Benjamin Poindexter x Cannibal! Mutant! Reader
✦ Summary: You've always had to hide apart of yourself from the rest of the world. It felt like you were always going to mask this part of yourself forever. That was until you bumped into the new moved in neighbor--Tony--and there's that urge you thought you buried years ago.
✦ Tags: Slow burn (might make this into a multi-part series). Reader has a friend named Priscella. Angst. Slight Obsession. DDBA S2! Dex. Not pre-checked.
✦ Warnings: canon inaccuracies. Reader uses she/her pronouns. Mentions of violence, blood and death. Graphic depictions. Mental health issues (both sides). Childhood trauma. Stalking (at the end). Medication/Pills.
A/N: Wilson talking about how Dex needs a fucked-up girlfriend had this idea swirling in my head. It finally got me out of my writer's block LMAO. This is just a little intro to the main storyline but will eventually get to the nitty gritty between Dex and Reader. Anyways, this is my first tumblr post so be nice </3.
You were always called different since you could remember. You couldn't understand why people choose to separate themselves from you. From what you could remember, you just had different interest than the other kids on the playground.
It was more a fascination at first. You would read science books on how blood traveled through the body. How there were different types of blood cells that did different things within the body.
It made you excited. A rush that put any rollercoaster to shame.
In school, you thought socializing with your classmates would draw you closer to them. So, you brought your book to class one day during recess. You went up to a group of kids, holding your book straight to them, you began to tell them in detail about blood. About veins.
The look that shifted from each one of them sent something irking in your soul. You couldn't understand why they were giving you disgusted looks, running away to the teacher and her shouting to put the book away.
What was so wrong about your interest?
"I told you to not bring that book to school," Your mother sighed as you both sat in the principal's office.
You looked down at your shoes, mindlessly swinging them, "I just wanted to talk to them."
"It's not okay to talk about stuff like that! It's disgusting," Your mother hissed down at you, crossing her legs and placing her bag into her lap.
"I knew it was a bad idea to give her that book. This isn't wanting to learn more about nursing...this is fixation on the idea of death," Your dad spoke with your book tight in his hands.
They thought that by getting rid of the book, it would stop your fixation on blood. You would go back to a regular routine like all the regular kids. Somehow, it seemed like that was the solution.
However, when you entered into middle school, something shifted within you once more. You began to develop a crush on someone, but it wasn't a regular crush, no.
Something else developed.
An inexplainable hunger. A hunger to sink into the teeth of someone you fell for. To limit yourself to the taste of blood and not delve deeper into his skin.
One day, your parents had allowed you to bring him over. It was rare for you to even ask to bring someone over to their house, so your parents had thought nothing of it---just leave the door unlocked and slightly opened. So, you had brought him into your room and you two seemed to be having fun together.
You two were just lying on the ground together, talking about school and how that one teacher was always on them about schoolwork. Their hands seemed to inch closer and closer together as the conversation seemed together. In that moment, it felt as if everything was falling into place for you.
Someone would finally treat you as normal.
Just as your hands linked together, your mouth started to rumble, and your stomach felt hungrier than ever. With your right hand, you slowly brought your hand to your stomach, hoping the feeling would ease away. Instead, it continued to get stronger as your eyes fell down to his hand.
You were able to see the multiple veins traveling down his hand. That sight just brought you back to when you were a young girl on the playground again. Somehow, the boy didn't notice the shift in your behavior when you began to bring his hand closer to your mouth.
You were observing the hand closer to your face and every single nerve in your body was telling you to move forward. In that, you became fixated on one specific finger that had a large vein traveling through it. Softly smiling to yourself, you couldn't hear that the boy had stopped talking to watch you.
He called out your name and nervously asked what you were doing, but you didn't answer him.
Instead...you brought the finger into your mouth and bit down as hard as you could. Immediately, he screamed out in pain as your teeth sank deeper into his layers of skin.
When that first taste of blood hit your tongue, it was nothing like anything you had before. The taste was just so enjoyable for you that you just couldn't let go. You continued to just bite down harder through muscle and bone.
His screams echoed into the whole house, causing your parents to rush into your room. When they found you biting on his finger, your mom let out a scream and your dad bolted over to you. Quickly, he tried to pull you off of his finger as the boy was balling out in pain.
Just as he was, a clean snap! was all it took before your dad, and you were on the ground again. But you had a finger still in your mouth. The boy held onto his hand in pain as blood began to gush out at where his finger was.
