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“Finally! I can taste the freedom and it’s soooooo sweet.”
The day had started relatively normal in your waking up, eating breakfast with Flug and 5.0.5, then releasing Demencia from her cage. It was your routine and you enjoyed it. Only today you didn’t expect to get pulled aside by Black Hat and him asking demanding that you accompany him on a little business trip.
You were a bit stunned to say the least. Black Hat has no reason to keep you around for his business matters—as he has told you many times before, and that was when he explained why he needed you around along with Flug, Demencia, and 5.0.5. Your part is going to be, unfortunately, stalling a few people while your unkind boss lays down a few laws with clients that haven’t been acting according to the contract they signed.
It will end in a bloodbath. These business trips always do. There have been many a time where Black Hat came back to the mansion splattered with blood and cackling about it.
You would wash his clothes the next day as told and forget it ever happened.
This time you get to run free from the mansion for a little while. Will you come back scarred? Oh, most likely. Black Hat doesn’t play when it comes to his company and it often results in many lives lost, yet you want to see just how long he is able to keep his composure until that thin line of patience snaps in two.
“We aren’t going too far, Demencia,” you chuckle at her enthusiasm.
She twirls around with a laugh, her green hair just about hitting you in the face and giving you whiplash. A huge grin spreads across her face when Black Hat sighs at the playful banter, pinching the area between his eyes.
It felt almost surreal, really. When Black Hat drug you out of the mansion, you expected some kind of limousine to be waiting but it was quite the opposite. All you could do is give a dumb stare when Black Hat started making his way down the sidewalk with his signature frown and his arms crossed behind his back as you had observed him doing regularly.
Flug, Demencia and 5.0.5 followed after him without questioning it. You, on the other hand, couldn’t believe you were going to be seen out in public with Black Hat. It wasn’t a secret you worked for him as many people had approached you on the matter when in town for supplies, but this was different.
Flug told you it was because he didn’t want any unwanted attention drawn. Pulling up in a limousine would surely draw attention; good and bad.
Being seen with Black Hat is a gift in itself. Especially on Hat Island where villains and petty criminals practically worship him. Not only does it give you a high status but it helps out your chances of being left alone. Hat Island is dangerous—chaotic—and all it takes is one person to bump into you as you’re shuffling down the sidewalk. Next thing you know, you have a knife embedded in your abdomen, blood seeping into your clothes and spilling through fingers, blurry vision and someone demanding for all your valuables while you struggle not to lose your footing over the sidewalk drop off.
No one should feel safe in Black Hat’s presence. He is a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment, yet you couldn’t feel any safer while traveling through the streets of Hat Island. The feeling spreads fire throughout your whole body and threatens to burn you alive. Your palms get sweaty just thinking about.
You have caught yourself glancing at his hands more than a few times already. What would it be like to hold his hand in public? Adrenaline would flood your body if it was to ever happen, just as it had when your darling eldritch kissed you for the first time. The mix of adrenaline and oxytocin combined with the sensation of Black Hat’s hands all over you was an experience you could never forget.
That was a month ago and it was never brought up again. He pretended it had never happened, yet you find yourself often thinking about it on random occasions. You laid in bed one night, staring at the window with half-lidded eyes and a content smile adorning your face at the memory. You couldn’t help but trace the outline on your lips and remember just how loved you felt in the moment.
The small things like thinking about his hand laced to yours brings up the memory whether you want it to or not. It always leaves a smitten smile curling at your mouth. Mostly at inconvenient times like now.
“What’s with the weird smile?”
You blink out of your trace when Demencia points to your face with a twisted expression. Flug was watching you, too, judging from his raised eyebrows and tilted head. A scoff passes through your lips at their prying eyes.
“Just lost in my thoughts,” you cross your arms, narrowing your eyes at them.
Black Hat cranes his head back to get a look at your face, and his eye narrows right back at you. His numb stare is enough to make your teeth chatter for a second. “It seems you do that a lot these days. Maybe you should think about certain things on your own time, no?”
