Thriving Heart (Zenix x Reader) |Book Two| [HOLD]

In His Arms

Y/N's POV

Laurence and I are following the address, not really knowing where we are in the city. We left a note on Garroth's forehead that told him we were gone, but maybe we should've left the address on the note too. 2095 Raven Drive. We are on Birch Lane, looking for the intersection.
"THERE!" Laurence points to a quiet intersection and we run on the sidewalk to the crosswalk. "Birch Road continues down that way and the other road is Sapphire Boulevard. If we go down Sapphire then Raven Drive should be a side road on the left side." We cross the crosswalk.
"Wow... you know your stuff around here..."
"A little bit," Laurence shrugs, "I used to  help deliver people they're things in my car a long time ago, so I got places. It was a pretty fun job." We got to the corner and crossed the road again, getting onto Sapphire Boulevard. "What do you want as a job?"
"I honestly don't know... I haven't really thought about it..."
"Well, you probably should," Laurence mentions.
"I knoooooow," I groan, and he laughs. Now we are walking on the sidewalk again, walking next to the cars as they pass by, but not many do. "How come this is such a quiet intersection?"
"Not many workplaces are here. It's weird that Zenix would have a job in this area since most of it is housing and personal businesses. Like over there," Laurence points to a tinted yellow house with faded yellow accents and a huge porch that leads to brown double doors. "That's someone's house that they live in, but they do tattoos, earrings, and hair dye. I had to come down to this residence for my old job."
"Huh. So do you think Zenix's job could be a personal business job?" I ask. I decided to bring Zenix's sweatshirt with us, so I'm clutching it tightly to my chest.
"That would be strange if it was," Laurence answers, "Most people in this residence of personal businesses don't hire people." Laurence takes the note with the address on it out of his pocket. "And this says it's down an alleyway." I try to think of things Zenix could be and too many things come to my mind. Ugh, why didn't I just ask him?! He would've probably answered... I guess what I was worried about was him procrastinating and then never telling me. He's done it before...

"Zenix!" I called to him from downstairs, "You coming?" He hadn't answered, so I climbed up the stairs and knocked on his door, "Zenix?" I heard a lot of banging before he opened the door, his hair messed up and a cut on his lip. I had freaked out a little bit.
"I'm okay," he had said, calming me down as I stood on my tip-toes, fixing his hair softly with my hands.
"What happened?" I asked and his eyes suddenly brightened and his heart started beating faster and I could feel it on my fingertips that rested on his shoulder. He bit his lip and winced,
"OH IRENE... th-that hurt... I'm going to g-go put some ointment on that..." He rushed away from me and quietly shut the door to the bathroom.

As I release myself from the memory I remember that all that had happened was that he had been getting some books from his closet when I had knocked on his door and scared him, making him crash into the wall and a book cut his lip. He didn't want me to feel bad about it, and I know I'm not heartless, but I started chuckling and he joined me. We laughed for a while before I moved the bangs out of his face and told him that he didn't have to hide things from me. Just nodding and smiling, I saw a sparkle of trust in his eyes. Now as Laurence and I are walking down the alleyway, I realize that Zenix promised to not keep things from me. He had trusted me. So why are we going to look for where he works when he clearly trusts me and I trust him?! I'm about to swing my arm out to the side to stop Laurence in his tracks and punch him in the gut, but he says,
"Here's the alleyway." I look at the house next to it and it's the right address, but I feel myself second guessing. I'm not even looking down the alley as I nod to Laurence and walk down into it. It's a little dark and misty, the air staying the same quality. We walk down, bodies close since we can't really be any farther apart, when my knees bump into a fence and I scream, falling forward and scraping my chin on some grass, dirt splashing into my eyes. "Y/N!!!" Laurence calls out, but I don't move when I feel a strange tingling on my forehead. What is licking my head?! I smell the breath as it clouds my nose and realize it's a dog. Looking up, I see familiar black sneakers that are covered in dirt and grass at the souls and at the bottom. The red accents are faded, but I still know who's they are. A hand grabs onto mine and lifts me off the ground, my knees getting a bit dirty as I get to my feet. Eyes meeting my husband's, I say absolutely nothing. But Zenix just smirks,
"I see you found my sweatshirt."
"Y-yeah..." I hold it out to him and Laurence places the sticky note with the address back into the pocket. Zenix takes it, putting it around my shoulders instead of on himself and I clutch it tightly.
"So... this is where you work...?" Laurence asks, "You raise a puppy?" Zenix shakes his head, clapping his hands and the puppy coming into his arms.
"Technically I don't have a job..." Zenix answers, walking toward us with the brown and black puppy in his arms. "Before we left for Love~Love Paradise, I worked for an industrial company. I was a manager for my department and got paid pretty well," Zenix explains, "But the company was losing money and released all of the people I managed of they're jobs, therefore making me useless. They said there was no other job I could have, so I've been searching for a bit now." Zenix pets the puppy's head. "So I found a stray cat on the sidewalk one time and gave her some of my lunch. I named her Darkness because she was completely black. I considered naming her Midnight because of her yellow eyes, but that sounds like a horse's name."
"So what did you do with Darkness?" I ask.
"At first I started raising her here until I ran out of lunch to share, so that's when I took her to the shelter. They said she had a broken paw and that's when I realized her limps. They assumed it was from a car."
"That's unfortunate," Laurence looks at the ground.
"Quite. The shelter said I could continue to find cats and dogs for they're shelter and raise them a bit before taking them to the shelter. They pay me an okay amount, but I'm still looking for a permanent job. At the moment I have Graze," he pets the dog's head, "and Raindrop."
"Is there another dog?" I ask and Zenix shakes him head, putting Graze onto the ground. He whistles and calls her name and out from under the fence comes a shiny silver kitten that could fit well in my arms. Raindrop's fur is smooth and her tail is fluffy, swaying back at fourth as she walks. And then I see her leg. Her left-back leg. It's gone. A small gasp escapes me and Raindrop rubs against my legs, limping.
"She was from some nearby construction..." Zenix mentions dully, looking down, "they crushed her leg. I had to do a little amputating, so I left my sweatshirt at home since I got blood on it." Raindrop continues to rub against me, a purr in her throat. She looks up at me and I look down at her. And I think my world is crazy. At least both me and Raindrop found Zenix to be held in his arms.

Thank you so much for reading this LONG chapter! I hope your okay with it being very long... I could've legit made two chapters out of it, but I didn't want a cliff-hanger! A new chapter will be out soon!
Nya,
Soccerkitty7