Enoch has always been like this. Grumpy, sarcastic and reluctant to talk to the other peculiars in Miss Peregrine's loop. But when a new girl with a rather strange peculiarity shows up, will he manage to keep up this stony façade?
The next day, it was raining. Yay. To be very honest, I was surprised that it had been sunny all week; I mean, this was Cairnholm, Wales, after all. Nevertheless, I'd been inside, crying, for too long, and I needed some air to clear my head.
There was nobody in the garden as I stepped outside, wrapped up in my yellow waterproof coat and some old trousers. I looked down at my legs and noticed how baggy the trousers were on me, before remembering whose they were. Enoch's. He'd given them to me after my only pair (I wore a lot of skirts and dresses in 1940, thanks to the gender clothing roles) had been covered in period blood after a particularly early cycle. I laughed slightly as I recalled the memory. I'd woken up to bloody sheets and sworn so loudly that Enoch had come running in, only for his face to go as white as a... Well, a sheet. I'd had to explain to him that bleeding out of your uterus was a totally normal thing. Wow. They really didn't teach people about the other sexes bodies back in those days.
Anyway, back to the garden.
I carried on walking, past the willow tree where I had my first kiss, and past the topiary made to look like different animals. I made a full circle of the garden and soon found myself at the back of the house, somewhere where people rarely visited. You could tell it wasn't popular: Miss Peregrine hadn't even assigned anybody to clear up the autumn leaves that were scattered around the base of the bricks. As I neared the wall, I realised I wasn't alone. There was Enoch, sitting against the wall with his legs stretched out, with something in his mouth... Was that a cigarette? Oh, I can only imagine how mad the Bird would be if she saw him. He must have thought he really needed it to make that kind of risk.
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I walked closer to him and watched warily as he lifted his head, before dropping it again when he saw it was me. I crunched my way towards to him and sat close by. "Hey." I said quietly. "Hello." Silence. "Where did you get that?" I said, gesturing towards the cigarette. He propped his elbows on his knees and rolled it in-between his fingers, gazing at it. "Made some. Got the tobacco and the other stuff from the village yesterday while you were all at the beach." Ah, so that was where he had been. Enoch cleared his throat and snapped me out of my train of thought. "Do you... Want one?" Fuck it, I thought. "Sure." He rummaged in his pocket for a messily rolled up cigarette and handed it to me. I placed it in my mouth and leant towards him so he could light it. As soon as he had lit it, I breathed in. Bad idea. Very bad idea. The tobacco dust entered my windpipe and I coughed and spluttered, doubling over with my attempt to breathe. I couldn't physically inhale. Enoch's cigarette dropped from his mouth and he leapt behind me, pulling mine from my lips. He then proceeded to hit his hands repeatedly between my shoulder blades, but I continued to choke. He furrowed his eyebrows and decided on the extreme way of stopping someone choking: putting your hands underneath someone's stomach and pushing up. I spluttered one final time and watched, relieved, if slightly disgusted, as I saw a chunk of tobacco leave my mouth and fly across into a nearby bush. Enoch crouched in front of me, worried. "I am so, so sorry, (Y/N)... I didn't know how... How clumped up the tobacco still was." He rested his head on his hands. "That was all my fault." I put my arms around him tentatively, and I could feel him trembling slightly. Despite our problems, I pulled him closer to me and whispered: "Enoch, why are you shaking?"
He lifted his head.
"Because I'm sorry. And I love you. I love you, and I want you back."
He pressed his lips onto mine, pulling me up to standing, and caressed my jaw. I tangled my hands in his hair and kissed back passionately, as I felt him grab my waist with his remaining hand.
After a couple of minutes, we pulled away from each other, breathing heavily. "I love you," he whispered, gently rubbing my arms. "I love you too. So fucking much."