Your expression remained neutral at the sight as you began to indulge. Food never satisfied your hunger like this did. You couldn't stop eating it. Your mother rushed out of the room, holding her mouth while gagging. Your father yelled at her to quickly call the ambulance while fighting with you to pull the finger out of your mouth.
He kept you tight in his arms to keep your from running away. You only began to grow more impatient with him. The finger was now a lost cause for him but keeping you here and away from the boy until reinforcements came was his best option. In an attempt to get away from your father, you squeezed your fists tight, hoping to have the strength to push him off.
Something inside you listened. Something that remained dormant for the past few years finally emerged.
You could feel your muscles expand in your own body. They were growing against your arms to make you stronger. Even if it was for a split second, you managed to shove your father back with your elbows. You quickly pushed yourself away from him and began to stumble yourself up. You were trying to catch your breath from the tussle between the two of you.
Your eyes fell to the boy who was still holding onto his hand in pain. You were looking for that glint of love back towards you, but all you could see was sadness, pain and hatred.
"Wh--Why would you do this to me?!" He sobbed to you while holding out his hand out to you.
"I...I just wanted to show you I care about you," You answered back as you placed your hands on your heart.
"You're sick! A freak!" He sobbed out towards you.
To hear that, it broke something else in you. You thought this would be the moment society could be proven wrong, that you could be you without having to hide. People could love you for you.
But, like always, society had proven you wrong.
Your face shifted into something that could resemble sadness and you dropped your hands back to your side. Your mouth was smeared in his blood and the room smelled like his blood too. Your mouth was still watering. You were still so hungry.
This time, it wasn't out of love, it was out of necessity for your body. Your eyes slowly trailed down him once again. You looked at his hand and to see what he looked like inside, it made her just smile. Her bloodied teeth barred at him before she dropped to her knees and began to dive into his arm.
Your father struggled to get himself up from where he was thrown back to try and pull you off. Again, you sunk into his skin, but this time, you hummed out in pleasure. Like this was a five course meal you were having. Your dad tried grabbing onto your arms, but in that split second, your muscles got stronger. It allowed you to shove your father back once more.
Unluckily enough for you, the police bursted through the door with your frantic mother telling them where you were. In that second, one minute you were awake, the next minute you felt a bullet go through your shoulder.
You limply fall to the ground beside to the boy. You could hear your mother sob out at the sight. The police and first responders filed into the room to quickly help your father and the boy. As they were pulled onto a stretcher, you could only watch in silence.
You couldn’t move from the ground. That gave these two other men in black masks to drag you out of your home and into a black van. You were placed on this homemade stretcher in the van with two of the men beside you. They quickly tied your hands down to the stretcher, but you didn’t seem to have the energy anymore to fight.
Your adrenaline was starting to fade away and you could feel the pain and exhaustion coming back. In that moment, your eyes slowly fluttered down before you fully passed out in the back of a black van.
A few days after that incident, you were forced to run multiple tests with different doctors to learn more about you. They wanted to find out what the urges came from and still keep the public safe.
They said you should have died, but something stopped you from dying. That is why so many doctors are on this case because you managed to avoid death. The tests were looking for that one specific change in your DNA that allowed you to escape death.
Maybe they could use you to exploit the rich and famous who have too many enemies.
You were starting to build a tolerance to the sticking and stabbing they would do every thirty minutes of each day. This new “schedule” seemed to be your new lifestyle. You didn’t mind having this routine because there was nothing around you to love or hate. It was just now you living and breathing like everyone else.
One day, however, your main doctor came into your room. He was looked down at a clipboard, reviewing something before speaking to you. When he finally did look up, his face stayed expressionless and he let out a sigh.
“Looks like it’s your lucky day. You’re heading to Dr. Sterling’s office,” the doctor spoke before nudging his head to signal to you to get off the bed.
You immediately rushed off the bed in a hurry, trying to understand why this was a good thing. Just as you were leaving the room, the doctor quickly pulled you back. You looked up at him confused, but then realized he was placing your handcuffs on.
“Don’t want to forget these,” He let out a soft snicker, causing you to feel irked at his words.
Then, when you made your way to Dr. Sterling’s office, you pushed the door open to find your parents sitting there. They seemed to have been waiting for a while. They heard the door open and seemed to jolt at the sound of it.
When you made eye contact with them, there was an uneasiness between the two of them. You could feel something bubbling in yourself for the way they stared at you. You were still their daughter.
