First Dance (Luca x Reader part 2)

His first match was experimental; he loved it. Learning about what he could do, how his abilities and the other's worked with the environment, and the hunters. He could make circuits and stun the hunters with a shock. He even made a new friend, (y/n) (l/n). He noticed how she helped him adapt to the odd conditions of this game, even though she was new to it herself. She stayed with him after his first match and explained everything he wanted to know. She told him about the hunters and the different maps they had to play on. She tried her best to help him feel safe or, at least comfortable, around the other survivors. He was grateful for her to give him a smooth transition, but still wary of this new type of interaction. He went to bed that night full of thoughts, questions, and theories. A knock at the door woke him up. He was thrust from a dream that felt like a memory. It was already gone; all he remembered was a feeling similar to drifting on a cloud. The knock sounded again, and this time he answered.

"I'm awake, I'll be down in a moment."

"See you soon, Luca!" (y/n) chirped, leaving him to prepare himself for the day. He smiled to himself, something he hadn't done in a long time, and started down to the dining room. As he walked, he greeted the others he passed with a wave. When did he become this positive? If anything, he should be in despair, stuck in a place like this, but he was happy.

"Good morning! How did you sleep?" His friend greeted him as he entered the room. She smiled at him, then continued to eat.

"I slept well, how about you?" He offered, while grabbing a plate of his own.

"I slept alright, thanks! Hey," she paused, making sure she had his attention, "we have a match together this evening." He nodded, and asked her if she knew of any other matches he would have. "Normally new survivors don't have more than one match per day until they are well associated," she informed. He nodded again, taking in every word she said. Then he asked the questions he thought of as he was trying to sleep.

"What kind of free time do we get here, and what resources related to your profession do you get?" He was determined to further his studies. She laughed a bit and answered to the best of her abilities.

"Well, as long as you aren't scheduled for a match, you can do as you please. As for resources," she paused, thinking, "I'm not sure. I mean everyone has to write a diary, so that isn't specific to me, and Emily is a Doctor, so she has to have the infirmary." She trailed off, unable to give him an answer. As she realized she didn't know, she offered a solution instead. "Why don't we go ask?" She takes his arm and leads him to the previously mentioned infirmary.

"Hey Emily, we have a question." (y/n) started when she saw the blue dressed doctor. "So do we get things to work with that have to do with our abilities?"

"Well, as far as we know, anything in the manor is for our use. Speaking of, there's a section in the library you might want to check out, (y/n). It has a nice desk with plenty of writing utensils, I'll show you if you'd like." Emily concluded while leading her to the library. Luca followed. As they walked, Luca observed the things they passed until his eyes landed on the gramophone right inside the library. Emily noticed his curiosity and suddenly addressed it.

"It was broken while some boys," she glared and emphasized "some boys," "were rough-housing, maybe you can fix it?" When she suggested this to the inventor, both women noticed the shine in his eyes. One of them smiled because of it; Emily, however, is familiar with the mischievous glint and prepared for the worst. He picked it up and took off, yelling a "thank you" as he rushed away. They continued on their way to the desk in the library.

"(y/n)? It's time for dinner!" A voice called, though she barely processed it until their hands were on her shoulders. "You've been in here all day. Emily told me that I am to make you leave, come on." Vera pulled the writer up, shaking her out of her imaginary world and back to reality.

"Has it really been that long?" She mused, looking back to her pages upon pages of words. Vera giggled at her reaction.

"You and Luca are similar, he's still holed up in his room." She dragged her to the dining room, where everyone except Luca sat. "Maybe you should try to get him, (y/n). He seems to listen to you." (y/n) shook her head.

"I'll try, but he still is wary of me." She walked up to his room. "Luca? Aren't you hungry?" She knocked on the door, only for it to open at her touch. She took this as an invitation to enter. Her eyes met Luca's, who was on the floor, his face wet with freshly shed tears and hand pressing against the side of his head. She knelt down and held his hands away from his face. "Hey, are you alright?" He shook his head "no" and tried to back away. She carefully wiped the tears from his eyes after ensuring that he was ok with being touched. They stayed quiet. She held Luca's hand and helped him breathe normally, then when he calmed down, she tried to understand what happened.

"Just a headache." He mumbled, looking anywhere but at her. "but thanks." he added softly before moving himself to his desk. "I'm not hungry; I have to finish this." He really was similar to her. She sighed and turned to leave.

"I'll bring you something."

When she came back down, most people had already finished their meal and busied themselves in other ways. A select few, the people (y/n) would call her close friends, waited until she returned.

"Where is Luca?" Vera questioned. (y/n) shook her head and began to eat her food as quickly as possible, as to get back to Luca quicker.

