Red

18

VAN'S POV
I grab the medicine and some of my sweatpants for Tris. Hers were completely soaked and I don't want her to be uncomfortable in them for the rest of the day. I thought about going through her stuff to see if she had any more pants, but decided against it. I figured that I'll spare her the privacy, for now at least.

I walk to the back room and find Tris sitting where I told her to. She was staring at the ground, oblivious to the fact that I was just watching her. Her hands were in tight fists; I could see her knuckles turning white and I knew she was digging her nails into her palms again because she was nervous.

I sigh and shake my head. I hated making her feel scared, but I'm not going to risk her getting herself hurt. She jumps a little when she notices I'm here and then goes back to staring intensely at the ground. "Why're you still doing that, love?" I ask her.

"W-what?" She squeaks, clearing her throat afterward. "Doing what?" She whispers, her cheeks flushing a light shade of pink.

I walk in front of her and grab her hands. "This," I say. I look up at her and with my head tilted, waiting for an answer. Her pink lips quiver and she shrugs her shoulders.

I let go of one of her hands and bring my hand to her face, brushing the hair she was using to cover her pink cheeks behind her ears. I rest my hand on the side of her face, my thumb caressing over her lower lip. I feel her hot, shaky breath as she tries to take deep breaths through her mouth.

"Calm down," I say quietly. "You don't have to be so scared of me. I'm not here to hurt you," I attempt to reassure her. I'm hoping she doesn't have a panic attack. I still need to figure out what to do with her medicine. It could only last her so long. She must be feeling a little off since she went from taking them every day to none at all.

She nods her head, telling me she knows, but I know she's lying. She is still going to be nervous around me. I let it go, though. "I brought you some of my sweatpants. Why don't you take your wet ones off, I'll fix your leg up, and you can put these dry ones on. We can let yours dry today," I say, handing her my grey sweatpants.

She looks at the sweatpants and then to me. That were next to her on the counter and then up at me. "Alright?" I ask, raising my eyebrows as I wait for her to answer.

"Yes," she whispers. I move my hand from her face and hold her hand as she jumps down from the counter. I just now realized how small she was. She couldn't be over 5'6", a sharp contrast from my 6'. She was so pure, so innocent. She shouldn't be on this island. I know I have to protect her at all costs.

Her feet softly hit the ground, one of them landing on my own foot. She moves it away quickly. "Sorry," she apologize, getting flustered again. She makes a fist with her hand that I wasn't holding, and I immediately grab it, stopping her from hurting herself.

I smile at her. She got ashamed so easily, it was cute. "It's alright. Barely felt it," I tell her with hopes of her not overthinking something as silly as stepping on my toes. I let go of her hands so she can take her pants off. She nods her head and holds the hem of her sweatpants. She looks up at me, unsure of herself.

"Go ahead," I tell her. She nods her head again, slowly pushing her pants down, and letting them pool at the bottom of her feet before stepping out of them. My sweatshirt covers almost halfway down her thighs, but I could tell she still felt insecure since she was holding the bottom of the sweatshirt to make sure it doesn't move up at all.

I let out a small chuckle at how embarrassed she was. "It's alright, love. You don't need to hide from me," I tell her. She only turned a darker shade of red when I acknowledged her insecurity.

"Sit up again for me so I can see your leg better," I say as I pat the counter. She pushes herself up, allowing me to catch a glimpse of the black lace on her underwear. I hope she wears those for herself and that no one else has seen those before. She's too young to be trying to impress other men. I don't want her to ruin her innocence on just anyone.

"Lay your leg out this way for me," I tell her to lay her leg across the table. I grab the medicine and give her my hand. "This can be the last time you have to deal with this pain if you listen to me from now on, Tris," I remind her as her small fingers wrap around my big ones. My voice was stricter than I was just a minute ago, but I made sure not to sound too angry.

She nods her head and I start apply the medicine to her cut. I'm happy to see that it is healing pretty quickly. She still needs to be careful with it, though. She immediately squeezes my hand when the medicine makes contact with her skin. She whimpers. "It'll be okay. You're being such a good girl." I feel her grip on my hand relax a small amount as she becomes more used to the stinging sensation.

"That should do it," I say, giving her a reassuring smile to which she nods her head. I grab my folded sweatpants and place them on her thigh. "You can get changed, darlin."

She nods her head, as usual, and hops down from the table. I can tell she was being extra careful not to step on my foot again and I try my best to hold back the smirk that wants to so desperately form on my face.

She bends down and steps into the sweatpants, giving me another view of her underwear, only this time from the back. I shake my head and try to draw my eyes away from her.

Once she's finished she turns around, having no idea of how much she just exposed to me. She was holding the waistband of my sweatpants so they don't fall down, and she looks at me.

I chuckle. "A little big, eh?" I ask and she nods her head. "You got any of those hair ties?" I ask.

"In my stuff," she says.

"Okay, good. Can you go grab me one?" I ask her, moving out of the way to allow her to get past me.

She nods her head and walks to the main area of the plane. I watch as she digs through her belongings and I wondered what else was in there.

She walks back to me, holding the hair tie in her hand, and keeping her head down. There was no need for her to feel so self conscious and insecure. I wish she would feel more comfortable around me, but I know I'm doing the right thing by being protective of her. She'll learn that soon enough.

She hands me the hair tie and I reach down, taking the part of the waistband that she was holding into my own hand. I tie the hair tie around it a few times.  I move my hand around her waist, making sure it was tight enough. "Good for now?" I ask her.

"Yeah," she says, her cheeks red from my touch.