Rob Lucci x Reader: Empathy, Sympathy, Apathy

    Good. No one’s in this alley… You come out from behind a corner and continue walking towards the back door of the grocers. Knocking on the door, you call out, “Mrs. Clara, I’m here again!”

    The door opened to show a woman with short black hair, leaning against the doorframe. “Why (name), it’s good to see you again! How’s work at the inn?”

    “Good, good! We’ve got a lot of customers recently, so Boss sent me out to get more ingredients for tonight’s dinner.”

    “Wahahaha! If Taylor has more customers, then that’s good business for the rest of the island!” Clara slowly stops laughing, gazing at you. “(name), why don’t you come in the front of the store instead of the back door?”

    You blush, averting your gaze and rubbing the back of your head. “You know why, Mrs. Clara. I don’t do crowds very well, and you know they go into your store as well…”

    “I know. I just wish there was something I could do to help get over your fear.”

    “Don’t worry about me, Mrs. Clara. I’ll be fine enough,” you finish saying while handing a list to Clara.

    “If you say so.” Clara went inside to fulfill the list. You look around the alley, bored out of your mind. After Clara gave you a basket of groceries, you noticed a white fluff ball near a gutter in the street. Coming closer, you’re able to tell the fluff ball is a white pigeon.

    You run over and kneel next to the injured bird. “Oh, you poor thing! What happened to you?” The bird tries to say something, but is only able to raise a bloodied wing. “Someone tried to shoot you down?” you ask. The bird nods once. You frown, anger almost boiling over. “Who in their right mind would want to shoot a beautiful pigeon like yourself out of the sky?! If I ever saw them, I’ll give them a piece of my mind… Well, I’ll probably give them a piece of my mind. If they’re alone. And a girl.” You sigh, and then you shake your head and lightly slap the sides of your face. You pull out a (fav. color) handkerchief, tearing it to thin strips, and bandage the bird. “…And that should do it. Sorry I couldn’t do better. Would it be alright if I took you home to nurse you to health?” The bird brought a wing up, turning its head to the side in thought. Suddenly its eyes go wide, and begin gesturing no with its one good wing.

    “Ah, I understand. I’m no good,” you reply crestfallen. You try to brighten up, smiling and closing your eyes, trying to stop the tears from falling. “I’m certain you have something better to do, right?”

    You missed the bird’s intricate gestures, seeming to argue with something. Before you open your eyes, you hear someone say, “Nononononono! I don’t mind if you take care of me!”

    You open you eyes fearfully, looking around and asking, “Who said that?!” You catch some movement out of the corner of your eye, but nothing was there when you fully look over.

    “I did.”

    You look back down to the bird. “You?”

    The bird frowned and put its wing on its hip. “Of course me. Who else would be talking to you?!”

    You chuckle, blushing with embarrassment. “Ah, sorry, sorry. I’m not used to the animals I help talking back to me.” You sling the basket on your arm, and carefully cradle the bird in your hands. “Since you can talk, do you have a name?”

    “Hattori. What’s yours?”

    “Call me (name),” you answer, smiling. You continue talking to Hattori on your way back to the inn, unaware of someone following closely behind you.

    ~~

    It’s been a week since you took Hattori in. You talked with your Boss Taylor and convinced her to let you take care of the pigeon. Since then you’ve given Hattori bathes to wash the wounds and bandaged them back up. You’ve talked with Hattori a lot too, when you were in your room. There was one time where Hattori asked you, “Why are you alone?”

    You stopped re-bandaging Hattori and gave him a startled look. “What makes you think I’m alone?”

    “No-one comes to your room, or asks for you to join them.”

    “Oh, well, I’m really shy. I’ve tried going up to some girls my age, but I keep worrying about saying the wrong things and either embarrassing them or making them angry, and I end up just meekly passing by.”

    “Why not try getting some guys as your friends?”

    “Ah,” you faltered. “Guys are… a different story.”

    “Why should they?”

    “Ah, well… I’m afraid of them. They’ve always tortured me when I was younger, and Boss was the one to save me from them.”

    “But your boss is a man, and your fine around him.”

    “No she’s not!”

    “(name), no amount of make-up will change his gender.”

    “But-but-but if I start thinking she is a he, then I won’t be able to work with her anymore. I’ll freeze.”

    Hattori raised both wings. “Fine, fine, I get you. No need to break down sobbing.” You pouted at him, but finished bandaging him anyway. Once you finish, Hattori cocks his head to one side and asked, “(name), would you be interested in being in a relationship?”

    “Eh?!” You blushed. “Bu-but you’re a bird and I’m human…”

    Hattori waved both wings in front of him. “No no no, not with me. I mean would you be interested in being in a relationship with someone I set you up with?”

    You twiddled your fingers, looking down at the desk in front of Hattori. “I-I-I… don’t know. The thought terrifies me.”

    “They’re mostly apathetic, so they won’t necessarily pick up on your feelings, but I think you would benefit from at least meeting them.”

