Hyde entered the room in the morning. He saw Rune’s back in the cell. Rune laid on his side on the bench, his head on the cushion and his legs curled up. He faced the wall.

“Hey,” Hyde called out hushed, unsure if he was asleep or not. Rune didn’t respond, Hyde guessed he was still sleeping. He stepped towards the desk. He grabbed the chair, rolled it backwards and sat. He got his notebook out of his pocket and grabbed a pen from the desk. He opened it to the next empty page. He leaned his head in his left hand as he wrote.

I walked into the room to check on him. He’s still asleep, it seems. I should let him be, who knows how difficult it was to fall asleep here. I feel bad for making him sleep in there, but this is what’s needed for him to be freed from those people, or so he said. It’s not like I’m keeping him here against his will. The least I can do is keep him company, right?

If he’s gonna be stuck here for the next 38 hours, then I could ask him about whatever I want. Like how he got involved with a gang in the first place. I don’t know if he’ll be willing to answer, but I can try.

Hyde mindlessly doodled while he waited for Rune to wake up. He made a cute, little doodle of Rune’s face. Hyde smiled.

He stopped when he heard Rune moving around. He looked towards the cell. Rune laid on his back and rubbed his face. He let his arms fall to the side and took a deep breath. He turned his head to Hyde, then hummed. “You’re here early.”

“It’s 9am.”

“Yeah, early.”

Rune sat up with a groan. He rubbed his forehead.

Hyde rolled the chair towards the bars and asked, “Did you get any sleep?”

“As much as you’d expect on a crappy bench.”

Hyde frowned and nodded. “I was thinking of bringing you some food, but I don’t have any blood lying around, so—”

“Right,” Rune chuckled. “I have some in my bag.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll get it for you, then.”

Hyde stood up and left the room. He walked to the small evidence room where he left the bag. He grabbed the whole thing and made his way back to the cell. He put the bag down on the desk, zipped it open, saw the notebook and grabbed it. “Oh, I was supposed to give this back.”

Rune snickered. He stood up as Hyde continued rummaging through his bag. He grabbed the bench and pulled it forward towards the bars. He put it down and sat on it again. He put the cushion on his lap and leaned his elbows on it as he leaned back against the wall, his shoulder pointing at Hyde.

Hyde pulled a red can out of the bag.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Rune said as he put his hand through the bars.

“Is it real?”

“No, the artificial stuff.”

Hyde hummed. He handed him the can. “I didn’t know that existed.” Rune pulled his hand back and opened the can. Hyde sat down on the chair again. He turned to also have his shoulder facing Rune.

Rune took a sip as he thought of something. He moved the can down from his face. “Do you have my shoe?”

“Oh!” Hyde shot up. “Not with me, but yes. I can go get it?”

“No, it’s fine. No rush.”

“Okay.”

They were quiet as Rune continued to drink. Hyde thought of how to bring his questions up. “So,” he spoke up, “where are you from?”

Rune swallowed his sip. “Far up north, from a town named Enath.”

“Oh, you must not be used to the warm weather here, then.”

Rune shrugged. “It’s manageable. What about you? Probably not this village.”

Hyde scratched his cheek and chuckled a little. “No, I’m from a town a few hours away, Corburn.”

“Hm. Nice beach there?” Rune teased with a grin.

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“Yes, actually.”

Rune perked up in surprise. “Oh, nice.”

“I was curious,” Hyde began again.

“Hm?”

“How did you get involved with that gang in the first place?”

Rune sighed and looked away. “I needed a way to provide for my family. I couldn’t find a job, until they came up to me and offered me one. They’d send my family a big cheque every month as long as I did whatever they told me to. I didn’t know yet what they’d want me to do, but I was desperate and agreed. When they told me they wanted me to travel around the continent stealing whatever they wanted me to, I tried to back out. But then they threatened me and my family.”

Hyde frowned. “Oh. But now that you’re quitting, how are you going to provide for them?”

Rune shrugged. “I’ll figure something out, anything is better than this. Maybe they saved some of the money.” Rune leaned his head against the bars and stared at the floor.

“How long haven’t you seen them?”

“Five years,” Rune mumbled.

Hyde hummed sadly.

Rune straightened his posture again and took a deep breath. He searched around the room, thinking of what to change the subject to. “I’ve got to say, this is the smallest police station I’ve ever seen.”

Hyde snickered. “Well, yeah. What did you expect from a village of only about a hundred people, mostly elderly?”

Rune shrugged. “Why do you seem to be the only person actually doing anything?”

“There are only three people ever doing anything here, and the other two sit around all day. I would be too, if I wasn’t constantly being bothered to help with this type of stuff.”

