Page 32 of The Wolf and the Monarch

“It’s…it’s fine. I mean, I don’t think he did anything.”

“He wanted to though. He would have. He doesn't care.”

Benji’s face crumpled up at that thought. “I hate that guy.”

“Me too.”

A few moments later, Sawyer had finished cleaning and dressing his wound. Benji glanced down at it briefly before he laid his head back down on the mattress. “You’re going to have to tie me back up, aren’t you?”

Sawyer swallowed. “N-Not yet, no.”

He hummed softly. “That doesn’t sound very confident.”

The other male placed a hand against his forehead once again. “You’re still burning up. I can’t in good conscience do it.”

“But you could the other times?” Benji deadpanned. Sawyer’s mouth fell ajar as he clearly thought about what to say to that. “It’s fine. I get it.”

“Do you?”

“No,” he answered honestly, “I don’t. But I’m sure you have your reasons. I don’t expect to hear them.”

Sawyer frowned a bit. Benji could tell that he was wanting to say more but perhaps he just couldn’t. That was understandable. He was still, technically, working. And really, Sawyer didn’t owe him anything. But after the past twenty four hours, it seemed like maybe the guy was turning over a new leaf of sorts. Perhaps he was wrong.

“I’m tired,” Benji eventually said after a few moments of silence. He had woken up not too long ago, but his body was going through the ringer. It made sense.

“Okay,”

“Are you going to…sleep next to me again?”

“I uh–”

“You can,” he quickly added.

Sawyer just nodded his head and crawled back onto the mattress behind Benji. “Get some sleep. We’ll figure out things in the morning.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Things were quiet between them for a couple more minutes before Benji spoke up again. “Thank you, Sawyer.”

The man beside him sighed, “You’re welcome.”

Chapter Seventeen

Sawyer

Sawyer didn’t sleep much that night. He was too on edge about everything. From Clay coming downstairs to assault Benji like the bastard did to so many others when Sawyer wasn’t looking. To the information he found about Benji’s predicament. To him not telling him about what he found. To him not telling him anything about why he was doing what he was doing. Sawyer’s mind was in shambles and he didn’t know how he was going to sort through it all. He was obviously going to tell Benji about what he found. He just needed a better time for it. When he was less…ill.

Throughout the night when he would randomly wake back up, he would check the other's temperature and there was some slight improvement in it. The dichotomy of him being both warm and cold was still quite interesting. He imagined it would take some time for them to both really go down though. He doubted one dose of the medication would help so soon anyway. If it did at all. Sawyer didn’t know what medications were good for what, obviously.

After a while, Sawyer just stopped trying to sleep and just stared at the ceiling, counting the nails that were protruding from the floors above. He had counted 59 of them before he felt the mattress shift beside him and Benji was lying on his back beside him. “How are you feeling?” Sawyer asked, his voice no louder than a whisper.

“Hot,” Benji replied, just as quietly, “and cold. But better than earlier.”

“Good.”

There was a pause before the other spoke again. “Why are we whispering?”

Sawyer shrugged. “I don’t know,” he turned his head to look at him, “Do you mind if we do it?”