A knowing smirk crawls up his face, sharp teeth glinting is devilish delight when your eyes grow wide in embarrassment. A blush blossoms bright and red across your cheeks when he gives a short hum to your reaction.
Oh, so now he’s reading your mind. The bittersweet taste of being valued enough to have Black Hat step into your personal boundaries along with having your person space invaded without asking burns your tastebuds. It has you gritting your teeth down to dust.
You grumble under your breath when he turns his attention back to where he’s walking. Your already crossed arms tightens around your chest to keep the embarrassment from creeping in further into your bones. The warmth does no good in calming your rapidly beating heart.
I’ll think about holding your hand all I want, you smug bastard.
Watch your mouth else I might sew it shut.
You glare at the back of his head, hoping that it you glare hard enough a hole might burn through his face. It is a blessing that Demencia has a short attention span otherwise she’d be watching as you glare at the back Black Hat’s Head with more effort than you put into work.
I hope you get hit by a bus and live so I can make fun of you for it.
How sweet of you, you little wretch.
You snarl a curse under your breath but smirk into your shoulder when no one is looking. His insults shouldn’t have such an effect on you.
The rest of the way you watch as Demencia curls up and cooes to Black Hat, all while he pushes her away with all of his brute strength. You did get a nice laugh when he picked her up and threw her quite a distance.
Demencia might have started bleeding from various places after scraping against the ground, but she still swooned on about how Black Hat picked her up for the first time. You just snickered to yourself in delight. She would pop a gasket if she knew what you were doing with the love of her life a month ago.
There may have been no words exchanged on how Black Hat picked you over Demencia but he sure made it known that you belonged to him after a brief fit of jealousy. While the kiss was what you thought you wanted, hearing him growl out a low, “you belong to me” was enough to have your knees tremble and your heart turn to jelly.
The bar eventually meets your sight much to your legs’ aching delight. Demencia leans close to your ear, her sharp eyes scanning the streets and building with concerning detail. Your nose crinkles when she pokes your side with a challenge.
“We should race,” she wiggles her brows at your unsure scowl.
“Why would I do that? You’re faster than me by a long shot,” you answer with a playful hiss.
Flug lifts a finger, a grin heard to his meek tone of voice. “We both know that’s a lie. I’ve seen you run and you’re not slow.”
You whip your head in his direction and snarl like a wild animal, to which he cowers back with s nervous chuckle of his own unique style. While you knew you had a fair chance at winning against your lizard-human hybrid of a friend doesn’t mean you wanted to go through with that challenge.
“Fine. I’ll race,” you huff through your nose.
Demencia goes to cheer but you cut her off by holding up a flat palm. A sinister smile curls at your face, inspired by your lovely boss himself. Unknowingly to you, Black Hat finds himself admiring the way your skin stretches to fit the insanity of your toothy grin. He pries his gaze away with an inaudible growl.
“What will you give me?”
Demencia cocks her head to the side. “What do you want? This is too much trouble for a stupid race.”
“Ah, but the contrary. All I want is the bragging rights and a whole week to rub in your face,” you blink at her, cracking your knuckles as a warning.
Her face darkens and her fangs glint in the dawn light. You hold out your hand, brows raised and grin crumbling into a look of boredom.
Flug anxiously tugs on his lab coat sleeves and glances at Black Hat’s dark face to see him staring you down with what seems to be hatred. Under the surface of hatred is a very deniable sense of adoration that tastes too sweet on his tongue. He’s choking on the taste and can’t decide whether he wants more of it or to rip out his tongue entirely.
How dare you be so... you. You have placed some kind of spell on him. He will drag you from hell and back if it gets you to stop plaguing his thoughts. You are undoubtedly annoying and over the borderline of bothersome.
“You have a deal!” Demencia says, going to grab your hand with rippling excitement.
You fake her out and run the hand offered to her through your hair before laughing in her face. By the time the shock releases her thoughts, you’re already half way to your destination and kicking up gravel like your life depends on it.
Demencia cries out in defeat when you do a victory dance by the bar door. She claws at your shoes and whines at her highest pitch while you smile down at her with the excitement of a three year old.