“Why you?”

“Because I’m a young werewolf, they think I’m the best at finding things. Which is kinda true, I guess, but you can’t find everything with smell.”

Rune smiled, he squinted at the scar on Hyde’s lip. He fully turned towards him, put his arms through the bars and leaned his elbows on the horizontal ones. “I’m wondering,” he began.

Hyde raised his eyebrow. “What?”

“What are you doing in this village?”

Hyde was caught off guard, then shrugged. “I live here.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

“On your own?”

Hyde tensed up. “It’s peaceful here.”

“Doesn’t sound like it, how you just described constantly being bothered to do things you don’t want to.”

Hyde sighed. “What are you getting at?”

“In my experience, people who live in villages like these are either retired elderly people looking for a quiet retirement, or they’re running from something.”

Hyde stared at him in disbelief.

“So either you’re a lot older than you look, or…”

Hyde huddled up in his chair. “It’s none of your business.”

Rune frowned. “I mean, you know a lot about me now, but I know almost nothing about you. If you want to tell me other things about yourself, then I’m okay with that.”

Hyde eyed him, then sighed. “Alright, I’ll tell you a little bit.” Rune perked up and smiled. Hyde turned his chair to face him and leaned his elbow on his knees. “I came to this village six years ago,” he began quietly, “after I lost a big fight with another werewolf. And I guess I’m avoiding him.”

“Was it so bad you had to abandon your whole life?”

Hyde frowned. “I suppose so.”

Rune hummed and leaned his chin on a horizontal bar, squishing his cheeks between the vertical ones. “Have you ever thought of going back?”

“Not in a long time.”

Hyde jumped and turned around when he heard the door open.

Raven walked in. She smiled. “Hyde! Here you are.”

Hyde raised his eyebrow. “What are you doing here?”

“I couldn’t find you anywhere and Selene said she hadn’t seen you since last night, so I came looking for you.”

“Okay, well, congratulations. You found me.”

“What are you doing?”

“Talking.”

“To who?”

“Who do you think?”

Rune awkwardly smiled against his squished cheeks and waved at her.

Raven squinted at him. She walked to the desk and leaned on it. “And that is…”

“The thief.”

“Are you interrogating him or something?”

Hyde scratched his jaw. “No, just chatting.”

“What, why?”

Hyde shrugged. “I feel like it.”

She frowned and moved closer to Hyde, still leaning on the desk. “If you wanna chat, you could come to me”—she smiled a little—“or Selene. You don’t have to do it with a criminal.”

“I don’t want to talk about this with you.”

“About what?”

“Guy… stuff.”

“Right.” Raven huffed. “If you still don’t trust us enough to talk to us, then fine, talk to some random thief instead. Suit yourself.”

She stood up to walk away, but Hyde called, “Wait.”

Raven looked back. “Yeah?”

Hyde pointed at the notebook next to the bag on the desk. “That’s Selene’s notebook, can you give it back to her?”

Raven glared at him. “Fine.” She grabbed it, then walked out.

Hyde sighed in relief.

“I sure do love this guy stuff that we’re talking about,” Rune mocked him.

Hyde gave him a glare. Rune giggled mischievously. Hyde groaned. “She never leaves me alone.”

Rune hummed. “Guess she can’t take a hint.”

“What?”

Rune stared at him for a moment, then shrugged. “But, since you’ve caught me, you have been talking to me the whole time, like you don’t have anyone else to talk to.”

Hyde frowned down as he fidgeted with his hands.

Rune squinted his eyes. “You really don’t, do you?”

Hyde sighed.

“I guess you’re as sad and lonely as me, then,” Rune smirked.

Hyde breathed out a chuckle. “I guess so. I haven’t spoken to a guy my age in years.”

“Since you got here?”

Hyde nodded. “There are almost only elderly people here. The ones that are my age are all women,” he finished in an annoyed tone.

Rune raised an amused eyebrow. “You don’t like women?”

Hyde tensed. “I—I didn’t mean like—”

“Calm down,” Rune chuckled. “I’m messing with you.” He moved his chin off the bars. “But still, no need to panic if I’m right. I’m not straight either.” He grinned at him.

Hyde stared at him, dumbfounded.

Rune tilted his head. “Cat caught your tongue?”

“Uh.” Hyde rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry, I haven’t talked about things like that before. Except once, kind of.”

“Oh, so you have questioned?” Rune asked, still amused.

Hyde sighed deeply. “I guess you could call it that.”

Rune chuckled. “I’m sure you wouldn’t have an issue in the gay dating pool if you were interested.”

Hyde squinted his eyes. “Thank… you?”

Rune chuckled.