A/N: Welcome to the second part of the first scene. I want to write longer, but I decided to split what I planned for this chapter so you could actually process what had happened. At least, better than if I offered you a second scene immediately. Thank you very much for the reviews! You don't know how much those made my days. QwQ Shout out to Pulver15, whose review came just in the right time to prompt me into finishing this scene. But I will forever fangirl over Yaruming's reviews. Please reveal yourself to me through tumblr or FF or somewhere, I'd love to fangirl with you! QuQ)/
I've planned this scene to happen since I'm writing the first chapter, but you'll immediately recognize the similarity with the latest episode of VVV! (Which by the way made me fell all over again with the anime like whoa.)
Unbeta-ed, so warning for the mistakes that might be there. Please, do enjoy.
ハルエル
L-elf felt like blood was drained from his head, making him painfully aware of his surrounding in a fleeting way. It hurt more than he thought, his ankle. Even though the one bleeding was his knee, he felt almost nothing from it. But his ankle was probably twisted in the wrong way. He didn't doubt it would be swollen for days. When he was in the track team, as well as in the dojo where he learned how to do slight martial arts, he had used his muscles to help with the homeopathy; now not so really. And it was winter, so his joints would feel like...
...wait, why did he keep complaining in his head?
His head cocked to his left side, where Tokishima Haruto was. L-elf could see the brunet glanced at him more than once, but like always, his soon-to-be-host didn't mention a thing about his condition. At the same time, L-elf felt unavoidably self-conscious. For making him feel this way, he hated Tokishima Haruto.
But the boy wasn't joking when he said his place was close. It was visible, even, from the park he met (or ran away from) the brunet. They should have arrived in no time, but it took them longer than ten minutes. L-elf, after he stopped being distracted by the pain, finally realized that not only him, but Tokishima Haruto had also walked in an excruciatingly slow pace.
Did the brunet adjust it for him? This was embarrassing. It was enough he had to rely on Tokishima Haruto for the first aid they were coming here for, and now he was being treated like this? He didn't want it. L-elf only needed himself.
They entered the hotel-like lobby. It was obviously a rather luxurious place, different than a rundown flat with a sloppy landlord in suburb area where his place was. Tokishima Haruto didn't look like the part, but after coming here, L-elf strongly suspected that the brunet was a son of some elite member of the society.
Still, whatever sorry excuse Tokishima Haruto might had, L-elf didn't get any prying questions, nor some explanation where they might be heading. Tokishima simply walked slightly ahead of him, waiting if he was a bit too slow like right now, as they were entering the lift. He hit the 17 number, and when their eyes met, he smiled slightly. L-elf was the first one to throw his face aside.
They didn't travel far from the lift. It seemed the entire floor only had a few rooms, and L-elf predicted each one of them would be rather spacious. He fidgeted, uneasiness grew in his chest. He didn't come to this kind of place too often. Or at all, actually. It seemed really high, so disattached from the ground, and L-elf couldn't figure about whether he was glad or not about not having windows in this corridor.
"L-elf," Tokishima addressed him, and L-elf willed himself to stop feeling nervous. "Here's my place," he said, swiping a card and unlocking the door.
"Yeah," L-elf nodded, though probably he didn't have to say anything. He grumbled inwardly; did he have to calculate every bit now before he could get approval from himself? This was ridiculous.
His train of thought was cut by the sight of the studio-style apartment room. It was spacious indeed, and felt even more so due to the lack of obstructing walls dissecting the whole space into smaller rooms. He could only see the bathroom to his side, then kitchen, then the rest of them was styled to be a comfortable room that looked like a modern yet homy president-suite hotel room. Must be the splashes of warm colors in the sofa pillows.
"Welcome," Tokishima said warmly, and there went this grating feeling again in L-elf's chest for being treated this way. His lips pursed slightly, but he didn't even say the polite 'I'll be intruding' or something. Tokishima Haruto didn't seem to mind his silentness, and the brunet pat his shoulder once before pointing to the khaki-colored couch. "Please, sit down. I'll bring you the first aid kit."
"Alright," L-elf said.
The soft couch received his body comfortably, way different from the tatami on his room. Now what? He was imposing on his customer, getting himself weakened from...
From...
The sweaty palm, the disgusting panting breath, the big body, the repulsive existence that he wished he would never meet again. Was he sill chasing when L-elf went to that park? Was the man still behind him as he met Tokishima Haruto? What if he was still behind them even at this moment-
"Here you go."
L-elf audibly gasped when Tokishima Haruto approached him. For a brief moment, both of them were staring at each other, seemingly shocked of the reaction. L-elf couldn't read Tokishima Haruto's expression, and it infuriated him. He had let his guards down too far.
"I'm sorry...I didn't mean to suprise you," Tokishima said, and L-elf paled. He didn't mean to react that way either, and if Tokishima Haruto wasn't here, he probably wouldn't. The kindness and warmth he received was a stark contrast with what he had experienced just now. Normally he would just be alright with anything the world threw at him. Nothing went right ever since he was a child, and he was fine with that. He could put anything behind him. But this damned JIORian. Why could he unnerve L-elf so much?
L-elf simply thinned his lips and didn't say anything else.
"Do you want me to take care of your bleeding?" Tokishima asked.
L-eld gave him deadpanned eyes. "There's no way I'd let you. Give me that." He took the box by force and put it beside him on the couch. He could hear the sound of stiffled chuckle coming from the brunet, and it made him scowl deeper. He didn't know why the brunet laughed at him, but he pointedly ignored it through quite an effort. Rolling up the sleeve of his black trousers, he took notice of the bone protruding his skin. It looked as if he didn't eat much, and for a second there, he was actually shy.
