Michael Afton x Reader (The Return/Stay By My Side 2)

𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝟣𝟥: 𝑅𝑜𝓈𝑒 𝒢𝑜𝓁𝒹

𝓨/𝓝'𝓼 𝓹𝓸𝓿:

𝐼 𝒹𝒾𝒹𝓃'𝓉 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝒶𝓈 𝐼 𝓈𝓉𝑜𝑜𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒, staring at the two gravestones, one right next to the other. One of them said, "MICHAEL AFTON" and the other said "HENRY EMILY." A part of me was confused. Another part of me was devastated. And another part of me was angry, both with me and with him. With the pain I was in, I didn't even want to exist. I wished I were the one dead instead of him.

"Are you okay, y/n?"

I turned around to see the only two people I had left: Chris and Clara. They looked almost as devastated as I assume I looked.

I didn't respond, I just turned back to the two gravestones.

"It's not fair," Chris said with a shaky breath. "He went above and beyond to bring us back to life only to die in a fire. How did the fire even start?"

"We've gone over this, Chris," Clara began. "Nobody knows. But let's not focus on that right now. Let's just focus on... remembering them."

"I shouldn't have let him go to work that day," I mumbled. "I tried so hard to stop him. I really really did. But he was so persistent. He wouldn't listen to me. I grabbed him, I yelled at him, and I begged him to stay. But I didn't try hard enough."

"You didn't know, y/n," Clara insisted, gently putting a hand on my shoulder.

"I could take a hunch!" I snapped. It was probably the first time I ever raised my voice at her. "I knew something was wrong! But I didn't try hard enough to stop him!"

"It's not your fault, y/n," Chris said.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," I mumbled, starting to cry. "We were supposed to grow old together. We were supposed to get married, have a family, and die in a nursing home together. He wasn't supposed to die in his early twenties while I stand here and sob over his gravestone! He had so much to live for. In my mind, I had practically planned out our whole wedding."

"He did too, y/n," Clara whispered.

I sniffed and somewhat angrily turned around to look at her. "And how do you know that?"

Clara cleared he throat awkwardly. "Well... I know this is something you probably didn't want to receive from your mother-in-law..." she paused. "Well, almost mother-in-law." Was that "almost" really necessary? "But about a month before the pizzeria opened, he told me he wanted to marry you."

"He did?"

"Yeah." She smiled softly. "He picked out a ring and everything."

𝓒𝓵𝓪𝓻𝓪'𝓼 𝓹𝓸𝓿 (𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓸𝓾𝓼𝓵𝔂):

"𝒴𝑜𝓊'𝓇𝑒 𝒶 𝑔𝒾𝓇𝓁, so you know what girls like. What would she like?"

I laughed. "Michael, she's your girlfriend. Don't you know anything about what she likes?"

He paused awkwardly. "Uh..."

I let out a small chuckle "You're just like your father. He always wanted to remember the little things I liked, but could never—"

Michael interrupted me by clearing his throat angrily, and I looked back at him to see that his expression had immediately changed to an angry one as he stood there with his arms crossed.

"Honey, that's not what I meant," I sighed. "I'm sorry."

He gave me a nod. "Thank you."