Paint the World Red with Me (Tord x Reader) (REWRITE)

Chapter 9: Reunited

...Something's up.

How do I know?

The initial clue was that I woke up at 11, of my own accord. No Tord, no banging on the door. Though, after a month it had calmed down to loud knocking. I decided that maybe he accidentally slept in. So I grabbed a shower, taking my sweet time. 30 minutes later, I got out. But he wasn't there like I expected, scowling at me.

Hesitantly, I slipped into the office. Surely he would have gotten a notification that my door opened. I waited about 10 minutes. He didn't come running in. I stared at the office door, debating with myself.

The mahogany door creaked open. No alarms began blaring. No weapons were aimed at me. No guards there to scold me. I took more steps out. The halls? Completely empty. The only forms of life I saw were the patrol groups. Three or four soldiers marching the halls. They didn't even look at me.

All the soldiers knew about me at this point. Of course they recognized an enemy soldier of such high ranking. I could see contempt in some of their eyes, amusement in others. Nobody was bold enough to do anything, not wanting to risk Red Leader's temper.

The black halls echoed with the sound of my boots. It was strangely lonely. In the month that I had been there, I had grown accustomed to the sounds of laughter from the lounge. Soldiers greeting each other with a nod or wave as they passed. Happy grins in the mess hall when with friends. Red Army was always full of movement.

Gray Army was never like that.

I shook my head at the thoughts creeping in. No.

I peeked into the mess hall. Not even the lunch ladies were in there. It was dead silent.

Despite my attempts to fight them off, the quiet allowed the thoughts to slip in. Six months had flown by since the jet crashed. After that brief moment during the robot attack, I had yet to see Gray Leader. Hope was getting more difficult to hold on to with each passing day.

"[Name]!"

A hand closed around my wrist and tugged me back. The almost trance-like state I had been in was broken. Tord was standing over me, expression unreadable.

"What were you doing?"

"I couldn't find anybody. I started wandering. Where were you?"

He stood straighter and began to usher me away, gently pushing me by the back.

"You need to eat."

I sighed but nodded as he led me to the office. He disappeared for a moment, then came back with a plate. It had french toast and some sliced fruit. I began eating. Tord leaned back against the edge of the desk, fingering through some papers that had been set there.

"Where is everyone?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the base is practically empty. Where are all your soldiers? And where were you?"

"I had an early issue to attend to. The soldiers are all off at a biannual physical test."

I finished my food in silence. I guess my imagination was just a little too wild. I should stop reading mystery books before bed. Tord turned to me.

"Follow me, I have something to show you."

He led me off. A million questions swam through my mind. What did he have to attend to so early? Why didn't he bring me along like usual?

We stopped at the personal training room. I internally groaned. He wasn't really going to make me spar now, was he? The door slid open. Gunfire ceased. I could feel my jaw hit the floor.