[HH] Honesty ( Bix & Needle )

[iloveyouDIE]

Bix hadn't used any of his leave yet but he was eager to get off the island. There was something twisted and comfortable about the Haunted House. The same sort of strange wistfulness he held for the Island's fog which was gone, seemingly forever. It was always dark here, ever changing and forcing those inside to always be on guard.

It was a relief to be out of the tropical heat and sun. It was nice to be focused on a patrol. It was also a pleasure to feel like he was actually doing something.

The room he'd found himself in was actually a room of doors. He'd come in a giant archway, and there was another across from him (the exit he supposed) but the rest of the room was just doors. All different sizes and colors. Some had push plates and others had knobs. Some even had tech-like key pads. But as far as he could tell they were all closed and the albino hunter was unsure if he should try and open one, or if he should continue on through the opposite arch.

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"Oh, drat." Needle sighed out loud, trying to open her twentieth door to find an exit and failing for the twentieth time. Not all the doors were locked however, some of them opened to walls, others to empty closets, but most of them were simply locked. The ones with the key pads confused her the most and were the ones she skipped over after a try or two, simply because they took too long to figure out. She remembered where they were though, and made a mental note to come back and try again. She tried her twenty-first door, pulling on the handle only to have it groan in protest and stay firmly closed.

The twenty-second door opened, and after being careful to make sure there wasn't a brick wall in her way (a lesson she had learned the hard way), she stepped in to it, feeling around only to find another tiny broom closet of a room.

That was when she heard footsteps in the distance. Needle canted her head and listened as the even footsteps continued, and then paused.

"...Hello?" She called out from where she stood in the makeshift broom closet, hand on the door handle in case she had to close it in a hurry. "Who is there?"

iloveyoudie

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Bix heard a voice and instinctively took on a defensive stance. Mina was held at the ready and his casual walk changed to a cautious one. He didn't answer immediately, instead he followed the voice as quietly as he could.... only to find Needle coming out of what looked like a broom closet (by the broom half falling out behind her).

s**t.

"Needle." Bix said in a friendly voice, as much as he could muster. "What are you doing in here again?"

enoh love

 

[Enoh Love]

There were only subtle hints for the way she relaxed when she recognized the voice. One of them being a small smile on her otherwise static lips.

"Bix! It is so good to hear you again!" Needle's hand came off of the door knob as she left it entirely, drifting ever-closer to the form she knew well enough. "Oh. Well, you see, I seem to have gotten lost. I was on my way to a classroom, and before I knew it..." She gestured vaguely to the doors to the side. "I attempted to go back, but the room had changed."

"And you? Are you on ano--" Her words cut off with a small yelp, her foot catching on the fallen broom.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Crap crap crap

Bix darted forward, Mina disappearing in a flash so both of his arms were free to catch the falling ghost.

She couldn't jussssst hover? Mina mocked. Having been converted as a selfish teen, she seemed to still retain her species bias.

"You okay?" Bix helped Needle up but internally was panicking. He'd decided a while ago not to continue this ruse with her, especially since tensions between Hunters and Halloween had died down a bit and students from Amity seemed to be allowed free travel (with restrictions) between their school and the island. "I can help you find your way back if you'd like."

enoh love

 

[Enoh Love]

Needle felt the man catch her, but more importantly she felt the pressure of her needles as they tried to dig in to him. She gasped her apologies and tried to untangle herself from him, apologizing again and again every time she felt the pull of something on her arms. When they stopped she was back on her feet, and holding her arms so close to her the sharp needles poked into her skin. It was better her than him, she imagined.

"I am very sorry, Bix. I hope I did not hurt you..." She trailed off, a slight pout on her lips. There were only two men in her life that she really did not want to injure; Muka was the most obvious, but in the second spot was Bix, who had helped her again and again. Catching her needles on other creatures had become a daily thing, but they were the only two to get honestly sincere apologies and hidden stares of worry.

"You are very kind to offer, but I would not wish to interrupt you from your important work! I will find my own way, as to not be a burden." There was a strange squelch of a noise as she dislodged her needles from her chest, though the wounds smoothed over very quickly. After that she slid into a deep bow of gratitude.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Oh no it's fine." Bix hadn't even felt the needles. Mina kept him a comfortable protective FEAR bubble at all times. The jabs weren't even felt. Not that she knew that. The more time in her company, the more Bix felt like he was being disingenuous. It was, technically, no different than any other time he'd met her but since then he'd come to decide that stealth, lying and bribery were not exactly his bag. Even if he was good at getting the students to relate to him.

