I'm so scared for finals,,, help
this turned out longer than I expected it to, enjoy^^
As your eyes ran over the slip of paper again and again, you couldn't process whose name you pulled from the bowl. Only your favorite survivor of the whole manor. Naib was harsh at times, but never to you. It seemed like only you knew all of his true sides, and you loved them. What were you going to do for him? You wanted to make him feel as special as he made you feel, so you had to think of something he would love. Though before you did anything for anyone, you should probably apologize to the others for your slightly irrational behavior. Sighing, you gathered up your courage and whatever part of you was not tired and marched downstairs to join the conversation again. The moment you went back downstairs, half the people that were in there before were gone. You could tell that everyone was still walking on eggshells around you, and you were sick of it. You took note of the groups that were unintentionally made scattered around the room. Near the kitchen entry-way, Emily, Emma, and Naib were discussing something you couldn't make out. You decided they would be the best people to hang out with; they would tell you the truth. Sneaking behind your crush, you put a finger to your lips to silently ask that Emma and Emily wouldn't reveal your intentions. Before Naib had a chance to check who was behind him, in one swift motion, you placed your hands on his shoulders, lifted yourself to his ear, and whispered.
"Whatcha guys talking about?"
He jumped, rewarding you with a quiet yelp as he turned to face you when he calmed down from your scare. You, Emma, and Emily shared a short laugh as Naib glared at you. Successfully, you broke the tension filling the room as you picked back up the conversation shared by the three before you arrived. Naib rested his arm around your shoulders, pulling you towards him minimally.
"So, (y/n), what do you want for Christmas?" Of course you could count on Emma to ask a semi-childish question. You smiled, pondering the question for a moment, unconsciously wrapping your arm around the waist of the man pulling you toward him.
"I don't know," you said as the others sighed, "what about you guys?" Emma started mentioning her need of new gloves for her gardening, or some pretty jewelry, while Emily answered the same as you. You looked to Naib for his answer, but he stayed silent, thinking. As he answered, listing a few things he liked, he closed the distance between you, causing you to lose your balance and lean on him, instinctively placing your hand on his chest to balance yourself. As you straightened yourself, you realized what you would do for him. As you made your plan, you didn't notice him looking at you and the other two looking at both of you. A light blush that neither of you noticed covered both of your cheeks. Most everyone in the manor was affectionate with you, you don't know why you were getting so worked up about his touch. Well, you did, but you weren't about to admit it to anyone. You shook the blush off your face, calming down from your sudden close contact with Naib and asked another question.
"Emily, when are we giving out our gifts?" You barely edged away from Naib when you realized he wasn't going to put his arm around you again. She glanced between the two of you, now a few inches apart and sighed, then answered.
"There isn't a specific time, but sometime in a week or so I'll give an announcement that you're allowed to exchange gifts." As you formulated your plan for your gift, your eyes found the clock. It was late, and everyone looked tired. Your long, late afternoon nap kept you from wanting to sleep, but the others seemed like they were ready to go to bed. You pointed out this fact and ushered everyone to bed, using the time where no one would see you to make something that would make Naib happy. After ensuring everyone went up to bed, you began to work. As quietly as you could, you began to mix ingredients together to create an aesthetically pleasing as well as tasty array of treats you knew Naib loved. You assembled a pretty little box full of cookies, macarons, and even little chocolates filled with crémé. By the time you finished, the sun had begun to rise. There was no time for you to sleep as the early risers were to be waking up soon. After cleaning up your mess, you snuck the box to your room, tying a thin pink ribbon around it and making a bow. As soon as you placed the box in a safe spot in your closet, a knock sounded from outside your door. You opened the door to find Naib checking up on you. You thought he would sleep in later, but here he was bright and early making sure you were alright. He asked you to sit on the bed and show him your arm and bruised leg. As you held out your arm, you both noticed a white powder near the stitching. His lips pressed into a thin line, eyes narrowing as he gave you a questioning, semi-disapproving look. You tried to wipe the flour off of your arm, but his grip rendered you unable to move it. You were forced to explain to him why you had flour on your arm.
"I," you tried to think of a lie that could shake his disappointed gaze, but your hesitation gave you away. You released a breath and continued, shrinking under his glare. "I couldn't sleep, so I decided to bake." As you explained, he loosened his grip and cleaned your wounded arm for you. You closed your eyes and leaned into his touch as much as you could with him being far from you. He shook his head with a smile and an exhale through his nose.
