"I'm through with being a wolf girl."
He shouldn't even be here.
It was the first true acknowledgement he was making to himself of just how far gone he might actually be in this situation. Erika had told him she didn't want to be a Wolf girl anymore. He hadn't honestly believed her at first. Maybe he just hadn't wanted it to be true. Bought too much into his own belief about her being a dog on a leash.
That day in the hallway stuck with him for the rest of the afternoon, then days had passed, and she had been resolute. A jealousy he hadn't wanted to admit to clawed up his throat, making him scoff and his shoulders tense whenever he saw Erika and Kusakabe together after. Which seemed to be happening a lot… too much.
That stupid herbivore had declared his love so boldly in the staircase.
Kyouya been so sure that she was just another way to kill time.
"You don't have to pretend to be my boyfriend anymore.
And... I'm done chasing after you."
Now here he was following Erika and Kusakabe and barging into the nurse's office after seeing Erika with that stupid herbivore's hands around her shoulders. His headache wasn't a complete pretense. He'd been weird and wound up and irritable, not sleeping well and checking his phone hoping for a message and snapping at a girl offering him a cupcake. Like this was all the cupcake's fault and not his own inability to talk.
"You're as stupid as ever." Words fell from his mouth. Habit. She made a confused noise, so he went on as though explaining a basic concept to a not so bright child. "Your leg. You know that a scar on a woman reduces her value. And yours was low already." Stupid! Stupid boy.
"Shut up. There are people who will accept me anyway." Her casual dismissal only fueling his need to lash out.
"Lowering your bars for your partners? You've got no ambition." He snarked back, staring at the package of headache medication as he went on in his normal way.
"But I'll turn down people who set it so high that they look down on others." She quipped back, seemingly unbothered at him now, they'd settled back into a pattern that felt at least a little familiar after not talking for days.
"So how are things going with that wimp?" The question he'd came in here to ask poured from his mouth in the most condescending manner he could muster.
"Don't you worry. We're getting along very well." She said back evenly, still acting unaffected. He had started back to the door, pocketing the headache meds as he walked.
"Oh? Good to hear. You dating?" Was he still fishing for information? Maybe Erika wasn't the only masochist in this room.
"How about you? With me gone, you can have your pick, right?" she asked, trying and failing to keep the pain out of her voice. Had she gotten hurt watching that girl confess to him? That was entirely too much like her.
"I told you. That's just a pain. I have no interest in any of them." Truth pushing its way through as he stared at the door in front of him.
"I see…" A sad laugh. "What a waste! It looks like the nurse isn't coming. I'll get going." She said shuffling behind him.
Something in Kyouya snapped and he turned to face her, bracing his hand on the wall, and blocking her exit. "Do you love him?" Please don't let me be this easy for you to replace.
Her eyes were big and sad before her expression changed to anger. "It doesn't matter to you, does it?"
The relief that spread through him was almost palpable as he stated, "You can't answer clearly. That means you don't."
"That's just for now."
The tiny spark of hope stuttered, "Then in the future? Do you feel confident that you could fall for him?"
"I don't know." She admitted, avoiding his eyes gaze before looking up and dealing her death blow. "But I WANT to fall for him! Besides, you and I are perfect strangers now, right? Leave me alone."
The sharp pain that shot through his chest was impossible to deny, the small sound that escaped his throat trying to give voice to something inside. Something he was still trying hard to smother.
"If you want to kill time, there are lots of other ways." Neither of them moved for a few tense and quiet moments and should that bother him as much as it did? The way she repeated his words back to him with so much pain still. He had told her that on many occasions, she had every right to remind him of his own callous words. Thoughts he'd implanted, the actions he had taken. The fault for all this laid so clearly at his own feet.
The door opened and she was out in a pink blur with the stupid herbivore once more. Kyouya stared quietly out the window for a while until the nurse came in, and he quickly turned and left the office.
