R A N D O M || OS

129. (Chaos Walking) Todd Hewitt - Keep Her Safe

https://creme-bruhlee.tumblr.com/

➽ pairing: todd hewitt x fem!reader (y/n)
➽ summary: you meet todd hewitt, a strange man who has his thoughts on constant display, and he helps you escape a sticky situation.
➽ word count: 2.5k
➽ warnings: SPOILERS FOR CHAOS WALKING. mentions of violence

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"Girl! Girl, girl..."

Each word came with a green-purple mist that circled around the boy's head. But your face contorted with confusion; his mouth wasn't moving.

"How are you doing that?" you asked, mirroring his defensive stance. The boy's little wire-haired dog was yapping at you, and you thought for just a moment that he was a little cutie. The dog, that was. The boy was... Odd. He was tanned, big brown eyes with shorn brown hair, wearing rugged clothes, brandishing a knife at you. He seemed a lot less advanced than what you knew, and your heart went out for the people that lived on the planet. You were only there as a part of an outreach program from Earth. You and five others were sent to meet the people living there, see what their civilization was like, and report it back to Earth. Upon entering the planet's atmosphere, though, your ship burnt up and crashed, leaving you with bruises and cuts on your body that not even your medpack could heal. You needed real medical attention, but you had no way of contacting the mothership. Your best hope was the boy that stood before you, holding you at the point of his knife.

"Doing what?" the boy said, but, once again, his mouth stayed pressed into a firm line. Then, the mist returned. "Girl, girl, high voice, pretty hair, no Noise, need to tell Prentiss, save her from the Spackle, shit, fuck, I am Todd Hewitt, I am Todd Hewitt, I am Todd Hewitt..."

"Todd Hewitt," you said, your voice wavering. "That's your name?"

"Shit!" Todd said— or rather, the mist said. You still couldn't understand how the mist was making words. "Yeah," Todd said, his mouth moving normally. His voice was low and gruff.

"Girl, girl, girl—"

"What the hell is that?" you asked. Your grip tightened around your blaster, trained on Todd Hewitt, but you were beginning to get the feeling that he was as confused as you were. The way the mist around him kept mentioning that you were a girl almost made it seem like... No. "Have you ever seen a girl before?"

"Yes!" Todd huffed back at you, but the mist betrayed him.

"No, all dead, pretty girl, Manchee shut the hell up, I am Todd Hewitt, I am Todd Hewitt."

You lowered your blaster. He didn't want to hurt you. He was as frightened as you were. He had never seen a girl before, so you were a weird offshoot of what he knew. Uncanny valley, almost. Nearly familiar, but not quite.

"What is that?" you asked, softer and slower. You holstered your blaster, and Todd put away his knife. "All around you. I've never seen it before."

"It's called the Noise," Todd told you. While he had sheathed his weapon, his face was still stony and focused on you. "It's our thoughts."

You tilted your head in confusion. "Those are... Your thoughts?" you repeated. "You can't control it? It just happens?"

"All the men on our planet have a Noise," Todd said. "Women didn't."

"What happened to the women?" you asked.

Todd flexed his jaw for a moment, then said, "I need to take you to Prentiss."

In the Noise around Todd, an image of an older man wearing furs with scars on his face appeared, and you surmised that this was Prentiss. "Why?" you asked. "Who is he?"