Without turning his glare from the ceiling, Dean grit out “how would you like me to answer that question?”
Iblinked “honestly?”
“Then yes, Theo, it’s blood.”
There was a deep cut there, at leat five cm long, obviously inflicted by a blade.
“The fuck did you do?”
“Got fucking stabbed. Some drunkie during patrol, I dunno.”
“And you weren’t gonna tell anyone?”
Hegrunted. “It’s fine,” he breathed “it hardly hurts.”
“You’re shit at lying.” I pointed out “what the fuck were you expecting, coming in here? That I wouldn’t notice?”
He opened and closed his mouth twice before muttering “I actually…came to apologise.”
I was momentarily stunned into silence.
Dean pushed himself up, chewing his lip nervously “I…” he inhaled deeply “don’t want to hear a word about this afterwards. Don’t want this conversation to leave this room. Okay?”
“If you promise to let Octavia check you out then yeah, sure.”I replied, if a little shakily. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I hadn’t exactly done loads of talking with Dean.
He nodded “deal.”
“Deal.” I waited for him to proceed.
“I’ve been…observing, you and Matt.”
My heart was immediately in my throat.
“I…I just…got jealous?”
What?I wasn’t expectingthat;I wasn't even really sure what he meant by it. The confusion must have shown.
“I used to have what you two appear to have.” He whispered. I blinked. Was this Dean…coming out to me? Was that something he was allowed to do? How could he trust me enough to do that? How was hegay?Of all people,Dean... was wrong too?
“-and it didn’t end well. The…head in the cupboard story that Stryker told me he told you? Wasn’t a mission. It was…” he trailed off, didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t need to. I understood. I felt sick. I didn’t want to evenimaginesomething like that.
“I…”
“Don’t.” He exhaled through his nose “I was trying to warn you to be more careful, but it came out wrong and now you haven’t…spoken since, it seems, and I was feeling terrible about it and I was supposed to apologise before I left on patrol but you wereout drinking and now I’m coming to apologise with a poorly concealed stab wound but…yeah.”
I nodded slowly, taking his words in, still in shock. “I…don’t, um…I’m not…”
“Don’t tell me it’s not like that.” He laughed edgily “that would be…wow. Extremely awkward. For me.”
I shrugged, feeling lost “it’s complicated?”
“Tell me about it.” He laughed softly, but he appeared done with the conversation, standing with a wince“so this…stays here, yeah?”
“Does anyone else know?”
“Stryker.” He raised an eyebrow “obviously.”
I felt relieved. At least I didn’t have to carry the burden of being the only one withthatknowledge.
