would you still love me if i was a worm? (and other thought-provoking questions)
[Sylus/Reader ★ 2100 words ★ Masterlist ★ Series Index ★ AO3]
In which Sylus answers many meaningful drunken questions at 2 AM.
A/N: Why have I been clowning on this man 🗿 lowkey based on this post I made before his release lol
It was rather common for Sylus to be up at 2 AM, since in his particular line of work, businesses were best done in the dead of night when most people would be asleep. It didn’t help that the N109 Zone was shrouded in eternal darkness at all times, so the entire concept of time felt rather meaningless to most citizens.
What truly was uncommon for Sylus was receiving a call from you at this time in the middle of the night when you should be slumbering away like most normal citizens. He stared at his phone screen where “Kitten” was so affectionately featured prominently onscreen along with his favorite photo of you. He swiped his thumb across the screen to answer the curious call. Nothing, however, could have prepared the leader of Onychinus with your desperate plea: “Crow Man, come pick me up, pleasssseeee!”
Sylus raised a brow as he held his cellphone tighter in his hand. “Crow Man?”
“Is this not Ca-Caw Man?”
“…are you drunk, sweetie?”
“Mr. Big Ca-Cawk, please pick me upppp!”
Sylus set his phone down on his desk and leaned back in his seat, already massaging his temple in slow circles. He had lavished you with such sweet pet names, and in your darling little head, you had just affectionately bestowed upon him the nickname…Big Ca-Cawk.
Sylus inhaled sharply.
He knew he let you get away with a lot of mischievous things, but perhaps this might be the one time he needed to put his foot down. He held his phone next to his ear again, hearing you sniffled:
“Caw-Caw, do you not like me anymore?”
Damn. You were good.
Sylus huffed softly, finding your drunken speech pattern rather endearing now. With a soft smile on his face, he spoke low, “Far from the truth, sweetie. Now, give me your address.”
You relayed to him the address of a late-night restaurant you were at in Linkon City.
“Stay safe,” Sylus responded, “I’ll be there in twenty.”
The call ended and Sylus heaved another heavy sigh before he stood up. He walked pass where Mephisto was roosting on his perch, and Sylus mumbled thoughtfully to the mechanical crow, “Maybe I should just assign you to monitor her 24/7 from now on.”
Mephisto tilted his head to the side, clearly confused by his owner’s odd words. He cooed quietly in response, watching as Sylus left.
With no speed limit in the N109 Zone, Sylus breezed through the city on his motorcycle in a matter of less than fifteen minutes. Through Linkon City, the street was mostly vacant, and he managed to avoid many of the cop hiding spots. It took him roughly another ten minutes to finally pulled up to the restaurant you said you were at.
As he parked his motorcycle, he took his helmet off, eyes instantly narrowing in anger when he noticed you were backed into a wall by a couple of sober sleazebags. Sylus started to walk up to you, his temper flaring when he heard your feeble protests:
“No…I don’t like this. Go away...”
“Aww, come on, sweetcheeks, you look like you could use a rest at a motel with us.”
“Yeah, it’d be in bad conscious of us if we leave a cute girl like you hanging around on the street like this—”
Sylus had heard enough. His hand tightened into a fist, and thick, dark tendrils wrapped around the two men’s necks, easily lifting them up and sending them hurtling down the block. When they gotten up, ready to assault their attacker, they were instantly frozen with fear from just a simple sharp glare from Sylus. He merely snapped his fingers and new tendrils shot straight down the block at the two men, the sight enough to send them running away in terror.
How fortunate for them. Sylus had other important things on his mind this particular night, or otherwise, he would have felt no qualms with ridding the world of two lowlifes.
When Sylus turned to look at you, his gaze softened considerably, a look of exasperation settled on his handsome features. He approached you slowly, his voice soft and gentle, “Sweetheart…”
His eyes widened in shock when you flung yourself against him, arms wrapped around his waist tightly. You sniffled softly, “Sy-Sy…”
Sylus regained his composure and he smiled down at your head, his hand rubbing your back soothingly. “So I am Sy-Sy now?”
