dot.

19: I'm ( Not ) Sorry

  Tiro sat behind Nimue, whining like a child with his hands in his lap as he watched her monitoring Felix and Dot.

  "I don't want to apologise."

  "Well, you have to, and that's that."

  He had told her all about how Dot had attacked Felix a few days ago, leading her to watch and rewatch the footage repeatedly. It had been taken from a hidden camera so that they could power off the normal ones to make the pair feel as if they weren't being watched.

  "But it's going to be so embarrassing." Tiro held his head in his hands, stretching the skin out so that he looked a little like a blobfish. "And he won't forgive me.'

  Nimue put the footage back to the beginning again, monitoring every failed attempt to hang from the branch that eventually resulted in the attack. "The point isn't to make him forgive you, it's to set things straight. You'll do that for me, won't you?"

  Tiro turned his head away and mumbled something incomprehensible, blushing deeply. He'd been wrapped around her little finger ever since they had kissed, and both of them knew it.

  "So he got annoyed and attacked Felix? He's never been violent before, it doesn't make sense." Nimue chewed on her fingernail, eyes glued to the screen.

  "Not to us, maybe. But Felix can't do anything to punish him if he hurts him though. I doubt he was thinking of that consciously, but it could be a reason." Tiro picked at a hangnail on his thumb, cursing and sucking it when he peeled it too far down.

  "Hmm." She wasn't paying much attention to what the man was saying. "You think he loves me too much to attack? He won't be violent towards his mama?"

  Tiro took his thumb out of his mouth to look at the stinging injury, grimacing at the way Nimue spoke. "Um, sure." He shook his head in exasperation. "You're utterly delusional."

  "Careful." She warned, causing him to mumble an apology before going back to his thumb.

  "So, are you going to say sorry to Dot?"

  "No."

  "Why not?"

    "I don't want to."

  Maybe he wouldn't do anything for her then. At least he had agreed to help her go through with Plan B though- she would need his help.

  "If you do it I'll kiss you again."

  "I- what?"

  He blushed and fiddled with his shirt, agreeing to apologise with no further persuasion needed.

...

  "You're going to go in there, and you're going to say sorry, okay?"

  "Okay." Tiro grudgingly dragged his feet through the door and winced when it locked behind him. Truthfully, he was a little scared of Dot now. He'd never shown any signs of violence before, especially not to people he actually liked, and so Tiro wasn't overjoyed at how he was going to have to talk to him.

  When he came through, Dot was curled up in a messy little nest made of twigs, leaves and grass with Felix sat at his side, speaking to him softly. The hybrid must have been asleep, since when Tiro entered the room he made no sign he had noticed the intrusion.

  Felix, on the other hand, was glaring at him through narrowed eyes. "What do you want?" He whispered. Dot had only just fallen asleep while listening to him talk about space facts, and he wasn't about to let Tiro wake him up again so soon.

  "Urm, Nimue sent me in to apologise."

  " Apologise?"

  "Yeah, to Dot. About his leg." He matched Felix's hushed tones, shuffling his feet in discomfort. From what he could see, the hybrid was still sound asleep.

  "I'll pass on the message." Felix spat, daring him to come closer. He hadn't been this hostile last time they had talked- he must have been speaking to Dot about what else the man had done to him. Weirdly, he was consumed by shame: it was one thing for those who knew him to disapprove of his behaviour, quite another for a stranger to do so.

  "No, I um. Nimue wants me to talk to him myself."

  "What makes you think he wants to talk to you?"

  I t was a fair question.

  "Nothing, but... Can you just wake him up? For a few seconds?" Although Tiro honestly didn't care if the hybrid forgave him or not, he sure as hell cared about getting to kiss Nimue again.

  Felix flipped him off before edging closer to Dot and crunching some of the leaves that made up his nest near his ears to wake him up. Tiro took note of how he kept most of his body far away from Dot, and made an effort not to touch him. Nimue would want to know this information when he came to see her afterwards.

  The bat hybrid woke up slowly, pushing Felix's hand away at first and then jumping up and out of the nest when he whispered that Tiro was here to see him. At the news, he locked eyes with the man and backed away from him cautiously, letting out a quiet, threatening hiss as he went.

  It did not sound like some pathetic attempt to scare him off, but rather like a genuine warning given by a wild animal. If he was honest, it shook him to his core.

  "Tiro has something to say to you. It's not bad, I promise. And he'll leave right after. Won't you, Tiro?" Felix reassured Dot that he would not be getting hurt today, and his tense body visibly relaxed.

  He gave a trembling nod and reiterated what the man had said. "Yes. I'll go after I say it."

  "So say it then." Felix was not in the mood for time wasting.

  "Uh... I'm sorry."

  Dot's fearful stare morphed to one of pure confusion as his hiss stopped in its tracks. He turned to Felix for answers, but his friend just pointed back at Tiro.

  "For your leg. I shouldn't have done it. Please forgive me. Do you?" He spoke in short sentences, trying his best to sound genuine but failing miserably.

  Dot shook his head. Of course he didn't forgive him. In his mind, this man was pure evil.

  "Well, I tried." Tiro turned tail and speedwalked out of the room, not eager to turn his back on Dot for too long.

  Nimue was waiting outside, eager to greet him. "Did you apologise?"

  "Yeah, he didn't accept it, but I tried."

  She leant forwards and gave him a little peck on the cheek, shushing his exclamations of how that wasn't what he wanted. "I never said I'd kiss you on the lips, did I?"