Chest pains

Taibhse waited in the doorway of the infirmary, brow furrowed, knuckling his sternum through his t-shirt. He could see Roo sitting on her cot by the window, in her oversized hoodie, pencil idly swirling over a page in her sketchbook. He felt a pang in his chest and took a step back from the door, rethinking his decision to come and visit her. He was terribly worried, and wanted to check up on her, but he also needed to tell her what he saw. After tasting her blood.

Roo watched the mist taking shape on the page and smiled. She was keeping up with her dream journal for Bolin's class, and she'd had a dream while dozing that afternoon. The page in her book showed her curled on a bed of leaves, with her head resting on Abaddon's knee. She couldn't recall any details beyond feeling comfortable and Abaddon talking to her. It was wonderfully pleasant, though. She felt her ears warming up and knew they must be gaining a pink tinge as she carefully put details in their figures. Abaddon's jawline was no joke.

She heard a scuff, like a halfhearted footstep, and glanced up. A smile spread across her face. "Taibhse, hi. Are you..." she blinked to see the worried look on her face. And then she realised.

"I'm, uh... I'm sorry if I scared you earlier. And that I got blood on you. I didn't intend to worry anyone. Are you okay?"

Taibhse smiled and figured he couldn't leave after that, so he stepped into the room and eased himself onto the edge of her cot.

"Hey, tiny." He ran a hand through his hair and looked around the room. "It's not a problem. Really. You weren't doing so well at the time, and..." He sighed through his nose.

"I'm glad to see you're okay now." He glanced down at her sketch page and immediately looked away. "Listen, when you got your blood on my face.." He gulped. "I kinda..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Some of it might have gotten into my mouth. A bit. And I got a vision. A bit."

Roo watched him and blinked several times before she could put words together. "A bit... of a vision. From my blood."

"In your mouth."

Taibhse folded his legs together and rested his forearms on his knees. "Well, yeah. You know I'm a vampire. And my vampiric power is... vision. I taste someone's blood, and I get a flash of their past, or their future. From their perspective. As if I'm in their place."

He bit his lip. "I might have, ah... I might've seen whatever memory was connected to your panic attack." He brushed one hand idly down the left side of his ribcage. He could still imagine the stinging, searing pain of the leather belt striking his side. He felt himself flushing as he glanced at Roo.

""I knew your da was a bad guy, but I didn't realize he was so," he grimaced," deliberate about it."

Roo's brow furrowed and she pulled her knees to her chest. She knew exactly what moment he was talking about, and was none too happy to know that he had experienced it. She could still imagine the thud of her head hitting the floor. And how cold the water was. And the belt--

She gulped.

"Please don't tell anyone," she rasped.  She suddenly felt very small.  "What you saw."

Taibhse felt his heart begin to thud in his chest. He scooted up to sit beside her at the head of the bed, and wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

"Hey, it's alright. I don't share my visions with anyone other than the person they pertain to." He gave her a squeeze and rested his chin atop her head.

"You're safe with me."

He'd meant to say "your secret is safe with me," but it was too late to change his statement. And he couldn't say that he didn't mean it.

Abaddon turned the corner to go into the infirmary. He took one step inside and stopped in his tracks. He saw the taller boy from earlier hugging Roo. He wasn't sure what was going on, but the slightly warm feeling in his chest made him not really like it.

He walked across the room? Close to Roo's cot. He cleared his throat and spoke gently, "Am I interrupting something?"

Roo's head snapped up at the sound of his voice and she beamed. She picked up her dream journal and held it open for the new page for him to see.

"Abaddon~. Look, I finally drew you." She was unphased-- to her, she was simply getting a hug from a friend.

Taibhse tensed and he immediately sat upright at Abaddon's approach.

"I came to check up on her," he insisted. "I wanted to be sure she was doing okay." He knew he was blushing. He stood up and rubbed one forearm with the other hand.

He should've known better. When he'd come to Roo in the empty classroom, she had pushed him away, and clung to Abaddon instead. The thought put a fresh pang in his chest and he grumbled. "Did we ever find out what happened, by the way...?"

