Egaran Stars - 13. Reinard- Unwanted Aid

"Of course he brought her into this…"

Reinard growled quietly, watching Themis storm toward him. The Faro pulled a sheet off a bed, grimacing at the stains as he threw it aside. Suddenly he was being grabbed, lifted into the air by an angry Egaro.

"What is wrong with you?!" Themis snapped.

"Nothing!" he denied immediately, wincing as she sat him on the bed, hard.

"Oh really, so the Egaro who is scared for your wellbeing was lying to me about you trying to feed yourself to a Cnidarian?"

Reinard refused to answer, knowing his silence would be taken as one.

"Come on Reinard! Not to make this about me, but I paid for you to come here. I put my job on the line, suggesting that maybe a Faro could work here. How do you think it would look if that Faro killed himself on the first day?!"

"Do you think I really care? That's your problem to deal with," Reinard growled.

Themis' fingers curled into a tight fist, her lips drawn back in a silent snarl.

"You listen here. I will not have you kill yourself. You need to find another way to deal with your problems. Understood?"

"I have been dealing! For the last seventeen years I have dealt with running from shelter to shelter, scared to even fall asleep, wondering if I would wake up! Well I'm done being scared! I want to go out on my own terms!"

"You aren't going to die. I've been working too hard to keep you in one piece already, I'm not letting you die," Themis growled. "There is a Faro mind healer, we are going to talk to him."

"I am not talking to another Faro," Reinard said sharply. "I am not going anywhere near another Faro."

"Fine, a Xanar mind healer. You are talking to someone though, and I am not trained to help you. Neither is Galen."

"Maybe I don't want your help-"

"Well you're getting it anyway!"

The Egaro shook her head in exasperation, turning to leave the room.

"I'm setting up an appointment for you as your manager. Your mental health comes before anything else, understood?"

"Whatever," Reinard grunted, crawling over the bed to fix a corner.

It was embarrassing, being called out for having a mild breakdown. They acted like this was a huge deal. He hadn't fed himself to the sea monster, he had only tripped. It was total shit, and the whole idea that they wanted him to talk to another Faro? That would ruin the whole purpose of coming here.

The fox growled under his breath, attacking the bed sheet, forcing it to cover the bed properly. He was too small for this, but it wasn't like he was about to complain. Things just kept piling up, death and despair constantly on his mind.

"There, it's all set. You have an appointment with Scholar Noreen in three hours. I'm taking you there thirty minutes early," Themis said, walking back into the room. "Until then, I am sticking to you like salt on water."

"That makes no sense."

"Doesn't have to. You get what I mean."

The Egaro grabbed another corner of the sheet, yanking it over the third corner as Reinard held onto the fourth with a glare.

"I could have done it myself," he snapped.

"Yeah, well, I helped. You really shouldn't be working right now," Themis pointed out.

"So you want me to sit around and do nothing while I wait to be taken somewhere I don't want to go."

The tiger nodded.

"That sounds about right, yes."

"You realize I can't do that, right?"

"Which is why I'm helping instead of doing it all myself."

Reinard scowled, sliding off the bed.

"Fine. I'm supposed to do room four once Daphne is done."

"Give her ten minutes. She knows how to tire people out," Themis smirked.

"Can we not talk about the tiger fucking in the next room?" Reinard grunted, lifting the old sheets off the door. "Where am I supposed to take these?"

"Laundry, off of room one," Themis said, following the fox.

"Golaski bless it, I'm not going to hurt myself! You can stop following me!" the Faro growled.

"Not happening."

Fur bristling, Reinard dumped the sheets in a basket, pulling over a chair to the washer. Hoisting the lid of the machine up, the fox grunted as he lifted the fabric, dumping it into the wash with a victorious growl.

"Get down," Themis said, pouring some soap in.

She started the machine, Reinard jumping off the chair.

"So. No laundry for you. It's too dangerous. But you can clean," the tigress decided.

"Too dangerous my tail!"

"Yes, too dangerous. Have you ever heard the phrase, not safe for work? Standing on chairs to clean is not safe for work," Themis said, putting emphasis on the words. "We have poles you can use."

The tigress pointed into a corner, where several long poles sat ready for use.

Reinard grabbed one, reaching for some disinfectant. He began carrying the supplies back to the room, Themis close on his tail. There were no windows in the room, but he headed into a bathing area, pulling on a pair of gloves before starting to scrub out the shower. In the other room, he could hear Themis spraying the walls, cleaning them of any emissions that might have hit them during the room's last use.

As soon as the bathing area was cleaned, the fox hurried out of the room, trying to get away from Themis.

"So, where are we heading next?"

"Room two," Reinard sighed, pushing through a door.

Of course that hadn't worked. He needed to find a way out of this. The last thing the Faro wanted was to spill his guts to some random Xanar. But he couldn't come up with a single plan, except getting sick. And that would only postpone the inevitable.

"I'm in so much trouble…" he grumbled, repeating the motions of the room before.