#puzzle x reader

The clock on the wall ticked off. Clicking, as its small ornament that dangled off beneath it dangled from side to side, in indication of the later hour that has arrived.

Rhodes Island is home to the most advanced of technologies, and rapidly growing developments amongst innovations. And yet, ever since Puzzle had the chance to become your willing Secretary, he finds himself marveling slightly at how your office still housed antiquities in large contrast to the modernized aesthetics of the base. Such as that clock over there that ticked by, always rendering even the deepest of thinkers to snap back to reality at the sounds of it and be on their way.

The young vouivre won't lie. Your office felt homely, spacious with mixes of technologies yet offered the sense of home and of refined vintage tastes that only most of the Victorian Nobles may possibly acknowledge. For a Doctor, you truly had several sides to you. The strangest yet also the most interesting person he's ever come into contact with. From a commanding persona to the same person he currently could observe within his peripheral vision to be dabbling in something beneath your desk perhaps more interesting than the piles of documents that have been arranged for tomorrow instead.

Puzzle acknowledged how Intelligence Officers like he is, is content to never form attachments in priority of his work and to not leave any loose opening for his trails or possible things to be used as his weaknesses for others to exploit. And yet... It's within your kindness that he finds himself the initially unwilling recipient of your affection.

You'd make idle talk with him, even amidst his musings of being an Intelligence officer. You trusted him for his oaths of keeping all that you exchanged with him as a secret, piece puzzles altogether, share brief yet meaningful conversations and even rest in comfortable silence. It panged at his heart to admit it, but you're starting to grow on Puzzle. His face that normally was so blank, started to possess hinges of fondness in them at the sight of your innocent and relaxed look off from work, by your table at the moment.

It felt almost so traitorous to even think that Puzzle has his heart that beats for none, merely pumped its beats for he still lives, and yet now, you tugged at his heart with invisible strings. People flocked to your cause of varying backgrounds, so it'll be of no surprise that even if you may be able to charm him. As baffling it is to admit to himself.

"Puzzle!" Your enthusiastic voice rang through the quiet room, bringing an end to his train of thoughts as the young Vouivre turned his head up to face your direction as you beckoned him over from where he sat. He smoothens the edges of his clothing, straightens himself up as he rises to his feet, leaving the half-emptied teacup that emanated the faint scent of dried leaves on its own, keeping himself neat to perfection as per usual before he approached your desk with his signatory gentlemanly disposition.

"What is it, Doctor?" He responded with a polite tone, ensuring to keep his expression neutral with a gloved hand up to his chest for a bow as he loomed over your side. Your eyes were gleaming with warmth, he noted as he watched you fumble with something within the confines of your pockets.

He stilled, his breathing hitched as your hands bring out a silver clad necklace with two anchored chains— each bound by a magnet at the center, binding it to complete the shape of a heart. Puzzle...was puzzled. Ironically, yes. Could that have been what you've been fumbling with, for a few minutes already within your break?

"Hm... A matching necklace...? I am not one to stick my nose into your affairs, Doctor, but if I may ask..." He paused, his eyes locking with yours. His facial expression remained neutral but you can see the glint of slight interest deep within his lilac-colored hues. "Are you intending on gifting this to someone? Or is it simply for the sake of your collection inside this office as usual?" Puzzle commented, trying to spark a conversation. Since you've been nothing but affable to him ever since he became your secretary, Puzzle did show efforts to try and reciprocate your attention as to match it.

Puzzle is not one to let himself seep into the depths of inadequacy, not when albeit so distractedly, his heart that once was so stiff began to beat in your presence now, would he?

"Mm. I plan to give it to a certain special someone, you see." You tell him, smiling gently before unclasping at the center, parting the heart into two pieces. Your lithe fingers were careful, graceful even as if you were strumming the strings of a lyre as you traced your fingers over both of its metallic edges, clinked at the collision of the chains that you parted before then settling the left one on your palm. You locked eyes with the vouivre before you, and then you extended your palm out to him, inducing confusion into his features.

"Puzzle, you've... been working hard lately and... you've kept me company. I-I know letting emotions dictate your courses of action is never your cup of tea, but really, um... I hope you can accept my gift. I found you..." You paused, shyly looking away but kept your hand extended upwards, in hopes of actually making him accept it even though there's a low possibility of him doing so.

".... I found you to be a good companion to me too, regardless of who you are and how you insisted you're acting as." You tell him, and he froze in place. Puzzle's eyes were wide open, and for once, his normally thin-lined lips parted as he mirrored the emotion of surprise. And of the doctor's words... Puzzle isn't exactly sure how to feel about it.

