IM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG.
i had the morning shift and then the night shift and i was always sleeping and never doing anything else i—
im just glad i got this chapter in omg.
On a side note, THANK YOU ALL FOR 20k READS â¤ï¸â¤ï¸â¤ï¸â¤ï¸ it means a lot to me!Â
(((also congrats to everyone who’s getting my supernatural, bleach and two broke girls references.))
Chapter Twelve:
“Hey, Zero. You just had a box delivered at my place,” Sherry announces as she walks through the dinner doors. Her plum coloured hair is tied up in a messy bun today and there’s a thin layer of liner around her eyes. “Weird, since you don’t live with me. But not surprising, considering you haven’t told anyone back home your new address.”
Zero raises a single brow, setting mugs filled with coffee and tea and plates filled with slices of cake down onto table four for their usual occupants. Kol hurriedly reaches for the tiramisu and Rebekah sends him the stink eye, elbowing him in the ribs. “Ow!” Kol makes a face as he rubs a hand down his ribs.
“I wanted that,” Rebekah scowls.
“Yeah, well, you should have been quicker.” Kol sticks his tongue out childishly.
“Now, now, children,” Elijah soothes, making it seem like he’s reaching for a sugar packet when in reality he grasps the edges of the tiramisu’s plate and swiftly pulls it towards him.
“Hey!” Kol whines. “That was mine.”
“No,” Rebekah stresses, “it was mine.”
“Actually,” Finn pipes in, “that was meant for me.” He looks purely smug as he takes the plate away from Elijah and settles it right in front of him. Digging his fork into the tiramisu, he brings a piece up to his mouth and obscenely moans around it.
“I’m jealous,” Kol says, “very, very, very jealous.”
“You do realise that they probably have more stock in the back?” Klaus makes an unimpressed face. He brings his coffee up to his lips, peering over the rim at Zero who immediately turns his gaze away.
“Is that why you’re late?” Zero asks, stepping closer to Sherry.
“Late is an understatement,” Sherry mutters, holding out the box to Zero. She flickers her gaze quickly around the dinner. “Where’s Sai?”
“Here,” Sai groans somewhere from behind the counter. She raises a pale arm into the air and it peeks over the counter. “I’m okay, just taking an impromptu nap.”
Sherry sighs, long and suffering. Like she’s in actual pain from being around beings with lower intellect everyday. “Whatever,” she shakes her head and pushes the box in her arms closer to Zero, “are you going to take it or not?”
“Ew, no. That’s a delivery from my mother,” Zero steps away like he had just been burned. He eyes the box with distrust, specifically the part with the return address scribbled on. “The last thing she delivered was me and I’m still trying to clean up that mess.”
There’s muffled laughter from Kol and a snort from Rebekah, behind the counter at the front Sai is laughing, openly and loudly.
Sherry sighs. “Aren’t you the least bit curious as to what she’s sent you?”
“Ha,” Zero deadpans, “unless it’s a brand new childhood, I’m not interested.” He turns to leave into the kitchen and Sherry follows after him. “Ah, ah,” Zero blocks the door to the kitchen. “Throw that thing away. Let the bomb squad figure it out.”
For a moment, Sherry looks like she might deck him, but then she rolls her eyes so far back Zero thinks she might need an exorcism just to get them back down. She drops the box by the door and then follows Zero into the kitchen once he allows her.
“Maybe there’s money inside it,” Sherry tries to reason. Why was Zero being so stubborn? The least he could do was open the damn thing and get it over with. She folds her arms across her chest when Zero laughs with his whole body, shoulders shaking and chest heaving with the effort. He wipes away a stray tear. “Golden material, Sherry. You should be a comedian.”
Scowling, Sherry watches as Zero brings out extra tiramisu. He carefully cuts it into even pieces and then settles it into one big plate. “I’m sending it back tomorrow,” he says, “I will die on my deathbed being content with the knowledge that I’ll never know what’s inside that box.”
“Right,” Sherry mutters, not surprised in the least. She follows Zero back out into the dinner… only to find Sai and the others hoarding around Zero’s box, hands stuck inside the thing and eyes wide as they get caught in the act. She couldn’t be more proud of them.
“Well obviously none of you deserve the extra tiramisu,” Zero scoffs, settling the plate on the edge of the counter.