But just why would he think like that?
Even as immersing himself in the thought, his hands automatically moved to clean the wound and put a plester on his knee. It should be enough; the wound wasn't that big, and a trickle running down the calf was hardly a gash. Tokishima Haruto had been exaggerating, as expected. L-elf practically snorted inside his mind.
Sometime while he was cleaning the wound, Tokishima Haruto went somewhere else and he was left alone again. Good, now L-elf could examine his ankle carefully. He cringed as he reached below, and even though it wasn't that bad, it was swollen. He had to wake up way earlier to go to school, then, because walking would take more effort than usual. He expertly rolled a bandage over it, just in time when Tokishima Haruto came walk into the scene again. The brunet brought two mugs of green tea. L-elf could understand the JIORian's love towards tea, but why must it be green, and always green, he couldn't fathom.
But when the mug was placed in front of him, and he touched it, his cold fingertips immediately became so much warmer. The steam reached his face- his eyes, and it took him quite the effort not to let the muscles of his face relaxing. Because of they did, L-elf would do something unthinkable to him before. Something he wouldn't forgive himself to do in front of someone else.
He shrugged away the thought by sipping the tea, and he felt so much warmer.
"You're done with these, right?" Tokishima asked. L-elf didn't respond, but Tokishima Haruto probably understood things he didn't need to say, because the brunet closed the bos and out it down, under the coffee table. "So... are you okay? You were so pale and sweating even though it's winter now..."
Again with the personal question? "It's none of your business."
"You were running, th-"
"I wasn't being chased," L-elf said all too quickly, and he instantly realized his mistake. Tokishima Haruto's big eyes now narrowed. But not in anger. What was that emotion? Sad? Lonely? No... worry?
Tokishima cleared his throat after a moment of another staring competition between them. "I was going to say you were probably late for your train or... yeah, well." He looked awkward. L-elf groaned inwardly for the slip-up he did just now, which surely would cause Tokishima Haruto to assume things correctly. And now Tokishima Haruto would keep chasing him with questions as if it was important for him—"Please tell me you're not being chased by some criminal or something. Did you suddenly meet a homicide suspect in the middle of the street or the alley behind the library? Are you still in danger?"
See? L-elf predicted Tokishima's reaction correctly. He sipped his tea again, but it shocked himself to find how his lips were quivering before the mug.
"Just mind your own business, Tokishima Haruto. I'm surprised it didn't cross your mind that I was probably robbing a convenient store or stealing someone's purse," L-elf snorted loudly now.
"What? Why?" the brunet replied, sounding like he just heard something absolutely incredulous.
L-elf sighed. "You're a JIORian. You people look down at the refugees from Dorssia, and don't you dare tell me the otherwise," he said, managed to keep his voice level and cold, even though he had this urge to yell it to the brunet's face.
"Not the people around me, they won't!" Tokishima's voice got louder in a self defense, and L-elf glared at him hearing that, poking his chest with such force that Tokishima Haruto stepped back.
"I told you not to tell me the otherwise, because that would be a lie!" L-elf shouted now. "Yes, I was chased. By one of you who stalked me and do you know what he told me when he waited for me in the back alley for an ambush? 'I'll treat you like a piece of shit that you are'. Ha! Ridiculous. And you dare telling me that your friends never thought that way about Dorssian refugees?!" L-elf inhaled. "Don't lie to me, you must have thought something like that too!"
"I... never!" Tokishima Haruto held L-elf's wrist, which was immediately yanked off. L-elf glared at him as if his glare could burn a torch, and the brunet looked apologetic at once. "Oh... I'm sorry for that but... You should tell the police about it! And why are you running? You told me you were a black belt in karate! And that... that person... you're not a-"
L-elf definitely hadn't felt scared at the back alley. That man wasn't as scary as he was disgusting. "Don't you dare telling me things I knew already!" he shouted and stood up, cringed immediately when he felt pain that quickly died out. "What, if I attack him and then go to the police, then what? Do you think they'll let me off when I'm the one attacking him? Do you think you people would be fair?! And if I told you that he was a stalker, there's no way you people would believe my words against his!"
"I will!" Tokishima replied back fervently. L-elf's eyes widened at the uncharacteristic loud voice, his lips thinned until it was only a pale line in his face. "And if you go to the police, there's no way I won't back you up too!"
"But you weren't there!" L-elf said, but what he would give to take the word back. He shut his eyes closed immediately, wanting to dig a hole and disappearing from the surface of the earth, realizing he just said another slip-up for the second time in the span of a few minutes.
Was that what he was thinking? Did he want Tokishima Haruto to be there? Did he want to actually rely on this simplistic, idiotic brunet? He didn't know what he wanted. He didn't know what he might have been unconsciously thinking before. And not knowing his own mind was the most frustrating thing he ever felt. His mind was his only safe haven. Not having that was unthinkable.
L-elf pursed his lips and threw his face away. "I'm going home," he said without looking at Tokishima Haruto. He took the briefcase messenger back with him, and went to the door. There was no need for a key to open the door from the inside, and although it hurt like hell, L-elf managed not to limp as he stormed out of the room of the most infuriating person on Earth, wishing the pain would be numbed already.
He didn't want to see Tokishima Haruto's expression right now.
And even more than that, L-elf didn't want to find out what he would be feeling if he were to see the expression.
ハルエル
A/N: Hahaha lol this scene reeks of UST. If you enjoy it, if you don't enjoy it, please comment on the box below, anything you want to say I'll gladly accept. I appreciate any kind of review! :D
Next chapter... We'll get a bit deeper into L-elf's condition right now, and his memories. A quick question, do you think Lieselotte should appear in this AU or not?
