18:00

8 : Regret

Fan waded his legs in the bathtub, staring downwards. He had been in the bathroom for about an hour now, though it had to have been at least two until he properly spoke. It was two in the morning, the first day of January. This wasn't how he was anticipating spending his New Year's Day, but it's not like he had many plans either.

He was too tired to care about much. When the hotel residents finally found him, sitting in the snow in front of the remains of the mansion, he was already too exhausted to do much. Physically and emotionally exhausted. He would just go to sleep, but he still had to get himself cleaned off.

His legs had gotten frostbite from sitting in the snow for an hour, that wasn't a huge surprise to him. Luckily, it wasn't anything major. They had regained feeling quite a while ago, he just continued wading them in the warm water for the sake of it.

The water had a slight black tint to it from Fan brushing the charcoal off from his body. He couldn't actually get in the water since he was made of paper, so he had to spend a fair amount of time patting it off of himself. He was pretty sure his body still had black stains, but he couldn't care at the moment.

He wished time would just stay still. He didn't know what to do next, and he didn't want to know what to do next either. He wanted time to stay at this moment forever, or at least until he got himself together again.

The door opened. Fan flinched at the sound, but he wasn't afraid. He knew it was just his roommate.

"Hey Fan, are you doing okay?" Paintbrush asked, walking to his side. Fan nodded, though he didn't say anything. He knew Paintbrush would be able to tell it was a lie then.

"...Fan." Paintbrush said. Okay, so maybe they would know it was a lie either way. "Fan, what happened back there?"

Fan didn't respond, instead continuing to stare at his legs. He wanted to respond, or provide some sort of explanation, but how could he ever explain what he had done without sounding like a total lunatic?

"Fan, please. Just answer." Paintbrush asked again, their voice firmer the second time around. Fan remained silent, though he felt tears come to his reddened eyes.

Paintbrush sighed, backing a ways away from Fan, but still remaining in the room. "Mephone4 got death notifications from Trophy, Marshmallow, and Apple. He said he'd come over to the hotel tomorrow to revive them. Not right now since it's literally two in the morning, but tomorrow. If you can't answer, then we'll ask them."

Fan nodded. And afterwards, for the first time since midnight, he spoke. "It'd be better to hear it from them anyways."

Paintbrush was a bit surprised at Fan speaking up, but they shook it off quickly. "And why is that?"

"I'd probably lie about it." Fan laughed. He didn't know why he laughed, it wasn't funny. It was just the truth. "Plus, I don't know how much they'd want the hotel to know."

"...Alright then." Paintbrush said. "You should be fine to get out of the bath now, your frostbite wasn't anything major."

"Okay, I'll get out in a moment." Fan said. He knew the only reason the sentence didn't come off as a blatant lie was because there was still a chance he would.

"Alright. I'll probably be asleep by the time you're out, it's pretty late." Paintbrush said, beginning to walk out of the room. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Fan said, though it came off as stale. He listened as Paintbrush shut the door behind themself, leaving Fan on his lonesome once again. Even though he wanted comfort, he couldn't blame them for leaving. If he didn't even know how to comfort himself, then he couldn't expect Paintbrush to know how to without so much as an explanation to the situation.