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taking naps in the moss

[arborealmist]

did the stars bring you to this cave? welcome! ⋆⭒˚.⋆

decided to start a blr to draw, write fanfic and whatnot to preserve my interests, hope you enjoy its fruits :) i hope to have posted at least 3 works by the end of the year!

writing for:

love and deepspace

jujutsu kaisen

more to come!

banners by @the-faechild-graphics and @diviniyae

[arborealmist]

⊹ ࣪ ˖ abstract: It's been a week since you left Skyhaven without telling Caleb. On a morning training run, you feel a certain presence gravitating towards you.

⊹ ࣪ ˖ content: veeery mild violence, MC being chased, Caleb in his stalker element

⊹ ࣪ ˖ word count: 2.01k

comms: first fic on blr yay! also on ao3 by the same username :) had a dream about it, and then thought about it for the next 6 hours... let me know if it's any good and if i should write a part two

3:42am, 122 BPM; your watch illuminates the sidewalk, much like the remaining stars of Linkon City’s dusk. Your duly prim captain Jenna instructed that upon your return from Skyhaven, ‘You must reinforce your hunter stamina before the day begins, especially with the current-’

“The current protocore fluctuations, very hands-on, I concede.” You shake off the playback of your lecture/conversation, navigating your next turn into a brighter lit street. Xavier usually accompanied you in the name of ‘team building’ (not that you were complaining), but his gentle snores upstairs were a tad bit too peaceful to interrupt. You adjust your eyes to the dense urban forestry, fast asleep in tandem with its city residents. Calm, you thought, a whisper of a smile splaying across your face. You wished you shared that feeling.

You didn’t tell him you were leaving Skyhaven. Not that he would’ve been unaware of it, anyway; Caleb kept tabs on every movement of yours — what time you woke up, what song you were humming on the walk home, who you talked to that day, how chummy you seemed to be getting with one of his officers, how you would feel if that officer vanished off the face of the universe… the incessant surveillance, though darling at first, began to choke you every time Caleb came home with a hairbrush, the moisturiser you forgot to pack, strawberries; “You said you were craving some today, didn’t you?” he flashed you a proud, I-know-you-so-well-don’t-I? grin, placing the container on your (his) vast kitchen island. You shone your eyes back at him, giggling. 

“When did I ever…?”

That was when you pieced it together. You hadn’t seen him today. He left at 5:00am for some patrol mission. You murmured that to yourself while eating breakfast, alone, against the dining table.

You swallowed the unsettling fear that was bubbling up within you, and decided to go home the next day. Maybe your Linkon City apartment was less spacey, but it was infinitely more controllable. You made sure to dry your set of laundry the night before, to slip your belongings into your purse and leave no trace of yourself behind. It had been an arduous week of silencing the dozens of missed calls and messages that Caleb plagued your phone with, occasionally apologising when one of those calls was instead Tara, and reciting your whole ordeal to her over a three hour phone conversation.

5Km. Your wrist buzzes gently, signalling the fruits of your early bird agenda. You light up at the sight of an unassuming bench, slowing down your pace and plopping down with a well-earned sigh. It was nicer here than you’d initially thought. Despite the agony of rolling out of a bed devoid of the past week’s bittersweet warmth, splashing biting cold water into your eyes, and parting with your fluffy pyjamas to pull on clothes more appropriate for sprinting… it felt good focusing on the pulsing of your blood, the catching of your breath without your mind wandering to him. Everything he said, so sweetly, so unbearably sweetly, that you almost could separate him from what he was saying to you — to almost cave in to his sugary promise of ‘making the world forget all about you’… Eugh.

The very thought sparked you back into consciousness in mental protest. Downing about a third of your water bottle in one swig, you leap back up, picking a direction to finish your run in. 6Km, 6.5Km, the reaching buildings effortlessly passed you by as you huffed contently, playfully weaving through bus stops and trash cans as though they were your usual training drills. Your tunes blast until they halt, and so do you. Your headset has been disconnected. “What? it’s been charging all night…” you lopsidedly stare at the notification beaming from your superintelligent watch, furrowing your brows in concern. Did I drop it on the ground or something?

6.9Km. Only a few more to go. You could raw-dog that without music easily enough. As you shift weight to hop onto the other foot, you couldn’t help an irrepressible shiver that coursed through your veins, causing your ankle to flail and send you stumbling forwards. You pick up your composure, and try to sprint but your leg catches onto air once again. The premise of your entire job was piercing volatile wanderers, anything hiding in the bushes nearby couldn’t leave a mark even if they tried, so why were you so on edge? With a yelp, your hands catch you from falling face first into a shrub, scratching against its stern branches.

“Ow… What is going on with me? Why can’t I move-”

No. Nononono, it wasn’t what was going on with you. It had nothing to do with you, in fact, and everything to do with that shadow in uniform a hundred metres away, an outstretched hand flickering with sterling evol. The all-too-familiar silhouette you hadn’t seen since you left his penthouse in Skyhaven a week ago, simply standing and watching you use mounds of strength to scramble onto your feet. Savouring the glint of fear circling your eyes. Padding closer, ever-so slowly, relishing at the sight of his mouse entrapped with no one else to see.  You step backwards, maintaining sight of the looming figure, internally swearing at yourself for leaving your gun at home. Not that you would ever shoot your beloved childhood partner, but it would at least give you some leverage over him for now.

