Never you and I, always you and I [Aguni x Reader]

1 - Between what we were and what we will be

'There she goes. That's Aguni's wife.'

Actually, we never got married, you wanted to clarify. But you bit your tongue and said nothing, you never said anything, because what was the point? You being Aguni's wife or Aguni's fiancée didn't make any difference for them. They were scared of you nonetheless.

They were scared of him. 

Scared shitless. 

Those comments haunted you like ghosts ever since The Beach had started to fill up with people. They were whispered behind your back, as if you immediately stopped being able to hear people once your eyes were not on them any longer. How many players were living at the resort now? A few hundred? Maybe more. And all of them answered to the same man, Hatter. A person you had met five years ago under a different name ― Takeru.

But you knew that, if they still answered to him, it was only because they believed he was the only one capable of keeping Aguni in check. Your fiancé, Aguni. Your partner for the last five years. The person you had considered the love of your life, at least up until that point. The leader of the militant faction in The Beach.

The honest truth? He was not hard to control. 

Aguni only did what he did because he adored Takeru and would literally get the moon off the sky for him if he asked him to. Some kind of bro code you didn't understand, and didn't want to understand, either. You knew they had a lot of story between them, knew they had been each other's ride or die since they were in their teens. Still were.

At the beginning of your relationship, you had been confused as to how exactly you fit in the equation ― how could you have a partner that would undoubtedly, always, choose his best friend over you? But now you knew you just did, and that it was not one hundred percent like that. And that well, it wasn't a competition. It had never been. Or at least, not a fair one.

You sighed, finally arriving to your destination. What was it that you needed? There were four things... Ah, yes. You lifted your fist and knocked on the door. One, two times.

'Come on in.' You heard the muffled voice, and opened the door.

An, one of The Beach's executives, was there, bent over a corpse placed on an operating table. She had... What was the correct term, cracked open its skull? And was cutting small sections of the brain using a surgical knife, placing them on an array of petri dishes, very carefully.

'Ah, it's you. Need more medical supplies?'

You nodded. Then you realized the woman hadn't turned to look at you, and therefore hadn't seen you. 

'Yeah. Aguni went to play a game today and I have no doubt he will have some sort of wound when he comes back.' You said, arms behind your back, fingers of both hands interlaced. You were almost afraid you would knock something over if that wasn't the case. You usually accompanied your words with exuberant hand gestures without even noticing.

'Why don't you just bring him here? I can stitch just about anything.'

'Because...' The reason was stupid. You knew very little about taking care of wounds, not more than the average person. Aguni could take care of himself, and when he couldn't, An usually got him. But still. 'I think it's nice? It sounds dumb, but I like it when he cleans my wounds when I come back injured from a game. Makes me feel safe.'

'Has that ever happened?'

'Me feeling safe?'

'You getting injured.'

'Not seriously, at least since we arrived at The Beach.'

There was this thing people said. Nobody died in games with you, these deadly games you had to beat if you didn't want to get lasered through the skull after a certain amount of days. If someone was lucky enough to get paired with you in a game, they would survive. Which led to a funny situation; people were afraid of you and wouldn't even talk to you, but suddenly, wanted you close while playing. At arm's length at most.

People usually didn't die, or get hurt, because Aguni was with you in every single game. He never let you go alone. And he protected you, sometimes at the expense of his own health and well-being. 

'Lucky you.'

'Haven't really seen you get hurt either.'

'Lucky me, as well.'

An kept separating brain tissue, seemingly looking for something. You wondered what it would be. The cause of death was clear ― there was a bullet hole on the corpse's temple. You were not curious enough to ask.

'There is... something else as well.'

'Hm?'

'I find it intimate. Caring for someone's wounds, I mean. It's not that I don't want you to have that intimacy with him, honestly, I don't give a fuck. But I think like we could use it.'

'Trouble in paradise?'

'Has there ever not been?'

An finally stood straight, stretching. She moved her neck from side to side, left the tools she was using to the side and took off her medical gloves, throwing them to a bin that was beside you with almost mathematical precision. You pursed your lips, curving them downwards, and raised your eyebrows. 

'Very impressive.' You conceded, earning a tiny smile from the woman.

'I guess it must be difficult being married to him.'

'We were never married, you know?'

'Ah, no? He does refer to you as his wife.'

'Does he?'

That made you smile. You lowered your gaze, staring at your shoes to try and hide it, but there was no fooling An. She had seen you, of course. She was just nice enough not to say anything.

'Tak... A friend of ours got us married the second or third day we were here, but it was not a real wedding. After everybody disappeared, I mean.'

'Are they dead? The friend.'

'You could say so.'

Takeru was not the same person he had been in the real world. The Beach had corrupted him, drove him to madness. 

At first, he had built it as a sort of utopia for people who had fallen into despair. So that players could rely on each other, work together. To maintain hope, somehow. But he had quickly learned that people need a purpose. They don't want it. They need it. And surviving just wasn't enough for some of them. 

So Takeru had given it to them and now claimed that the only way to return to the real world was to get all the cards. Cards you would obtain once you would clear a game. 

There were four suits, like in any normal deck - Hearts, Diamonds, Spades and Clubs. Hearts were games that featured... well, matters of the heart, as redundant as that sounded. Feelings, betrayals, that sort of things. Diamonds were all about intelligence. Spades, about physical qualities. Clubs, about teamwork.

Each player had an specialty. Aguni's was undoubtedly Spades. You were not half bad at Clubs. You had a thing for people. You were good at taking care of them, at making them trust you, at calming them down so that they wouldn't let fear take control.

'I'm sorry for your loss.'

'Thank you.'

'Can I ask you something?'

You were surprised at that, figuring she knew by now she could ask whatever she wanted. She was the closest thing to a friend you had here.

'Of course.'

'How did you and Aguni meet?'