Peaceful Rain [Naib Subedar x Reader]

2 | Eternal Rain

The first time [Y/N] [L/N] saw Naib Subedar, what went through her head was how cold Naib seemed. The longer [Y/N] stared at Naib, the colder his atmosphere felt. His blue eyes were filled with regret and bitterness. It was as if there's always gray clouds around him, as if his mind was always drowned in rain.

[Y/N] noticed that Naib always separated himself from the others. He always sat at the end of the dining table, he never asked for his teammates' help. It made [Y/N] wonder if he had problems with the other Survivors. But, she was proven to be wrong for she could see that Naib wasn't avoided nor ignored by the others. It was Naib's own decision to isolate himself.

"You alright there?" [Y/N] asked Naib who's decoding beside her.

It was after she had a few matches together with Naib when [Y/N] finally decided to ask Emily Dyer about Naib's mental condition. Turned out his sudden change in behavior was triggered by the cipher machine's noise. It made him remember the wars he took part in. But, decoding was the main mission of the game so it couldn't be avoided.

"I'm fine..." Naib managed to speak up, though he seemed to be lost in the flashback of his past.

[Y/N] stared at Naib. He never even once admitted he's struggling to keep up. Naib's eyes were focused on his own hands, his eyebrows furrowed. He's doing his best to concentrate on what was happening in the present. But, his memories were making it hard for him.

There, [Y/N] did what she always does when she got to decode together with Naib.

Ramble.

"Mr. Subedar, do you know Mr. Grantz's dog? What was his name again? Wink? Ah, wait, Wick! I didn't mean to say 'Wink'." [Y/N] laughed at herself. "I gave him half of my dinner a few days ago. Now, every time he sees me, he always jumps on me! You know how big he is, right? I always lose my breath every time."

[Y/N] smiled to herself as she saw Naib letting out the breath he had been holding. Emily's advice for calming Naib down was to make him snap back to reality. Emily didn't say exactly what [Y/N] had to do to accomplish that. But, [Y/N] saw that her ramblings and suggestions to calm their nerves together were pretty successful.

Naib had never thanked her directly. But, [Y/N] didn't mind. Naib was the one that always saves her so [Y/N] wanted to pay him back in any way she could. That's why, she always followed Naib around the map whenever she had the chance so that she could help him with decoding. Yes, no other reasons. Naib didn't seem to mind anyway.

Naib glanced at [Y/N] when she suddenly stopped talking. Noticing Naib's gaze, [Y/N] snapped out of her daydream and smiled at her teammate. "...Do you want to take a break?" she asked while stretching out her hand, not knowing why Naib was staring at her.

Naib stared at [Y/N]'s open palm for a while before looking away. "Keep talking," he mumbled.

[Y/N] beamed at Naib's words. "Ah, yes!" She started to continue her ramblings, talking about how Demi Bourbon the Barmaid was very stubborn on making her drink alcohol, about how skinny Margaretha Zelle the Dancer was, about how skilled Mike Morton the Acrobat was, et cetera.

Rather than spending so much time hiding from the Hunter to calm himself down, Naib found that listening to [Y/N]'s ramblings was as good. [Y/N]'s voice could drown out the cipher machine's noise. On top of that, it was interesting how [Y/N] could talk so long about mundane things.

Well, that was how things were in the first ten minutes of the match. What happened next was terrible. Tracy Reznik the Mechanic and Vera Nair the Perfumer had been flown away by the rocket chair. Not only that, [Y/N] would be flown back to the manor too if she's thrown on the rocket chair one more time.