I haven't been active and posting stories in a while, but I'm excited to be back!
CREDITS for this imagine go to vici2k05 (and me), thank you for sending me your work and writing together with me, I appreciate you so much! 🤍
WARNINGS: attempted assault, please don't read if that is too much for you!
---
Night, honey!", you said.
"Good night Y/N, get home safely, yea? Please call me if something's wrong and text me when you're home, I'll be awake!"
"Yes, I promise.", you responded to her, kissing your best friend on the cheek.
Then you left, walking through the front door, breathing in the cool night air.
You forgot your headphones at home on your way to her, so now you were walking without listening to music once again, which dragged your mood down a little.
All you wanted was to go home and get in bed. You snuggled deeper into your grey coat, your steps fastening at the thought of blankets and pillows and a warm cup of tea waiting for you at home.
But your heartbeat increased, as you heard a male voice shouting from behind you. "Hey, kitty!"
"Shit!", you quietly cursed to yourself, not daring to turn around, instead reaching into your bag for your phone, your key chain, anything - but it was too late.
You felt a heavy hand on your left shoulder, making you turn your head in fear, feeling paralysed. A man stood in front of you, just a little taller than you, not looking as if he had good intentions.
"Hey, sweetie!", he said.
His deep slurred voice sent shivers down your spine.
"Leave me alone!!"
"Why, huh? Aren't you up for some fun,beautiful?" He had a strong southern American accent, you wondered what he could be doing in Sydney.
'Oh god, silly!', you thought to yourself, 'Concentrate, you have to escape him, that's the only thing that matters right now!'
You lifted your hand, turning it into a fist, aiming to punch him in the face, when he grabbed your wrist, making you silently whimper in pain.
"What do you want from me??", you angrily shouted at him, though the fear in your voice was clearly audible.
"Like I said, I just wanna have my fun with you, pretty girl." His bruising grip around your wrist intensified, making you press your lips together to hide a pained shout from him.
"Now... you better cooperate, if you don't want this to hurt, kitten!", he grabbed your chin violently with two fingers.
"Don't you dare scream or even think of trying to fight me, slut!"
He punched you in the stomach.
You screamed out in pain, tears beginning to stream down your face. You were too shocked to see it coming.
"Please!", you whimpered. "Ple- please let me go! You can have my money or- or my phone, but please- just- just don't tou-"
"SHUT UP AND UNDRESS!!", he slapped your right cheek.
"Enough of this, kitten!", he said, grabbing your waist. You were sure he'd leave some marks and you were fearing the marks he could leave on other parts of your body.
"My patience is long gone, girl! You better do as I say! Do you hear me??"
You let out another whimper, trying to wriggle out of his painful grip.
"I SAID DO YOU HEAR M-"
"HEY!!"
A strong and loud voice suddenly shouted and a tall man, dressed in all black clothes, approached you.
You could make out that he had long, black, curly hair as he got closer.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?? STAY AWAY!!", the man next to you shouted, still hurting you by keeping his grip tight and bruising around you.
"Alright, that's it...", the other man mumbled to himself, but you still heard it.
He pushed him away from you, making him land on the cold, hard ground.
It seemed like he didn't even have to put effort into it.
Then he punched him twice, you didn't look, you couldn't, too exhausted, sinking down on the ground as well, burrying your head inbetween your knees.
You just heard it.
"Now leave and don't you dare touch her or another woman ever again!!"
He turned to you, lifting up his hands, to show you he was unarmed, slowly walking over.
Though, when he saw how your head was still between your knees, he knelt down as well.
He noticed your short, anxious breaths.
At first he hesitated, but then he softly touched one your knees.
But it still made you shriek, shrinking in on yourself and making yourself even smaller.
"Please don't hurt me", your whimpers began to turn into quiet sobs, your heavy breaths increasing, making the stranger seriously worried about you.
"Hey, hey... breathe... I won't hurt you, I won't cause you any pain, I won't harm you.", the stranger whispered soothingly.
"Everything's gonna be fine, alright?
Deep breaths."
He stroked over your back reassuringly, drawing small circles.
"That's it, you're doing great!", he encouraged you. "In and out, good job."
