Taken

Chapter 3

Smile leaving his face, Fang watched as Fai walked towards her tent, having assured him she was fine but wanted to be alone for a while. Nearing the campfire, he noted Tan was not with the rest of the group. He had definitely heard someone in the woods when he was talking with Fai just a few minutes ago and was pretty confident it was Tan. Tapping Peem on the shoulder to pull his attention from Q's guitar, he asked, "Hey, have you seen Tan?"

Peem nodded, "I'm pretty sure he's in your tent. Told us he wanted to be alone."

"Thanks." He had a sinking feeling Tan had misunderstood what he'd seen and had a bit of groveling to do, even though he really hadn't done anything wrong.

As he turned, Peem added, "Hey, Fang. He kinda seemed upset. Everything ok?"

"Yeah, it'll be fine. Don't worry."

"What about Fai?"

"Huh? What about Fai?"

Peem gestured towards Fai's tent, "Why did she head straight to her tent when you guys got back?"

Not wanting to share with the group what Fai had said to him, he played dumb, "Don't know. Guess she was tired."

Peem nodded, although he looked unconvinced.

Fang closed the distance between the campfire and his and Tan's tent, pausing to slip off his shoes, before unzipping the entrance. He bent down to get through the opening, noting Tan who was pretending to sleep, mostly covered by his sleeping bag. Zipping the tent shut behind him, he crawled towards Tan, sitting cross legged behind him, "Tan."

Tan ignored him, keeping up the ruse of being asleep.

"I know you aren't sleeping. Can you turn around so we can talk?"

"Don't wanna."

If Tan weren't clearly upset, he would have laughed at Tan's childishly voiced reply.

"Don't want to turn around? Or don't want to talk?"

"Both." Tan pulled the sleeping bag over his head.

Fang sighed, "C'mon, Tan. Turn around so we can talk. I really don't want to talk to the back of your head."

He tugged at the sleeping bag, Tan letting go fairly easily before abruptly sitting up and facing Fang. "Fine. Here I am. Turned around. Happy?"

"Not really. Not when you clearly aren't."

"Well, it's all your fault anyway."

"Yeah, I know. But really, Tan, I ...."

Tan put a hand up, palm just inches from Fang's face. "Stop. I don't want to hear it. Please? Can we just pretend for the rest of the trip?"

"Pretend? What are you talking about? Pretend what?"

"That we're still together."

"WHAT?" Fang yelled back. He knew Tan was upset, but where had this come from? "Why do you think we're breaking up?"

Tan's reply was laced with sarcasm, "Hmmm.... I don't know, maybe because you're getting back together with Fai?"

Gathering Tan's hands in his own despite Tan's efforts to evade his touch, he explained, "I am not getting back together with Fai. Why would you even think that? I don't love Fai. I love you."

"You say that, but I saw you hugging earlier after her teary confession. If you rejected her, why would you hug her, hmmmm?"

"C'mon Tan, she's our friend and she was sad. I was just comforting her."