New in Town
Fandom: The Wayhaven Chronicles
Pairing: non-MC!reader × Unit Bravo × Detective (OC: Charles 'Charlie' Matthews)
Summary: Your friend encouraged you to move into the town he's the detective of. What do you mean his new best friends are vampires!?
Author's note: This is honestly just an intro to the universe of a new series(?). Idk yet where I'm going with this, maybe not anywhere, maybe everywhere possible 🤸🏻♀️
Word count: ~1,9k
You looked out of your apartment window, sipping on your hot tea while trying to organize your thoughts. Today was supposed to be a day like any other. Or well, you had expected it to be, at the very least.
You had known Unit Bravo for a few weeks now. You had met them through a mutual friend – Charlie, the town's detective – who had somehow convinced you to move to Wayhaven. The town was nice. Calm. The city was not too far off either, so work was not really an issue for you.
People in Wayhaven were nice, too. Yeah, it was a nice town. Nice. That was one word for it. A word you heard too often. A word you used to say a lot too when describing your new home.
You wondered if Charlie had planned on telling you his colleagues and now best friends were fucking vampires when he invited you to his nice little town.
Vampires. Real vampires. Not some Twilight vampires, although it did not make that much of a difference to you. Vampires were real. Nate, Felix, Adam and Mason. They were vampires. Fucking vampires with fangs and enhanced speed and strength and whatever else all of that came with.
“Fuck,” you sighed into your mug. You forced your shoulders to sag again, the sliver of relaxation you had managed to reach having vanished without you even noticing. Who could blame you, though?
Vampires. Werewolves. Fairies. Mermaids. What else was out there?
You knew you did not know a lot of things. No one truly did. But hey, not knowing the exact components of your soda and not knowing your neighbor could be a vampire were not really the same thing.
The thought made you glance at the door leading to the corridor. Was your neighbor a vampire?
“Gosh, I need to get a grip,” you huffed under your breath before forcing yourself to chug down the remnants of your now cold tea. You still had boxes to unpack, and as terrifying as the idea of living near supernatural beings was, it was not like you could afford to move again. And from what you understood of it, it was not just in Wayhaven that humans and supernaturals cohabited. You must have had already met countless supernaturals by now. Strong, mind-reading supernaturals who might not have your best interest at heart…
But technically, they were just humans with extra steps, right? Faster, stronger, with an undeniable thirst for human blood for some if not most…
You shook your head and slapped your cheeks to chase the thought away.
Standing up, you grabbed your coat and slipped on the first pair of shoes you found.
“I need some air.” It was not like you would be able to focus much on putting your stuff away anyway.
You walked without much of an idea where to go, knowing you would inevitably find your way back home with how small the town was. Your thoughts, however, wandered back to the previous evening. The way you had ended up at Charlie's place with him and the rest of Unit Bravo after some weirdo sniffed your friend. How said weirdo had transformed right in front of your eyes into… into what, exactly? You still could not tell.
You were so shocked at the moment, you barely remembered getting to your friend's apartment. You did remember him and Adam making phonecalls while Nate awkwardly tried to calm you down without exactly giving you clear answers as to whatever the fuck had just happened. Felix had looked somewhat amused, and Mason… he must have been smirking or frowning, probably. You could never tell, with him staying hidden behind that wall of smoke.
You huffed and took in a deep breath, the fresh air doing little to help you gather your thoughts.
You cringed at the memory of your reaction. Charlie had looked so hesitant, so… apologetic. It was not that it bothered him to tell you the truth. No, you knew him enough to be sure of that. He was bothered that he had lied to you. That was what he had looked so guilty about. And maybe that was what bothered you, too.
That, and the fact that his friends were vampires.
No wonder they all looked like that. You felt almost dumb not to have put it together before. All they needed was a bit of glitter on their skin and you could have casted them for some Twilight sequel.
Before you knew it, you found yourself standing in front of Charlie's apartment building. Was he even home? The guilt you felt over rushing out of his place the night before made you walk up the stairs, hoping you would at the very least be able to apologize before fleeing again.
Because that was what you had done. You had fled. Not out of fear. More out of… confusion? Anxiety? You remembered feeling overwhelmed. You remembered the pressure of Charlie's gaze full of hopeful and apologetic expectation, Nate's awkward yet warm and somewhat supportive smile. Felix had looked torn between making jokes and allowing the conversation to happen in silence (you were grateful he had settled for the latter). Adam and Mason had been much more detached. Or rather, distant. Adam had looked upset, almost mad at you for even having a reaction at all. As for Mason… he had looked as interested in what you had to say as he always did, which was not at all. But still, he had looked more tense than usual, as laid-back as he had attempted to appear.
