dearly? It was a hug like no other. It was like… if he let go, he’d never-

…he’d never see you again.

It all made sense for a moment. Then you remembered something, and it all went away.

You remembered how the seat was bumpy, and you hated it.

Yet, in a situation like this, where Hatty is holding you so close and whispering apologies in where your ear would usually be located, it didn’t really matter all that much how bumpy the seat was. Reluctantly, your arms found themselves trailing behind his back and connecting, to which Hatty stopped speaking. You unhooked your hands for a moment to see if he would continue - you missed hearing him talk. You missed hearing him talk. But that wasn’t it.

You missed him. You missed everything about him. He meant so much to you, and he left you to be alone like some sort of hot chocolate on the floor. Before you knew it, the tears were streaming down your face, and you shoved your head in the crook of his neck. You missed him so much. If he knew how much you missed him, would he really do that again? You didn’t know. But you were scared. You were so, so, so scared. You didn’t want to lose him again. Two single days alone was all it took to pile up all of this emotion, and if that wasn’t a sure-fire sign of being the best of friends, nothing would be. It could also show that you’re extraordinarily needy, and that Hatty probably deserved a bit better of a friend than some blank loser who can’t stand being alone fooooOOORRR WHAT THE HECK WAS HE DOING.

Hatty’s face was suddenly pressed against your neck, and you could feel his lips trailing kisses down your throat, freezing you in place in complete and utter shock. You gasped out his name in surprise, which only caused him to huff slightly in response. This wasn’t a cuddle — you’ve cuddled with him in the past, but that was always over a nice meal and a romcom and a comfortable seat- nothing like this! Speaking of seats, this seat was incredibly bumpy, but you currently were being treated as if you were a glass statue in the hands of Hatty so that really didn’t matter right now. In all honesty, any sort of touch from Hatty was welcome right now, but this was… this wasn’t like the normal, happy best friend you have. This was like the bare bones of Hatty’s struct-… structure. It’s hard to think when he’s moving his kisses up your jaw and closer to… w-why was Hatty doing this again? He must have gotten hyped up on hot cocoa or something, you had to stop him, this isn’t the kind of best friend behavior a good best friend would have—

And his lips were on yours, and your reasoning melted away.

It felt right to be here, where Hatty could hold you close and out of harms way. Where he cared for you, and didn’t leave you alone for two days without any sort of notification as to why he was gone and completely ignoring you. But there was something you needed to ask before he did anything further - you don’t want him doing anything to you out of pure pity because you look so pathetic holding him so close.

With a short push to his chest, he was an inch away from your face, breathing heavily and staring at you with unwavering eyes. Everyone on the bus was completely oblivious to what just happened, apparently.

"I… I’m sorry, that wasn’t very gentlemanly like of me." Your best friend paused for a moment to clear his throat, before continuing. "…I don’t know what I was thinking. I didn’t hurt you, did I?"

"Hurt me?" You scoffed. "You left me alone, Hattington. For two days. I was hurt. No explanation or anything."

Your words seemed to affect him, but he continued to stare at you anyways. It was getting a bit unnerving. Does he.. does he ever blink? Yup. There you go. He blinked. That answers one question. Now time for the next twenty billion thousand you have for him.

"Right. And I’m… sorry for that. I was working on something top secret. Only for the secretest of secrety eyes. But I was… I was talking about when I did that, just now. The thing I just did. Did that hurt? You wanted me to stop."

Oh, right. That. That thing he just did there. That was- what, what’s that called? That’s never happened to you before. No one’s ever touched you like that before. You shook your head no in response to his question, no, it didn’t hurt. It was nice, but you can’t do that here. It’s wrong. For some reason, you know it’s wrong. Hatty lowered his head slightly, before resting it against your shoulder with a heavy sigh. “You’re my best friend. I just… I feel like there’s something more we could be doing. I haven’t figured out what, but it’s there. I feel like that was part of it. Let me think about it some more.”

You rested your head against the window and let Hatty sit still for a moment, waiting for a more complete answer, instead of that awfully vague one he just gave you. Who even says cryptic stuff like that when someone does something like whatever he just did? No one, that’s who.

When no more words came from him, you looked down to your friend and saw that he completely knocked out on you. With a small roll of the eyes and an uneasy shift, you realized one thing as you stared out the window, Hatty sleeping peacefully away below you.

The seat was bumpy, but with all the things that just happened, you’d gladly take a little