    “I’ll… think about it.” You got up from the chair and go downstairs to work in the kitchen. Outside your window a person laid back on the roof, muttering to himself, “What are you trying to do, Hattori?”

    Back to the current day, you’re nervously walking down a busy street with Hattori on your shoulder. Hattori convinced you to go into the busier side of town, saying how he needed to find his friend. You try to make yourself as small as possible while walking, trying to avoid bumping into any of the men on the street. You keep looking behind you, convinced someone was stalking you. Hattori continually reassures you there’s nobody, but your paranoid mind wouldn’t let it rest. When you came to the men’s section of a market you’re walking through, you finally break down and rush into a nearby alley, Hattori grasps you for dear life.

    “(name), warn me next time you dash like that! I’m not healed enough to fly yet,” Hattori scolds you.

    “Yah, sorry about that,” you mutter nervously, scratching the back of your head. “I just couldn’t handle the atmosphere.”

    “We’re not going to find my friend in the alley! Come on, we need to go back out there.”

    “But- There’s so many of them out there!”

    “C’mon, buck up already! I’m here with you. I promise nothing will happen to you.” Hattori pats your head reassuringly.

    “If you say so…” You turn to the entrance of the alley, only to find a group of men blocking the way. Your throat clenches, and you barely squeak out, “Wh-wh-what do you want?!?!”

    “You’re with that bastard’s bird,” the leader says. “That must mean you’re in his group.”

    “Wh-who are you talking about? I found Hattori wounded in an alley. I don’t know anybody.”

    “Your word don’t mean squat. Tell you what, give us the bird to kill and you can leave unharmed.” The leader gives you a cruel smile. “Sound like a fair deal?”

    You feel Hattori shiver on your shoulder. Instead of giving into your own fear, you try to stand up straighter and give a brave front. “I-I’m not giving you Hattori! We’re looking for his friend! He’s done nothing wrong!”

    The leader chuckles darkly. “Ah, what a shame. And I thought we’d only play with you after you handed the bird over to us. Now you need to die too.”

    Your eyes go wide, tears pricking the corners while you start hyperventilating. Your frozen to the spot, unable to move while your nightmares of this scene finally appear to come true. I wish someone would save me!

    Someone walks past you, startling you and the group approaching you. He calmly crosses his arms in front of him, standing in a nonchalant position in front of you. The leader backs up a step and barks out, “What the heck are you doing here?!?”

    “Watching over my friend and his rescuer,” he rumbles.

    “You bastard! You killed my brother and his men!”

    “I can’t help he foolishly tried to mug me. He should have wished he were stronger before meeting me. Besides, his men attacked my friend while he tried to stay out of the fight. How could I respond without killing them?”

    The leader lets out an angry roar and launches toward the man standing in front of you. You stand stock still while they clash. The man sweeps his leg out, knocking the leader down. His men also launch themselves at your protector, trying to pile up on him and take turns beating him down. Instead, the man’s arm flashes at multiple points, appearing to shoot the men with bullets. Blood spurts from their wounds, painting the ground around them scarlet. Your eyes are still wide open, watching every movement your savior makes as he kills your attackers. Their screams echo in your head like wraiths, some specks of their blood speckling your soul as you just stand there. Out of the corner of your eye you see the leader who your savior knocked down earlier slowly rising up with a knife in hand. Your breath is stuck in your throat, unsure if you could warn your savior. Hattori coos frantically, trying to get your savior’s attention. Looking at Hattori, you decide to set him down, causing him to coo at you questioningly. Standing up stiffly, you shakily take a breath in, then dash towards the leader screaming bloody murder. Startled, he looks at you as you tackle him to the bloody ground. Your savior glances at you out of the corner of his eye.

    The leader shoves you off him, cursing, “You bitch! I’ll kill you!”

    You start hyperventilating, splayed on the ground. Oh god what was I thinking?! I know Hattori was freaking out, but why did I decide to shove one of them? What the hell was I thinking? Just what- Instead of the knife piercing you, a hand reaches out and intercepts it. Your eyes widen, following the hand to that of your savior. You watch as he pulls his hand off the knife and tears it away from the leader, throwing it back at him and hitting him between the eyes. You suddenly notice the heavy silence suffocating your ears.

    Your savior shakes his stabbed hand and turns to look at you. “Are you alright?” Instead of answering him, you pass out.

    ~~

    Something pecks you on the forehead, slowly pulling you out of the dark nightmare you were in. You crack your eyes to find yourself in your room, with Hattori standing above your head. “Oh, hello Hattori. I had the worst nightmare! I imagined we were looking for your friend and we were trapped in an alley and attacked by a pack of them. And then-“

    “That wasn’t a dream.”

    You suck in a breath. Hattori didn’t move his beak. You slowly sit up in bed, finding a man sitting at you desk with a glass of alcohol in his uninjured hand. His wavy hair was tied back into a ponytail and he was wearing a relaxed black suit, just like you savior from your dream.