"You can't get out of this by acting cute." You weren't trying to be cute? What was he talking about? You still shrunk back from the straightforward nature of his words. Knowing he was disappointed in you wasn't the best feeling, but underneath his words was a playful tone releasing the tension wound up in your heart. Did Naib know how much he affected you? Sometimes you think he knows about your crush on him because of his touches and teases, but you knew that was a stretch. He noticed you losing yourself in your thoughts, bringing you back with a light touch to your cheek. Unconsciously, you let your head fall into his hand as his thumb brushed against your cheek. You lived for the moments he was quietly affectionate with you, even if you knew he didn't give his love in the way that you took it. He held your face up, forcing you to look at him in the eyes.
"I know Emily told you to rest, but," He looked away, almost regretting saying anything as your eyes brightened. "Want to play a match with me?" Excitement got the better of you as you bounced up and down on your bed, taking Naib in a hug and profusely thanking him. You were going to be bored out of your mind if you weren't allowed to play any matches. He looked away with a pink face from your embrace and cleared his throat, patting your head and dismissing your praises. Together, the two of you snuck out of your room to get something to eat before your secret match. It seemed as he had planned this out for you before; Eli and Aesop were already waiting in the match room as well as an unknown hunter. You thanked Naib again as the two of you sat down and began your match.
You found yourself right next to the cipher in the graveyard of the Eversleeping Town. As Brooke Rose circled you a few times you shouted your cipher progress that had just reached 5 percent. You heard panting from the entrance. An already sweating Naib came bounding towards you, resting himself on your barely shaking cipher.
"Found ya!" He breathed, taking deep inhales to cool down.
"Did you run across the map instead of decoding just to be with me?" You questioned, shaking your head in fond exasperation. He responded with a smile, continuing to decode with you. When you finished the cipher, the screech of a certain owl sounded across the map. Briefly, Aesop's status was surrounded by a green circle, then it was gone. Together, you and Naib headed to another cipher. You figured Aesop and Eli were containing the hunter together, as every time Aesop would've been hit, Brooke Rose came swooping in, and the only ciphers being popped were the ones that you and Naib worked on. Two ciphers were down, and no one had been hit yet. As you trekked to the next cipher, a shout rang from meters away.
"The hunter has changed target, beware!" Eli's clear voice informed as you decided what to do. Naib placed a stable hand on your shoulder, giving you his wide, comforting smile.
"Find a cipher, I'll kite." He says with confidence, as if the hunter isn't going to ignore him to look for you. Diligently, you settled yourself in a back corner of the map and decoded away, conscientious of any noise, no matter how slight. The hunter must've been off their game today, whoever it was, for they hadn't managed to land a hit on anyone besides the few times Brooke Rose protected Aesop. You finished the cipher with ease, running to the exit gate to open it when the others finished the last cipher. You had no reason to worry, but you wanted Naib with you. You knew he probably wouldn't get hurt, but the nagging voice in your head that remembers your injury kept bugging you, telling you that he was out there alone. He told you to stay safe, but you wanted to ensure his safety as well. You were marginally calmed by the far off voice of Naib, telling his teammates to focus on decoding, you guess to make sure they would pop the cipher instead of waiting to prime it. You didn't have to wait long for the cipher to pop, immediately starting the exit gate opening process while notifying your teammates of where you were. Half-way through opening the gate, Naib runs up behind you, angry, detention-ridden hunter not too far behind. Without warning, the hunter tries to get a hit on you. You were prepared for this possibility, and you blocked the oncoming attack with a pallet, Naib shortly taking over the decoding. Before you even touched the other pallet, he opened the gate, ushering you through it.
"You're ok, right?" He ensures, stopping you and inspecting anywhere on you that could've possibly gotten injured, taking extra time and care tracing the area around your stitched arm with his soft fingertips. You shudder with the light, almost ticklish touch and swat him away playfully. He puts his hand to his chest, gasping in mock offense that you would even think to push him away when he is trying to care for you. Because of Naib's indignation, he coddled you further, purposely getting in your space and being overly touchy with you, purely out of irony. You barked in laughter, the harder you tried to push him off of you, the further he would take his mischievous antics. All the way back to the manor, the two of you played around, sharing an extended moment of pure joy, something that no one could take away from the two of you. Even when you arrived back to the manor face-to-face with a disappointed Emily. You were dragged away to the infirmary for a check up, her scolding you for going against her instructions. You had to be the one to explain to her that you did not sleep last night, causing her to increasingly harp on you as she gave you a check up, taking note of your quick healing. The massive bruise on your calf was almost gone, only a light purple splotch in its wake, your black eye was gone, and your arm- well, your arm still looked pretty bad, but she was satisfied with how much better you looked and sent you on your way. Her bringing up your lack of sleep the previous night made you tired. Though you promised yourself you wouldn't mess up your sleep schedule any more, you took back your words to take a nap.
