Troublemaker - Alhaitham x Reader x Cyno

Chapter 5

He was staring.

You could feel it all the way from across the room. His gaze was fixated on you way too intensely.

You were trying to focus on your drawing, but you kept messing up the line art. The pressure from being watched was making your hand shaky.

"Can you not do that?" You finally broke with a frustrated sigh, turning to the man sat in one of your chairs.

"No." A curt answer from the forever grumpy, grey-haired man. Surprisingly, he wasn't actually staring at you, but it felt like it. Did he look away the moment you turned around?

Not like it mattered in the grand scheme of things, it still made you royally uncomfortable.

"Tch." You scoffed, returning to your attempts at ignoring him. As much as you wished it was at least a little successful, you were sorely disappointed.

The silence was tense and that tension could be cut with a damn dull sword if you tried hard enough, 'might as well cut him in half while I'm at it.'

After what felt like hours of just stewing in your own soup of nervous scribbling and frustrated erasing, you let out a frustrated growl, "when's Cyno gonna get here?"

While Cyno could be intense, at least he was reasonable enough to have a conversation with and sometimes even made jokes. They varied in quality, but for dad jokes they were pretty solid.

"Not happy with my services?" You could basically taste the snark in Alhaitham's words.

"What do you think?" You snapped, taking a deep breath to calm your mind at least a little.

"Then you shouldn't have gone out and almost gotten yourself killed or worse, kidnapped."

"Oh please, I would have gotten out even without your help." You believed it wasn't too much of a deal, even if the experience was unpleasant to say least. "Wait a minute. 'Or worse, kidnapped.' What in the Abyss is that suppose to mean?!"

He didn't elaborate, but his silence was an answer in itself. The bastard.

***

"So, the girl really is too much to handle, huh?" Dehya asked, amused. She had finally gotten a chance to have a chat with Cyno for the first time since the incident.

"She's difficult," Cyno nodded, a little hesitant to admit the two of them have been struggling in comparison to the others, "but we have it under control."

"Well, the lady of the house has been pretty chill. No rebelious tendencies and all, you know, cause she is an adult and not a brat." Dehya shrugged with a smirk, "it's almost boring at times."

"Seems like you're looking for more adventure. Maybe you'd like to switch out with him?" Tighnari remarked, entering the 'break room'. It was really just a room reserved for them to rest and converse in during the day.

"Oh, no way." The woman shook her head with a small laugh, "while I've had my fair share of rebellious. That girl takes it to the next level. Plus, I'd probably just solve all the problems and I kind of enjoy seeing Alhaitham struggle."

"Who doesn't?"

"Kaveh, what are you doing here?" Tighnari turned as he heard the man's voice, "thought you were busy at the headquarters."

"Filling out papers, yeah." Kaveh muttered dejectedly, but also with a hint of annoyance, "I'm taking a break. My eyes are tired of just reading words on a page. So I decided to check in with you guys, see how things are going with our highest paying customer."