“Ooo, see! Now I have bragging rights and you can’t do a thing about it,” you poke at her face, and she bites at the air to catch your finger between her fangs.
You blow a raspberry, as to which Black Hat scoffs at you with as most loathing he can muster. A chuckle bubbles up your throat at his unamused glare.
“Really, are you that childish? How pathetic.”
You blow a raspberry at him in return to his snarky remark. The action is immediately regretted as soon as his hands find the collar of your shirt and hoist you up to his face with a animalistic snarl. Demencia pauses her thrashing about at the scene, wide eyed.
You just snicker. This isn’t your first time being held up by your shirt and threatened to keep your mouth shut.
Flug watches with piqued curiosity. Everything gets under Black Hat’s skin to some degree, but you? You take things to an all new high. You are able to crawl under the eldritch’s skin unlike anything else and it leaves the doctor confused every time. Especially when you’re threatened for the smallest of things like blowing a raspberry. Although you knew better to do that at Black Hat and think you could get away with it.
The whole fiasco leaves more questions than answers. Demencia has taken a notice as well, and Lord knows that she shouldn’t get involved with whatever rivalry you have with Black Hat.
“You two,” Black Hat growls, not even looking in their direction, “make yourselves useful and get inside.”
Flug squeaks and clambers through the bar entrance without another thought. Demencia blinks a few times, jealousy seeping into her bones before grumbling and following after the scientist with a low hiss.
You swallow thickly at their absence. Black Hat’s upper lip crinkles upwards, showing off his perfect teeth and gums to match. Is he planning to bite your head off? You wouldn’t put it past him.
“Make one more snotty remark and I’ll end you here,” he hisses when you open your mouth with a gleam in your eye.
Oh, man. You have officially screwed yourself over. His feral snarling and hissing is the indication of a bad time ahead of you.
“I might cut out your tongue just for that. Do not think you can get away with anything you want. You are not important, you never were important, and the only reason I keep you around is because I don’t have the time to look for someone with better qualities than some drop out who’s parents despise her just as much I do. The only reason you live is because I have no time to get rid of you. Test me again and you might not be so lucky.”
The rant comes to staggering halt when your fearful expression melts away into a stone cold, statue like emptiness. Black Hat can practically see all of the unique and beautiful characteristics that make you you drain away into nothing but a dead stare at the mention of your background. A shutter vibrates through your body and your eyes drop with the action.
It isn’t the threats that turn you into an emotionless, empty shell. That’s what makes Black Hat’s sneer soften into angry confusion. You would normally recognize when his tsunami of emotions change but this time you just stare him straight in this eye without so much as a giddy thought about how he is holding you so close.
“I’m sorry, Lord Black Hat. It won’t happen again,” you draw out, biting your bottom lip and avoiding eye contact.
That makes him internally cringe. You called him Lord Black Hat. It sounds fine coming from Flug, but the title is harsh and unwanted coming from you. The sound doesn’t sound sweet spilling from your mouth. You’re supposed to call him sir.
You’re supposed to call him sir.
It doesn’t matter. You have been put in your rightful place beneath him and that is all that matters.
Black Hat drops you onto the sidewalk with one last don’t test me narrow of his eye. He doesn’t spare you another glance and walks into the bar, leaving you sitting on the hard concrete and ready to wither away. You back yourself up against the building, palms pressed to the concrete sidewalk.
It shouldn’t hurt.
You knew something like this would happen. It was only a matter of time and how much patience your new flame had. This is the reckoning of your own doing, yet you didn’t think the mention of your parents would stab you through the chest like it did.
You can’t let it hurt no matter how many times you relay his hurtful words in your head.
The way back to the mansion is quiet and the air is filled with tension. Chokingly so.
You stayed to the back of the group, hands in your pockets and eyes cast to your shoes as if they were the most interesting thing since TV. Demencia was limping and bruised on every clear inch of skin, although she kept grinning about it. Flug kept choking on the bloody iron smell wafting off of Black Hat who, in the midst of his overwhelming anger and confusion as to why the light died in your eyes so easily, shredded his client apart with his claws. The poor guy wasn’t recognizable after.
