Chapter 27.

Moth's eyes widen a fraction, remembering how close he and Dorian were earlier. "You are human so maybe it's you." Lane got closer to him tilted his head. "No, this smell is from a normal human, it's not the same as mine. Did you get close to that guy?" Moth stayed silent for a moment, thinking about what to say. "I had to. He wouldn't give me your medicine if I didn't."

"What did you do with him?" He asked, his grip tightening around him. Moth looked up at him, a hurt look on his face. "Wh- How could you think I would do something like that?!" Lane brushed his face with his fingertips. "I'm not mad. Not with you at least. You can tell me." Moth scoffed and rolled his eyes, he hadn't done anything wrong so it didn't particularly matter if he knew or no. "He wanted to talk with me and I agreed so that he would give me your medicine. That was all I was going to do but over time I got weak without any contact to feed off so I hugged him, I didn't want to but that's why you can smell him on me." Lane's jaw tightened slightly. "You could have taken from me-no you couldn't have, I was too weak." Moth brushed his hand through his hair, trying to comfort him. "As I said we just hugged. I was on the brink of passing out and holding hands didn't offer enough contact." He watched as Lane stared off into the darkness with an angry look in his eyes, it was clear he was trying to hold back his anger to not take it out on Moth. Moth reached up and held his face, moving his face gently to help him look at him. "Hey, it's okay, you are here now so I don't have to touch him anymore and I don't like him, I like you. You know that right?"

Lane's face brightened slightly but he still was down so he pulled Moth close to him and sighed deeply, resting his face in his hair. "Can you go wash it off tomorrow?" Moth nodded into the man's chest as he nodded off to sleep. 

An unsettled feeling in Lane's stomach jolted him awake causing him to immediately climb out of the hammock and throw up a black sludge in the bush nearby. Which left a very confused and half asleep Moth scrambling to get up and follow him. He practically emptied his stomach of the black sludge before the flow of vomit finally stopped. Lane wiped his mouth, his breathing heavy as he got up from the hunched over position he was in behind the bush. Moth rubbed his back and held his arm to help him stand while he waited for him to finally catch his breath. "What the hell?" Lane muttered weakly. 

"I think it's the effects of the poison," Moth responds, giving him a sympathetic look and patting his back, "You haven't consumed anything apart from water for the past week so your stomach would be really unsettled. Go lie down and I'll bring you some water and food." Moth turned to leave but Lane reached out and grabbed his hand. "No, let's go get the water together. I want to wash my face and mouth, you also need to clean yourself down to get rid of that bad smell." Moth nodded, leading Lane down to the small stream nearby. Lane washed his mouth out with the water before drinking some and splashing it over his face and cleaning his hands and arms. Moth had hung his clothes nearby and was washing down himself in the river at Lane's request. Lane splashed water over his face again, letting the water drip down his face to refresh himself before he opened his eyes. His face immediately heated up and his eyes got wide before he instinctively looked away. "Lane, what's wrong? Are you even more sick?" Lane kept his eyes to the ground, as Moth waded his way towards him through waist deep water, only wearing underwear with water dripping down his slim, bandaged and bruised figure. He stopped in front of him, looking down at Lane in confusion. He leans down and places a hand over his head, feeling Lane's temperature. "Hmm, you feel really warm. Are you feeling alright? Do you want to go back and sleep?" Lane lets out a long groan and covers his face with his hands before glancing up at Moth between the gaps in his fingers. "Moth please… take a few steps back." Moth stared at him a little bit confused and hurt but obliged and took a few steps back into the water and watched Lane as he composed himself. "Moth can you please hurry and put your clothes on, it's too much." 

Moth tilted his head in confusion before his face heated up and his antenna stood up straight on his head in surprise. "Oh, yeah sure." He quickly got out of the water, letting himself dry off slightly before he pulled his dirty and torn clothes back over himself while Lane mumbled curses about how he wished he wasn't feeling awful. "We're going to have to get new clothes once we get out of here." Lane commented as he climbed out of the water and walked over to him. 

Moth smiled up at him while pulling his shirt back on. "Sounds good, shall we go look around the area?" Lane nodded in agreement and wrapped an arm around Moth's shoulders. They walked around the area a little bit so Lane could familiarise himself with the area but he got exhausted very quickly so they headed back to let Lane lie down. "He said you would need three or four more doses to be cured." Moth said after helping Lane lie down. The man's face became sour, "I don't need it. Not from that guy." 

Moth chuckled, brushing a hand through his hair. "So petty, why don't you get some sleep? You are going to need all the rest you can get." Lane hummed sleepily and grabbed Moth's hand to press it against his cheek, "You are staying with me right?" "I'll stay until you go to sleep but then I'll go get us food to eat. The fruits in here are incredible, I've never seen them before-" His ramble was interrupted by a low laugh from Lane's mouth. His hand stretched out and ruffled Moth's hair softly before smoothing it back into place. "Alright, bring some back to show me but don't go talk to that guy. Okay?"

"...Okay." Moth responded with a small nod which made Lane raise an eyebrow. "You hesitated." Moth adamantly shook his head. "No I didn't." Lane furrowed his eyebrows and tightened his grip on his hand. "Promise me you won't go looking for him."

"Yeah alright." Moth said, tying a cloak above Lane to block him from the sun. Lane quickly fell asleep as he hung an arm out of the hammock, holding onto Moth's hand and breathing slowly. Once Moth was sure that Lane was asleep he moved away from him quietly and wove himself a small bag with his threads. I'm glad I have energy again, I couldn't even weave myself a hammock earlier but now I'm fully recharged. He walked through the forest, picking any fruits and edible plants he saw. I'll get Lane a ton of food, I want to give him a feast to show him how much I missed him. He smiled brightly at the thought of Lane happily enjoying the food he collected. It would be great if I had some of those cookies as well, I wonder if Lane has tasted a cookie before. His eyes flicked over to the center of the terrarium where the wire house was. He quickly brushed off the thought, shaking his head. "No I can't." He mumbled to himself. "I promised Lane."

"Can't what?" Dorian asked, seemingly appearing out of nowhere and standing beside him. "Fuck!" Moth jumped back away from him, tripping over a rock and falling backwards. Before he could hit the ground, a strong hand grabbed him by his wrist and pulled him upright. "Are you alright?" Dorian appeared right in front of his face, scanning him for new injuries. "You aren't hurt are you?" Moth quickly shoved him away after regaining his balance. "No I'm okay… Can you please take a step away?" 

He hesitantly obeyed Moth's request and glanced down at what the person was holding. "That is a lot of food. What do you need it for?" Moth's eyes followed his gaze before Looking back up at the human. "I'm getting a big meal for Lane." Dorian scoffed. "So the brute woke up, finally." He stated, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. "What's wrong with him?" Moth furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean? You already know he has been poisoned." 

"I don't mean that. What is he? I know he isn't a human so what kind of a monster is he?"