Lalin's Curse (Felix X Reader)

Flavor| Chapter 3

Halfway through an essay for school, (Y/N) pauses to pry her tired eyes open. It's one in the morning, an hour past Felix's usual arrival time, and while one side of her hopes he'll still show up, she knows she has school work to do.

A long yawn drowns out the sound of her fingers as she types out the next sentence, reading it out loud as she presses each key. "And that's because... the animal is cold-blooded."

'I guess I'm just cold-blooded.'

Her hand freezes on the final letter as those words come back to haunt her. It's hard to associate the sentence with something bad since Felix's hand intertwined with hers definitely hadn't felt unpleasant. In any other conversation, she would've passed his words off as a joke, even if they'd been talking about the supernatural. But with all the trouble that seemed to tail Felix, it sounded less like a joke the more she thought about it.

Humming, she opened a new tab to research the term 'cold skin'. The first thing to pop up was a horror movie that she hurriedly clicked away from. Watching a horror movie alone in a convenience store at one AM didn't seem all that appealing. She rephrased her search. Most of the articles went into detail about certain medical conditions but that wasn't what she was looking for.

This time, she tags on a word she regrets immediately after pressing enter. 'Supernatural creatures with cold skin'. On one hand, she hopes nothing incriminating will appear, but she's also hoping for an obvious answer. Sadly, pictures from the horror movie she'd found earlier fill the screen. (Y/N) squeaks and closes the tab, regret swimming through her veins.

The chime of the door immediately washes away her thoughts and she slowly tilts her laptop down to force a practiced grin at the customer. Her smile falters. Felix is instantly recognizable and unlike yesterday, he seems more put together. His hair is pushed out of his eyes and his face has a hint of color to it. His eye bags are still prominent, but (Y/N)'s sure she's sporting some of her own. His bottom lip has scabbed over and the bruise on his cheekbone is fading yellow. "Wow. Your bruise healed fast." A simple 'hello' would have been nice, but you know- Words. They're kind of hard.

He tenderly touches the area. "I usually don't bruise for long." A moment passes and the two stare at each other lost in thought. She's thought of his eyes before- how beautiful they are- and she used to think she was into blue eyes.

Shit, not when Felix existed.

"I thought your shift would be over by now."

(Y/N) furrows her brows. "So you were trying to avoid me?"

"No!" He feverishly shakes his head. His lips part, shamelessly baring the teeth (Y/N) may or may not have fantasized about after their first meeting. "I was actually hoping I wasn't too late. I had an errand to run." She's about to question his abnormal twelve AM 'errand', but figures normal people don't come stumbling into a Seven-Eleven after a fight- Felix is far from normal.

"Felix, we're open all night. You can't be late." He watches her roll her eyes then looks back out the window, shuffling his foot against the tile. "Do you have somewhere you need to be?" He shakes his head. "Then what is it?" The conversation feels awfully one-sided. Almost like speaking to a toddler. He spins and grabs the nearest bag of chips then returns to the counter, flinging the bag down with more force than necessary. (Y/N) can almost hear the poor Lays crumble.

Gradually, she lifts the bag and scans it, preparing to read the price. "Actually, I came here because..." He trips over his words, eyes flicking anywhere but her face. He slides a tad closer and his hand accidentally brushes hers. At a loss for words- he slots their fingers together.

A still minute passes. The distant sound of thunder shatters their stupor.

(Y/N) can't help the stupid giggle that seeps out of her. She glances up at him. He's looking past her, his mouth drawn into a thin line. "That's it? You could have just said so."