He watched you finally calming down a little.
"There you go! Shh, I'm proud of you.", he cooed.
You both just sat on the ground in the dark alley in silence for a few moments, until he spoke up again.
"Are ou okay with telling me your name and your age?"
"I'm- I'm Y/N.", your voice cracked a little at the end of your own name.
He noticed, swallowing.
"It is gonna be alright, Y/N, I promise. I will make sure of that, okay? Focus on your breathing, keep going, your doing great!" He paused again for a while.
"And how old are you?"
"I'm twenty-two.", you responded.
'Twenty-two...', he thought. He would have guessed you were about twenty-four, twenty-five.
"My name is Ashton. I'm thirty.", he stroked up and down your arms carefully, the last thing he wantes was to make you uncomfortable or even cause you more fear.
"Do you want some water?"
"That'd- that'd be great, thanks.", you whispered, nodding your head.
He handed you a bottle of water, which yku had no idea where he had kept it before, giving you a small smile.
"Thank you, Ashton."
"Ash. Please."
You chuckled. "Okay, I'll stick to that."
He giggled, looking into your eyes.
"Thanks Ash, for everything. Not just the water, but also for managing to calm me down and just for... well...", you breathed out, "For saving me."
You stood up, your knees still being wobbly, so he took your hand to help steady you.
"What do you work as?", you asked, actually interested. For some reason, you wanted to know more about him, even though the circumstances seemed anything but fitting for that.
"I'm a therapist.", he smiled. "What about you?"
"I study Literature at the University here, that's why I moved to Sydney."
"Oh, so you're not from here?"
"No, I'm from Y/C.", you said shyly. (*Y/C = your country)
"Wow! That's pretty cool."
He let go of your hand, bringing some space between the two of you, as you finally stood on your feet without shaking, but for some reason, you grabbedhis hand again.
"I'm here, okay?", he said softly at that, "I'll protect you!"
He carefully stroked over the back of your hand with his thumb.
"Now, what were you doing out at this time of the night, all by yourself?"
"I was at a friend's house, but we lost track of time. The original plan was that I'd leave at like eight or nine, but ...you know, now it's around midnight..."
He nodded in understanding.
You two continued walking, none of you seeming as if you wanted to say goodbye and now that you weren't alone anymore, you felt save with him.
At least that was until a group of about seven boys came your way. None of them wanted to harm you in any way, not even paying attention to you, but you could still smell alcohol and cigarettes, and hear their loud voices.
You felt a panic attack rising, due to the incident Ashton had saved you from, your breathing quickening.
One of them flashed you a quick look, his eyes wandering up and down your body.
It was too much.
They kept walking and were already past you, completely ignoring both of you again, but you were breathing heavily, tightly grabbing onto Ashton's arm, hiding your face in his chest.
You didn't care about the fact that you had met only about an hour ago, you didn't care what he might think of you, you just didn't care.
All you cared about was to stop panicking, but you got even more anxious, everything from earlier suddenly floating back to you, your mind making up things that could've happened if Ashton hadn't been there. Or hadn't been there in time.
"Y/N, hey hey, relax!"
He helped you sit down on the ground again, crouching down in front of you.
"Lift your head up for me please, Y/N. Don't look at your knees, just focus on me."
You did as you were told, concentrating on his eyes.
"You're safe, it's all good.", he soothed.
He gently took your hands in his, reminding you that there wasn't anything to be afraid of.
"Whatever you're thinking might be scary, but you're not in danger right now.", he said softly,
"Stay in the present, Y/N. Just remember it is not the place or anything else that is bothering you, those are just your thoughts."
It was as if you were close to drowning, your ears had been numb as if there was dark, deep water all around you, but now you were slowly coming back up, resurfacing.
"Don't let your mind scare you with the things it's making up."
You nodded your head slowly.
'His eyes are so gorgeous.', you thought, feeling how you were calming down.
This effect he had on you... it was weird. Usually it took you much longer to get your breathing back to normal.
You didn't know whether it was because of his job, making him an expert in knowing how to react when someone was having a panic attack or whether it was something else.
"Thanks again.", you bit your lip, shyly looking down to the ground.
