Garou x Reader (Female) You're all I want, and need.

Chapter 2: Your Current Life

~Present Day~

Ding dong...ding dong...ding dong...

That familiar sound of someone needing help lifted your tired head from its sleeping position off of your desk. As your eyes adjusted to the dim light emerging from the desk lamp, you wiped the small bit of drool you felt that had pooled in the corners of your mouth.

Ding dong...ding dong...ding dong...

The subtle bell went off again and you were for certain to be hearing it finally, not sure if before it was just your imagination from your sleepy state. "C-Coming!" you called out from the office room, quickly standing up and trying to compose yourself from your groggy state. A small apologetic voice rang back to you to please take your time. You came out of the office with a tired but honest and welcoming smile on your face to greet the woman you saw standing on the other side of the counter in the lobby. She looked tired, and not just from lack of sleep.

"So sorry for your wait." you apologized while still trying to smooth out your outfit that consisted of a button up blouse and a skirt. "How can I help you?"

The lady who looked extremely defeated gave a returning weak smile before looking down to her sleeping baby in its car seat in what seemed like shame and more or less embarrassment for even having to be here in the first place. "I...apologize for even coming in at this hour..." her voice cracked, as if on the verge of crying and she was holding it back desperately. You gave a genuine smile in return, not that she was looking at you but you wanted her to still feel welcome and to not worry about the time.

"Oh, no, I'm always open. Anytime, for anyone." you said with reassurance while pulling out a clipboard that had a sheet of paper attached to it with a pen. There were several words on it with empty check mark boxes next to each one, and you slid it over to her across the counter slowly. "I know it's not always easy to say things out loud, you can just mark next to what I can help you with, or write down in the space below if you don't see something in the list, and we don't have to discuss it at all. This is a safe space, and I keep everything discreet." Your soft voice let the woman feel at ease and she took the clipboard gently and began to read over the options. To give her some privacy, you withdrew from the counter and back to your office for a moment. The time on the clock read almost 2:30 AM and you let out a deep yawn at the realization of how late, er, early it actually was. Your doors were always open however, no matter the time or what was going on, for anyone who needed help. You opened this decent sized "shelter" several months ago with some close friends who were now part of your staff, in hopes of providing a place where someone could get simple medical help, some food or water, a place to sleep, a place to hide, somewhere to live for a period of time, get supplies they needed for their kids or family, or just a place where they could come to talk to someone about anything going on in their lives that was becoming too much to handle on their own. Several different types of people including very new and low class heroes came through, often being too embarrassed to go to the big hospitals after a swift defeat, and even small, harmless monsters came through, seeking asylum as they weren't all dangerous or bad trouble makers. Some just wanted to live out their lives away from humans and especially heroes and you did your best to help them stay in secrecy while they researched a safer place to go. You just wanted to help anyone in need, no matter how society had labeled them.

Your eyes shifted to a small glass frame on your desk, with a picture of you and Garou as kids, laughing and both hugging in the photo. Feeling your heart sink, you swallowed hard and choked back any emotions that threatened to spill out of you while reminiscing on the memory of your friend.
You thought about him more often than not lately, finally being old enough to live outside of your parents home. Their ideals were too strict for you, especially since they were the reason you were no longer allowed to be friends with Garou, so at the first chance you had, you took off and got as far away from them as possible. Having felt like home with them was more or less a prison, it was relieving to be on your own, not having the strict rules and guideless of being a "proper lady" spewed at you constantly, but it did get lonely... Of course they dreamed of you to be married to some suitor of their choice, who most likely also had great wealth and was highly regarded by the HA. Your opinion in the matter was ignored, and mostly forbidden. They attempted to have you married to someone just before you came of age, and luckily it didn't work out between both sets of parents, so you were able to come of age without being more or less owned by a husband you had no choice but to be with. Having time to actually be your own person, and have your own thoughts, you found they were drifting back to Garou more times than not. You wondered if your friendship would have made it this long, and, if it could have turned into something maybe more as you both got older. Not that it would have been allowed, as your parents had their own plans of your future. You definitely wanted to start searching for him as soon as possible, and hope that you would succeed in finding him, and that he would still want to be friends with you. For most, a brief friendship of maybe a year wouldn't be enough to still be missing them years and years later, but Garou had made such an impact on your life at the time, he's all you thought about for the past several years, just trying to deal with your parents demands of you. Your parents demanded you be a subservient woman, to your would be suitor some day, and so you were denied many pleasures of childhood, and spent a lot of time training how to become a respectful and dutiful wife. Garou had shown you a different way of life, by not agreeing with any of what your parents had said, and disproved what your parents tried to install into your young mind... That all women were subservient to men, especially their husbands, and that all men would demand respect and would expect women to do all of the meaningless things in life that were too petty for a man to have to do. When spending time with Garou, he never treated you the way you thought you would be treated, and he denied a lot of your efforts that were meant to "serve" him. He helped you see it wasn't a proper way to think or live, and that anyone who demands your subservience is a horrible person... Holding on to his advice helped you make it through the times you were almost convinced that your parents were teaching you correctly. And you missed him so desperately...
You were tore away from the only real and genuine friend you had as a child, and you often wondered how he was doing, if he was okay, if he ever stopped getting picked on and if he was ever able to make any other good friends or not. Being such a genuinely nice person, you couldn't imagine him not having great friends as he got older, who wouldn't want to be around such a caring guy?
Your thoughts were interrupted as you heard the pen be set down on the counter and you quickly left the office, returning to the woman. Her lips were pressed firmly together as she scooted the clipboard back towards you, still keeping her eyes more towards the ground in shame. As you received the clipboard, you still offered another smile and read over what she had marked off, and as promised, said nothing as you read everything.