Work Text:
My girl
MY girl
The words keep replaying on Christine’s head over and over and over again like a broken record. It didn’t matter how hard she tried to focus on her work or in her breathing, she just couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Did he… did he meant anything by that?
A loud thumping sound made her snap back to reality, she slowly turned her head backwards to see one of her coworkers whose name she didn’t remembered whacking their head against their desk.
She winced and cringed at the scenery, it looked painful in more ways than one… well, she wasn’t going to judge the poor guy, this job can get pretty stressful after all, and not everybody has a good coping mechanism to deal with anxiety.
She looked back to her computer and gazed at the excel sheet in front of her, she started to type on the stupidly small keyboard trying to fix a broken formula to calculate the percentage o-
My gir-
She got up quickly and fast walked towards the rest room, maybe a cup of coffee would manage to stop her mind from thinking about her and Felix’s… Relationship? Friendship? Situationship?
Before she knew it she was already standing in front of the coffee maker, watching the small brown liquid slowly pour into the white porcelain that formed the donut shaped cup.
“Did Caine altered your ability to pick context clues before you managed to escape the circus or something?”
Christine stopped all her functions at the mentions of those words. She didn’t think, breath or even allowed her hearth to beat. It had taken her years to stop herself from jumping every time someone talked about circuses, adventures or that one biblical character. The memories of how she reacted when her non-circus friends surprised her with a trip to a VR place for her birthday still kept her awake at night.
All of that progress was done moot in this moment, by whoever was the owner of those words. Ignoring the ringing on her ears and the heavy weight that was starting to accumulate on her chest, she moved her head to look at who was talking to her.
It was the coworker from before, he was leaning against the closed door, effectively cutting off the only exit of the rest room (unless you counted the window, which she didn’t). Blonde hair (natural blonde, not like Felix’s), green eyes and 3-day beard. All of that on a rather average build for a Caucasian man of his age.
“e-excu-“
“You are excused” he took a sip of his own cup “I asked if Caine altered your ability to pick context clues before you managed to escape the circus”
God, she didn’t misheard him, he KNEW.
B-but ho-
“I can read minds” he took another sip, giving her time to process what he had just said
No, it couldn’t be, that’s no-
“right, because being trone’d out of existence and trapped in the coping mechanism of a clanker is sooooo much probable and realistic and believable than a guy who can read minds”
…b-
“Banana, is always a fucking banana! There are other fruits out there, you know!”
Aw shit, aw crap fuck fuck fuck FUCK. She couldn’t stop her mind from spiraling uncontrollably, the knowledge that all of her secrets were laid out barren for this stranger, the similarity of how caine had intruded upon their souls back in the circus, the futile attempt at trying to stop thinking and the inevitable failure afterwards, it all made her feel-
Fine.
It made her feel fine, like finding out you passed an exam by the bare minium. Not great not terrible ju-
No, that wasn’t right. She looked from the floor back at the stranger with a frown.
“I can also do that, pretty useful to deal with panic attacks and such” he took another sip of his coffee or tea or whatever stupid beverage he w- “its jasmine tea ac-”
“stop doing that!” go fuck yourself you stupid bitch ass mother-
“I can’t, this shit is on 24/7 whether I like it or not, and spoilers, I DON’T like it” he took another sip of his jasmine tea, more aggressively this time
Oh… oh, well that… that sucked actually, big time.
“yeah but you kinda ge- ok I get it! Ill focus on reading someone elses mind so you can think in private! stop imagining what it would feel like to punch me in the face!”
He looked upwards, as if he could see through the walls. She imagined how he would look like if a giant hippopotamus fell on top of him and when his reaction didn’t change, she assumed that he was probably outside of her mind.
“so, what do yo-?”
“You are overthinking your relationship with Felix”
“how did you-!? Don’t shove your nose into my private life!” she blushed, she blushed HARD, she knew very well that her thoughts about what she wanted Felix to do to her should NEVER be known by anyone but her and maybe captain (he couldn’t understand her so it was fine).
