TW: Reference to self harm, implied only. Please take care y'all.
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"I'm fine really, you don't need to.," Michael asks with some obvious embarrassment in his tone as he dusts his clothes off further in the mirror on the wall as he speaks.
You giggle slightly, ruffling Michael's hair before you speak, "I know but I want to, now lead the way, Michael. I'm not taking no for an answer!" You say with a slight comforting grin which you think was the pushing point.
Michael stares at you for a second before finally he sighs and begins walking into the living room to get to the other side of the house, passing his siblings. Much to Michael's annoyance, you asked his siblings to come with the two of you because you wanted to keep an eye on them. You follow behind Michael as he leads you to the bathroom where he pulls out the first aid kit from one of the cabinets. He carefully hands it to you while his siblings curiously look at Michael's scrape. He doesn't seem to care too much but is obviously annoyed with their childish antics as they seem worried.
"Michael! Why are you always getting hurt?" Elizabeth asks as she crosses her arms at her older brother and gives him a slight frown before hugging him, which just makes Michael roll his eyes.
"Yeah, how come? You gotta be more careful!" Evan adds on as he stands behind Elizabeth with adorable sad eyes as he speaks with his sweet little voice.
Michael more or less ignores them, a slight blush of embarrassment crawling on his cheeks, "Can we just get this over with?" He mutters as he shoves his hands into his pockets as he backs away from his sister, which makes her whine slightly.. What a typical teen, hah.
You can't help but let out a little giggle and pull the two away as you pour some alcohol on a small cotton pad while he's distracted whilst sticking his tongue out at his siblings. Having obviously been a kid yourself at one point, you get that most kids dislike using alcohol on their wounds and so do you. But you still got to do it. You slowly and gently press it against Michael's scrape, he flinches ever so slightly which is reasonable. You give it a couple of wipes and he relaxes rather quickly as he rolls his eyes when Evan grabs his hand as if to comfort him. Michael's siblings are so sweet...
Once you finish cleaning it, you grab a band aid which you stick onto the side of his face to protect his scrape. You turn to the sink to wash your hands, and you pull your sleeves up but freeze when the cuts on your arms from the incident are revealed. You had completely forgotten about them with how happy you've been that you just flashed it to these kids. A slight feeling of anxiety strikes you as it probably looks concerning to someone who doesn't know what happened, which is everyone but two people. You don't think they noticed though and quickly pull your sleeves back up before calming down as you turn around. You give a sweet smile as you pull away from the sink before patting Michael's head like he's a child and picking up Evan. Michael sighs as touches his cheek where the band aid is while looking in the mirror for a second while you put the first aid kit away.
You set Evan down on the other side of the room before giving him a gentle push, "How about we let Michael change into something cleaner, maybe take a shower or something." You say with a giggle as Evan and Elizabeth sadly sigh but nod before walking to the living room.
Right before you leave you to hear Michael ask, "Are you okay?" with a heavily worried tone when he says his question.
You freeze and mentally curse yourself out, he saw, didn't he? "Yeah, I'm fine." You answer as you try and smile sweetly.
Michael stares at the ground, "Are you sure? I... I saw your arms. Sorry if I'm asking something personal, I just-" Michael starts but you cut him off.
"It's not what it looks like, I just had an accident that's all. I promise I'm fine!" You say with a smile and a happy tone, that phrase was half true and half a lie. You're fine in the sense of what Michael is implying but you're still not mentally fine, you've been distracting yourself but you're terrified...
Michael stares at you for a second before responding, "Oh, alright. Sorry again if this is weird but can I see them, I just want to see something." He mumbles quietly as he asks, weird but okay.
You raise an eyebrow but nod while pulling your right sleeve back up to reveal your pattern of cuts across your right arm in which follow the spring locks formation. It's kind of uneasy for you to see, you've been avoiding them all day but for the past few days, you've been staring at them nonstop. They were ingrained in your head for a while but went away, now they're back and you're reminded about the trauma. The fear of what could have happened had your escape been a little tardy...
Michael stays quiet for a second before speaking up, "They look a lot like the scars my father has on his arms, well everywhere..." He comments which makes you confused to the bone.
William has similar scars, but how could that be? Obviously from the spring locks if they look the same but wouldn't he have told you that he had an accident with them prior to letting you in!? Why would he let you in if he knew what could happen, he literally said he didn't know what it was capable of? Why would he lie? And why does William still wear them if he got injured from them? You should probably ask, maybe somehow it's not the spring locks! Right?...
You realize you haven't responded and quickly say, "Oh wow, that's weird..." you say with a forced laugh as you pull your sleeve back down rather anxiously.