He smiles at Roo and looked over at the taller guy. He tipped his head slightly, was he blushing? "I don't think we've met yet."

He pulled up a chair and sat in front of Roo. He gently took the sketchbook from her. He sighed softly when he realized that she he drawn him and not dream him. So she hadn't seen. "This looks a lot nicer than some of your other dreams have been. And I must admit, you did get my jaw perfectly."

He glanced at the other guy. "Eh, not really. All that matters is that Roo-kins is okay now right?" He patted her leg in reassurance. "You are feeling okay, now right?"

"Abs, this is Taibhse." Roo gestured to the tall boy with a new smile. "He's my workout buddy." To Taibhse, she added, "And this is Abaddon. I talked to you about him before."

She bit her lip and watched him look over the page. "It was a really nice dream. The calmest I felt in a long time." He brushed her hair out of her eyes and chuckled. "And I do spend a lot of time looking at your jaw. It's just above my eye level, anyway. I should hope that I'd be able to get your jawline correct."

At his question, she nodded, and try to play nonchalant. "Everyone keeps asking that. I'm fine. Even Norton came by." She looked up to Taibhse and shrugged. "I think that you stopping by makes just about everyone, at least."

He chuckled at the mention of Norton and shrugged. "Not really. Has anyone told your Roommate? From what you've told me she might need to be told."

He smiled a bit smugly to himself. So she had talked to this other guy about him and she drew him. Also he made her dream peaceful. Seems like he was on a better track than he anticipated. He looked over at Taibhse and smiled, "I can't thank you enough for finding her first though and for getting miss Ellie. It would have taken me a while to get her calm enough to carry her here." He reached up and playfully messed with Roo's hair. "Has anyone told you that you twitch a bit in your sleep?" He chuckled and handed her sketch book back to her.

Taibhse's ears perked at the mention of her roommate. "Mollie? I know where she might be. I can find her and tell her."

He suddenly felt bashful, and bowed his head a bit. "It was blind luck. I came up from the other side of the hallway and I smelled blood." Then a touch of envy flared in his chest. Abaddon had been able to handle Roo's panic with much more ease than he himself had. "And I doubt that," he added, to Roo specifically, in a little bit more of a mumble. "You seemed to start doing better the second he got to you."

Roo chirruped as her hair was ruffled, and became a pronounced shade of pink as she took her book back and held it to her chest.

"That's news to me," she grumbled. "But no one's ever really watched me sleep, so that earns you the title of Primary Creeper. Congratulations."

She looked up curiously as Taibhse spoke to her, and glanced back at Abaddon. "R-really?" In truth, she barely remembered anything of Taibhse being there, other than pushing him away and getting blood on his face. How long had she been in that room? It hadn't felt like more than a minute or two.

"Well," her rubbed at her cheek with her sleeve, hoping the warmth in her cheeks would die down. "Maybe we should change Abs' title from Primary Creeper to Safety Creeper."

Abs pouted when Roo called him 'Primary Creeper'.

"Hey, Ellie was the one who put you to sleep, all I did was carry you." He looked at Taibhse and made eye contact. "Hey, you made sure that she wasn't alone and that she didn't hurt herself any worse. That still sounds really important to me."

He leaned back in the chair and grumbled at the change of his title. "Why does the word creeper have to be in there at all? I'm not creepy. I may be devilishly handsome with an amazing jaw but I'm not a creeper." Not during the day anyway.

He sighed and playfully slumped his shoulders. "Is this 'Pick on Abaddon day'? Because if it is I'll just go to my dorm and try to sleep the rest of it off."

Roo schooled her expression into the most dejected pout she could muster and held out her arms. "Aww, Abby, I'll just call you oppa if you want." She wiggled her fingers and leaned towards him a bit.

"Or, you can pick your own nickname. S'long as you're here instead of pouting in your dorm room." She was being playful, but she realized that she had also been missing him all afternoon. But of course she wasn't going to tell him that.

Abaddon chuckled at her and stood to give her a hug. He would have sat on the cot but with both Roo and Taibhse on it he didn't want to be the extra weight that caused the temporary bed to break. He gently messaged the back of her head with one of his hands like he did when they were in the empty class room together.

