The Healer (Death/Muerte x Female!reader)

Chapter 10: The Familiar Face

It had been silent other than the sound of rain outside, the occasional clap of thunder making you jump almost every time it happened. By the fourth time it happened, Muerte was staring at you with an amused smile, waiting for you to get scared again. "Something funny, pretty boy?" You snap, annoyed. He gets closer to you, laying his head in your lap. You jump slightly, blushing. "You amuse me, as I said before. Now tell me, why do you fear thunder so much?  It's just noise." He says, looking up at you while reaching a paw up to play with your hair. Your face flushes red, looking away from him. "Why are you so comfortable with me? Or more importantly, what is your infatuation with me?" He smirks. "No no, I asked you a question first." You roll your eyes, a small smile tugging at your lips. "I just don't enjoy it. It being a loud noise is what makes it most unbearable for me." You boop his nose. "Now you answer my questions." He smiles, this one more genuine. "I will answer one question." You boop his nose again. "Then what's your deal? Why do you keep following me?" He stops to think for a minute before he answers. "You care for so many things other than yourself. You care just enough about you to keep going every day, but your journey is just to find people who need you. But honestly," He pauses then runs a finger over the scar on your face. "It's that we've met so many times, yet you've never come with me. I always wonder what it is that makes you keep going." You blush once more, wanting to hide your face. But something tells you not to. "I've not always been a good person. I've unfortunately hurt innocent people for my own gain. It wasn't until I almost lost my eye that I realised it didn't have to be that way." You now can't fight it anymore and look away, feeling ashamed. He sits up and faces you. "(Y/N)." His voice is calm and somewhat caring. He cups your face and makes you look at him. "You've more than made up for the harm you did. You never killed anybody, just weren't afraid to get physical. You still did wrong, but you learned from your mistakes and have spent so long helping everybody else and trying to provide for those less fortunate. I wish every creature could appreciate and care for others in this life like you do." Tears stung your eyes as you stared deeply into his. He wipes a tear from your cheek, leaning in slightly. Blushing, you slowly close your eyes, leaning forward a bit too. A sharp stab of pain hits his heart before he pulls back, turning away from you. "We should probably get some rest. I know you should, all you do is walk." You smile a bit, trying to ignore the sting of rejection just now. "You're mean, you know that?" You playfully punch his shoulder. He turns back to you, gives you a sad smile, then goes to a spot in the room where he lays down and settles in. Not knowing if you had upset him or not, you wonder if you should apologize or not. As you go to say you're sorry, one of the paintings catches your eye. You look at Muerte to see if he's facing you, seeing him facing the wall. You turn to the painting and manifest a small orb of light in your hand so you could see better. Most of the painting was covered in dust except for the center of it. You recognized the face in the center as Muerte, a happy smile on his face. You glance at him laying in the corner, making sure he wasn't looking at you. Brushing some of the dust off the painting starting in the corner, the closer into the center you get the more figures it uncovered. Wiping more than half the dust away, you see four little human children with wolf ears and tails standing around Muerte and a woman holding a baby that also was human with wolf ears, all smiling for the portrait.  You smile to yourself, seeing a few of the children share an eye color with Muerte. Finally, as you wipe away the dust from the woman's face, your heart almost stops. You back away from the painting, the orb disappearing. Covering your mouth in shock, trying so hard to stay calm and not alert Muerte. As you turn around to sit down, the wolf still lies in the corner. Not wanting to wake him, you open the door and stand outside. As soon as the door shuts behind you, there's a deafening ringing in your ears as your entire world seems to shake. The downpour of rain quickly starts to soak your hair and clothing. You crumble to the ground, holding your knees close and leaning back against the door as you sit in the mud. You stare off into space, wondering if your eyes had just been playing tricks on you. They had to be! You start to breathe heavily, your brain running a million miles an hour. Was this why he followed you? Is this really why he was interested in you? Maybe it was just a coincidence, you wanted it to be. You fucking needed it to be! As you sat there, panicking and crying through the thoughts that clouded your judgement. Now thoroughly soaked from the rain, eyes puffy and red from crying. You held yourself, a shivering and broken mess. Every part of you was so cold you physically hurt from it. You felt so bitterly helpless as you just didn't understand. Sobbing until you could no longer breathe properly, just holding your knees to your chest in your devastation. You get to your feet, not caring that you're covered in mud, and just begin walking.

Muerte woke up a short time later after a weird feeling jolted through him. He sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, the candle still going and dimly lighting the room. He looks around and sees your belongings still around, but not you. He blinks, now wide awake. quickly jumping to his feet and looking around once more, the painting on the wall catches his glance. He freezes, as the faces looking back at him are none other than that of his deceased family from more than a century earlier than now. Tears burn his eyes as he sees the faces of his beautiful children, finally sliding down his face when he looks at the face of his wife Her (h/c) hair falling around her shoulders, her bright and happy (e/c) orbs staring back at him, her clear face just beaming for the portrait. The lovely face staring back at him was none other than yours. Realizing you had seen the painting, he feels panic set in. He rushes to the door and swings it open, looking around for you. He looks down at the ground seeing footprints in the mud. "¡Oh, gracias a Dios!" (Oh, thank goodness!) He almost yells before running in the direction of the footprints. 

You had made it surprisingly far in the single hour and maybe 15 minutes you were gone. Not looking up at all as the rain hit your face, tears running down along with the droplets of water. Chilled and frozen to the core, you decided to just sit under a tree and wait. You didn't know what you were going to wait for, but it was all you could think to do. You sit down at the base of a tree, holding your knees to your chest again in hopes of any warmth at all. "Heh. It's always a damn tree.." You mumble to yourself before a mixture of the cold the exhaustion of walking and crying pulls you into slumber.