Pairing: Xavier Thorpe x Delinquent!fem!reader
Warnings: mentions of a fist fight, fluff
~
"Are you done?" She stood herself up, awaiting an answer from the boy, who had rolled onto his back and stared up at her.
y/n breathed hard while keeping intense eye contact with the boy, Mateo, hoping that he would decide he had enough so she could leave. She had barely taken notice of her bruised knuckles or the scratches on them; not even the burning sensation on them made her break the stare she held with Mateo.
Mateo averted his eyes from hers and looked around at the crowd that had formed in the quad. Swallowing hard, his jaw hurt, and for a good reason, yet he clenched it hard. Reaching up and wiping away some blood under his nose, Mateo slowly sat himself up.
"Are you going to answer me or just sit there?" At the moment, the people around them were just blurry figures that she had no interest in caring about.
"What do you want me to say? I only told the truth, and you know it." His voice was smug as he looked up at her, keeping a hand under his nose and letting the blood simply run down onto it.
She was about to throw another punch at the boy when she was cut off by the sound of a teacher, the one thing she did not need right now. She knew it would be followed by being dragged to Weem, and she would simply tell y/n to sit down in one of the chairs. Every time it was the same. Every time she was asked what had made her do what she did, she would simply tell Weems that she got irritated.
It did, however, always seem as though the woman in charge at Nevermore knew there was a deeper reason for why she got into fights but never could figure out why.
Whirling her head around to see which direction the teacher, most likely Mrs. Thornhill, would come from, she realised just how many people were standing around. It had been stupid to pick a fight in the quad, but oh well, it was too late to change what had been done.
"You're fucked, l/n." Mateo sneered at her from where he still sat on the ground, earning a cold stare before y/n turned and finally saw where she could easily run away.
Swiftly, y/n turned towards where she could easily leave school and not be there when the teacher came, and without hesitation, she started to push past people in the crowd. Some of them did not care to let her through, but y/n were persistent in making her way out of there.
Right before she could get much further, she felt a very light tug on her arm, yet one that made her stop. "y/n."
It was Enid; her face carried worry as she looked at her friend, whose face was blue and purple, or at least on her cheek. The blond's brows were furrowed in panic, and her grip on y/n's wrist tightened just a little more as if to keep her there, an unasked question of why she had done it in the air.
"Let me go, Enid." She spoke sternly and tried to tug her arm back so she could leave easily; she did not want the lecture from Mrs. Thornhill now.
"y/n, what..?" Ajax's confused voice caused her to turn her head once more and find the gorgon there, along with him—Xavier Thorpe.
For a moment, her eyes stayed focused on Xavier, whose brows were furrowed. Why did he care? He was the one who declared them rivals when she first started at Nevermore. Yet she had somehow fallen for the idiot.
The crowd dispersed as she turned her head away, and people returned to their respective tasks. Mateo had his friends help him stand up, and she was currently glaring daggers her way; the blood from his nose had dried.
"Miss l/n." It was the booming voice of Mrs. Thornhill that made all four students turn their heads her way, as she had spotted them.
y/n's eyes widened as she quickly moved to pry Enid's strong hand off her. Luckily for her, the werewolf girl had let her hands around her wrists slack a little, which made it easy to get them off of her. Dashing for the exit into the woods, she did not look back, which cost her the chance to see Xavier look at her with a puzzled expression.
The only thing she could hear while running out of the school was Mrs. Thornhill calling out her name several times, as well as Enid shouting for her to come back, but to no avail.
——
The sky had given up on holding in the rain as it poured down, drenching her clothes where she sat. Her hair had become more and more damp as all she wore was her uniform with the school blazer on top. y/n could feel her feet grow cold from the wetness that had drenched them.
Her back hurt a bit from the roughness of the bark from the tree she was sitting against, staring at the old shed that, to her knowledge, was empty. She had to readjust herself to make her back hurt less, refusing to go back just yet because she enjoyed the time alone before being lectured.
