Manifestation of Manipulation - Vance Hopper x Male Reader

Testify - 54

Morgan and Theo is who I ended up sitting by, I hadn't been told they were coming back up so soon, not that I'm complaining. Morgan had however pestered me into telling her what happened to my face, Theo just listened and consoled me.

"Your friends are here." Mom tells me with a warm smile, taking a seat next to me. "Oh, thanks." I thank her and push myself up, walking through the ridiculously large crowd to the front room. As soon as I push through the doors I come in contact with three of my dressed up friends. Billy, Gwen and Griffin."Y/N- Oh Jesus." Billy goes to say something but stops when he sees me. "Yeah, uhm, hey guys." I smile, my smile pretty fucked up from the slightly swollen bottom lip. "When-No-Who??" Gwen asks, moving to follow me into a more private room. A room with coffins on the walls, no doors. The three of them follow me and wait for my answer.

"What happened?" Griffin frowns, crossing his arms. "Moose and his new ugly posey came to my fucking house." I mutter, leaning back on one of the show coffins. "To your fucking house?! Are they stupid or crazy?!" Gwen yells angrily, catching attention outside. A head pops into the room, Bruce. "Hey- holy shit." Bruce says, hurrying into the room, the missing friends behind him. "Y/N? Fuck, are you ok?" Vance pushes past our friends and grabs my cheeks. "I'm-I'm fine." I smile, running my hands over his.

"Who did it?" He growls, dropping his hands from my face and backing away a bit. "Three guesses." I smirk at him, he clenches his jaw and looks at Robin, he nods and crosses his arms. "I know, we have got to do something." Robin says, eyeing me up and down. There's no point in trying to fight them, and I don't really want to. I pull a chair away from a table and sit down. "Tomorrow. Today has been long enough." I mumble, closing my eye, the other one already closed for me. I hear them discussing and talking for a bit as a equally angry group, they all telepathically decided to not bother me again.

Eventually hands slide over my arms, begging me to open my eye. So I do, Vance frowns down at me and shakes his head. "I'm sorry they did this to you, again." He mutters, I frown and move to grab his hands. "It wasn't your fault. Not your responsibility to raise those kids right." He chuckles at my joke and shakes his head. "You're fucked up." I nod and stand up, coming close to his face. "I know." I say back, wrapping my arms around him in an awkward hug. He hugs back and pats my back hard, we part ways and conform back into the group.

I lean into Vance's ear and whisper hardly loud enough for him to hear. "You look hot in a suit." He flinches slightly and glares at me, I smirk and hold my hands together behind my back. Vance growls, his growling caught in his throat. I smirk wider and move closer to him to hit my side against his. He hooks an arm around me and pulls my head down. "Just because you got your ass kicked doesn't mean I won't add to the pain." He threatens, pulling my head to his side. "Can I use dead mother privileges to get out of this?" I laugh, he pulls me back up to our level by my neck and shrugs. "Sure, it won't save you later though." He winks, letting go of me completely, I smile and cross my arms over my chest.

*** Time Skip ***

The wake was nice, well, it was ok. I've found myself trapped in countless conversations with people who have claimed to change my dippers and wiped my ass when I was knee height, too many to count really. I know hardly any of the people here, mostly everyone who's on my biological mothers- fuck that- in Christiana's family.

"Ahaha.. Yeah.." I laugh awkwardly with a group of old ladies who made a comment about a "bitchy" dead aunt I've never met before. Old people are fucking ruthless. "Sorry, gotta steal him away from you for a moment ladies." Vance says, grabbing the back of my neck. They hardly notice when he leads me away, sliding his arm fully over my shoulders. "This sucks, and it smells like old people. Not the good old people smell, flowers and cat hair, I mean like piss and rotten panties." I laugh when Vance smirks and holds back a laugh of his own. "That's fucking foul, but you're totally right." He finally laughs and drops his arm when we exit the main room and head to get food.

We make it to the room with food, not many people inside. We grab plates and load them up with dinner foods and snacks. Vance slips out of the room and guides me to where our other friends are eating, just enough chairs for all of us and plus one. Vance and I take two empty seats in the corner, the empty chair next to me.

We loudly joke and talk with each other for the next few minutes until a dark aura enters the room. Caiden, he gives me a two finger wave and sits down next to me. "The wakes a bust." He flatly tells me spitting his chewing tabasco into a clear water bottle. "No shit." I mutter, the tables quiet now, worried to say something wrong in front of this new guy. "They uh, wanna call you and have you testify against The Skeleton man. Give him life, or at least what's left of it." He tells me, I scoff and run a hand over my face. "I did the same thing. It's uh, like calling grass to testify against a lawn mower, traumatizing." He smirks, clasping a hand on my neck, I wince and suck my teeth.

"You know, when you talk half the time I don't understand what you're saying." Caiden laughs at this, a little too hard and picks up his plate. "Silent lamb, I see I am not wanted here. Find me after." He pats my back hard and wonders off, plate in fist. I sigh deeply and eat my food, Vance's hand sliding to my thigh to comfort me. Talking goes back to normal soon enough, they all understand that I'm worn out so no one asks about Caiden.

*** Time Skip ***

Lots of loud talking and the sound of people moving tells us it's time to actually burry her. Collectively everyone gets up and throws out their trash, heading out the door to follow the commotion. Time to put this fantasy to rest.