Into the Human Realm [Book II] Rascal x fem reader

7

"Hey! Give that back right now!"

Rascal giggles, hovering just out of reach from your grasp, a red bra in his hand.

"Silly girl~ telling me not to go through your things~"

You stop to catch your breath, giving up. You glance up at the joker backed into the corner of your ceiling, a red strap entangled in his fingers, dangling it just out of your grasp. Telling Rascal not to snoop is probably the stupidest thing you have ever done.

"Luckily I have a whole drawer of others," you grit your teeth, but you are still unable to mask the smile beginning to form.

"The top left one, I know!"

Part of you still does not believe that this is real, and a part of you that tries rejecting any ounce of joy Rascal brings. Things have changed between the two of you. It has been nearly four years, but now that he knows the truth, you can feel that the chemistry has dulled.

You are pleasantly surprised of his average reaction last night – you know, for Rascal. It silently proves that you have in fact made a difference, something you really had originally longed to do and you try to remain curious as to what will happen next.

It is now the next day, you have decided to give your apartment a clean on your day off. This is especially required now that you have a visitor.

A visitor who is still covered in cuts, bruises and old dirty clothes.

The bodily damage is not healing, which concerns you a little.

Must just be because he is in my universe now.

You hope, anyway.

...

Through the day you learn that the jester still does not require food, but is able to eat when you thought it would help with healing. Rascal was right, but still ate the cracker with the main purpose to prove you wrong.

You also learn that he knows just as much as you do about your flat – where everything is, how everything works, even the fact that the light switch in your bathroom needs exactly five seconds to flicker and finally turn on.

You watch him cautiously throughout the day, and exchange in small talk here and there, but after he messed around in your underwear drawer this morning, there has been little to no messes since. Mostly over the cracker you had to practically beg him to eat just to see if it would help.

There was around an hour in the day that the jester disappeared, probably to scout out the area, but returned soon after when his energy became dangerously low.

To your surprise, the joker even contributed to the general tidying of things, making sure things were in their place.

Secretly you now feel relief as you watch him silently sitting on the couch playing around with his cards, not much energy to do anything like flying or teleporting out of the blue to scare the shit out of you on purpose anymore. He looks drained, and tired. You know he definitely did not get any sleep last night.

Neither did you.

"Phew," you wipe a hand over a sweat-beaded forehead when you complete the last chore, vacuuming.

But there is one last thing you have been putting off.

When you pack up the vacuum cleaner and put it back in the laundry, you halt for a second before approaching Rascal.

He needs a shower to clean the wounds and most definitely wash his hair.

This was not an issue in the Shadow Realm, everyone was always healthy and clean and physical damaged always healed.