He waited for you to calm down, speaking gentle, comforting words to ease your fears. When he noticed you appeared calmer, he led you to where he had parked. After handing you a helmet, he made sure your arms were wrapped tightly around his waist again before he took off, heading to your apartment.
Once he had arrived to your apartment building, he led you upstairs to your floor. He watched in amusement as you attempted to open the door, unable to get your thumb aligned correctly with the biometrics.
“Here,” he murmured, grabbing your wrist and guiding your thumb to match up with the small screen.
There was a click.
The door opened.
You stared in absolute awe. “Sy-Sy is so amazing…”
Sylus chuckled as he led you inside. “Sweetie, how much did you drink tonight?”
You shrugged. “It was Tara’s birthday…and it was our 5000th wanderer kill…and it was also pay day…and—”
Sylus immediately cut you off, laughing. “I get it,” he said, leading you to your bathroom to help you wash up, “You had a lot to celebrate today.”
He watched you smiled happily as you splashed some cooling water on your face. He helped you removed your jewelry before leading you to your bedroom. Sylus crossed his arms over his chest as he eyed you up and down in your black bodycon dress.
“Now, while I do appreciate seeing you in this dress,” he said with a teasing lecherous smirk, “I don’t think it’ll be comfortable to wear to bed, right?”
You giggled. “Nope!”
Sylus’ eyes widened, completely unprepared when you decided to shamelessly take the dress off yourself and flung it at a chair in your room. You smiled sweetly at him as you stood there in just your bra and panties.
Sylus covered his face, groaning softly. “This girl…” He took another look at you happily smiling away at him with not a single sober thought in your head. He turned away, mumbling, “Stay put.”
He sighed and walked into your closet, muttering to himself as he searched for some sleepwear for you, “You suck at drinking, sweetheart, and yet you let yourself get this drunk…”
After spending about five minutes of searching for some decent sleepwear, Sylus came back out to find you on the bed laying on your side, half-asleep. Sylus sat down on the edge of the bed next to you. He gently shook your shoulder. “Come on, sweetie, as cute as you look like that, you need to get dressed.”
You mumbled sleepily, and Sylus took it upon himself to help you get dressed in an oversized shirt and some shorts. This task felt rather foreign to him, since he was honestly more used to doing the complete opposite. As if reading his mind, you fell against him giggling again once you were fully dressed. “Are you going to take my bra off, too, Sy-Sy?”
He groaned again, his brain about to explode. “Sweetie, you are testing me.”
You giggled again and batted your eyelashes at him.
He smirked, slipping his hands under your shirt from behind and expertly unhooked your bra, tossing it to the side with your earlier abandoned dress. “It’s a good thing I am such a gentleman who doesn’t like taking advantage of intoxicated women.”
“Sy-Sy is the sweetest,” you agreed solemnly. You leaned up and clumsily kissed him, catching him off-guard for just a few seconds before he chuckled against the kiss, pecking your lips lightly. He pulled away first, amused when he saw your look of disappointment at how quickly the kiss ended.
Sylus pinched your cheek, eliciting a pained yelp that stirred you fully awake. “Next time, you are not allowed to get yourself drunk without me around,” he scolded you firmly, though his facial expression was more gentle than angry.
“But it was pay day…”
One sharp look from Sylus had you clamming up. When he turned away, you let out a soft whine, “Wait…are you leaving me?”
He turned back just in time to see a pout forming on your face. He sighed for what seemed like the umpteenth time that night, giving you a slow shake of his head. He knew he was coddling you too much tonight, but he couldn’t bear to leave you alone in such a disoriented state. “Of course not, sweetie,” he answered with a smile, “I’m just going to turn off the lights.”
Once the lights were out, Sylus made his way back over to the bed. He chuckled in amusement as you scooted to the center, giving the empty space next to you an enthusiastic pat. Sylus climbed into bed, happy when you cuddled up to him.
“Caw-Caw, I have a question…”
“So it’s Caw-Caw again?” he asked bemused, and then muttered more to himself, “I think I’d rather you call me Sy-Sy instead… What is it, sweetie?”
“Would you still love me if I was a worm?”