For whatever reason, she could never understand herself. She had her reasons for every fight she got into, and this one with Mateo had been the first one for quite a while; the last one was in Jericho, and in that one too, she had a good reason for fighting. It was all stupid, really. Why did she have to have a soft spot for him in her heart when he clearly only saw her as competition, all because they were both able to do the same thing.
When something wet suddenly dripped from her nose, out of confusion, y/n brought her hand up to her nose to brush it off but was instead met by the sight of red being mixed with the light rain. The collar of her white shirt had a drop of red on it. So now her nose has decided to bleed—after about fifteen minutes since the fight ended. She could spot even more red drip from her nose and could not even care for it, just letting it mix with the water and drip down onto her shirt.
Just as she was about to sit back and close her eyes, the sound of footsteps not far from where she sat made her eyes snap open. Sitting up from where she was curled up by the tree, her eyes scanned the area.
When she found the source of the steps, his tall figure made it hard not to notice him (though y/n would occasionally tell Enid that he could easily melt into the background with trees because of his insane height). He was carrying an umbrella to shield himself from the rain, and without any question, he had spotted her.
She sat back down, sighing, because she didn't want to deal with a heart that beat faster just because he was there; it was very irritating. Every time a drop of water hit her face, she would blink
"What are you doing out here?" Xavier asked as he came up closer to her. Once he was close enough, he moved the umbrella a little so it would cover her already drenched form.
"Oh, you know, just enjoying the nice weather." Her tone was sarcastic as she just barely spared him a glance.
He took notice of the blood dripping from her nose and how it seemed like she did not give a single care for it, destroying her uniform. "You've got.."
Xavier motioned at his own nose as if to tell her her nose was bleeding. She pulled the same face as him, telling him that she knew very well about her nosebleed and was not completely dumb. It made him look around and feel inside his coat for something to help her keep from ruining her shirt even more than it already was.
Finding that he had nothing, and receiving a bored look from the girl as she just stared up at him, Xavier grabbed the keys in his pocket and moved to open the shed without saying anything. It made y/n knit her brows together at him, only hearing a door open and then seeing a small window far up towards the roof of the shed light up. This was confusing.
Only seconds later, he came out of the shed, umbrella still in hand, as he had gotten some tissues from inside. Without saying a word, he held it out to y/n who had stood up and leaned against the tree. She hesitated for a second—just a second—before she reached out and took it from him as gently as she could. She was not even going to ask why he had keys to the shed; it was not really important to her right now.
That was when Xavier noticed her knuckles; they were broken and slightly scratched, along with bruises from her violent punches. When he noticed himself staring at her hand, he took a quick glance up at her face before turning his gaze out into the woods.
"What was that all about?" He asked the question before adding a bit more to clarify. "In the quad."
"Why do you care?" y/n fired back, removing the bloody tissue from her nose for a split second while being covered by him, who was holding the umbrella for them both.
"Just wondering, you know, seeing as you almost always seem to have a fight with someone." Xavier simply shrugged his shoulders.
He cared about her more than he probably showed. When she first started, he didn't know what to say to her—what did you say to a beautiful new girl? Well, if your name was Xavier Thorpe, you did not say anything at first. Because it was not until he found out that that pretty girl had the same ability as himself that Xavier said something, and it was not what he should have said.
Being so unsure of what to say, for once in his life, Xavier only said that her art was okay but not as good as his own. That was when it all started; he did not know how to get her attention any other way now, slowly making them out to be rivals when it came to their art. It was the only way he could get her attention for a few minutes a day, as y/n would throw comebacks about his own art and sarcastic compliments at him like daggers. He enjoyed when her attention was directed at him.
"It's nothing." That was all he got for an answer before noticing how her body shook slightly from what he assumed was the cold and the fact she was completely soaked from the rain.
"There's got to be one reason at least as to why you were fighting him, and according to Enid, it has to be a very good one."