"No worries, okay? Everything's going to be just fine, Y/N. Can you stand up?"
Again, you just nodded your head, but you weren't really trying to get up at all. You still felt too weak.
"It's okay.", Ashton said, while you focused on the feeling of his fingers against your arm.
"There's plenty of time. Count to ten for me, alright?", he cooed.
So the both of you did, standing up carefully, after you finally felt save again.
"Good job, I'm proud of you-"
"This was you!", you interrupted him immediately, shaking your head in disbelief.
Ashton shock his head calmly. "Yes, I did help, but you still did this on your own and this is your success!"
You just nodded, deciding it was pointless to argue.
"Y/N, can I ask you something? You don't have to answer if you're not comfortable."
"Sure. What is it?"
"Do you have any idea what made you anxious? What caused you to panic again?"
"Those boys.", you replied immediately.
he gave you a questioning look.
"I- i mean when they walked by, but they smelled like alcohol and cigarettes and they were just... pretty loud. And that made me uncomfortable, but then J noticed how one of them checked out my body.", you explained.
"So my mind made up those possible 'what if' scenarios of if you hadn't been there to save me from the man who tried to...", you cleared your throat, after your voice cracked a little, "Well, you already know, I don't wanna say it.", you mumbled, taking a deep breath, pausing.
"I lost control.", you finally added.
He nodded attentively.
"It's good that you know what triggered it, to begin with. And it's okay to lose control sometimes, you know what I mean, you grow everyday, you don't win right away.", he smiled softly.
"Where do you get all those wise quotes?", you laughed softly, making him chuckle in the most adorable way, as you were staring up at him, since he was a bit taller.
He held the eye contact, even though you two were walking. "I heard a lot of stories by a lot of people who've all been through many different things."
He paused for a very brief moment, your eyes still focused on each other.
"And I also have my own story."
You got lost in his hazel eyes, while he was all focused on yours.
It sent a shiver down your spine. In a good way.
Ashton was the first one to look away.
"Are you okay with me asking another question? Again, you don't have to answer me, if you don't want to.", he said considerately.
"Go for it.", you smiled.
"Does this happen a lot? Are you experiencing panic attacks rather often?"
"To be completely honest with you, yes. I am. I went through a lot of shit in the - excuse me - I went through a lot in the past and they started about nine years ago when I was like thirteen. Sometimes they're better, sometimes they're worse. Depends I guess."
"Do you think you know what it depends on?"
"I'd say it depends on how I'm doing mentally. Although I really healed a little, since I moved here. There were many toxic environments back at home and I'm glad I could leave them and some people behind.", you said, pronouncing the word 'home' in a distant and rather cool way.
"But still, it's been so long, you know, I.. I really want to work on it, but I've never managed to bring up the courage."
"I could help.", Ashton offered kindly.
"Are you serious? You really mean that?", you asked shyly.
"I do.", he smiled.
You didn't know what to say or do, except for doing the thing you did way too often: thinking you were somewhat less worthy than others.
"Ash, please, I don't want you to feel sympathy for me. I really appreciate that, but-"
"Hey, please don't say that. I want to offer you my help, okay?.", he said sincerely.
"And umm... there's something else.", he added after a smal pause.
He stopped walking then, turning to look at you softly stroking a loosened strand of hair out of your face.
He was so careful. As if you were some sort of glass, which could break any minute, making sure not to push you away.
Your lips parted at the touch you didn't know you needed, the deep eye contact you didn't know you craved for a second time, when his thumb softly stroked over your cheek.
"I want to get to know you. I can't believe I'm gonna say this now, cuz I know it is probably the most inappropriate timing, but...", he bit down on his lip, being evidently nervous, "I'm honestly interested in you. Y/N, would you maybe like to go out with me?"
Your eyes still looking into his, you said: "Yes, Ash. It'd be my pleasure."
You glanced from his eyes down to his lips for a second, noticing how he did the exact same thing.
"Pleasure's all mine.", you heard his beautiful aussie accent, before he softly connected his lips to yours.
Him having been at the right place at the right time really was the start for a lifetime of you two being together, sharing your happiness.
He wasn't just your saviour that night you met.
He was the person who made you feel save.
Always.