Lucilfer (ChrolloxReader)

Chapter 33

We'd only been driving for about twenty minutes when I reminded myself that I needed to call Kassidy. I bit my lip and flickered my gaze down to the digital clock in the car.

10:03 a.m.

Largely, the reason I didn't want to call him in the car with Chrollo was because I honestly felt guilty, as though I should be talking to Chrollo, not Kassidy, as though he might be jealous or displeased. But I'd promised Kassidy, and I didn't want to wait until we were home to call him. I wanted to spend my time at home with Chrollo—even though it'd only been a day and a half, I felt like a week had passed, or more, since I'd spent real time with him. And part of that was true; so many of my thoughts in the last week had been about the mission. I'd barely allowed myself any down time from it.

I guess I did go to dinner with Chrollo... and then I topped him.

My lips turned up a bit at the memory, but that felt so far away.

I should just call Kassidy now and stop putting it off, I scolded myself inwardly.

With my heart beating illogically fast, I pulled my phone out, my hands slightly shaky, and turned it on, opening Kassidy's contact. My mouth dried as I forced words to come out.

"Chrollo?"

His head turned minutely to the side, and he smiled softly.

"Yes?"

I inhaled, releasing it in a relaxing sigh, and blinked a few times.

"Um, Kassidy asked me to call him," I stated, tentative. "Would you mind if I did that now?"

Without even a single change in expression, he turned back to the road and shrugged.

"Go ahead, love," he murmured, his voice gentle and otherwise monotone.

A relieved grin broke out over my face, and I nodded, bringing the phone up to my ear as I tapped the "call" icon.

I don't know why I get so worked up over asking a simple question.

Of course, it was still difficult to separate what I'd been surrounded by in my tarnished childhood versus what I knew as fact for the present.

Curiosity fluttered in my chest as the phone rang, and I wondered what Kassidy wanted to call me for. If he wanted to talk about my expedition, I knew I wouldn't be able to find it in myself to give him many details. Thinking about it was exhausting, and made me want to curl back up in a ball in Chrollo's arms, as if its memory made me unsafe, and I needed to crawl back to what I knew as safety to protect myself from it. Or, perhaps Kassidy just wanted to ask me to make plans with him again, though that felt a bit out of sorts to call someone for after their revenge mission against human traffickers.

The tone purred four or five times before the phone was picked up. I heard a sharp inhale on the other end, and what sounded like a yawn. I was a bit caught off guard by the innocence in the action—simply hearing his breath was so different than being around him and feeling the infinite sadness and incurable rage in his aura. I smiled widely.

"Hello?"

Kassidy's voice was rough and low, sleep fraying the edges of the normally smooth, sweet sound.

Oh, did I wake him up?

I'd heard Chrollo's sleepy voice before—it always made my heart race and my skin tingle—but hearing Kassidy's filled me with a sort of melting admiration. Probably, that was the case simply because I was always so used to his mysterious pain.

That's kind of adorable, I admitted to myself, but I would've never said it out loud.

"Hey, Kass," I greeted him, my voice quiet in the silence of the car.