You're The Only Hope For Me

Hazel had been living at Frank’s for five weeks since they first kissed, since then they had kissed several more times although Hazel was still not definitely sure it could be classed as a relationship.
Yeah she liked Frank, and she was almost positive that Frank liked her, but they hadn’t spoken about it. Stupid though it sounded, Hazel wanted to talk to Frank about it before she even thought of it as a relationship. Though of course, she was too shy to tell him how she felt so it just remained a mystery in her head.
They had slept together on the sofa some nights, Frank with his arm around her and her burying her face in his shoulder. Hazel liked that more than she would like to admit, it made her feel warm and safe, but after a few days they just stopped.
They walked the dogs together and argued over which TV programs to watch. They also stayed up late drinking wine and ate breakfast together in the morning, taking it in turns to cook it. Once they had spent a whole night in the hot tub, drinking melted chocolate, eating sweets and talking about nonsense.
All in all, Hazel quite liked her new lifestyle with Frank. She just wished she had the confidence to talk to him about her feelings. Sometimes she lay awake at night, mulling things over in her mind but never reaching any conclusion about what she should do, she always ended up drifting off.
That was when the nightmares started.
Hazel had partly forgotten about how terrified she had been when the men had taken her, of course she hadn’t forgotten the experience itself, but the emotions she had felt at the time hadn’t been on her mind recently and she’d forgotten just how strong they were.
How strong the fear was in particular.
She would be asleep and then it’d creep into her dream, she ended up reliving the entire ordeal every night. It was worse though, because in her dream she was never rescued and sometimes it would end with her being abused, both physically and sexually, before they killed her.
Hazel would wake up in the dark every time in a panic, with the fear eating at her from the inside and with tears streaking her face. Often she would find it hard to get back to sleep, or she was too afraid to sleep so she’d lie awake for the rest of the night.
After a few nights the exhaustion from the fear and not sleeping began to affect her and make her feel ill. Frank noticed it about a week later when she wasn’t eating her breakfast one.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, his eyes narrowing and crinkling at the corners, making his thin black eyeliner crease slightly.
“I’m fine,” Hazel replied, lifting her tea to her mouth as she tried and failed to stifle a yawn.
He studied her face, observing her pale skin and taking in the black circles around her eyes, “Have you been sleeping alright?”
“No,” She sighed, “Not really.”
“How come?” He seemed genuinely concerned so Hazel decided to tell him.
“I keep having nightmares. It’s like I relive the whole kidnapping thing over again, except it, it doesn’t stop and they hurt me and I end up dying.” She looked at him, waiting for Frank to laugh or something. Although it was terrifying in her head it sounded stupid when she said it out loud.
He didn’t though, “And are you not able to sleep after these wake you?”
“No,” Hazel looked downwards, feeling embarrassed, “I’m just too scared.”
“Listen,” He looked at her closely, “Next time you have a nightmare just come see me, okay? I don’t care if it’s in the middle of the night, just come see me anyway. It’ll be fine, and just remember, it’s not real.”
“Okay,” She said with a small smile.
He smiled back and she stood up to put her cup in the sink. Whilst she was there he came up behind her and put his arms around her waist. His hands joined in front of her and she placed her hands on top, stroking and playing with his fingers. Together, the two of them stood smiling and looked out the window.
The day was good after that, but that night, Hazel had another nightmare.
The men had her, they’d taken her to the garage and she was lying on the floor with the bag over her head whilst they kicked her. She cried with pain and the men just laughed.
She woke up in a panic again and felt the wet kiss of the tears upon her cheeks. She sat bolt upright and tried to calm her racing heart.
“It isn’t real. It isn’t real. It isn’t real” She whispered out loud and glanced wildly about her.
No, it wasn’t working. What could she do? She didn’t want to have a panic attack right there, in the dark, in the middle of the night, in her bed, by herself, but it just seemed so real.
“Frank.” She remembered, hurriedly swinging her legs over the side of her bed and made no effort to wipe her tears away or make herself anymore presentable as she as good as ran to Frank’s room.
