Alone Together

24: Cooling off

Ryou's face was swelling—pulsing, warm, and painful. Ryou wanted ice, but he also wanted dinner. And a relaxing bath.

Mari-- Melvin followed close behind, looking at the floor with his hands in his pockets.

"Why did you lie to me?"

Melvin looked up to see Ryou at the stoplight. They were now just across the street to the apartment complex.

"I thought your name was Mariku."

"Not a whole lot of Melvins around here," he said, holding his bare arms in his palms. "I figured if someone mentioned me that you would hear something you didn't like."

"Why did you take my knife?"

Now Melvin stayed quiet.

"Answer the question, please."

"He carries a knife with him all the time. I just wanted to feel evenly matched."

"Strange," Ryou spat. "I don't think I saw him use it during your little encounter back there."

Melvin looked at the concrete as they walked.

"So you left to see him?" Ryou approached the complex building, starting to feel dizzy. "For what?"

"He had my keys. And my phone."

Ryou nodded, only feeling a little bit of guilt. He wanted to leave so badly...?
But then he remembered that Melvin was crazy and felt less guilty.

His stomach grumbled loudly now, and all he wanted was dinner and a nap.

The bruise on the side of his face stung and throbbed. Ryou was hit very hard, and he couldn't believe the amount of strength Melvin had, and what it must've felt like on Bakura's end to be hit like that several times.

Melvin reached out to him, maybe to put a hand on his shoulder, but Ryou moved away. "Let's get inside. It's freezing." He said, hoping Ryou would bring the conversation elsewhere.

He didn't. "Now that you have your keys, are you going to leave?"

"Do you want me to leave?"

Ryou began walking up the stairs.

"Ryou. I answered your questions, didn't I?"

He turned and held a hand to his face to cover his injury. "Yeah? Well sorry if I'm questioning everything about your character, since you were so keen on staying at my place and not telling me a damn thing."

Melvin didn't want to attack him anymore. He already looked at though he was on the brink of tears—a mental breakdown, actually.
"You let me in." He said, barely loud enough for Ryou to hear. "I didn't ask, you offered."

Ryou couldn't refute that. He just kept going up the stairs.

They reached the sixth floor and Ryou stopped walking. He faced Melvin, and let him see the wound on his face.

Ryou reached the knob for the door. "Would you like me to walk you back?"

Melvin wanted to question why he was offering. It was obvious that Ryou was angry, so why the kind gesture? "It's only down the hall." He said, and looked at the bruise already dark in color. "You should ice that.

"I will." Ryou firmly nodded, and said, "Okay." to no one in particular. And he walked up one more flight of stairs.

"Wait...you don't want your keys back?"