The Rise of a King - Copia x Reader

VIII

'What a boring day', Copia thought to himself as he sat by his desk, filing paperwork. With relief he sighed as his timer rang, announcing his second favourite part of the day: Feeding the rats.
He jumped up from his seat, stretched a little which made his back crack in the unhealthiest way ever and walked down the corridor to his beloved babies.
He greeted them all personally, gave each one a pat and filled their bowls which he realised, felt weird without you.
He also noticed the rats running around in confusion, wondering where you were.
"You miss her too, don't you?"
They all gathered around him, not touching their food at all but crawling up his shoes. He put Lucifer carefully on his palm and gave him a little smile.
"D'you think I should go and see whether I can find Y/n? Yeah, you'd like that!"
He put him down and let out a sigh.
"I'd like that too", he mumbled, after all seeing you was his favourite part of the day! He euphorically made his way out the room, first searching for you by the chapel.
After not having found you in the green house and the Ghoul's common room, he decided to have a look in the library. Between all the huge, dark wooden shelves it was not easy to find someone, especially within the parts without windows.
Eventually, he heard a familiar voice mutter something and he thought to have recognised your voice, yet as he scanned the section, there was nothing but an old, rusty ladder.
"Who'd leave that here?", he chuckled and walked along as suddenly a strange thought came over him. He walked back and looked at the top of the ladder.
"Y/n, are you up there?", he asks with laughter in his voice, amused to find you in in darkest spot of the ministry.
"Copia? Yeah it's me, I'm up here"
He sees your hand wave from within the shadow and steps closer to you.
"What are you doing? And why are you using that old ladder when we have brand new ones?"
A moment of silence followed.
"We do?", you muttered confused and he smirked at how funny you looked.
"I mean of course we do! Well Sister Imperator sent me to grab a few books and I thought this ladder looked super classy and vintage so I used it!"
"Vintage?", he laughed and knew without seeing your face that you were blushing from embarrassment.
"Yes, it's stylish! And absolutely stable and sa-", the ladder suddenly cracked and broke down with loud clatter. With a scream you felt how you lost your balance and eventually fell as the iron underneath you broke away. Copia's eyes widened and without thinking about it, he ran over to you and caught you just in time before you hit the ground.
You needed a moment to realise what happened and let out a relieved sigh as you realised you were in Copia's arms and not on the ground.
Wait, you were in Copia's arms!
A wave of smoke and incense suddenly hit you and you knew you weren't hallucinating.
Still trembling a little, your eyes widened as you felt him holding onto you as if you would fall again if he let go of you.
You looked up at him to see his eyes filled with worry, still as pretty as the day you had looked at them for the first time. It was now that you felt how close his face was to yours, a shiver was sent down your spine as you felt his breath against your skin.
Your accident was completely forgotten as you lost yourselves in each other's eyes and you secretly hoped he'd bend down and kiss you. You could tell by the way you felt his heart race in his chest, that he wanted it just as you did and were a little taken aback when he suddenly let you back down onto your feet, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
"So eh.. are you alright?", he asked and you tried shaking off what had just happened so you gave him a nod.
"I am, thank you for catching me!", you chuckled a little awkward.
"Oh that was no problem, of course I wouldn't have let you fall!"
"How charming"
A moment of awkward silence followed.
"So uh.. I guess I'll be on my way then!"
"But what about the book?"
You look up at the shelf and let out a sigh.
"Shit..", you mumble and he lays a hand on your shoulder.
"Which one is it?"
"That one up there", you point to a brown book with ripped back at the very top of the shelf. He suddenly stepped on his tippy toes and reached up for the book. To your astonishing, a part of his shirt lifted and you caught a glimpse of his slightly tanned side which made your cheeks flush in a deep red.
"Here you go", he handed you the book with a smile and you grabbed it, still a little absent from the previous view.
"Are you alright?", he asked and waved before your motionless eyes.
Your quickly squinted them and shook your head.
"Yeah, yeah! Sorry uh.. I'll go then and thank you!"
"Goodbye, cara mia!", that last part he rather mumbled to himself as he waved at you as you left the library with quick steps.
As you were out of sight, he let out a deep sigh and leaned against one of the heavy wooden shelves.
The tension between you two was undeniable, he felt your heart pounding in your chest as he held you tight, like you only waited for him to make the first move. But of course he was worried to interpret it all wrong, maybe you were just still in shock from your fall! But maybe.. maybe he should've taken the courage to kiss you. Maybe things would've ended less awkward then...
His thoughts were interrupted as Sister Imperator came by. Copia quickly pushed himself off the shelf and straightened his back before giving her warm, still perplexed smile.
"Hey C!", she shuffled over to him with a rather neutral smile.
"Morning Sister! What can I do for you?"
"Have you seen Y/n? I've been looking for her, she was supposed to-"
"Climb the ladder of death?", he interrupted her rather sternly which confused his mother a little.
"What ladder? No she was supposed to get me a book"
"Yeah and she climbed that old rusty thing over there which broke down as she was standing on it"
She seemed a little shocked.
"Is she alright?"
"Yeah, I..", he felt a little sheepish.
"She's fine"
"Thank Satan! So where is she now?"
Copia was relieved to see his mother cared about her well being, she could be a real block of ice sometimes.
"She's made her way back to your office with your book"
And with that, she was already out the room.
"Thank you, C!"
"Bye Sister!", he waved her goodbye, showing no signs of the previously shown cold.
Copia knew it was eventually his time to return to his paperwork but still, his mind circled around the incident.
'I should've just kissed her!', he thought to himself, a little angry at himself that he didn't.
It was useless, whatever reasonable thought he tried to catch now, he knew he was head over heals in love with you!

In love with you, you who now stumbled over the hallway, trying to gather your thoughts over what had just happened. The feeling of being so close to him made you feel like you were going insane! You gripped tight around the book you were to bring sister, it had faintly remained his scent which made you calm down a little as you smelt it. Shit, you really adored everything about this man, his scent, his hair, his walk, his eyes, the sound of his laughter and his obsession with rats. You regretted that nothing happened as you two shared that intense moment in the library but maybe it was for the better. He probably doesn't feel the same for you. Or does he?