Sting Eucliffe x Reader Book 1

Chapter 14 - Class 1-B & Their Band Of Misfits

A/N - This is gonna be another one of those chapters where the timeline doesn't quite match yet. With sporadic edits, it's pretty hard to make-it-make-sense until the whole chapter is done. Hold out, my friends! We're getting there!

Class 1-B & Their Band of Misfits

"Reports say there's a storm rolling in, so if you can help it, stay inside folks. This storm's going to be a real doozy."

Your arms were soaked deep in the kitchen sink filled with soapy suds, keeping you from changing the station on your new handheld radio; it sat on the windowsill in front of the sink next to a line of small self-sustaining plants.

Sting left early morning to check on Lector, his feline companion, and mentioned heading to school for a before-class club meeting. He tried to leave you sleeping, but you woke to a racket in the entryway and offered a sweet kiss goodbye as a parting gift.

You'd been up ever since.

You'd also been trying to cold-compress your hickey away...

While changing into your school uniform, you noticed the purple splotch behind your ear and down your neck, knowing full well the exact moment Sting attacked the area. In a bout of heat, you dug through your freezer and found a cold pack from the time you bought Sting sick supplies. You'd bought extras in case of another fever, never expecting to use them on your neck to make a hickey vanish.

The storm wasted no time pouring down on the town, forcing you to use your bag as a shield yet again. Unlike before, time was on your side, and you used all the spare minutes you had to dry off under every available tree and awning that worked as cover.

Under one of those ripped awnings, a sudden hero in a black Fiore uniform came to hold their black umbrella over your head. 

"Dobengal...?"

"It's rained perhaps a dozen times this summer. How do you still not own an umbrella?" He joked, but there was still that hint of disappointment in his tone. "Come on, it's a tight umbrella so stay close."

Hesitating and tugging at your shirt collar, you willed yourself under his umbrella and let him guide you to school. "Thanks for the rescue."

"You're welcome."

The air between the two of you sat restless. That long, drawn-out walk rang eternal.

"So how are things going between you and the playboy of class 1-A?" Malice seemed too nice a term for the aura Dobengal gave off. "You two seemed cozy on sports day."

"...on sports day?"

"Yeah. I saw you two in the classroom. I didn't want to interrupt so I left you alone."

You halted your walk, forcing Dobengal to stop and hold the umbrella over your head. "You're not going to tell anyone, are you?"

"What? That you're his girlfriend now? Do you actually believe he can be tied down to one girl? That idiot embodies cheater."

"You never talk to him. You can't just make that assumption," you snapped, fists tightening.

"Don't be so naive, (Y/N)."

You shoved past Dobengal and marched to school in the rain, alone, leaving him to his ridiculous theories and rumor-starters. He had no right to give you relationship advice or make judgments on your love life. No one did.

Like a child, you threw your shoes down in a huff and stomped to class, not focused on your surroundings in the slightest. In those surrounding was a tough, muscular boy outside of class 1-B that slammed right into you. The impact almost sent you falling till he caught you by the forearms.