The flare of temper caused the whole bar to break out into a fight. Demencia ate the attention up.
You heard the commotion from outside but couldn’t find the will to care. Not in the moment when you were busy swallowing down a bucket of tears.
When they walked out after business had been handled, you barely noticed the red stains on Black Hat’s gloves but quickly dismissed any thoughts on him. You did check Demencia over with a pained smile, which Flug noticed, but that was as much emotion you could display before setting for the mansion.
You didn’t leave much time for conversation when you got back to the mansion. Not a word left your mouth—not a single see you tomorrow or goodnight—before you were bounding down the hallway to your room. Every eye watched as you disappeared around a corner.
Demencia and Flug dispersed after your own abandonment with permission from the boss.
Black Hat glowers on his way to his office for a glass of wine and some silence to think for awhile. There are a lot of things to think about, and not just about a lost customer to the business and how to cover up his death.
You needed to be mulled over quite a bit.
•••
It hurts.
You curl into yourself on your bed, teeth together and eyes pinched shut to ward off the oncoming tears. The warmth from your bed drags you down into a curled ball atop the sheets and pillows propped up against your headboard, face dug into your knees and nails digging into your calves.
All it took was one mention of your past. You knew it was coming. A long time coming, but you never expected it to feeling like a punch to the gut twenty times over. Taking his insults with grace was your signature stand out. This one time just tore down that precious tolerance to hurtful intentions.
The feeling of grief and regret comes spilling over your face and down your chin. A cry of muffled frustration leaves your lips as you curl into yourself just a bit more. Your calves begin to string from the digging of your nails into the soft flesh.
You internally plead for anything to help you forget about the familiar echoing voice in your head. The voice is supposed to be cold and cruel, not so vicious that it is tearing you apart. You loved that voice. It was beginning to sound comforting in all of its threats. That love can’t change—not when things were starting to change for the better.
It was no secret that when you were first hired that you were sickeningly lonely from the neglect you received throughout your childhood and teenage years. Flug had told you that there was an emptiness in your eyes that flooded with pain every time someone touched you. It didn’t matter where contact was made, it only mattered that it hurt but not enough to deter you from soaking it up.
5.0.5 made sure to welcome you with many hugs and that made your moving in 100x better. Although there was nothing as intoxicating like Black Hat’s harsh touch.
You took a liking to Black Hat in his toxic ways. You didn’t care if his grip was a little too hard on your forearm, or that you tripped every time he swat you on the back of your head for being stupid. It was touch, he didn’t seem utterly repulsed by how you reacted and you drew up the conclusion that you were infatuated with him because he showed you attention.
Then that infatuation turned into adoration and you have been smitten since.
A little over a month ago gave you new hope for something more. Black Hat never admitted to having feelings for you—or at all—but his act of affection was enough to turn that little bit of hope into a prayer.
Does he care? You don’t know.
Can he feel any kind of good emotion? You don’t know.
But he has feelings like every other living thing. You can’t use it against him because he might use it right back, but the more you think about it, the more it tears you apart.
He might be leading you on for a mere bit of entertainment before he gets bored and decides to move on. You don’t want him to leave you alone again, but you would rather be alone than be a pawn in his very short game of chess. If you knew he wasn’t going to blow you off the next chance he gets, then you would fight through the tears and pretend his insult never happened.
But that’s the thing; you don’t know.
You don’t have a clue.
There is no escape. You signed the contract and your soul belongs to him, but that doesn’t you have to keep leading yourself down a road that turns out to be a dead end. The least you could do for yourself is get a real answer.
You owe it to yourself. Will it end up with you very much dead? Probably.
With a huff, you fling yourself out of bed for the door with a new, rushing emotion of determination. Your heart drums against your ribcage as you make your way down the hallway towards Black Hat’s office. Your eyes itch from crying and your head aches with a thousand questions but you push on despite the dread pooling in your stomach.
