Honesty is the Best Policy {Comic Edition}

Chapter 74: A New Brand of Worms

"What's wrong?" Scourge asked her. Rosy was avoiding looking at him and turned away as she spoke.

"It's nothing. We can sit with the others if you'd like." Suddenly, Scourge had an idea as to why she was acting this way.

"You want us to be alone?" Scourge asked. Rosy turned around. If this was the Comics, she might've had obvious sweat drops running down her face. "That's fine with me, if that's what you want."

"No," Rosy said, thrusting her lunch tray between them. "That wouldn't be smart... or healthy. For me, so-" She started walking over towards the table where Scourge's friends were. "Let's go sit with the others."

Scourge tilted his head in confusion as he followed her. It wouldn't be smart or healthy for Rosy for them to be alone? She probably wasn't wrong, but that didn't mean that it wasn't sad. Scourge guessed the word to describe how he felt was "sympathetic". He wished Rosy didn't have to go through this. He wished it didn't have to be this way.

But it's my fault, Scourge thought, frowning even though Honest looked up as they approached with a blindingly bright smile. I deserve much worse than just feeling bad.

"Dina's making up an assignment for Miss Vanilla," Honest explained as she pulled out the metal and plastic chair beside her. "So one of you can sit in her spot."

There was another empty chair across from Honest. Scourge could remember sitting there on multiple occasions in the past. He looked at the chair made vacant by Dina's absence. "Well, I usually sit here, so I guess I'll sit-"

"I'll sit here," Rosy interjected, jumping into the seat beside Honest with little delay. Honest looked uncomfortable almost instantly, turning the other way and drumming her fingers on the table in an effort to distract herself. Was it because she sensed why Rosy had done that? The reason Scourge asked that was because he really had no idea himself.

"Okay then," Scourge said, rolling his eyes. He sort of hoped others at the table had noticed. He pulled out the other chair and sat down with a huff. He set down his tray and distracted himself by stuffing a huge mound of mashed potatoes in his mouth. However, Scourge couldn't help but feel the piercing stare of Shadow even as he chewed.

Scourge looked up. Shadow looked worried, and he soon revealed why. "Honest?" Honest looked up from where she had been staring at the surface of the table. "What's going on with Scourge and Rosy? Are you trying to help them again?"

"You say that like you're afraid of the answer," Honest remarked, her cat smile somehow strengthening. She looked at Scourge. "Don't worry, this isn't {w/Rosy} Volume 2; this is still {Comic Edition}. I'm not opening that same can of worms again." The blonde cat absentmindedly unscrewed the lid to her water bottle. "I'm opening a can of a different brand of worms."

Shadow's eyes were red voids. "Can you translate, please? Into a language the rest of us can understand?"

Honest frowned and stared at Scourge who blinked uncomprehendingly. "I refuse. I'm not going to air Rosy and Scourge's business like that. I have integrity."

"Sure you do," Shadow replied, rolling his eyes. Scourge shot him a surprised look. He hoped that was sarcasm, but maybe it was ridiculous to think that the Ultimate Lifeform would be able to forget everything so quickly.

Honest's eyes widened and she looked over Scourge's head. "Oh! Look who's here. Hey, Hearts."

Hearts looked peeved as she settled her hands on the table in the gap between Scourge and Rosy and glared harshly at her Mobian equivalent. Then again, she always seemed to look that way whenever Scourge saw her, so it didn't, at least not right away, raise any alarms in his mind.