the Pain of Truth [Ray X Reader] (the Promised Neverland)

115

3rd Person Pov:

Now standing in front of the door to 'Minerva's' office, the trio hesitated for a moment. It wasn't like they were changing their minds. No, they were silently going over the things they so desperately wanted to talk about.

It was like they were having a silent conversation, with neither of them saying anything. But one thing was for certain to them, no matter what would happen, they would try everything to gain new information.

Finally, Emma knocked on the door, opening it, saying. "Nor-" However, she stopped once they could see inside the room. In it wasn't their friend. Instead, three people were in the office, of which they had only met one of. Vincent.

Each side was surprised to see the other, and the girl with a ponytail, holding a rather big piece of meat in her hand, turned to look at Vincent, asking: "Who are they?" (Y/N) turned her head to look at Ray, who was the first to speak up.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Ray." "And I'm Emma. We came from shelter B06-32." said Emma. Clearly nervous, the youngest amongst the three of them held tightly onto Ray's hand, saying: "I-I'm (Y/N). I-It's nice to meet you."

Vincent nodded in acknowledgement, then answered Barbara's question from before. "They're the escapees that joined up with us yesterday." "Oh, Grace Shield!" exclaimed Barbara, just remembering that she heard about them.

"Grace Field." corrected Vincent, unfazed by her simple mistake. Smiling a little, she held the meat she was holding out to the trio, asking: "Wanna bite?" A bit shocked and majorly surprised, they each declined the offer. "Eh... No thanks." "I'm good for now." "I just a-ate."

Emma then decided to ask the question that was practically burning within their minds. "Excuse me, where's Nor- Where's the boss? We'd like to talk." The other guy that sat in the office, Cislo, answered: "The boss is out of the office right now. On some urgent business."

"Then, we'll come back again later." said Emma, about to walk off. However, she was stopped by Cislo, who said: "Wait up a second, let's have some tea." "I don't like this..." whispered (Y/N), wanting nothing more than to leave at the moment.

Barbara and Cislo walked up to them, guiding the trio to sit on one of the two couches by the table, with Cislo saying: "We're a little bit curious. You're those goodies from Grace Field."

Not long after sitting down, Vincent brough a cup of tea for each of the escapees, while Cislo was leaning onto the table, being rather close to the three of them. And Barbara, well, she apparently doesn't know what personal space is.

She was leaning onto the couch's back, her head leaned over the edge, between Emma's and (Y/N)'s. They were both staring at their 'guests', making each of them uncomfortable. Fidgeting with her hands, (Y/N) glanced at her, now, fiancé, panicking a little.

It was clear that she didn't like the sudden attention directed at them, and it was obvious to anyone watching. After a few, seemingly endless, seconds of this, she decided to hide her face from their view by turning towards Ray, leaning onto his shoulder.

That action of hers caused the other two to react. "I'm Cislo, and that's Barbara. That egghead over there is Vincent. Emma, Ray, and (Y/N), was it? From Grace Field." asked Cislo, not planning to stop his staring anytime soon.

"Yes..." answered Emma, trying her best to act nonchalant, which was incredibly hard, given the circumstances. "We're escapees, too, y'know! And our escape was way better!" called Cislo all of a sudden, accusingly pointing a finger at Emma.

Barbara quickly added: "We kicked that farm's ass!" Now even more taken back, (Y/N) clung onto Ray like her life depended on it. It was simply too much. "Right... You guys feel the need to childishly compete all the time. Please accept my humblest apologies for their behavior." said Vincent, sighing softly.

Ray, placing an arm around (Y/N), said: "Nah, you guys are amazing. Incredible, even. There's no way we could have done that!" in a somewhat enthusiastic tone. He was obviously putting on an act for them, but they took the bait.

Ray had noticed the mark on Barbara's chest. It was the same as Norman's. Which lead him to think that they escaped together with Norman from Lambda 7214. He figured that they must be pretty high in the hierarchy, given how they behaved at the moment. And they're probably irregulars, like Zazie and Adam. So, it would be in their best interest not to get on their bad side.

Emma, turning to look at Vincent, said: "Excuse me. Thank you so much for yesterday! For Chris', Dominic's, and Lucas' treatment..." "Ah, the boss let me know about that. I wish the best for them." replied Vincent. "Thanks!"

Barbara, leaning her head closer to Emma's, said: "That's well and all, but we wanna know!" Cislo, too, leaned closer once more, saying: "Yes, how about you tell us? What you wanted to talk about with that guy..."

"That guy?" asked Ray, eyeing them closely. Their expressions suddenly changed from stern to flustered as Barbara said: "The boss, of course! Minerva! James!" "What did you want to talk about with Nor... 'Norman', you guys called him?" asked Cislo.

(Y/N) perked up at the mention of William Minerva's real name, but she didn't let it show. Instead, she began calming herself down, now focusing on the ongoing conversation. "Even if you try to hide it, you idiots love the boss." stated Vincent, shaking his head lightly.

The other two yelled at him in unison, saying: "Shut up! You love everything he does, too!" "Because you're longtime friends of the boss, they can't stop themselves from being nervous." added Vincent, not so secretly feeling the same about this situation.

Cislo, getting a little frustrated, asked: "I mean, aren't you curious?! When we came back from our morning patrol, they were making a ruckus downstairs, talking about how yesterday the boss was like a totally different person! What's up with that, I thought! It made me real curious! And what's more, you guys turned out to be super good friends!"

Barbara joined in on his little rant by asking: "What kind of guy is this 'Norman'?! Tell us already!" Now looking up at them, (Y/N) studied them for a moment. These two were like open books. They were clearly embarrassed to ask them about their boss, but at the same time, they seemed really prideful in doing just that.

Emma spoke up first: "Well... I don't think he's changed that much since back then. Norman is kind and smart. He's always so soft and smiles in such a sweet way..." "Soft?" "Sweet smile?" asked Barbara and Cislo at the same time. They looked at each other, suddenly bursting out laughing, calling: "He's way different!"

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Picture from:

https://emma-63194.tumblr.com/post/183435419291/my-mind-keep-thinking-that-norman-is-just-a-kid