Work Text:
The hospital had gone quiet.
Deathly quiet.
And silence always gave them too much time to think.
Intern's eyes wandered across the shelves once more.
They were in the operation room, looking for a lost scalpel that the surgeon asked them ─almost desesperatly─ to find. They had spent the last eight minutes trying to reach for a cupboard in the wall, their arm already feeling sore from the effort.
"There's no way I can reach that..." they said, knowing that no one would hear them in that room.
And it was, somehow, better.
They knew how the others stared at them, after all.
As if they were... a monster.
Intern shook their head.
Focus. Look for a chair.
They turned around, remembering where they were.
Surrounded by well-painted walls and a perfectly cleaned tiled floor. In an empty room with only a small metallic table on the corner, full of utensils that they couldn't recognize yet.
So... flawless.
So unlike them.
Their paws thightened against their hoodie.
They didn't belong here.
They knew from the very start.
A place like this doesn't have any space for mistakes.
I'm just lucky─ they used to tell themselves.
Lucky that not camera had ever caught their body contorting and their paws shaking and their teeth tearing apart a─
"Intern."
A soft voice made them raise their head.
At the door, Secret Agent waited, arms crossed over his chest and perfectly still.
Intern's ears twitched.
"Ah... he─hey, Mr.Agent!" they greeted, waving their trembling paw. "I didn't expect to... see you here."
Secret Agent didn't respond.
He just stared.
And that was the worst thing he could do.
Maybe it was his looks ─piercing yellow eyes, an inmaculate suit...
Or... the way his gun rested on his side, almost blending into the dark fabric of his pants.
"Intern?"
Intern swallowed.
They couldn't tear their eyes away from that gun.
It had witnessed countless deaths.
So had they.
But... theirs had never been a choice.
"Intern? You ok?"
They were similiar,
not the same.
They'll never hurt someone just to fulfill a stupid duty.
But he will.
Of course he will.
He was the one that─
Something grabbed them by their shoulders.
A tiny gasp came out of them.
"Intern..." Secret Agent said, his ears tense. "You see much more out of place than usual. Did something happen?"
Intern remained silent for a few seconds.
Then, they slowly shook their head.
"No. Just... just thinking."
"Right. Thinking."
Intern lowered their head.
There was a word stuck in their mind:
Run.
Usually, they didn't mind being touched by him too much.
But this time... it just didn't feel right.
"Did the surgeon send you...?" they asked, their voice small, as if they were afraid to know the answer.
"No."
That's it,
they thought.
Secret Agent was like that, always looking for them even when there was no reason to.
Maybe he was simply waiting.
Waiting for them to slip up, so he could prove they deserved a bullet in the head.
They sighed.
Make him go.
"I'm okay," they said, trying to sound convincing enough.
Secret Agent tilted his head, his eyes fixed on something Intern couldn't quite figure out.
"I don't think so."
Intern looked away.
Their paws had begun to tremble again.
"I'll be back as soon as I find the scalpel. It won't take long," they tried again.
But Secret Agent didn't move.
Not even after a whole minute passed.
Intern's ears flattened against their head.
They would usually pull away.
But this time, they couldn't they even raise their paws.
Secret Agent was... close.
Too close.
He had crouched down until he was nearly at eye level with intern. His paws rested lightly in their shoulders, his eyes locked in their lips, as if he was searching for something hiddden in their mouth.
Wait.
Their... mouth?
...
Their face grew hot.
They jumped, hitting their head against one of the shelves.
"Ah!" Intern yelped. "I-I... I... Sorry!"
Secret Agent didn't move.
His paws remained suspended in the air, still reaching for the space where Intern had been. He lifted his head slowly, his ears turning to them slightly.
Intern felt like they were turning to fifty different shades of red.
The single thought of him staring, trying to get closer─
...
They had to hide their burning face behind their paws.
"I'm... sorry." they whispered.
Secret Agent stood upright again, as if nothing had happened. His eyes never left theirs.
"Did it bother you?" was the first thing he said, voice calm, as if he hadn't been dangerously close a moments ago.
Intern looked away. This is... weird, they thought, biting their lip. He never asks the obvious.
"Well, uh... it was a little bit─"
"I was just wondering why your teeth look like that."
They blinked.
"Oh."
Their paws flew to their mouth before they could stop them.
Too many teeth.
Too sharp.
Too obvious.
Maybe everyone had already noticed.
They'd be stupid if they didn't knew that.
But... but Secret Agent wasn't anyone.
He wasn't a regular co-worker who could laugh about it at lunch time.
He knew how anomalies looked like.
And he knew exactly what to do with them.
Intern took a step back.
"It's just my teeth" they whispered.
Secret Agent didn't respond. He stared at them, as if he was waiting for something else.
