Iris- Chapter 4

  "Sorry..." the Swede softly said to him, trying to pick out the shards of glass from the back of his head. Between two fingers he delicately held a pair of tweesers, in his other hand was locks of Ryan's hair, holding it up so he could get a good look at the cut. Usually, a skilled professional doctour would be doing this, not a Swedish gamer on Youtube. But Cry had absolutely objected to going to a hospital, and there were always firsts for everything.

  Their position was awkward yet casual. Felix was seated on the couch, one foot on the floor, his knee bent on the other leg so his foot dangled off the edge by Ryan's shoulder. Ryan was seated on the floor, resting his side against the top of Felix's shoe, one knee up with his hand clenching the material that clothed it tightly, the other leg cast out in front of him. 

  Ryan winced again, and Felix stopped until he nodded for him to go on. With his tweesers, he continued to pull out the persistent shard. With a final tug and a brief tension from Cry, the shard was out, and he dropped it on a dish beside him. He examined the cut, looking over it. Without warning the other, he picked up the wet cloth beside him and cleaned it, making the other emit a low groan. 

  "Sorry, Cry. But, hey, I think I'm done, at least," he said reassuringly. Cry turned his head. Both men had bandages all over their faces, Cry more than Pewdie, some showing their stain of blood from the outside. 

  When Felix had came back from fetching a cup- plastic -of water for Cry, he looked like he was on the verge of passing out. Felix urged him to stay awake until the bleeding had stopped, applying pressure to it through Ryan's protests and whines of pain. He knew if he had fallen asleep with it still pouring blood, his mind wouldn't command it to seal over fast enough, thus leading in heavy blood loss. Cry was able to drink two glasses before the bleeding had stopped, then had another glass before Felix found it safe enough for him to rest for a bit. When Ryan awoke, the house was somewhat tidy. Felix was setting the TV on the ground, ready to move the broken glass table from the room.

  "Finally," he muttered, turning back around and arching his back in a feline-like stretch, yawning all the while. He tried to stand on his own, but in the end Felix was supporting him by holding him up by his arms. When he had steadied himself, Felix let go.

  "You alright?" Felix asked, in where Ryan had nodded. Felix walked off, heading back into the kitchen with the plate of little shards of glass and pair of tweesers with the slightly red wash cloth in his other hand. He was ready to go to his room- he felt like he was covered in cold sweat and wanted to shower, when something caught his eye. 

  "Hey, where did you find that picture?" he asked softly, his voice slightly trembling. 

  "Do what?" Felix came into the room, wiping his hands with a pristine white wash cloth. He noted the look on Cry's face and frowned, asking more gently, "Something wrong?"

  "Where did you find that picture?" he asked, his voice more firm, trying to hide the stutter in it. Felix's eyes went down to the picture he had placed on the coffee table.

  "I was looking for tape and I stumbled upon it in the drawer with all the scissors and thread in it," he said. "Is something wrong with it?"

  He didn't know he still even had that picture. He shook his head, and continued walking on.

  "No, it's nothing," he said before going to his room, slightly limping. 

  He thought he had burned it...

~*~

  Felix was confused. When the other had left the room, he had gone to the coffee table and picked up the picture frame. When he was cleaning the living room as to leave no trace of their previous fight, he had stumbled upon the picture frame that had fallen off the shelf. The glass part of it was useless- it had completely shattered. The wooden frame was still in good condition, just a little chipped and blood speckled. He looked at the picture. It was torn a bit. He went in search for tape, so he could mend it and put it back in the frame, when he saw another picture. It was Ryan, but much younger, probably by six years. It was the first picture he had seen of Cry in the whole house. But there was someone else in the picture with him, just below him and peeking into the picture with a bright smile. 

  Felix decided to put it in the picture frame instead.

  Now, as he stared at it, he knew he should have thought about the other person in the picture. The person was shorter, much younger, than Cry, who seemed to be only seventeen at the time. He looked like an ordinary kid, but he had startling features. The first thing he had saw about him were his eyes.

  A glorious blue.

  He left the picture alone and looked in the direction Cry had gone. He heard water running, and he knew the other was taking a shower. Wouldn't blame him. 

  He continued fixing the place. In the process, he had found more interesting things. Like a mask. A white mask with a poker face look on it. It reminded him so much of Ryan's mascot he couldn't sustain a chuckle.

  "You don't like it?"

  Felix jumped and nearly dropped the thin white mask on the floor. He whipped his head around, wincing a bit at the pain from it, and saw Cry standing there in the middle of the hallway. He looked better, though he looked like he had trouble with putting the bandages on. It seemed he just gave up and put the bandages sideways on, covering half of his face and half-lidding his right eye. He seemed annoyed by it. His hair was weighed down with water, and his skin had some colour returned to it, though, so that was good. 

  "Do you always wear baggy clothes?" he asked, looking at him curiously. Ryan's choice of clothing consisted of a loose black shirt that hung off him majourly, plaid green pants that were overly baggy and covered most of his feet, white socks that were barely visible, and a maroon robe that reminded him somewhat of Garry's jacket from Ib. A dark blue towel was draped over his shoulders, which he held in place with both hands.

  Cry looked down at himself and chuckled. "No. I just like wearing them. They're comfy," he said. Felix smiled and looked down at the mask in his hand. He pulled on the string and slipped it over his head. The mask was made to fit Cry's face, so it only covered part of his own. Unknown to him, it was on sideways. 

  "Hello friends, and welcome to another 'Let's Play' with your host, Cry," he said, trying to imitate the other's voice and intro. Cry laughed- it was a horrible try. 