“Sweetie, I would feed you to Mephisto,” he answered, not missing a single beat.
“Noooo…” you whined at him with tears brimming in your eyes. You weakly pawed at his arm with little fists, pleading, “Don’t feed me to Mephie…”
“Mephie?” he laughed, astonished that now you had taken the liberty of nicknaming his mechanical crow.
“I won’t taste good,” you insisted with a sweet pout.
“Personally, I think you taste divine,” Sylus teased with the double-entendre, but in your drunken state, you didn’t catch the double meaning. You could only sniffle sadly at him. He rubbed your cheek affectionately with the back of his hand, his crimson eyes seemed so bright in the darkness.
“Sy-Sy…”
“Hmm?” Sylus propped himself up on his elbow, his chin cradled in his hand as he peered down at you snuggled up close to him again.
“Where does the light go when you close the fridge door?”
“Drunk you is just full of silly questions, huh?”
You continued, not caring that he didn’t give you an actual answer to your previous inquiry, “Why do we make round pizza, put it in a square box, just to eat it as a triangle?”
Sylus blinked, sighing, feeling at a complete loss for words. “When you are sober, I’ll make sure to look up the answer for you, sweetie.”
“Sy-Sy?”
“What now?”
“Life is soup.”
Sylus raised his brow in complete confusion, not understanding a single damn word out of your mouth now. He didn’t even know how to respond to the odd comment, so he just continued to stare at you, hoping for a follow-up.
“And I am a fork.”
Sylus pulled you into his arms, laying on his back with you on top of him. “Alright, sweetie, it’s time for bed now.”
You giggled, rubbing your face against his soft shirt, inhaling deeply the faint scent of cologne on him. You sighed happily, smelling the familiar comforting, warm and woodsy fragrance on him. “Would you…” You yawned and rubbed your drowsy eyes, “love me if I shrink down to the size of your thumb?”
“Sweetheart, I’ll just have to keep you safe in my pocket.” Sylus brushed the flyaway hair away from your face, his expression tender as he gazed at your sweet, sleepy face resting on top of his chest. Even though he knew by morning, you wouldn’t remember a single thing from this night, Sylus still couldn’t help but voiced his thoughts and feelings aloud.
“I adore you,” he said, hushed, the weight of his words hung heavy in the stillness of the bedroom, “More than you will ever know.”
You yawned again, burrowing deeper into his embrace. “I love you, too, Mr. Big Ca-Cawk.”
Sylus could do nothing but laughed resignedly, his arms wrapped securely around you, holding you close to his body, the soft warmth of you against him was calming. Sylus felt a strange mixture of both happiness and bemusement by your drunk words, knowing your intoxicated state was also your most honest side, revealing to him the depths of your feelings for him. He kissed the top of your head, letting his eyes closed to rest as well, as he murmured, “Sweet dreams, you silly girl.”
Caller ID
[Sylus/Reader ★ 930 words ★ Masterlist ★ Series Index ★ AO3]
Sylus learns what you saved him as in your phone.
A/N: Infold is a coward for not letting me name him Big Ca-Cawk in my phone. Anyway…uh, vague timeline somewhere after the Immobilized memory.
“I can’t believe you actually saved me as ‘Kitten’ in your phone,” you grumbled for the fourth time that afternoon, pacing back and forth in Sylus’ office at Onychinus base. You were still upset by the whole incident on that trip with the Evol Linkage tethering the two of you together. Through that unfortunate situation, you learned something that, honestly in hindsight, really shouldn’t have been all that surprising. It still didn’t make you any less annoyed.
“What’s the matter, sweetie? Upset?” Sylus leaned back against his desk, arms crossed over his chest, and deeply amused by the many changing expressions on your face.
“Yes, I’m upset!” you turned and yelled at him, “I have a name, you know.”
“And it is a lovely name,” Sylus acknowledged with a haughty smile, “One that so many people use to call you. How many people call you ‘Kitten?’”
“…Just you,” you conceded with a weak glare, still unhappy.
“Exactly,” Sylus responded with an easy smile, happily choosing to ignore your scowl. “I want you to have a special name only I am allowed to use.”
