Work Text:
It is almost - no, it is - inevitable that perfect Nice would be the one that would twist the knife deep in Smile’s stomach. And goddamnit for empathy, because X felt it too.
X didn’t have the grace of time to grieve, so he spent his every-free-hour that he was not working watching soap operas and bawling his eyes out. His table was covered in X flavored sodas and energy drinks, as he was too tired to trash his empties or go to the basement of his apartment to dispose of them.
Dispose. What a…passionate word there.
It was about time for him to head to work, but he decided to boot up one more soap (30 minutes. Not long. His eyebags betrayed otherwise.) He could grab a croissant on the way, preferably one with marzipan filling.
His phone blew up with messages from heroes, family, people he knew and who cared about him. Messages were panicked, as if he hadn’t just continued as normal.
Bringing his IQ down by a few points, X multitasked, watching a soap opera and reading a fic on YuuPad, since Collection of our Own was experiencing another scheduled outage. (1)
A phone notification came up and he almost didn’t press accept but his fingers betrayed him by pressing it. Pausing the show, he hit accept. He adjusted his collared shirt and black pants and straightened his crooked glasses so they were just right.
“Emily?,” he said, hollow, empty.
The firey redhead looked as drained as he did, her hair sticking up as if she had just gotten out of bed. And she very well could have. She worked from home. Hmm, there was an idea.
“Are you ok, X?” (2)
His smile wouldn’t settle to something genuine.
“Peachy.”
She frowned. If she was in the room with him, she’d be fretting over him.
Hmm. Another good idea.
“Doesn’t seem it.”
“I find it hard to show what I’m actually feeling on my face. You know this.”
Her laugh was like a bell.
“But when you feel things, your cards are especially visible.”
X took a deep breath and let it out in a puff of air.
“I’ll probably feel more of it in a few weeks.”
“Yeah, probably. You taking your meds?”
X adjusted the camera to point at the table.
Emily shuddered slightly.
“That’s gonna fall over.”
It was X’s turn to laugh. Panning back towards the table it looked almost like a realistic fantasy tower made out of cans.
“Not if I will it not to.”
Right in the middle, on a perfectly balanced ledge, was the little plastic container labeled Mon-Sun.
“I’ll pull them out right now.”
“You’d better. Have fun at work. Take care of yourself.”
X laughed.
“Y’know what? I’m taking a remote day.”
“Not that I disagree, but why, exactly?”
A snap.
He settled next to Emily in a second.
“Oh.”
—-
1.) Yes, X reads fanfic. YuuPad and Collection of our Own - after Yuu Otosaka from Charlotte since I get kinda similar vibes from this show with that one for some reason; and since X is a collector and it is a story collection that we built here I figured it fit. Also it being Co3 is kinda funny to me. I wish it could be Co2 because Fanfiction is like air, lol.
2. ) She’s actually saying his real name here.