A brief flicker of the situation going awry makes you pause, feet shuffling to a stop. He could kill you for back talking him—or he might break all your limbs and watch you scream in agony for defying all of his rules about talking back. Your lip quivers at the images blood and shredded skin, hands clenching up into fists at your sides. He already killed a few people today, what’s to say he won’t do the same to you? The bloodlust could still be high.
You can’t go back to your room after working yourself up. He deserves to hear a piece of your mind whether he likes it or not. It is an all or nothing situation and there is no way that you’re gonna do nothing about it. Getting stepped on might be apart of the process but it isn’t like you haven’t had scuff marks on your body before.
You find yourself at his office doors after a few twists and turns. You wrap your knuckles against one of the two doors with a deep breath and, to your surprise, the door swings open without you having to touch the handle. You peer inside to see Black Hat sitting in his desk chair, swiveled to the window with a glass of wine curled between his fingers. His black coat is set over the back of his chair and his red shirt sleeves are rolled up to his elbows.
You can’t see his face. A pinch of annoyance causes you silently scoff.
There is no reaction on his part. Nothing at all except the occasional swirling of his wine around the wine glass. Your upper lip crinkles at his lack of, well, anything. A low hum vibrates your chest when you grasp the door and forcefully slam it shut.
If you weren’t focusing on his every movement, you might have missed his slight flinch at the loud noise. It isn’t one of fright—more like he is trying to keep his temper from flaring. That would be better than no reaction.
“I’d rather you threaten me than pretend I’m not here, sir.”
Your condescending tone finally causes him to turn around. A spike of fear runs down your back at the sight of his clenched teeth and icy glare. He sets down his wine glass before standing from his chair, hands splayed out over his desk with a menacing bare of his teeth.
“You’re awfully brave to come in here slamming doors and acting as if you’re the boss here,” he growls low and rough.
You run a hand through your hair to ease your tense muscles. No going back now.
“Should I move on?”
The question brings a pause to the whole room. His face twists into an uncomfortable grimace and you sink down into your crossed arms at his slight snarl in reply.
“What.”
You make a brave decision to delve deeper within the office. It could be considered hell to some. You splay your hands over his desk in a copy of his movements when you get close enough and, with as much bravery you can muster, lean in close to his face.
“You are not important, you never were important, and the only reason I keep you around is because I don’t have the time to look for someone with better qualities than some drop out who’s parents despise her just as much I do.”
His face softens at that, but the words falling from your lips ignite a brighter fire that burns at your core. You narrow your eyes at him, lips pursed tight. Your narrowed eyes causes his softened features to become cold.
“You made it clear I’m not liked. Crystal clear. We both know I care for you more than I should and that has gotten me into some trouble,” you trail off with a hurt scowl, “but I don’t know about you. Do you care for me in the same way I care for you? Were you lying when you said that stuff earlier, or should I move on?”
His eye flashes with irritation. His answer makes the color drain from your face and your heart to crumble over with ice.
“What gave you the idea I cared?” He sneers.
You pull your hands to your chest, lacing your fingers together and squeezing until your knuckles turn white. Your chest is tight with grief. You can’t breathe.
He never cared. You were being lead to believe he did this whole time and you didn’t have a clue until today. That tender moment in the living room never meant anything. It was for fun.
You were being played for a fool—the fool that you are.
“I’m sorry to have wasted my time then,” you manage to choke out through your grief of a lost hope, “you can go back to worrying about Demencia because I’m done.”
You give him one last soulless, bitter expression before swinging around and making for the exit. You miss the drip of panic in Black Hat’s face before it dissolves back down into anger. It comes bubbling back up in a fury of unwanted emotions.
“Did you think you could just come in here, slam my door and talk down to me like I am a child?”
His biting remark makes you slam your foot down on the carpet and turn around with a pointed finger.
“What else was I supposed to do?!” You shout at him, blinded by rage and self pity, “The only reason I kept hassling you is because I really wanted to know if you felt the same. But no! No, you’re just as self absorbed as I always knew you were. You still are. You always will be.”
A wrench of your gut makes you take a step back when Black Hat circles around his desk to head straight for you. Your head is shouting for you to run back to the comfort of your room but you know, deep down, that you’ve already dug your own grave.
