The human seemed a bit better.

…

Marty tried not to be too relieved.

The man was scarfing down the stew Sydna had brought for him, paying no mind to the peeved look of his mentor. Marty rolled his eyes and decided to allow him to finish his meal without ridicule. The lizard man crossed his arms, looking about the shack.

It was just him and the human at the moment, and said human was paying him absolutely no mind. In fact… he seemed relaxed. Marty had most definitely noticed that. Perhaps it was the influence of whatever remained of the man's fever.

Marty hmm'd to himself. He supposed he will soon, it was going to be inevitable anyway.

…

But there was something else picking at his thoughts.

Wingdings….has been acting odd. And that was saying quite a bit. He hasn't been as…goofy, as he usually is. He certainly tried to be, but lying was never his strong suit.

The doctor would be strolling around the Camp, his arms folded behind his back with an eerily pleasant and calm smile on his pale face. He'd speak too quietly- meaning a reasonable volume- not at all his usual boisterous self.

Everyone had noticed. Though not everyone knew that something was terribly wrong. Most monsters had rolled their eyes, exasperated. 'Finally he's taking something seriously' or 'He must be sick of Marty by now', 'Oh wow maybe he found his sanity'.

All of those were wrong.

…

At least two of those were wrong.

There was no coincidence that Wingdings had adopted this behavior the same time the number of human raids decreased drastically… and the number of human corpses found have gone up proportionately.

That should be impossible, though, right? Wingdings Gaster was a monster, there was no way he could single-handedly kill that many humans, right?

But Marty knew.

And Marty knew full well why Wingdings hadn't taken a single one of those SOULs.

Because he can't. Humans just…don't know how.

"Everythin' a'right, Marty?" Said the human, snapping Marty out of his musings.

Marty took off his glasses, massaging the spot between his eyes. "It is 'everything' and 'all right'."

The human stared at him a moment. An odd, shaky smile crept up to his lips "Ya sure? I mean….Er, y'seem… upset."

Marty straightened his spectacles back onto his snout and gave the human a pointed glare. "Do I?"

"…Yes?" Said the human. "That's kind of way I asked, y'know?"

"And you care?" Marty asked, cocking his head slightly to one side.

The question made the human flinch. He took a sudden interest in the hem of his shirt, fiddling with the edge of it. Blue eyes stared into something only their owner can see. Then, a strange and timid smile stretched across his face. It widened into a grin and the human swung his gaze to lock on Marty's own.

"Yeah. I do."

The tip of Marty's tail twitched. "You're a moron." He continued on, but there was no venom in his voice "You shouldn't care for monsters, just as you told us to not care for you. This is a war. You shouldn't get attached."

The human just shrugged "Too late." He shot the lizard monster a wink "Already stabbed a human or two for the enemy, y'know?"

Marty snorted and shoved a thermometer into the human's mouth. "Shut the hell up, I'm taking your temperature."

"Coolph." Said the human through the utensil in his teeth "Whenf can I haf it bacf?"

"Shame." Marty said, giving the readings a look "You seem to be recovering."

The human laughed.