Vanitas x Female! Reader ☆ Pure Shores ☆

8. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Vanitas paced the small kitchen, tugging impatiently at a tuft of inky hair.
(Y/N) chewed her lip, watching him from the corner of her eye as she stirred two mugs of green tea.
She turned, holding one out to him. He shook his head sharply, his eyes narrowed as he stalked back and forth.
"Vanitas." She waved the cup at him again.
"I don't want it."
"It'll help calm you down."
He fixed her with an icy glare.
"I don't wanna be calm right now, I need to think, I need to remember!"
(Y/N) blinked back at him, her own gaze stony.
"And you think pacing and getting angry will help you do that?"
He paused, before snorting rudely and grabbing the mug, downing the liquid in one fell gulp.
He slammed it down on the counter, returning to his frenzied pacing.
"Terripiis." (Unbelievable) He muttered, arms folding. "I don't even know if he's okay! What if he was poisoned too?"
(Y/N) remained silent. Vanitas caught her pained expression.
"You said it yourself, I only survived because you-"
"I know, Vanitas."
A heavy pause filled the air, the two not breaking eye contact.
Vanitas finally sighed, turning away to feel absently at the faded, smooth scale marks on his arm.
"What if he didn't get away? What if he was chased? What if-"
He stopped, growling angrily.
"We don't even know what type of
poison it was, or what inflicted it!"
(Y/N) shook her head, feeling her own frustration at the mystery stoking, her research having turned up nothing.
"I got little off the arrow, the residual poison was too..."
She looked up at Vanitas, who had frozen abruptly, currently staring her down with a blackened expression.
"What arrow?"
She opened her mouth to speak, but faltered. Between his waking up and the number of orders she'd taken, mentioning it to Vanitas had seemed pointless, until it slipped from her mind entirely.
"I said what arrow, (Y/N)."
(Y/N) swallowed, looking down at her feet.
"The one I pulled from your wound, remember?"
Vanitas crossed to stand in front of her, rubbing his forehead in frustration.
"You mean to tell me that you'd kept that arrow all along, and you didn't think to tell me?" He whispered, his face oddly calm.
"I didn't think it mattered." (Y/N) answered in a small voice.
He blinked, seemingly perplexed.
"So all those books I was reading on poison...what? You just let me waste my time, not thinking maybe I'd wanna see it? That it might help?"
"I...I didn't think."
With one fell swoop, Vanitas wiped everything from the counter top, cups and beakers smashing as they hit the ground.
"My brother could be-" he snarled, stopping as pain choked him.
"I didn't know about your brother
then! Neither did you!"
"So this is my fault?"
"Of course not!" (Y/N) protested loudly, heart thumping in fear.
"I'd come up empty with the analysis but I'd saved you. In a few weeks you'd be home free! I didn't think it mattered anymore!"
Vanitas was breathing hard, his cheeks red.
"Even taking my brother out of this, you didn't think I'd want to find out who tried to fucking kill me?"
(Y/N) backed away slightly, her throat tightening.
"I'm sorry."
He eyed her for a moment, his mouth a tight line.
"I want to see it. Now."
(Y/N) hesistated, but Vanitas showed no signs of being swayed.
"Now, (Y/N)."
She jumped, scrabbling in a nearby cupboard, her hands shaking. Finally, she produced a tin box, containing the vial with the stained tip, and the remaining length.
She barely had time to place it on the counter before Vanitas was prying the box open hastily.
He flipped the lid off, gazing down at it as a blank expression settled on his face.
Almost tenderly, he lifted it from the box, his fingers tracing over the notched white of the bone arrow.
A deadly silence hung heavy, before he swallowed.
"Vanitas? What is it?" (Y/N) asked gently.
He looked at her with anguished eyes.
"Are you sure this is the same arrow?" He asked, voice quivering.
"I'm sure."
Vanitas pressed a knuckle into his eye.
"Manarrii ves yecahha."
(Mother Leviathan have mercy.)
Suddenly looking exhausted, he visibly slumped, removing the hand from his face to brace himself against the counter.
"This arrow..."
He raised it, for once looking defeated as he avoided (Y/N)'s anxious stare.
"Its called a Viix. Its..a Leviathai arrow."
He clenched his fist around it tight, a vein standing out on his forehead.
"One of my own tried to kill me..and maybe Sora too."
(Y/N) couldn't hide her dismay.
"But why?" She whispered.
Vanitas bared his teeth, his fist shaking.
"I don't know...but I won't rest until I find out."