COMPLETED // i don't want to hurt anymore - enoch o'connor x reader

Chapter 4 - Dinner

(Y/N)'s P.O.V

We walked quickly to the dining room, and despite everything I'd been through today (or maybe because of it) I was starving. Everyone else was already seated around the large table, except from Enoch and Bronwyn and me. There were two empty chairs next to each other, and I took my place next to Bronwyn. Well, at least I tried to. When I sat down, I heard a rather loud yelp, and I felt someone else's body underneath me. I leaped up, and heard a small chuckle from the doorway. The surly teenager I'd met before, Enoch, was laughing, his arms crossed and leaning against the doorframe. As soon as he saw me staring, he stopped, and sat down next to Horace and another girl I didn't know.
I turned back to where the yelp had come from, and saw the chair scraping backwards, seemingly of its own accord. I took a step backwards, shocked, and turned to look at Miss Peregrine, who was sitting at the head of the table. She gave me a small wink, before saying, "Mr Nullings, would you please put some clothes on. I'm sure I've told you before that polite persons do not dine in the nude." I heard footsteps and a large sigh, and the door to the hall opened, before slamming shut again. I looked at Bronwyn, who laughed at my incredulous expression. "Millard's invisible... Look, you can go and take that seat between Enoch and Olive." I walked, embarrassed, to the seat between a little girl with a wide smile, and who looked as if to be tied to her chair, and the brooding teen from before. I smiled at both of them, with a smile back from Olive, and an eye-roll from Enoch. I sat down, and looked at the feast before me.

While we ate, everyone introduced themselves. The girl I was sitting next to, called Olive, had air peculiarity. "What's that?" I asked her, as politely as I could while stuffing my face with Yorkshire pudding. She grinned up at me. "It means I can do this!"
She untied herself from her chair, and immediately started to float up to the ceiling. I choked on my food, before exclaiming: "That's - that's incredible!" She laughed happily, but was brought crashing down to the ground (quite literally) when Enoch grabbed her foot, his face expressionless, and pulled her down. There was silence for a moment, before the boy sitting next to Olive, who I knew to be Hugh, piped up quietly: "I have bees living in my stomach."
"That's really... Quite something." I said.
Enoch snorted.
I turned to Hugh, not wanting him to feel offended. "No, I mean, that's awesome! Are they, like, your pets? Have you named any of them?" I said, with a grin.
"Oh yes. This one here - " A bee buzzed out of his mouth, " - this one is called Harry. I've named a couple more of them, but they like to stay inside me." The girl opposite him smiled, and looked, almost lovingly, into his eyes. Hugh coughed, blushing, and said, "That's Fiona. She doesn't speak much, but her peculiarity is plants." As if to demonstrate, the girl, who had messy brown hair and was wearing old and patchy farm clothes, excused herself from the table and walked over to a nearby pot plant. She closed her eyes, concentrating hard, and the plant started to grow, slowly but surely, into an odd shape. A couple of minutes later, however, I could see it was a rabbit.
I clapped. "That's really good!" Fiona gave me what I thought was a rare smile, before sitting back down in her seat again.
The little girl next to Fiona looked up at me, opened her mouth, but seemed to think twice about what she was going to say, because she shut it again. The Headmistress, looking at the girl kindly, said, "It's quite alright, Miss Densmore. You don't have to show Miss (Y/L/N) your peculiarity if you don't want to."
"But I do..." the girl protested. She steeled herself and stood up. "My name's Claire, and I have a backmouth." She turned her back to me and pushed her golden curls up away from the back of her head. Previously hidden behind them was a large, chomping mouth, with huge teeth. I tried not to show my shock, and instead said, "It's nice to meet you, Claire."
Opposite me was Millard, and even a baby could've worked out that his peculiarity was being invisible. He needed no explanation, but nonetheless, he said, "Millard Nullings, at your service." Next to me, Enoch rolled his eyes again.
After Millard was Bronwyn, but seeing as I had already made her acquaintance, she gave me a quick smile, and we skipped straight onto the pretty blonde teenager next to her. She smiled and said, "I'm Emma Bloom. It's very nice to meet you, (Y/N). I can't wait to finally have a roommate!"
To explain her peculiarity, Emma held out her palm and, scrunching up her nose in concentration, she made a small, golden flame appeared. I smiled back at her, so used to odd peculiarities now that her's hardly affected me. "It's very nice to meet you too, Emma." Everybody continued eating for a while, before Miss Peregrine glanced at Horace and Enoch. "Are you two going to introduce yourselves to Miss (Y/L/N)?" Horace swallowed a mouthful of red cabbage. "Oh, I've already met her, Miss."
"Mr O'Connor?"
"She knows who I am."
"Mr O'Connor, apologize to Miss (Y/L/N) immediately. That is no way to treat our new peculiar, and you know it." Enoch shrugged.
"Sorry. But what's your peculiarity?"
I looked up, suddenly scared. "I - well..."
"She can see the hollows!" said Olive. I nodded. "I can, but... I think there might be something else too. I'm not sure, but..." Miss Peregrine nodded at me, reassuringly, even though she didn't know what I was going to say. I blurted it out before I could change my mind. "I can make other people feel pain. Just by thinking about it." Everyone gawked at me, apart from Enoch, who looked at me curiously. "How much pain?"
"Well, I've never knocked anyone unconscious before, but I've never really wanted too... I don't do it that often, don't worry." I said, adding the last part after seeing the children's slightly worried faces. The Headmistress cleared her throat. "I think that's enough for one mealtime, thank you very much. Bronwyn, if you'd help Hugh carry the dishes into the kitchen, you can come and join us in the living room afterwards for the movie."