- Story requested by joeluvsfire 💕
Brenner is walking in front of the children, explaining the test they are about to face.
Henry stands still by a corner, his eyes distracted by the doctor's assistant.
You are wearing a short sleeved uniform as you follow the doctor closely.
You have become his favorite assistant and secretly you have attracted the attention also of the silent orderly.
Henry hates Brenner with all his being. He can't stand to see you working so close with him.
You don't belong in that hell.
Henry observes as you have always a smile for the children.
You are kind and caring. You are a sunray in that prison.
Following an order, Henry walks rigidly to help the children wear the electrodes and you move closer to check the vitals before the test.
"Relax. You'll be brilliant again" you whisper to the shivering child as you note down the results.
"I won't. I don't want to disappoint Papa" the child says pleading.
"Papa won't be angry. Just do what you can. You showed us that you can do it. With some practice, you will improve and control it".
You step back after a caress to the child's trembling hand that Henry doesn't miss.
Your attitude means so much to him.
He imagines that if you ever learn his secret, you can understand and accept him as he is, offering him the same kindness and support that you give to the children.
He just wishes that you know about his devotion for you.
But it's impossible.
You are too close to Brenner.
You don't deserve to be messed up with a silent shadow named Henry.
It's forbidden.
Henry is not allowed to feel what he feels for you, but since he noticed you, it was like he got ill. And he never recovered from it.
And as day, weeks, months passed, that illness just worsened.
Henry is becoming obsessed with you. All his thoughts turn around you. His only comfort is admiring you from some distance and dreaming about you when he's alone.
He can't let you know about his tormenting feelings for you. But sometimes he hopes that by the weight of his stare you can guess what he feels for you.
After finishing with his duties, Henry is impatient to go back to his room and be alone with his dreams of you.
He walks aware of the cameras spying on him.
Henry slows down by your door.
He is used to imagine your daily routine behind that door. You changing clothes, sleeping, waking up, living and being real.
That door that seemed like an invalicable wall.
He remembers when you arrived at the lab. You needed time to get used to that place. To fit in hell, when you are a creature of heaven.
He recalls when once he caught you getting lost in your way from the bathroom after a shower and you had only a towel to cover yourself.
You were so embarassed that you didn't even look up, you just followed his indications and ran to your room, leaving a trail of water on the floor as you padded barefoot.
And then a trail of tears as Henry started to feel for you something he can't name.
"Henry?".
He freezes, thinking that his mind is tricking him, then he realizes it's truly you, calling from a storage room he has just walked by.
You are struggling to pick a box from a high shelf.
"Could you help me, please?".
You don't need to repeat it twice.
Henry cuts the distance with few long strides and grabs the heavy box from your hands before it could slip and fall on your head.
"I'm so short" you joke.
"You're perfect" he blurts out, realizing too late that he said it aloud.
"Thank you" you say, after a moment of confusion. You take the box to a table and open it to get the medical supplies you need.
Henry is petrified with embarassment and is torn between running away before he can betray himself again and staying to talk with you.
You say something to him, but he misses it.
You walk passed him to leave, but his hand snatches your wrist to stop you.
He is shocked by his own reaction, but he doesn't want to let you go. Not yet.
What is he doing?
He is thankful that you're not mocking him or asking him what's wrong.
"Why don't you sit down?" you say gently and take a step towards him.
He is caught by surprise and steps back before you can bump against him.
He lets your wrist go and winces when his legs touch the chair.
He sits and looks up at you, towering him.
You touch his forehead "You're feverish. I can get you some pills".
"I'm fine" he says quickly. If only you can guess what's the kind of medicine he needs, standing unawarely right in front of him, within his reach.
You smile sympathetically "Of course you prefer a visit to the infirmary".
"No" he corrects you instantly "I just need some rest. I'm tired".
Tired of pretending, of trying to stop feeling, of being caged in the prison with you and being incapable of having a simple, normal conversation with you.
"I am too" you chuckle "So goodnight?".
He bids you goodnight and as you leave, notices the syringes you're holding. You could have stabbed him with them when he grabbed you, but you didn't.
He takes some time to recover, to try to move on the feeling of your skin under his grip, your pulse under his thumb, your gentle touch on his forehead.
Then he hides in his room.
That is the most bittersweet night he ever spent, feeling blissed for your touch and damned for his misunderstandable behaviour.
What are you thinking about him? About his weird actions and words? What are you calling him? Weird? Creepy? Acting like a teenager?
In the following days, he keeps an eye on your reactions when you share the same room and assist the experiments.
He is comforted by the fact that you don't avoid him and you keep acting sweet and kind as you always do.
But he undervalues the situation and pays harshly for it.