"Enid." The exasperation in her voice was clear as she finally removed the tissue from her nose once more and found that no more blood was running from her nose.
"So what was it about that you apparently have such a good reason to fight Mateo for?" There was a hint of amusement in the way Xavier said it, as he found her attention on him, looking up at him.
"He said something about someone." y/n swallowed hard at that, refusing to say more as she didn't want to say too much and then have her secret spilled, which would surely result in her pouring her immensely frustrated heart out right there and then.
"Who?"
Of course—this was Xavier Thorpe, which meant he would not let it go and would try and pressure her into saying something. A common tactic of his in the classroom was when she tried to hold her tongue from saying something too harsh, but his constant nagging would always result in her shooting him an irritated glare and making a comment his way. The only thing about that was that, no matter what harsh thing she said, Xavier would always sit back with a pleased look on his face, having gotten his daily attention from her.
Rather than giving him attitude, Y/N swallowed hard and pondered how to phrase it so she wouldn't have to say his name to his face—that the fight was because of him—because that was something she would never do. Finding a way to word it in her head, she let out a sigh before turning her gaze away from the tree she had been gazing at in the distance.
"Not that you need to know who it was about, but Mateo mentioned someone I care about... and me." His eyes never left hers at the confession that it had been about someone she cared for, but at the same time, his heart sank just a little in his chest. The way she added that Mateo too had said something about her showed him she did not want to tell him anything.
"You must care about them then, seeing as you're willing to get into a fight for them." Xavier stated, which earned him a scoff from the girl, it made his eyes immediately narrow at her quizzingly. "What?"
"I care about him, it's just that he's what Shakespeare would consider the idiot of idiot-worshippers."
Yes, that was how she felt about Xavier—he was the idiot of idiot worshippers. Everything about him screamed idiot to y/n and somehow she liked him even though he was a complete and total ass to her.
Xavier raised his brows at her statement. He nodded to show he listened and, for once, felt happy about the fact that she was talking to him. Even though he had yet to know who that guy was, he felt a bit of warmth in his chest over the fact that she was not glaring at him. It was his favourite, when she was a bit more relaxed.
It was only when he watched her from afar with her friends that he saw the real her. Instead of seeing her annoyed face, he would be able to see her laugh and smile brightly, much different from when she was around him. But Xavier knew that it was an asshole move he had pulled to get her attention at first, and even now, a year later, he was still doing the same only because that was what she expected from him nowadays, which was why y/n now was looking at him with suspicion in her eyes. No matter how much she liked him, no matter how much her heart would beat faster in his presence, the way he acted around her now was different than she was used to. He listened and did not have that hint of amusement in his eyes that he mostly had while commenting on something. It was a different Xavier that stood before her, the boy she would see hanging around with Ajax and some of the other boys.
"So who is he?" Xavier finally asked, breaking the silence, and his gazing at her plus y/n finally caused her to blink instead of squinting her eyes at him questioningly.
"Why should I tell you of all people?" She dabbed the tissue on her nose as the feeling of a little blood running down from her nose caught her attention, still looking up at him.
"What? Are you scared I'll make fun of you?"
"You can't; it's pretty much impossible."
"So tell me then." His voice was challenging, the same way it would be whenever he challenged her to do something competitive.
"You know what? I need to go and change before I get hypothermia." y/n quickly turned her eyes from his. "Plus, Weems is probably going to talk to me sooner or later, and I'd rather that be sooner."
"Come on—"
"I'll see you around, I guess." y/n mumbled as she moved past Xavier, her cold and damp clothes uncomfortable as she tried to walk away as fast as she could so as not to be stopped.
Xavier had turned around when she walked past him, about to say something but realising that it was not the time. He shut his mouth and just stood there, watching her walk past him. Slowly, she was becoming less and less visible, which made him unable to see her wipe away some tears of frustration.