Why couldn’t they understand that! Why couldn’t anyone understand that?
Why did you have the constantly mask herself for “the betterment of society”? This wasn’t fair to you. You were just like everyone else.
You sat down in between your parents and looked at Dr. Sterling. He had his own clipboard with pages listing things. There was some pictures as well that were printed onto some pages too.
He looked up from his clipboard, he looked at you for a second. Your head tilted to the side, trying to understand what he was doing. You squinted your eyes, but that quickly snapped himself out of the trance.
He clasped his hands together and his eyes shifted between your parents, “You’re both here on answers on your daughter and…it’s been a rough couple of days to figure it out, but we found it.”
“Found what?” Your mother spoke while moving closer towards the doctor.
“We thought this was something like a disease or maybe something mentally, which isn’t entirely wrong, but we needed to see the full picture,” Dr. Sterling explained as your eyes fell down into your lap.
To be talked about like you were an object, it sucked. It fucking sucked.
“Your daughter,” He looked between your parents, “Your daughter is a mutant. Her genes have been mutated. One of them happened to have altered her consumption.”
You only could look down at your hands as he continued to speak. You didn’t fully understand what he was telling you.
“That mutation didn’t just affect her appetite. That appetite stems from an enhanced ability to increase muscle strength and mass rapidly.” He explained to the both of them while turning his clipboard over to them to look at the results.
He points to a picture of a before and after of your arm. It was more buff in the after result. It only seemed someone could develop that type of muscle by doing to the gym every day. But for you, you could do that in seconds.
“I can guess by her ability to take a bullet to her back. She can withstand certain injuries to a certain extent,” He explained to them.
“What do you think we should do?” Your mother asked back to him.
“In my honest opinion, you keep her away from consuming others. This world would change how they look at superheroes if she were to be public. The last thing we need is people looking at the Avengers and thinking they eat people!”
Dr. Sterling looked through his cabinets and placed multiple pill bottles on the desk. He pushed it towards you. You looked up at the noise and seeing how many pills you needed to take. Your heart sunk.
“This isn’t just genetic. This is also a mental issue. Your daughter has a bad fixation on blood and gore. We have to limit these thoughts, basically silence them from tempting her. You might want to isolate her.”
Your father sat up in his chair, coughing into his hand, “We—We are planning on getting her apartment in Hell’s Kitchen when she graduates high school.”
“That’s excellent. You might be looking at a normal daughter in a few years.”
There was that word again. That word that made no sense to you. Why did people have to shun you away? It wasn’t your choice to be like this, but yet people acted as if you were a bad person. You were like every other teenager. You promise.
However, your parents and the doctor couldn’t see that. Instead, you were released from that hospital and immediately placed within a separate room away from everyone else. You had no contact with the outside world, or society. All you had, was your mother bringing your food at certain times throughout the day.
You stared at blank walls for most of your days. Thinking to yourself and trying to assure yourself you were normal. You were forced to take those pills every single day.
They didn’t make you feel like yourself. They made you lethargic, emotionless…numb. You were like a body without a functioning brain. Your life became a routine that kept you in check. That made sure you wouldn’t become that person who wasn’t “normal”.
Eventually, when you did finish high school, your parents brought you into a new apartment building. Your own space away from your parents. They had set everything up perfectly for your routine.
They managed to secure you a job at a local coffee shop not too far from here. That way you could make your own money and practice socializing with others. Maybe you could be introduced back into society.
You sat on your couch with your head lowered and just spacing off. Your mother walked up in front of you, she bent down in front of you to make eye contact with her.
She grabbed your hands, cupping it in her own hands, “You’ll be okay here, but you can never forget to take your pills. You know...why don’t you practice in the mirror on expressing emotions like everyone else? Maybe you could learn to be like everyone else."
You could only nod in agreement.
That's how your life was for almost 20 years.
A routine. A way to act normal and hide something that was shunned and called disgusting. You were practicing emotions and phrases in order to blend in with everyone. You studied every little detail. Pushing your mouth and eyes to morph into other human habits.
One thing that never came back, though, was your desire for normal food. You knew you needed something to keep your body functioning, but nothing fully settled in your stomach like it did before. Your fridge barely had the minimum to keep you alive, but if you had anything else, it would make you sick.
Dinner often consisted of substitutes that resembled anything towards that sweet, dark food you enjoyed so much. Hibiscus tea and the reddest meat she could cook (on a coffee shop salary). It wasn't much, but you did what you had to do.
