Yet again Ryan was left to be alone without the Brit, and yet again Ryan couldn't get him out of his head. Not only did he wonder if Gavin was alive or not, he also wondered what he was doing almost in the same place he was when they first met. Even though the British man was pretty much an open book, there was still so much about him Ryan didn't understand, and he felt like there was more to Gavin than what he was seeing. Ryan had always been a sort of scholar type man, so for someone like him to not understand what looked to be like such a simple person, it was starting to get to him.

Either way, it didn't matter much anymore; Gavin was probably dead in a ditch somewhere after bleeding out. So The Vagabond didn't have to worry about it. He would just go about his life and forget all about him without a single care in the world. He'd go back to his normal life- less than normal life he should say. And that would be the end of that.

Ryan shook his head quickly. If anyone where around at that moment they would have surely thought it was a weird thing to do out of no where. The Vagabond knew better by now than to expect what he believed would be what really happens. He had a sinking feeling that he would somehow see Gavin again, maybe getting robbed yet again, maybe getting stabbed yet again. He vowed that this time if that were to happen he would force him to go to the hospital instead of just letting him go.

No, he wouldn't! He wouldn't do that! He wouldn't care at all what happened to that idiot. If he wanted to bleed to death, then let him. He's not going to be held responsible for his life.

. . . . . .

Ryan sighed outwardly as he began to walk back home. He really needed to stop arguing with himself. He had never in his life felt so mixed up and confused over one little man.

Sleep might do him some good, even though he knew it wouldn't be a "good" sleep. He hasn't slept well in the past year. Maybe that's why he's being so weird.

Over the next four nights, Ryan decided to skip his adventuring into the night and just stayed home. He couldn't bring himself to gather up the motivation to go out hunting, or whatever you want to call it. To him it was either he went out to hunt people or he went out to kill time, instead of people.

On the fourth night, however, he finally decided to leave his house and go back out. For whatever reason, he just felt like that night was a good night to get out of the house and get some fresh air. So that's what he did.

As he made his way down the empty streets, he noticed a few random guys passing him. Even though they had their heads down as if they were attempting to avoid eye contact with anyone else they may run into, Ryan couldn't help but try to check every single one's face; thinking he might end up seeing a goofy grinning Brit looking back at him. It never happened, though.

After roaming for a full two hours, Ryan decided to give up and headed back home. He wasn't sure exactly what he was giving up on; finding someone to rob, or finding Gavin? Either way, he was done for the night and wanted to just get in bed and sleep. He would make sure to come back the next night.

And come back he did, every night after that with the same intention in mind: figuring out what happened to Gavin. He hated not knowing, even though he tried his best to tell himself he really didn't care. He did care, even if it was just him caring about figuring out this mystery, even that much was enough for him to keep coming back for the next three nights. But still he saw no sign of him.

Until the third time he went out. While strolling quietly across the street, one lone car drove past him. He stopped half way in the middle of the road to let it by,and once it had past he took a step to finish crossing, when he saw it; brown messy hair sticking up in random directions, blue button up shirt on top of blue jeans. He didn't even have to double check to know who it was.

Without thinking, Ryan took off in a full blown sprint towards the brown haired man. Once he approached him, Gavin looked like he was about to book it, but when he saw it was Ryan and not a mugger, he relaxed and gave the man a large smile. "Hey!" He chimed happily as he put his hand up in a greeting manor.

Ryan wasn't even sure where to start with this conversation, so he decided to ask the obvious question. "You're still alive?" It was a normal question, right? "I mean. . ." He continued, feeling rather dumb at that moment with how he phrased it. "You know, after that stabbing you received the other day. I figured. . ." He muttered the ending of the sentence as he looked away embarrassed.