Frustration because she did not know what she had done to make him so mean—it was the worst word she could use to describe him. Frustration because she was not supposed to like him when he was acting in such a way towards her, and y/n did not know how to ever express what she felt. Fighting or going at someone who said something about him was the only way she could somehow show she did care.
But he was a frustrating person, and Xavier was frustrated with himself because—why did he not just talk to her when he first met her.
——
Xavier had just finished schoolwork; there was a lot this week, which made him decide to just do it all at once so he would have it out of the way. Letting out a sigh of relief over the fact that that was done, he stood up, picking up his sketchbook along with a pen.
When he sat down and at first started off just sketching, his mind was clear as glass from any type of thought. He was just absentmindedly sketching away without even knowing what in the world he was going to sketch. In moments like this, he actually did appreciate having his own dorm; there was no one else there who would disturb his comfortable silence, so he just sat in his chair and sketched on.
Slowly, however, his thoughts began to wander, reminding him of the way y/n had looked at him. Her eyes had followed his every move, and when he moved his hand just a little, she let her eyes flicker down and then back up at him. She was certainly not afraid of making eye contact with him then, but even if she had followed everything he did, there had been a hint of frustration in her eyes.
And then his thoughts returned to a few hours earlier, when he had returned to school from his shed, seeing her walk with Enid Beby, who was fussing over her friend. It was such a rare sight for him to ever see her smile around himself that whenever she smiled along with her friends, he took it in to remember it. All he usually got were sarcastic smiles and smirks when she had done something sly.
The peace of the atmosphere in his dorm was quickly ruined—as were his thoughts of y/n—when two people came crashing into his dorm without announcing their arrival. Their sudden entry had caused Xavier to turn his head quickly and look at them with a puzzled face.
"Have the two of you just never heard of knocking?" Xavier asked Kent and Ajax as they stood by his door, taking a glance at each other.
"Of course we have," Ajax shrugged, turning and kicking the door shut so no one else in the boys dormitories could hear the conversation.Believe it or not, the boys at Nevermore lived as much for the gossip as the girls did; it was unavoidable.
"So?" He was not really in the mood for these two. Kent was truly an idiot, and Ajax too, but a bit smarter than the other boy.
"Oh my man, do we have news for you?" Kent told me while moving to sit on the bed that had been empty for all too long.
Xavier only raised his brows in question, sitting up a bit more as opposed to his previous position, where he had been pretty much just lying on his back on the bed while sketching. Most nights, or more like all nights, he would try and avoid most of the other guys, seeing as they would always run into each other's dorms to annoy one another. Hence why Xavier had asked to make use of the shed for his art it was a simple way to not have to deal with the other fools.
"You're going to want to sit down for this, though." Kent was quickly smacked on the arm by Ajax, who had a deadpan look on his face, because quite obviously Xavier was already sitting down.
Fools. Idiots. Morons. There really were at least forty words that Xavier knew he could use to describe the duo that was made up of two of his closest friends.
"Are you two going to tell me or what?" His patience with the two was fairly limited; therefore, he usually spent time with them separately.
"Yes, well, you know the fight in the quad erlier." It was not a question; it was just for Ajax to point out and make him know it was about that.
"Yeah,"
"But, do you know why l/n threw that first punch? I guess you don't." Kent said, slightly proud of himself for knowing something like this.
"She told me Mateo said something about someone she cares about." Xavier explained, yet his mind was still trying to make out who that could possibly be.
"She told you?" Ajax's mood suddenly dropped, as he for once thought he knew something the Thrope boy did not.
"Only that it had something to do with someone she cares about, not who."
"See! I told you." Kent exclaimed pointedly at Ajax.
"Yeah, yeah, fuck off. Anyway, I happened to ask one of Mateo's friends what happened and know who that person is."
Noticing he had gotten Xavier's attention, instead of a bored and tired expression on his face, he now seemed more attentive. It was not surprising that Ajax and Kent were aware of his crush on Y/N. "Well?"