  "How ya'll doin', bros?"

  Felix flipped the mask off at the sound of his voice and intro being immitated. Cry had stood up on the coffee table, one hand on his hip, the other making a fist outward.

  "My name is Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewdiiiiiiiepiiiiiiiiiiiie~!"

  Both had erupted into laughter, both their sides hurting from it, but they didn't care. 

~*~

  He didn't know how long ago was it that he had laughed. Crying, screaming, weeping, panting, gasping, sobbing- yes. But laughing...? His face hurt from smiling, too...

  He continued to laugh along with the Swede until he could barely breathe. He hadn't been this happy before in a long time- probably his whole life. It seemed that long ago. 

  Felix had helped him down, Ryan clinging to his arm for support as he tried to catch his breath in shallow laughs. He immediately stopped and frose when he heard a low humming sound. 

  In his mind, he was panicking, but Felix just smiled and let go of Cry. 

  Ryan watched him go with terrified eyes the other didn't see, and the humming continued to go, continued and went on and on and-

  "Allo?"

  Ryan moved to go see the other. He saw Felix, leaning on the counter, a small mobile to his ear, speaking in rapid fire Swedish. Feeling as if he was intruding in a private conversation- that he couldn't even understand -he left. He went back into the living room, sitting down on the couch, one leg propped up with his chin resting on top and his arms wrapped around it, the other normal with his foot touching the floor. He fumbled with the towel over his shoulders, deep within his own thoughts. He heard the Swede laugh in the other room, and he sighed. What was wrong with him? Why did all of a sudden did his mood turn sour?

  Maybe it was because he was tired. Or maybe it was because he felt so light-headed. It hurt. Hurt so much. He rested his head in his hands, taking deep breaths, shivering slightly from the cold little droplets of water that descended from his hair.

  He stiffened as the towel around his neck was snatched away. For a moment he was confused, and then the towel was back on his head, over it actually, and was being furiously rubbed against him, making Cry's head move with it.

  "What. The. Hell," he said as he was being moved around, a word for each rocking movement he made. The towel lifted, bringing up his hair along with it, before falling back down, covering his head up like a child would do with a sheet to pretend to be a ghost. 

  "I'm drying your hair, bro," Felix said with a laugh as he went back to drying his hair vigourously.

  "I. Can. Do. That. My. Self. You. Know," he managed, Felix still rocking his head with the strong attempt to dry his hair. 

  "Nonsense. I can do it!" he chuckled, going around Ryan's ears. His fingers went over the other's face, dragging it and making Cry's cheeks stretch. Felix saw it and laughed.

  "Could. You. At. Least. Be. More. GENTLE?"

  Felix stopped for a moment before saying a shameful, "Sorry." He continued, much more gentle, going in slow motions as he dried his strands of hair. Cry smiled, satisfied that he wasn't being thrown around like a doll but still a little irritated that Felix wouldn't even let him dry his own hair. 

  They were silent for a few moments, Felix being careful as he dried the area around his cut, Cry giving into letting him do it and closing his eyes. He felt at peace- he felt far away, but not in the darkness of his mind. It was relaxing, and he sighed.

~*~

  Felix stared at the other, smiling at his contentness. Though he was pretty sure his hair was dry now and was a mess of tangles and knots, he didn't stop. He found it hard to, seeing that he looked so happy and peaceful. In fact, Ryan looked like he was ready to fall asleep on him, right there on the couch. Reluctantly, he stopped, and he opened his eyes to stare at him curiously. Felix removed the towel and chuckled. 

  "Wow."

  Cry could already guess how messed up his hair was. 

  "Lemme' guess, you want to brush it, too?" he asked teasingly, in where to other just laughed. "Felix wants more of my sexy hair~"

  "Really, it looks like a porcupine rubbed the wrong way," Felix muttered, and Cry laughed as he attempted to run his fingers though it. 

  "You look just about ready to pass out."

  "Yea, it is getting late, isn't it?"

  Felix was smacked in the head with that. Late. How long had he been over at Cry's? He looked over to the window, and saw that the night had settled upon them a while ago. Cry saw the grief on Felix's face and frowned.

  "What's wrong?"

  "You don't think it's too late to get a room at a nearby hotel, right?" he asked suddenly, and Cry looked taken aback. Felix didn't really want to go, for he was unsure of what would happen to Ryan if he did. Would he enter another episode, like before, or worse...? Perhaps hurt himself more than he already did? And those cuts and forming bruises... What if they reopened while he was asleep? Besides that, he overly enjoyed the other's company, and it seemed vice versa. But he couldn't stay without the other's word on it. He had taken him in as a stranger, a man who wouldn't leave when asked to, and had fought him and caused all those cuts and bruises. Would he really feel safe under the same roof as him?

  "Afraid not, friend..." the other trailed, looking down at the floor a bit guiltily. Felix groaned. This wasn't working out for him at all... "But you can stay here tonight, if you wish."

  "Really?" He couldn't hold back his wave of flooded relief and joy. Ryan smiled and nodded, and all of a sudden he felt jittery like a little kid. "Alright, bro. I guess I call the couch?"

  Ryan frowned. "No, you're a guest, and no guest of mine will sleep on a couch." He crossed his arms and stood. "I have an extra bedroom- you can place your suitcases in there. It's a bit small, really just a storage room with an extra made-up bed for inconveniences, but I made it nice and livable in there."

  "Ha, thanks, bro," he said. "Show me where it is?"

  Ryan smirked. "Hell no. You aren't stepping near any bed of mine until you take a shower."