You don't know if Michael could sense your want to stop his conversation or if he just wanted to as well but he says, "Yeah, you can go now. Sorry, I'm going to shower bye." He mumbles and you nod before turning around.
You give Michael a little wave as you head back to the living room following behind the kids who are happily watching the television again with their little plush friends once more. Now that you're in the living room, you hear what sounds like the front door open and you walk over in that direction to see who it is even if you know it most likely is, if it isn't them then that's concerning. But very obviously it's William, he looks rather annoyed as he enters. But once he spots you, he sends a smirk your way which just makes you feel fuzzy. William pulls his coat off and hangs it as he pulls at his purple tie before tugging it off as he walks to your side. His presence makes your heart flutter as you both silently walk to the living room, it takes a second before William breaks the silence.
"So how were the kids?" William asks as he stops in front of the living room, staring at Evan and Elizabeth. They don't seem to have noticed him as they're distracted by their show on the television.
"Oh they were great, I hung out with the two for a while before Michael came home. He came home with a scrape on his face so his siblings and I cleaned it up, Michael's going to shower right now." You announce to catch him up on what he missed as well as to notify him of what happened while you were gone. A gentle smile coats your cheeks as you speak fondly about his kids.
"Alright, could we head to my office so we could talk?" William responds, not seeming to have much to comment about his kids. Why'd he ask if he didn't really care?...
"Of course," you answer, nodding your head as you follow behind him while he leads you to a small room. It looked similar to his office at the diner except this one is slightly messier, so many sketches layer his desk which is actually nice to see that William has hobbies outside of being a furry dad.
"I forgot I left it a mess in here. Oh, and again, I apologize for the sudden favor, I'll make sure your next paycheck includes a bonus for this." William says as he gathers all the papers and neatly fixes his desk up rather quickly, putting things in folders and drawers efficently. You take in his office again and it's kind of scary, it's fairly dark and he seems to like it like that. William sort of scared you in general, he makes you so confused. He's a scary type of hot and it's not something that you're used to feeling.
You shake your head to get rid of your thoughts, "It's really no issue, and alright, so what's up?" You ask, twiddling your fingers a little as you bite your lip slightly in a bit of anxiety.
William sends you a sweet smile for a second before speaking, "It's actually a couple of things, first of all, are you coming to work next week? I know you had an experience the last time you were there, I just need to know if you'll be there." William responds in return as he makes eye contact with you, his dark blue eyes finding yours. It makes you a little uneasy for some reason.
You take a second to think, "Y... Yeah. I'll be there." You respond as you dart your eyes away from embarrassment, the effect he has on you is immeasurable to anything you've ever felt before.
"Great, I missed you." William teases slightly with a mischievous grin on his handsome face before continuing, "Second, I apologize for my actions and how reckless I was the other day. I'm sorry if I scared you in any way, I truly did not mean to. How are you healing up?" William asks as he sits down on his office chair, crossing his legs over one another.
"It's... fine. Um, I'm healing fine. I actually have a question myself regarding what happened too." You say a little flustered but push their feelings away as you try and get serious.
"Hm?" William hums in response to your statement as he stares into your eyes again once you look up again which sends shivers down your spine.
You stare at William for a second, you feel disturbed even more than before but you're also embarrassed that he still makes you feel this way. The way William's eyes stare into yours is a blessing to your sexuality that you're getting male attention, something you never thought you'd get. But it's also a curse because you don't know how you want to feel about him with everything going on. You still want to be mad at him for what he caused but you also want to be around him since he makes you feel nice. It's so stressful in so many ways and you find it hard to put into practical thought which you don't blame yourself for because what are you supposed to feel in this situation? You blame your sexuality for all of this.
You take a deep breath, "Michael sort of saw the cuts on my arms and commented that you had similar scar formations to them, is that true? If so, did you have an accident with the spring locks?" You ask, nervously tugging at your sleeves as you speak.
William freezes for a second before sighing, "Yeah, I had an accident," he mutters as he crosses his arms, "Why is this important?"
"It's important because you lied to me. You gave me false reassurance for what? I got hurt and it could've bee-" you try to say but get cut off by William.
"What do you mean?" William asks as he suddenly and rudely interrupts you which kind of gets on your nerves because this is important to you and he doesn't seem to get that.
You're a little fed up with his brushing it off attitude so you sort of snap, "You said you didn't know what the spring locks could do so you made a guess but you did and you still let me get inside the suit!" You almost yell, all your anxiety almost spilling out as you respond. What the hell type of question is that? You could have gotten seriously hurt, you're lucky you only came out with slight cuts that don't look like they'll scar. But the suit is very much capable of scarring and possibly worse!
"And...?"