"Apparently Mateo had said something about her not belonging here, but it was not until he added your name to it all that she swung. She got him good though, have to admit that."
"What?"
——
Walking down the stairs from the Edgar Allen Poe statue was not something he did often. One would think that being a member of a secret society like the Nightshades would make this more common, but it didn't. The reason it didn't happen very often was simple: he never saw the Nightshade Society's little secret place as something useful for himself. Of course Xavier would come if the rest of the group was required to come too, but he never really went alone.
From what he could hear, it sounded as if someone was shuffling about in the hideout, so Yoko was correct. Hopefully, it was you and not another Nightshade who chose to spend their late night down there.
Xavier had spent most of the night before lying awake and thinking through what Ajax and Kent had told him. y/n had thrown that first punch because something was said about him, not just for the heck of it. He had spent almost the entire day contemplating what to do about it all. In fact, he had been thinking about it so much that his little daily comments to the girl in front of him to get her attention had gone over his head. Not one single comment all day, that was how hard he'd been thinking.
The dark and eerie stairs got broken by the annoyed groan coming from whoever was down there, and Xavier could just barely make out a few mutters of curses that sounded like y/n. Then some more shuffling was heard before it got calm.
The last stretch of wall that would conceal who he was was approaching, so he took advantage of the opportunity to try to think of something to say, but his mind failed him, leaving him stuck without a way to ask that one question. He shook his head just slightly to pick himself up.
The sound of footsteps from the stairs made y/n look up from her spot on the floor just by all the books, and just as she did, Xavier came walking down. Her brows knitted together as she knew he never really spent time down there unless he was required to be there, much like all the others. She kept a finger on the page where she was in the book and just stared at him.
"What are you doing here?" Xavier just stepped down from the last step as she uttered her question, looking up at him from her place on the floor.
"I'm allowed to be here, remember." He tried to play it off as if this was not the first time he went there alone.
"I know that. You're just not usually one of those who spend their free time here; none of you others really do."
For some reason, the way he ran a hand through his hair to push it back made y/n have to bite her cheek. Hating that her heart would start racing in his presence even though how he acted, it was frustrating to over and over again have to tell herself that she should not like him.
"No, but I was told you'd be here." Xavier moved closer instead of standing just by the railing of the stairs, getting to the middle of the room, leaving plenty of space between them.
"By whom and why?" As she stood up, she closed the book that had been in her lap. He took notice of how her knuckles were still scraped and bruised (from what he could see with the limited lighting), and she also had a few bruises on her cheeks.
"I can give you three guesses." Xavier felt a little bold and took just a step closer.
"Yoko, correct?" It was a quick answer, which made him chuckle at the fact that she knew who it was without thinking too long about it.
"Yes,"
"Are you here to insult me or something like always, Xavier. Because if you are, I'm going." y/n's heart was racing as she tried to walk past the boy, but he quickly held out his hands to stop her.
"No, I wasn't going to."
"Yeah right," He stopped her from waddling past once more, letting out an exasperated sigh.
"Look, I just want to talk."
"That's a first."
It was, and Xavier knew it was—well, not exactly the first time, as this would be the second, considering they truly talked for the first time just the day before.
"Who is that person that you care so much about?" Her entire face twisted at the question, not knowing why he was still stuck on it and having to try to avoid answering it.
"Why does it concern you?" Wait, had they gotten closer because the distance between them was only about nine feet—maybe ten feet? Just a few seconds ago, it was nineteen.
"Can't you just tell me?"
"Why should I do that when you take every chance you get to annoy me in any type of way." y/n shook her head at him. "Not even Enid knows, so why should I tell you."
"I just want to know, since you mentioned it."
If time travel had been a thing, y/n would go back to the day before and change her answer for why she had thrown that first punch. That way she would be able to preserve her heart and also not have to deal with the person who had sneakily made his way into it and, in her mind, probably didn't feel the same.