Gavin merely laughed and waved his hand. "Nah, I told you it was fine. I had a nice rest and felt alright in the morning. It does look like it's going to scar though. Bummer." He shrugged his shoulders up before turning his head down towards his pocket, shoving his hand into it and rummaging around until he pulled out something. It took the masked man a few moments to realize what it was. A black, ripped up cloth that looked crusted with some sort of fluid.

Giving a quirked brow, Ryan looked up at the brunette's face as if asking the obvious question using his eyes only. Gavin only offered a large grin as he pushed the bloodied cloth into the other man's hands. "I'm returning it!" He said as if it was totally normal to keep a torn cloth that was covered with bodily fluids.

This boy really was interesting, and hard to read. ". . .Keep it. It's a gift." He replied back after staring hard at the object in question for quite awhile. Disregarding the strange offer, Ryan shifted on his feet and looked up towards the sky; doing anything to avoid eye contact with the brunette while he continued.

"So. . .Uh. I'm not really doing anything at the moment, do you want to hang out and do something?" The offer took both of them by surprise, and quite honestly Ryan was just as surprised as Gavin was that he asked that. It was definitely out of the ordinary, but if he was being honest with himself, he mostly did it because there was a nagging sensation in his brain that kept telling him to make it up to Gavin since he was so cold to him the first time they met and there was no need for it.

The shock on Gavin's face was then followed up with a question. "Are you sure?" The Vagabond wasn't a hundred percent sure, but he was already in too deep to back out now, so he nodded in confirmation. "Top!" the brunette shouted in reply. "We'll take my car again since it's not that far away. Where do you want to go?" The Brit began to walk in the same direction he was heading before, Ryan following close behind.

"The same place we went to last time will work. I trust you remember the directions on how to get there." The Vagabond replied, to which Gavin nodded like a frantic bobble head. Once they made it to the car, Ryan noticed a large dent in the side of the driver side door, sighing loudly and shaking his head. It was always something with this guy.

They made their way to the same bar they hung out last time, only the air was different this time. Not only was it colder, but it was also less dense with awkward tension. It was the same routine, they went in and headed straight for the basement. It was a quiet Wednesday evening and there was maybe four or five people besides them in the whole establishment. Perfect.

Gavin went to sit down at one of the tables, but Ryan was having none of it. They were actually going to do something this time around. The masked man grabbed a hold of the smaller male's arm and dragged him to the dart board. "Come on, up for a round of darts?" He asked as he let the brunette go to grab a few of the darts from the game board.

"Sure! I'm pretty good at throwing things. I have a theory that if you throw it while grabbing the tip you can hit it every single time!" Gavin took one of the darts and aimed his shot up to demonstrate what he meant. "I bet you 20 bucks I can make this first try."

Ryan chuckled lightly, readying up his own dart to throw after the Brit has had his turn. "Go ahead. But if you miss and I hit it, then you owe me 20 bucks." He said in return. Gavin agreed to his terms and lined up the dart before releasing it, successfully missing the board completely and smacking the dart against the wall, not even sticking it in the wall. "Hm. . ." He mumbled as he studied the dart on the floor as if he was thinking of where his plan could have failed at.

Stifling his laugh, the Vagabond took his turn. "It's not about how you hold it at all. You just need to know the proper aiming technique." He explained right before proving his point by flicking his wrist and releasing the dart, unlike Gavin's it stuck right next to the bulls eye, missing just by a hair. The brunette pouted as he reached into his pocket and fished out a 20 dollar bill. "You didn't hit the bulls eye so you should only get 10 dollars."

The masked man laughed once again, this time a bit louder and more genuine. "Sure, sure. You're just trying to jip me out of my earned 20 dollar bill." Gavin snickered at that comment and handed the taller man the bill. "Probably just lucky that's all."

They continued playing for awhile longer; Gavin ended up getting one dart to stick into the board, which he was very proud of. Needless to say, Ryan ended up winning. But he still congratulated the other on his accomplishment.

