Work Text:
“Why did you come here?” Naoki asked, though she should be asking herself that instead. What was she doing here, with a man she hardly knows, laying on the roof of his shabby apartment. Both of them staring at the near starless sky. The city quieted in the night but it was never silent. San hummed, crossing his legs and propping them up on the ledge of the roof.
“I didn’t want to be my father.” He said after a moment. “I didn’t want to be the good son, like my brother. And I didn’t want to become complacent like my mother. I just …” San sighed deeply, drawing Naoki’s eyes. He had his own closed now, this was one of the few times she actually saw him frowning like he is. “I didn’t want to look around one day and find I didn’t control my own feet or where they carried me. I just wanted more.”
“And why did you pick Republic City?” Naoki loved this city, she really, truly did. But she couldn’t count the times it left her bent and bruised. She’s watched it crush and break better men all her life. “Ba Sing Se is a big city, so I hear. So why stop here?”
“It’s just where I ended up.” San chuckled with a shrug as he sat up. “I walked here, you know?” He said after a beat. “Hopped from ride to ride when I could. I couldn’t afford the trains. When I got robbed on the road I had nothing to give the man.” San laughed. He laughed a lot, even at times when there was nothing to laugh about. Naoki found she liked the sound of it.
“Everything was so new. Even when I got to the city things were just … different.” She watched, still laying on her back, as he got up and went to look over the city. “I don’t make much but at least I’m not selling fruit. My home is old and worn, even though nothing it’s new it’s still all mine.” Naoki just watched his back as he soaked in the city. As he peered out over to the glow of downtown. Not enough to light up anything around them but it framed him, put him in the center of everything. “I felt like I could be someone here.”
Naoki figured that’s why she’s here. All her life there was someone. All her life there was a plan. All her life she wanted nothing to do with either. She may not have left the city, didn’t trek across earth but she escaped the life she never wanted. Now she was all on her own, and was happy to be alone. Just as San is. Alone until they ran into each other and ended up alone together.
“Marry me.” Naoki said, flat and quiet but San still heard her. Slowly he turned to look down at her. And he stared and waited but she didn’t say anything, just waited for him to answer.
“Is this one of those jokes you say all serious but you’re actually messing with me?” She didn’t say anything, didn’t laugh or roll her eyes. She just laid on the stupid roof of the apartment of a man she hardly knew. Naoki didn’t even know the names of his parents of this brother of his. Somehow that didn’t matter. For some reason the logical voice in her brain was quiet. The angry woman who wanted nothing but some solitude didn’t utter a peep.
San walked back and sat next to her. Placing a hand by her head, he leaned over her so they were face to face. “You’re serious?” This close she could see the way he was fighting a smile. Naoki showed mercy and slowly nodded her head and the smile broke loose. His lips found hers and his hands cupped her face. Her heart sang at the touch, so soft and hungry, and her arms looped around his neck. When they broke away they were breathless but San still laughed, Naoki smiled wider than she had in a long time.
San stroked her cheek as he just started down at her. In all actuality they hardly knew one another. She never talked about her family or what they did. Until tonight he had done the same. But Naoki wanted this, it seems they both did. She didn’t know why or how she had fallen so fast for him. Or why he returned the feelings just as fiercely as she felt them. But the idea of spending a lifetime with him? Naoki couldn’t remember a time she wanted anything more.