Our Strange Duet (Yandere Modern Princes x Reader)

Chapter 16: Some Slack

When (Y/n) woke up from her panic attack nap, she was surprised to find that Kazuki was still holding onto her hand. Ichiro was in the room as well, sketching on some kind of notepad. He was scratching his head, appearing as though he was stumped in the work he was doing. Nonetheless, when he saw she was awake, he gave her a kind smile and waved to say hello to her, greeting her enthusiastically.

"Hey there," he chuckled, putting his sketchbook down as he approached the younger girl, "I heard you're not doing too well. Anything I can do?"

"Not too close," Kazuki warned him in a light tone, his eyes bloodshot and focused intently on his computer.

Ichiro nodded and stood a few feet back from the (h/c) haired girl, sitting on the ground with his legs crossed. He then rocked back and forth with a silly grin on his face as if he'd been waiting for her for some time. Kazuki was more focused on his work, visible bags under his eyes. He must have been working nonstop without a break. The thought strangely worried the younger girl, but she didn't say anything about it.

"Are ya hungry?" the bluenette asked, "I can grab something for you."

The younger girl shook her head, not wanting to eat anything at that point. She felt like her stomach twisted and turned so much that she didn't want to eat anything in ten years. Still, Ichiro gave her such a bright smile that she felt better about everything. Though concerned, he appeared to want to fix the situation for her and make her feel better again. Of course, at that point, he had no ulterior motives.

"In that case, do you want me to take you back to the penthouse? It's probably a lot more comfortable in your bed than on that couch."

In any other case, the (h/c) haired girl would have gone, but she felt much safer at that point in time than she had in more time than she could recall. Everything was fuzzy before she met Rei, most likely due to the things he'd inflicted on her. It was intentional, no doubt about it. The fear had seeped into the younger girl, corrupting her ability to be on her own, needing someone else there with her to ease it.

Ichiro was a kind soul, she knew that much, and he only wanted to make her smile and feel better from what Rei had done. However, she couldn't help but feel attached to Kazuki for his help. Sure, she didn't trust him one bit, especially not with the striking similarities to his youngest brother. Still, he had stayed in the same spot for hours just to help her and was still holding onto her hand. It said something about his character, but she didn't automatically trust him, she just needed someone around and decided it may as well be him for the time being.

The bluenette figured as much and nodded enthusiastically. It was like he was agreeing with the younger girl that his brother was the best person to ever exist. Of course, they weren't on the same page about that, but Ichiro was in his own little world, far from understanding the girl's trauma or scars. At the very least, he wanted to learn, something that would take longer than he would have anticipated.

"If you wanna stay here, we can play a few games," the male suggested, earning her interest, "I brought my deck of cards."

(Y/n) didn't have anything better to do, and figured it would be a good chance to survey the male's ability to strategize as well as how clever he could be. As she gave a nod to the male, he gave another bright smile and rummaged through his backpack to grab a deck of cards, beginning to shuffle them. At the same time, the (h/c) haired girl got up from the couch, taking a few steps towards him.

She felt Kazuki's hand still on her as she did it, and he instinctively flinched, his hand squeezing hers, prompting her to stop walking. Turning her head to see what was wrong, she saw the blonde give a dazed expression, one she couldn't very well read without more information on who the male was. So she attempted to pull her hand back only for the blonde to release her and give a look as if he had a revelation.