Thanatophobia| MICHAEL AFTON x READER

17| safety

1st person. Y/N POV

sorry for the late uploads. I am on GMT, and I usually end up uploading anywhere from 6 pm - 2 am. My significant other and I have had something come up, and it put me in a bit of a draining situation. Nothing horrible, though!

Also, my birthday was yesterday, which is why I ended up not uploading anything besides the A/N...

Im trying to get these out quick!

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I invited Mike to spend the night at my flat again. After discovering him sleeping in an office chair in his cramped, musty office, I decided that It was best if he spent the nights with me. Sadly, this wasn't the case when I was ill...I felt horrible.

He insisted that it didn't bother him though, and he was only agitated and sweaty because he was worried. He often wiped his hands on his trouser legs or suit vest when he was nervous...I don't know if this was to just keep his hands moving, or because he really was just that sweaty.

Currently, it's 8 pm, and I'm helping Mike with the cleaning before we leave. Well...I was cleaning while Mike stayed in the backroom, doing who knows what with...whatever he does. He insisted that it wasn't safe to follow, So I'm staying in the main room. The tables need to be cleaned anyway.

I didn't see him again until 9. His mask was off, and his tie was undone. His suit was slightly shifted, making him look worn and tired. He didn't hesitate to hook his arm with mine and pull me out of the building though.

"Egar?" I started. "You didn't lock up-"

"It's okay." He said softly. "Don't worry about it. Er... someone coming by in a bit to do some maintenance."

"I thought you were the maintenance guy? I thought you did all of that stuff?"

"Yeah...well, I wanted to spend time with you, So I hired er...someone from my family to do it." He shrugged.

"I thought-" I squinted my eyes. "Who?"

"Oh...just someone. He was a good friend of my father...technically not in the family, just close to all of us." He shivered. "His daughter was a good friend of my little brother." He hesitated. "She's dead as well. Her name was Charlotte. We all called her Charlie, though."

"I see." I squinted again, my face scrunching. "A lot of people you knew died."

"unfortunately." He sighed deeply, pulling me in closer as we approached my building. I let us in and he let go of my arm. He held onto the rail as we went up the stairs.

"Im sorry, Mikey."

"It isn't your fault."

"I know." I grabbed his hand, pulling him up the last few steps, then to my door. "But this all sounds very traumatic. I feel sorry for you."

"I don't want pity." I heard him scoff as he walked inside behind me. He closed the door. "It just makes suffering contagious."

"Sorry." I shook my head, setting my keys down on the island counter. He took his shoes off by the door, leaving them in the mud rack, then he went across the room and into my bedroom, which is where a lot of his clothes were kept. I followed behind him shortly.

"Did you move the bed?" He asked, his back to me as he dug through the drawers on "his" side of the wardrobe.

"And the vanity." The vanity was his. He bought it and moved it into my room so he could sit in front of it and stare at himself in the morning. He had a lot of his medical supplies kept in the drawers, like bandages and medications. He also kept hair products in there, paints, pencils, notebooks. He had a few sticky notes taped onto the mirror, which had little drawings on them. Every morning, if he would wake up before me, he would leave a little sticky note on the end table for me. I could stick it on the mirror after that.

"I noticed that too." He hunched over so he could get into the bottom drawer, where he kept all of his socks and pants. In the middle drawer, he had his trousers, in the top, he kept larger sleeping shirts and night trousers.

"Sorry, I forgot to tell you." I shrugged, now standing by him.

"Love, your kickers are in my drawer." He huffed.

"Call them pants, dear, that's a very improper word..." I cringed. He just chuckled.

"What? Like dunny?" He laughed. "It really isn't a bad word, love."

"It's just rude." I smacked him on the back of the head with a small stack of papers I quickly picked up off of the top of the wardrobe. He giggled quickly, finally standing back up straight. He snatched the papers from my hands and set them back down, then strode into the loo to change his clothes.

I just scoffed as I watched him close the door.

"cheeky." I shook my head, now leaving the room and going into the kitchen.

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1st person. Michael Afton POV.

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"Cheeky?" I huffed as I tugged off my tie, then my vest. "Im not cheeky..." I shivered as I undid the buttons on my dress shirt and pulled it off of my shoulders. I tore off the bandages around my face, leaving them on my torso and legs. I pulled on a pair of soft sleeping trousers, then some old "London After Midnight" fan shirt my little sister gave me a long time ago. it was slightly faded and the vinal on it was scratched up.

I tossed my suit into the hamper and left the loo, scratching at my neck as I strode out of the room and into the main sitting area. Y/N was in the kitchen, so I perched on the sofa. The telly was on, but I don't know what was playing...it was a cartoon of some sort.

Whatever it was, it kept me entertained until Y/N called me into the kitchen.

"Im not hungry," I said as I came into the kitchen.

"You never are." They scoffed, waving a used ladle in my direction. "But I didn't make dinner. I ae before we left."

"Then what do you need?" I leaned sideways on the counter, my arms crossed slightly.

"Can you help me with the dishes?"

"Why are you doing them?" I narrowed my eyes in their direction. "We agreed that it was my job."

"Yeah- well..." They shrugged. "I don't know. there is a lot from the past few days, I didn't want to hoard them onto you."

"I appreciate the offer, Y/N." I approached them, then took the dirty ladle from their hand. "However, I don't mind. You worked hard today, so don't stress."

"You're the one who got your head bit off by an angry mom." They snorted.

"and you're the one who distracted me from work for an hour. gotta make up for it somehow." I smiled at them.

I felt their arms come around my neck, and a quick kiss comes onto my lips. I wrapped my arms around their waist, despite the dirty ladle in my hand.

"Be quick." They huffed. "Join me on the couch soon?"

"Looking forward to it."

"Lovely..." They smiled slyly, tapping me on my behind before they left.

I did not like that.....

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