#literally from when we met there was 7 attempts/ODs where he REPEATED that it was my fault

[bunnyboy-juice]

tbh snooping on my ex doesnt even hurt bc of him directly atp- im glad he's getting better and happier. what hurts is seeing ppl who claimed that no matter what they'd be there for us both who chose him bc he played victim so well

[fanfictionconnectionwordpress]

Mystic Messenger Fanfiction | VanderwoodxOC Cerise - Tagged | Ch. 7 Ode to Jessica

*** I'm so sorry I didn't post last week. I was getting a medical procedure done and was in too much pain afterwards that I hadn't been expecting. T_T Good news, posting continues! Also, check out this week's hidden scene Jessica Backstory if you're a patron. =0 ~Let's Connect! FFC

Remember, this is a sequel to Vanderwood Backstory, and Cerise has a bio. Don’t forget to subscribe to the email list for access to R-Rated Scenes and my monthly newsletter. You can support my writing on patreon and get access to my VIP Discord Server or other goodies like early chapter releases and hidden scenes.  Tagged Chapter Directory***

Cerise had made it to the room with no incident, and she made sure that she was quiet, listening for anything that could be out of place. If she were perfectly honest, she was scared and rather worried. Vanderwood had seemed nervous, and that only made Cerise feel all the more worried. Would he be okay? He had to have been trained for this stuff, right? She sat in the corner of the hotel room and waited for him to come up.

In the lobby, Jessica still seemed to be hitting on the desk clerk. Vanderwood approached her from behind carefully, not wanting to clue her in on his position until he spoke, to give himself the edge of being the one to surprise her and not the other way around. "Hey, sweetheart. Don't you wanna come up to my room?"

The redhead spun on her oddly spiked heel and smiled broadly. Vanderwood, just the man she was looking for. It was unfortunate that the girl wasn’t with him, but she could always find that target later. He was the more dangerous target anyway. "Well hello, Korean Casanova." Jessica flicked her hair over her shoulder as she fixed her vibrant green eyes on the brown of Vanderwood’s. He’d been a thorn in her side, always keeping her from completing her missions from the moment they’d met, so Drawl wasn’t the only one who had a grudge. Still, this wasn’t about grudges, it was about winning against him. (Jessica Backstory available as patron.)

Vanderwood snorted at that old nickname she insisted on calling him, even though he’d told her many a time that he wasn’t Korean. He just turned his back to her, tilting his head just enough that he could watch her as she followed him, the clerk she’d been flirting with staring after the two of them with confusion. There was a dark area underneath the stairs, and neither of them wanted to be obvious about what they were doing, so it worked as their battleground. It was better than going outside of the hotel around back where there would be cameras.

Of course, as soon as they were out of sight of any people, Jessica rushed at him. There was a smirk on her face and her heart was racing as she made her first move. Vanderwood was good at what he did, but his major problem was being slow. Still, he had been ready for this kind of attack; she was faster, but he was prepared, dropping off to the side and grabbing for her leg. Fuck. Something pierced through his glove, and his hand started to burn painfully before it began to throb. One of her hidden poison needles. Still, he yanked her to the ground with him and towards him.

Jessica was far too full of adrenaline to even bother with feeling afraid, attempting to catch him with her spiked heel as he pulled her towards him, but he pushed that leg away. "Alright, Jessi." Vanderwood flipped over on top of her, grabbing her wrists and placing them into the now throbbing hand before grabbing her neck with the other. "I have someone to protect. No hard feelings." The redheaded woman was staring up at him, her green eyes going wide as she now attempted to struggle out of his grip. The pin in his hand should have rendered it useless, but it was like he barely felt it. It couldn’t end like this for her could it really? Was she losing?

This was his least favorite part of his job. But Hell. Jessica was a ripe bitch, and her agency was into far worse activities than his was. He just killed scumbags who somehow managed to avoid justice by the law, but they were one of those groups who spent their time creating those organizations and fostering them. Vanderwood was talking himself out of being merciful as he felt her struggling less and less, the lack of oxygen making it impossible for her to stay awake. Once she finally passed out, he let go of her wrists and snapped her neck. God, that sound was the worst, but she was dead. That was one threat to Cerise down, one to go.

He was slow to stand, feeling pretty damn sick to his stomach, like he always did after that sound. His hand was in terrible pain, but he should probably get to Cerise sooner rather than later. Like he’d said, he had someone to protect. It was a relief to him that she would be just that little bit safer now. He shoved Jessica’s body into a dark area nearby, sending a message for cleanup request to Seven before making his way up the stairs. They’d need to get to a new hotel too, since now Drawl’s agency would know this was where he and Cerise had been staying.