But nothing happend.
"I didn't ask that" he finally said.
Intern didn't notice when their nails began to dig in their palms. Think, think, think!
"I was... born that way. That's all."
Secret Agent's tail swayed slowly behind him.
"Medical condition?"
"... yes"
He narrowed his eyes, his head tilting softly to the side.
"That's... unusual" he said, his voice lowering until it was barely a whisper.
"There's nothing about a teeth condition in your record."
Intern's ears twitched.
They didn't noticed when their breath became shaky.
"I... don't really think it is... important─"
"Of course it is important, Intern."
Intern froze.
Secret Agent had given a step forward.
Slow, deliberate.
They couldn't help but give one backwards.
Their shoulders were tense now.
Their mouth dry.
Why they thought they could fool someone like that?
Someone that wasn't here to judge.
But to end.
"Explain yourself." he said.
The space between them was slowly fading.
Intern's legs began to tremble.
"I have... I have t─things to do" they whispered, their body already turning to the exit, "c─can you ex─excuse me?"
"Don't try to fool me, Intern." he said, quietly.
Another step.
Intern could hear their own heartbeat.
"I know you're lying."
Their heel were stopped by something hard.
A second later, their back pressed against the wall.
Secret Agent was in front of them, so close that Intern could smell his soft cologne. His ears were pricked forward, and his gaze fixed on them as if he was trying to piece something together.
Intern raised their trembeling arms to their face, hoping that hiding behind them might make them dissapear.
But, how?
They were trapped.
They were going to die.
They were going to die.
They were going to die.
"No, no" they said, voice breaking, "please, go away─"
He leaned forward instinctively.
"Intern─"
Intern shuddered violently, curling their body as if they wanted to make themselves smaller. Their lower lip trembled with every shaky breath they gave.
Secret Agent stopped where he was. His ears had lowered slightly, and his tail didn't move at all. He instinctively reached a paw towards them... only to stop halfway.
"Intern..." he whispered, "tell me."
Intern lifted their head slightly, enough to look at him. Their eyes were glassy, and full of a latent fear.
What he wanted them to say?
Accept it and being killed?
Or just run away and being killed anyways?
They made a tiny smile.
Their decision didn't mattered at all.
The result would be the same.
Lay in the cold floor with a hole in their head, as the other anomalies that they had seen pass by.
"Stop making things difficult..." they whispered, barely louder than the sound of their own breathing.
"If you're going to kill me... just do it."
Secret Agent opened his eyes wide.
He was expecting a lie.
An excuse.
Anything... but not that.
The worst part?
That was something he was supossed to do.
It was his work.
His duty.
And yet... his paws remained still at his sides, without even touching the gun that rested on his sheath.
"You..." he swallowed. His voice came out rough, hoarse, "you haven't given me... a reason."
Intern's arms went down enough to reveal their puffy, red face.
They thought that the next thing ─and last─ they would see would be his gun pointing directly to them. Then, a bullet piercing their skull and taking them to the ground. Something that would prove them that things like them didn't have the right to live.
But... there was no gun.
No blood spilled in the walls.
Just a tall, black cat in front of them, standing completely straight while his paws hung uselessly at his sides. His ears had flattened against his head ─something he didn't even seem aware of.
Intern opened their mouth, then closed it again.
Secret Agent didn't say anything either.
They simply stared at each other, as if their eyes could say things that their voice couldn't.
After what felt like an eternity, Secret Agent finally looked away.
He started to fix his tie with practiced movements, as if nothing had happend.
Even if Intern had noticed the way his paws trembled.
"Take care." he said, turning around and walking towards the exit, his steps slightly faster than usual.
Intern finally made the words come out:
"Wait!" they yelled.
Secret Agent didn't turn.
But he paused.
"..."
"Is..." they lowered their head, not even knowing what they should say.
"Is everything... alright?"
Secret Agent's ears twitched.
His paw hesitate at the doorknob for just a second.
"By the way..." he said, voice flat.
"The scalpel is in the second drawer."
And he closed the door.
Only then Intern realized they were crying.
✩✩✩
The next shift, Intern froze when they walked into the reception.
It was empty, as always.
No patients.
No co-workers.
But a small buzz coming from the coffee machine in the desk.
That wouldn't be strange...
If it wasn't 2:00 A.M.
Intern took a step forward, ears tense, knowing that they were completely alone and that their co-workers weren't that dumb to leave the coffee machine on.
Then they saw it.
On top of the coffe machine lay a note written in perfect, methodical handwriting:
"Coffee keeps you stable. Be sure to always have a cup."
Intern didn't need a name to know who wrote it.
They stared at the note, then at the coffee again, but nothing changed.
They decided to pour themselves a cup.
And when they took a sip...
it was still warm.