Nyctophilia (Baji x Reader)

Chapter 11

5:00 in the morning was not a time you wanted to see.

currently, there were quite a few preparations that had to be done before Itsuki got out of prison.

the most important one for you to complete, was making sure he had a room to stay in.

although your mom agreed to letting him crash at your house, she wanted no part in doing the hard work to make that happen.

so, here you were, at five in the morning, cleaning the spare room that was used for storage so that Itsuki could have a room.

since your days and nights were filled with school, friends, and Toman, this was the only time you could get this done.

boxes littered the floor, and you had to take them all the way to the end of the hallway and lug them up the rickety ladder into the attic.

there were at least twenty boxes, and they ranged from clothes to seemingly bricks inside.

sweat beaded down your forehead, music blasting through headphones.

carrying the last box down the hallway, you slowly made your way up the ladder and shoved it into an open space in the attic.

unfortunately, the boxes had to be up against the walls of the attic, so you had to fully go up there and move them around.

pushing the boxes around, writing on one that was already up there caught your eye.

going up to it, you cleared away the dust and read the words written in black marker.

'm/n and f/n' (mothers name and fathers name)

scowling at it, you went back to moving around boxes. it wasn't your business to look through it. neither did you want to.

but still, it lingered in your mind and the box was almost calling to you.

groaning, you ran a hand through your hair and walked over to it, kneeled down and pulled the box closer.

it wasn't taped up; it was hardly closed.

hesitantly grabbing the flaps, you opened it and looked inside.

the box was filled with printed pictures, most of them being of your mom and father.

but one caught your eye.

grabbing it gingerly, you held it up and examined it.

it was a picture of you and your father. he was carrying you on a grassy hill, your small arms wrapped around his neck.

"damn, i look different," you laughed, seeing the big grins on both of your faces.

your hair was long and strawberry blonde, freckles littering across your nose and cheeks.

those freckles had long disappeared, being replaced with a septum piercing and snake bites. your hair was shoulder length now, dyed an artificial red and cut in choppy layers.

your father had dirty blonde hair, a goatee hiding his chin with square glasses on his face.

memories flooded back of your father; memories that had long been buried.

he wasn't a dead beat dad, that is, until he left.

he was actually a really good dad.

you sighed, his image that was burned into your mind changing as you remembered how well he treated you and your mom up until the age of four.

shaking away the thoughts of him, you finished up in the attic and pocketed the picture, closing the door on the roof and going back into the room that would soon be Itsuki's.