The taste still lingered on his tongue. Metallic. Sweet. Shameful.
Bill sat alone in the dressing room, the echo of Legoshi’s fist still ringing in his jaw, but it wasn’t the pain that made his stomach twist — it was the memory of those eyes. The rabbit’s eyes. Wide. Still. Heartbroken in a way no roar could fix.
He hadn’t meant for it to happen like that.
The fight, yeah, it was inevitable. Legoshi always looked at him like he was a monster caged by costumes and stage lights. But the rabbit… his rabbit… had always looked at him differently. Like there was something in Bill worth trusting. Worth loving. Despite the fangs. Despite the stripes. Despite everything.
He never told him about the blood.
Not because he wanted to lie, but because he was scared. Scared that saying it out loud would ruin the fragile thing they had — those quiet nights after drama club, that warmth curled in his arms, the softness that made Bill feel less like a predator and more like a boy.
But now?
Now he’d seen it.
He’d seen the blood.
He didn’t say anything when the rabbit appeared in the doorway, so small he barely made a sound. Just those big eyes, filled with something worse than anger — disappointment.
Bill looked down at his hands, still stained from the fight. He wanted to say something cool, something to smooth it all over, to make it okay. But no line, no growl, no swagger could cover this.
“I didn’t drink it to hurt you,” he said, voice low, thick. “It’s… bottled. From the Black Market. I thought… I thought it would help with the show. Give me an edge. I didn’t think it’d…”
Silence.
He looked up. The rabbit didn’t flinch. Didn’t cry. Didn’t run.
He just… he stood in the doorway.
Not next to him. But not far away either.
Bill didn’t know what that meant. If he’d lost him. If he’d been forgiven. If there was still a path back to the softness they shared under the shadows of the stage.
But he did know one thing: The silence hurt more than the punch.
"Hey, don't go. Are you going to say you're scared of me now? It's just a little blood."