It suits you

He sighed when he saw another plate of unfinished food. Another night, another night without eating. He felt a wave of anger boiling from him but he repressed it. Not the time. His role required patience. He inhaled and exhaled a few times to calm down and then opened the door. He stopped knocking a few days ago. The other had silently expressed annoyance and the loud noise so he stopped. Anything above a whisper was torture for the other right now and torture was only for those who deserved it.

He found him like he found him for the past few days, curled up in blankets, mumbling to himself. Sometimes it was full sentences, but mostly incomprehensible rants. Zok found that the other couldn't speak words clearly anymore. The other, who was still hiding under a pile of blankets, would get stuck on words and keep saying the first letter over and over again. The others didn't know. They stayed away. Who wouldn't? Shod was So's enemy number one right now and they saw what happened if someone defied him.

"Shod.. You have to eat." He kept his voice soft. Half for Shod, half so the others couldn't hear him. "It won't get better if you don't eat."

No reaction. Nothing new, Shod barely responded to anything these days.

"How about some fresh air! We could go out on a walk." Zok looked around the room. It was an organised mess. Most of the items were shiny. Gems, precious metal and some pretty looking stones. Maybe he could find some for Shod as a gift. Scratch that. Let someone find some for Shod. He wouldn't go out and do that kind of work. Lest he gets dirty or tired. A skeksis of his status wouldn't be caught dead doing something trivial as digging through dirt for something shiny. Though.. Shod liked that. His mind wandered to just a few days before the incident. Shod had asked him to accompany him to a near riverbank where he saw some shiny stuff hiding just under the mud. He agreed and watched how the other had no issue getting dirty. As a thank you had given Zok a green shiny stone which he planned to turn into a ceremonial knife.

The silence was deafening. Oh how he wished for Shod to just snap out of it and get back to being his old rebellious self. Sure it would get him into trouble and Zok would often silently encourage him just to see what happens but Shod seemed so happy.

"The others are getting worried too.." A lie.

"L-liar.."

But at least it triggered a response but it was a horrible lie. The others don't care. They barely mentioned him or asked about him but he couldn't tell Shod that. Not right now.

"I'm not a liar.. It's true. Ayuk made food for you." Well he made food for everyone and Zok just grabbed some and put it on plate. The response was a just a groan then silence.

When Zok made no attempts to leave Shod spoke his biggest sentence aimed at him so far; "You lie... m-manipulate.. it's w-what you ddddo. It's .... What y-you like." It was muffed but dripping with venom. Shod was angry at him and it wasn't entirely misplaced. But it struck a nerve none the less.

His eye twitched and his growled a little. He tried being nice. He tried being reasonable. But if this is how the other wanted to behave then fine. He turned around, his golden robes swaying around him and walked to the door. He let his hand rest on the door handle and suddenly changed his mind. Enough is enough.

"Stop feeling so sorry for yourself! So you got hurt, So it happened. Move on! Actions have consequences! Lesson learned." He barked as he walked back to the bed. "You are a skeksis, A Lord of the Crystal- Act like it!" Zok grabbed a handful of fabric from the blankets and pulled it. "Or I'm going changer your title to SkekShod the pity-" His sentence faded into silence when he saw the state of his companion who looked at him, fire in his eyes despite his state.

His skull had an obvious dent in it and his white hair was dark with blood. It suddenly occurred to him that no one bothered to clean it. A new feeling came over him.. guilt. "Shod I.." Zok looked for words but found none. The other kept looking at him for a few moments more but averted his gaze.

"That b-bad?"

"It's... okay. It's really bad."

"At least... y-your'e honest.. for once.." Shod spoke like it heard him. Like he was actively looking for the sounds and words to say. The guilt within Zok turned into pity. Suddenly there was nothing more that he wanted to just take care of him. To prevent any harm from befalling him ever again.

Zok sat down next to Shod, the shifting of weight made Shod lean into Zok. A thing neither did anything about. They sat in silence for a while.

"No.. No one c-can stand to look at m-me." His voice was soft and sounded like it was moments from breaking.

"I can." It was out before he knew it, but he meant it. "We just-.." Zok closed his eyes and opened them suddenly when he got an idea.

He looked at his hands and noticed the red under cloak peeking out from under his golden sleeve. Ekt had done an amazing job at making him an outfit that suited him and then some. He felt nothing but pride when he looked at it. Yet when he looked at Shod he felt something more important, an emotion he could not place or describe. He grabbed one edge of the fabric and put the other in his mouth. Despite the craftsmanship it gave way, tearing with a loud rip.

Shod's eyes followed the movement, confused at what was happening.

"Zok.."

But the other didn't speak. He looked at Shod and tied the freshly torn piece of bright red fabric around the other's head. He tried to fashion the ends into a bow but failed. Finally he gently grabbed some of Shod's white hair and fluffed it up a little.

Zok stood up with a glimmer in his eye, looking with pride at his best ritual yet. The-Caring-For-The-Broken. He looked around the room for something with a surface shiny enough to reflect and held it up to Shod.

"It suits you.."