Promise [Number 5 X Reader]

- Luck in Love Or Lack Thereof -

I'm really cracking up with all you Anti-Artys that think he's sus. My precious baby would never!
( '◡‿ゝ◡')

Also, personally, I don't think the Academy kids are going to end up being related for real (I mean, there was enough backlash for Alither, now with Dila, I really doubt they're going to come out like "YeP, YoU WeRe iN LoVe wItH YeR SiStEr, sWeEt hOmE AlAbAmA!" Yeah - no). However, just in case, I DO have a backup plan for (Y/n) to not be related, so either way, WE'RE GOOD.

On another note, anyone here play Genshin Impact? 

XxXxX

You knew something was off almost immediately. 

It was when Five had come over to help Arthur basically drag you away from the area and you had vaguely registered that the brunette was fuming. Luckily for everyone, it didn't take too long for your senses to sharpen and for the aching in your leg to subside. Only hindered by a throbbing in your head, you were also able to notice Diego's forlorn expression, the ragged man looking not unlike a kicked puppy. Lila's absence from the scene was noted seconds later, and you figured there was some sort of correlation.

The evacuation from the area was as quick as humanly possible, and you stopped thinking about whatever inner turmoil the two superhuman males were enduring as the thrumming in your head escalated to a pounding in your cranium that matched the quickened beating of your heart. The adrenaline from recent events was not helping in any way, shape, or form.

Your heart - and in turn, your head - only calmed down a few minutes after getting back to Elliot's place, where Five and Arthur ushered you to sit down in Elliot's room to fix your multitude of wounds. In a few moments, you had removed your blazer and sat on the bed in your blood-stained button-up.

Watching Arthur fumble around for gauze, disinfectants, and various bandages, you felt a sinking feeling in your stomach as you looked over at Five. The brunette was standing off to the side watching the redhead gather everything - he was probably under the impression the pale youth had no idea how to use half of the stuff in his hands.

When Arthur came to sit down beside you with a set of tweezers and a cotton ball damp with hydrogen peroxide, you quickly noticed his furrowed brow and downtrodden expression. Just like back at the gala, you could see he was in a mental brawl with himself to not ask the myriad of questions that burned in his curious mind.

Curiouser and curiouser, you thought to yourself bitterly. If the redhead gently picking glass out of your skin was Alice, then you were no better than the White Rabbit, leading him into one dangerous situation after the next - and without giving him a single answer as to why, or telling him exactly what you were getting him into.

At least the rabbit never told Alice to follow him, the way you did Arthur. But then again, the Rabbit probably never considered Alice to be his best friend.

The guilty pit in your stomach that had developed not long after Five appeared, the same one you had tried to smother when you became Arty's bodyguard, made a reappearance, weighing down on you like an anchor at the bottom of the ocean. The problem was that you knew exactly how to come up for air.

You just didn't know if you wanted to.

However, it quickly dawned on you that it didn't matter what you wanted when it meant this particular act of selfishness could put the nurturing soul beside you in peril.

"Five," you called quietly. Arthur paused in his actions for a beat as you locked eyes with the brunette who had approached to inspect the older boy's work. "Could you . . . Could you give us a minute?"