That was what made you leave, the night before. The pressure. The expectations. How could one possibly process such life-altering news with a public watching out for every single one of their micro-expressions?
You had needed to be alone. Frankly, you still felt the need to be alone. But you also knew you could not blame Charlie forever, especially for something that was so out of his control. Knowing how he felt about his mother's secrets about her job, Charlie must have hated keeping all of this for himself. Did Rebecca know? Was this what she was keeping away from Charlie?
You rolled your shoulders and brushed away the thought. That was not the time for that. Not yet, at least.
Taking in a deep breath, you knocked on the door. A not-so-small part of you hoped that he was not home. Who in their right mind would actually enjoy having such a conversation, anyway?
The door opened to a grinning Felix.
“Now, now. Look who's back?”
You blinked at him, feeling your heart jump in your chest in surprise. Damn it, you thought. You would not be able to have a heart-to-heart conversation with Charlie today, would you? But hey, at least it was not a glaring Adam opening the door. It would have made things much harder than they already were. Although Felix's teasing was not as soothing as Nate's usual warm words, you were still grateful for it. Better laughing along with him than snap at the Commanding Agent's knee-jerk reactions.
“Hey. Uhm… Charlie there ?” you asked with a small smile, your voice coming out much more strained than you had expected. It was weird. You had laughed so much with Felix, had teased Charlie with him endlessly to the point it felt like you had known each other for years. Now? Now you were not so sure anymore.
“We wouldn't be here if he wasn't,” Felix shrugged, his words making you swallow hard. ‘We’, he had said. ‘We’, as in the rest of Unit Bravo. As in, they were all here. As in, you would have to apologize both to Charlie and every single one of them for your behavior.
“Better get on with it,” you muttered under your breath, rubbing your hands against your thighs in an attempt to brace yourself.
You followed after Felix into the apartment, choosing to look for your friend instead of meeting Unit Bravo's intense gaze. That ended up being inevitable when Charlie was nowhere to be seen, and so you greeted them with a polite and definitely awkward smile and wave. This pulled an amused huff from Mason and a sympathetic smile from Nate, while Adam simply nodded back with a glare you felt could physically hurt you if you held it any longer.
You cleared your throat, your own nerves preventing you from reacting differently as you looked towards Charlie's bedroom, from which he was coming out of.
“Oh. Hey,” he greeted you, looking both surprised and relieved at the sight of you.
An awkward silence settled in the room for a second too long.
“Is… Is everything alright?” he asked as if testing the waters.
Gosh, when was the last time things had been awkward between you two? Just the day before, you had joked about his fear of rabbits.
“Yeah, yeah. Everything's… alright,” you nodded, your eyes meeting in some sort of mutual apology.
Silence again. This time, heavier with dread but lighter too. You were not mad at each other. You were still friends.
“I'm sorry. About yesterday. I was… I don't know. Shocked? Confused? I just… I needed to be alone. It's not against you. It's not against any of you.”
You forced yourself to look at the rest of Unit Bravo as you spoke those last words, your fingers awkwardly fidgeting with some loose thread on your shirt. You had started shrugging your shoulders, the tension in your muscles making them stay by your ears much longer than usual.
“We're not blaming you for it. We know it's a lot to take in, and you would be within your rights to ask for space after such news,” Nate intervened. His voice soothed your worries and you nodded gratefully at him, not trusting your voice to give him a verbal answer.
You cleared your throat when no one spoke again, nervously scratching at your neck. When did you ever even scratch at your neck? That was not a thing you did. Ever. Well, apart from now, it seemed.
“Well, I guess I'm just gonna…” you trailed off, pointing at the door with a tense smile. Not even a few steps towards the exit and you felt Charlie engulf you into a hug.
You felt your eyes water, hugging him back as soon as your surprise faded away.
“I'm sorry. You're my best friend. I promise I'll explain everything. But please don't think that I wanted to keep anything hidden from you,” he confessed, his oddly serious tone not helping you hold back your tears.
“Honestly, I'm sure you'll figure a way to buy my friendship back. Maybe a free meal or two?”
Your poor excuse of an attempted joke pulled a chuckle both out of you and Charlie. You felt his muscles relax at the realization that you were not mad at him, or at the very least that you did not plan on staying upset.
You broke the hug, sharing a heartfelt smile with your friend before taking a step back.
“I'll see you around,” you nodded at him and then at Unit Bravo. Hopefully, they had not noticed your wavering voice. If they had, they were polite enough not to comment on it while you left the apartment.
Your heart felt lighter now that the air had been cleared. You could only hope that you would not get dragged into their secret governmental shenanigans.
It was not like they could just bring a civilian into this life.
Right?
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