Two-Faced Gremlin Oneshots

Tears [Edited]

"...Why are you crying?"

Ryan had dealt with murderous intentions before. He had dealt with sarcasm. He had dealt with hatred. He had dealt with many, many misfortunes.

But he was not ready to deal with a crying Allen.

Could you imagine his surprise when he found Allen sobbing under a table in the library? The boy was shaking.

At first, Ryan was sure that he was mistaken. Allen Coldwell? Crying? Yeah right. That guy had the mental strength of a goddamn fortress.

But there he was, crying under the table and so- so vulnerable. Why was he allowing himself to be like this when there were unknown demonic forces out to take his life at this very moment?

Ryan was so confused. What was he supposed to do? How could he comfort Allen? Why did he even want to comfort Allen? This was none of his business.

They were acquaintances. Not friends. Not in Ryan's eyes, anyway. Ryan had always felt that he was working with Allen and Azruelle because they shared similar interests (A.K.A. saving the world) and not because he harbored friendly intentions towards them. And Allen was so annoying, what with the constant stalking of Bella before his personality did a complete 180. And he had shoved himself and Ryan into a cart full of worms. Ew. Comforting Allen Coldwell was not something he had to deal with.

And yet Ryan found himself crouching down and asking Allen about his condition. His conscience told him that this was wrong, that Allen crying was wrong, that he should be a sarcastic little shit and insult Ryan instead of being so...sad.

"Hey, gremlin, are you okay?" he tried again when Allen didn't respond.

The sobbing sound abruptly stopped and Allen peered out of the table. Ryan noticed his bloodshot eyes and the tears still streaming down his face, unhindered.

"Ryan...?" Allen's voice came out as a broken whisper, so different from his usual sassy tone, "Since when have you been here?"

"A few minutes," Ryan replied stoically.

They stared at each other for a few moments and Ryan observed Allen's state properly. He looked disheveled and more like an emotional wreck than Ryan had ever seen him. Ryan didn't think Allen had looked this distraught since the blame had been pinned on him for bullying that girl back when he was four years old.

Ryan was not used to this. He was starting to feel more awkward than anything else. Also maybe a bit of concern. Just a tiiiiiiiiny bit.

"I...should probably go. Classes will start in 15 minutes," Allen said, crawling out from under the table and standing up. He started making his way towards the library's door and Ryan, propelled by a sudden unknown instinct, grabbed his wrist. Allen looked down at his hand, then back at Ryan. Ryan stared back, not sure what to say, what to do, what to even give as an excuse for why he had suddenly grabbed Allen's hand. Ryan cursed his gut instinct to hell and back.

"Do you- do you want to talk about it?" He asked carefully.

"No."

"Oh. Okay."

Another awkward silence.

"So...are you going to let go, or...?" Allen asked, eyes hovering towards their joined hands.

"Oh, right," Ryan said, letting his wrist go. His hand felt strangely empty. "Sorry."

Allen didn't deem his apology as worthy of a response and turned towards the door again when Ryan called out, "Allen!" Allen paused, then turned back around. His face said, what now?

"Uh..." Ryan started, feeling dumb and wondering why he had, once again, acted out of instinct, and why his instinct  told him to call out Allen. "I uh..." he trailed off.

Allen raised an eyebrow.

"Well-" Ryan started again, "you can- you know, always uhh..." he trailed off again.

"Always what?" Allen prompted impatiently.

What a good question, Ryan thought, I wish I knew the answer to it. What had he been about to say anyway? You can always tell me what's bothering you? As if Ryan had been good enough of a friend to Allen to even consider saying that.

"Um," Ryan said intelligently.

Allen sighed and turned back to leave again. 

Ryan, for the third time in a span of ten minutes, acted out of instinct once again and grabbed Allen's wrist. Again. Only this time he proceeded to pull the boy towards him and wrap his arms around him in a tight hug. He felt Allen tense in his arms. He himself felt awkward. So, so awkward.

"...What are you doing?" Allen asked.

Ryan was unsure of how to answer. At the end, he settled for, "You looked like you could use a hug."

"What are you and what have you done with the two-faced bastard I know?" Allen demanded, still tense. But this was good. Banter was good. Banter was normal. Thank God.

"No, who are you and what have you done with the idiot gremlin I know?" Ryan shot back.

"What is that accusation even supposed to mean?"

"You were crying."

Ryan couldn't see Allen's face, but he knew somehow that Allen was rolling his eyes. "I'm allowed to cry."

"It's still weird, though."

"Maybe."

Ryan pulled back.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ryan found himself asking again.

"No," Allen said, without missing a beat.

"Well then no more crying," Allen's tears hadn't yet dried and Ryan wiped them away with his sleeve, "it makes you look dumb. Just be sassy like you usually are and be done with it."

Allen blinked. "Did you just wipe my tears?"

Ryan internally cursed. What the hell, instinct.

"No," Ryan said, "That was just a...a trick of the light."

"A trick of the light."

"Right."

They stared at each other.

"Well, uh- I think I had better get going to class-" Allen said, breaking the silence. Ryan cut him off with yet another hug. 

"What the hell's gotten into you?" Allen asked.

"Nothing. Nothing at all. This- uh, this isn't happening. It's just your imagination."

"A trick of the light, maybe?" Allen said, a twinge of amusement in his voice.

"...That...that's not out of question."

Allen laughed. Ryan felt a phantom knot that he hadn't even noticed in his stomach fade away. Allen laughing...was a good sound. Much better than him sobbing, at the very least. 

In the future, neither of them would talk about this, much like the nightmarish memory of the Kiss That Didn't Happen. But in that moment, Ryan figured it wouldn't do much harm if he held on for a little longer.

A/N: the librarian, watching the drama: 👀🍵

nah but editing this probably took longer than writing this did lmao. i literally completely rewrote the latter half (because the characterizations were so off???? tf??????). also the next part is just...so hideous that im not even going to post it in this compilation. istg i repeated the phrase 'attachment issues' so many times that it reads like a malfunctioning off-brand Nokia voice recorder repeating the one part of the song you sang like a screeching elementary schooler and you cant get out of the torment because the phone is lagging horribly and you need to wait till its battery goes out to get the sweet sweet relief of knowing that youll never sing again.

also i edited this entire thing on wattpad and kept pressing ctrl+s out of instinct and it kept directing me to the save offline page like STAWP-