If you haven't noticed his stalking eyes and his being distracted by you, Brenner surely have and one afternoon his minions come to Henry's room to drag him to the electroshock room.
Brenner reminds him to stay away from you, to avoid thinking of hurting you just to tease him.
At least Brenner doesn't understand that he can't hurt you. He only wants to protect you and adore you.
Henry takes the punishment he doesn't deserve.
But even the torture isn't enough to distract him from you.
In the flashing lights that blinded him, he sees your face, your smile. His heavy breathing smells your perfume.
Although you are not around.
You are aware that the children get bad punishments, but you never assist those sessions. That would traumatise you and Brenner is aware of you, so he keeps you away from the rooms of torture.
And you don't know that also someone of the stuff gets tortured when he misbehaves.
Not everyone. Just a forgotten orderly who has been trapped in that lab for too many years.
Henry survives the worse and wakes up laying in the bathroom.
Dropped like garbage.
He pulls himself up, hating Brenner for acting like God and trying to teach him to stay away from his precious apple.
If only Henry can free himself from what is blocking his powers, he would be God and punish Brenner as he deserves.
Henry glares at his reflection on the mirror and washes his face with cold water. He touches also his sore neck.
The door opens and he hears the shriek of shoes halting abruptly.
"I'm sorry" your shy voice says quickly.
Henry freezes.
You're the latest person he wants to meet in that moment.
He is tempted to jump into a cubicle to hide from you, but as he turns his head, he sees that you already recognized him.
You are petrified by the door, holding the vials she needed to clean.
"Henry? What happened?" you ask when you see that something's wrong with him
He drop his head, although it's not enough to hide the mess he is "Nothing. I'm fine".
"Some trouble with the children?" you try to guess, taking a careful step towards him and dropping the vials in the sink.
"No. No. Really" he says forcefully "Just stay away from me".
He can't believe he said it aloud.
That's what Brenner wants. That's why he tortured him.
He looks at you desperately, hoping you don't take it seriously.
But he sees that his harsh words hurt you.
Yet, you just lower your head and turn to leave.
He just can't stand it anymore.
He jumps and snatches you wrist in an iron grip to stop you.
He hates himself for it, but he's too weakened, his control slips away from him.
You turn to him and place your free hand on his.
A warm and gentle touch that is like a light in the storm he feels inside.
You don't ask him to let you go. You don't reproach him for his contradictory behaviour.
And he's grateful for your infinite patience, even when he is revealing how broken he is.
"I'm sorry, Y/N" he says mortified, but he can't let you go.
And you don't try to free yourself fron him.
"Henry" you say simply.
And it sounds like the sweetest honey to hear his name from your voice.
His eyes fall on your lips for a moment, before lingering in your eyes again, falling into your innocent gaze.
He feels choking, everything around him is spinning.
He needs you. He desperately needs you.
And when he leans towards you, he feels like taking a leap into a dark void.
But you are the light. The light he craves for.
He lets your wrist go and presses his lips on yours. He feels melting at how they feel warmer and softer than how he imagined.
Your hands touch his face gently while his fingers pull you closer to him.
He deepens the kiss, needing just more and more of you.
He pauses and realizes that you are kissing him.
You are kissing him back and feeling accepted brings tears to his eyes.
He kisses you more fiercely and pushes you against the wall.
You don't stop him, you just let him pin you there, your hands exploring his body just like his are exploring yours.
Henry doesn't realise how it ends. He just wants more, but when you're both breathless, he understands that it's enough for that day.
He already got more than he ever hoped.
And he feels happy.
He presses his forehead against yours, as you both take your time to catch your breath, smiling and chuckling.
And then you surprise him by wrapping your arms around him to hug him.
And that's for him another confirmation that you accept him, that you can possibly want him as much as he wants you.
Also when you have to separate before someone can catch you there, he feels like floating in a brand new feeling.
Bliss, freedom. And that gratitude and affection he feels for you.
Henry knows he can't afford to overstep.
In the next days, whenever he meets you in public he struggles to keep calm and avoid staring too openly at you.
He holds his hands tightly together and sometimes pinches himself to remind that he can't grab you and pull you at him.
He collects every secret look and smile you send at him like the most precious relic. And he feels rich, after surrendering for years to the idea that the whole world hated him and that nobody would see him as more than an orderly living in a lab.
But the dream isn't supposed to last forever.
He should have known it better.
He should have guessed that happiness didn't fit in a place like that.
One day other orderlies come to drag him out of his room.
Henry doesn't rebel, expecting to be tortured again, maybe for staring at you longer than he was supposed to, again.
But he isn't taken to the electroshock room. He is dragged to a common test room.
