Part 21 — Concern

Zap opened the door and saw Azyra and Momoko looking at him worriedly. "What is it?"

"Xin told us...quite a bit."

"She did?" Zap looked behind him. Xin was still paces behind, on her phone. "She did..."

"Zap, there was a lot of stuff that you could've told us sooner."

"Alright, Azyra. When I first met you, would you have expected me to tell you about my rough childhood?"

"Perhaps not...but you were out to kill someone. Shouldn't we have been given a reason?"

"I did give one."

"It was very brief."

"I told you that he hit me everyday in elementary school. Was that not enough?"

"After what we just learned? Absolutely not. If we had known everything, we wouldn't have been so reluctant."

"Don't worry about it. I still wouldn't have let you go."

"Zap...why?"

"It's for the best."

"We're not going to let you control—"

"Just shut up about it!" Zap walked past them and up to his room.

"Geez..." Azyra turned to Momoko. "That didn't go too well." She looked at the door, which Xin had still not walked through.  She sighed as she walked outside and pulled Xin inside. "Zap's having an issue..."

"Like always," Xin said. She then looked up. "Huh?"

"He's in his room. Go talk to him, I don't know."

"I'll try." Xin walked upstairs and knocked on Zap's door. After receiving no response, she opened the door. What she saw was just like what she saw before. Zap, wrapped in a blanket.

Thinking about the past reminded her of something. "I still don't get what happened with a knife."

"That's in the past," he mumbled. "It doesn't matter anymore."

"Really? What does matter, then?"

"Nothing. Shut up."

"God, Zap..." She took a seat at the edge of his bed. "There's some things that are better if shared..."

"And it's not one of them. I'm not going to tell."

Xin thought back to what happened before they had left to find Ed. "So...what was that about not wanting us to come along with you?"

Zap's head popped out from underneath the blanket. "No particular reason. I was just worried about Ed."

"I can't believe that."

"I wanted to deal with him myself."

"Also a lie."

"Yeah, but only partially," he admitted.

"Alright, I'll talk to you later." Xin walked out of his room, leaving the door open. Zap crawled back under the blanket.