After they finished their little game, Ryan suggested they play some pool. He also won that game; Gavin not getting a single ball into the hole. Even though he kept losing, the brunette was having a lot of fun hanging out with the masked man. And Ryan failed to notice one thing: he smiled more in those two hours than he has in the past three years.

Once the two realized it was nearing morning and the sun was about to come up, they decided to call it a night and go their separate ways. Before falling asleep, Ryan reflected back on the night he had with Gavin. He had a lot of fun, more fun than he had in awhile that didn't involve slaughtering someone mercilessly. Maybe the Brit wasn't as bad as he thought.

The next night he went out again, ready to take on whatever faced his way. He was feeling in a rather good mood for whatever reason he couldn't pinpoint, but he didn't question it. He simply took it like it was.

While passing by the cemetery, his ears caught the sound of struggling from within the graveyard. He had no idea how he always ended up coincidentally being around when it happened, but it was like deja vu all over again; he recognized the voice of one of the people quite easily. It was Gavin. Without hesitation, Ryan readied his pistol from inside his jacket pocket and rushed through the broken gate of the cemetery. The graveyard was very old and poorly maintained, so no one did a single thing about the busted open fence that lead into the yard.

That was a stroke of luck for Ryan, since he was able to slip in quickly and find the source of the struggling. In the distance he saw what looked like a blob of shadows hunched over one of the gravestones. He rushed over quickly, only to stop a few yards away.

His eyes widened when he realized what was going on. The man hovered over the other looked to be a male with almost the same build as Ryan, with a black suit and a bison mask. He recognized him as someone who just recently joined their crew. That wasn't the only thing that made him stop. Underneath the suited man, he had the brunette pinned down; his shirt shredded and ripped open until his chest was exposed. When the bison masked man reached down for the Brit's trousers, that's when Ryan understood full well what he was intending, and he snapped forward to act quickly.

Ryan dashed towards the two and knocked his crew member off the smaller male and shoved him to the ground, pinning him down and glaring down at him. He snarled in warning like a feral animal before spatting out. "Get the fuck out of here. And don't come near him again, or you'll have me to deal with." It took all he had not to slit his throat right then and there, and he would have if he had not been part of his gang.

Hidden eyes glared back at Ryan before a voice came from the animal mask. "What the hell is your problem?" The Bison answered back, maneuvering his way from under Ryan and standing up to his feet, dusting his pants off and scoffing. "Whatever. He bored me anyway." He said, but Ryan knew better. He was giving up because he was scared of him. Everyone was; usually it would be a problem, but right now it really served a good purpose. He wasn't in the mood to slaughter one of his own.

Once the man had fully disappeared into the night, Ryan turned his attention to the Brit laying on the ground. He began to worry if he was okay, and if he even understood what was going on. He was an idiot, so he wouldn't put it past him. But Gavin was smarter than he looked, and he understood that much. The Vagabond reached his hand out to Gavin in an offering, which Gavin thankfully took before commenting, "wow, you saved me again. What are the chances?"

The Vagabond looked at Gavin's face, searching for any signs of mental scarring or something like that. He wasn't sure what exactly he was looking for, but he was searching for some sign of emotion on his face. The brunette squeezed Ryan's hand tightly as he used the other's stable footing to help himself stand up. Once he was fully on both his feet, he dusted himself free of dirt and smiled up at the taller man, which made Ryan feel more at ease. "That guy was a weirdo. First time someone ripped my clothes up just to mug me. I keep my wallet in my pants, not shirt. Look what he did!"

The taller man sighed in relief. It was better that Gavin only thought he was being mugged and didn't have any idea what his attacker was really planning. Nodding a bit, The Vagabond unzipped his jacket and slipped it off his shoulders before slinging it around the Brit's. "Yeah. . .I'm starting to think someone is going out of their way to call muggers just to come after you."

