Chapter Text
Fire crackled at the fireplace as she laid beside Zayne, an arm wrapped around her to keep her hugged close to him as he slumbered. She however, was wide awake, her eyes tracing over his closed eyes and down his body. Zayne’s skin was painted with blotches of bruises around his neck, and tiny scratch marks that caused some heat to flush to her cheeks as she knew she put those there.
He wakes up too, smiling a little at her as he brushes a strand of hair back behind her ear before leaning forward to rest his forehead against hers.
“You should be asleep, you got another hour before you’ll have had a good eight hours of sleep” Zayne murmurs, causing her to raise an eyebrow.
“How do you know?”
“I’m a light sleeper, and I’ve been asleep the whole time. I would've woken up if you woke up. I have it written down, do you wanna know when you feel asleep—“ She cuts him off as he starts to prattle by pushing him and giggling which causes him to softly chuckle.
Zayne keeps a tight hold on her which she nuzzles back against him, shutting her eyes and relishing in his warmth as he drags a hand through her hair. Before he leans down to gently press his lips against her head.
It was perfect, she believed, this level of domestication that she had with someone causing her heart to feel like it was twirling in excitement.
It wasn't as difficult to wake up some mornings with him by her side. More-so it was something she looked forward too. Zayne became a figure in her life that remained prominently and she leaned on for more then just physical pleasures. Having someone from her childhood by her side was good since what happened to Josephine and Caleb. She knew it too, that Zayne knew she needed company the most out of anything. Despite not seeing them frequently, losing her family was a massive issue for her mental health and as her physician he seemed to make it his duty to care for her.
Which she loved him for, and he loved her for being her.
"I can make you breakfast, I'm afraid of what concoction you'll try and make in my kitchen" Zayne says as he gets up off the bed and re-clothes himself by putting on a shirt to cover his torso. Turning around as she sat up in the bed, the sheets pooling around her lap and his eyes lingered on how her tank top strap fell off her shoulder. But it went back to her eyes and he gently smiled, before moving over to look at himself in the mirror. His hand reaches up to pull the collar of his shirt to the side to expose the blotches that painted his skin. "I'll need to cover these, apologies, I don't want the child patients to think I was attacked. No matter how right they are, as you did pretty much attack me last night" He teases before fixing his shirt.
This causes her to smile a little wider with a warm flush decorating her cheeks and she leans back against the sheets dramatically and shift around. As her leg peaks out between the sheets Zayne uses his evol to poke her bare thigh with a cold finger which causes her to yelp in surprise and sit up again as he waves off a hand and leaves his bedroom. Still disgruntled but now motivated to finally get up she gets up off the bed and grabs one of her dress shirts and just slips it on unbuttoned as she did have that tank top on with comfortable panties to pair.
Walking out of his bedroom she maneuvers the halls before she finally sees him again chopping up vegetables. Green onions, she believes, as he added them to an egg mix. He had a recipe page displayed up in front of him that he tapped on the hologram to shift through it as he completed steps. It seemed to be something new he was trying then, which she was interested about but she did have one gripe.
"I don’t like eggs" She mutters, causing him to turn and raise an eyebrow at her.
"It's not for you" At Zayne's response she looks at him a little bewildered, and he keeps that same confident expression which causes her to just nod a little and him to finally crack another small smile. "One of the patients wanted a frittata, so I'm making one for him. He's one of the seniors at the hospital so I figured I'd give him a taste he wanted"
She just nods a little again and sits at his kitchen island counter, just watching him cook with a focused expression. She would cook for herself, but knew him well enough that it was his space and if he asked for her to not intrude she would do so no matter how much she wanted to show off to him. "What's for us then?" She asks Zayne.
"I have pancake batter" He responds, and her eyes widen a little.
"I can help cook that, you can focus on the frittata" She stands up, moving to the same side as him and scans the counter top before looking at him, which he motions with his head towards the fridge. Seems like he wouldn't protest against the help, which she takes that as a win as she opens up the fridge and pulls out a bowl of batter and uses another hand to grab a thing of strawberries. She shuts the fridge with her foot near the bottom as she didn't have the hands and sets it down on the kitchen island near his things. Zayne looks over at what she got out and nods a little.
"There's whipped cream and chocolate sauce in the fridge too"
"My lovely doctor that restricts my nutrition intake but folds at sweets" She coos, nudging his hip with her own before grabbing a pan and starting up the pancakes.