“Caleb.” Vanderwood started to pull off his glove as he waited for Cerise to answer the door.

Time had gone by so slowly while Cerise waited for him to return. She had no idea what had happened down there or why it seemed to be taking so long, and she was beginning to panic. Her mind went to the worst-case scenario as though it was the only option, but she tried to quickly push it to the back of her mind. 'He's going to be okay...everything will be okay.' She was repeating that to herself over and over again when, finally, Cerise heard the word she had been waiting for. She got up and ran to the door as fast as she could, pulling it open, and wasting no time to throw herself into his torso, holding onto him in a tight embrace. "Thank goodness...you're okay."

Vanderwood instantly relaxed into her embrace, even though his hand felt like it was on literal fire. "Of course I'm okay, shortcake. I had to come back to you." It was strange for him, how he could smile after something like that, but it simply felt good that she had seemingly been so worried about him. He ran his good hand through her hair before making a soft grunt as his other hand cramped painfully. His glove was off now, and he could see that the fleshy portion of his hand had turned completely purple. Holy Hell it hurt. The first aid kit was in the bag he'd sent her into the room with, so he'd need to clean this off and bandage it until it healed. "I need to take care of this..." Vanderwood showed her his hand "And then we need to pack up and head for another hotel, since this one's compromised."

When he showed her his hand, she audibly squeaked at the sight. Cerise didn't think a purple hand was a good sign at all. "Oh my god, what happened?" Cerise pulled him into the bathroom before he could object, turning on the faucet and telling him to put his hand under it. Vanderwood was confused as he responded. “I just nicked myself on one of Jessica’s poison pins is all. It’ll go away in a day or two.” Just as quickly as she’d pulled him into the bathroom, she was gone and searching for the first aid kit, Vanderwood staring after her stunned. The squeak sound had caught him off guard, as adorable as it was, but her trying to take care of him? That was just as shocking to him. No one in his life ever really took care of him and it had his face feeling hot as his heart grew wings like it was going to fly off.

Cerise found the first aid kit in the bag he had sent her up with, so she grabbed it and emptied the contents onto the bathroom counter. There were some things to clean his hand and some bandages, and honestly, she had no idea what she was doing. All Cerise knew really, was that he was clearly in pain, and something needed to be done about it. She'd seen these things on her telenovelas and did her best to mimic what she had seen with a gentle touch. It looked right, but she wasn't sure if she actually did everything she needed to. Oh God, she sucked at this. Good thing she had no plans to become a doctor. "I...guess I did this right?"

Vanderwood had watched her fumble around with the bandages and other items, a little bit of blush appearing in his cheeks as she worked. Cerise was doing the best she knew how, and even though he could have done it much more quickly and easily himself, it just felt so good to let her do it. Her questioning remark had a smile spreading wide across his face as he bent to give her a quick and soft kiss.

Getting kisses for when he approved of something she did was quickly becoming one of her new favorite things. The show of affection gave her the fluttery feeling in her stomach again. She wanted to argue and fuss over him that his hand didn't look like he had gotten 'just a nick' from a pin, but she didn't want to stress him out further after he’d just dealt with God knows what. All that mattered was that he was safe and in one piece, especially if it was one of those nasty people from the first day. Cerise would prefer not to have to deal with them again.

He broke the kiss with a sigh. That wasn't nearly satisfying enough with all the stress he'd just been through. Vanderwood wanted to hold her closely and float on the idea of her being just that much safer and his good fortune in finding this person who seemed to be the only truly beautiful thing he'd ever had in his life. Still, he resigned himself to making the kiss a short one. It was safer for her that way with his addiction and the current situation, it was definitely far safer. They didn't have much time, since they needed to switch hotels before anyone else showed up. His hand was certainly out of commission, so that would make Drawl showing up much more difficult to deal with.

"We need to get going...Pick an expensive hotel from your phone for me, please." Why expensive? Usually he stayed in hovels, this had been a mid-ranked hotel, so luxury it was. "An...expensive one? If you say so..." Cerise gave his now bandaged hand a gentle kiss before she pulled out her phone and began to search, that simple little kiss making Vanderwood’s heart go crazy. Cerise was too busy looking through her phone to notice the look on his face. What did he even consider an expensive hotel? She came across one that had the word luxury in the name. The pictures her phone provided certainly looked nice.

