Lost Love || Book 1 || Sylus x Reader || LADS Fanfiction

44. Protect the Weak

As the memory fades, I notice that my cheeks are wet from crying. I don't know how long we were sitting on that bench in the park reliving our memories, by now the sky is pitch black, billions of stars shining upon us.

I look at Sylus who sits next to me. His eyes are closed, and it seems he tries to hold back the tears as he relived the memory with me. As his eyes open again, I see the tears glistening. I reach out and gently cup his cheek in my palm. One single tear escapes his eyes, running down his cheek and vanishing in my palm leaving a warm wet feeling. He covers my hand with his palm, pressing his cheek against my hand. His features soften.

"I have fallen for you that day back then, little Kitten." His gaze is intense as he looks into my eyes. "You have captured my heart by storm. You were my light in the darkness, a glimpse of hope in a place filled with pain and despair." His voice is filled with awe and love for me, but as he continues a hint of annoyance is mixed in. "But you did not feel the same way back then."

"We were friends, and I wanted to protect you. You were so innocent back then." I look up at the adult version of Sylus. He is no longer soft and innocent. As Sylus nods silently, I see the wave of nostalgia washing over him. "You were always trying to protect me, even though you were so small. You had a fierce determination even back then." He says, his voice rough with emotion, his eyes showing amusement.

I summarize the facts of what I discovered so far, now with an adult view of the situation back then instead of the eyes of a little girl. "So, I lived in a laboratory because of my heart condition, and a man named Dr. Zayne treated me, but it did not look good for me. I recall that I had several attacks back then. The scientists tried to save my life. And it seems that they succeeded. Lucky me." I grin silly, trying to ease the uneasy feeling inside my chest.

"There is more to it, Kitty." Sylus finally continues, looking into the night sky, his gaze directed at the universe. "They wanted to use my power to create a powerful weapon." His meaningful gaze wanders back to me, the atmosphere becoming tense.

"What do you mean?" I ask confused but in the back of my mind I feel that Sylus is right, that I am still missing important parts of my memory. As I try to recall more from that time in the lab, my head starts to hurt, and I flinch. Sylus gently pats my head. "We can dive into that next time. Now you should rest."

Instead, I try to focus on something in the present. "The labs we are talking about. It reminds me of the secret labs involving Mr. Moriarty which we discovered. I investigated the case after the events of the ball. It seems they still do experiments on kids, like they did to us back then."

My gaze shifts to Sylus, his expression is hard. "That's why we were at the charity ball in the first place, right? You are trying to hunt down the people responsible for what happened to us?" Sylus silently nods, his gaze fixed on my face with a worried expression. "I know it's a lot to process. Take your time."

But instead of resting, I am already planning my next steps. "I think I must go back to the hunter base, Sylus. I need to investigate further in the cases of the secret labs." Sylus opens his mouth to respond, but I firmly put my hand on his lips.

"But that means you can't come with me. Xavier is already suspicious about your identity. He is my co-worker, and he lives next door. It would be too dangerous for you to stay with me. You should stay in the N109 Zone keeping a low profile for a while. I don't want them to catch you."

"I don't like that, Kitten." Sylus wraps his arms around me, pulling me into a tight embrace, holding me close. I feel his warmth seeping through our clothes, his heartbeat against my own chest. Boom-boom-boom... it seems like he will never let go of me.

We are disturbed by a quite 'meow' and Sylus and I part slightly, looking down at my feet. At my ankle is a little kitten, purring and snuggling against my leg. "Hello there, little kitty." Sylus smiles and reaches out to gently stroke the cat, but as his fingers approach her, she hisses and scratch his hand.

"Oh no, are you okay." I grab his hand and inspect his wound. It already healed. "No, it's fine." Even though the kitten just scratched Sylus, he looks in admiration at the little cat, which fur is standing up, hissing at him in fear. "She looks like you, Kitty." His gaze swifts to me and back to the hissing cat.

He reaches behind his back, grabbing a stick. "You will not hurt her for scratching you, will you?" I look at him with wide eyes and he looks at me with true hurt in his eyes. "I am not a monster, Kitty."

Then, he uses the stick to play with the kitten. At first, she is still wary, but soon she is curious what Sylus is doing with the stick, drawing circles on the ground, and then she starts to chase the end of the stick. I look at him in awe, as he chuckles at the playful cat with a deep warmth in his eyes. My heart grows as I take in the sight.

But then his gaze suddenly turns serious. "She's hurt." He points out as he sees that the paw of the kitten seems to be injured. "Oh no... poor thing. Maybe she was afraid of you because she got hurt earlier." My eyes widen as Sylus pulls his shirt over his head. The night is chilly, but it seems not to bother him in any way. He carefully wraps the little kitten into his shirt, holding her gently against his chest.

"Sylus, what are you up to with that little kitten?" Disbelieve swings in my voice as I look at him confused. "I will take care of her, what else? She's hurt." He just shrugs and raising an eyebrow at me, as if it is obvious what he was up to, patting the cat's head that grew fond of him in no time.

"You really have a kind heart." I mumble and I see a blush crossing his face, before he turns away from me. "The weak need to be protected." He simply says, starting to walk back to his motorcycle. I hurry to catch up with him.

"I accept your decision. I will bring you back to your apartment tonight and you can investigate and work as much as you want. I don't like to be apart from you, but I will not force you to stay with me. But under one condition." He starts to talk as he walks the way back to his motorbike. But then he turns around to look at me.

"Mephisto will keep an eye on you. And here's my mobile phone, I want to reach you whenever I miss you and vice versa. I have plenty, so just keep it. There is a tracker in my collar, and the mobile is connected to it. You will always know where I am." I smirk at his resumed stalker behavior, but I know it's to keep me safe and sound. "Yes, that's fine by me."

As we reach the place, where Lily was parked, my eyes widen in shock. Lily is gone. What happened? "What the...?" Sylus's voice is irritated, looking up and down the street for his beloved motorcycle and then his gaze falls upon me. "Linkin City is more dangerous than the whole N109 Zone... for the first time, I think the security in the N109 Zone is kind of okay."

"Oh well... that sucks." I mutter, afraid of what Sylus will do to the idiot that had the idea to steal the motorcycle of someone like Sylus. Poor guy.

"I guess we have to take a walk to your apartment, and me and little kitty can stay overnight?" I am surprised by his calm, even amused, expression. Sylus looks adorable holding the little kitten close to his body, and at the same time incredible hot, while standing there topless. "Aren't you cold?" I ask, laying my arm around his bare back to warm him a little. "Just a little. You can warm me up later, little kitten." Sylus cocky grin is back, and I admit that I missed it.