117 Overwhelmed

"What do you suppose to do?" Ryder asked. 

"For one, you need to understand the fact that this is needed for Regan," Vixen muttered. His eyes exerting threat onto Ryder. "And don't you dare ask for what's wrong with her. Do not spill a word of my appearance and do not try to get out any information that you didn't get from this situation."

"What?" Ryder cocked his head, his anger rising, "why do you always speak in parables."

"Because I don't speak to sim-" Vixen began, stopping when he realized Regan's presence in the room. "Every single thought in your mind. Or every single question you'll want to ask her when I leave. If the answer hasn't been given to you from the recent events you just faced, then don't ask the question. It was probably meant for you not to know."

"Ah.." Ryder mumbled. He was being put in his place. It had been a while since he experienced that, it felt new. 

"Understood?" Vixen asked.

Ryder simply nodded. He didn't want to say the word in its entirety, it felt too concrete and certain when he did. "If you're done with your words of warning, can you tell me what I need to do?" Ryder rolled his eyes.

"Do you have a pen? Maybe a marker? A marker is better," Vixen muttered.

"A marker? What is this an art project?" Ryder sighed. 

"No, a writing assignment," Vixen replied.

"Wha-"

"Find a marker or a pen," 

Ryder paused for a second, clenching his hands into a fist. He dove into his pockets, searching for something similar. Antonin had a habit of wanting to jot things down at times so he also had a pair of things to write with.

Ryder pulled out a pen. "Is this good enough?" 

"Hmm, yup," Vixen nodded. He moved aside for a moment next to Regan, making space for him to sit down. "Come here." 

Ryder looked down at the space and then back to Vixen. He was beyond confused. Reluctantly, he walked over to Regan and sat down next to her bed. "What is going onnn."

"I need you to write a few words for Regan on her band-aids. 

"Aish~~ you could have clearly said so earlier, I would have done it imm- band-aids? What does she need a band-aid for?" Ryder's voice wavered, he turned to Vixen with anger. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO REGAN?!"

His hands dived for Vixen's collar but before he could touch them, Vixen swatted his hands away. 

"Don't touch me," Vixen growled, "especially when it's fueled with an irrational sense of anger directed at me."

Ryder's fist rose up to Vixen's face again. 

"Lay a single finger, breath-length of ANYTHING near my face, not only with Mr. Cloud will know of your positions, I'll tell exactly your family what you've been up to and completely ruin life for you. That applies for Regan too," Vixen threatened. 

"Don't be rash Ryder," Vixen warned. "It never turns out well for any rash person in my experience."

"Just tell me what to do while I want to be here," Ryder snapped, his anger shining through his deep brown eyes.

"I need you to write on her band-aids," Vixen continued, pointing at Regan's wrist. 

"Write on her band-aids? Why?" Ryder cocked his head in confusion.

"This idiot, the moment she sees this on her hand, she'll try to undo them but they haven't healed yet ad she can't expose her wounds to anyone," Vixen explained. 

"So what's the point of me writing on them?" Ryder asked. 

"Because it's a reminder of what she's doing. She'll stop opening it when she notches the small notices/messages on them," Vixen continued.

"Ah…." Ryder muttered, "That makes sense. But there's only one level, she'd rip it right off."

"That's why you need to write on this level first before I can put something on top of it and you write on that and I put another layer on top of it," Vixen explained.

"Oh! That makes more sense now," Ryder nodded, a smile forming on his face. He looked down at Regan's wrist, where a big band-aid covered her entire wrist. 'Where did she even get hurt?' Ryder thought to himself. "What should I write?"

"Hm, since it's the last bandage, write something that seems desperate," Vixen looked down at her wrist of her free hand, "The levels of you begging her to not open the bandages should be increasing each level she passes through so this one should be of you literally begging her to not open the last bandage."

"Hmm…" Ryder leaned into her wrist and his hand began to write out something. Carefully, he lifted up Regan's hand and laid it in his. She felt warm. He smiled a little when he began to write and leaned away when he was done. "Is this ok?" he asked.

Vixen looked at his writing and a tiny smile formed on his face. It was good. "It sounds nice."

"Doesn't it?" Ryder grinned looking down at her wrist. No. He was looking at her wrist. He wanted to see what was under. What Vixen was allowed to see that he couldn't, what they knew between each other than he couldn't? His eyes traveled to her hand. He side glanced at Vixen who was looking at Regan's face, his eyes skirting to their hands in each other. Most of all, he wanted to be like them too.

He looked back to the hand in front of him. He wanted to hold her hand too.

"Yea," Vixen nodded. 

Ryder looked at him for a second. "I need to do her other hand."

Vixen looked up to him and nodded. Slowly, he removed his hand from Regan's but placed it underneath them to be the support for Ryder to work on. "Go ahead."

Ryder looked at their hand. Vixen hadn't let go fully. He ignored it and leaned into Regan to write on her wrist, drawing closer to Vixen in the process. 

His hand's reached for Regan's as he began to write and brushed against Vixen's hand. His entire body flinched, a jolt of warmth running through him. His hands were warm. Very warm. Ryder cleared his throat and focused on writing on her wrist while calming his racing heart. Occasionally, his finger would brush against Vixen's and he would flinch again. He quickened the pace in which he wrote, his heart refusing to calm down. 

Ryder could feel it. It wasn't just Vixen's hands that were warm, his entire being felt warm, it radiated heat that warmed up Ryder. He didn't even know he was cold.

He hated the fact that an understanding formed in him. Why Vixen's hand was in hers and why he wouldn't let go. He knew but he was petty, he still didn't like the thought of it.

Ryder's finger brushed against Vixen's finger again and flinched, letting out a small gasp.

"I-I'm done," Ryder muttered, his head abruptly turned upwards to look at Vixen, "do you lik-"

He stopped talking when he realized how close to Vixen he was. There was a little bit of a foot of space between them. A wave of warmth hit Ryder when Vixen looked down and locked eyes with him. His violet eyes drowned him. 

THUMP

Vixen turned to look at what Ryder wrote and a slight smile formed on his face. He turned back to Ryder with his slight smile. 

"Yes. I like it," Vixen replied. 

Ryder trembled, Vixen's voice hitting him like another wave. He blinked blankly, frozen in space in the hold he had with Vixen. 

THUMP

Ryder's face heated up. Vixen looked deeper into his eyes, searching. "Are you ok Ryder?" he asked, to which Ryder trembled again.

It was like hearing a song for the first time. The first note hitting you and sending you into spirals of emotion. Ryder blinked again. Vixen's voice sent him into a black hole. It was like he was hearing it for the first time, its depth being noticed, the raspiness, the tension seemed to hit him all at once. He was overwhelmed. 

"Ryder?" Vixen called out again.

Ryder snapped out of his phase and jumped back away from Vixen. Even his name sounded different. "Y-yea, I'm fine."

Ryder's eyes avoided Vixen's, the heat on his face increasing every second. 

Vixen cocked his head to the side for a second before nodding. "Ok then." He turned away from Ryder and pulled open the small table's wardrobe, pulling out two larger band-aid and four more pieces of bandages. He turned back to Ryder who was looking up at him hesitantly. 

"Focus. We have 6 more to go through."

Ryder nodded his head slowly and slapped his cheeks. His face refused to calm down as the waves of warmth flooded over him again. He was in awe, scared of what he had felt in a way. Scared of his beating heart and scared of Vixen. 

He looked at the band-aids and bandages on the bed then back up to Vixen. 'Focus,' He told himself. 'Six more.' 

The message reached his mind but his heart didn't stop racing. 

'Focus.'