New theory based on nothing. Nothing. Not a damn thing. Leander is already as mad as he can be. The curse affected him, and he understood immediately what it does and felt the full effects. But it’s such a short put from his every day psychological state to Mr. Chokey cackling and strangling you that he’s able to control it very quickly, even quicker if he isn’t caught by surprise when he touches you versus being touched that one time (thus the blank stare and hand raise before he recovers).
Leander isn’t particularly well warded or immune to your curse. He’s just doing the psychological equivalent of a chronic pain haver who lives their average pain at a 6 and then reacts more calmly to a 10 on the pain scale than the average person because they’re so acclimated to it.
Summary: After coming to Eridia to hopefully find a way to rid of your curse and hid your pregnancy, you meet a very sassy doctor who’s set on protecting you and your unborn child
Content warnings: drinking/alcohol(mc isn’t drinking though), Leander being kinda pushy, Leander flirting with MC a little bit
Word count: 2.0k
Upon entering the Wet Wick, you were greeted with the sight of various mercenaries, assassins, hunters, and anyone else who looked like their job was killing for a living.
You scanned the area hoping to find the man you were looking for, eyes searching all across the crowded bar. But suddenly, you watch as the crowd begins to all rush towards a table in the middle of the room, and standing on top of it was no other than the man of the hour, Leander.
You watch as he entertains the crowd with some enchantments, summoning bouquets of flowers and handing them to some admirers and watching as they fade away into beautiful green petals.
You were honestly caught in a trance as you gazed at him, something about the man keeping you locked in a drunken daze. But as soon as he looked up and landed his eyes on you, the spell almost immediately wore off.
He smiled. And after telling his audience that the show was over and to go back to enjoying their drinks, he jumps down from the table and makes his way over to you.
“Well there’s a face I haven’t seen before.” He says enthusiastically as he leans against the bar’s counter.
You send back a small smile, taking a second to look around the area before turning back to him. “Guess you can say I’m new here, I’m assuming your Leander?”
He grins yet again. “In the flesh. How can I be of assistance?”
A small part of you couldn’t help but pick up on his subtle flirting, and as much as you would have liked to play along, you were here for business.
“Do you know how to get rid of a curse?”
His eyes widened in shock, as if he wasn’t expecting your question. But then his eyes settle again, leaning his face onto his fist. “Depends on what kind of curse we’re talking about. Someone? Something?”
You click your tongue before looking down at the ground. “It’s…hard to explain.”
Leander gives you a nod of understanding and stands back up again before making his way behind the bar, grabbing some bottles and two glasses. “Well, how about let’s talk about it over some drinks?”
Does he think we’re still flirting?
You send him a nervous smile, awkwardly folding your hands together. “Ah I’m fine thank you”
“I insist, everything’s less awkward with a little drinking right?” He responds in an overly enthusiastic tone.
And before you can say anything back to him, he’s already pouring what looks to be whiskey into the two cups.
Guess he’s the persuasive type.
After making the drinks, he gestures to you to follow him as he walks towards the very back of the tavern, sitting down at a table that is hidden from the eyes of the other patrons.
You sit down across from him and he sets down the cup in front of you, before taking his own seat.
“Sooo, about that curse, tell me about it.” His voice is surprisingly soft now, looking at you with low eyes.
Taking a deep breath, you begin slowly unwrapping the bandages on your right hand, glancing at Leander every few seconds to see his reactions.
After fully taking off the bandages, you flex your fingers as the golden veins that envelop your skin glow in the light that’s caught on the bar’s windows.
Looking up at Leander again, you catch sight of his surprised expression, marveling at the scene of your arms that have such a unique look. He keeps his eyes locked on you as he leans closer, slowly reaching his own hand up towards you as he mumbles. “Can I?”
Almost immediately you rip your hand away to clutch it close to you, causing him to flinch at your sudden apprehension.
“I can’t…touch you. If I do then it’ll hurt you.” You whisper as you feel tears beginning to form. You didn’t even feel this emotional over the subject, why were you crying?
Leander however, must’ve noticed it, because he quickly put down his drink even though he was in the middle of taking a sip and jumped up to come and sit next to you.
“Hey hey, it’s alright, you don’t have too. I just wanted to see it more closely.” Leander coos as he loosely wraps an arm around your shoulders and leaned down so his lips were almost pressed against your head.
In the midst of you holding back breaking down, Leander catches sight of your untouched drink, he questions it for a moment before returning back to comforting you.
Pulling you a bit closer, he uses his mouth to slide off one of his gloves and gently ushers towards your hand again. “Just trust me, okay? I’ll be fine. You can tie me up too if you want.” He smiles again, trying to reassure you of his safety.
You wipe your eyes, taking note of how close he is and quickly looking away. You want to say no, not wanting to take the risk of being the reason he’s driven insane. But another part of you can’t help but to feel curious, he seems so sure of himself, what if he’s right?
Leander focuses a large amount of enchantment onto his body, wanting to make sure he would have enough to create a barrier between him and your apparent curse. After doing that, he holds up his hand, signaling for you to hold it.
