Through Heaven or Hell (William Macbeth X Female Reader)

Secrets

(Y/N) leaned against the window, watching cars whiz by on the streets below. She ran a hand through her now-messy hair, pushing it from her face. Taking deep breaths, she rubbed at her sternum, where a dull pain persisted.

She was frustrated at herself. Honestly, she should have payed attention to Steven and stayed away from all of the fighting. She could feel the uncomfortable, if unfortunately familiar, pain beginning to spread through her body. Soon, she knew, it would begin to feel like a fire burning away at all of her nerve endings.

Although, she wasn't completely sure if she would've changed her actions had she gone back in time. She saved Steven and K.K. and she managed to meet somebody around her own age. Somebody cute, surprisingly.

Sighing, she shook her head. She had better things to do than think of random people she met in the street. If she kept that up, she'd have no room for work.

"You okay, (Y/N)?" Steven inquired idly as he scribbled something down on a sheet of paper. "Thinking of your new boyfriend?" He looked up finally as he said this, giving her a mischievous grin.

She scoffed. "Yeah, right. Like I'd have time to get a boyfriend."

Raising a brow, Steven returned to his paperwork. Idly, he said, "That's surprising, given the fact that you were flirting with him rather openly."

"It's not flirting. It's called being polite. Like you'd know what that is," she muttered sullenly, curling up in her seat, pressing against it.

He snorted. "Right. Whatever floats your boat, (L/N)."

They had fallen into a long, comfortable silence when pain suddenly spiked in her head, causing her to cry out. She pitched forward, holding her pulsing head in her hands. She took deep breaths to keep the pain at bay.

It looked like the fiery pain was going to come sooner than she had thought.

"Something wrong, (Y/N)?" Steven asked in a concerned voice, pushing himself back from the table.

She didn't respond for a couple of seconds. However, once the pain subsided, she sighed. Then she straightened, slightly alarmed. Whenever she was hit by a flare, she generally forgot all about her surroundings. Which meant that Steven was now worried and curious. That wasn't a good combination.

"Uh, y-yeah," she stammered unconvincingly. She shook her head slightly, trying to clear out the remaining ache - as if she could do anything about it.

Steven leaned back in his chair, fixing (Y/N) with a concerned look. "Are you sure about that?" His voice held a note of humor, despite the expression on his face.

He's trying to calm me down, (Y/N) realized.

"Yes, I'm positive." She sounded certain, even though she didn't feel certain. Somehow, she managed to keep the stutter from her words.

"You're lying," he replied calmly.

She startled slightly at his words. She had been so smooth with the execution of her words! How could he have been able to tell?

Pushing himself up, he made his way to (Y/N)'s side. She tracked his movements with wary eyes.

"What are you doing?" she asked, suspicion evident in her voice.

Steven laughed and ruffled her hair in a brotherly fashion. "Nothing. I just wanted to sit next to you."

(Y/N) narrowed her eyes, but she ended up saying, "Okay."

She didn't know what to expect based on his actions. There were two options: one being that he was going to pressure her into telling him the truth (heaven knows how he was so certain that she was lying to him) or he was going to prank her. It wouldn't be out of the ordinary, honestly. The two of them used to have competitions to see who could pull the best pranks. Of course, they had to stop after a while, once they got caught. Klaus hadn't exactly been appreciative of their actions.

Steven simply chuckled at her suspicious gaze.

(Y/N) furrowed her brows, but decided to return to her work. The dull ache had increased tenfold since the flare, so she tried to subtly ease the ache by lightly rubbing circles over the spot.

Soon, his smile faded as he watched her continue to rub the painful spot in her chest.

"It hurts you even to just run now." It wasn't a question. There was a note of understanding in his voice as well.

It made (Y/N) nervous - Surely he doesn't know. That talk we had was just precautionary - it was for everyone! - but she still looked at him with wide, falsely-innocent eyes.

"I have no clue what you're talking about," she said sweetly. Despite her tone, however, she felt anxiety at the thought that even Steven was worried about her now.

Steven exhaled in frustration. "Please don't play around. I know about your situation back at Angelus." He sounded serious, too serious. He was never serious - at least, not like this.

(Y/N) felt like she had been punched in the stomach. All of her plans of being secretive flew out the window. If he knew...

"Y-you do? You know what I did?" She felt vulnerable, like somebody just walked in on her naked. She had tried so hard to keep her history at Angelus a secret, yet here Steven was, telling her that he knew everything that had happened. She wanted to go jump out the window.

"(Y/N), calm down. Your older sister was the one who told me." Steven watched (Y/N) carefully, his brown eyes full of worry and care. "She was scared for you, after what happened -"

"Oh yeah, like Nessa ever cared," she scoffed, interrupting Steven. "You know what? I don't want to talk about it. You know what's happening, right? Just don't tell anybody, okay? I don't want everybody to look at me with... with that disgust and anger. I just want them to be happy. Get it?"

Steven frowned. If (Y/N) had watched him closer, she'd know that it was frown of slight confusion.

"Fine," he agreed, "but on one condition."

Looking up at him with tired eyes, (Y/N) indulged him. "Yeah? What is it?"

"You have to let me help you."

"Fine," (Y/N) sighed, even though she didn't intend on letting him help.

Steven levelled her with a significant look, knowing exactly what she was thinking. Again, she didn't know how he could tell. He must've picked up on another one of her fidgets she did whenever she wasn't being truthful - although, not even (Y/N) knew what it could be.

"Oh, don't give me that look. I promise. And if I don't, well, then I don't know. Just don't freak out. Is that good enough?"

She was slightly irritated, but she understood that Steven was just trying to help.

"It's adequate, yes. I'm going to hold you to that promise. Understand?"

(Y/N) gave a humorless chuckle. "Yeah, yeah. Anything else I need to understand before we leave?"

Steven tilted his head as he tried to think of something. He suddenly straightened as something came to mind. "Yeah - no more stealing my erasers and pens and pencils and stuff."

She gave him an odd look. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me - no more stealing my office supplies. It's getting annoying."

Shaking her head, (Y/N) stared out the window. "I'm not the one stealing them."

Steven gave a loud laugh. "You are so impossibly bad at lying!"

"How in the hell can you tell?"

(A/N): Will's not in this one... again. I'm sorry! But this chapter is important to the furthering of the plot. Even if it is a little bit shorter than normal... Again, I'm sorry!

Also, I don't know if you noticed, but I changed my cover. I finally finished another picture of Will that was better, so I decided to switch it out! This looks better now, right? If it doesn't, I can try to work on another cover haha