He had stepped foot in Rhodes Island, in pursuit of the usual Intelligence gathering work, in the guise of seeking treatment and being a willing operator. Never once in his life he'd even consider letting someone such as you, take great interest in a person like him. In comparison, you've got the high ground. And he? He's just a random nobody, with secrets filling the sleeves of his coat. His rationality ached for him to utter rejection or even just neutral acceptance as to not upset you and yet—

Affection gnawed at heart. His eyebrows furrowed at the feeling, finding it quite unfamiliar and almost uncomfortable yet akin to being buried under a large shower of flowers in the fields. Suffocating for a man who dared not even speak of affection for himself but also a gentle caress to a face and heart that has been nothing but stiff.

You were one puzzle that Fischer can never decipher. Simple yet akin to a sunbeam shower in his life, fraught with cold and dangerous normalcy. The kind of intel that even an intelligence officer himself hesitated to ever give away, so that none of the world may know of your radiance and have it snuffed away.

An Intelligence Officer is only ever special for the intel that they give, not for how they appeared as a person towards others. For once, sincerity bloomed in his heart, overtaking his cold logic for once as if light had found its way to his eyes.

When he lingered a second longer, you awkwardly thought you had trespassed upon his boundaries, an apology had already teetered off your tongue when you gasped lightly at the sensation of his gloved hand reaching up and carefully took the necklace with one heart part pendant into his hand, prompting you to snap your head back towards him in surprise. You've already been bracing yourself for a rejection and yet, was only met with an appreciative acceptance from Puzzle himself.

".... It's lovely, Doctor. You've picked out well. You truly have an eye for such things." Puzzle comments, his fingers now tracing over the necklace, observing it up close. "I... don't usually keep such keepsakes nor tokens from people I temporarily work with." He continues, but then you saw that rare smile on his face, cheeks lightly flushed as if he's mellowing slightly in embarrassment beneath his lilac-colored eyes.

"But... Perhaps, I can keep this one on my person. I'll be sure to treasure it, Doctor." Puzzle says, precise in his manner of speech while the pendant remained in his palm. Being gifted with a heart piece that can only be formed when flushed together... Puzzle can only imagine the implications of such a gesture but didn't dare raise them when he sees your delighted expression.

Your smile was so simple yet bright in his eyes. If he could compose a piece, while he dabbled in his puzzles, he'd definitely call you perfection. A puzzle he's struggled to compute yet marveled at. Anyone who might see, certainly would have something to say about it. But, at this point... To see you happy, is akin to having the same peace of mind he possesses in his retreats to solitude.

".... Doctor, please, allow me." He says, making you blink, your eyelashes fluttering. His shoes tapped on the floor, as he rounded your chair. Puzzle was nimble yet gentle like a bellowing wind that managed to sneak its way inside of the enclosed office. He reaches out for the other half of the necklace off your hands, a quiet permission, to which you granted wordlessly with a dazed expression on your face, letting the cool pendant slip off your hand. Your fingers brushed with his own gloved hand— lingering, and yet you felt warmth radiating off of it, even with the glove that acted as a barrier from a direct contact. You could swear you saw his eyes grow warm too, as he glanced briefly over to you, like an admirer who brushed past his muse down a hallway in stories of romance.

Puzzle doesn't say anything else. He wrapped the necklace around your neck, careful and gentle. He traced his fingers over its chain, letting the coolness of the metallic chain seep in, as he then clasped the necklace close, making you wear it. He then does the same thing, afterwards, to himself.

He loomed over you, leans down and your breath hitched in the next moment when Puzzle magnets the pendants together, forming the perfect shape of a heart, letting it mold together like two reunited hearts that once stood on opposing walls. You have only registered the imagery, when you feel one of his hands reach out to your own, hold it into his, lifted it up with care over his lips— pressing the gentlest of pecks like a gentleman.

There needs to be no other words exchanged, when his action alone spoke a myriad of meanings— all fluttering right inside your heart that sprang into strings of fast beats.

Even if these two pendants may rust in the future, even if he may have to depart one day—

Puzzle would wish, for another chance, to be by for your side again. Not as any other agent, but rather, a companion who can bring you the lengthiest of loyalties that he sincerely gave no other. In the end—

Puzzle was still swarmed over by emotions. Perhaps just this once, like this gift of yours, he'll let his heart be connected to yours even just for a split moment.

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