You muttered under your breath to yourself, completely baffled, “…but why did it have to be ‘Kitten?’”
“Did you say something, sweetie?”
“Nope!” you responded with a forced smile. Just as quickly as you had finished answering him, a sneaky little thought suddenly flashed through your mind, making your cheeks burned for a moment. You quickly composed yourself, hoping Sylus didn’t notice your brief distraction. “Forget it, it’s just a caller ID. You will be the only one who will see it anyway…” you said before quickly adding under your breath, “hopefully…”
Sylus looked at you curiously as you started to walk by him. He grabbed your arm. “Hold it,” he said, “What is with that expression?”
You looked up, feigning ignorance. “What expression?”
“That look,” he said, his eyes darting all over your face. He loosened his hold on your arm, and said with a frown, “You look guilty. What are you hiding?”
“Nothing!”
Sylus gave you a disbelieving look. He held out his hand and you looked at it in confusion before he spoke up sternly, “Your phone. Hand it over.”
You shook your head, glaring at him again. “No! Why should I?”
“I want to see what you saved me as in your phone.”
“Sylus. I saved you as Sylus.”
“Oh, really?” He smiled, causing you to feel a sense of unease.
“Really,” you stated firmly, trying to maintain as even of a voice and expression as you could.
“Then…” he strode toward you slowly, making you back away from him with each step he took. For every step you took back, it seemed like Sylus’ long legs quickly covered the distance, surpassing it even. It didn’t take long before you found yourself cursing under your breath when your back hit the wall, and Sylus leaned over to trap you against it. You protested when his hand slipped behind you, pulling your phone out of your back pocket. He smirked. “Oh, good, it’s still unlocked.”
“Sylus, hand it back!” You tried to reach for your phone, but Sylus easily held it out of your reach with his imposing height.
“I will, sweetie, don’t you worry,” he said, opening the contacts app in the phone. “Since you said I am saved as just ‘Sylus,’ there’s no reason I can’t take a peek now, can I?”
“Uh…”
Your face paled as he scrolled through your contacts list, watching as his confident smile slowly disappeared, being replaced with an annoyed frown.
“I don’t see ‘Sylus’ in here…” He looked at you accusingly, “You’ve never saved me as a contact?”
“N-no!” you quickly yelled out, then adding weakly, embarrassed, “You’re in there…”
Sylus looked at you in disbelief, but he resumed scrolling through the contacts list one more time. On the second search, he realized you had saved everyone by their respective name, but there was one contact who stood out from the rest:
“Big…Ca-Cawk?” Sylus clicked on the contact and he recognized his phone number attached to the ID. “Big Ca-Cawk.”
You looked away ashamed.
“What does that even mean?”
“I have to go,” you said hurriedly as you swiped back your phone amid his confusion. You immediately raced out of the room, passing Luke and Kieran with a quick goodbye, before darting out the door to your waiting motorcycle. You quickly sped off and headed toward Linkon City.
Meanwhile, Sylus remained in his office, confused, as he crossed his arms over his chest, pondering the odd name you had given him. As he remained baffled, both Luke and Kieran strode in, both also confused, but for a different reason.
“Miss Hunter sure was in a hurry just now,” Kieran said.
“Yeah,” Luke agreed, “She only said goodbye to us and then bolted out the door like a bat out of hell.”
“Did she?” Sylus questioned with a deeper frown as he leaned back against the wall. “You two. Does ‘Big Ca-Cawk’ mean anything to you?”
“‘Big Ca-Cawk’?” Kieran repeated, confused.
“Big Cock.”
Both Kieran and Sylus immediately looked at Luke, who shifted nervously under their surprised gazes, “Is that not it?”
“Big…Cock,” Sylus repeated hesitantly.
The three men stood in the room staring at one another as an awkward silence took over. About a minute passed before Sylus cleared his throat, “If you two will excuse me, I have a call to make to a certain naughty kitten.”
Luke and Kieran watched confused as Sylus left the room with a pleased smirk plastered on his face.
I don't often dream, but when I do, I dream about the things we've done that day, like my brain is trying to stretch the memory for as long as it will go.