Vessel X OC/reader

Chapter 7

I chew my nail and drink a glass of water.
Vessel watches me.
"Where's the anxiety coming from?" He asks me, and I sigh.

"Living in a building full of people that would much prefer that I was dead."

"But they're not going to hurt you. They're smarter than that."

"Yeah, right." I reply, and laugh.

"You can leave if you'd like."

"Eh?" I look at him, confused.

"You already know that. You can leave, if you don't want to be here."

I roll my eyes, and sigh.
"It's fine. I'm fine."

"If you're not scared of me, you shouldn't be scared of any of the bitter and nasty guards here. They're all bark."

"Who says I'm not scared of you?" I ask him, and he turns to look at me properly.

"Oh, Gaia. Don't tell me that. That's not good for my ego."

Okay, cool. He finds me being scared attractive. Subject change, immediately.

"What are we doing about the guard that joked about my baby sister being murdered?"

Vessel bites his lip, and thinks.
"You don't think he was punished enough?"

"What?! No! You do?"

"Not at all. But you were dealing with that. If he deserved worse, you should have given him worse. I'm not going to do anything further about that."

I roll my eyes, and get up.
"Okay. I'm going to sit with my family while they're here. Tell me the names of those two guards."

"The one that was just here is Lucas. The other is Felix."

"Thanks." I say, and head to the dining room. I sit next to my little sister, and kiss her forehead.

"Crybaby!" She teases, and I roll my eyes and pretend to bite her fingers, grinning as she squeals and giggles.

"She misses you." My dad says. "Can't you call off the marriage, now we know Eric is okay?"

I freeze up. It's as if I'd totally forgotten what I was here for.
"You're not in love?" My dad asks, looking horrified.

"No. God, no. But I still feel the marriage could be beneficial. And even if not, I don't want to leave. I want him to be the one to end it. If it's my fault, I worry there'd be more animosity between our family and him."

My dad nods.
"He's not hurt you, or anything?"

"No. And to be fair, I've punched him, kicked him, broken his rib, shoved him. All sorts of shit. He's quite tolerant."

My dad almost looks proud.
"Okay."

I quietly eat my food, and once my family leave, decide to find Vessel. I bump straight into a guard, and glare at him.

He laughs, and pokes my head so that I lose my balance.
"Cut the death stares, little lady. We're not all bad."

"You don't hate my family?" I ask, and he shrugs.

"I don't hate anyone over religion. That's pathetic. I'll keep an eye out for you, Kay?"

"I don't need looking after."

"I know. But it's nice to know not everyone's out to get you, eh?"

I take a deep breath, and nod in agreement.

I hold out my hand to shake his.
"Gaia."

He kisses it, instead.
"Mateo."

I smile, and walk off, and find Vessel, watching me from the end of the corridor.
"Been looking for you." I say, folding my arms.

"I have something for you." He says, and shows me a small black box.

I raise my eyebrow.

"I wasn't sure when a good time to give this to you would be. But I suppose that would be now."

He opens the box to show me an engagement ring. It's got a black band, with small white diamonds encrusted around the sides, and a huge red diamond on the top.

"It's beautiful." I say, and he gently places it on my ring finger.

"Sure is." He replies, and I raise my eyebrow.

"What makes now a good time?" I ask him, and he stays quiet for a second.

"Looks like my guards have forgotten who you belong to." He says, gesturing the direction Mateo walked in.

"He's just friendly."

"Isn't he just?"

"Would you prefer all of your guards hated me?"

"I think I would." He says, lowers my hand, and shuts the box.

I don't bother dignifying it with a response. I place my hands on his shoulders, get on my tip toes, and gently kiss him. He doesn't close his eyes, or lean in, but he does look at me like I'm the hottest thing to walk the earth, which I will more than settle for.

"How's the rib?" I ask him, gently touching his stomach, partially concerned, partially using it as an excuse to touch his exposed toned stomach.

"Well, you broke it about twelve hours ago. So, as you can imagine, it's not good."

"I am really sorry." I say, giving him my best inoccent face.

"You aren't. But you will be." He whispers against my ear, and gently kisses it.

"It's late. I think I'm going to try and get some rest."

He nods.
"Okay. Goodnight, Gaia."

As I walk off, he shouts me.
"Gaia. You know, you can sleep in my room if you want to."

"My parents always told me not to sleep in scary strange men's beds."

"Where's the fun in that?"

I sigh, and smile.
"Fine."

I head to his room, and throw my dress over a chair. He takes his mask off, places it on a desk, and carefully wipes off all of the paint on his face, neck and body.

I look at the bruise above his stomach. Purple, almost black, already.

I look at it, and wince, since I can literally feel how much that must hurt.
As he unbuttons and takes off his jeans, he notices me looking.

"You got me good." He says, and lies beside me. I actually felt awful. I accused him of killing Eric, raided his room, and broke one of his bones when he questioned it. And he barely did anything in response.

I shuffle down the bed, slightly, and gently kiss the bruise. He looks at me like I'm batshit crazy, and raises an eyebrow.

I kiss it again, and look up at him, partially to tease him because I imagine it's a pretty suggestive view.

"Thanks. Much better." He says, sarcastically, and sighs. "Get some rest."

I lie beside him, and shut my eyes. Weirdly, I don't feel uncomfortable, or self conscious, and I fall asleep pretty quickly.