120 Rotten Halls

"What do you mean by sleep?" Ryder asked. 

"What do you think?" Vixen cocked his head, "the last memory she had of me was when she fell asleep with me by her side-"

He pointed to Regan's hand which he had automatically caught when Ryder lightly pulled away from it. "-holding her hand."

"That is the same moment that I remember too," Vixen nodded. 

'They fell asleep holding hands?' Ryder thought to himself. 

'Worry about it later, right now we have to help Regan," Antonin interrupted.

"So you want me to hold her hand and pretend to or fall asleep next to her to complete the facade of me helping her?" Ryder asked. 

"Correct," Vixen nodded. 

"Then what happens after?" Ryder asked. 

"She will be waking up in about… 11 minutes. In this case, she will up a little later," Vixen muttered. " When she wakes up, she's bound to wake you up too."

"Ah so that's where my acting begins," Ryder nodded. 

"Act competed," Vixen nodded.

Ryder nodded, completely understanding Vixen's plan. It was a bit scary. The fact that he had thought about this while just sitting here. The fact that he was able to think in that mindset in a situation like this unlike him who would have just let her find out it was him that did all that. He would have just let it happen as if, taking no precautions for after it happened but then again he still didn't know what happened between them.

Of the emotions that were hindered in Vixen's words, his curiosity stayed a little more untouched. It was brimming. The need of wanting to know what happened between them was eating up at him and judging by how Vixen was to Regan, it was something worth a lot to avoid each other or to think that him leaving was what she needed to recover from it. 

He wanted to ask. Wanted to ask if something more blossomed between them than the worker and the one he worked to protect? If that blossomed feeling wilted, how would it have wilted? Who was at fault? Him or her? 

But what if it wasn't that, then what hit them so hard that they had to end up like this? Secretly helping the other and having to erase their existence from the other. Whatever it was didn't seem to bother Vixen as he looked the same. Unbothered but instead annoyed. At the fact that he even had to be here, doing this for her. He looked annoyed at whatever he had to bandage, whatever he had to face while Ryder and Antonin were away. 

He wanted to leave. The same hand he held calmly he wanted to throw away, the same face he caressed he wanted to punch, the same hours he spent helping her he wanted to reverse and spend with himself. He wanted to be away and with her at the same time. It was annoying and hard to discern. 

Ryder looked at Vixen and nodded. "What happens if I slip up? Let out information that I shouldn't? Speak too much? Get too comfortable and it just spills out?"

Vixen looked back at him, his violet eyes showing dominance. "There won't be. There will be no slip-ups, no information that you shouldn't say that will be said, you won't speak too much and-"

Vixen leaned in closer to Ryder, bending over slightly to meet Ryder at eye level. He brushed off Ryder's shoulders and gripped them firmly. "-You will never be comfortable enough to spill anything."

Ryder shuddered under Vixen's gaze. Vixen turned away from Ryder calmly, beginning to pack up the First Aid box, rather, messing it up. He placed the other bandages in a disorganized manner and left some band-aid covering on the ground and in the box. 

"Your mouth is sealed now. There won't be anything leaving it that shouldn't be said," Vixen continued, his tone calming but threatening at the same time. 

Ryder nodded his head without even realizing it. There was something in his certain tone. Something that made Ryder so confident in the words that he said. The power he had in his voice alone was scary but Ryder was starting to get used to it. At least pretending that he was used to it.

"Is that all?" Vixen asked.

"Huh?" Ryder asked.

"Is that all that you are confused about?" Vixen asked again. 

"Nothing. I think I have it all down," Ryder smiled.

"Good," Vixen took out a band-aid from the FA box and tore it open carelessly, placing the torn covering on the beg and the torn band-aid on Ryder's thigh.

"What-" Ryder muttered as Vixen stood up. He realized the mess that Vixen had left behind. "Don't we need to clean up?"

Vixen cocked his head like he had been asked a dumb question. He had. At least to him. 

"Do you think she won't remember you too? She might have been ridiculously out of it, but it doesn't mean that she won't remember other parts of it and you are in those parts. She'll remember you. Behaving so helplessly on the floor, scared out of your mind before running out the door," Vixen muttered, turning to Ryder, "It won't be clear, but it will be there."

Ryder flinched, "What does that have to do with this?" He didn't want to listen to another spirit-crushing lecture.

"Do you think someone in such a scattered mindset like you would have thought you had enough time to clean up? You would leave a mess behind as per your rushed movements," Vixen continued, "as I said, she'll remember but she'll remember vaguely. It's very easy for you to twist her truth."

"Yup," Vixen shrugged. 

"Ah ok…" Ryder nodded. He looked down at Regan's hand and slowly, interwoven his fingers with hers, holding her hand. She felt cold, slowly warming up due to him. His cheeks heated. He liked this. "What should I do now?"

"Sleep," Vixen blankly replied. He walked to the wardrobe, made a mess, and then to the kitchen to wash his hands. 

"Sleep? How do I just- sleep," Ryder muttered in confusion. 

"You close your eyes and you sleep," Vixen sighed, walking back to Regan's bed and looking down at Ryder. 

"Close my eyes and sleep? It is not that easy. I don't know how to just sleep," Ryder groaned.

Vixen rolled his eyes in annoyance. 

Ryder looked up to Vixen enthusiastically. "Can you just sleep? Does it come to you smoothly? Like you just cl-"

Vixen's hand jabbed Ryder at a vital point, knocking him out. It was enough to not kill him but enough to give him pain when he woke up. Just like how his chattering was a pain in the ass for Vixen.

Vixen walked to the bathroom again and washed off his hands. The morning was not even over and he had had enough human interaction to last him half a week. He was beyond tired and over the situation. 

He stepped out of the bathroom and looked around. It looked like a mess. It was perfect. 

He looked back at Regan for a moment before scanning the room for any of his belongings, then turned around and walked towards the door. His hands wrapped around the handle of the door and he pulled it open. Without a second thought, he walked out into the hallway and closed the door behind him. 

He hoped this was the last time he was in that room. He didn't want to see her again. It wasn't a hard feat for him. The number of people in the building helped and so did his mind. Distance came to him naturally. Even when he didn't want it to. 

It seemed like today he was going to get a lot of scolding. It seemed like today, he'd have to give up more. It was not only for today. It would be for tomorrow too. Until this week ended, he would give more, more of himself.

He didn't care who he gave it to, but he didn't want those parts of him. They were scarred and unusable but he couldn't take it out. He would die then.

Down the hallway he walked, his lonely set of footsteps echoing off the walls of the building. It was at these moments that he hated the most. The moments where he's caught off-guard and there was nothing on his mind. The moment where she could easily slide in and her voice would fill his ears.

He could hear her footsteps behind him, tracing his. They were playing follow the leader and he was in front, the only day that he had allowed her to trick him into being the leader. Her arms were stretched out and her hand holding on to his shoulder as she walked behind him in a penguin form. 

It was a childish game and they knew but it was one of the only that made use of the long winding hallways of the building. They would pretend to be in a forest on a train. They rode past the tiger and were chased by a rhino. Then they'd switch to the dinosaur times and ride the back of a stegosaurus. It was the only good memories of the place that he had.