-Brahms was livid when he woke up the next day. The pain in his body was growing unbearable, and that was not only for him, but for me who had to listen to him cry. He had every right to do it. But he was even angrier when he caught Loki, a masculine looking person standing beside his bed looking at him with wide eyes. If Brahms could get up, Loki would be a corpse by now. But Loki was far from a concern , regardless of how angry Brahms was.

-"I'm surprised he even woke up so soon." Loki said, running his fingers through bright red hair as they stood by the foot of it, unafraid of eye contact as they looks Brahms back into his eyes. "He's got to be a tank to have even taken that bullet.. Didn't even go all the way through. What have you been feeding this man?"

-"Everything good, vegetables, fruit.. What he wants."

-"Well he's got a good appetite."

-"Get out." Brahms demands, and Loki rolls their eyes before looking at me.

-"Real territorial isn't he?" Loki stated. "To be honest, when you called me up telling me that you were living with a man off the grid that had a fake death from twenty years ago, I expected territorial."

-"I figured you'd expect it to be a prank first."

-"That was my second idea.. But I know you wouldn't pull that, on Candy's phone no less. Are you sure Henderson shot her? I wouldn't imagine Henderson the type to shoot Candy down."

-"Henderson was out of his mind, coming at me and blaming me for everything.. I'm just glad that you came, I figured you hated me, like everyone else."

-"I'm not an idiot (Y/N), didn't think that Sarah was being honest when she said all those things.. I'm not going to speak ill of the dead though, I don't think that'd end well."

-Loki approached Brahms, sitting on the edge of the bed, and Brahms tried to move away from them. I sigh, crossing my arms as Loki had taken a pill bottle out of their pocket. Who was Loki?.. Another drug dealer, who worked as a medic in the army. They knew first aid like the back of their hand, and I reckon that they'd be so good at it that they'd be a doctor if they hadn't picked the military instead. They would've picked anything to be fair, having left them on the streets after the wars that they fought. It was simply unfair to see such a good person like Loki go down like this.

-"You're lucky, Brahms. The bullet missed all your vital organs and I managed to pull out all the fragments. The only thing you gotta do now is not move, otherwise it's going to pull your stitches and it's not going to end with you breathing.. Now, about to scar here." Loki pulled the blanket down without care for Brahms' shirtless privacy and then points at the scar Greta gave. Brahms just fucking glared daggers into Loki. "You must've done this yourself, no? It's a good first try, I'd imagine, but you had definitely made a mistake. I can imagine it's painful. There's things that I can help with."

-"Get away from me." Brahms shoves Loki's arm, and then gasped like an injured rabbit as his torso contorted.

-"Like I said, don't move." He offers the bottle to Brahms. "Take these painkillers, alright? You'll feel better."

-Brahms took it from his hand, looking over the label before tossing it across the room and against the wall. The bottle rattled, and I glanced at the orange enclosure on the ground before looking at Loki with apologetic eyes. Loki simply shrugged, looking at me with apathetic brown ones.

-"Get him to take those, then come outside with me. We need to talk." Loki left the room, and I let out a sigh, walking over to the bottle and picking it up.

-It shakes in my hand as I step beside Brahms' bed, and I sit on the edge, looking at him. He's glaring at me, half of his mask sitting on the nightstand beside him, yet his hand comes up to cover his burn scars. He's insecure, and it's written all over him.

-"Brahms, it'll hurt less if you take the pills, alright?" I attempt to convince him, but all he does is shake his head. "Don't you want to feel better? It'll make the pain go away."

-"I want them out."

-"Loki saved your life Brahms. If they didn't come here, you'd be dead right now, and what do you think would happen then? You wouldn't be here."

-"My stomach hurts! He put tweezers in me!"

-"Yeah, it hurts to get poisonous bullets full of lead out of your stomach to make sure you don't die. Of course it hurt, but you have to go through the hurt sometimes to survive. I wouldn't have been able to save you."

-"I don't want them in my house!"

-"Why are you being difficult Brahms? Just listen to me. Loki came in and saved your life when they could've just let you bleed out. Then, you wouldn't be here, with me."

-"Are you going to leave me for them? Is that it??"

-I furrow my brows. "What? Brahms, no! I'm never going to leave you. I promised." I reach my other hand and cup the side of his porcelain mask, but the he shoves my arm away.

-"Y-You saw my face!" He snapped back. "You know how ugly I am--"

-"I don't give a fuck Brahms!"

-..."Language."

-"Fuck me, okay." I stand up, stepping away from him before I turn around and I face him again. His face is still covered halfway. "I don't care what you look like under that mask Brahms. What matters to me, is you. I chose to live with you because I wanted to be with you. I could've left forever ago!"

-"D-Don't--"

-"Stop! Listen... When I walked back into that damned room, and I saw you about half-dead on the floor, I didn't know what to do Brahms. Not a single damn thing. I thought you were dead at first, and you have any idea how terrifying that is? To think you're in a house full of dead people, on top of thinking that the one person you're alive for right now is dead? You tried so hard to make yesterday nice for us and--"

-I am caught off abruptly by a flow of emotions and I look away from him, covering my face. It's quiet for a moment, even as I let out a shiver of a breath, and then hold it in again. I can't believe I'm crying now.

-"(Y-(Y/N)?" His young voice was frightful, and all I did was breathe in, before I walk over, sitting back down on the bed and I wrap my around his neck in an embrace. "(Y/N)?"

-"I was so scared for you, Brahms." I whisper, and slowly he removes his hand from his face so he could wrap it back around my body. "I thought you were going to die."

