It Takes Time / Reaper x fem!OC

9. Touched

Impatient and feeling awkward lying on his apartment floor, Reaper heaved his heavy arms behind him, ignoring the sound of ripping stitches and the searing pain that shot through his chest. If it meant getting away from the girl who made him feel weird, then he would take it.
As he shifted, Sienna suddenly appeared at his side quicker than he'd ever seen her move, and her face was alight. She was furious.
For a second he was glad he had his mask on.
Didn't he scare her anymore? He might as well try to find out, couldn't hurt anymore than the pain he was already in.

'Don't fucking touch me'

His voice was back to normal now. Some emotion flickered across Sienna's face, but it definitely wasn't fear that crossed her bold, green eyes. It was hurt. Before he could attempt to get up again, she had settled down next to his chest and promptly leant over to rip one of the bloodstained gauzes off at full speed, and he knew she did it on purpose.
Deliberately showing no response, he stayed stock still and watched her. Resisting the urge to laugh at her obvious annoyance, he watched her emotions dance across her face, toying with the idea of mocking her.
She really was an open book, and the way her dark curls framed her rounded face reminded him of theatre curtains, hiding the spectacle behind them. Allowing himself a rare moment of self-indulgence, he watched her.

~

Sienna had ripped originally off the gauze violently to spite him but, if anything, she had just gone and embarrassed herself more. And now he won't stop staring at me. Great.
Having burned out the anger within her, shame replaced the fiery feeling and she pulled off the next bloodied gauze more slowly, conscious of her actions now.

'What, you don't want to hurt me anymore?' Reaper's voice regained its lilting song, the humour in his voice piercing the darkness surrounding them. This time however, Sienna noticed, his tone seemed neither well-meaning nor mocking. It's time I finally figured something out.

She raised her eyes to his, meeting only the dark, angrily carved circles on his mask.
'What's up with you?' Sienna clenched her fists, trying to make the words come out clearly.
'One minute you're nice to me, and I feel like maybe you're changing - or that perhaps there is some good in you - but the next moment you're shoving a blazing gun in my face and mocking me like there's no tomorrow.'

Sienna had almost become breathless with her outburst, and she slowly reached over to continue softly pulling the gauze off his marred skin, but as she watched him, she realised something had hit a nerve. He twitched.

Silence.

Sienna let out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding as he slowly sat up, his bare chest pushing away her arms, and suddenly the distance between them was nothing.
Instead of the angry backlash she had expected, he whispered. But the effect was the same, and his rough voice dripped with venom.
'I will never be anything but your worst nightmare. I am not good. I am not nice. And I'm not changing, Girl, so don't even try.'

His voice was nothing but a challenge to Sienna, and a second later they were almost nose to nose, the distance between them suddenly insignificant. Wisps of his breath curled out from under his mask, tickling her neck, and Sienna felt the wave of goosebumps trailing up from where she'd felt him.

'You can't change, or you won't?'

He moved away first, Sienna registered with disappointment, and his reaction wasn't the angry one she had come to expect either.

'You don't know anything about me'

'Then tell me...' Taking a risk, Sienna blindly reached out with a hand, placing the lightest of touches on his forearm '... Gabriel.'

The speed at which he turned and ripped his arm away from her touch said it all. He needed no words to tell her how he felt.

Betrayal.

Even just the word made Sienna cower, and she regretted it immediately as the shadows curled and whisked the man away in seconds, leaving her blown back from the wind, dazzled, confused and - once again - miserable.