@rubyquartz-shades (continued from x)
“What? Did something happen?” Scott looked around in shock. Had he done something wrong, or was it something else? The sheer amount of exclamations that had come from the other left him a bit on edge. Scott’s gaze finally settled on Rory after he made certain that nothing around them seemed out of place, and his eyebrows knitted together in concern.“Did… Did I hurt you?”
  { 🦎 } “Aaaagh, seriously...?!” Their words were followed by the faint clattering of garbage cans, a crinkle of plastic, and the hasty retreating footsteps of a small animal down an empty side street. Temporarily distracted from the other’s jarring presence here in the small, nearly-abandoned part of town at this hour of the night, Rory simply muttered out in explanation, voice exasperatedly resigned, “...Raccoon just stole my pretzels.”
  Their world-weary expression shifted quickly into one of wariness and panic as they steered their attention back to Scott, shoulders tensing up and feet slowly easing them backwards. “Wait, no--more importantly--you. You’re not screaming. Which, listen, don’t get me wrong--big fan of that, but I’m kinda worried this is just some delayed reaction bullshit and you’re gonna come to your senses and try to sock me in the face or shank me or something, which I am, uh, way less a fan of. Wait--can you even see what I look like behind those shades? Fuck, I should’ve asked that first, now this all just sounds suspicious--” This was really not going well.