And together they cook, silently, until Zayne softly hums under his breath and that accompanies their process of cooking. Working over each other, reaching an arm into one person's space one moment then handing an item of request another moment. After she finishes making four or so pancakes Zayne shows off his frittata to her which she gives him a thumbs up before looking at it closer with a slightly longing expression. She’s never had one before, and it did look good.
"I think we can split it cause he's an older guy and this is a little big, it’ll also off balance the sweets of the pancakes for us” Zayne says, relenting a little to her.
So he cuts it in half and then cuts that in half and sets it on two separate plates for them while she stacks the two pancakes up and drizzles chocolate sauce on them and puts some whipped cream from his spray can in the center of it and puts her cut strawberries around it.
It looked delicious, and she knew that it was gonna be a good morning with her and Zayne with the company of the food.
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There was a mission she had to attend to so she had to leave Zayne’s an hour after breakfast. Though she knew as a doctor he would also not have this weekend completely free, so she knew likely he would’ve left anyways. Her having to go first saved him from her endless protests and complaining she would’ve done.
Walking by herself however was something she found herself doing later in the day, her hunter uniform hugging her form as she smiled back at the few kids that smiled at her. Stretching her arms up, she twists her body side to side before letting her arms down as soon as they tingle a little too much. Her eyes trace over her surroundings, then glance at her watch, then glance back at the surroundings. It was practice to her, normally what she had to do as a responsible hunter as her watch could go off at anything and she had to be aware. Even if she had given up her time earlier in the day to her duty, there had been a frequency of anomalies so every hunter was always on duty nowadays.
The smell of salt water hit her senses and her gaze moved to the ocean alongside the pier. There were strong gusts of wind that day and despite being a little ways away the scent of the ocean accompanied her. But her attention is distracted from her as she gets a text on her phone by Linkon City Hall. Reading over it, she grimaces.
[Dear Miss,
We regret to inform you that, per the verification process conducted by Linkon City Government, Josephine and Caleb have been officially recorded as deceased due to an accident. We kindly request you bring your valid identification to Linkon City Hall to complete the necessary record adjustments and collect the death certificates. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Linkon City Hall]
Pursing her lips at that message she decides to just haphazardly shove her phone back into her pocket. She could probably get someone to come with her and do that, she knew mentally she couldn’t do it alone. Probably Zayne, as he knew both Caleb and her grandmother. And she could do probably better with being able to lean on him. There was much and more she had used Zayne for recently yet she he never seemed to mind and when he was free admitted to wanting to help her, so she guessed she’d use that. They were a couple, which was an odd thing to consider that he wanted to aid her cause he loved her like that. She had never had a boyfriend that she trusted like him, which caused this awkwardness.
But her eyes glimpse across the street as she looks up at a man who stared back at her with the gaze she grew up with.
“Caleb?” She mouthed as she made eye contact with the figure, but he disappeared into the crowded street of the pier. Her heart had already felt heavy after reading the message from City Hall, a lingering ache that settled under her ribs. But now, as she caught a glimpse of that familiar face, it was as though her chest tightened in a vice. The ache sharpened, her breaths growing shallow as she tried to shake off the mounting tension.
Weaving her way through the crowd of the pier, as it was a weekend and there were a lot of people, she followed that mop of brown hair as her heart seemingly rattled in her chest it was beating so quickly. She needed to see him again, she made eye contact with that shade and a flame of desperation lit in her. Each step became harder than the last, her legs sluggish, her breath shallow. Her chest throbbed, each beat of her heart erratic and forceful, as though it might burst from her ribcage. The world spun around her, the crowded pier blurring into a haze of sound and motion.
It reminded her of that eye that taunted her vision regularly— it had to not have been real as Caleb exploded in that house with their grandma. Caleb wasn’t alive.
The explosion happened.
Caleb was dead.
Caleb was dead.
She knew her heart issues were running completely right now, and Zayne could probably put her on bed rest after finding out about this. Eyes were on her, her struggle was evident to those around her and she felt a hand even on her shoulder that she shrugged off. She needed to get to the ghost— the shade— the man that looked like the boy she spent years of her life with that months ago was supposed to have died in that hellfire the house became.
She tried to call out, but her voice caught in her throat, replaced by shallow gasps. Her knees buckled as her vision blurred, black spots swimming in her peripheral view. She fought to stay upright, her trembling hands gripping and her pants as she tried to take stabilizing breaths, but the weight of her own body betrayed her. That beacon of brown hair disappeared as others crowded her and her world went dark.