And you're there.
Henry realizes that something is very wrong.
There are no children for the test.
You are sitting on the chair instead.
Brenner has connected you to a monitor.
He has just made other employees walk in front of you and check your reaction on the machine.
When Henry is dragged in front of you, your heartbeat fastens helplessly.
Brenner is staring at the monitor, the answer he needed written on it.
Henry just wishes to rebel and shout at him, to get free and protect you from the storm that it's about to happen.
You are not looking at him anymore. Your cheeks reddened a bit, but you keep a dignity and confidence that no even the devil himself can waste.
You know you didn't do anything wrong or to be ashamed of. Feeling is not a sin, a crime.
Henry doesn't get any chance to speak and is dragged back to his room.
He can't stop feeling anguished at the idea of the consequences.
You two haven't been caught openly kissing or flirting.
But what you both feel can't be kept secret forever to the people working around you.
Love is a fire that can be hidden. You can hide its light, but for how long can you hide its smoke?
And it's that smoke that Brenner smelled.
And he is obstinate to seek and extinguish the fire before it can burn wild and slip out of his control.
Henry is confined to his room until the next morning.
He is surprised to see you walking to meet him in the corridors.
Your face warns him that bad news are coming.
You are not wearing your usual white uniform.
"Y/N, are you alright?" he asks you although the answer was so plain.
He wishes to pull you into his embrace, seeing how much you'd need to be comforted.
He wants to protect you.
"Henry, I've been fired" you tell him with a broken voice, your eyes looking up at him and struggling to fight back the tears.
"Y/N, I'm so sorry. It's my fault" he says, wishing to be the one to pay for it, not to see you so sad.
"No. We share that fault" you say firmly "It was in the contract that we can't grow attached to anyone here in the lab. I just couldn't help it".
Henry opens and closes his fists, until he finds the courage to search for your hands.
You had your arms crossed and relax them enough for him to hold your shaking hands.
He has so many things he wants to tell you. About what he feels for you. To make promises for a better future for both of you. To blame it all on Brenner and his wicked lab.
But he's so brokenhearted to see you so sad that it leaves him speechless.
And he wishes to tell you everything.
You should realize that something is wrong.
You are too precious to Brenner. He should fire Henry, a mere orderly, not you.
Henry wishes that you can just pull his sleeve and find the truth about himself.
Your hand is just so close to that tattoo that would open your eyes about him, about his potential.
But he also fears that the truth would scare you. And he doesn't want to see you fear him and run away from him.
"I don't regret anything, Henry" you whisper, leaning to him with a conspiratory look.
He leans to you, so close to overstep under the stalking eyes of the cameras.
"Me neither" he assures you, and before his reason can make him hesitate, he pulls you to the nearest empty room, slamming the door and locking it.
"Henry..." you warn him, but he can't stop. He can't just let you go away like that.
You can't leave the lab and think of moving on, forgetting him.
Henry shuts you up with his lips claiming yours, his hand grabbing the back of your head.
Your hands press on his chest and he lets you go for a moment, just to make sure that you don't want to reject him.
Your emotions are conflicting too.
"Henry, we shouldn't...".
He cuts your words and deepens the kiss.
He wants you to understand how meaningful you are to him.
Your legs start to weaken under that passion.
He pulls you closer, pressing you against him, his mouth exploring your skin and leaving a trail of kisses.
His lips linger on your neck, his teeth taste your skin and bite you, just to feel you shiver against him and to feel triumphant for taking a bite of Brenner's forbidden fruit.
He doesn't let you go and sucks on your skin, marking you as his.
He lets you go before there was no way back. No way to stop from giving and taking everything.
He watches you red faced and panting. He is tempted to pull you close again to steal your breath again.
This time he contains himself. He pulls your hair to cover the mark on your neck, hoping it's enough to cover the truth, like the sleeve of his uniform is protecting his own secret.
He accompanies you out as much as he's allowed, then he presses his face against the windows to see you leaving the lab with your baggages, some guards escorting you. Away from that hell. But also away from him
At every step you take, Henry feels his heart breaking even more, like a fragile glass under a hammer.
He realizes that he can't be a prisoner any longer.
He wants to get free, to find you in the world outside the lab. He just wants to feel and live.
And a new plan starts to form in his desperate mind.
A/N
Sunday 12th November 2022
And then you know the rest of the story, on how he tries to escape 🥺
Another story that I really loved to develop and write down 💓
I feel so sorry when Henry is so helpless and caged.
Just let Henry get what he wants and to feel what he wants to feel.
I've been reminded of Twilight's book cover and symbolized by the apple I'd offer my heart and soul to him to bite and own them 🍎🧛♂️😂