♜♖The Tempest ♖♜【Arknights x Male!Reader】✵Arknights✵ [[HIATUS NOTICE]]

Operation 4-4: I am...

The countless eyes piercing through his kneeling figure, the wave of emotions curdling in everyone's head, the intense gaze Talulah had as she looks towards Vortex, and finally, the immense pressure he was feeling. The situation can neither be called glorious nor detrimental, heck even no one could describe what they were feeling.

Reunion's hero has returned, and everyone was ecstatic. Each one of them had an assortment of expressions as they see him now standing before them. The leaders were bearing elated faces from seeing their comrade... well... most of them were.

Vortex's squad was no different from the rest of them, they were the ones who felt the most emotional. The itch to run and tackle him to the ground with a hug was rupturing. But before any of them could make a run for him.

"Vortex..."

Talulah's cold voice ran deep. She uttered his name with the intention of knowing.

"So you have returned with little to no notice."

"Indeed I have Leader, it's been so long." He replied solemnly with hints of impetuousness.

"Your return was quite unprecedented I'll give you that... very cynical like you always were." 

Talulah's eyes held no mercy as he glared on to Vortex's unexpected arrival. It was as expected since his return was just out of nowhere and that it was during the time where the curtain of Reunion's glory was at its peak.

Why would he come back during this particular time? It was way too suspicious in her eyes.

Of course, she still had certain amounts of respect for him. But she can never be too careful. For everything was going according to her plan. Well, their plan.

"I must ask, why have you-"

"PAPA!!!"

Cutting Talulah's words, a small voice resounded as a small Draco girl ran towards a surprised Vortex. Hina, from the sight of her papa who was just a few meters away from her, triggered her pent-up emotions.

She couldn't stop the tears, her legs wouldn't stop moving forward before it finally lost control to a full sprint. There was only one objective that made her act this way, and that was to leap into the embrace of the one she missed so dearly.

Hina then leaped into Vortex's stomach causing him to stumble and drop to the ground. He shook his head and looked over to his stomach and saw Hina hugging him with all her strength. The warmth, the softness, the size, it all comes back to her. She missed the feeling of his embrace, it felt like the world to her.

"Hina..." His voice was soft, maybe even longing.

"...liar."

"Huh?"

"Papa is a big liar!" She looked at his face and shook him. "You left me! You left me! You left me! You... left me... y-you.... left... me..." As she bashed her hands on his chest, again and again, the sadness in her heart was ever daunting her arms. "I.. Papa... I-I hate you!"

Hina stopped her attack as she wept. She couldn't handle it anymore and broke down on top of him. No one can blame her anger on him, Vortex left her behind when she was just six years old. It was during the time when she thought that she had finally found her home within him before he ruined her hopes and disappeared. The sadness and anger on her face were evident and the tears weren't lying. 

Luckily, Vortex wasn't blind to her sorrow.

*pat*

"There there." He put his arms around her and whispers. "I'm sorry..."