You take another deep breath, doing your best to calm your increasing anxiety, and start slowly reaching your hand up to intertwine it with his.
Honestly, you couldn’t even remember the last time you held someone like this. Sure you’ve had close relationships, such as friends or short term lovers, the longest one being the man you fell in love with and is unfortunately the father to your child. But he ended up betraying you alongside your other companions, so you were left on your own to figure everything out.
But you had to admit, the body heat that was radiating off of him felt nice, the feeling of warmth spreading through your hand brought you a sense of ease.
Leander’s smile widens, enclosing his fingers in between yours. “That’s a hell of a curse you got there.”
You let out a nervous laugh, keeping your eyes tightly set on your hands. But Leander suddenly speaking up again brings you back to reality.
“Can I ask you something?” He says in a tone that sounds almost nervous, as if he was afraid of bringing up the question.
You look at him with a slightly raised brow, “What is it?”
He sharply inhales, glancing down for a moment before mumbling, “are you pregnant?”
Right at that second, you freeze in place. Honestly you never expected him to figure it out, sure if he looked close enough he could’ve seen the small bump, and maybe noticed your untouched whiskey, and how quickly you broke down when the subject of your hand came up…and maybe how you seemed slightly fatigue after a few minutes even though you barely did anything.
Okay yeah the signs were definitely there.
You nod hesitantly, taking your hand away from his and setting it down on your lap. There are many things that you want to say, all of them wanting to defend yourself from the questions that you knew he had. But you decided to answer the one you knew would come at some point.
“No I’m not married if that’s what you're wondering. It’s just me and…them” You say in a quiet voice as you lightly drag your hand down your stomach.
Leander’s eyes widened in shock, as if he wasn’t expecting that whatsoever. “I wasn’t going to ask that. I was actually wondering if you had a place to stay?”
Now it was your turn to be surprised. Never had you been asked that, most people never really cared if you or the baby were alright. Most of the time all of their odd questions lied in if you had someone to raise the baby with. Which you honestly wouldn’t have minded if it was a constant issue, you were the one carrying it, you could at least get a bit of mercy right?
Leander calling out to you pulls you away from your thoughts, you look at him and have a slight pause, before continuing talking. “I…don’t, before coming here I was at the clinic.”
He nods in understanding, taking in the information. “So I’m guessing Kuras sent you?”
He looks around again before staring back at you, his face suddenly lighting up. “There’s a spare room here the owner keeps open for me, you can stay there.”
You shake your head. “No I couldn’t do that to her, or you, I don’t want to be too much of a burden.” Even though you were genuine in your response to his offer, he laughs as if you were telling the best joke he ever heard.
“I don’t mind at all actually, I…wouldn’t mind if it meant I saw you everyday.” His face flushes a slight red as he says that.
Kind of cute.
“You sure? I mean you are working with technically two of us here.”
He grins yet again. “Then I’ll be happy to take care of the both of you, free of charge.”
Although there was an aching feeling in the back of your head that there was something off about the free of charge comment, your mind was honestly more focused on the free room bit.
“Well, in that case I’ll be happy to take the offer.” You smile back at him.
Leander then stands up, holding his hand out gesturing for you to take it. Once you do, you’re led upstairs where it is a lot quieter than the rowdiness of the bar. Eventually, he leads you all the way down the hallway which is where a room that is slightly far from the other’s are. He opens the door and you're greeted with the sight of a plain looking room, there is a bed, a dresser, and a chest where you can seemingly put all your belongings.
You walk in and take a small look around, wanting to get familiar with your surroundings. After that you walk over to the bed and sit down, looking back at Leander with a content expression, and he stares back at you with the same face.
“I’ll let ya get settled in then. I’ll be downstairs if you need me.” He says while standing in the doorway. “By the way, I forgot to get your name?”
After all of that talking between the two of you, he was only now asking for your name? He literally offered to let you stay in a bedroom he keeps for himself even though he’s only known you for what an hour?
You set those thoughts aside, and smile again before responding. “It’s MC.”
“MC” He says, testing it on his tongue. “Beautiful name. Well, have a good night MC.” And with that, he closes the door, leaving you on your own.
Finally being able to relax after so long, you flop down onto the bed, taking a deep breath and allowing yourself to not have your guard up.
You take your small bag filled with some money and sort through it a bit, seeing how much you have to be able to afford a few meals. But that’s when you feel a small sheet of folded paper within it. Taking it out and unfolding it, you realize that it’s a message from Kuras. Mostly due to the extremely nice handwriting.
“Come to the clinic at least once a week for a check up, I can't have anything happening to my most interesting patients. - Kuras”
Although you do notice that he wrote patients instead of just patient, your heart warms at the message and you place the piece of paper down on the small dresser next to the bed. After that you return back to your original position, lying down on your back with your arms folded under your head.
Guess this is a new start for the both of us.
Author’s note: I’m thinking of expanding the series by a few chapters since I don’t wanna have awkward jumps between MC’s pregnancy T–T