“He doesn’t know where my apartment is, I’m in running shoes, I can fight, I’m a hunter, I’m a hunter-” You turn on your heel and push the concrete slabs underneath your soles at an unpalatable speed, adrenalin engulfing your heart in a roaring flame. The wind split in two against your nose, whistling through your ears as though it were screeching at you to go faster. The once quiet streets passed by in a darkened blur, your focus on nothing but getting away from him. You wouldn’t dare look back, not when the sound of your footsteps hitting the ground were echoed by heavier ones that knocked behind you louder and louder by the second. The intermingled sound of panting compelled you to turn back and watch his chest rise and fall, omitting breathy curses for raising such a feisty hunter, but you couldn’t stop your legs from moving.

You don’t know why you were running. You weren’t scared of him, not entirely. Some part of you was getting a twisted thrill from the chase, morbidly eager for what would happen if he caught you. If you let yourself get caught — no, you were far too driven for that. And far too respectful of yourself to fall prey to him once again. If you fell back into his arms, you both knew that there was no coming out of them until he made you his own. And you kept bolting down every road, every alleyway faster than before, because you knew, deep down, that you wouldn’t hate that as much as you think you would.

The streets were all coming to an end, and which one led you to your apartment you could barely navigate — there was only so much of Linkon to run through. Flickering your vision to each direction before the intersection arrived (with those footsteps rapidly approaching), you darted left and switched back to right, locked onto a particularly dark street in the distance. You triumphed for a moment, his audible confusion rerouting back to you.

“Fuck.”

You had focussed so much on leaving him behind that you hadn’t realised where you were going. Which, in this case, was face to face with a brick wall. You’re kidding. Your body lie still against it, whilst your mind bounced about in a frantic daze, desperately peering through each crack in the surface. The walls were too tall to climb over and too far apart to manoeuvre upwards. Why wasn’t there anything in the goddamned hunter manuals for this? You could barely make out the entrance of the alley, separated by lush curtains of vines from the overhead office buildings. Surely he wouldn’t think you were daft enough to enter a dead end, right? No, he might not remember Linkon, but he knows you. Hell, that maniac would probably think that you did this on purpose. The distant rattling of a metallic chain caused your breathing to hitch involuntarily. You pressed yourself against the corner, sharply indenting the grooves into your calves, and prayed that he would keep running, turn around, anything but find you like this. The air stood still, and for a moment of time so did the both of you. Upon your next breath, those leaded boots faded away, into a distance you weren’t concerned with anymore. You clamped your eyelids shut and bitterly sunk to your knees.

Why was he here? You should’ve known by the fact that you weren’t receiving any calls yesterday. He was probably setting his affairs in order to come harass you here.

10Km. Goal achieved. Now playing celebratory theme.

“No, no, bad watch, don’t you dare rat me out, just shut down-” You clamoured at your wrist, silencing the watch just before it could play some obnoxious tune. An exasperated sigh leaves your mouth, because that surely would’ve-

“Given you away?”

That goddamn watch.

The morning rain introduced itself in humble droplets, pattering upon your trembling frame and the broader one making its way towards you.

“Just like when we were kids, right?"

You could barely digest that velvet cadence over the rapid pounding of your chest, lungs desperately heaving in mounds of oxygen you’d feigned to consume earlier.

“You put up a good fight, pips. But ya still couldn’t match me. I even gave you a head-start,” he pouted, crouching down to your averted gaze. Your breath grew more stable, but your heart kept knocking violently against your ribs.

“It’s dangerous to be out alone, y’know. Could get hurt, reaaal bad.” A knee gently pried your legs open, weaving the same bergamot cologne staining his apartment back into your system. Too familiar, too comforting for where he had you pinned, in some dimly lit cubicle of the cityscape, where no one would hear you, see you. Exactly how he wanted you.

Officer buns🐰: U should’ve woken me up. Captain might send me down to N109 zone for not training with U today.

You groan at yet another comedically timed notification broadcasted to the surrounding bricks, beaming a kindred hue to Caleb’s evol, and defeatedly plant your face into your knees. From your momentary shelter, you could just barely catch his scoff.

“You came to Skyhaven for a break, and you’re back into training already? Thought I gave you an order to not overwork yourself, pipsqueak. Your training partner certainly doesn’t care for your well being though, does he?”

“Caleb, mmph… what the fuck do you want? Didn’t you have, ngh, a meeting with the fleet today?” You wrestle with his weight, prying yourself away from his unwavering stance. He breathes out a grim chuckle.

“The colonel has you bound tight against a wall, pipsqueak, and you’re thinking about the fleet? Aren’t you responsible.” You wince as your wrists tighten with evol, not enough to bruise, but firm enough to press you right up against the chipping surface.

“I just want,” he heaves, “to protect you-”

“Protect me from what? Yourself? I haven't been hurt like this since you were— since I thought you were gone...” You spat, eyes welling with heat and animosity and a childish yearning for him. He cocked his head, staring back into your eyes with an unreadable expression.

“All because I don’t want to, I can’t fight against-”

“Your Caleb. I know, honey, I know.” He leaned forward, trailing the words across your jaw, lacing each syllable with slick venom. Your face flushed hot with the embarrassing vulnerability, a defiant tear striding down your cheekbone. He grazed it with his bottom lip, savouring the tepid heat radiating off of you.

p2? 👀