My Number One (001/Henry Creel/Vecna x Reader)

Come and Go

"You can go now," he whispered.

But he didn't move.

I turned my head slightly to try and catch a glimpse of his expression, an understanding of what was going on, but before I could, he stepped back and walked to sit in his chair again. Not wanting to seemed phased, I immediately began walking towards the curtain, but before I disappeared behind it, I gave Mr Ballard one last glance.

He was scribbling away on a sheet of paper, unbothered, engrossed in what I supposed were the results of my test. He didn't look up once.

Back in line, everything was a blur. The only thing running through my mind was my interaction with Mr Ballard. His touch. Did he have a power? The power to project emotions? How else was I experiencing this unknown feeling towards him when I not often spoke to him at all?

Before I knew it, one by one, people were beginning to crush metal buckets. That distracted me, especially when it was 011's turn. She always did great, her tests went so smoothly. She was very talented.

Then, it was my turn. Everything was under control...until I noticed someone come out from behind the curtain to watch.

It was Mr Ballard. I looked away quickly, back down at the bucket. While reaching my hand out in a claw motion to crush it with my mind, I felt robotic, like I was overthinking every muscle movement in my body to appear natural in front of Mr Ballard. Why was this? Papa was the one I should be concerned with impressing.

The bucket crumpled as I closed my fingers into a fist. It was harder than what I had expected. The metal was thicker, but I completed the task easily, nonetheless.

"Good, now if you'd please join Mr Ballard for your second scan, Twelve," said Papa.

I walked nervously to Mr Ballard, and he waited for me to go in front of him. That was when he placed his hand on my lower back and walked behind me back to the table. That fluttery feeling returned.

When we sat opposite one another again, Mr Ballard said nothing for a few seconds. He just stared. Then, he spoke. "I noticed something interesting in your scan result from earlier."

I waited for him to continue, but he didn't, so I asked in a timid voice, "What was it?"

A smile so slight appeared on the edges of his lips that I wasn't even certain it was one. "The part of your brain that controls attraction spiked."

"Attraction?"

Mr Ballard spoke slowly but nonchalantly. "Do you know what attraction is?"

I tried to think of a guess, but came up with nothing. "No."

Mr Ballard stood up. "It's this."

He began to walk to me, that confident stride with his hands behind his back. Then, he stopped in front of me. One hand came forward from behind his back and lifted my chin with a finger. He didn't look away from me once.

He was stood so close I could smell his scent. I didn't often smell new things—the laboratory was very sterile. I had participated in one test before where I was made to smell different things and see if they impacted my powers in any way. They didn't really. The only thing I gathered from it was that some smells were repulsive, and some I liked very much. This one, Mr Ballard's smell, happened to be one I liked.

"Can you feel it?" he murmured.

Could he possibly be talking about that feeling I couldn't describe? The one I had never felt before? I opened my mouth for a few long seconds before whispering, "I think so."

Then, he dropped his hand, and his expression was completely unreadable. There was nothing.

He moved away and began fiddling with the equipment before coming to me again a few minutes later. He attached the gear to my head, and I anticipated him to do or say something strange again, but he made no moves. Although it made me nervous when he did such things, I found myself disappointed when he didn't. I liked the fluttery feeling.

Mr Ballard recorded my results and then came to remove the equipment from my head. Still nothing. He didn't do anything, he didn't even let his finger so much as brush my face, or say anything mysterious that I didn't understand but enjoyed trying to figure out. I supposed it was just a one-off, and he was back to being the ordinary Mr Ballard.

"You can leave," he said, and so I did just that—this time without looking back.

*

After watching the remaining subjects complete their tests, we were returned to the Rainbow Room. 011 and I sat on the floor cross-legged opposite each other in the corner of the room, as we usually did.

"Did Mr Ballard seem...strange to you today?" I managed to ask her after a few minutes of musing.

"Strange? No. What do you mean?" said 011 softly.

I was unsure whether she didn't know what the word 'strange' meant, or if she just didn't know how he'd be acting strange, so I explained both. "Different. He did this." I reached out and lifted 011's chin with my finger.

011 thought for a second before saying, "Papa does that sometimes when he wants us to listen."

I thought, too. "Yes. But I've never seen Mr Ballard do it."

Suddenly, I was knocked down onto my back by an invisible force, and I knew instantly the one who was creating that force.

002.