    You jerkily turn back to Hattori and stutter, “L-look Ha-Ha-Hattori. It-it-it wasn’t a dream. So-so that means…”

    “Yes, their dead.” You flinch, glancing at the man out of the corner of your eye.

    “Ha-Hattori, he sounds a lot like you. Ahahahaha, what a coincidence, huh?”

    “It’s not a coincidence. Hattori’s my pigeon. On occasion, I use him as my ventriloquist dummy to not appear as suspicious with my lack of emotion.”

    “Ahahaha…” you weakly laugh. Crap. That means he’s been following me since I first picked up Hattori. That also means he’s the one I’ve told about my past. Oh crap.

    Hattori pats the top of you head, trying to calm you down. He looks over to your savior, nods, then turns to you and opens his beak. “Is it easier on you to talk to Hattori?”

    “Yes.”

    Hattori shrugs into his own sigh. “Yah know, he’s the friend I wanted you to meet. I didn’t tell you he’s a man, since I knew you would refuse outright.”

    You raise an eyebrow. “Is that something he wished, or is that all on you Hattori?”

    “Just me. He gives me a certain amount of liberty with what’s said. Lucci wouldn’t have bothered wanting to meet you otherwise.”

    “Lucci?”

    “Sorry, I forgot to introduce the two of you. (name), this is Rob Lucci,” Hattori says, gesturing to the man with the glass of alcohol. “Lucci, this is (full name), although you already know that.” Lucci sends a wave over with his injured hand. “I thought the best way to meet Lucci would be in the streets, although we ended up getting cornered before we reached the right place.”

    “Neh, it’s… alright, I guess.” Aaahhhh… It’s definitely not ok.

    “Don’t worry (name). Lucci won’t do anything to you.”

    “How can you be so sure?”

    “Lucci picked me up when we were both young. It actually was really similar to how you found me.”

    Your eyes widen. “Really?”

    “I fell out of my nest and chased by a cat. I was rather bloody and tired when Lucci found me. I expected him to torture me, like the other boys, yet he took me home and nursed me back to health. He happened to live kinda similarly to you, at least in terms of never having anyone visit. There were nights where he’d twirl his hat, or make hand puppets and hold conversations with them. At one point I decided to try opening and closing my beak in time with his words, which led to our ability of making me sound like I can talk. It took years and many conversations though.”

    “Hattori,” Lucci grumbles. “She doesn’t need to know that.”

    “What,” Hattori squawks (with Lucci’s help), “Would you rather I told her about how Jabra was able to trip you on a banana peel? Or of how many times you hit your hand while learning how to hammer treenails in correctly? Or how about when-“ Hattori’s beak keeps moving, but nothing comes out. Realizing how Lucci stopped voicing his thoughts, Hattori coos angrily at Lucci while shaking a feathered fist at him. Lucci brings his glass up to his lips and takes a drink.

    Watching the scene between them, you let out a stifled giggle. They look at you; Hattori with his head cocked to the side while Lucci’s eyebrow rises. You cover your mouth, blushing a little. “Sorry. The way the two of you were acting makes me think this must be how friends act. I’ve seen scenes like this from my window, but this is the first time I’ve participated.”

    Both of Lucci’s eyebrows are up. Bringing them down, he calmly finishes his drink and stand up. “Thank you (last)-san, but Hattori and I-“

    “Don’t go!” you burst out. Lucci’s eyebrows rise back up, while you cover you mouth and blush again. Averting your gaze, you say, “Y-y-you hand isn’t bandaged properly. Let me fix that before you go.”

    “Why?”

    “Be-because, you’re Hattori’s friend,” you mumble. “And you saved me too.” Before Lucci could say anything, you run out of your room to find a bandage roll. After grabbing it, you rush back and force Lucci back into his seat. Blushing and shivering profusely, you focus in on his hand, ignoring the fact he’s a man. It was difficult, but you give a sigh of relief once it’s done. I never thought I would find it in me to help a man like that. I’ll probably faint once he’s gone though.

    “Thank you (last)-san, but that was rather unnecessary.” You glance up to Lucci’s face, confusion on your own. You noticed Hattori is on his shoulder away from you. “Hattori and I will be taking you with us now. We can’t have anyone who can easily identify us get into the hands of the World Government. They don’t take to Cipher Pole agents who are supposed to be discharged very well.” He picks you up and throws you over his unoccupied shoulder. “Besides, we need someone who can replace our bandages.”

    “But-but-but-“ you stutter, eyes open wide in fear.

    “Would you rather I killed you instead?”

    You pass out, foaming at the mouth and tears going down your face. Hattori clucks, raising his wings up in a shrug. “Couldn’t you be more truthful and admit you’re doing this to protect her from the loose gangs in this town? Since they’ve heard she’s involved with us, she would be targeted and killed off anyway.”

    “That’s not the reason why Hattori,” Lucci says as he opens your window and starts running across rooftops.

    “Then what is?”

    “You don’t need to know.”