She hesitated outside the door before cautiously pushing it open a little.
“Frank?” She said softly, slipping inside and hearing the door click shut behind her. She stopped for a few minutes and stood motionless in the dark, shooting fevered glances about her. She saw the digital alarm clock beside his bed and looked at it, the red light shone back at her, 2.47am.
Frank stirred and propped himself up, rubbing his eyes, “What’s happening?”
“Frank, I-” Hazel’s voice cracked and she forgot what to say. Instead she just stood there and burst into tears.
Great. Now he was just going to think she was a temperamental child who couldn’t even have a bad dream without breaking down about it.
Frank immediately swung his legs over so he was sitting on the side of the bed and held out his arms, “Hazel, baby, it’s alright, come here.”
Hazel didn’t protest, instead she gladly hurried towards him and let him hold her. They didn’t move or speak for a while but just sat in dark in a peaceful silence, Hazel shaking from fright and the cold in Frank’s strong arms. He stroked her hair a bit and she buried her face in his shoulder, feeling the dip between his bone and muscle, and liking the feel of his warm skin against her face.
A while later he held her out a bit and looked at her, “You alright now?” He asked, gently using his thumbs to wipe the tears from her face and smiling softly.
She nodded and looked at him. He wasn’t wearing much, just his boxers and, from what she could see in the darkened room, he looked pretty good. She saw that he had a tattoo of the word ‘Hope’ with a flame on the left side of his chest, and two doves with the words ‘search and destroy’ which went all around his waist. When he moved she also saw that he had ‘I Am A Graveyard’ written across his collar bone, and he was quite muscular.
He saw her looking at him and grinned at her, Hazel felt her stomach flutter and managed to smile back.
She moved her hand and felt something move very slightly underneath it, a grunt from Frank told her that she’d found his private area. Hazel paused for a second, thinking about back tracking, and perhaps trying to cover up her actions, but a voice inside her head refused to let her, she applied a little more pressure to his crotch and he quietly moaned in response.
She was pressing harder when he caught her arm, looking into her eyes he asked “Hazel. Are you sure you want this?”
Hazel started back at him in the dark and paused for a fraction of a second before meeting his beautiful eyes.
“Yes.” She said and continued rubbing.
He grinned at her for a moment, and then pulled off her top.
They pressed against each other and she gently stroked his chest as he ran his fingers through her hair.
Hazel’s skin tingled wherever she was in contact with Frank, her body felt hot but not in a flustered way. She felt slightly nervous, but more excited, in a new way, in anticipation of what was about to happen.
Frank pushed his mouth against hers, and kissed her hard, his tongue pushing its way into her mouth and entwining with her own. She felt his hands touch her skin behind her back and moaned slightly as he gently stroked the bare skin.
She put her own hands against his chest and pushed gently at it, stroking the skin and feeling the muscles clench and unclench beneath her touch. She gently traced her fingers down his torso and round to his back as his hands moved their way across her waist.
She gasped.
It was nothing like she’d expected it would be, but she liked it. There was more to it than just a pleasant feeling, there was something else too. It was like the ultimate connection, two bodies joining and two minds becoming one, it was a special moment and Hazel was overwhelmed by it.
Then it was over.
Frank rolled off of her and lay next to her in the dark, both of them panting.
It had only felt like a few minutes but the clock beside her said otherwise.
After a while their breathing slowed and Frank turned to look at her, grinning. She looked back at him in the half light and grinned also.
God, his eyes were so stunning. Large in the dark and radiating colour.
He laughed a little and opened his arms, "Come here." He said.
Hazel obliged and felt his protective arms close around her. She sighed with happiness.
"You're beautiful, you know that?" Frank whispered and kissed her neck.
Hazel smiled, closing her eyes and Frank's grip around her tightened.
They fell asleep in that position; his arms around her, she curled up against him, both of them peaceful and both of them smiling. For the first time in over a week, Hazel's dreams were pleasant and unfrightening.

Notes

Probably as close to smut as I'll get! I hope it wasn't too bad XD
*is embarrassed & hides*
Please rate and comment with your thoughts on this, it's really apppreciated thanks <3