Sahed x Y/n (gender neutral) (from Marionetta Webtoon)

☆ Part 7 ☆

After the craziest dinner you'd ever been to, you went back to your room to finish painting the last few puppets that Kamille had given to you. It took a while to get them all done but you thought they looked pretty good. You carefully loaded them all back into the box that you had received them in, then made your way back to Kamille's workshop. The door was partially open and the same glow from earlier streamed from the room. You knocked gently to let her know you were there and the door creaked open a little further, revealing a very tired Kamille.

"Oh... hi there!" She sat up quickly, it appeared that she had fallen asleep right at her work table.

"Sorry to wake you... um, I finished the puppets like you asked" you held out the box to show her.

"Oh my gosh! Those are amazing, though I thought it would take you a few days. You must've spent all day on those" she admired your work.

You felt a little bit silly for thinking you had to finish all of them in one day, but you had also been worried that you would disappoint her, so it was good to know you didn't have to do all that every day.

She told you that you didn't have to do any tomorrow since you finished all of these today. She also told you that tomorrow you should go watch the show or go to the party or something to get to know the others better. You thanked her and went back to your room, tired and ready to go to sleep.

As you got ready for bed, you attempted to scrub some of the paint off of your hands. You then remembered how Sahed's matched yours because you had put paint on his too, and debated if it would be weird to go say goodnight to him. He was one of the two people you actually sort of knew in the circus. You mulled it over for a moment before deciding against it, you didn't want to be annoying or clingy and you were also already in your pajamas.

Once you laid down in bed you thought about your family again. You had been so busy all day that you didn't even think of how they must be feeling right now, unsure of where you were or if you were ok. You felt guilty for disappearing on them like that. You couldn't seem to shut your brain off now, which meant that you wouldn't be falling asleep for a while. You decided to get up and go for a walk around the circus since you couldn't sleep and needed a distraction from your thoughts.

The circus had a completely different feel in the late part of the night. The halls were now quiet and dim, very different from how lively they had been all day. Now all the loud, showoff-ish performers were tucked away sleeping for the night and only bits of moonlight shone through the occasional window. You knew that this place was literally magic, but there was a different sort of magic to it as well, you roaming the halls all on your own in this huge circus. You had no idea where you were going but really didn't care, you walked around aimlessly, taking in the beauty of the giant circus that was now your home. You really felt like a character from some sort of novel, like you needed background music and a fancy outfit to run the halls in. You didn't need a fancy outfit or song to explore though, you ran the halls anyway, not worried about getting lost for once. It didn't matter, you didn't have anywhere to be, it was just you and the silent circus.

You slowed down as you came to a turn in the hallway, the moonlight becoming even more faint. You could barely see so you put your hand on the wall as you rounded the corner. As you followed the wall around to the next hallway you collided with something.. someone actually. It seemed they had the same idea as you.

"Hmf! What the?... oh hey y/n" Sahed caught you by the shoulders as you ran into him. You just now realized how much shorter than him you were when you had to stare up at him. The little bit of light shone off his eyes and made him look quite mysterious.

"Not a sleeper I see" he laughed, you and him were the only people still awake at this hour.

"Couldn't sleep, couldn't stop thinking more so" you fixed your hair a little bit, suddenly conscious of your appearance. Perhaps running the halls in your pajamas wasn't the best move after all.

"Hmm... about what?" He asked, still holding on to you.

"All of this I guess. I'd been too busy to think about reality, and the fact that this is my life for the rest of forever" you explained, glancing at his tattooed arms as he kept holding onto you.

Apparently you hadn't been very inconspicuous because he noticed and quickly let go, running a hand through his hair to play it off.

"That's quite existential, which is fair. It's a lot to take in at first" he added the second part almost like an afterthought, realizing that he'd been too blunt at first.

"Haha yeah sorry. It just kind of re-sunk in that I basically just disappeared and nobody will ever know what happened to me" you looked at the wall, trying to hide the fact that it was upsetting you.

"Well uh, if it makes you feel any better, they'll probably just assume you're dead... or that you ran away or something" he knew that wasn't helpful the second it left his mouth but it was too late.

"Both are technically true I guess" you laughed a little bit.

"I'm sorry, I'm terrible at this. That was probably super unhelpful" he scratched the back of his neck and looked away. Seeming to drop his usual cool and confident persona for once.

"It's fine, how about a new topic, what are you doing out at this time?" You were glad to change the subject, wanting to be distracted once more.

"Also couldn't sleep, though I do this often. I just get up and walk until I'm tired. In fact I think I do this every night at this point" he laughed at the last part.

"Not last night" you pointed out.

"Not last night, you're right. That was the exception" he agreed. Just then the door near you guys flew open, revealing a very sleepy looking Dotty, who also seemed quite displeased.

"Can the two of you please do whatever *this* is not outside my door please, I'm trying to sleep. Actually you should too! Go to bed kids" she scolded before shutting the door again.

"Oops" he laughed again. He seemed to be doing that a lot. It was kind of cute... 'no no focus y/n' you scolded yourself mentally as well, now was not the time from noticing things like that. You needed to get back to sleep before you bothered anyone else.

"Well I suppose we should probably go then" you turned to leave but quickly realized that you had not a clue where you were and he noticed as well.

"Yes... are you lost?" He smirked. (Why is he always smirking??)

"I wouldn't say lost, maybe, um, not exactly sure where I am or where I'm going but uh, ok yeah lost" you gave up on trying to word it more eloquently, you were in fact lost and both of you knew it.

"Alright let's go" he took your arm and led you to your room. You felt a bit like a small child or just an idiot as he guided you there and it was hard to tell if your face was red from embarrassment or something else. He was quite touchy and didn't seem to take any notice of it.

He let go of your arm once you were at the door of your own room and said goodnight. You said the same to him and thanked him for helping you yet again before going into your room. You walked over to your bed then fell back onto it, picking up your little clown doll and holding it in your arms as you fell asleep. Now as you tried to fall asleep you kept thinking of all the stuff you noticed about him.

The way his eyes looked in that lighting, the way you guys ran into each other, how he laughed, smirked, smiled, how he held your arm. You had definitely managed to distract yourself from the other topic, that's for sure. You felt a little dumb for noticing all of that just because you ended up running into him, but little did you know he was doing the same thing.

[AN: exploring a fancy building at night>>>]