Harder They Fall (Mark Hoffman x OC! Reader)

Four: Quick Change

  It had been another month, it passed by almost too quickly. Miyu had gotten a bike and kept her friendship with Perez, the two of them would go biking around the city, and while back at the police station the two of them walked around as they talked when they passed by the emergency dispatchers. There was a slight churn within the woman and so she made a sharp turn to enter the room confusing Perez, Miyu searched aimlessly until her eyes landed on a distressed young male who was typing furiously.

  "What is the situation?" She demanded with crossed arms.

  "We have an eight-year-old with her baby brother with three intruders inside their house, we don't have many available officers that are equipped to handle tha-"

  "Give me the location," Miyu spoke in a softer tone while leaning down and eyeing the screen, she nodded after finding where the house was and left quickly without missing a beat.

  She quickly hopped onto her bike and pushed herself to the limit, running red lights hazard and soon taking out her phone and dialing the number she remembered well, "Detective Hoffman?"

  "It's-It's...." Miyu found herself stuttering and bit her cheek, "Nothing, wrong person." Hanging up she decided she was a better fit to take on the attacks and nearly leaped off her bike once at the house, she felt her lungs burn as she charged through the broken-through door. One of the attackers were downstairs and she readied herself for what she knew best, her feet slightly apart with raised hands, palms facing upwards she dashed towards the large male and dodged the first swing of his knife, she was swift curling her first to pop her first knuckle. The Phoenix-eye hand position is used best against armored opponents, she danced on her feet swiveling behind the man and aiming her blows long his spine as well as other soft spots like his kidney.

  After she put him in enough pain to bring him down she gave a final kick between his legs to keep him that way before moving to the second attacker, he was lanky but with quick weaving and choppy movements, Miyu kept a distance from his hands and hit him in the throat, after he moves to hold his neck she took the chance to repeat the blows to the spine and kidney to get him down as well. She lands the kick to the man's groin-

  A shot rings out, she registers this first. The pain that comes next was hard to ignore her side screaming to give out yet she fought it off, her adrenaline keeping her on her feet as she charged at the last female and simply tackled her, holding the woman's forehead she had forced it to impact the ground first with enough force to knock her out completely. The ground shifted under her, crumbling like gravel as she struggled with every step towards the locked door, 

  "My name is Miyu, I heard your call and I am here to help, do not let me in until the police arrive, are you and your brother okay?" She faintly heard the little girl confirm before the door opened anyway, "No no you shouldn't have, oh damn it come on." Stumbling into the room she locked the door behind her and slid down leaning her weight against it, she hid her blood from the child with her jacket making sure nothing could scare the already frightened girl.

  The wait was only 3 minutes before police were able to come and arrest the three intruders and knocked on the door, Miyu was beside herself with pain but unlocked the door and moved out of the way for the children to be returned to their mother while she was wheeled away to the hospital, she was shaking and unable to calm herself, her vision was blurry and could barely tell if she was crying or going blind, it wasn't long after she had fallen unconscious. She was back in that jigsaw trap, strapped down and utterly helpless with only a voice whispering of her supposed misdeeds and what she must do to relieve herself, there was pain throughout her body and her wails had no voice.

  She woke up on the hospital bed, her eyes crusted over from dried tears and every slight turn of her torso rocked pain through her side, she looked around the room and spotted no one in the room, she found her bag near her and reached despite the pain and grabbed her phone though she didn't have many missed calls, she gnawed her lip and tried to relax. Her shoulders went slack as she laid against the bed, her stiff demeanor melting as she entranced herself with the scents around her, the smell of blood and sanitizer, the sound of birds and cars singing in discordant unison, the feeling of cloth and thin paper that wrapped her tired frame.  For a moment she found inner peace-

  The door opens loudly as her coworkers walked in, gift bags and oversized teddy bears in tow her shoulders tensed and she attempted to sit up only to cause herself further pain. They bombarded her with gifts and questions which she answered slowly, a smile gracing her face. They talked for hours about what happened and how she was the talk of the building, but eventually, they had to leave only to be replaced by Perez only thirty minutes later, she had brought her own flowers to offer and comfort that the intruders were jailed, just before scolding her on how reckless Miyu had been. She shared genuine laughs with her friends and as the night rolled over she was alone again, she had fallen asleep just before 7pm.

  Hoffman was non-persuasive at the best of times but with a quick flash of his badge, he was able to come to her room as visiting hours were coming to a close. Entering her room with the expectation of her being awake or even sleeping stiffly as he always saw her awake but upon going through the door he finds her most sprawled across it, most of her torso was leaning onto her uninjured side while her legs were slightly curled and pointing in different directions. She was completely covered by the blanket from her arms down and he felt something bubble up from the pit of his stomach, slowly circling around to face her back he made a move to sit in the chair when she began to squirm again, he glanced over her form to see one of her feet were sticking out from under the blanket and she was readjusting in her sleep to pull it under. He stood to fold the blanket over but paused momentarily, beside himself he instead pulls the blanket further back watching her expression scrunch from its previous peaceful rest, her legs began to move more and he slowly continued until she was laying on her back with the blanket now pushed off of her, he found enjoyment out of watching the confident woman squirm.

  Now the cold air hit her entire body it stiffened up completely, he watched her heart rate begin to accelerate while her right arm began to move, being the only limb that did he was quick to realize where she was, there was a surge of pride that ran through him as cupped her chin to lean it towards him though that would make her quickly change where she was,  her legs thrashed limply while both her wrists hooked around his thick arm before her fingers gripped, through the silence, he heard her breath hitch while her expression of pain hardened into fought back fear. Moving too much irritate her wound causing her to wake up, the two made eye contact, surprisingly both watery, Hoffman slowly pulled back expecting the dreaded question-

  "Hello Hoffman, it is a surprise to see you here." She smiled slightly, she glanced down and slowly pulled the blanket over her again smoothing it out, "my apologies again for calling you that day, that's what you wanted to talk about correct?"

  "No, no. It's not that, just came to check up on you. How are you feeling?"

  Miyu thought about her situation, she wondered why he would be here and why she would have woken up to see his face so close to hers. She soon realized that she had always been taking his bait, now it was her chance to leave her own bait. She looked up at him while he still stood close and chuckled lightly,

  "I've been well, I've had a lot of time to think while confined to this bed, like how to make my escape, and how foolish I had been in my assumption that we would make a good pair for one another," She picked up on the slightest change showing his confusion and took it as her hint to continue, "after all, I am quite a handful. You are the type of man who desires to keep everything in control from the meal you eat to the man you serve. While I am much the same way and wouldn't let your overbearing physique stop me from putting you on your knees to my very will. Someone as intelligent as you must have already picked up on this, however."

  The bait has been planted.