Aphmau SMP + My Inner Demons Oneshots (Closed Requests for now)

Powerless (Noi x Pierce Hurt/Comfort)

A/N: yooooo it's around 6 am rn so no beta read, also I got an AO3 where I cross post these stories

'Okay.'

'It's going to work this time, I know it.'

'Just focus.'

Noi was sitting on the chilling marble floor of the pocket dimension within Ava's apartment and had his seemingly charred hands cupped close to his chest, with his usual fingerless gloves thrown to the side. 'All I have to do is focus, right?' He thought to himself. Noi stared down at his hands and strained himself while keeping his hands as still as he could. After a few seconds, a light spark appeared for a flash and then shocked him before disappearing again.

He flinched and winced at the electricity's attack, holding his hands against his chest. He tried to look down and observe the damage, but hid them against his chest once again in slight shame and disgust. He knew he had to do this, but it was really starting to hurt. The fearful thought had settled into his mind that maybe he really was powerless now, ever since he got himself and the other guys to Earth. Noi tried repeatedly for the last few days to regain his powers, even if they were weak, only to be met with burnt fingers and disappointment.

Noi released a shaky sigh and rolled his eyes upward to prevent tears from falling out of his eyes. He continued to have trembling breaths for a while but eventually regained enough of his composure to bring his attention to his gloves. He swallowed before slowly reaching out to his gloves and tried slipping one on, but immediately was sent into excruciating pain and threw it off as quickly as he could. The tears he had worked hard to prevent shedding slipped from his eyes and a whimper escaped his throat.

He hated this. He hated all of it, the pain of his burns, the shameful tearshed, the overwhelming feeling of self-hatred that crawled under his skin like fire ants in the sand. Noi had nothing now, he was nothing now. It's not as if he was ever much of any value, he was always weak and stupid and worthless, only now, he was worse. He at least had his magic, but now with even that gone he was just a liability.

Noi wanted to cry, but he knew that he shouldn't. Not just because of how gross he felt being even more vulnerable than he already was, but because someone was in the apartment with him for the time being and he wasn't going to embarrass himself more than he already had. Noi took the back of his hands and wiped his eyes before carefully placing them in the pockets of his jeans to hide the burns. He stood up from the floor and walked out with the best smile he could muster onto his face. He hoped his face wasn't red enough for anyone to know he was crying.

When Noi walked out of the pocket dimension, he was surprised to find no one there beside himself and Johnny the cat. He remembered Ava shouting about how she was going to the store with some of the guys and one of them was staying with him to help with the cat. He made the assumption that he possibly heard Ava wrong and was actually just alone. Johnny purred and Noi's feet, asking to be pet. Noi's smile became a little more genuine as he looked down at the cat and unconsciously reached a hand down to pet him. Once his skin came into contact with the cat's fur, Noi quickly recoiled back and shouted out, causing Johnny to get startled and run off into Ava's room.

Noi mumbled a curse under his breath while gritting his teeth, attempting to distract himself from the mind-numbing pain on his hand. Just when he thought things couldn't get worse, the front door handle jiggled a bit before opening, revealing Pierce. Noi quickly ducked his hand back into his pocket and brought his fake smile to the surface once more. He mentally prayed to every god he knew that he would be okay.

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Earlier that day, Ava told the guys she was going out to get groceries. This led to Rhys asking if he could tag along and get some ice cream with her, to which she agreed. Such an agreement prompted Asch and Leif to start bickering about also wanting to go outside, eventually forcing Ava to reluctantly bring the two troublemakers with her to the store. She then figured to ask Pierce, to which he declined, wanting to help care for Johnny after growing quite attached to the cat. Noi also declined the offer and insisted he had to do something private for the day. Pierce couldn't help but be slightly curious at Noi's hesitance, but dropped the topic due to it not being too much on his mind.