Pigment (Millard Nullings X Reader)

Finale II

"When fall goes, she picks all the flowers and places them in her hair amidst marigold and ruby leaves. Not like a crown, but like the most glorious goodbye I've ever seen." Thanks for everything, guys.

"We did it!" Millard exclaimed. He picked me up by my waist and spun me around. When he put me down, I felt his hand grip my chin softly. "I knew we'd make it out alive."

I just snorted. "No, you didn't. I heard you screaming like a child out there."

"I was going to kiss you, but after hearing that, I don't think I want to anymore," Millard joked.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and gave him a smug smile. "It's not gonna stop you though, will it?"

"Of course not."

I closed my eyes and leaned in. Softly, I brushed my lips on his, but our kiss was rudely interrupted with Miss Peregrine clearing her throat.

"If you wouldn't mind," Miss Peregrine said, "we would all like it if you held off this intimate moment for later, when we don't have to watch. I believe we have more important matters than romance at the moment."

Emma gave me a weird look, and I awkwardly pushed myself out of Millard's grip. He was lucky to have been invisible, since people couldn't see him flustered. Then there was me, red as a ripe tomato and wanting to die! Emma elbowed me in the waist, and made an inappropriate gesture over to me, when Miss Peregrine wasn't looking. Oh, how I sometimes longed for friends who weren't Emma Bloom....

"You're awful!" I hissed at Emma quietly.

"When did you and Millard get so close?" She asked me, as our group began walking out of the (now crumbling) tower.

"When did you start caring so much?"

Emma just laughed. "Oh, I've been waiting for you two idiots to get together for years! It was so painful to watch you both make goo-goo eyes at each other and never do anything about it."

I just shoved Emma into the peculiar next to us. "Oh, whatever!"

She made a face at me, but then she ran off to talk to Jacob. I just walked by myself then, and was taking in everything around me. The world almost seemed to be on fire, as the red sun set over clouds of smoke. Everything around us seemed to glow warmly, yet a cold wind blew. I was pretty sure this was what the apocalypse was supposed to look like.

Our team of ymbrynes made us search for any wights who might have been hiding. The ones we found surrendered immediately, so Sharon and his crew built a fairly large cage for them to stay in momentarily. Some of us (including me) went back into the building where the wights kept us, and double-checked each room, to make sure no peculiar went unaccounted for. There were so many secret and/or locked rooms in the building, that Emma was constantly being asked to melt the locks off the doors.

Everyone who wasn't an ymbryne, was sitting on the tile floor of the building--quiet, but feeling good. I was leaning against Millard, and trying to sleep (which didn't really work). Emma came into the building, and called for everyone's attention.

"Okay, everyone!" she said. "We're moving to Bentham's mansion, just outside of this place's property. Grab everything you need, because we will not be coming back."

* * *

I whistled as I walked into the mansion for the first time. Right from entering, we were in a large open room with pillars, chandeliers, and the whole shabang. For being a psychopath, Bentham sure knew how to tidy up. We must have been a strange sight--peculiars covered head to foot in dirt and blood--in the pristine room. Surprisingly, two people were already there to visit us. One was completely cloaked in rich fabrics, with the only visible part of her coming from a hand missing a pinky finger, and an eye. At her side, a ten year-old boy stood stiffly and emotionless, dressed like an aristocrat.