-"I-I'm okay.. I'm okay." I sob into his neck, and he grimaces. "Please don't cry."

-"I'm sorry." I mutter, and I sniffle. "I'm sorry I left you alone, if I had known.."

-"I forgive you.. Just don't cry."

-I take a deep breath, and I let out the sigh. I sit up, and I cup his face, looking into the both of his eyes. He tries to turn away to hide his scars, but fails as my other hand cradles the back of his head. I am uncertain of if it'd hurt to touch his real face, so I don't try. But instead I smile at him, and he blinks at me.

-...To hell with timing. I lean forward and I press my lips to his masked ones, and regardless of the mild sense of awkwardness coming along caused by kissing porcelain, the little whimper of shock made it worth it. He leans his head forward into me, eyes closing tight as his hands grab my shoulders and hold tight. My fingers grip his hair just a little more before we part, my forehead resting against his.

-I breathe against him, my hand falling from his face and onto his chest to feet his heart beating right out of his rib cage. His breath shakes out and echoes against the other side of his mask, and I move back to look at him. He opens his eyes when he realizes I'm not as close as I was before.

-"I'm so glad you're okay." I tell him, and I can tell by the way his eyes crinkle slightly that he smiled at that. Then his smile softens. "Are you alright?"

-"Another kiss."

-I chuckle at his eagerness and I lean back forward, pressing another kiss to his mask. He's a little bit more skittish under me, and I grab a hold of his sides to keep him still. Yet, he writhes again, and this caused him to stop and stiffen with a gasp as his wound twinged with pain. I look down at his bandaged torso, and I huff.

-"Ready to take those painkillers?" He nods frantically.

-Stepping out of the room, I closed the door with a quiet click, and I looked towards Loki who stood there waiting for my presence. They look to me, brows raising, and there's a condescending look in their eyes. Chronic resting bitch face has always been a thing of theirs.

-"What is it that you need to talk about?" I ask, and they face me, arms crossed, as they lean against the wall.

-"Well, I was looking for pay." Loki said, tilting their head just slightly. "Not every day I get called in for an emergency, saving a childish murderer that's been off the grid for twenty or so years and then not expect my time to be worth it.. Let me tell you, saving his ungrateful ass didn't really feel worth it."

-"Right, right, uh.." I pause, thinking thoroughly. As rich as Brahms was I hadn't really seen much that was valuable other than paintings, and Loki is probably looking for actual money; then it comes to me. "Hold on, follow me." I beckon Loki, and they sigh im mild annoyance as they are soon enough following me.

-I'm quicker than they are, ending up a few feet aways from them as I open a drawer in a table, and soon enough I'm rummaging for a specific item. I can feel Loki's eyes on me even as I pull out the wad of cash that I found in Candy's bag. I turn to Loki and hand it to them, and their brows raise in surprise. Loki takes it from my palm, straightening out all the bills and reading them over.

-"Six-hundred? Hm.. I do want more than this but because you and I were close I can make an acception." Loki stuffs the money into their back pocket, looking away from me and eyeing the wall. "Maybe you can pay me another four-hundred later.'

-"Alright, yeah.. I'm just thankful you even bothered."

-"Well, it was mainly out of curiosity. You sorta popped off the face of the earth after I heard Edgar talking about killing you. Figured maybe they did.. Didn't expect this. You're saying the guy upstairs killed both Edgar and Billy?"

-"Yeah, but they were trying to kill me, as you know.."

-"Yeah. Makes sense. Not like I haven't heard of self-defense before." Loki finally looked down at me. "The guy woke up screaming at me. Probably because I was knuckle deep in his guts; but he was telling me to get away from you specifically."

-"Yeah I remember that."

-"Might've been the shock and maybe he didn't feel the pain at first.. You'd think someone would be screaming less about being jealous and would be screaming more about that otherwise."

-"Can we not talk about this?" Loki shrugs at me. "Thanks."

-"I just gotta wonder how safe this guy is to be around?"

-"Probably not at all."

-"Oh. Well at least you're aware." Loki snickers just barely, hands going into their pockets comfortably. "Look, I'll be honest with you, I honestly don't give a damn about him. I'm just.. Y'know, a little curious about how you've been holding up?"

-Loki? The most apathetic being on the planet? Curious??? "Oh, uh.. I've been alright. Brahms is a bit hard to work with but I enjoy his company." I nod. "He's given me a place to stay and I don't really see myself leaving."

-"No? Whatever floats your boat." Loki paused, grimacing at themselves before they sigh. "Well just let me know when you got my four-hundred. I'm not too needy for it. But I know you'll get it to me."

-"If I don't?"

-"You know what happens." Loki nods at me, then walking past me to go towards the front door.

-Loki never did like saying goodbye. As a matter of fact I'm lucky that they even bothered coming by to help me, lucky to even know them. Loki never bothered to get to know people, and if they knew someone it'd be for money and sale purposes. I have only heard of one event where Loki put his heart into someone, and that was into Sarah. Which didn't end well in the end.

-Regardless, I didn't have time to think about Loki. Brahms was sitting in that room all by his lonesome, and I knew he wasn't too keen on the fact that I wasn't in there with him. As I went back into his bedroom, his actions while I was away really supported that fact.

-He sat up in the bed with his feet on the ground, trying to talk himself into standing up. But by the time I walked in he looked at me, seemingly relieved that I came back. I huff at him, and I'm quick to be laying him back down. This is going to be a long few months.