Vanderwood had gone to grab his bag and anything he'd left in his room as she searched before grabbing things from hers. As he finished, Cerise came up to him to show him her phone with the hotel she’d decided on. “This one.” He did a brief skim of the information before nodding at her. "Perfect. Make sure I grabbed everything, we won't come back for anything that's left behind."

He was almost going to add 'Even your phone' but who was he really telling that to? Something told him that if she left her phone, at this point, he'd risk it to bring it back just for how happy she would be. He was seriously going insane. So that's why getting attached was so dangerous. Vanderwood snorted at himself.

Cerise scoured the room to make sure nothing was being left. Luckily, she had kept all of her things together...which wasn't much besides the clothes he had bought her before. If she had had time to pack, she would probably have brought tons of unnecessary things. First and foremost, she made sure she had her phone and charger. Leaving her phone would have been disastrous for her. Just to be sure, she gave the place another look before she was satisfied that she didn't leave anything. "That's it, I think we have everything. " She gave him a worried glance as they were leaving the room, the fact that he had come in contact with any sort of poison not sitting well with her.

Every time she threw him a worried glance, it made him feel like the luckiest man on Earth. Vanderwood offered her his bandaged hand to hold as he kept the bags in the other, slinging them over his shoulder. Cerise hadn’t thought that he was the type to hold hands, but she was also starting to realize that Vanderwood was full of surprises. She still took his hand slowly, careful not to squeeze the injury.

The desk clerk was surprisingly fast at checking them out of the hotel, probably helped along by the fact that Vanderwood was being so business only. Any attempt for more was met with a blank look, although he did occasionally squeeze Cerise's hand gently, not minding the sting it gave his palm. Every time he would squeeze her hand, it was like he was squeezing her heart just a little, and she liked it. Cerise would try to give a slight squeeze back but was worried about his hand. It was purple for God's sake. Purple. Nobody's hand should be that color! She was thankful for his swift handling of the desk clerk, though, wanting to get out of that place as soon as possible

Once they were in the car, Vanderwood bit at his tongue, the memory of how she’d kissed his bandaged hand, bandaged by her playing in his head now that he was sure they were on their way to safety. The drive to the other hotel would go pretty quickly, and the added bonus was that it wasn't far from where they had been staying. That was even more reason why it wouldn't make sense to stay there. "Thank you...for worrying about me. I hope I didn't scare you too badly." He felt a little awkward, but it seemed like that was the right kind of thing to say.

Cerise felt like she could finally breathe again as they were in the car and on their way to the new hotel, his attempt at thanking her not quite breaking her free of her thoughts, though. "Your hand was purple." That was all she could manage to say. For whatever reason, her mind just kept looping back to that. Her lack of filter normally let worse things through, so she was happy that something relatively normal was said this time. Well...normal for her.

She seemed to be pretty disturbed by the color of his hand, which made him snort softly. "Yeah...I've had worse." All his comment did was make her scrunch up her face. There was no doubt in her mind that he'd had worse, but it wasn't something that she particularly wanted to think about unless she wanted to stay in a perpetual state of worry.

Based on her reaction…was that really a smart thing to say right now? God, he sure was good at this whole calming her down thing. "I'm fine, Cerise. Everything is fine." He brought her fingers to his lips pressing a gentle kiss against her knuckles. "Because I'm with you." That sounded so cheesy. Oh Lord, he was really cheesy. Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing to be? He sure as Hell didn't know. The expression on her face softened at his words, being replaced by an impressive blush at the kiss to her hand. She was pretty sure that he was trying to kill her, because she never got this flustered before, not even by her own doing.

Once they were at the new hotel, she would be able to get a look at his hand again, and everything would be alright, or as alright as they could be with still being chased by another agent. The woman had that partner. Cerise shivered just thinking about the man and the way he’d handled her before Vanderwood had shown up to rescue her.

He furrowed his brow as he noticed her little shiver, running his thumb over her knuckles as he drove one-handed still. Vanderwood hadn’t been able to get himself to let go of her hand yet. The situation with Jessica had left him tense, but just her care and presence had been helping him calm down. Drawl was still out there after them, so their status as on-the-run was still in effect, but he would take care of that idiot too.

Just thinking about Drawl made Vanderwood’s eyebrow twitch. He and Cerise weren’t exactly together, but he loved her, and he wasn’t about to let anyone hurt her. Anyone or anything threatening her would be met with a swift end. Whether they were anything to each other after this experience or not, he would make sure she was safe.

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