Adrastus x reader

Adrastus X Reader CHPT. VII

2645 words

I could tell several hours had gone by seeing as how the sunlight was beaming through the stained glass windows. The muscles in my arms burned and my fingers felt stiff, I had been dusting for what felt like an eternity. I groaned while bending backwards to stretch my back, hearing an audible pop as it bent. I set aside my cleaning utensils to lean against the wall before taking a seat on the floor, my head resting back while my eyes closed. My neck was killing me.
Adrastus was still cleaning across the room from me. Not once did I see the man stop to take a break for the entirety of the night. I could tell he was exhausted by how he was standing and how his eyes could barely stay open. He's sure a trooper, huh. He shot a glance at me and I caught it, making eye contact with him for a short moment before he broke it to return his focus to cleaning. It almost broke my heart seeing him overwork himself when it certainly wasn't necessary.
"Maybe you should take a break." I suggested to him. He turned back to look at me, seeming almost disoriented by merely being addressed. He looked like he was considering my suggestion until he decided to reply.
"I'd rather not put off the work, I'll just get it over with now so it wont inconvenience me later." He turned away again to signify he was ending the interaction, yet I continued to nag.
"And I'd rather you not take on more work than you can handle." I got up to approach him, hoping maybe he'd look at me as I spoke to him.
"I'm handling it just fine." He still didn't look at me. I was only a few feet away from him now. My arms crossed over one another as I raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I highly doubt it would hurt to rest a little. Besides, you said we have an entire month before the Winter Solstice. That's plenty of time." Adrastus looked at me slightly irritated, like he knew I was right but he didn't wanna budge. He looked away and crossed his arms, subconsciously mirroring my pose as he groaned. I was getting fed up.
"Give it a rest for fucks sake!" I suddenly shouted at him. Maybe it would finally get through this time. He snapped his gaze back to face mine with widened eyes, surprised by my sudden demand.
"Watch your tongue, (L/N)." He warned, his words followed by a long sigh.
"Fine. We'll resume our chores tomorrow morning. You and I can go grab a water now if you'd like, is that good enough?" He put his mop down and brushed himself off. He was definitely being salty, yet something made me believe that it was just him having an attitude out of spite rather than being how he actually felt.
"Thats more than enough." I sighed in relief, feeling some of the tension in my body already start to relieve itself.
He walked me down the hall to a living room area that held a few sofas and a tap with filtered water and cups. It looked like a waiting room at a doctors office or something, except this looked a lot fancier with more regal antique designed furniture and architecture. I helped myself to a cup of cold water and took a seat on one of the couches, Adrastus sitting down beside me moments after. He leaned back into the cushions, looking relieved as he closed his eyes and tipped his head back.
"Thank you." I broke the silence. His head rose and he opened his eyes to look at me, confused.
"For what?" He responded.
"For listening to me. I think I would have passed out if I had worked any longer." I lightly chuckled, sipping my water.
It tasted like it was served from the hands of baby Jesus himself, mainly because I was dehydrated but also because the water was just really good.
       "If you needed a break you could've just asked to return to your room." He spoke with an underlying sound of disappointment and what I thought might have been sadness. It suddenly hit me and I immediately felt guilty, as now I felt my actions came off as persuasive and selfish.
"I didn't ask you to rest just to get out of work- Thats not what I meant..."
He looked slightly panicked and embarrassed, as if I had figured him out. He started to stammer for a moment before he spat out a response.
"It doesn't matter I- uh, nevermind." He looked the opposite direction with his hands in his lap. It looked like he still had more to say but he refused to speak. I just sighed and shrugged my shoulders. I was pleasantly surprised to see him being somewhat more expressive in one way or another, even if he was obviously trying to mask it.
My water cup was almost empty at this point so I set it down on the end tale next to me. My eyes wandered back to Adrastus, specifically his hair. It was long, so long that it reached almost below his waist. I noticed how it started to curl slightly at the ends because it was straightened out earlier. It was shiny and healthy too, I could tell it was really well taken care of.
       Impulsively my hand reaches out to feel a piece of his hair. By the time it reached my palm I felt a hand suddenly grab my wrist, making me jump slightly at the sudden movement as my cheeks go red from embarrassment.
"What are you doing?" Adrastus snapped, he seemed visibly defensive at my attempt to touch him. It was alarming but I guess serves me right.
"I'm sorry— I should've asked first." I apologized, he made me feel stupid.
        His mouth hung open for a moment as he squinted his eyes at me, slowly releasing my hand.
     "Can I..?"
I hesitated to check if he'd protest before I ran my fingers through a strand of his hair. He didn't stop me but he seemed really awkward as though he wasn't used to this kind of interaction. There were a few tangles since he hadn't brushed it in a while, so I began lightly combing through them. I was having a blast just finger brushing his long black hair. I felt all warm and giddy inside.
        Adrastus wouldn't look at me the whole time I was feeling his hair, I definitely flustered him a little. I was now determined to remove all the tangles from his hair. He still hadn't cared to look at me, and as an excuse to get him to show his face I turned his head to look at me so I could reach the hair on the other side of his head. Immediately I notice his face is tinted pink and he looked nervous. Nervous mixed with irritated expressions trying cover up how shy he was getting, which he was failing at and he knew it.
"Wrap it up." He mumbled. I then let my hands reach behind his head to brush through the rest of his hair. I heard him sharply inhale as I wrapped my arms around him, pulling our bodies closer together. I started silently panicking as I detangled, not intending this to have gotten so intimate. I feared I might've overstepped. Once I finished up I quickly pulled away my hands and scooted back a little.
      When I separated from him we made eye contact for a long moment. He held a hand over his mouth and his eyes fluttered as he looked away, letting out an elongated exhale as if he'd been holding his breath.
"Was that um... too much?" I mumbled.
It took a moment for any sound to escape his mouth. He avoided eye contact as he choked on his words.
"N- well, uh... don't worry about it." He straightened his posture and stood up from his seating. My eyes followed his movements as he went to refill his water cup. I sat silently with my arms by my side and my hands gripping the fabric of the couch cushion. The clock on the wall read 6 AM. I wasn't sure what the day had in store for me, what new chores I had to finish. I'd ask about it to redirect the attention to that so I wouldn't keep things awkward for too long.
"What uh, what else will we be doing today? For work." Adrastus turned around to face me, calming down when I brought up a new topic.
"Well, we should begin shopping for stuff needed for the party, but I was gonna save that for a different day... Uh," He paused.
"Just forget about it. We should both take the day off." His demeanor visibly changed, now making him seem more relaxed. He pondered for a few moments then spoke again.
"Actually, we might just have one errand we could run today... as long as you're up for it?" I tilted my head, intrigued by the suggestion.
"Of course, what for?" I stood up from the sofa.
"I did say that we could get you a dress for the ball, so why not go today?" My face lit up at the idea. I can't remember the last time I went shopping. He already trusted me to go out in public? Maybe this was just an opportunity to prove myself.
"That- that sounds amazing! You'd really take me? Today?" I couldn't help but smile, my excitement being contagious causing a small smile to creep onto his face as well.
"Perchance." He tried to act nonchalant but he couldn't hide the smile on his face. Adrastus tossed away his water cup and proceeded to approach the door, signaling that I follow.
"If you'll allow me a minute to get ready we can leave at 6:30." I nodded at him and smiled widely. I don't think I could tell you how excited I was. Escaping was the last thing I had on my mind right now.
-
After a 20 minute walk Adrastus and I had made it to the large shopping mall down the road. Still, as usual, he had his arm interlocked with mine the whole walk. This time he was extra cautious since he was taking me out for the first time. I didn't mind at all, I was ecstatic to be outside and most of all to see the mall again. Forever my favorite place to go, even if I'm broke. We entered the indoor mall and to my surprise it wasn't very busy. I couldn't remember what day it was but I could tell it definitely wasn't the weekend, thank god.
"Where are we headed?" I scanned the area, eyeing all the different stores there were for us to go to. As much as I wanted to go to all of them I knew we were here for one thing, so I didn't get too excited.
"Theres a place I know of that you may like." He left it at that and lead me deeper into the building. Only after a few minutes did we reach one of the stores.
As we entered the store my eyes were met with all sorts of fancy attire, from small short dresses and dragging skirts to entire ball gowns. I was in awe. Adrastus released my arm and simply held my hand, our fingers gently interlocking giving me more freedom to look around. He just quietly followed behind me as I had the time of my life sifting through all the clothes. A certain dress had caught my eye as I was looking around; it was mainly purple and it had black and silver accents. It was perfect.
"I think this is the one. What do you think?" I held up the dress to show him.
"Wow. Thats a pretty dress..." He held it to check the price, eyes widening as he did so. Pretty damn expensive that's for sure. He folded it up to hide the tag and handed it back to me, not daring to address the heinous amount it was going to cost him to buy it for me.
"Can I try it on?" I tugged on his hand eagerly. He shrugged his shoulders in response, except he seemed a little reluctant. "I suppose..."
We approached the changing room and one of the associate ladies offered to lead me to a stall to change. Before I could go I felt Adrastus squeeze my hand tighter. When I looked to see what was the matter I saw he was looking at me, disinclined. He was hesitant to let me go on my own obviously out of fear I might run away. I didn't think he was gonna budge until I soon felt him release my hand after he came to his senses. His expression switched to a warm smile and he reassured me to go. I guess he was starting warm up.

