Tap, tap.
This is the sound of a half-pint faery knocking at Taryn's dorm room window.

Tink. Tink.

This is the sound of the knocking becoming more insistent. It's cold out, and blustery, and it's difficult for the little fellow to keep himself from getting blown away. He's huddled into the window frame, only his eyes and tousled hair visible above the patched, tattered, strangely-made piece of clothing he calls his coat.

There are a lot of places Wick would rather be right now - for instance, the darkest corner under Dave's couch, which he's claimed as his own.

Instead, he's out here on the human girl's windowsill, waiting for her to let him in so he can (gulp) apologize.

Taryn is curled up in her bed, wrapped up in a comforter, reading a book. However, she looks up at the tapping and heads to the window to see what's going on. She opens it and shivers at the blast of cold air.

"Wick?"

Not that she isn't glad to see him, but she thought he was angry with her.

Isn't that funny. Wick thought just the reverse.

The faery flits into the room, not going farther than the inner windowsill - he doesn't expect to stay long. Looking mournfully up at Taryn, he tugs down the scarf-like collar of his coat so he can talk. "Came to say 'm sorry," he mumbles guiltily.

Well, she was. She thought he was being ungrateful and rude and annoying. But that's beside the point, and anyway, it didn't last long.

Blink.

"You're forgiven."

Of course he is. She probably forgave him days ago.

"'m surprised you came."

"Oh."

Well, that didn't take long. He thought she'd at least take a moment to glare at him or something.

"...yeh, I'm kinda surprised I did, too," he said sheepishly, looking away and fumbling with the collar of his coat to fold it up.
"... Y'know, Dave's not so bad if I don't give him a reason to yell at me..."

Taryn smiles.

"So I guess things are going okay with him, then?"

That's good. If Wick can't be completely happy, he can at least be mildly content.

"Um..." He frowns and thinks about it for a moment. He does live in the same apartment wth him - it would take a much more unobservant person than Wick not to know. "Yeah, s'okay, I guess. Nothing life-threateningly bad's happened yet."
...
"Not that I want it to, 'zactly, but...you know."

"Actually, I meant that you weren't fighting with him too much, I hope?"

She wouldn't want Wick to be miserable and fighting all the time. Also, she wonders about Dave, because she's sort of heard in a roundabout manner that he and Vi broke up.

Which is a bit sad.

"Not,.. more than usual?" Wick said hopefully, as if that might be the right answer. "I haven't done anything to tick him off in a while. Nothing since -" shudder "-since that Alice person, anyway, and that wasn't even my fault..."

Taryn creases her forehead.

"Who's Alice?"

Of course she would ask that question. She's always curious about her friends.

"An angel," Wick grimaces. "And not a nice one. He's a total-"

The words that followed were plucked from Dave's very colorful collection of swearwords.
Bad Dave, corrupting an innocent faery's vocabulary...

He finishes that little comment by adding darkly, "He's horrible."

Taryn blinks.

"Language, Wick," she scolds gently. Most profanity, if it does not upset her, makes her slightly annoyed. It's just... people can find better words than vulgar ones, can't they?

"I guess I don't want to meet him, then."

Alice is a boy's name now?

"What? Dave talks like that all the time," he shrugs, looking at her innocently. But he's a decades-old faery - what are the odds that he really doesn't know what the words mean?

(Slim to none, if you were wondering.)

"Ooh, you definitely don't wanna meet him." Wick's lip curls slightly. "He's as bad as Barclay -... maybe even worse."

"Goodness."

Taryn's eyes go a tad wide at that. Considering Wick's opinion of Dr. Barclay--and some of her own thoughts on the man--this Alice person must be absolutely terrible.

"What's he look like? So I can run away if I ever see him."

"Reeeeally tall," Wick gestures with his hands to show what he means. "Maybe taller than Keye, even. And he has blond hair and it's really long, and glasses, and he dresses kind of like a girl, but like a weirdly dressed girl."

She nods and files the information away in her memory.

"Thanks. I'll be sure to hide if I see someone like that coming."

She ruffles Wick's hair with one finger and cocks her head.

"Are you okay?"

He squirms away from her.

"Yeah. I guess."
He certainly doesn't sound like he means it, but he manages a 'please believe me' smile anyway.

"Are you sure?"

She doesn't believe him. When is Wick okay after an encounter with someone 'horrible'?

Come to think of it, when is Wick okay at all? He has a habit of getting himself hurt or in trouble or whatever.

"Weeeell,... I'm,...not exactly, no. I will be, though," he says cheerfully. He taps at his chest, though of course Taryn can't see the mess it is, as it's covered by his coat and shirt. "I mean, it's almost healed over enough now that I don't have to be careful about it anymore. I'll be fine."

"What's almost healed over?"

Is he dreadfully injured again?

She frowns at him.

Depends if six stab wounds and a tattoo applied with a needle the size of a pencil (to Wick) counts as 'dreadfully injured'. And for once, he's actually been looking after himself, so that nothing will get worse than it already is.

Wick looks suspiciously at her.
"I'll show you. But... no poking at it, okay?"
He pulls up the front of his coat and shirt, showing her the inch or so of twirly red tattooing and accompanying scarring. As he lifts his shirt, the sleeves slip back revealing bandages wrapped around his hands.

Her eyes go very wide and round and she covers her mouth.

"Of course I won't poke at it... Does it hurt still?" She's not asking for curiosity, she's asking because she's actually worried and if it does still hurt, she'd liked to help. Somehow or other...

"Sometimes," Wick shrugs a shoulder and lets his shirt drop back in place, then nervously smoothes it down. "It's not so bad. There's been worse."
He taps his fingers together, letting his nails click against one another.
"And it's not deep anyway. It's messy, but it's not deep like the ones in my hand. Those went right through," he explains. There's almost a kind of pride in his voice - the kind usually expected of the kind of person who'd brag about how many stitches they got when they'd done something incredibly stupid.

"Wi-ick..." she sighs. "Have you let anybody look at all that? Someone who knows what they're doing?"

She doesn't want it to get infected or something. And she feels certain that Wick hasn't done everything he could to take care of it. This is judgement made on past experiences, just so you know.

"I know what I'm doing," he insists plaintively. "Nothing's gotten worse, so I've got to be doing it right,...right?"

He thinks he knows what's he's doing, he really does.
Considering his track record, the boy doesn't blame Taryn for thinking that he'd be slacking off, too afraid to try to take care of things because it would hurt.

She looks skeptical.

"You might just be getting lucky... Don't you know anybody who might help? You could get really sick if you aren't careful..."

Worry worry.

"Hmm,...well,yeah, I know someone. But I'm doing okay on my own,...and I think I've pestered him enough, as it is. If things start to go wrong, maybe Ill go see him. But I don't want to bother him."

Amazing.
Since when has Wick not wanted to bother someone?

Taryn gives him an odd look and lays a finger against his forehead.

"Huh. No fever."

How very odd.

"See?"
He pouts at her.
"I'm fine."

She sighs.

"I guess I have to concede that for now, but promise me that if anything starts acting up, you go to that person, whoever he is, right away, all right?"

"I will," Wick nods, looking as serious as he can manage. "Promise."

(And now, I have to go. Byes! :()

"Good."

And that will have to be good enough for Taryn, I suppose. She really shouldn't worry about others as much as she does, but it seems to be something that she can't actually help.

She needs people around her to be happy. It's really, really important.