Me & Red

Chapter 12

Rift held her for as long as she needed. He felt like a terrible friend... He hadn't been there soon enough to protect her. If he'd come a second later, she would've...
This was all his fault. She didn't know... He'd never forgive himself if he let her get hurt. Eve was Rift's best friend in the whole world.
He would rather die than lose her.
After a long moment, Rift could feel her body relaxing, and her sobs quieted. Still, he waited for her to part on her own before he let her go. Red let her hood fall enough over her dampened face with her head tilted down that he couldn't see her tear stained cheeks as she took a moment to compose herself. Wiping her eyes, she murmured, "I'm sorry..."

"What for?"

It was he who should be apologizing. And he had, a few times by now. Not that it was enough, of course.
Red sniffled. ".... Something tells me I wasn't supposed to be there."
Rift looked away, silent. That was true, but he wasn't sure he was ready to explain that just yet....
At his silence, she peeked up at him a little. "... You don't have to explain just yet if you aren't ready..."
He looked back at her and gazed at her face for a long moment before giving a grateful nod. Not yet... Not just yet.
Wiping the last of her tears away, Red sat up straight and looked at him. "Besides that... I'm sorry you had to save me."
Rift snorted a little. "Why sorry? That's what friends are for, right?"
He saw that his attempts to lighten the mood had succeeded as Red gave a short laugh. "Well, maybe. But...."
Rift's face shifted into one of surprise as Red leaned up on her knees to get close to his faceー far enough that seeing her eyes so closely made his cheeks feel warm. He had a funny feeling in his chest...
In addition to the warmth in his face, his heartbeat quickened as he felt her small, gentle fingertips brush along the side of his face.
"...you're hurt..."
He blinked and snapped out of his trance to raise a hand, lightly tracing the mark she'd pointed out. He hadn't even noticed it...
"Hold on, I think I might have a bandaid in my pocket..."

"....."

Rift was silent as he watched her pull out a little bandaid, which was indeed in the pocket of her hoodー the cutest bandaid he'd ever seen, small and pink with little hearts on itー and rather than hold it out to him, open it up herself and lean in close to gingerly press it to the wound, with enough gentleness that she didn't hurt him.
Then he had that funny feeling in his chest again....
Weird, he thought.
Red gave him a warm smile that made his heart flutter again. "There! All better."

"......"

Trying to shake off the odd feeling he had, Rift gave his usual wolffish grin, touching the bandaid. "Feeling better already. A little less than manly, though."

"Right. And Rift?"

"Hmmm?"

"... Thank you."

Rift tilted his head. "For what?"

"For saving me, of course."

Rift chuckled and reached over to ruffle her golden mane. "Ain't nothin, don't sweat it. I like to think you'd do the same for me."

"... Of course I would."

And there was that funny feeling again.
He wondered what that meant... It felt weird, but... He liked it.
Might be fun to see what all could make him feel like that...