SELFISH [Shirou x Reader]

16. Runaway

Author's Notes:

Hello, hey, hi, Im back!

[ph] = preferred honorific

[pn] = preferred noun

[ppr] = preferred pronoun

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You rubbed your eyes to wipe the remaining tears off. Meanwhile, Shirou was regaining his composure from earlier.

"Out... of here...?"

You weren't emotionally prepared for any more surprises. After all, you were just given a hickey— or six, by some perverted businessman named Alan. On top of that, Shirou recently had his own fit as well. What was all of that anyways? If you had the energy, you would've pressed further but you figured it would be a future conversation to have. Everything right now was just... a little too much to deal with. It was like being in a terribly written fanfiction where the protagonist kept getting bombarded with all of the side plots. Side plot A. Side plot B. Slide plot Z. And, oh if only, if only you didn't explore the places that were restricted to patients, then none of this would have happened.

Your only desire right now was to take a nice long nap. Then maybe you could have a warm cup of tea after waking up. You held one hand over your chest and the other over your neck in an attempt to calm yourself down. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. That's right, a little more and you'll be okay in no time.

"... Yeah, out, that... it sounds nice."

Shirou extended an arm towards you. "Come on, let's go."

Instinctually, you reached out to take his hand before another thought crossed your mind,

"—But, but wait!"

"What now?"

Before you left, you had to make sure the blonde wasn't still around. You haphazardly walked towards the bushes, then around a couple of trees, then to the vegetables. Your eyes darted left and right, making sure that you didn't miss a single spot.

Noticing your erratic movements, Shirou cleared his throat, "I can assure you that he's gone now."

Even though Shirou's words brought some sense of comfort, you couldn't help but still feel on edge.

"How do you know that?"

"I can't smell him."

"Ah."

Smelling. He had a penchant to do that when it came to investigations: or at least that's what he says. One of the perks of being a beastkin you supposed. It wasn't that you didn't trust Shirou, but you were very doubtful of Alan's disappearance. He could have easily returned with malicious intent. So you had to make sure that he was, at the least, not up here.

It also seemed like the two had unsettled businesses with each other. While you didn't want to be in the way, you also didn't want to see Shirou get into some messy fight with Mr. A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E. Who was he? Was Shirou really okay with just letting the blonde go?

Shirou observed you as you continued to rustle some bushes and call out Alan's name. Another one of your antics. When you came across a rose bush, you pricked your finger against one of the thorns as you pulled some flowers out of the way.

"Ack!"

"Idiot."

Holding your index finger to your face, you countered him back, "You can never be too safe, Shirou."

"Told you he's gone."

"Ugh, just give me a few more minutes!"

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