My first impression was that Alex had a very girly scream. The second was that it was very, very loud. It was then that I learned for the first time that having freakishly good hearing was not necessarily a good thing. The sound was unbearable, as if it were actually within my head, loud enough to make the dead hear again and get up screaming because of it. I was almost knocked back by the shock of it, the pain making it hard to keep standing.
"SHUT UP! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY!"
My own yells only made the pain worse, making it feel like a giant wave had crashed down on me while carrying tons of rocks. It was horrible, though not the worst thing I had ever experienced... But it almost made me collapse to my knees, my hands clamped over my head. Finally, the echoing pain stopped and I realized the cave was silent except for my labored breathing and Alex's softer breaths. Slowly, I lowered my hands and looked back up at Alex, who was staring at me in a strange combination of confusion and horror. I grimaced weakly, and rubbed the back of my head sheepishly.
"Please... please never do that again. Please?"
Alex nodded slowly, eyes wide, and I sighed quietly. I looked down at myself, then back at Alex.
"Y'know... I'll admit I probably look pretty bad, but was it really something to freak out and start screaming over?"
I laughed awkwardly, trying to aliviate the tenseness of the situation. He gaped at me for a few moments, then yelled out again - though mercifully much more quietly this time, sounding near hysterical.
"You're covered in BLOOD as if you had just taken a bath in it, your clothing is barely hanging on you and it's almost completely destroyed, there are stab marks and burns all over the parts that are actually distinguishable, you have a tail, AND YOU TELL ME NOT TO FREAK OUT...!"
I blinked and looked around at my tail, which dangled a little tiredly behind me.
"...What d'ya got against tails?"
Alex let out a muffled scream of frustration, throwing his hands up over his head as if in utter exasperation... much to my amusement.
"That's not the point! You look like you've... you've... GODS! I don't even have a word for what you look like!"
"Well... the blood's dry, isn't it?"
"Oh god... you're unbelievable."
He collapsed to his knees and leaned against the wall, one hand on the ground to steady him and the other on his forehead. He shook his head, then looked back up at me, appearing very tired and not at all amused.
"...So you're not hurt?"
I shook my head negative, and he sighed, closing his eyes for a moment.
"...Good. If you ever do that to me again, I will kill you, understand?"
I stared at him for a moment and then smiled awkwardly for what felt like the billionth time.
Well... I guess this just about flushes the whole hide-my-weirdness thing down the toilet.
After an undesirable amount of time filled with awkward silence, Alex finally broke the quiet by sighing (also for the seemingly billionth time... he did that a lot...) and standing up. He dusted his hands off against his pants, then walked over to the bag he had put his share of the items into. After digging through it for a minute or two, he pulled out some unidentifiable cloth things and threw them at me. I caught them, then looked at them in mild confusion.
"What's this?"
"It's clothing - it'll probably be a bit small on you, but sense it was baggy on me it'll probably work."
He glanced back at me out of the corner of his eye.
"...For now, I'm not going to ask why you're in that condition. Sense you didn't mention it before, you probably had a reason... But I do want to know why eventually, and you will tell me."
He seemed to be warning me. It kind of creeped me out, actually... It sort of reminded me of a few of the times Eiko had threatened me - not intrinsically threatening, but still oddly frightening. He glanced at the tunnel that lead to the cave's entrance, and spoke without looking at me.
"It's too bad it's freezing out... you're going to get dried blood and god-only knows what else all over those cloths."
I smiled cheekily, cheering up a little.
"...You sound like my brother. Would you prefer if I just went naked? Y'know, to keep them clean?"
Only my thieving skills and split-second reflexes, honed over my entire life span, enabled me to dodge the ensuing onslaught of random objects being hurtled at my head by a rather annoyed brunette.