[ Y/N ]
My breaths could be seen in the cold night air, the large bag carelessly thrown over my shoulder hitting against my back with the hard downpour pelting my frantic figure. Hot tears ran down my face and dripped off my chin onto the wet pavement that my old sneakers slapped against with each adrenaline powered step.
I chanced a look behind me, my wide E/C eyes full of terror as they landed on the creature that had been chasing me for who knows how long. A cry of fear escaped my lips as my foot slipped on the wet pavement, causing me to trip forward and skid across the street where I stopped in a large puddle of dirty water.
I scrambled to my feet but was too slow. The creature pounced on me and sank its sharp teeth into my shoulder, a blood curdling scream escaping my throat when I felt the unbearable pain and saw the thick, dark blood. The creature tore at my flesh with its teeth while I tried to get it off me, blood starting to bubble in my mouth and my eyes growing fuzzier and dimmer.
A flash of golden light exploded behind the creature on top of me and it momentarily stopped its attack and looked back, a whimper escaping its blood coated lips before the creature bolted off and disappeared behind a street corner.
I lay in the puddle of bloody street water, afraid to move my broken body. Quick footsteps slapped against the pavement as someone ran towards me, a soft golden glow coming from where their face was. I trembled in fear as they skidded to a stop beside me and reached for my damaged body. I let out a short scream when their hand grazed over my torn flesh, my tears mixing with the blood dripping from my lips.
"Doll . . ."
I sucked in a small breath as I turned my head to lock gazes with a familiar skeleton. Confusion flashed across my pained expression as I stared at him.
Why the hell was he here?
"G . . . ?" I gurgled, choking on my own blood. He reached for my arm, but before he could touch me, my eyes flashed and a strong jolt caused me to wake up.
My eyes shot open and stared into space for a few seconds before I realized I was crying. Why was I crying? I've never cried from a nightmare before. Especially one with my fear of dogs in it.
I momentarily relaxed my grip on the thing I was holding on to before reaching up to brush my hot tears away with my other hand. Scenes from the nightmare raced through my mind, causing me to let out a shuddery breath before turning around to mash my face into the air mattress. The smell of cigarette smoke and vanilla suddenly filled my nose, and I coughed to try and get the strong scent out before sitting up and looking down.
G was fast asleep below me, the faux fur on his hood soaked with my tears. What? I looked to my right to see the perfectly clean air mattress that I hadn't mashed my face in.
Oh.
Okay.
I looked down at my hand that was currently clenched into a death grip around G's arm, my knuckles white and aching when I slowly relaxed my grip. It didn't seem to bother him, which confused me even though I knew he technically didn't have nerves.
But he could sure get on my nerves.
I chuckled at myself before rolling over until I fell off the air mattress and onto the floor, the cold wood pricking my clammy skin. I stood up and stumbled over to the door while yanking off my jacket and throwing it somewhere on the floor, twisting the doorknob before staggering into the living room and onto the old couch.
I lay on the couch for about five minutes before I heard another door behind me open and footsteps following the noise. "Y/N?" Lavender's soft voice whispered uncertainly, her footsteps leading over to my exhausted body before I felt the couch sink next to me. "Hm?" was all I said in reply, my eyes closed. "What are you doing in here? I mean, I thought you were still asleep." I lifted my head and looked at her. "What time is it?" She looked surprised by the question but looked over at a microwave before telling me that it was almost one in the afternoon.
"Do you have a shower?" I asked, sitting up and glancing out the large window where I could see a few houses with lights on inside. "Yeah, want me to wash your clothes too?" I nodded and gave her a grateful look. "Thank you." She smiled and stood up, pointing to a door that must've been the bathroom. "No problem. Just put your clothes in the hamper and I'll have 'em back to you when you're finished."
I nodded and walked over to the bathroom, opening the door and instantly spotting the huge shower with one of those rainmaker faucets on the ceiling.
Hell yeah.
