Falling Doesn't Feel So Bad (Tartaglia x Reader)

Chapter 12

Tartaglia caught up to Y/N in five minutes.

He couldn't understand why, but he was angry. Angry at everything that had just happened. He took off his jacket and handed it to the shivering girl.

She looked at his jacket as if it was poison, "I don't wan-"

"Y/N, I don't give a fuck about what you do or don't want. Put on the fucking jacket."

The tone in Tartaglia's voice had changed, drastically. The usual playful undertone was gone. Y/N was taken aback by this, cautiously choosing to take his jacket.

"The hell is wrong with you?" She questioned, giving the man beside her a nasty look.

The harbinger stayed silent, trying to think why he gave her his jacket. He wanted to think that it was the most gentle-man like thing to do, but the thought of other men seeing Y/N's bare skin made the first option seem like a joke. Tartaglia couldn't bear the thought of anyone but him seeing her like that.

"You could catch a cold." He mumbled, keeping his eyes on the path ahead.

He was lying through his teeth, he knew it, so did Y/N. She chose to stay silent, not in the mood for a conversation. And so, they walked in complete silence back to Y/N's apartment. The girl almost kept walking, she was so consumed by her thoughts she hadn't noticed that Tartaglia had stopped walking.

Y/N took off the warm jacket, immediately feeling goosebumps rise up on her arms from the cold Liyue night air.

"Here." She said sheepishly, holding it out for Tartaglia to take. For a moment he didn't move, he stood staring at her.

Strands of her H/C hair were gently swaying in the wind and her E/C eyes were looking up at him. He didn't know what possessed him to do it, but he stepped forward and slowly brought his hand up to her face. His hand froze for a moment, his heart sped up, then, he tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and gave her a small smile.

Y/N watched as he lifted up his hand. Her breathing became erratic and she felt her cheeks heat up.

Tartaglia took a small step forward and inched his head closer to Y/N's. They were so close that each could feel the others breath on their lips. The boy closed his eyes and leaned forward, waiting to meet Y/N in the middle.

It never happened.

Instead the girl pushed him away, her E/C eyes blown wide in panic. She took a step back, while Tartaglia looked at her in panic.

"A-Ajax, I can't do this. You...you killed my parents. It's wrong."

Y/N shoved the jacket towards Tartaglia and turned on her heel without giving him so much as a glance.

Tartaglia felt his heart sink. There was a gut wrenching emotion coursing through him as he watched her walk away. He couldn't place it, it wasn't something he had felt before. It hadn't felt wrong, her cheek fit perfectly in his hand, her breath fanned over his lips ever so softly.

He was the reason it didn't happen.

After all he was the one that killed her parents. Panic had settled itself in the back of his mind as he began wondering if Y/N would ever see him as anything other than the brute who killed her parents.