Kol makes an awkward sobbing sound.
“I tried to stop them,” Rebekah tries. Her act is quite convincing, innocent eyes and a guilty frown. She even slaps Finn’s hand away.
Zero isn’t the least bit convinced.
“Away from the bomb,” He sighs, moving forward and pushing everyone’s hands away.
“It’s not a bomb,” Sai says, shifting her sunglasses further up the bridge of her nose. “Believe me, even I’m surprised. And that’s saying something.”
Ignoring her, Zero picks up the box and maneuvers it over to the next table, just so the others can’t see what expression he’ll make when he actually looks inside. He stands with his back facing everyone but Sherry. The female is leaning against the counter and she sends him a reassuring smile. God, how can she be so nice to him when he’s always acting like such a dick? Exhaling softly, Zero opens the box furthermore and then slowly pulls out the first item he comes into contact with.
It’s a teddy bear. It’s nice and soft, has fluffy brown fur and smells like home. For a split second, Zero is back in his old bedroom. There are ramen cups all over the floor, the lightbulb is pulsing, barely working and he’s under the covers, shivering from the cold, clutching onto his teddy bear. Zero sags against the box and runs the tips of his fingers through brown faux fur. He wraps a hand around the middle of the bear and barely squeezes. For a second there’s just static, but then a childish, high voice comes through. The words are foreign, Japanese.
“I’m going to take over the world!”
Rebekah makes a cooing sound somewhere behind him. “Aw, is that baby Zero?” She asks.
“Hasn’t changed one bit,” Kol mutters snidely.
Zero laughs, quiet and soft, “I think I was about eight,” he says and then squeezes the bear again.
“Alright, Hanabi. Repeat after me. ‘Hello, my name is…'”
There’s a small pause and then a female’s voice comes through, weak and stuttering.
“H-hewo, h-h…”
A pang of emotions hit Zero hard, they sit over his chest heavily, making it suddenly hard to breathe. A lump forms in the back of his throat and his eyes sting. Hanabi. God. He misses her. He misses her so much. He misses her gentle smile and her kind eyes, her scent and every small thing about her. A hand settles on his lower back and he sucks in a sharp breath, swallows past the lump in his throat and blinks back away tears as he registers the warmth of Sherry’s hand.
“It’s fine. You don’t have to look through it anymore,” she murmurs, leaning over his shoulder so that she can press her cheek against his own.
Unconsciously, Zero tightens his grip on the teddy. Four new voices come through the speaker.
“I’m going to marry Zero.”
“No, I’m going to marry Zero.”
“Ha. Why should any of you losers get to marry Zero? He’s mine.”
“No way, I’m marrying Zero!”
“Uh. I’m sitting right here and I’m saying no.”
Feeling a smile stretch across his lips, Zero buries his face into the bears soft fur. He inhales the scent of home, however stale it is and relaxes.
“Hold on. Are we allowed dibs? Because I want to marry Zero too,” Sai admits, raising a hand into the air.
Sherry moves away from Zero, hands placed on her hips. “Back off, I saw him first.”
“Ladies,” Kol runs a hand through his brown hair, “you’re forgetting that I’m also here. And as someone who cares deeply about Zero—”
“You mean his cooking skills,” Rebekah cuts in. “And who says I can’t marry Zero either?”
“For the benefit of saving you from Niklaus, I’m also available for marriage.” Elijah smiles.
Fin shrugs. “I suppose I could also try for your hand in marriage. If only to annoy everyone else. I am after all, the best one here.”
Zero blinks, slightly off guard when Klaus pulls him by the hips and pushes him behind himself, a deep scowl etched at his lips. “No.” He says, clearly perplexed by the idea of someone else having something that’s supposed to belong to him. Zero feels heat radiate throughout his chest and across his cheeks. He wraps his fingers into the back of Klaus’s jacket and buries his face into the material, purring loudly as he does so.
The others all groan, arguing about how unfair it is that only Klaus gets to have special attention. Kol and Sai are especially loud.
They’re idiots.
But they’re Zero’s idiots.
And he sort of, kind of, wants to punch them all in the faces… with positive feelings. Because he’s nice, alright.
1532 words//unedited.
if there are mistakes idgaf. a bitch is tired and she don’t care. goodnight.
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