Day and Night
The sounds of the restless city had lulled you fast asleep by the time it was midnight.
Your little apartment in the heart of the city was one not many saw. You were private, maybe even a bit embarrassed of your living space to have guests over often.
But Druig of course, didn't care in the slightest.
When you warned him about your pile of shoes by the door, the squeaky faucet at the kitchen sink, the slew of dishes you had yet to do from the night before.
He didn't even bat an eye.
Really, he was humored by it. The anxiousness and embarrassment a human could have over something so trivial. Especially considering how smitten he was with you already. Your messy apartment couldn't have changed that in the slightest. It was just another one of the many flaws human minds had, constantly concerned of what others thought.
Yet, despite all of your many worries over what he might think of your apartment, you still had insisted that he stay for the night instead of having to drive back to wherever he lived so late.
You had incredibly spent five hours at the museum together. The workers must've thought you two were complete weirdos.
Of course, you had your mother's voice at the back of your head, warning you about letting strangers stay in your house.
But there was arguably no difference between inviting him in for the night and having a random Tinder hookup over. Although this was frankly a much more comfortable situation than the thought of a Tinder douchebag all up in your space. And you were starting to know Druig on a much deeper level for him to still be some stranger.
You had timidly snuck off to your bathroom when you first got home to take your makeup off and change into an old, oversized t-shirt. You were insecure and embarrassed when you looked like this at the end of the night but naively hoped that he wouldn't have to see you like this.
You could totally sneak around him for the night so he wouldn't have to see you like this, right?
You even went as far as pulling your hair back into a ponytail which was really pushing the boundaries. Because now you looked just meh. The boring, plain girl you cringed at every time you looked in the mirror.
You were stripped of the many layers of perfection you would cover yourself up with every day and now had the potential of being truly vulnerable in front of a man.
Which scared the ever-living hell out of you.
When you had come out of the bathroom to your bedroom where Druig was sitting, you were completely caught off guard. You had planned to only talk to him briefly so he wouldn't have to look at you like this for very long.
But there he was, having waited for you to finish the entire time.
He continued to stare and looked you up and down. You awkwardly looked away and started to busy yourself with the clutter beside you embarrassingly.
You'd never had someone look at you like that.
He was just amazed. The real you, the authentic you was on full display and he had never even realized until that moment just how much humans cared about others' perception of themselves. He was surprised that the vivacious, lively girl he'd come to adore was shy and quiet with this vulnerability and that was something he couldn't understand entirely.
Because he thought you were absolutely stunning.
He was just as attracted and enthralled by you as the first time he saw you on the street. But this time, he had the pleasure of seeing an even more magnificent woman hidden behind those guarded walls of yours.
"So, should I ask if you're staring because I'm a hideous monster without makeup, or just assume my old high school t-shirt is what's getting your attention?" you teased after a few insanely awkward minutes, trying to cut the tension.
He smiled at your always joking, bubbly personality and walked over to you.
"You're beautiful, you know that?" he whispered inches from your face, tucking a piece of stray hair behind your ear. His eyes looking so deeply into yours, it made your breath physically hitch in your throat.
You two were so close, you thought you might kiss.
He tentatively wrapped his hand around the back of your neck, with his thumb stroking your cheek softly. You breathed in his scent of leather and cedar-wood, easing in to his grasp. Without a word, he gently kissed your forehead and caressed your face before releasing his hold on you.
"Goodnight," he said quietly with a soft smile. He left and turned out your light, closing the bedroom door behind him.
"Goodnight to you as well," you said to yourself after he left, on cloud nine as you folded your comforter down. If it wasn't from pure exhaustion from walking around the museum for hours, you would've been up all night reliving that moment.
But you passed out almost as soon as your head hit the pillow.
Meanwhile, in your living room a very awake Druig had quietly pulled out your laptop to look up iPhones to replace yours. Druig didn't really need to sleep but knew it would make you more comfortable if he just said he'd sleep on the couch.
He was more concerned over fixing his mistake as soon as possible.
He knew if Ikaris was still here, he would be dying of laughter as to the complete 180 the previous 'Druig who ran a compound' had made.
So, there he was, the man who hated technology, crouched over your laptop through the middle of the night ordering your new phone to be delivered in a few days.
As horrible as he had felt about what he did to your previous phone, he was so eager to see the smile on your face when you opened your new one.
The brand new one that Druig had paid much over a thousand dollars for in order to get you the latest model.
Luckily money was not an object to him and flowed in and out of his hands whenever he wanted. Although he did think it was ridiculous that he was having to pay that much for one of Phastos' creations.
Satisfied with his surprise for you, he made sure he put all of your belongings back in their places before the sun began to rise and you would awake.
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Blinking a few times, and stretching your legs, you woke up groggy.
It took a moment before the flood of memories hit you of the days before. Recalling the incredible night you had spent with Druig, you were hoping he had actually stuck around that morning.