The gesture caused Gavin's face to fall into a confused gaze, but he didn't question it, only wrapped the jacket around him gratefully; it was rather cold after all. He made it obvious by shivering quite a bit as he snuggled into the leather jacket. Ryan had to stop himself before he attempted to hug the brunette to keep him warm. The idea made him wonder what was wrong with him.

Not only that, but the idea of Gavin being sexually assaulted by anyone made his blood boil more than it should have. Deep down he started to feel protective and possessive. Those feelings scared him a bit; he had thought he had killed those emotions off long ago. But here they were, bubbling back to the surface, and for this British idiot. Was he merely mistaking his feelings?

Before he could really debate with himself, Gavin spoke up again. "This is what, the fourth time you have met me randomly? I'm beginning to think you're stalking me." He could tell within Gavin's tone that he was kidding, but still it made Ryan huff. "Whatever. It's coincidence."

He then looked around at their surroundings, remembering this place was very close to the last few times he has seen the brunette. "But. . .other than that, you're always out here around this time of night. Why?"

Gavin hummed before answering, as if he was trying to think of the reason. "Well, my job requires me to be out until pretty late, that's all. I always get home around midnight." Ryan cocked his head a bit. He assumed it was a good enough answer; many people have to work late nights. "Okay, but. . .that still doesn't explain why you are always around this part of town and walking around randomly at night."

Ryan mentally slapped himself for bringing that up. What if Gavin brings up the fact that he does that as well? He couldn't tell him that the reason he stalked around these parts was because his home was close by and it was the easiest part of town to find wandering dumbasses like Gavin who would make an easy target to steal from. No wonder the poor guy kept getting mugged; everyone must know that as well.

Luckily, he didn't bring it up. Instead he looked down, suddenly gaining a quiet attitude. Ryan wasn't sure if he would even answer, but he waited still. After a moment, the Brit replied to his questioning. "The thing is. . .every night to come to this graveyard to visit my friend." He motioned his head down towards the grave the duo were currently standing on.

The masked man looked down, spotting the name on the in-ground gravestone. "Michael Jones." Ryan looked back up at Gavin as he continued. "He was my best friend. But he was gunned down a year ago. The authorities said it was by this man wearing a wolf mask."

Gavin continued on with a few details about the case, but everything he said after that didn't reach Ryan's ears, he was too shocked over what he had just heard. A wolf mask, that sounded like he was talking about their leader. He couldn't believe the coincidence of this circumstance. What were the chances that this idiot and he would actually have a connection somewhere? He was broken out of his trance when Gavin cracked a smile.

"Ah, but I don't hate all people in masks. I mean you seem cool. I like you." After that comment, Ryan felt his heart skip a beat, but he couldn't explain why. Everything else seemed to fade away, and it was just him and Gavin's words in his brain. "I like you. I like you. I like you." That phrase echoed in his head; he didn't realize that he was thinking about it that much, but he was. Maybe he was just feeling cold since he didn't have his coat on. His brain was starting to freeze.

He wasn't sure what to say to his compliment, he simply looked away. He was really glad at that moment Gavin couldn't see his embarrassed face. He then scratched the back of his head before he mumbled out a few words. Gavin snickered a bit and leaned in closer to the taller man. "You what?" Speaking a little louder, he repeated himself. "I said. . .that uh, whenever you come out at night I will accompany you. So that you don't get mugged again."

Gavin's face lit up after he heard his offer, and he nodded sheepishly. "Okay! that sounds great!"

What was he doing? Why was he saying things like this? He isn't responsible for the idiot guy's life, and he has told himself that over and over. And yet. . .strangely all the risks that were involved with it seemed worth it to Ryan. He ignored the part of his brain that told him to back off Gavin and don't bother with him, and instead listened to the part of his brain that was telling him to keep this British moron safe. The thought something happening to Gavin while he wasn't around made him lose his composure, and he didn't want to see that happen. He couldn't think of any reason why he would want to, but something deep down told him he should stick by his side no matter what.

So that's what he decided to do, even if in the end it would come back to haunt him.