I closed the door behind me and stripped down before stuffing all my clothes into a large black hamper. I turned on the shower and pulled the curtain to cover me up, standing under the warm water for a few seconds before starting to untangle my hair and wash myself.
Half an hour later, I turned off the shower and grabbed a clean towel, wrapping it around my body before stepping out of the shower and seeing my clothes folded up on top of the toilet seat. I quickly dried myself off and wrapped my hair in a towel before putting my now clean clothes on and starting to work on my wet hair.
I rubbed the towel in my hair a few times before putting the towel in the hamper and starting to finger comb my hair. Because I'm lazy, I just decided to let it air dry so that I wouldn't have to deal with aching arms for holding a hair dryer for ten minutes. Yeah, I don't care about my appearance that much. I walked out of the bathroom and saw Lavender sitting on the couch with three cups of coffee sitting on a coffee table while she tried to fix Sammy's tangled hair.
"I swear, your hair is bound determined to make me frustrated," Lavender snarled while combing out several tangles. I let out a snicker and sat down on the couch next to Sammy who looked ready to hit his sister. "Did you get a good nights sleep?" Lavender asked, somewhat taming Sammy's hair. I shrugged. "More or less."
Lavender reached over and handed me a coffee cup before standing up and rushing into her room. I had only taken one sip of the hot drink before Lavender walked back out holding a black jacket. "I found your other jacket on the floor in the bedroom and wasn't able to clean it because of all the stains, so I had Tyler make you a new one," she explained, handing me the new jacket.
I slipped on the warm jacket and noticed that the sleeves were especially long, just how I liked it. The thick material was loose against my skin but hugged my chest when I zipped up the jacket. The bottom of the jacket ended right above the bottom of my ribcage, kinda like G's. The collar was so high that it brushed the bottom of my ears and covered my neck completely, making me look kinda like a ninja when I pulled it all the way up.
I left the jacket unzipped and gave Lavender a surprised look. "Tyler was able to make this in half an hour?" Lavender chuckled and nodded. "He's amazing with a needle and thread, even though he looks like he belongs in a blacksmith." I let out a chuckle along with her and took another sip of my coffee, feeling happy with my hot drink and new jacket.
G sleepily walked out of the bedroom and ran a hand down his face before spotting the coffee cups sitting on the table. Lavender snickered as she handed him one which he quickly took before plopping down on the couch next to Sammy who grinned at him. Lavender picked up the remaining coffee cup and quickly downed it before standing up and walking over to the door.
"I figured you guys would be leaving today so I went ahead and packed you both some things over there." She pointed to a spot behind the couch where my bag sat looking full of various things Lavender had packed. "If it's not too much of a trouble, when you're ready to leave, can you come by the training room with Sammy and drop him off real quick? We also wanna say goodbye and give you some of the maps that we think will be helpful." G and I both nodded before waving goodbye when Lavender left.
While Sammy crawled onto G's lap to play with the loose suspenders on his jeans, I picked up my bag and opened it up to see several things that would be useful for the journey we still had before us. I took out everything inside and set it all on the coffee table, staring happily at everything while wishing I could hug Lavender to death for being so helpful.
She had given us a large red blanket, a container full of Add-Water food, a large bottle of rubbing alcohol, a pair of socks, flint, and a fully loaded handgun with extra bullets. Add all that to the stainless steel water bottle, purification tablets, bottle of water, box of matches, the roll of thick bandages, the eight leaf-wrapped chunks of meat we still had left, the sad excuse of money I had, and the silver pocket-watch I had stolen, I had everything I needed to spend a good month out in the harshest climates out there. She had even thrown out the rotted apples that I never ate.
"Well, you wanna go ahead and head out?" I asked G, stuffing everything back in my large bag. He nodded and scooped up Sammy who let out a sequel of delight as he was propped up on G's shoulders. I giggled and opened the door with G following me, our quiet footsteps padding over to the unoccupied elevator.
