||FINISHED|| Pink Roses (JSAB Fresh x Reader)

Secrets

I don't know Fresh.

I'm not sure if the kind soul who gave me a place to stay, a warm comfort I never felt before, and a single pink rose, was the real Fresh or not, I don't know if the hatred I heard last night was genuine or not, I don't know what parts about him were real and what parts weren't. I don't know Fresh.

That same anxiety concerning Fresh was what kept me from eating my food when it arrived.

"Butterfly?" He asked.

'Y-Yeah?'

"What's the matter?"

'What do you mean, What's the matter? I'm perfectly fine!'

"Well, you're not eating, for one, and you look... really tense."

'N-nothing, Nothing, I'm fine'

"I told you, you can tell me anything, now, what's wrong?"

I was silent.

"Who were you talking about?" I said after gathering my confidence.

'What do you mean? I didn't talk about anyone, did I?'

"Last night before dinner I heard you talking about some people... You said stuff like 'I want to see them suffer' and 'If you thought that I was gonna show mercy then you're wrong' or something like that, who're you talking about? And what did they do?"

Fresh's shoulders sagged.

I had expected him to look at me with a shock, a rage, an angry "Who gave you permission to listen in my conversations?", anything that suggested an angry monster. But what I got instead, was a look of defeat.

'I thought that was the case.'

"Answer the question."

Fresh sighed, leaned back, and looked into the distance with a blank look.

'Why do you think I don't have a heartbeat?'

"Because... you're a... um... Not human?"

'Exactly. I said that something happened that... well, turned me not human. What do you think happened?'

"I don't know?"

'They. Turned me into this... this thing.' Fresh's eyes were emotionless. 'I'm Corrupted, (Y/N), I was the very first Corrupted to walk this earth. And that was courtesy of those pieces of shit. They made me this Monster.'

"They Corrupted you?"

'Yeah. The rest of the Corrupted you see can be uncorrupted, can be Purified, but not me. No. I can never be purified. I'm gonna be stuck like this for the rest of eternity, I'm gonna be a monster for the rest of eternity. All because of their ignorance. All because of their cowardice. All because of their fear.'

'What exactly happened?'

Fresh's expression darkened. He was upset. He was mad. He was scared. He wasn't mad at me, he was mad at them, whoever they were. The emotion behind his mismatched eyes was mixed, very mixed. I could see a cocktail in his eyes; The burning wildfire of hatred and rage, the bitter cold of terror, the emptiness and helplessness of depression, just to name a few.

Then, his expression relaxed.

"Don't... Don't ask me that question ever again." He sighed. "I don't like to talk about it."

'Oh... I'm sorry.'

"It's fine, it's fine."

Then, I got up and hugged him. He tensed up before hugging me back.

I could feel a shakiness in his voice, in his body, in his heart. Whatever happened to him must've been very traumatic.

Now, it feels as if the roles during that time he confronted me about my scars were switched. He was now in need of warmth, in need of comfort, and I happily providing him with such. I very genuinely wished that he was alright, which was a complete 180 from what I was thinking of him last night.

"If you ever do wanna talk about it, I'll always be here." I told him.

'Thank you' He responded. He relaxed further, hugged me tighter, and I think I could sense a smile in his voice.

I then realised that hugging him for this long must be pretty awkward, so I wanted to let go, but he didn't. He didn't let go, I don't think he wanted to. And who am I to disobey a king? So I just hugged him back, ready to release him whenever he felt like releasing me. Which, well, was gonna be a while since minutes passed and there was still no sign of letting go.

Then the door opened, whoever was walking through them walked in, froze in their tracks and a silence passed between us all.

"Um... Am I interrupting something?" Mordecai asked after moments of silence.

'No no no, come in, what is it?' Fresh responded, letting me go.

Mordecai shot a glance at me, which I interpreted as "What the fuck was going on?"

I shot one back, this time with the intended message "Tell you later."

He seemed to understand, as he nodded, looked back at Fresh, and said "Just came to check up on (Y/N). Don't mind me, I'll leave now, if you'll excuse me."

Fresh dismissed him as he had no need for anything, and turned back to me.

"Man does having a Corrupted Servant with free will feel really weird."