#also Nik Alex may or may not be serious about what she said about cutting you

[infactnoimmasitinthemiddle]

Missing

Here's a story inspired by this fake chat edit made by @ladylamrian ! Thanks for letting me use it as an idea :)

Book: Nightbound- No pairing just friendship! (tho hints of Krom x Garrus and Nik x f!mc bc it just happens)

Rating / warnings: Teen / swearing

Tags: @ladylamrian @lilyoffandoms @choicesficwriterscreations

"Why the hell is everyone so busy today?!" I scream as I come outside the doors of the Graveyard Shift, Garrus's bar. I'm a little embarrassed as I receive glares and giggles from people passing by. But I walk past them straight to Luc's shop- my last resort. Reaching there, I see him getting ready to close the shop. He waves as he sees me coming.

"Why are you closing the shop so early?" I ask.

"Oh, I have somewhere to be."

 "Mind if I come with you?" I ask, maybe it would help with my boredom.

"Not at all. Let me just get changed", Luc says, and goes behind the curtains. You would think he has his own wardrobe in his shop too. Or does he carry clothes around wherever he goes? Well, that's a question for another time.

A little while later, Luc comes back and we leave in his car. 

"Where are we going, though?" I ask Luc who is sitting in the driver's seat.

"So you tagged along without knowing where I am going, huh?" He  asks, grinning.

"Hey, we can trust our friends, right? And you're my friend, so I trust you to take me wherever I can get a little bit of joy." Wow, I am really desperate.

"Right, I promise you will have a great time, ma cherié. We are going to this place called Crystal Street, just outside the city. We get all kinds of magical artefacts there. I wanted some for my shop."

"Crystal Street? Sounds interesting."

But as we reach the place, I confirm it as not just interesting, but also wonderful. Every single magical artefact I have ever seen in my life, and every single one I may ever see in the future- all are placed carefully together in small shops. 

"Take a look at them, Alex. Maybe you will like one. I will be over the other side."

Luc leaves, and I immerse myself in the beauty of it all. As much as I want to take every single one of them home, I don't have money to buy even one. I regret not carrying money with me when I go somewhere, even if it's just for a while- and that's a lesson learned.

Minutes pass by and I think about Luc. I haven't seen him in a while. Another half an hour, he still isn't seen. As an hour passes, I start getting impatient. Not that I want to leave anytime soon, but still Luc should be here by now. Why is he taking so long? Did he leave without me? Now how will I go back? I don't even know this place.

I decide to call Luc, but unfortunately, my phone is dead. 

Perfect. Now what?

I start panicking, and that's when I see a familiar figure coming towards me. It is Cal.

"Alex? What are you doing here?" He asks me.

"Oh my goodness, Cal it's so good to see you!" And then, I start blurting out everything that happened.

"It's lucky I found you, then. Come on, I was going to leave." Cal says, and then, we leave for his house.

Hours later, as I wait in his cabin, I check to see my phone finally alive. I decide to let Luc know that I'm at Cal's place, and also ask him why he happened to forget about me. 

But I switched on my phone, a dozen notifications popped up on the screen; all from a group chat. I checked to see that it was all about me going missing.

"See Cal, there was a whole group chat about me."

"Let me see." Cal comes near me from the other side of the living room and reads the messages with me:

"Well, shit. Now they are on a mission to find me. I'll let them know that I'm safe and sound." I type my messages in the group chat and send them.

"Well...?" Cal turns to look at me, and I do the same. We stand looking at each other, but it certainly isn't going to be of any help.

"Guess we will have to find them now."

"Alex, why do you have Nik's contact saved as-"

"We should be going now! Let's go Cal!" I rush outside and Cal follows behind me confused.

We go to the Graveyard Shift in the hope that we will find our friends, and are relieved as we do. We are welcomed by a terrible silence. 

But Ivy exclaims as she sees me coming, "Look guys, she is alive!"

Six pairs of eyes turn to look at me, and all of them seem more relieved than me. Also, am I getting déjà vu?

"Hey guys, I messaged you all to say that I was fine but-"

"Where the hell have you been?!" I am interrupted by Nik. Well, no, I'm not going to let him get away with it this time.

"Don't shout at me!" I yell back.

"Sorry Alex, but I'll have to side with Nik this time. We were really worried." Katherine says.

"Well, instead of yelling at me, maybe you should ask Luc why he came back from the prism- no Crystal Street without telling me!"

And just like that, everyone turns to look at Luc, who stands in the back embarrassed. 

"What does this mean, Luc?" Vera asks him. 

"I.. I'm sorry my friends. I suddenly got a call from a friend of mine. He wanted to meet me urgently. So I had to go to my shop and possibly forgot about Alex in the hurry. I'm sorry Alex, I didn't mean to." His head drops, he looked genuinely sorry about himself.

"It's okay, Luc", I say. "I'm fine now."

"No it's not okay!" Nik says. Seems like he has a different opinion. "Forgetting about the artefacts in your shop is fine. But forgetting about a whole human being? That too our Alex? Are you serious, Luc? What if something happened to her?"

"I'm terribly sorry, Nik. I said It was urgent."

"But still-" Nik starts to say something angry at Luc again, but I glare at him- as if to say, 'leave him alone'. 

He sighs. "Fine, don't let it happen again."

"Sure. I know how much you all care about her, and how you will murder me if it happens again."

"Now that all are safe and alive in perfect condition, this calls for a drink. Right, my mortals?" Garrus says after brief silence. "Oh, and undead zombies and lovely stone trolls too." He turns and winks at Krom, who blushes.

"Here's to hopefully never go missing again." I toast and we clink our glasses together.

I find Nik sitting beside me and turn to him. "Explain yourself", I say.

"What do you mean?" He asks me, clearly surprised.

"What do you mean 'what do you mean'?Why the hell did you microchip me?"

"I thought it would come handy in situations like this. But I didn't know you would change your clothes."

"What, you expect me to wear the same clothes 365 days a year?"

He chuckles. "I'm sorry, I thought... Well, it was stupid."

"I think I will try microchipping you next time. Then I will know where you go secret hunting without telling me, your 'hunting partner'.

"I never hide anything from you! I always tell you where I go."

"Well, that's good, because you promised me you won't hide anything. And I will cut you if you do."