Playing With Fire *COMPLETE* (Obi x OC)

Arm Yourself With Words Of Hate, I'm Ripping Through The Souls You Take

Chapter 25: Arm Yourself With Words Of Hate, I'm Ripping Through The Souls You Take

"Loxley, there's more to it than that." I don't know why I'm saying any of this but I can't make it stop. "I like you..."

My heart feels like it's a hummingbird trapped in my chest as I wait for her to say something, anything. I don't get nervous, so why am I freaking out?

"What?" Oh, that's why. She could say anything.

"I like you..." I repeat quietly.

"That's a relief."

"What?"

"Are you mocking me?" She sighs.

"No, I just- why did you say it's a relief?"

She sits up and moves away from me. Well, that's disappointing. I guess I messed up. I blink in surprise as she sits in front of me instead and gently grabs my face.

"Shut up. You're not that dense, are you, Stupid?" I catch a small smile cross her face before she starts to lean in.

I'm not letting her kiss me... I pull away and her smile fades.

"What? I thou-"

"Shut up." I close the distance between us and a few seconds later she pulls away.

"Why did you-?"

"I wanted to kiss you first." I answer smugly and her expression deadpans.

"You're insufferable."

"I know."

Just before sunrise, I gently wake Loxley and can't help but to smile as she yawns and curls up with my arm for a moment, muttering something about 'five more minutes'. I press a kiss to the top of her head and decide to give her the extra few minutes before we have to wake the others and get moving. We have a piece of shit to kill after all.

"Hey, you need to wake up now."

"I don't want to." She huffs.

"If Hide wakes up before you move, you won't hear the end of it from him." I point out and she sits up immediately.

"I'm up. Now kiss me before we wake him up."

I help Loxley stand and ask her nicely to wake Mitsuhide while I wake Squirrel and Rabbit. I figured Mitsuhide missed not seeing her for a while, so she can make it up to him. As I lean down to nudge Squirrel, I hear Mitsuhide yell and hold back a laugh. His noise is enough to wake them both and I have to catch the dagger Rabbit tries to kill him with on instinct.

"Alright Children," I sigh. "It's too early to be yelling like that. We have a job to accomplish and I'm sure Miss Rabbit has other matters to deal with once this is over."

"I'm just ready to murder him." She shrugs as she gets to her feet. "I will offer though, that once he is dead I will buy drinks to celebrate."

"Miss, you need to add 'us all drinks' to that, because I know right now you can pass it off as you meant only for yourself."

"Aren't you just so observant? I will buy drinks for all of us if we kill him without dying. Is that better?"

"Much. Now, are you ready to go, Miss?"

"As I'll ever be."

We travel for a while in relative silence as Rabbit leads the way. I hope she's right about this location so we can get this over with but it's only just a possibility that he'd be here. He was a pirate after all, so he could even be out at sea again since Loxley isn't with him. I'm not even sure if he knows that we survived the blaze or not. That could be an advantage to us if he doesn't. I trail at the back of the group with Mitsuhide as Rabbit and Loxley walk ahead of us. Squirrel is covering the perimeter from the trees above.

"So, did you confess yet?"

"No." I lie easily.

"But why?"

"I'm not discussing it, Hide."

"But-"

"No, Hide."

"Fine, but I swear if you ever complain that you never-"

"I know, now shut up."

"I think it's nice she's getting along with the scary Rabbit lady."

"They went through similar things with him, so it's understandable that they bonded. Rabbit's daughter technically connected them as family as well."

"It's weird imagining her having a child. She seems young and of course I haven't seen her face so all I can picture is a child with a rabbit mask for a face."

"That sounds adorable."

"Terrifying, Obi. The word you're looking for is terrifying."

I leave Mitsuhide behind as I spot Squirrel jumping down from the trees to block an attack. The girls aren't entirely helpless but Loxley is still injured. Besides, what kind of man would I be if I sat by and let them be in danger?

"Is this him, Miss?" I hear Squirrel ask as I stand beside Loxley.

"No, but that's one of his lackeys. Why don't we have a chat with him and see what we can find out from our new-found friend?"

"Ooh! I call dibs since Rabbit gets the final blow on Lex!"

"You're still healing though."

"It's not like I'm going to be fighting toe-to-toe with this idiot. I'm just going to nicely ask him some questions." Loxley shrugs.

"Just be careful. I'd rather not have to babysit you on top of everything else."

"I'm not too injured to throat punch you." She threatens with a small smirk before she redirects her attention to Squirrel.

I help Squirrel get the man bound to a tree so Loxley can safely 'talk' to him. It'll be interesting to see her tactics beyond assassination, considering the way I've seen her handle other things. I imagine it'll be hilarious. I stay nearby with Mitsuhide as Squirrel and Rabbit bicker nearby about what to eat when our job is done. We must seem very professional...

"Alright, let's go." Loxley says suddenly, drawing my attention back to her. I must have zoned out.

The man, who Rabbit identified as Adin, is covered in blood and I can tell several of his fingers are broken. I can't even tell if he's alive or not.