Shadows of our end - KDA x Male Reader (Original)

Act 1 - 22

Skye silently dropped down into her seat without making a sound. Even when texting she isn't someone that has a lot to say. But at least she doesn't just ignore you and responds to most of the messages that aren't just small talk.

"Rifts; Dimensional Rifts, in this case, are phenomena that connect this world with ones that exist beyond ours. They can close themselves if left untouched or they are used to invade ours to learn more about it."

"We respond by sending our own to keep it safe, untouched, or in rare cases, to go inside and find what is creating it. We use anchors, a magic that links you to this world both physically and spiritually so that if it closes all of us are pulled back the moment it is closed."

"There are incredibly rare occurrences and few ever get to experience what happens just beyond it... the odds are that everything in that world is hostile and lethal so only the highest of ranks get sent to handle them."

I wonder what is the highest I will reach? Wonder if there is such a thing... I do have to choose a job for us to do though, everyone has been asking me and I haven't had a chance to pick anything just yet.

I notice Skye cross her arms, resting her head on top of them as she watches me. "Have you picked something for us?" she speaks in her soft tone.

I shake my head, whispering back, "Still looking. Will have one ready for us by tomorrow."

"Good... we need to get some field practice."

"I agree. Will pick something that isn't incredibly unreasonable for us - had my eyes on something that will open to be picked in a few hours but it could require us to do it tonight."

"Anything works," she lifts her head again with her gaze focused on the professor continuing his explanation.

I shouldn't make a big scene of her talking too, it might just end up with her not ever saying anything else to me if I make it a big deal. On one hand, I will just have to take a look at the listings and claim whichever comes first really.

No point in being picky about what we should do - first, we should focus on getting the experience above everything else. The only way to get our ranking up and have access to the more difficult jobs that pay us a lot more.

***   ***   ***

Classes finish and I head straight towards the listing board to look it over to see what we want to get ourselves into, but nothing extremely hard but something that should keep us busy. There is one about a smuggling convoy they want us to intercept and deliver to the police department.

I accept it and I get prompted with a full file detail that has been downloaded to my card and everyone that is connected to my team. It's neat how this works. I wish there was a voting system so that we can decide as a team but that would be too big of a hassle to code properly.

I let everyone know that I picked something for us and that we, unfortunately, need to get ready because this needs to be done in four hours from now to intercept a planned meeting. I wonder what would have happened if no one picked this up?

Would the police take over?

"Heya," I turn around to see Ahri flash me a wide smile. "Fancy seeing you here. Do you need help with anything?"

I shake my head. "Nope, just got us a job that we need to do tonight."

"That's good," she then shuts her eyes cocking her eyed as if thinking about something, "Erhm... I forgot what I was going to say," then looking at me, "Anyway good luck with it. The moment you get a feel for it the easier it gets."

"Thanks, are you here for a job?"

"Planning the next one actually because we leave for the entire day tomorrow to do ours so you won't see any of us around. Some of the jobs take the entire day just to do and it is pretty annoying."

I nod, "Can imagine that-"

She then sides next to me looking at the board. "Saw anything interesting?" I watch her face as she looks it through. She has pretty long eyelashes. She looks at me practically locking eyes as I realize I spaced out staring at her.

"Ah sorry-"

She giggles. "Something on my face?"

I shake my head, "Nope," please don't ask anything else, "Not much that we can do as of yet."

She then twists her lips to the side while turning it back to the board. "It sometimes sucks because you end up doing something not much of a challenge but they won't put something up here that boils down to community service."

"Like walking the elderly?"

She giggles, "If they pay the same as any other job then I'd always do it," she then presses on one and clicks on a timer symbol. "So I just put it on a pending claim, if someone else just walks up and takes it then I lose my claim."

"Is it to find it easier?"

"To claim it without coming here," she states. "It will claim by itself in two days for my team and we don't need the job so we leave the chance for it to be claimed by someone that needs something that isn't exactly impossible to do."

It helps to plan. I don't want to push us forward to do things when we don't even know how our first attempt at this is going to go. But I can make use of it in the future when the seven of us get our footing.

"How are you?" she asks.

"I'm alright," I admit. "Been rough starting but it all just kind of falls into place."

She nods with a smile. "That's good to hear. I am also glad about the fact that you aren't fighting with any of my team after they stopped picking fights with you," she then looks at me. "Sorry about that."

"Not your fault-"

"I am the leader," she states. "It still comes down on my shoulders for not keeping them from picking stupid unnecessary fights but it all sorted itself out eventually. With Eve being your friend it would seriously make it super awkward."

"It would have if I just walked into a group of people that hate my guts."

She giggles, "I don't hate you at least," then winking at me, "I think you are pretty cute actually."

"Cute as in little brother, or cute as in... I don't know another version of cute," I chuckle only to realize that I just indirectly asked her if she is interested in me.

"Guess you will just have to figure that one out for yourself~"

Then in the next moment, someone sides next to Ahri. "Hey, sorry for keeping you waiting..." she looks at me, "Hey."

"Hi."

She looks back at Ahri who then shakes her head, "Just got here and got our things sorted out for the next one after tomorrow's," then states with a sigh. "They have been making it super hard with all these classes to get time so let's just hope we don't miss anything important tomorrow."

"I'll ask someone to keep notes for us," she nods.

I feel myself slowly disappear from them as Ahri turns around. "Thanks for the chat," she smiles at me and looks back at Erica, "I have to quickly head to one of the professors to talk about something - see you in a bit."

She leaves as Erica smiles, "Alright," then leaving the two of us standing here awkwardly, she then asks me, "Got a job?"

"I did," I respond with the nicest smile I could muster for the moment.

"It took me a while to get out and do my first job because... well I was a bit worried. But hey, good luck out there," then turning slowly in place, she looks at me through the corner of her eye, "And... stay safe."

"Erica-"

"Yes?" She stops herself almost instantly.

"Sorry, for everything."

She shakes her head still holding that same smile I was so used to. "Don't be. It's all in the past, all of it."