It Was Night By Then (Vivaldi x reader)

Part 13: We're Just Friends

LONG STORY.

Reader's POV

I am his friend. I'm not supposed to love him. I'm his best friend. It is wrong to fall in love with my best friend. We're just friends. My mind had been spinning around for an hour or so about him and my heart felt like it was entering an incinerator.

We walked down the old halls of the Great Cathedral in silence. Nothing but the solitude flocked the empty halls. The place itself felt so sad: grimly, crumbling, evocative. I could tell this place was once very bright, filled with bright candles and chandeliers hanging onto gold chains and crystals reflecting lights and iridescence reflected with blatant colors as we move around. Angel statues pointing their bow and arrows up to the painted ceiling of the sky filled with little baby angels holding on to their harp. A giant cross with half naked Jesus crowned with torn pinned with the rusty nails, bleeding his arms and feet, hanged on the main hall of the Cathedral. Strong and solid happy colors painted the walls and the floors. But all of those are gone. Only faded colors remained, broken statues of Angel, destroyed Jesus statue, broken chandeliers on the floor destroying the tiles, cracked walls and all the burned spots of the candles that had once burned. It was hard to breathe in this dusty air and my lungs felt heavy. Nothing left but little pieces of the long lost holy building religious people loved. It's all gone as if there had been war held in this Cathedral.
"________, don't wander off. You'll get lost." Vladimir called and looked back to find me staring at the hall of the Great Cathedral. I scurried over to him and followed behind him. Vivaldi said nothing and phases through the old hall quietly. He never looked back. Why did I expect him to look at me? We're just friends anyways. 1 tried not to bother.

We arrived at an old damped room with cracks all over the walls. There was no door, just a hole that shaped like a semi-circle stretched long to fit humans or monsters in. Vines with small leaves roamed and had entered through the small gaps of the cracks. The same old walls with faint colors, only at some spots the original colors remained. The light escaping through the small gap looked like glowing flat tubes filled with glowing dust stabbing inside, illuminating the dusty broken tiles that no longer fit inside their original places and hence it cracked. There weren't just tiles but also broken pieces of stained glass which once had colored a picture of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus. This place felt nostalgic. I used to enjoy here when I was younger with my mom and dad until dad went missing one day. He never divorced her, never left her. He just went missing all of sudden. I thought about how happy the life was here. It was intense. People sang all the songs about Jesus, hope, faith, grace and God.

"It's been exactly 10 years... This is where your mother often prays alone," Vlad chuckled, "ah, the old times." Who was she? The curiosity grew inside of me. I went on, tracing my finger tips on the old damp walls and the paint cracked further. It had become so fragile. "She was the best Daemon Hunters but later she resigned because she wanted to protect her family, I was 18 by then." Vlad placed his palms to my right shoulder and this startled me. Did he read my mind? "Come on. We should head to the Claves. They eagerly want to meet y-," Vladimir's eyes widened and his palms held my hair toppled down to my sides. "There's something on your hair." He pulled a tiny piece of the paint that had fallen possibly from above. Vladimir smiled and pushed my hair to the back of my ear, "Don't cover your face. You're beautiful." My heart jumped to and fro, trying to break my ribcage. "O-oh, no," I smiled embarrassed, pushing back the same hair to the back of my ears and avoided his brilliant eyes, "Vlady...I-I'm not." I looked back to find him staring at my eyes. "Don't deny it. You are." He smiled and he pulled my wrist, "Now come, Alice." Alice, he's referring me to earlier. "The queen of hearts wants to s-," Vladimir fell abruptly. My eyes searched what made him fall and it was Vivaldi's feet. "Oh, didn't see you coming." Vivaldi's tone was cold. He sounded angry and annoyed. I know you're annoyed that Vladimir's talking to me. You're disgusted and you didn't want Vladimir to talk to me. "Vivaldi. Do you have a solid reason to do this?" Vlad stood up, cleaning his tux. "I do. I saw a rat coming up my feet."
"You pest. Piss off." Vladimir growled and gestured me to come and follow him and I did. We went further and faced a wall. It was odd. This wall was aged by the smell but the appearance of the wall itself looked like it was clean – always taken care of – there was not a single crack, vines, mould, dust. Vladimir went forward, just 1 meter away from the wall and then turned to see me, "We're going through this wall like we did, but you better jump forward." W... we went through a wall? How? I didn't see that we...
Something injected my head with knowledge. It was the Porsche. The Porsche went in and through the shop. I nodded though I hesitated. What if the thing that made us went through was only the car?
Vladimir faced the wall back and proceeded. He went through the wall like it was just an illusion being passed while Vivaldi didn't move. He only stared the wall. I couldn't see his face I didn't want to try even though I desperately needed to. He's quiet. He's not trying to talk. He's ignoring me. The light escaping the gaps of the hole touched his bones and his clothes. His clothes were formal which I hadn't paid attention to. When did he get to change? He was wearing a black tuxedo with white tie hanging on, long black trousers and his necklace. Cross necklace with leather strap. I blinked and he was no longer the Eidolion. He transformed into a human in a matter of split second. I couldn't help to but wonder about his face. But I guess I was taking a lot of time here. Vladimir's waiting. My legs moved and I braced myself. I brought my hand forward to the wall, inhaled soundly and pushed myself to the wall. I felt nothing and passed the wall though I felt like falling because it wasn't a normal place. I'm upside down. I had forgotten that he mentioned to jump. I fell but I was caught by a pair of arms. I looked upon and it was Vladimir. "Hey. Alice, Welcome to Wonderland." The place and the people around caught my attention. He placed me down and gave me a pair of black heels. "Wear this and come along. The Claves are waiting." He knelt and held on to one of the heels. I blushed and raised my foot. He touched my left foot, fitting the heels to my foot and it went in smoothly like it was made for me.