You somehow, through your control, managed to become good friends with a girl from the coffee shop.
Her name was Priscella and she was this cheery ball of light that cheered up anyone that came into the shop. You associated her with a rainbow bouncy ball that just made that perfect sound each time it bounced. You watched the way she was able to switch anyone's bad mood into a good one. You thought that, maybe, you could learn from her and be able to bring a smile to other people's face without even saying a word.
Pouring into a mug, you watched from the corner of your eye Priscella rushing towards you. You tried to ignore her but found her peering over you with the biggest smile.
"I see you, Pris. You're not fooling me," You responded back as you shook the steamed milk into the mug.
"I know you do. Just wanted to make sure you're still with us," Priscella responded back as you placed the mug down onto the 'Pick Up' section.
You turned around to look at her and held your heart, asking, "I'm always here. What?"
She only just snickered and placed a hand on your shoulder, "Relax, I'm only joking with you."
"Oh, I see," You nod back to her.
"So, what are you doing this weekend? Got a boyfriend you're seeing?" Pris asked you, which only made you raise an eyebrow at the question.
You knew to limit yourself to intimate relationships for your own reasons, but to Priscella, she only thought it was because you were insecure.
She leaned onto the counter behind her and groaned your name up to the ceiling, "You're literally so gorgeous! You gotta put yourself out there. Do you really just rot in your bed all weekend?"
Well, she wasn't rotting, she was just catching up with phrases and habits humans did. "Yessss...?"
Pris face palmed at your words. "How about this? We have a girl's night in, and we have a movie marathon together?"
You brought your hands up to surrender and only would let out a stifled laugh, "I never had anyone over, and I don't think you would want to come over. It's a mess."
"Please? I feel bad not hanging out with you as much as everyone else here. I don't even need to stay long," Pris clasped her hands together in a pleading moment.
It's one you saw on TV. The one that breaks even the toughest people into complying into giving in. You knew that the right answer would be to say yes. However, the last thing you want people to know about was the millions of CDs you had piled up about human behavior. Or the pill bottles that could make any serial killer jealous.
"Uh...fine, but we go over to your house," You pointed a warning finger at her with a sigh.
She was trying her best to keep calm in the, somewhat, busy coffee shop. Instead, she came up running to you and embraced you into a tight hug.
You could only just pat her back in comfort as she said, "You're not gonna regret this! Come over around six, okay? Don't be late!"
"Yeah, of course," You nodded back, trying your best to mimic a smile.
That's how you ended up walking back to your apartment with your head just thinking about how, in a few hours, you had some place to be. You wouldn't be able to stay over on the fact that you needed to take your pills for everyone's sake. You buzzed yourself into the apartment before quickly making your way up the long staircase.
As you climbed up more and more to reach your apartment, you thought about what movies you would watch, or what else were they planning to do for their hang out. If you would be forced to eat food, how could you keep in down without making it weird to excuse yourself to the bathroom.
You were starting to regret your decision on saying yes.
You made your way down the hall and reached into your bag to search for your keys. Your bag was too stuffed to be considered necessary. You note to yourself to clean your bag later. As you shoved your hand deep into your bag, your fingers grazed your keys, but failed to realize a stranger in front of you.
You were too late to realize when you collided into him at full speed. You immediately let out a gasp out in embarrassment and let go of your bag.
You look up to the stranger. "I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going. That must have hurt."
The stranger turned to look at you. He had a scar on his right cheek and had these blue eyes that stared back with a teasing glint. He bore an amused smile down at you. He was wearing this black jacket and pants but did not hide how muscular he truly was. He was built.
Just that look, it didn't scream that he was scared or annoyed at you. He seemed just...curious on you.
"No worries. No bumps or bruises," He responded back to her, causing you to show your own amused smile.
You pointed at him. "I don't think I've seen you around."
He lowered his head, shaking it with that same smile, "You caught me. Just moved in."
"Ah, I see. Welcome," You answered back to him.
"Thanks," He responded back while holding his keys out and shaking it in his hands.
You snapped yourself from admiring the man and quickly extended you hand out.
You said your name, "It's a pleasure to meet you. What is your name?"
His hand slid over to yours, shaking it firmly, "Tony. It's nice meeting you too."
Slipping it out of his grip, you smiled brightly before pointing towards your door, "I have to go. Meeting with a friend. Hope you settle in nicely."
"Yeah, thank you," Tony answered back.