You can see his pupil melt down and shape into a small, feline-like slit when he peers down into your face. His hand breaks through the fabric of his glove and his now sharp claws wrap around your throat, though he doesn’t squeeze. His other hand lingers just around the side of your face, claws dangerously close to your eye.
“You’re supposed to know your place.” He growls back you, voice rippling with a thousand octaves.
“I don’t know my place! You’re the one that decides to keep me around!”
This is it. This is wear he rips out your throat and watches as you bleed to death, hands held around the tear on your neck and tears beading down your face. You didn’t think your inner wrath would take over like that. Now you’re in the hands of a monster that you still adore—and the bad part is that fact that you don’t hate his grip on you. You still feel wanted.
Curse your human heart.
Your eyes narrow in skepticism when the hand around your throat releases its hold and slides around to the back of your head and gripping your hair to where it could hurt if you make any jerky movements.
His free hand slides around the base of your back, claws digging through the fabric of your shirt and threatening to dig deep into your skin. You inhale through your nose when he leans forward and hisses out a low, almost inaudible, “I do care, you idiot.”
His face darkens when all you can do is blink in response to his unwanted although very needed confession. The skepticism on your face shows but the butterflies you thought had died a mere second ago flutter to life.
A sigh of surprised contentment releases through your nose when he delves down and presses his lips to yours. Your arms slink around his neck and your tense muscles immediately melt into his dangerous embrace.
“When I said you belonged to me, I meant it,” he warns through a break in the kiss before pulling you back in.
All you can do is sigh into his mouth as an agreement.
Those doubts you had before wash away as if they hadn’t been there in the first place. That spare moment in the living room a month doesn’t seem so distant anymore, and the love you feel is overflowing at the seams.
The world swirls a bit after that. You lose yourself in the moment of his hands roaming over you like they had been before. You knew getting your own hands all over the most feared crime Lord is satisfying in itself, but to bite down on his bottom lip hard enough to make him hiss under his breath and bite back?
Oh man.
You don’t remember when he picked you up, but you find yourself pulling out of the moment to observe his face and see that he’s backed you into the nearest wall. There isn’t any room to escape if you wanted to, though you’re absolutely okay with that.
He has blood dribbling from his lip where you bit him and his gaze isn’t stone cold like it is ninety percent of the time. It’s an intense, face burning stare that seeps into your skin and dares to pull you in for more.
You slide your hands up his face and thumb away the blood left behind, a soft, timid smile working its way onto your mouth. The sudden change in the air is enough to bring a scowl on his face to replace his content one. You just bring his face in close and press your forehead to his, savoring the moment with every one of your senses.
“Demencia is going to eat me alive if she ever finds out,” you chuckle, mostly to yourself.
For a solid second, maybe less than that, Black Hat leans into one of your hands cradling his face. He looks almost innocent tilted into your palm the way he is, but he ruins the innocence by grinning like a madman.
“Not if I taste you first.”
You furrow your brows at that.
He removes your hands from his face and pins them against the wall. You give an experimental tug to see if you could free yourself if need be, but your trapped hands won’t be coming from the wall unless he wills it.
A shiver runs up and down your spine when he buries his face in the crook of your neck. Goosebumps prickle at your arms and legs as he kisses down the base of your neck and down to your collar bone, taking the time to pull your shirt down just enough before hand. By the the time you realize his intentions and try to scramble away with a harsh “son of a bi-“ his teeth are already sinking into your shoulder. The warmth of blood runs down your chest and clots into your shirt.
You cry out at the pain and tears well up in your eyes. None of them fall but it’s enough to blur your vision of the ceiling. You bite your bottom lip when he finally lets go of your stinging shoulder with a chuckle.
“You could have warned me,” you blink, making the collected tears run down your face.
“I did,” he hums, licking away the blood collected around the corners of his mouth.
You glance down at the bite as best you can, face red and scowling. The teethmarks are a perfect circle around the curve of your shoulder and blood continues to bubble up from the broken skin.
