Beneath Their Devotion (Yanderes x Reader)

2.7 Early Bird

The halls of Thornebridge had quieted into their usual hush. The eerie kind of stillness that never felt entirely empty. Y/N walked alone, her footsteps a soft cadence against the worn stones. The morning light filtered through the halls, dust drifting lazily theough the air. There was a peculiar weight to the silence here.

Y/N turned the corner and nearly collided with Rory. Rory's eyes widened in surprise. Then, slowly, she smiled. It was a smile that was all teeth and no depth.

"Well, if it isn't the heroine herself," she said, the words light but curiously edged. "Y/N. Making rounds?"

Y/N blinked, caught off guard. "I'm just walking."

Rory stepped forward. She looked better than she had during the last meeting. She seemed more composed, the usual energy in her shoulders returned, but there was something brittle in her eyes. Something that hadn't been there before. Something that didn't quite belong.

"I never said thank you," Rory continued, her tone oddly sincere now. "What you did, that was brave."

Y/N shifted slightly. "There's no need to thank me."

Rory cocked her head, smile tightening. "Sure there is. You stepped up when the rest of us did nothing. That kind of thing usually earns at least a nod. You even got to join me in the inner circle."

"I didn't do it because of that."

"No," Rory said, her voice dipping, "but you received everything you needed in the end."

She held Y/N's gaze for a beat too long before glancing away, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She seemed suddenly restless, like her skin didn't quite fit.

"I'm on cleaning duty," Rory said, shifting the conversation abruptly, smiling softly. "Mop and bucket, second-floor corridor. You'd think with all the nonsense they drill into us here, they could invent a less mediaeval way to sanitise the place."

"Sounds like hell," Y/N offered, her voice flat with a tired kind of sympathy.

Rory shrugged lightly. "I've had worse. We all have, now." She started walking, then paused just a few steps past Y/N. "You haven't had to go back, have you? Cleaning duty?"

Y/N hesitated. "No."

"Huh," Rory said, without looking back. "Must be nice."

There was no bite in her voice. But it, nonetheless, settled uncomfortably in Y/N's chest as Rory strode off without waiting for a response.

She stood alone for a long moment, watching Rory disappear down the long hall.

Y/N hadn't really thought about it before—how after she fainted that one time with Ren, no one ever called her back to cleaning duty or any other type of duty. She had noticed others still filing in, but she... seemed to float above it. Like she'd been given a different set of rules.

Privileges, she thought bitterly. The privileges of whatever-the-hell is wrong with you.

She started walking again, the quiet pressing in once more. Thankfully, there was no sign of anyone else in the halls. But Rory's words lingered in her mind.

Must be nice.

———

Rory walked briskly, shoulders tight and breath sharp in her throat. The hall behind her was empty now. Y/N's figure had long vanished. But her words still echoed in Rory's skull.

There's no need to thank me.

No need.

No. There was definitely no need.