Three hours after you laid yourself down, you woke from a dreamless sleep. There was no significance in your nap, though it did help you perk up slightly. You glanced at your clock, silently congratulating yourself for waking up at the perfect time. The other survivors would have just finished lunch, meaning you could easily slip in the kitchen and grab something to eat without anyone noticing, then busy yourself in other ways as if you had been there the whole time. You didn't get very far in your plan when you hadn't even rolled out of bed and your door opened. As you debated whether or not to reveal that you were awake to see who was in your room, the figure came closer. Without moving or opening your eyes, you waited for the person to do what they came to do and leave. That was, until you realized it was Naib. You heard a soft clunk on the table beside you, you imagined it was him bringing your lunch that you had barely missed. You waited for his next action, hoping he would do more than bring you lunch and leave. He was still for a moment, pondering if he should wake you up, but decided against it. Instead, he placed a chaste kiss to your temple and left. Heat rose to your face as you realized what he did and what that meant for you. You didn't want to jump to conclusions, but in all of his friendly affection towards you, not once did he bring his lips anywhere near you. That was something he reserved for someone he loved, you. You were about to chase after him until your eyes caught a note sticking out from underneath the plate he brought you. In his simple handwriting, he told you to meet him in a section of the garden later in the evening, as he had a few matches to participate in. He mentioned the fact that he wanted to meet you slightly after dinner, but he didn't want you to eat anything? That was weird, but you were happy. You decided to take the opportunity to give him the box of fresh sweets you made for him, so that they would still be fresh when he ate them. Excitedly, you waited for the evening to arrive, busying yourself with anything that someone would let you do. The sun slowly fell behind the horizon as you distracted yourself long enough for it to be time for you to meet Naib. You helped with dinner, serving everyone but yourself, and Naib, at his wishes, and after everyone parted ways, you finally got to see what he prepared for you. With your small, nicely decorated container of sweets, you headed to the section of the garden he directed you to. Waiting for you was a table filled with food and two chairs set up, candles lighting up the surrounding area with petals of roses lining the ground. Naib was waiting for you, leading you to your chair like a gentleman.
"I couldn't wait. After yesterday and today, it occured to me how much you truly mean to me. I wanted to wait to give this to you when Emily said it was time, but I'm a little too impatient for that." He chuckled nervously and produced a tiny box wrapped in simple navy blue wrapping paper. You realized what this meant and let out a tiny laugh.
"You mean, you were my secret santa, too?" He thought that your bright smile that followed your sentence was the prettiest thing ever as you handed him your own, bigger box that held his multitude of different kinds of homemade sweets. At the same time, you unwrapped your respective gifts. How did he get this? When you opened the box, a silver shine took you by surprise. Inside was a simple yet beautiful ring that perfectly fit your finger. He set all of this up for you and gifted you almost the prettiest thing you had ever gotten. The only thing you had been given that was prettier than the ring was him. You couldn't help the pin-prick tears that formed in the corner of your eyes as you gave him the tightest hug you had ever given. He hugged you back with no hesitation.
"Naib, I love you." You admitted, choosing to keep him in your embrace so he couldn't see the lovestruck look taking over your features. Instead, he pulled you off, taking your face in his hands and closing the distance between you.
"I love you too, (y/n)." Together, the two of you sat back down and ate, sharing touches, thoughts, and food. Each of you thanked the other for the thoughtful gifts, though you felt like yours shadowed in comparison to everything he did for you. When the meal was finished, he walked you back to your room, praising you on how good your chocolates tasted. You didn't want him to leave as you arrived at your room, but all good things must come to an end. As you parted and said good night to each other, he gave you another kiss, and you thanked him again for everything he did for you. You went to bed feeling better than you ever had, and so did he. The only thing running through your head as you fell asleep was how much affection you were going to bombard him with in the morning.
A/N: so, I feel like I didn't explain my thoughts very well in the last chapter,,, I didn't want to over-explain, but I want to clarify something I guess. Each chapter in the "secret Santa" series is going to start where the first (as in the "various x reader" ) chapter left off, but each one with a different character (the characters are listed in the first chapter). The stories will end up being very different from the rest, but the main theme is still the same secret Santa game.
(now I feel like I over-explained haha,,,)
Why is everything I write with Naib so sickeningly sweet? Is this a problem?
(It is kinda late, so I did a worse job editing this than normal. Someday I'm gonna go back to every chapter and overhaul edit them, but that's for another day (: )