You slipped yourself away from him without a forced smile and quickly grabbed your keys from your bag. You slipped it into the keyhole and quickly unlocked your door.
You spare yourself one last glance, seeing him doing the same thing. You could only just nod your head at him before entering your apartment.
Looking inside your apartment, your mask felt like it was suddenly slipping from your face. Locking the door behind you, you rushed towards your room, throwing your bag onto your bed and sat down at your vanity. Looking at yourself in the mirror, you placed your hands on your cheeks massaging them as you were morphing to how they were just seconds ago.
All of that was so natural. Never did you feel like you were forcing yourself to act a certain way. Of course, your conversation starters were a little robotic, but it still flowed. That felt...nice.
Your eyes fell down to the multiple pill bottles scattered across the vanity. For once in your life, you can feel your own mental routine cracking.
Were you really debating on taking your medication right now? Yes.
Could your mind finally be building on itself without needing these? Maybe you just didn't have the right people in your life. Maybe it would just need to be explored a little deeper before doing this.
Your hand shot over to one of the pill bottles and quickly grabbed the recommended dose before swallowing it. You cupped your face and let out a soft sigh in your hands. You couldn't do this. Not right now. The routine is there for a reason.
Your head shot over towards the noise.
The vibration and sound were coming from your bag. You made your way over towards your bag and reached inside to grab your phone. You looked at the caller ID to see that it was Pris calling.
"Hello?" You said as you pressed the accept button.
"Hey, you think popcorn is enough or you want something else?" She asked while you rubbed your forehead.
"Uh—how much are we planning to eat?" You questioned while slowly walking out your room.
"Enough for the best movie marathon of a lifetime! I have some M&M's we can throw into the popcorn. I also got some soda for us, since I know you don't drink," Pris answered back.
"How are popcorn and M&M's a good mix? That sounds..."
"You never had that combo?! Oh my god, I'm about to introduce you to heaven," She gasped from the phone.
You can hear the pure excitement in her voice. All you could do was just let out a snicker.
"Did you just laugh? Aw no! I wanted it to be in person! You keep that energy up, okay? I'm gonna make you do it again tonight!" Pris responded back.
"I'll...I'll be waiting, Pris," You answered back while you began to pace around your living room.
"Alright, I'll see you in an hour! See ya!" Pris responded back.
"See you, Pris," You said back before ending the call.
You stuffed your phone into your back pocket and stood in the silence of your apartment. You raised your thumb to your mouth, biting onto the nail, with a smile etching onto your lips. You just took in everything before slowly making your way back into your vanity to get yourself ready for your movie night.
Your mind filled to the man next door. Who looked at you instead of just ignoring you like everyone else. Something was starting to bubble again inside you, but you didn't want it to leave anytime soon.
In the other room, Dex had his ear pressed against the cabinets of his kitchen. Eavesdropping on your conversation with your friend. He couldn't hear the person on the other end, but all he needed to hear was you.
Just that same way you held yourself to a routine. Not other people would have noticed the way you spoke, but he knew that trick like the back of his hand. The way you held yourself, you looked like you were hiding apart of yourself.
And Dex wanted to tear it open and let you show off your real you. Just for him to explore and dig through.
Just to make sure you're safe, he'll decided to follow you to your friend's. He needed to know if you were worth it. Worth the trouble to know and dig into without Fisk or Daredevil in the way.
Will you be worth that heartbreak like Julie was to him?
People get mugged here all the time. He's doing a public justice to make up for the bad he had done. Just until he can get close to Fisk. That was his justification for all this.
To now looking through the window of your friend's apartment. Just to make it even better for him to justify what he was doing, the apartment happened to be on the first floor and illuminated perfectly for him to look inside. With his hands in his pockets, he looked inside the apartment to watch you and your friend watching a movie.
He could see you intently watching the movie while your friend went on and on about each scene of the film. Somehow, you didn't seem to mind the chatter, just sitting there and enjoying it.
One habit he saw you doing was that you would only grab one popcorn to slip into your mouth. It would be every 3 minutes that you would routinely pick up a popcorn, and every 5 minutes, you would grab an M&M from the tray. Something about that, had something stirring within him.
His smile brightened at the sight of a built-in routine. A mind so similar to his own. A perfect half.
He continued to just watch you through the window until you stared at the time and realized it was late. When he saw you get up from the couch, he fixed his jacket to sit right on himself before walking away from the scene.
There was still so much to learn about you. Of course, from a distance for now.
