The Razor's Edge [[Feitan x Reader]]

22: The Only Option

   "Get up."

   From behind my veil of sleep, the words felt miles away.

   "Get up," he repeated.

   It wasn't the command that woke me, but the pillow that smacked into my shoulder.

   My eyes shot open to find Feitan standing over me with his usual displeased expression, still clenching the pillow by its case.

   "What's your problem?" I asked.

   "You are."

   He hit me with the pillow again. I swatted to grab it, but wasn't fast enough. "Will you knock it off? I'm awake!"

   "Get out of bed."

   He moved to swing the pillow one more time, but I grabbed his wrist. "Don't do it," I warned. He stared daggers at me until I let go of him. "Why are you making me get up? What is this?"

   "Need to keep training if you want to improve."

   "You really think I can? You don't think I've reached the limit of my ability?"

   He shook his head. "Nen abilities are as strong as your dedication. Keep training and you will always become better."

   "Alright, I'll come downstairs. You didn't have to wake me up like that though."

   "It was effective," he argued.

   "I know you just wanted to be an ass. A simple nudge would do next time."

   "We'll see."

   Feitan waited in the backyard for me while I got dressed. Machi and the others who usually helped with my training were all there, ready to begin. Machi attached her nen strings to me and sent me to my usual spot on the training grounds.

   "What should I try to do with my ability now?"

   "Control it," Feitan said. "Don't close your eyes once you've met your conditions. See what happens."

   "Okay," I nodded.

   We went through all of our usual steps. When it came time for me to make the blood sacrifice and draw the cross on my chest to summon Poe, I kept my eyes open.

   "Well?" Machi asked. "What's happening? Do you feel anything?"

   I shook my head. "No, nothing."

   "How strange," Shizuku said from the picnic table. "Just because you didn't clo s e    y   o   u   r      e     y     e     s     ?"

   Out of nowhere, the world around me started slowly spinning—as if I were doing a backflip at a snail's pace. The other spiders were speaking to me, but I couldn't understand a word they were saying. I was growing more nauseous by the second, my mind trying to grasp at anything that might be able to ground me back to reality.

   I snapped out of it as quickly as it had come on. Only this time I found myself on the ground. . . pinned down by Feitan. . . again.

   I thought I'd gotten him out of my system. I thought that things could just go back to how they were before when we shared a mutual disdain for one another.

   God, how wrong I'd been.

   As I lay helplessly sprawled out beneath him, feeling the warmth of his body radiating against my skin, staring into his icy, grey eyes, I realized that whatever this odd attraction I had to him was, it wasn't something I could get rid of overnight.