118 Stares (1/2)

”Next up,” Vixen pointed to the bandage, ”something less desperate. Try using the word please a lot.”

Ryder nodded as he leaned into Regan to write on her new bandage. It was warm next to Vixen. Excessively warm. It was kind of scary in a way how close and warm he was but Ryder didn't know why. He knew he was definitely not going to do anything but Vixen… he felt threatened. Like he could be attacked at any second and be unable to guard himself. He was threatened but didn't know if it was in a good way or a bad way.

His hand quickly wrote over her band-aid words of pleading to get her to not open it. In seconds he was done with the band-aid. He looked at Vixen as he turned to see what Ryder wrote.

Now Ryder understood why people were so obsessed with him. He hated it.

Vixen nodded to show that what Ryder wrote was ok. Then he unwrapped the second of the large band-aid and wrapped it around Regan's wrist. There were no band-aid wrinkles.

”How do you do that?” Ryder asked looking up to Vixen with curious eyes.

”How do I do what?” Vixen asked, his hand gently laying Regan's on his.

”How do you wrap the band-aid on her hand so smoothly and they're no wrinkles?” Ryder pressed.

”I just… do it?” Vixen answered. It was a simple answer with no explanation after. It was out of his role to explain and Vixen knew it.

”How descriptive,” Ryder sighed.

Vixen turned to him for a moment to see him flinch when they looked eyes and then turned back to Regan.

Ryder began to write again on her band-aid. ”What happened earlier in the morning?” Ryder asked.

”No. That's a question you should answer for me. What happened this morning?” Vixen interrupted, asking Ryder the same question. ”Do you remember the last thing that you did or she did before she started to panic?”

Ryder flinched, his memories traveling back to that time. He shivered.

Vixen cocked his head to look at Ryder, his moving hand had stopped writing on Regan and instead started to shake.

”We were having pancakes,” Ryder began, ”I talked to her about seeing you in the hallways and she flipped, threatening and begging me to open the door to you. She said she didn't care, that she needed to check if you were gone, if she could still talk to you.”

He hated dependent people. He always wondered what was going through their heads when they acted the way they did. Why they'd beg for someone completely unrelated to their life to stay, while they'll call someone else their rock to balance on and why they felt their world crumble when the person they were dependent on decides to leave.

He knew he was selfish in his own way when he decided to leave but he had known it from some point that she had started to depend on him and he couldn't let that happen. He was selfish for leaving her there by herself and being forced to deal with her own broken emotions. It was selfish for him to give no reason as to why he was leaving and just left her alone and it was selfish of him to have tried to help her to begin with, to have yelled at her words of truth and tried to force them into her mind.

But the only reason why it was selfish was because she depended on him.

”She sounded so desperate,” Ryder muttered, looking up at Regan, ”like you were some life-line she needed to speak to. Later I was able to subdue it with food, pancakes to be specific.”

”Good,” Vixen nodded looking at Regan and brushed a piece of hair behind her ears. ”Don't ever tell her anything about me until you feel like she's calm enough to speak to me. Whether that'll take days, weeks, or a year, keep her away until then.”

Ryder finished what he was writing and looked up to Vixen. ”Why do you want to keep her far away from you? Did she do something wrong? Did you do something wrong? I don't understand.”

Vixen's grip on Regan's hand tightened a bit. Ryder noticed it. ”Because it's useless. Her presence to me and mine to her. It was useless to begin with.”

That didn't help quench Ryder's thirst one bit. He only grew more curious but before he could try and intrude on Vixen's privacy again, Vixen cleared his throat.

”What happened next?” Vixen pressed.