The Most Dangerous Game (Harry Styles AU)

22

-Everly

"Is this how you choose to spend your mornings Miss Abbott? With only the company of the birds singing?"

I flinch at the sound of the now familiar voice, setting my cup of tea down on the glass table as I glance up.

"It is a beautiful garden." Kimura takes a seat across from me. "Very uncommon in a city such as this."

"It is." I nod.

"At my home in Kyoto, I have two gardens, one facing the west and one the east. They are both quite lovely, in different ways of course."

I give him a curt smile as he gazes at me thoughtfully.

"One is much like this.." He goes on, unbothered by my silence. "there for aesthetic pleasure. It is where my wife usually spent her afternoons. Reading on a bench in the corner of the garden..."

His voice fades off as he seems to look right through me, lost in his thoughts.

He frowns, blinking a few times as if to bring himself back to the present. "The other is for meditation. It is where I spend my early mornings, preparing myself for the day ahead."

"A zen garden?" I finally speak.

"Yes, a zen garden." He smiles, "Both types are very important. One must enjoy life but also be able to contemplate what they are doing with it. Do you not agree?"

"Yes."

"So tell me Miss Abbott, what is this garden to you?" He looks around us before focusing back on me.

"Sorry?"

"You chose to sit out here this morning for a reason. Was it because you take delight in the beauty of it or because there is something in your life you are deliberating on?"

I narrow my eyes slightly, picking up my cup and taking a sip of the warm liquid. It runs down my throat smoothly, but doesn't soothe me as it usually does.

I don't think anything could settle my nerves right now. Not around him.

I know exactly what the man sitting across from me is capable of. I know exactly what he wants Carter to do.

And no matter how calmly he talks, how smoothly the words roll off his tongue...

I'm absolutely terrified of him.

"Maybe I just like the peace and quiet." I shrug, trying to appear calm.

"Hmmm." He drums his fingers on the table, cocking his head. "Something tells me it isn't just that."

"No?"

"No." He shakes his head. "I can tell by your eyes, there are many thoughts hidden behind them. I would say, while you think this garden is visibly enjoyable, you have many things in your life you are contemplating. I like to think of myself as a good judge of character Miss Abbott, being able to read people is quite a hobby of mine. Tell me, what would a beautiful young woman such as yourself have so many worries about?"

"I'm afraid you have me pegged all wrong." I shift uncomfortably in my seat. "I'm an open book, a boring one at that."

"Open?" He looks at me with amusement. "You barely speak at all. Always just watching.. Just watching. A very commendable trait."

"Is it?"

"Nou aru taka wa tsume wo kakusu."

My eyebrows furrow in confusion as he grins. "An old Japanese proverb. The hawk with talent hides its talons."