don't fall away from me / r&v, day 5

It takes such a short amount of time for him to hate a room. He comes to dread the white walls, the foreign cleanness of the floor, even five days in. Roe leaves smudges of soot everywhere and he swears they disappear when he turns his head, swept up with the rest of the dust and the motes.

"Roe." Vin calls.

He just hums, distracted by the way one of the overhead lights imperfectly flickers.

It just happens once, a simple on and off before it's back to normal. There's this awful sort of heaviness pulling at him. He could sleep for days, suddenly.

It's so much quieter without Mateo to snap at.

The touch to his shoulder makes him jump. Vin's hand brushes where the duct tape's still stuck and Roe shifts too fast, slipping out from under them and stepping away, turning in a sort of whiplash.

He tries to play it off, of course. He does this stupid sort of shimmy with his shoulders, like he's just stretching them out. He tugs the collar of his shirt up higher.

It's a casual readjustment. Very smooth.

It takes an entire moment for his brain to catch up with what Vin said. He's got that deer in the headlights look, some part of it shifting as he turns incredulous, a vague kind of alarm taking over when he glances down at his knee, can't tell if they're joking or not - "I'm gonna what?"

The room stretches, Roe knows he's not going to get away with it.

He still tries.

They move at the same time. He tries to twist away from Vin's grip but they're right about the hole in his leg. His thigh is warm and still sluggishly dripping, the blood gathering in the softness of his knee and burning there.

Roe tries to swing around the length of the medical bed, just to get it between them, but Vin is quick and uninjured and yanks him by the shirt. He just barely flails, still tries to get away. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter because Vin sees.

"You never asked." Roe bites out quick.

Stupid, stupid thing to say.

But they don't move, the fingers clutching Roe's shirt are more effective than the leash. He tries to shake it off without really moving. He thinks the motion but doesn't feel it.

He still can't think of anything better to say, he didn't want to be branded, not by her, and the fact that Vin thinks - "I wasn't going to just keep them."

Maybe they expected he would.

That twinges at something, unexpected.

"And I did tell you." He says brusquely, still thinking about moving, still not moving, "I told you I didn't know what she did. I told you I didn't want them."

He starts burning suddenly, ravenous, "You were too busy sulking because I saved you from getting your head smashed in. I wouldn't let you get demolished by Antigone and you went and ran in anyways, you didn't listen, which was so hypocritical by the way because Arcadia-"

He stands there panting. His finger jabbed against Vin's chest at some point, emphasizing. He snatches it back.

"Fuck you."