Bad Blood

andrea1imagines 16 days ago

Prompt by ——❝ rartin_ on Youtube

𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳: “Oh my god...

Are you okay?!”

𝙑𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙣: “You should see the other

guy!”

𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳: “But you’re

bleeding.”

* 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘴 𝘢 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦

𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘦’𝘴

𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 *

Trigger warning ——❝ Skin picking as a

way to deal with anxiety.

This applies to the whole

series. ❞

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 723

❝ :heart: 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 ❞

The monotonous ticking of the clock had her anxiously bouncing her leg. Toes locked on the floor, she shook away the worry eating at her guts. It was a terrible sinking feeling that settled and she couldn’t ignore it any longer. The once neat bandages around her fingers were pieced apart and mangled, exposing the still-healing skin underneath. Even at the first bleed, she didn’t stop. Her worry only increased as she caught another minute ing by.

𝟎𝟐:𝟎𝟎

Pearla was reaching desperation. Suddenly called in the middle of the night to deal with “family business”, Lucien had to leave his overly anxious girlfriend home. Now, it had been a week since his absence and she couldn’t control her worry much longer. She was thankful Lucien had left Roman, his trusted assistant, with her for safety. Although he looked like he couldn’t hurt a fly, with soft angelic features, his build was enough to have people thinking twice before approaching him.

Roman opened the door, checking on her for the third time that night. When he came earlier, she was fidgeting but now, he was concerned. Although she had stopped biting, the picking continued bringing blood onto her hands. He sighed, wondering when Lucien would return. Any longer and Pearla would remove the skin on her entire hand.

He took hold of her before she harmed herself further and cleaned her hands, rewrapping them with surgical bandages. Picking her skin would take a bit more effort.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured as he secured everything with tape.

“What for?” He examined his work and cleaned everything up once satisfied.

“Making you worry.” She picked at the new bandages, slightly annoyed she couldn’t pick her skin. Naturally, this became scratching and an overwhelming desire to remove the wraps. But Roman had another plan. He gave her a box and she curiously opened it. It was filled with toys made for her picking habit.

“My job is to worry about you.” He had her sit on her bed and pick away. He watched her frantic picking turn calm and eventually, her eyes closed, falling asleep. Roman cleaned the mess she made with the fidget toys and properly placed her under her covers. He stationed himself nearby, leaning against the wall by the window. That is how he would rest.

But things quickly took a turn when his senses startled him awake. Without a second thought, he stalked towards the door, gun in hand. Someone was there and deliberately concealing their steps. As the door slowly opened, he struck.

The barrel stuck to his friend’s temple.

“You should know better than sneaking up on me, Lucien.”

The man, covered in blood, chuckled and pushed away the weapon with his own. “Still as sharp as ever.” He flicked his hair back, removing his bloody jacket and shoes. The maids would have a fit cleaning up after him in the morning. He looked past his friend and was surprised to see his girlfriend asleep. He saw her wrapped hands and knew she had picked bloody again.

“Damn it. I should’ve called.”

“Agreed. It was bad enough that this is the second time she’s done that this week.”

Lucien rolled his eyes. “I don’t need your shit. I’m tired enough as it is.”

The complaining didn’t end there, as it never did with the young man. Roman could only stand and listen to his endless talk, wondering when he would have as much peace as the sleeping woman. It honestly made his temples ache. And it didn’t help that he wasn’t mindful of his volume.

Pearla shifted from under the covers, unable to sleep with the noise. “Roman?” She rubbed her eyes, still incredibly drowsy from her unprompted nap. Roman was instantly at her side, apologizing for the noise. He coaxed her back to sleep assuring her that he would tell her when Lucien arrived. Without a fight, she closed her eyes and dozed off again. Lucien watched the ordeal, stunned. He’d never seen her return to sleep so easily. Especially without making sure he had returned.

“What did you do?”

Roman shrugged and made his way out, leaving Lucien to think about what he’d witnessed. He thought until it became painfully obvious that she trusted Roman more than he thought.

I have to keep an eye on them.