Protection (Lady Dimitrescu x Reader)

Chapter 5: To Build a Home

(A/N: Credit for the YouTube cover goes to Chloe Marie Piano - To Build a Home by Cinematic Orchestra)

Two more weeks had passed since the incident with Alcina. My anger towards the woman dissipated after the talk I had with the girls. She'd been avoiding me the very same way I'd avoided her, only she was dragging it out longer than I had and I felt the effects. I absolutely hated it, the unbearable silence. I needed her in more ways than one and something told me that she knew.

To help keep me from drowning in my head, the girls and Michael decided to help me fine tune the details of The Plan until it was flawless. We couldn't make mistakes or Alcina would see right through it and wouldn't forgive me ever. Cassandra helped me write the piece that I would be playing on the piano and made me rehearse it hundreds of times until I could mentally play it in my head without even thinking about it.

Of course, playing with one hand made me want to give up, but after practicing more and more, I got the hang of it just fine. Well, fine enough that it would capture the Lady's attention. I still made mistakes here and there, but I always managed.

Currently, I sat in the piano room waiting for the final moments of the plan to work out. Soon enough, the countess would be walking down the hallway and find me playing the music piece. I could only hope that she'd decide to stay and watch.

A scream along with loud clicks echoed through the wing I was in and that turned out to be my cue to start playing. As soon as I hit the first notes, I found myself getting lost in the music flow quickly. Not even a minute had passed when a click sounded behind me, but I brushed it off. Maybe I was hearing things. 

However, after I slowed my pace due to my arm getting sore, I felt someone sit next to me. I didn't look up, not even when another hand glided through the keys, matching my rhythm. We both played in beautiful tandem, matching the other's speed until the very end of the song. Once we stopped, I decided to finally look at my guest, expecting Cassandra to be sitting there, only I was surprised when I found it to be...

"Alci- urm, Lady Dimitrescu." I whispered as our eyes met. She seemed to stare deep into my soul, pulling whatever she wanted from it. I didn't dare break her intense gaze, as I was too enraptured to look away. I couldn't deny how much I missed her and these little moments we'd take together, so I naturally broke the silence first. "I..."

I took a deep breath and glanced away for a second before looking back up at her.

"I'm sorry." I said, my throat seizing up. Why did I have to feel like this? Why did I have to get attached to this woman so quickly? Was it because of my past? "I overreacted. That arm has become so normal to me that I forget I ever lost an arm in the first place. Having it on helps me realize that I'm still whole; that I'm still here and alive. When you took it from me, I felt as if my limb had been cut off again. It hurt even more so that you decided to take it only because of how I got it without hearing what kind of bounty hunter I was."

Alcina frowned a little bit and shifted a little to face me better. She sighed, "What kind of bounty hunter were you, pet?"

I felt my cheeks burn while a strange excitement filled me after she called me 'pet'. That meant I was in the safe zone for now. "I took bounties to rescue people from dangerous situations. Usually the contracts required me to save a certain amount of civilians to meet a quota, but I always rescued everyone. It made me the most sought out agent in the world, until I was eventually found by some strange corporations. I guess they found out what I was through the family that tried killing me and wanted to perform tests to duplicate my DNA. I ran from them for years, thinking of my situation as a game to keep me sane. The game ended when I adopted Michael after his parents died. From then on, I was running to survive and to keep him safe."