Rain To Wash The Blood Away (Nagato x reader)

27. My Paradise

After hearing you call his name, he lifted his head. His straight, red hair shifted aside and revealed his mesmerizing purple eyes. His skin was sickly pale and his body looked incredibly weak, his bones visible through the skin. Nagato had always been a lean guy but this was on a whole other level, he looked so much different yet you could still recognise him.

He met your gaze for a brief second before he looked down, looking regretful. Then there was a moment of silence, a time which was left quiet in hopes that one of you would speak. In a normal situation, you would've been happy to talk first, but this was different. Nagato, as Pein, had ignored your plea to see him and had written your time together off as unimportant. It was a hurtful thing to do, especially since you had such strong feelings for him.

"You've been gone for four days," he said, keeping his eyes downcast. You averted your gaze as well, focusing on the wall to your left.

"It's hard to stay somewhere you're not wanted," you responded. Nagato audibly swallowed, his eyes closing tightly as if he was straining himself.

"You're not unwanted."

You remained silent, not having anything else to say to him. All you wanted was to know what was going on with him and what the reason for him pushing you away was. But you did feel like his words were sincere, being able to feel his remorse.

"I'm sorry about what I said, I didn't mean any of that. I've been so focused on the Akatsuki because we're so close to our goal. We have most of the tailed beasts and once we have all of them we'll be able to attain world peace. Our paradise..." he trailed off, having noticed that he had sounded a lot more determined once the idea of your promise came up.

But this just showed you what was really happening. This paradise was all for you, so you could both live the happy life you had promised each other all those years ago. And after hearing that, you felt a lot better, having your usual confidence in Nagato immediately return.

"I've been working even harder after you've come back because I really want to give you this. When you fell down that hole I was prepared to jump down to be with you but Yahiko stopped me, I thought you were dead and I was afraid of being alone. I tried to look on the brighter side since I still had Yahiko and Konan but neither of them could fill that void. Even though I still had them, I felt so alone. And it got even worse after losing Yahiko, I was scared that everyone I cared about would die and I would be the only one left with the burden of all of the pain." He stopped, looking as if there was so much more that he wanted to say.

What snapped him out of his thoughts were the sound of your footsteps approaching him. He lifted his head, eyes locking onto your approaching figure. He didn't look fearful in the slightest, instead, he looked curious.

"But why didn't you tell me about this place or all this?" you asked, gesturing to his body and the machine which was attached to him. He looked down at himself, his eyes screaming shame. He tried to avoid your gaze but was unsuccessful, having you place a hand under his chin and lift it once you had grown close enough. From there he had no choice but to look into your eyes.

"I didn't want you to see me like this, I'm not the way I used to be, (Y/n). I've changed."

That wasn't true at all and you could see it, how the Nagato that you loved had hidden behind Pein, making himself the bad guy in hopes of overall world peace and happiness. Moving your hands to his cheeks, you lent forward and pressed your forehead against his. You could feel your heart racing in your chest, being excited with the thought of being able to be close to him again. You spent a moment listening, noticing how he held his breath, waiting to hear what you would say next. Right now you wanted to assure him that his actions hadn't caused you to fall out of love with him.