Take A Chance On Me ☆ [Mamma Mia - Bill Anderson X Reader]

☆31☆

Your POV

You step off the train to London and take a big breath in, smelling the familiar scent of piss in the streets and the faraway smell of the sea. Oh, wait... you sniff your own long velvet coat... no, that's just you.

After being hailed as a local hero in a town in Switzerland, taking up a fleeting job in France to save up those euros to exchange for pounds, and taking a break in Ireland and Scotland to visit all the places your mother always told you were fun but never took you to, you're back in London to check on the old house.

You don't know if Ruby, your mother, has remembered to come back here in the past seven years, but you and your twin certainly haven't, and if nobody's been checking on it for so long anything could've happened to it.

You make the familiar paths and turns that all comes back to you, and end up staring at the place you lived for the first 21 years of your life. You have so many memories of this house: making beans on toast and accidentally burning your wrist on the toaster; using the swing on the balcony when Ruby explicitly told you not to; sitting cross-legged on the whitewall on the balcony trying to look at the sea, yearning to see it for once, to dip your hand into it as you glided along in a boat.

You're proud to know that now you've accomplished everything you once yearned to do when stuck in this house, and your tree spirit necklace glows mysteriously in understanding.

You go to stick your key in the front door but find it already picked open, so you nudge it open further and peek inside. It's dark and dusty - the least you'd expect from an abandoned house, really - but you can see just a flicker of warm yellow light emanating from the spacious sitting room.

Eyebrows knitting together in curiosity, you cinch your backpack on your shoulder and clench your suitcase in your hand tighter.
You walk closer to the sitting room door, taking a deep breath before opening the door and going through your mind the defense attack poses you learned with Bill.

You open the door, peek inside, and blink when you see a bunch of vagrants and squatters warming themselves over the small sitting room fireplace.

You don't gasp, but the quiet squeak of the door moving alerts everyone to look toward you... and instantly start to panic.
They begin to scatter and grab their things, and you step towards them in peace, dropping your luggage.
"Guys, guys! It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise!"

They ignore you, except for one woman dressed in a large fluffy worn and torn coat. She surveys your suitcase, your fallen backpack, your concerned expression with not a hint of fear or anger, just want to help.
She steps toward you, ignoring the calls of another woman, and says, "Who are you?"

You blink again. "I'm... I'm the owner of this house." Well, considering who's been here the most in their lives, it's technically yours.
Now it's the woman's turn to blink. "Oh... we've been staying here for... I think, almost a year now. We all have," she adds as she gestures to everyone else, who have stopped trying to leave and are just watching the two of you.

You look around at everyone and nod in silent understanding. These people need this home more than you do, and honestly you don't care what happens to this place anymore. In your eyes, you've moved on from here, and now it makes sense to you that people who don't have anywhere else to go would stay here instead. It seems right.

Seeing that you aren't threatening them in any way, the people begin to relax and resume what they were doing before you blundered in. Some even attempt a smile in your direction, and one man comes up to you, loops their arm round the woman's waist with a comforting kiss on her cheek, and waves.

"Sorry we scared you, Miss; we didn't think anyone would come back for this place. It's just-"
"No, it's okay, I get it. Stay here for as long as you want," you interrupt kindly and smile, eliciting a grateful smile from both adults and from whoever else heard you.