Sebastian caressed his pieces as he anticipated moves and it heated the blood in Rory’s veins. When he claimed one of Rory’s pieces and smiled possessively, his heart started thumping, and when Rory finally won the match, relief rushed through him and made him giddy.

“You go first.” Sebastian murmured.

Rory shivered at his low voice and closed his fingers around the top of a pawn.

“Captain…” Ollie breathed, looking at the gate.

Rory released his chess piece and turned around. He grinned at Captain, but he didn’t get one back.

“He had his appointment today, right?” Sebastian murmured.

“Right.”

The gate slid open, and Captain stepped inside. His chest heaved, and his lip tugged back in a snarl revealing his teeth.

“What you all staring at?” he shouted.

Sebastian exhaled slowly. “I don’t think it went well.”

Captain approached the table, but didn’t sit down. “Never again.”

“Hey, why don’t you calm down.” Sebastian tried.

“Don’t you tell me to calm down.”

Sebastian flared his nostrils, and he glared at Captain with the same terrifying intensity he’d glared at Rory for the first few days.

“What did you say?”

Rory grabbed Sebastian’s arm, and his bicep pulsed under his fingers.

“Leave it,” he whispered.

“No.”

“Please.”

Sebastian wobbled his jaw side to side, then turned away.

Captain looked at the rest of the prison. He held up a small tub and rattled the contents. “Don’t worry though, you’ll all get a good night’s sleep from now on. I’ve gone from alcohol to drugs, god bless the prison system.”

He walked towards the stairs and didn’t turn back. Rory tapped his nails on the table, then got to his feet.

“Let him calm down.” Sebastian said. “I’m worried what he might do.”

“He won’t hurt me.”

Sebastian snorted. “You’ve been here five weeks, one of them you spent in the hospital, and you don’t even know who stabbed you. It could’ve been Pauly, it could’ve been Captain.”

“It wasn’t, he saved me.”

“Maybe he’s got some hero complex, saved you after he stabbed you.”

“It wasn’t him.”

Sebastian muttered something else, but Rory didn’t stay around to listen. He rushed up the two sets of stairs to get to the second floor.

“Captain…”

He pushed the door open and peeked inside. Captain sat on his bed, obsessively scrubbing his military boots. Rory took a hesitant step closer.

“Can I come in?”

“You are in.”

“Further in.”

Captain sighed, then nodded.

“It didn’t go well, then?”

“The psychiatrist is no older than you. Barely any life experience, and he’s telling me about stress, and anxiety, and whatever.”

“Was he patronizing?”