𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐈𝐀 - TMR, Gally ¹

𝟢𝟣𝟨，𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬

CH. SIXTEEN
┗━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━┛

"Gally!"

The boy shoots awake, blinking rapidly in confusion once he feels how stiff his muscles are. His bed has never caused stiff muscles before, unless he sleeps in a crazy position... which he does not.

"Damnit, man." Sighing, Jeff runs a hand down his face. "You've been blocking our way to feed her the whole morning, but after our last experience of waking you up, we decided to never do that again."

Oh yeah, that time he fell asleep repairing something in his hut, his hammer still in his hands, and Alby attempted to wake him up.

Perhaps that's the reason he's bald: can't grow hair 'cause Gally hit him so hard.

"What?" He rubs sleep out of his eyes with one hand. The other one seems either stuck or asleep. Then he looks at it, and... keeps looking. And looking, and looking, and—

"Yes, you did," Jeff answers the unspoken question.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep—" he gapes. Joan still seems as calm as she was last night, when he spoke to her and held her hand to keep her from escaping the ropes.

("You're probably gonna think I'm a real piece of shit if you gain certain memories back," he says.

Nothing really happens. She keeps lying there, eyes closed and veins pulsing.

"But I reacted that way 'cause of the Griever," he continues. "However, I do still think you're untrustworthy. Never got enough answers to know if you meant to betray us or not.")

"Come on, I've got to feed her. Or you do it," Jeff says, shaking the Builder out of his memory of the previous day. "I don't care."

"You do it," he decides. Quickly, he slips his hand away from Joan, who finally loosened her grip on him. It leaves a somehow empty but relieving feeling. As if he wasn't not supposed to hold her hand at all.

Jeff starts feeding Joan the soup. Her eyebrows furrow at first, maybe at the loss of Gally's touch or at the taste of the soup, then she relaxes a bit, allowing Jeff to do his thing. "Once she wakes up," he starts, "it might be a good idea for you to talk to her."

He pulls a face.

"Gally, man, I mean it."

"Jeff, man... no." He holds his hands up. "I'm not doing that. I don't like her presence. She doesn't like my presence. We don't like each other's presence."

"You did just spent the whole night with her presence."

"That was an accident—"

"And all this denying only makes you more suspicious."

"Jeff—"

The boy turns around. "Just talk to her. You know how it feels. You also know some kids went crazy because of their thoughts, so you better help her out."

"You can't force me."

"I know," he says. "But think about it. You said it yourself, you don't hate her that much."

"I dislike her presence and words and do not appreciate her ruining my shirts or the fact that she's untrustworthy."

Jeff raises an eyebrow, then sighs, and finishes feeding the girl. "She's been out for two days," he sighs. "Worries me."

Gally make a sound that's like a grunt and a sigh at once... or whatever. "I'm out."

"Ahw, don't be ashamed, Galileo," he mimics.