Xavier didn't let his soft gaze leave her form, giving all his undivided attention to her, and nothing was going to break it. He wanted her to say it was true that the person she cared so much about—so much that she would get into a fight for him—was him. He wanted what Mateo's friends had told Ajax to be true because it would allow him to make amends with her.Clear the air and actually tell the truth about his behaviour.
"Why does it matter to you?" y/n asked, frustration clear in her voice as she was stern with the way he asked. Even though her heart did cartwheels and her stomach filled with butterflies, she held eye contact with Xavier.
"Maybe because it involves me." His tone changed into a little more of an irritated one as he actually wanted an answer, this way he could probably get one. All it did was freeze her, making her stare up at him and tighten her grip on the book she had been holding the entire time. Slowly, her knuckles were turning white.
"Who even told you that? How do you even know that fight involved you?" She asked quizzingly.
"Ajax told me."
"And he was told by someone else, I presume?"
"Yeah."
"So then he actually doesn't know what happened, and you can just drop it, because honestly, it doesn't even matter." For a second, she thought that it would shut him up, but no.
"Who is it then that you're so keen on getting yourself hurt for?" Yet another step closer.
"Just leave me be, will you? You've done great at that before."
"Tell me what the fight was about! Did Ajax just make it all up that it involed me?" Xavier pointedly asked.
y/n had moved closer to get in his face, but it was hard seeing as he was as tall as he was. They were left with very little space between each other, and it gave Xavier a better look at y/n's beat-up face. He'd seen Mateo's face, which was worse, and the sight of how she looked made him swallow. It was the shine in her eyes that caught his attention and got him to take a step back.
"You." It was all she said, looking him straight in the eyes and saying so too.
"What?"
"You, okay? That was all about you." y/n moved back from standing so close to him and motioned with her arm as if to mean all that happened yesterday was about him.
Xavier just stared, finally getting an answer, but it took him aback so much that he had no idea what to say. "I–"
"Mateo said something about you... and me, which made me irritated. Honestly, how stupid are you?" She was speaking from pure frustration that had lasted quite a few months. "Why do you think that asshole Tyler and his friends left you alone? Why do you think I came back to school that same day all beat up?"
There was that. Xavier had always wondered who had passed her off that one day when the Nevermore students got to go to Jericho. It was the first time after Tyler and his friends destroyed his mural, he vividly remembered y/n coming back beat up but still standing. She never explained to anyone why she did what she did, but now he knew. She did it because of what happened to him; she beat them up for it because going to the school in Jericho meant she knew what utter shitheads Tyler and his friends were.
"Ehm—" Once more, he was unable to say anything about it all; too much was coming out at once, and he was still stuck on the fact that he was the one she cared so much for.
"Ever since I started, I've done nothing to you, and you just wanted to be all competitive and shite just because we can do the same thing. I never gave you shit, and to be honest, I probably care about you more than I should."
The more time passed, the more she rambled, and it all hit him, and just the tiniest smile started to tug at his lips while he watched her, his brows also furrowing. The slight shine in her eyes seemed to have been tears of frustration building up as y/n had discreetly reached up and wiped away one.
"I really, for some stupid reason, like you, and I honestly don't know what I've ever done—"
Xavier cut her off with a kiss, one that made her jump in surprise. He was almost afraid when she went stiff under him, but that worry was quickly washed away when her body slowly relaxed and she started kissing back. His hands lay comfortably at the base of her neck. Xavier was almost convinced it was a dream that he was kissing the girl he'd been chasing for a year, and she liked him back enough to kiss him back too.
They both pulled away, Xavier looking at y/n expectantly but earning a confused look. Her eyes were narrowed questioningly, her mouth slightly agape as she tried to come up with what to say.
"You know... if you had just said you liked my art that day, things would have been a lot easier." She did not look up at him, still trying to comprehend what just happened, her hands landing on his wrists as his hands still gently rested at the base of her neck.
"Trust me; I know that." Xavier chuckled at her puzzled face.
"Wait, you like me too?"
Idiots..