When I walked out of that changing room I felt magical. Looking at myself in the mirror felt like I was dreaming. From the lace trim at the bust, to the slit tracing from the top of my thigh down to my ankles. I loved it. Even the associate lady started hyping me up.
"Babe, you look absolutely stunning. Your man is gonna lose his pants when he sees you." She joked, nudging me with a grin.
"Woah woah woah, we're not in a relationship or anything. He's just buying me a dress for the winter solstice." I chuckled awkwardly. The lady looked at me with her nose scrunched as she crossed her arms.
"No way. You're in denial." She shook her head, placing a hand on my shoulder before going on to lecture me.
"First of all, the winter solstice ball is the nicest annual event in the city, and he's taking you with him? Not only that, but no man is tryna spend a thousand euros on a dress for a woman he isn't in love with. Have you lost your goddamn mind, miss girl?"
I was speechless, I had nothing to say. She had a point but I sure was in denial. But then my mouth hung open in utter shock.
"I gues- wait... this dress is ONE GRAND??"
The lady smirked at me, pulling out the price tag to double check.
    "Oh no, its well over actually." She giggled. I took off the dress with the help of the associate before emerging from the fitting rooms. When I spotted Adrastus outside waiting for me he had a bag in his hand.
    "The dress fit you right? do you need a different size?" I couldn't stop glancing at the bag in his hand out of curiosity.
   "It was a perfect fit" I made a thumbs up with my hand and smiled. He handed me the bag he was holding, when I looked inside I saw a delectable looking chocolate frosted donut wrapped in a napkin. It smelled amazing.
     "You got this for me..?" I was taken aback. All he did was show me a smile and take my hand. When we checked out to pay for the dress I made eye contact with the lady from the fitting room. She winked at me and waved goodbye, I waved back at her before exiting the store.
      I ate the donut as we walked through the mall to the exit. It was the best snack I've had in ages. I could tell Adrastus had changed today, at least the way he expressed himself around me. For the first time in a while I felt special, and that meant more to me than I thought.