The three of us stood in the elevator while it took us to the training room, giving me enough time to think about my nightmare.
Why had G been in it? That's never happened before. And when I had woken up, I had been clinging onto him as if my life depended on it. Could that be it? Could G really be able to stop my nightmares?
I snorted.
Yeah right, I've never heard of something like that happening. And that doesn't even sound logical. I mean, having someone stop your nightmares just by holding onto them? Sorry, but that doesn't sound convincing at all. I've also been traveling with him for the past week or so. Of course he would end up in my dreams or nightmares at some point. Everyone does.
The elevator doors let out a cheerful ding before they opened up to reveal the training room where Tyler and Katherine were talking by the dumbbells while Lavender and Conner sorted different maps and blueprints of the Monster Capital on the floor. Lavender looked up and smiled when she saw us before waving us over to look at all the maps and blueprints. G set Sammy down before Katherine and Tyler walked over to join everyone, joining the circle we had made on the floor around the maps and blueprints.
"Okay, me 'n Lavender were thinking that these two might be the most helpful," Conner explained, pointing to a blueprint of the entire Monster Capital city and a small map showing the best possible routes to get there. I picked up the blueprint and scanned over the diagram, seeing how the blueprint recorded every single detail of the place. I nodded and looked over G's shoulder to see the map that he was scanning. "These'll work perfectly," I said, rolling up the blueprint and stuffing it in my bag before doing the same to the map that G handed me.
Conner smiled and stood up, everyone starting to do the same around him. "Great, guess this means you'll be on your way now." Katherine gave me a sad smile before leaning over and giving me a hug, Conner soon joining her while I hugged them both back. "It's so cruel that you have to leave just when we find out you're still alive," Katherine said sadly, pulling away from the hug. I let out a small laugh and nodded sullenly. "I'll see you both again after all this is fixed, I'll make sure of it." Conner playfully punched my arm and gave me a lopsided grin. "You better, or I'll make a car that'll take me to anyone in the world and hunt you down." I looked over at Katherine. "He can do that?" She laughed and nodded.
I remembered something and looked over at Tyler. "Thanks for making me this jacket, I owe you." Tyler smiled and waved off the compliment, pretending that it was nothing. "Eh, it was an easy jacket to make. Hope it helps when you're both out there. It's supposed to start getting colder." I pulled the collar higher around my neck. "We'll be fine."
I looked back over at Lavender and saw her twisting a black ring on her middle finger. I reached over and hugged her, smiling when she hugged me back. "Thanks for everything," I said, pulling away from the hug. She smiled and watched as Sammy gave G's leg a hug.
"No problem. Also, the Persistence is always here for you both. Give us a call and we'll be there." I raised an eyebrow. "How?" She pointed to a charm that I hadn't noticed attacked to my bag that looked like a silver ball with a small sunken button on the bottom. "Hold that button for five seconds and it'll send us the exact coordinates of where you're at and also give us a distress signal. Conner made it."
I looked over at Conner who was beaming proudly at his gadget. I let out a chuckle and pulled the straps on my bag a bit tighter. "Thanks, hopefully I won't have to use it." I scanned everyone's faces for the last time before waving with a sad smile. Who knew goodbyes were so hard? Everyone said their final goodbyes before G and I finally stepped into the elevator and let the doors close.
We both stood in silence before G opened his mouth to speak. "Was Tyler trying to make us twins or . . . ?" I let out a laugh and shook my head. "I dunno what he was trying to do, but I'm not complaining. This jacket is awesome." G let a small laugh and stuffed his hands into his jean pockets, the familiar cheery ding going off as the elevator doors opened.
+ + +
Y/N and G had a bit of snuggle time earlier huehuehuehue ((dangit stop being weird Author-Chan))
Cliché Bonus Scene:
Y/N: *singing in the shower*
G: *opens the door* knock knock—
Y/N: *throws the shower at him*