You walked into the main living space to see if he was still there and were greeted by his lean, chiseled body standing over a hot skillet.
He had taken the liberty of going through your fridge and finding any breakfast foods you had and only came out with a carton of eggs.
The man was no cook, and the sunny side up eggs had become a mushy pile of scrambled eggs that were nearly burnt.
But he had tried his hardest to attempt a kind gesture, and that was all you cared about.
"Good morning. Or afternoon I suppose," he beamed, greeting you for the day.
You looked at the round clock on your kitchen wall and saw that you had slept in for an abnormally long amount of time.
It was 12:24 in the afternoon.
Without your blaring alarm clock on your phone waking you up for work every morning at seven anymore, your body was finally able to catch up on sleep.
"I'm sorry I must've slept in! I hope you weren't too bored this morning," you cheerfully answered, quite peppy since you had so much rest. You thought he would've left a long time ago once he realized you were still asleep.
But no. Druig had patiently waited for you instead.
He took the skillet off the stove and scraped the eggs into a plate for you.
"Don't you worry, I had plenty of things here to keep me busy," he said cryptically, shooting you a wink.
It was true, he had your plethora of items to look at and analyze all night long. He knew you better than you knew yourself at this point.
"Well thank you for breakfast, I really appreciate it."
You sat down at your kitchen table as he very kindly brought the plate over to you. Unable to really communicate how other worldly this moment felt for you, you began quietly eating your eggs.
It felt like you were in some kind of alternate universe, as this type of romantic gesture you only heard about in movies or books. This had to be a dream still, all of it.
You honestly never had a man around who cared enough to put it this much effort in the past and were a bit overwhelmed.
"Don't stress, it's no big deal," Druig said shrugging his shoulders, leaning up against the table. "Oh, and I left earlier to grab your coffee from the Starbucks down the block." He pointed across the table.
You looked over at the coffee sitting to the left of you and were now absolutely floored as to why he was doing so many nice things for you.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand," you finally mustered out, having to stop eating.
You literally couldn't wrap your brain around his gestures.
"Hm? Did I get the order wrong or something?" he asked concerned, reaching over to double check what the label on the cup read.
"No, no," you said grabbing his arm before it reached the cup. "I mean, I don't understand why you're doing all this for me."
He could see in your face that you were absolutely serious and completely dumbfounded.
Which upset him.
He sighed before pulling out the chair next to you and sitting down. He tried to figure out a way to explain things without getting complicated.
"I hate that you're questioning this. You are an amazing person; this shouldn't be something so out of the ordinary for you."
Sure, it isn't something out of his ordinary maybe, but this was a rare occurrence for you. And you could tell he was picking up heavily on your insecurities now that he was spending more time with you, and it started to stress you out even more. You didn't want your insecurities to change how he saw you. But your mind had already started heading to a negative place.
'This really doesn't seem out of the ordinary for him. Does he do this all the time? Was this something he did with every girl he met?'
"No, it's not like I do this all the time or something," he said quickly after hearing your thoughts.
"But my family, my-" he paused for a minute and tried to collect himself. "My sister Thena has some issues. Gilgamesh would always look after her and cook for her, or bring her things he knew she loved. It was just a way of life, because he truly cared for her."
As the pieces of the puzzle started to connect, you took a breath and calmed down. You had to remind yourself that this was real, and it was coming from a genuinely good place from him. As much as you felt like you didn't deserve it and that it was just a cruel joke, you ignored it momentarily and re-entered the conversation.
Druig had actually talked about his family. You tried to respond without a thousand questions this time, as you realized this was the first time he had willingly opened up about them.
"I see. Did something happen to those two? Is that why you left?"
And of course, even though you had tried not to pry, the words came out of your mouth before you even realized it.
He cleared his throat awkwardly and turned away.
"Yes, but I don't really want to get into it right now." Druig replied coldly, putting his walls back up.
"That's fine, I understand. I really am here to listen though whenever you feel ready to talk about them. I can tell they mean a lot more to you than you lead on."
He looked into your eyes, and that connection you shared with him only strengthened, as if the only people that mattered on Earth were you and him. Despite the front he would put up, you saw right through it and into his heart where his compassion and selflessness truly were.
He would fight to break the eye contact, to drop his gaze so he wouldn't have to confront the feelings he had tried to resist since he met you.
But he couldn't stop staring into your eyes even if he wanted to.
They had roped him in, tethering you to his resistant being. People often speak of the color of eyes as if they have any importance, but he knew that yours would have been beautiful in any shade.
And your ability to see him for who he truly was on the inside, the person he had spent years covering up, was capturing his heart quicker than he was comfortable with. But his bitter and jaded soul was so welcoming of your bright light, that he was in far too deep to leave as planned.
Which left him in a very difficult position.