He smiled down at her, playfully wrinkling his nose. "Hey, do you remember any of the things I told you earlier today?"

Taibhse felt new heat rising in his chest, and edged away from the bed.

"Hey, I'm glad you guys are alright. I'm gonna..." He ruffled his hair and stepped towards the door. "I'm gonna go catch up on my homework. I'll see you guys at breakfast."

Roo happily wrapped her arms around Abaddon and smooshed her cheek to his chest.  A content little hum escaped her and she started to close her eyes as he petted her.

She flinched when Taibhse spoke again-- oh man I almost forgot he was there I'm a terrible person aren't I?-- and her brow furrowed a tiny bit.  "Y-yeah.  Okay, Taibhse.  I'll see you in the morning.  Oh!  And thank you again...!"

She grumbled when he left, and nuzzled Abaddon's chest again before looking up at him.  "Not a lot.  I remember listening to your breathing and the rumble from your talking, but I don't remember too many of the words.  The comic might've been mentioned at some point..."

She closed her eyes again, trying to think back.  "And... something about a trip into town.  And stars on the ceiling."

He waved as Taibhse left and smiled, being friendly. "Okay, man. I'll see ya around."

He took to opportunity to sit next to Roo, having her lean against him a bit. "Well, I think you pretty much touched on everything. I was just saying that you should show me your ceiling and that we need to go on another date to town." He smiled and chuckled. "I wanted you to know that I meant all of it."

He did feel a bit bad for running Roo's friend off. He didn't mean to, not intentionally anyway. He sighed and moved away so he could look at Roo's face. "Hey.. I think it's kind of my friendly duty to let you know that apparently I'm not the only person you give the confusing feelings to." He gestured with his head towards the door. "I think Taibhse might have a crush on you."

Roo's expression flickered to concern for a split second when he moved away.  Her eyes went wide and she blinked several times before she managed, "Th-that-- he-- why?"  She sat up and quirked her lips to one side.  She was flattered, but the thought was ludicrous to her.  Taibhse was who she hung out with when she was all gross and sweaty during a workout.  They punched things.

And then she realized that she had a habit to gravitating towards Abaddon, and Abaddon only, when both boys were with her.  If what Abs said was true, she was being an absolute dick to Taibhse.

"...I don't wanna hurt him.  He's my friend."  She nibbled on her sleeve and looked up at Abaddon.  "But he's not--- I mean..."

Abaddon had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at the faces Roo was making. The confusion to realization to shock, he almost couldn't handle it. He managed to turn his laugh into a clearing of the throat sound and messed her hair. "Hey you don't have to go into a freak out about it. And he might not feel that way at all, that's just the feeling I got from him." He shrugged. "I mean why else would he be bright red after hugging you and run away when I hug you? But you might just want to talk to him about it, you know?"

He sighed and leaned against the wall with a sigh. "Feelings are weird things that I don't know if I will ever fully understand them."

Roo pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them before resting her chin atop her forearms. She pouted her lower lip and looked out of the dark windows in the infirmary, mulling things over in her head.

"I'll talk to him at breakfast, if they let me eat in the cafeteria." She had eaten dinner in her cot, though she suspected that her panic attack had made her miss the regular time for supper anyway. She genuinely hoped that Abaddon was wrong. Perhaps Taibhse was just a little weirded out by finding her like he had. Or he thought things were awkward between them now that he had been inside her head, for however brief a moment.

Roo shivered. "Feelings are very weird." She turned her head to rest her temple on her forearms instead, so that she could look at Abaddon. "At least you seem to have a talent for making the bad ones go away."

He tried not to wince when she mentioned him making her bad feelings go away. If we was going to tell her about all that. How?

He smirked at her and shrugged. "Glad to be of service?" He chuckled and wrapped an arm around her waist. Maybe he should take Bolin's advice.

He leaned closer to her and ran a hand through his hair. "Hey, Roo-kins, how do you feel about the 'monster under your bed'? The one that keeps showing up in some of your dreams. Do you think it's bad?"