Nightmare (Shanks X Reader)

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"I'm sorry again, really." You apologized again as you began backing out of your bosses office, phone and other items that you'd left at work a few days ago in hand.

"Don't worry about it (Y/n)." He waved you away as he peered over his glasses at the paychecks he was finishing up on his computer. "Life hits hard sometimes. I'm glad I received notice of what had happened from your friend, though he was a little vague."

"Yeah.....it was uh, a death in the family. They lived out of town and the funeral was held there. It got turned into a bit of an event."

You kept your head down as you spoke, doing your best to make the right facial expressions to go with the lie. Using death as an excuse wasn't your cup of tea but it'd have to do. It'd be the only time you made such a serious lie and to your relief, your boss was still too focused on his work to see the pitiful faces you made to sell your words as the truth.

"I'm terribly sorry about that." He grimaced at the computer screen.

Your boss was a good man but work was often more important to him than anything else. His response wasn't a surprise to you and any other time it would have come across as insensitive.

"Right." You let out a convincing sigh. "So I'll be on next week's schedule?"

"If you're up for it, you can count on it."

"Yeah, I could use some work to keep me busy."

"I can promise you'll have plenty then." He looked up finally, eyes shining brightly. Nothing made him happier than knowing his employees were up for picking up hours. That meant more income, happy customers.

"Thanks, I'll see you later then." You backed out the doorway and quickly made your way out the back door of the building without running into any of your co-workers.

You could stick with your story just fine. It didn't mean you wanted to have to repeat it more often than necessary in one day though. Your keys jingled in your hands as you made your way to your car. It was right where you left it a few days ago, completely untouched and waiting patiently for you to hop in. The next thing on your list was getting back to your apartment and getting your phone on the charger so you could text your friends. They had to be worried sick but your phone battery had died while it was in your workplace locker.

At least you'd have time to tidy up your place before your friends decided they needed to come over and check on you in person. You were sure that's exactly what they'd do.

The drive home was quiet. You were ever so slowly adjusting to how you were now and every day things were catching you off guard on a regular basis. The usually subtle shifting of gears in your automatic vehicle were no longer subtle. You could feel the slight hitch as it moved up from one to the next all too easily. There was a steady clinking of metal on metal somewhere inside, you were thinking towards the back of the car and on the passenger side.

Every speck of dust, every lingering scent of old, long tossed out, fast food; you noticed it all. It wasn't bad per se, but you were finding it hard to focus on any one bit of new information that accosted your senses. Your mind jumped from processing one to discovering another, not quite giving you enough time to move on to each detail at your own pace. It was something Mihawk said you'd get used to, vampires deal with the same thing. You trusted he was right about that.

But stepping into your home was a whole new ballgame. Your car was pretty clean but your home teetered on the line of obviously lived in and a little too messy. It was too much to deal with at once and you were hit with the overpowering need to clean the second you stepped inside and scanned your living room.