"He said he wasn't hungry. I'm going to take him something when I finish." The group could tell she wasn't saying everything, but didn't pry. They ate their meals in almost complete silence, aside from a few side conversations bubbling up at random. (y/n) was reminded of her match scheduled after dinner by half an hour. When she finished and was dismissed by the others, she prepared a plate for Luca. Before taking it up to his room, she grabbed a towel from the kitchen and placed a few ice cubes in it and wrapped the towel up. She walked to his room, and upon entering, she found him working away like nothing happened.

"Here," She presented the plate, which he did not take, "come here." The slight demand in her voice caused him to jump up. "You can sit down, just look at me please." He turned himself to where he was facing her. (y/n) took the cool towel and gently placed it to his right temple, holding the other side of his head with her other hand. He sighed in relief and unconsciously leaned back. They stayed like this for a moment until (y/n) switched sides, now softly rubbing the area that was just bombarded with the cold.

"We have a match soon, but I can find someone to take your spot." She put forth, but he denied.

"I'm fine now, thank you." He sounds sincere and unexpectedly, he grabs hold her her hands, now cold from the towel. "Why don't we head down for the match now." Even as he led them to the match room and as they entered, he didn't let go of her hand. Their teammates, Martha and José, soon arrived as well. They had to wait a short while for the hunter to arrive, but the wait wasn't long enough for anyone to care. As one of Luca's first matched, it was their job to protect him and continue to teach him the ropes, but this time something shocking would happen.

The beginning of the match went fine, the hunter found Martha first, and even though Jack lured her to use her flare gun early, she managed to contain him long enough for the three to pop three ciphers, and a half of another one thanks to Luca.

"Focus on decoding!" (y/n) yelled to her teammates as she was closest to where the hunter had trapped the coordinator. She managed to dodge the foggy blade slashed at her, but ran right into his claws afterward. Using his cool down time to the best of her ability, she untied Martha and tried her best to protect her from the onslaught of piercing attacks coming towards them. Soon enough, (y/n) was down. The Ripper did not tie her up; He went for the injured Martha instead. A cipher was popped. 1 more, they thought as Martha went down again. She expected José to rescue Martha, then her, but it was Luca's turn to show off. As (y/n) was liften off the ground, Luca stunned him, then moved between them so he could absorb the following hit. (y/n) thanked him and rescued Martha again. (y/n) and Luca left Martha to retreat to the nearest exit gate. As Martha was incapacitated again, José popped the primed cipher, and Luca began to type the password and ensuring the hunter was far enough away from them. Martha and José left as soon as their exit gate was opened, and Luca took (y/n)'s hand again and rushed out before Jack could even teleport to them. As they returned to the manor, they gave each other a true smile and a curt nod then left to continue their projects.

(y/n) was deep into a world unlike her own. She lost herself in the words she wrote as if she were back home. Though even she realized when she needed a break when her fingers became stiff and her back was aching from her posture. Rising from her seat, she wandered to the kitchen. The darkness overtook most of the room, causing her to fumble around for a moment until she found what she was looking for. She almost regretted leaving her spot as she waited for her tea to warm, but she stayed comfortably watching it, ready to take the tea kettle off the heat so the scream it emitted wouldn't wake everyone up. After carefully pouring herself a cup of tea, and cleaning up her work, she headed back to the library. She wasn't expecting to see Luca when she returned.

"Luca? You should be sleeping. What are you doing?" Only when she got closer to him, did she realize why he was there.

"I fixed it!" His excited voice came out low, to match her whisper. He got closer as well, took her tea, set it on the desk for her, then offered her his hand. Gracefully, she took it. He led her to the newly fixed gramophone and it began to play. He led her to the center of the room and placed his hands in the correct positioning, as well as leading her hands to where they needed to be. They began to dance. Perfectly synced, their steps led them to around the large, open room. No longer needing to worry about etiquette, or running into other people, it was just them. They lost themselves in their own world. Happy, relaxed, and free, they danced without a care in the world. Luca trusted her again. She was able to comfort him, and he was able to care for her as well. The bond they shared while dancing, they shared as friends and more. As the music died down, their hands shifted from out, to around each other.

"I had a dream that felt just like this." He purred in her ear. She smiled and looked him in the eyes.

"Tell me more." She brought her hand to his cheek, softly caressing it to pull his words out.

"It was like a memory. I was happy," His voice got softer, "I felt like I finally found something to cherish. I don't remember much, but that memory of this feeling," He brought himself down, unable to continue, instead tenderly pressing his lips to hers. Their eyes fluttered shut as she pressed back.

"It doesn't have to be a memory anymore." She brought herself to his forehead, planting a soft peck on each of his temples. "I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere." He hugged her tighter, finally secure with someone he could trust.

Word Count: 2147

A/N: I know I said I don't post on Tuesdays, but I feel really bad for my mess-up, plus I can't just skip a day when I left an open part, so have this! I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, though I feel like I could fix the ending. Anyways, as always, I hope you enjoyed! Thank you to everyone for reading this, and encouraging me with your kind words! Have a great day!