“what part of “I don’t control this don’t you get”? you think I willingly choose to listen about how you want to dislocate your jaw like a boa so you can fit more of his butt in your mouth?!”
“…wait, is that why you are bringing this up? Is it bothering you?” also thanks for letting me finish talking this time
“Bothering me? I mean, yeah, that’s ONE way to put it, kinda like saying “ouchie” after being shot… also you are welcome” he took another sip of his- god, how much fucking liquid did that stupid cup hold?
“I can also create pocked dimensions inside cups” she knew he was talking crap “yeah that’s bull, I made it up”
“Well, I’m sorry that you were born, or created, this way but what do you want me to do? I can’t take away your power” I mean, she assumed she couldn’t do it, not like she had any knowledge about any of this
“well, no, but you COULD talk to Felix. Hopefully that should stop the overthinking… hopefully” he walked right next to her and poured himself some coffee
“…b-but what if-“ he did the movement of putting a hand on her shoulder but stopped a few centimeters away, like he wanted to send a message while respecting her adversity to being touched.
“girl, if that guy had a coin for everytime he thinks about you he would only have one, because since the moment he meet you, you have never leave his mind” damn, that was so smooth she could feel her face heat a up a bit
“are you sur- oh right… what does he think thou?”
“he thinks that you two are already a couple, boyfriend and girlfriend, partners, allat” he drank the entire cup in one single sitting and then poured himself some more “as hilarious as it would be to just wait and see what would happen if you referred to him as a roommate, I think I’m going to be a good Samaritan and save you the trouble”
Well, that… that was such a relief, at least it SHOULD had been such a relief but… she felt the same. The anxiety that he would leave her, the words he said during the gun adventure, the fear that she would push him away.
It didn’t left her.
“that’s because you KNOW it, but you don’t FEEL it. It’s like with how big the planet is, you KNOW its huge but you don’t Feel it, you don’t comprehend it. You can’t really understand it by just reading it from a page or hearing it from somebody, it takes more than that” he swirled the content of the cup, eyes transfixed on the dark fluid that fueled them “that’s why you should talk to him”
…yeah, she should talk to him, actually, she was going to talk to him, not because she gave a crap about the sanity of her coworker
“hey!”
But because she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, and that couldn’t happen if she never did something about the feeling that plagued her mind every time she desired him.
She took a step towards the door before stopping in her tracks. She was so focused on her and Felix that she forgot about the reason why she had reached this resolution.
She turned towards… crap, she forgot to-
“the name is Ming Daniel reader” he did a small bow with his head
“…your name… is MINg D. READER” was this like the cup dimension thing?
“yeah, I know I know. Not sure if it was fate or a coincidence or what have you. Also yeah sure, sorry about that”
“Ok Ming, I have a few questions”
“of course” he sighted deeply before looking at her “I acquired this power when I was 8, no I’m not a mutant or an alien, never was involved with radiation or the government, I can read minds and calm people and I can also kill all living beings with a nervous system in a radius of 1 kilometer”
“oh my god”
“don’t worry, I’m not going to do it” yeah, like that was going to help her sleep at night “I don’t know how this works, I can just… known what everybody thinks when they are around me, the more they think about it the “louder” it sounds”
“hence why you came to me?” well, she WAS thinking very hard about Felix that’s true.
“precisely” he leaned against the counter, he thought about whether or not to share what he knew of Patrick sexual fantasies involving her, but he decided that she was probably better off without knowing that. If Patrick ever started to think about something more illegal, he would intervene.
“anyways, Felix was on a Poly relationship with Cathy and Ribbit, they broke up after Ribbit abstracted”
“I knew it!”
“with 0 evidence backing it up, mind you, you are right by pure luck. In any case, if you need to know if he thinks about other women then you already have the answer”
“That was… more of an intrusive thought. I trust in him. Thanks for the advice, I’ll see ya later I guess” she turned back and walked away.
…
She opened the door again
“wait, how do you know about the “kill all living beings within 1 kilometer thing”?”
But the room was empty, and the window was open (he hid behind the fridge to look cool, he can’t actually survive a fall from that altitude)