Pull the trigger (Norman x Ray)

Chapter 8 (Norman) ♧︎

"So you like cats?" I asked Ray. He was lying on his bed while I was sitting at my desk.

"What?" Ray looked at me in confusion.

"Your report says that you like cats." I tossed the folder to him.

"Why does this report know more about me than I do?" He laughed and showed me the section about his favorite foods. "How does one know what my favorite flavor is!?"

"Honestly, that report had some weird stuff. It made me question what type of people my dad works with. Like who did he pay to find all this stuff about you?"

"I have many enemies. He could have reviewed my records to find out who hated me enough to share useless information." 

"I wouldn't call all of it useless." I smiled, getting up and walking towards the raven-haired boy. "At least I know where to take you if we ever go out." Ray's cheeks quickly turned a light shade of pink. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. It seemed so easy to make him flustered. 

"Norman..." His soft voice pulled me out of my thoughts. "Why do you make me feel like this?" Ray covered his face with his hands before looking back up at me.

"Feel like what?" I questioned, getting worried at his tone of voice.

"Weak. Vulnerable. Scared." He sighed, continuing, "I've never felt this way before. Don't get me wrong, I have liked people before. But it's just that I've never had to do anything with attachments. I just had fake relationships to get through missions. With you, it's different. With you, it's scary. I've liked people, but the life I have never allowed me to pursue them further. Falling in love always ends with someone getting hurt. I'm not scared of getting hurt. I'm scared of hurting you, Norman. I'm scared that I'll do something to push you over the edge. I don't want to hurt you. I don't want you to leave."

Wow, I feel like that's the most truth I've heard from him.

"That's normal, Ray." I tilted his chin up so I could see his dark eyes. "New things force you to feel that way. I like you a lot. And I'm pretty sure that you like me too. But I'm not going to force you to confess or jump into a relationship with you. You're not ready, and honestly, I'm not ready either. However, I don't want to lose you. I want to help you. You probably have a deadline for this mission right? You have to kill me before a certain time otherwise you'll be in trouble with your boss. If we find a way to get you out of the Red Hearts, maybe you can finally have a normal life." 

"What about your dad?"

"Ehh, who cares. What's he going to do? Disown me?" 

"I was thinking more about how he could kill you. But sure." Ray rolled his eyes.

"Wait, do you think my dad would kill me?" I was actually worried now. There's no way my dad would try to kill me. I'm his only kid!

"Well, I've never met your dad. My boss seems to think he's some crime lord or something. But, if you think your dad wouldn't care to kill you, then maybe you're right. He is your dad." He shrugged.

"We'll deal with my dad later. Let's focus on our classes and work out something to deal with your boss." I smiled, reassuring the beautiful boy in front of me that everything would be ok even if I was internally panicking about everything.

"Alright, fine, but I have a question."

"What question?"

"When you switched my classes, you changed them all to yours. I just thought you were just obsessed with me, but you did it to make killing me easier, right?"

"You caught on to that?"

"I mean, yea. How could I not? There was a Jack Frost-looking guy in all of my classes, so it made sense. My point is, you indirectly made my job easier too."

"First off, I do not look like Jack Frost!"

"Sure," he giggled quietly. I felt a smile creeping onto my face when I heard him.

"And second, holy shit, I did."

"Am I your first mission, Norman?"

"How could you tell?" I mumbled in annoyance, thinking of my stupid mistake.

"Well, trying to make your mission easier is a rookie mistake. If you made your mission easier, you indirectly made it easier for the other person to either get you first or you're letting the other person escape faster. For example, what if I wasn't trying to kill you? I still would have noticed you in all my classes, and I would notice that you would always approach me when I was alone. That would give me the hint to get away from you because changing my classes to yours would give me the idea that maybe you're trying to hurt me."

"Woah, you're pretty good as this."

"I've been trained..." Ray trailed off as if he were thinking of something. "Hey, Jack Frost, were you ever trained?"

"I was for a while, but it was more for fighting. I didn't learn much about stalking someone before you kill them or how to get more info about a person just by looking at them."

"You never learned to analyze someone? That's weird. Why would your dad send you to kill a trained assassin as your first mission?"

We looked at each other for a couple of minutes before realization hit us smack in the face. Or mostly me because I was the one who screamed out, "He's trying to get me killed!" 

"Norman! Shut up!" 

"How am I supposed to shut up after finding out that my dad was trying to get me killed by a really cute assassin!" 

"Did you just call me cute?" Ray looked at me in shock. 

"Yes, Ray, I did. But this isn't about you right now! My dad wanted me dead!"

"Well, this is going to be a long night." Ray sighed, "Norman, chill the fuck out. We'll deal with this together. Also, your screaming is making my ears hurt!"

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just freaking out. How about we get some rest and deal with all this tomorrow?"

"That works for me. If your dad calls, just act normally and pretend that you're making progress on trying to kill me." Ray ordered.

"And if your uncle calls, then just pretend that you're almost ready to kill me! Oh, yea! I had a feeling that your uncle wasn't really your uncle."

"I guess you're not that stupid after all?" Ray laughed when I tackled him to the ground. We wrestled for a bit before stopping and getting off each other. 

"We'll figure this out, yea?" I reached for his hand to squeeze it.

"Yea. We just need an actual plan. I've made tons of escape plans. How hard could this one be?" He squeezed my hand harder.