hobo heart x reader. Perhaps we value each other?

Chapter 12

I was dreaming of running through the woods. The dream was thick with the scent of autumn—the sharp, earthy tang of rotting pine, the crisp musk of decaying leaves, and the metallic bite of the coming winter. I could hear every sound with pristine clarity: the rhythmic crunch-crack of twigs snapping beneath my soles, the frantic rustle of the dry canopy, and the whistling sigh of the cool wind as it whipped through my hair. It was a beautiful, unrestricted freedom.

But it ended too soon.

"HEY! Wake the fuck up already!"

An upset, abrasive roar violently shattered the dreamscape, pulling me back to reality with a jolt. I sat up quickly, my eyelids flying open instinctively.

But nothing happened. There was no rush of morning light, no shifting of shapes—just a vast, heavy wall of pitch-black static. My brain automatically tried to adjust to the dark, straining to find a shadow, a silhouette, a single line of contrast, but there was absolutely nothing. Just a hollow, empty void. Right. Blind, I reminded myself, a cold lump of dread settling into my stomach.

Then it clicked. I was sitting up, and my wrists didn't feel the tight, suffocating bite of the leather restraints anymore. I wasn't tied down.

A sharp, rhythmic snapping sound echoed directly to my left, the vibration cutting through the air. "Earth to sleeping beauty, ya hear me?" A familiar, raspy voice. Hobo Heart.

"Yes, yes, I hear you," I snapped back, turning my face toward the source of the snapping. Without my sight, my brain tried to map his position using only the sound of his breathing and the rustle of his white hoodie. "I'm blind, not deaf. What the hell do you want?"

"Come on, off the table," he grunted, the heavy thud of his sandals indicating he was stepping closer. "Your aunt wants you up and moving around. Apparently, you need to 'get used to your vision loss' or something. She wants you adapting." He sounded highly annoyed, his breath a cold draft against my skin.

"Why isn't she here?" I asked, carefully sliding my legs over the edge of the thin mattress. My bare feet touched the floorboards, but the texture felt completely alien without the visual context of what I was stepping on. Every sensation was magnified ten-fold.

"Don't know. Slender called her into his office," he huffed, a low vibration through the floor indicating he was pacing. "Probably a mission, or possibly regarding you and your failing system."

I furrowed my brow, tilting my head blindly toward his pacing. "What's got your panties in a twist?"

He let out a soft, thoroughly sarcastic chuckle. "I'm stuck babysitting a broken human. Not exactly ideal when I could be out doing literally anything else."

"Like what? Moping around in your twisted tree?" I teased, a small, defiant smile pulling at my lips despite the terror of the dark.

"Oh, shut up and come on."

His calloused, freezing hand suddenly wrapped around my forearm, pulling me forward with an unceremonious jerk. "I'm taking you to where your actual room is going to be once you finish recovering. Try to remember the layout and the turns."

"Ow! Maybe don't manhandle me?!" I violently yanked my arm out of his icy grip. "And how exactly am I supposed to remember the layout? I am literally blind, Hobo!"

"Not my problem."

I heard the friction of his clothes as he started walking away from me. I tried to take a confident step forward to follow him, but my shin instantly slammed into the hard, agonizing corner of a metal medical tray. Objects clattered loudly, and I stumbled, flailing into the dark.