"Ahh heh well I can hardly do my work if I'm worried about you wandering around in here. There could be worse things than me." And worse people. White coated people.

"So.." he made a bit of a face (thankfully one she couldn't see) as she dislodged the needles from her own body. "How's things?" Bix aimed his body for the archway opposite the one he'd come in. Common sense told him that was a good guideline to getting her out of here.

He was also delaying the inevitable truth, but the closer she was to an exit, the easier that would be.

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"I do not doubt that." Needle offered a small chuckle. "Please do not take offence to this...any creature I come across would be worse than you. At least where I am involved." She had eased out of her bow and had taken to playing with the ends of her long hair. It was strange of her to fidget, and yet she couldn't help herself.

"Things are...neutral. The good in my unlife is being matched by the bad." She sighed, turning to follow after Bix, taking cues from his body language as to where they were going, and how fast. "My boilfriend-" The word sounded awkward to her, but pleasantly so. "-is a fantastic creature. He does so much for me, and I adore him. But my home life..." She trailed off, her stiff posture slouching by a fraction. "Oh! Did I tell you? I am in my second year now!" It was a blessing and a curse, a thing of pride and fear; she was never sure what to think of her advancement, because there was so much attached to it.

"And yourself? How are things with you?"

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Boilfriend?" Bix nodded, "Oh it's the same one from before? That's.. good. Great." How long since he'd seen her? They'd been together a while at this point. It was good for her. Especially if she was having home trouble. It also seemed like something she didn't want to talk about in the way she stiffened and quickly steered the conversation.

"Congratulations!" Had he been promoted since the last time? "I got promoted too actually. It's been a while." He sounded almost sheepish. As they got through the archway, it turned into a dark hall. The darkness, with a lit exit at the end (that just seemed to be another random room), gave him slight ease. As if it being dark could protect him from the admission he would make.

"I'm alright and actually I wanted to tell you something and it's a bit difficult to digest." The new room was bursting with light and was an almost perfect representation of a spring meadow. Despite the fact that the 'sky' was a painted ceiling and there was no fresh air, it looked like something off of an Easter card. Except instead of butterflies, small skulls with moth wings flew all over.

Weird.

Bix pulled away slightly once they were in the new room.

Enoh Love

 

[Enoh Love]

"Yes! Ulmuka. We are...going steady, I think the term is?" Needle's head tilted, recalling many articles in cheesy teen magazines about it. "Are you still with your Monster ghoulfriend? My pardons, I do not recall her name." The news of his promotion though, made her gasp with delight. "Congratulations! That is very exciting~ I will have to make you something to celebrate!" She was eyeing him behind her mask, her gaze drifting to his tattoo; he had one now, then? That was great! She was entirely pleased...and perhaps she could talk him into another one? Perhaps made by her? Hmm--

His words drew her from her ponderings, and she startled the slightest bit before focusing her attention on him completely. He had something to tell her, that would be hard to digest? What could he possibly have to say to that affect? She followed him into the light, flinching behind her mask.

"Oh?"  

[iloveyouDIE]

"Well you are a nice ghoul and... well, I like our friendship." Bix sort of dawdled, putting a few feet between the two of them. She could probably tell he was shifting, almost pacing, from the way his tattoo bobbed around. "I hope you do too and I hope you know that I'm not a bad guy. I was happy to meet you here and not judge me or hate me immediately."

His shuffling continued. "But it feels wrong to lie to you. I know we only met a few times but I was so happy you'd treat me normally that I just took your kindness and... well, I was lying to you. I'm not actually a bogeyman."

Bix wasn't sure if that was clear enough and in his head Mina, sympathetic to being a teenage ghoul, urged him to be clear. "I'm a hunter. One of those ones in the white coats. But I'm not a bad guy and usually people in here just attack me on sight! We aren't... bad and I hoped by getting to know me, and me knowing you, maybe you'd realize that too." He was flaming red in the face, not that she could see it.

