Broken Glass (Joshua x reader)

Chapter 26

"What's with all of these Reaper's Games? They're not that far out from one another," I said, crossing my arms as I sat on one of the stools at WildKat. Mr. Hanekoma rubbed the back of his neck and made a shrugging gesture. Joshua, on the other hand, busied himself with his orange flip phone, clicking buttons on it.

"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why we're having so many. Josh?" Mr. Hanekoma asked, seeming to be as clueless as I was. Usually there was at least a few weeks between Games, but there was only about a week between the two happening recently. Joshua peeked up from his phone before shutting it, absentmindedly tapping it on his chin.

"Hm. Let's see... I don't know. Boredom, I would assume. Although, dear?" Joshua said, turning towards me. I snapped my head up from the empty drink laid out in front of me on the counter. "I overheard that you got some books from the Higher Plane."

I took one glance at Mr. Hanekoma who looked at Joshua with an eyebrow raised, crossing his arms as he looked at the ash-blond boy, who merely shrugged.

"I did. Were you spying on us or something?"

"Spying? Dear, I have my ways." I sighed, knowing that Joshua wasn't going to tell me how he knew.

"Listen, Joshua, those books were written by my mother, who apparently knew a lot about Noise and sigils, and dedicated whole books about them. I was letting Mr. Hanekoma look over them to see if he could find anything on sigils Nikolai might be using to jack Shibuya." With the sigils appearing around Shibuya, my worries only grew. I had yet to read through all of the books

"Jack Shibuya? Puh-lease," Joshua scoffed, "Nikolai would have a better chance at going for Shinjuku." Joshua looked off to the side and giggled, most likely thinking about something having to do with Nikolai and Shinjuku. Concerned, I reached over and tapped Joshua's shoulder, snapping him out of his daydream. He continued as if it never happened, and I didn't want to know exactly where Joshua's train of thought had led him. The thought sent shivers down my spine.

"Well, how did Neku do this week?" I asked, changing the topic to avoid another awkward moment with Joshua and his unusual daydreams. His actual dreams were probably just as weird.

"Oh he did quite amazing seeing how he's new at it. Honestly, I couldn't have chosen a better candidate for the job. Of course, Megumi will always be my favorite, no matter what. Neku though, he's adjusting still. Pressuring me to bring back all remaining players to life. Oh how I wish he knew how tiring it is. I'm still exhausted from last Game... (Y/n)," Joshua whined, pocketing his phone. He leaned over from the stool he was sitting on and rested his head in my lap, using the stool he was sitting on to balance himself as his legs hung off the other side of it. My face heated up as my body froze, unsure of what to do. Embarrassed by Joshua's actions, I sat there agape, looking down at Joshua, whose violet eyes were studying my reaction.

"W-What are you doing?" I asked. Mr. Hanekoma just smiled and grabbed the cup sitting on the counter and disappeared off to the kitchen most likely.

"Laying here. What does it look like to you, dear?" Joshua asked. He brought a familiar phone up to his face as it buzzed, signaling that a message had been sent to it. I instantly reached out and Joshua held it away from me as far as he could. "No. It's mine now."

"It never was! Give it back!"

"I want you to sing for me." I stopped trying to reach for it and instead flicked Joshua's forehead, causing him to reach for it with his other hand as he rubbed his forehead. "What...? That hurt me dear."

"I hope it did. I'm not singing. I can't even sing," I said.

"I bet you have the voice of an angel."