Monster || among us

n i n e ;

n i n e ;

Raven had been unable to find Roseanne after she left their table at lunch time. He had tried knocking on her dorm room's door to get no answer and he also checked their private study room where they completed their assigned homework together every afternoon. But he didn't find her and he waited until lunch was over to go to their next training activity which was physical training. He changed into his training uniform and waited outside the locker room for her. She was the first to emerge, and he stopped her in the hall, grabbing her arm as she tried to walk past him. She had been hiding in the restrooms right outside the lunchroom in the main hallway and stayed in one of the stalls until the bell announcing the next activity rang.

"Hey, I want to talk to you." He said in a bit of an urged voice, trapping her between himself and the wall behind her. He was relieved that he found her, since he thought she would maybe skip their afternoon activities for the day and find some quiet place to be alone. She kept her head low and her eyes down as she heard him and felt him walk up to her.

"I can't right now. I'm just trying to get to afternoon training." She said in a mumble, her index finger pointing towards the empty hallway. Now she realized how much they seemed like they were something more than friends. Instructor Violet, who had been the first to talk about them about that issue, constantly asked them if they had something. It had become something like a game to her, trying to catch them in the act. Trying to catch them acting like boyfriend and girlfriend to each other. She had even told Roseanne countless times that as girls she could trust her, and that you don't look at each other the way friends look at each other. Those are eyes full of love, she said to Roseanne. She told her student that she could trust her. She could see that Raven was interested in her. She had gone back to her Province for a while after coming back from her own mission. Things didn't work out for her when the man she fell in love with turned out to be married and with children. So the moment she received an offer from the Garden, she packed her things and left. Currently, she was seeing a few instructors from her province, since that was the only thing allowed for her at the facility. But none of them really caught her attention.

Roseanne tried to go around him, and he place a hand against the wall on either side of her face to trap her there even further. "Please move out of my way, Raven." She could barely hear her own words over the harsh beating of her heart against her chest.

He heaved a sigh that was laced with hints of frustration. He couldn't understand why she didn't want to talk to him. He stood up for her after what they said and tried to find her afterwards. He just wanted her to know that he had her back and he wasn't going to let the others talk about her like that. As he mentioned to her before, she was there to defend him when he most needed it. Now he was strong enough to do it for both of them. He looked down, trying to meet her eyes, but all he could see was the top of her head since she was holding her head down. "Why are you mad at me though?" He asked, trying to get an answer out of her.

"I'm not mad." She told him with a small shake of her head, but he could hear it in her voice. Or perhaps she wasn't mad, she was just hurt and didn't want to see him or talk to him.

That was the way she handled feelings of anger or hurt. Whenever anyone hurt her feelings or made her angry, she took time alone to relax, closing herself off from the world around her. She didn't want to say anything that could hurt the other person, something she didn't mean that could potentially hurt his feelings in turn. Right then, the last thing she wanted was to see Raven or any of the other crew members. She would have stayed in her dorm room for the rest of the afternoon, but she knew her instructors would question her absence. They wouldn't like to hear that she didn't make it to her last class of the afternoon because her feelings were hurt by her crew members. They would think she was weak and emotional. But perhaps it was the last push they needed to choose Raven as captain of the expedition, since she knew well they were leaning more towards him anyway.