As per usual with Bix he continued to ramble. "I'm just a guy and this is my job and our leaders over there aren't exactly the nicest and we get ordered to do things that maybe we don't agree with but... all we have is this job. We don't get families anymore. We just have to follow orders and be what they tell us to be." He took a deeeeeeeeep breath. "And my monster girlfriend is actually my weapon. Her name is Mina and she was a quetzlcoatl but I wasn't lying. I care about her a lot and she cares about me!!" He almost yelled the last part as if yelling it would make it more understand. "I do have a human girlfriend too.." he muttered finally, almost ashamed to have not told her before now.

enoh love

rambling confession for u

 

[Enoh Love]

Needle stayed quiet and still as he assured her of their friendship, and how he didn't want to be seen as the bad guy. It really only confused her further, since she was pretty sure Bix didn't have a 'bad' bone in his body, but that confusion didn't turn into hesitance or suspicion until he said the word Hunter. Not being a boogeyman was a harmless enough lie, though it was strange thing to lie about. But a Hunter. The White-coats.

When she thought he was finished, he seemed to continue on. At least he had been right in one thing: This was hard to digest. Very hard. The Hunters had attempted to kidnap her sister several times. There had been cages and nets involved, but more importantly they were responsible for Lattice walling herself up for the greater part of a year. She'd been too afraid of leaving the safety of her room to do anything, no matter what she had insisted.

This man, her friend, was part of that same group of vile outsiders that mentally scarred her precious sister? When Needle did finally move it was to shift her weight backwards, putting one more step between them. She didn't know what to think, other than make parallels between his description of his job and her own home life. The only difference was, the Manor never forced her to kidnap and scar. She could understand being forced to do something, but there was one thing she simply couldn't properly process:

"You lied to me." Needle breathed out in shock after he was finished, as if realizing it for the first time. To her knowledge she had never been lied to in her life; she had read about it, but this was her first time experiencing it. It was considerably less exciting than all of her other real-world firsts. She didn't like how this felt, not one bit.

"Why?" It was all she could think to say at first. In her mind, it seemed to sum up everything.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Yes." Bix hung his head. There was no use denying it when he'd just rambled a full admission. Why had he done it? Bix would not tell her that he'd been trying his hand at recruiting students. Since he'd given up that ambition long ago, he found it hardly worth mentioning.

"You needed help at the time." He shrugged. "Would you have spoken to me, if you saw what I looked like? Would you have let me talk to you? It's not exactly like the timing was fantastic... for students and hunters to be friends." He frowned. "I'm not the only one who has a student for a friend. Did you know some of them visit our island now?" He was sounding hopeful, hopeful she'd see that the truth now was easier than it would have been then. "They visit and then come home. Safe and sound."

Bix shuffled. "If you'd seen me.. wouldn't you have just run? Who's to say you wouldn't have bumped into something nastier than me. After the first lie... it was just easier to have you like me as a bogeyman." The Sun hunter shuffled uneasily once more. He wanted to try and approach her, still help her leave, but she most likely felt unsafe with him and his lies.

enoh love

 

[Enoh Love]

"I do not judge by what I see." The last word was weighted for one obvious reason: her sight was her weakest sense by far. At the very least she understood, and parts of his plea did ring true. Had she known, she would have approached with greater caution at the time. She could not fault him for omitting that he was a Hunter, however...

"I suppose you are correct, however...you still did not have to lie to me. You could have said nothing." She fought to keep her voice as stoic as her training taught her, but being lied to, this feeling of betrayal, was so new it was difficult. "I liked you for you, not your job." She stayed quiet for a moment, mulling over her situation. He had been a Hunter all this time, but he had been so nice to her. Yes, he lied, but he helped her out too. She didn't know what to do. She wasn't equipped to handle this.

" I am unsure how to proceed...I have never been lied to before. Is it considered normal to feel internal pain?"

iloveyoudie

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Bix laughed a bit, in an almost relieved way. Not that she was hurt but it was such a human thing. "Everyday of my life. Internal conflict, jealousy, betrayal, confusion.." He stepped forward again and hoped it would not be construed as an offensive in some way. "It's very human."

Bix held out his hand a little. "I'm sorry I lied. I've regretted it since because you are the kind of ghoul who maybe would have talked to me anyway but.." he scratched his head, "I didn't know that at the time and after it happened it was too late."

Extending his hand a bit further. "I don't mind if you hate me or never want to see me anymore. If I've put just another false face onto hunters for you but will you still at least let me try to help you back?"

enoh love