The Only Reason Why 《Banana Fish x Reader》

EP 14¬ Tender is the Night

"Emergency!"

"Make way!"

"Get the anaesthetic!"

"Y/n."

"Y/n?"

"Y/n!"

"Y/N!"

"What?" Flickering my gaze onto the purple-haired maniac in front, I let out a soft chuckle, taking a sip from the lemon boba. Not too sweet, not too sour, and swirling about the boba was satisfying.

"You dozed off again." Shorter sighed, swiping his hand through his hair, this time managing to avoid the piercings. 

"Sorry, everything is just so fucked up..." Wheezing at the nagging headache at the back of my head, the sight of Mr Evil Minion seemed to soothe the pain. The best part of today, though. His hair was a mess when we left the apartment above the restaurant, and he's wearing a black dungarees. 

As I said, evil minion.

Resting my elbows on the table, I pushed my hands over my hair, sweeping back the mess. 

Leaning forward, a soft, smooth hand brushed over my cheek, which came as a shock. Glancing up, light-brown, delicate eyes stared through mine, and without further thought, I sat forward and planted my lips upon his. 

They were soft and warm, like the suns kiss on a summers day, and yet a way to free me of these chains I was bound to. Shorter was my freedom, and my will to live. 

He was my protection, and I was his. Maybe this life could be better than what it is? That was just a thought. 

"Sweet soul," Someone said, tearing me away from the lush thoughts. Turns out it was Shorter, beginning to sweat by the looks of it. Realizing the situation, people in the cafe had begun to stare at us, well - me. 

Coughing abruptly, I fell back into my chair with wild flushes of deep red upon my cheeks, not that I could help it. 

After a few minutes of awkward silence, the two of us left the cafe, spending the remainder of our day walking through Central Park, hand in hand. We managed to fall asleep under a tree by the big lake for a few hours, reading books online that we had managed to find. 

Sharing headphones, the playlists were endless. Starting with hip-hop, somehow ending up with I Never Told You. 

During the evening, we were originally planning to eat somewhere fancy, but Shorter decided against it. Instead, we got Chinese takeaway, eating in a heap on the sofa in his apartment above Chang Dai. Well, it was practically Nadia's, but the sofa was ours. 

We had spent the majority of our like binge-watching Star Wars; half of Titanic as Shorter couldn't handle the end last time we tried to watch it. There was also an idiotic choice to watch Fantastic Mr Fox. Not sure what was going through his head at the time, but we watched it anyway. 

After all our snacks, hours of cuddling, films, and complaints to Nadia about getting her into the hug as well, of course, she passed, she was sleeping with Charlie the same night, bed called.

And as expected, the night was very eventful. Here we were the next morning, covered in bruises and scratches, red marks and all, unable to get out of bed despite Ash calling at half five in the morning saying he needed a job to be done. 

Shorter and I both turned the request down spending the rest of the day asleep, literally. 

While Shorter, well, purple minion, lay asleep behind me, his chest pressed up against my bare back, my mind drifted to the song from the previous day. I Never Told You, by Colbie Caillat. The first line mentions blue eyes, so I never paid much attention to it.

But now, Shorter wasn't behind me, only the large pillow of the hospital bed. And when I began thinking about the lyrics properly, it turns out, there were a lot of things I never told Shorter... I missed everything about him, and now he's gone. And that's why I did it.

That's why I killed Arthur.

In hope that I could get over Shorters death by killing the one who brought me misery, turns out, the one who did kill Shorter was dead by Ash's hands. 

And in truth... Killing doesn't get you the revenge or relief of pain that you'd expect. It just makes things worse.

The problem was Shorter and I planned to get married when we were older. Or when I was a decent age, considering I just turned 17. Typical though, it was yesterday... My birthday, that is. Of course, I didn't bring it up to anyone, and I don't think anyone except Arthur, Ash, Dino or Shorter knew. Ash is turning 18 soon anyway.

We had bigger problems to deal with.

Shorter and I had looked at wedding dresses, for fun, over Pinterest. Some looked like cupcakes, others like a fairy princess. We found a ridiculous one that looked like a lego brick. 

It was somehow amazing how white sheets could be turned into such stunning clothes for such a special day. Whereas the only white sheets I had was the pathetic hospital sheets. 

Beginning to doze off, again, in the hospital bed, the dreams and ideas of Shorter being in a green suit with a red waistcoat slowly drifted. Heaving a laborious sigh, I attempted to lay on my side, the one which wasn't shot. 

Groaning from the miserable pang of discomfort, the idea of shifting positions was now utterly out of the question. 

"Guessing the pain feels like shit?" A familiar voice? Tipping my head to the right, there stood Nadia by the door of the hospital room. Her eyes... They were shrunken, with deep black marks below. Her nose was tinted pink, the title of 'tired' was hers. 

"Nadia," I replied, outstretching my hand. A tear fell from the corner of her eye as she rushed forward, wrapping herself around my bandaged frame. And then, we both broke out in tears, completely ignoring the pain in my side. 

It wasn't just me who had lost Shorter. It was Ash, the Chinese, Eiji, and most importantly, Nadia. They had such a close bond for siblings, which was something I was always a little jealous of. They may have acted like they hated one another, but in truth, they loved each other. 

Eventually pulling apart after our long-lasting hug, Nadia had settled on the chair beside the bed. We talked for hours about the memories we shared with Shorter, and our times we had to. Charlie had come in toward the end of the fourth hour, having a small chat with me just as Nadia left the room after saying her goodbyes. 

"I'm proposing to her soon," Charlie said, giving me a wink and thumbs up. Chuckling, I gave back the thumbs up and the wink.

"Keep her happy for me, Charlie." 

He nodded as he left, taking Nadia's hand as he closed the door. 

And now, once again, I was alone. Fully alone this time. 

Where was Eiji? 

Where were Bones and Kong? 

I'll even see Kazimir considering who he actually was after figuring it all out.

Or I would see Cain, but he was probably doing business with Sing.

But the main question was: where was Ash?

((Not the most interesting chapter, but I hope it will do to please you, readers. Thank you for the wait, I will try to write up the next chapter soon! And I know this one was short, but there was little from the Ep to write about, so the next chapter might be the same or a little more interesting.))