“Why did you just bite me? Jeez, at least take me on a date first,” you murmur with a pinch of your eyebrows.
His cocky smile dips into an expressionless purse of his lips. “As a reminder for you. Never question where my loyalties lie again.”
You can’t help but beam at that. Despite the ache in your shoulder and the burning in the pit of your stomach, you recognize the shy avoidance of eye contact as him actually feeling something. Something warm and soft and he hates it. You can tell.
“Flug and that insufferable bear are in the hallway. I suggest you keep your mouth shut if you want to live,” he whispers into your ear when pulling away from the wall.
You rub your wrists after he lets go. A small, irritated huff matches your frustrated yet frighteningly red face. The sight of your bitten shoulder, messy hair and twisted expression is enough to make Black Hat’s grin curl. His hands reach up to fix his disarranged tie and you quietly snicker at his perfectionism.
“Well it’s a good thing I know how to lie.”
“That it is. Better keep a few lies up your sleeve else our secret might get out,” he gives you one last smile before growling, “now get out of my office.”
You make for the door after flipping him off, and he chuckles.
•••
Flug and 5.0.5 stare at Black Hat’s office, eyes wide and ready to pop out of their head. The two give each other concerned glances before looking back at the doors separating the office from the hallway.
When Flug saw you stomping through the hallway with a crinkle in your brow, he didn’t think you were on your way to start a fight with Black Hat. He knew you were upset from what happened earlier in the day but he didn’t think you sign your own death warrant later in the night.
Getting the last laugh is never worth it.
He followed you, 5.0.5 showed up not long after. The two watched for any signs that you would be leaving the office intact and then, well, there was screaming and shouting. A lot of screaming and shouting—mainly by you.
He couldn’t make out what you were shouting about and what Black Hat was growling back but a breath got caught in his lungs when all turned quiet. A deadly type of silent. 5.0.5 whimpered at his dad’s distress of your wellbeing.
Was that it? You were being mauled to death, guts spilled all over the floor and too shocked to scream? He would be the one to clean up your remains. The thought is enough to make him reel over and gag.
5.0.5 rubs his dad’s back with a saddened purr. He didn’t know what exactly was happening but if it has his dad in a tizzy then it isn’t good.
Then the door opens and you come tumbling out. Flug’s heart leaps in relief just before plummeting down to the floor at your appearance. You have dried tears running down your face, your shirt is sloped to one side of your shoulder to expose the painful teethmarks that previously dug into your pristine perfect skin, and the look in your eyes is a bit cloudy. The perplexing part is the sluggish smile on your face.
You look content.
Your eyes eventually catch them lurking in the hallway, and the embarrassment of being caught slithering out of the office after being attacked in a good way sinks deep into your face. You saunter over, tugging your shirt back over your exposed shoulder with a nervous grin.
“You didn’t see any of this,” you warn, pointing into his face.
“But I definitely see it now—“
You press your finger to where his lips would be to silence him. “No. You see nothing. You tell anyone and... and I’ll—“ you pause, thinking the threat over, “and I’ll tell Demencia you’re sleeping with Black Hat.”
Flug slaps your hand away from his face with a scoff. His eyes narrow and you stiffen under his eyes. “That’s ironic considering you’re the one sleeping with the boss!”
“I am not sleeping with the boss,” you scoff, face blossoming in color, “I was trying not to get killed by the boss. Those are two very different things, thank you.”
That technically isn’t a lie. Your life did flash before your eyes a few times. It was thrilling and you may have had way too much fun but Flug doesn’t need to know the details.
“Okay, I saw nothing,” Flug submits, throwing his hands up in surrender, “but only because it’s midnight and I don’t have the energy to argue with you. Let’s go clean up that wound of yours, yeah?”
Flug doesn’t wait for you to answer and strolls on down the hallway with a slug in his step. 5.0.5 ruffles your already messy hair a few times with a purr and you smile at up him. He quickly sets off for Flug who’s already turning the corner to his lab.
You continue to stand by yourself in the hallway, biting your bottom lip and palming your stinging wound.
“Oh, I have gotten myself into trouble.”