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Battle of the Bands had been a much needed break in the zomboils daily life. He felt stressed, and worn out which was saying a lot considering he didn't exactly need rest. Between work at his actual job, and work for the lair, schoolwork, training when he could, and spending every possible other free moment he could get with Yin, he was finding himself spread far too thin. There was not a single thing he felt like he could do about it, however. These activities were all necessary.

Still, the strain of juggling too many things was beginning to show. He was far more moody then he used to be, his patience sometimes non-existent. He had been able so far to keep that mostly under control around Yin, but now and again he still slipped up, and would immediately feel awful for it. The weremantis had been through enough without having to put up with his attitude to top it all off.

That particular evening he wasn't feeling too bad. Just drained, really. Another task for the lair completed he found himself cleaning up and changing before making his way to Yin's dorm room. He pushed his way inside without knocking as he always did, a smile ready on his face for when he greeted his boilfriend.

That smile faltered quite a bit when the first thing he was faced with was questions. Questions he couldn't even really answer. He had no idea how much he could even say about what he was doing without blacking out, and he was a little scared to find out. So far it hadn't even been an issue. But had he really expected that Yin would never start to ask questions? Not really. Still he found himself caught a little unawares, and he turned away to hide the guilty look in his eyes as he closed the door and struggled to come up with a response that wasn't completely lame and could explain his absence without having to answer more questions.

"I was out. Just...doing things."

Good grief. That was seriously the best he could come up with. All this stress was clearly making him slow.

More questions, and he grimaced a little before he finally turned around. This was not how pleasant and quiet evenings with your boilfriend were supposed to start! One glance at Yin was all it took for him to want to just tell him everything. The other boil was clearly just worried about him. He seemed absolutely frantic, actually. This was...difficult. Really, extremely difficult. He knew even if he could tell Yin where he'd been and what he'd been doing, the other boil wouldn't approve.

"Ya like...I joined a club, sort of. But it's uhm...really exclusive and super secretive. I'm not exactly supposed to talk about it." Unconsciously he began to rub at the back of his right hand through the fingerless glove that he wore to hide the mark that was there. Yin knew about it, but so far hadn't pressed the issue of why he had it. Though so many of the students had the exact same marking.

"There are..other students in it. People you know like, Mort, and Mei, and Leo." And all the horsemen. Mustn't omit them.

....Except that he would.

Oh dear jack that look! It wrenched at Alex's heart to see the hurt in Yin's eyes after he tried, and obviously failed miserably, to explain what he had been doing without actually explaining it in detail. How in the seven hell's had Mort done this with his ghoulfriend? He had said that they had fought about it, but in the end she accepted what he was doing, without even really knowing what that was. He didn't want to have a fight with Yin. He didn't want there to be secrets between the two of them. Maybe if he asked Medea she would make an exception and he could tell Yin..

..Except Medea hadn't been seen for quite some time. The horsemen seemed less then concerned about her sudden disappearance but the zomboil had to wonder if she was well and truly dead.

"Well, yes I can because..because they were initia--" and there it was, the telltale signs that he was taking things just a little bit too far in his telling. The same dizziness that he had experienced when he had almost mentioned the lair once before. The same light headedness that made him reach out for a wall to steady himself as he blinked and struggled to fight it off. The rest of what Yin had to say was hitting him just as his head began to clear, and his eyes widened, his mouth gaping open slightly at the implications.

"No no no! Of course not! I don't think Mei and Leo even know." But Mort did, though Alex trusted him not to spread the information around. He took a few steps forward, completely mortified now, reaching a hand out to grab Yin, intending on pulling him into a hug.

Alex let his hand drop as his shoulders hunched up a little. "They don't know about what the hunters did to you, isn't that what you meant?" He was confused now, and he felt like the questions were getting to be a little bit much. His own irritation was beginning to flare up. Why was Yin doing this now? He'd never been so pushy about it before! And why couldn't he just accept that Alex could not answer his questions? Literally. Could not. Not that he wouldn't answer. He couldn't answer. Yin had chosen to keep things from him in the past, things that Alex didn't press. He had learned not to press Yin for answers he didn't want to give. It just made things easier and they were both happier for it. Or at least Yin was happier for it. Alex got over it eventually.

And finally, a question he felt like he could answer. It was just a relief to be able to do so he didn't even realize that it was an answer that Yin probably would not be happy with. "Mort knows though. I--" Oh wait, s**t, no, it was actually dawning on him that this was another question that he should not have answered. Or at the very least, he could have lied about. Shitshitshit.

"I told him." He finally answered, after a small pause, hands shoving into his pockets, gaze suddenly diverting.

There were literally countless ways Alex could have reacted to this situation as it steadily began to decline towards catastrophe. But honesty...honesty over something that he could actually talk about and he could actually be honest about..that seemed like the most important thing right now. "Yes, I did. I mean...he's one of my best friends and I needed somebody to talk to---" Somebody who knew about technology. Somebody who he thought that he could work together with to try and come up with a solution. Somebody he was sure that he could trust. Alex didn't want everyone knowing about Yin's situation either. The thought terrified him. But he had felt like there was nothing he could possibly do on his own, and that maybe, just maybe, with the help of his friend there would be a chance to figure out how to fix things. He didn't want to just sit back and let the hunters control Yin forever! It was probably just the naive hope of a teenage boil to think that he could actually do something to help save the monster that he loved, but that was exactly his reason for doing it.

And now Yin was suddenly angry, and Alex's indignation towards his boilfriend's behavior flared. "Of course I was thinking! I was hoping I could find a way to help you." Obviously that had been wrong of him. "Look, I'm sorry I told him, okay? I won't tell anybody else. But Mort is our friend. We've all been through a lot together, and he knows a lot about technology. I swear to Jack, Yin, I was only trying to help."

"Of course I trust you. I trust you more then anybody! Why are you being like this?" Yin's voice might not have been raised, but Alex's certainly was. Were they seriously arguing over something so small? At that moment, he was getting a little bit tired of it himself. Always misunderstandings. Always finding problems where there weren't any. Things had been difficult with Yin before the hunters had taken him and stuck their stupid tracker inside of him. Now it seemed like sometimes things were impossible.

He closed his own eyes, taking a moment to try and calm down before he completely snapped. This was so ridiculous. His jaw was set, his teeth clenched as a growl threatened to escape his throat. He had chosen to come back. He had chosen to stay by Yin's side despite the other boil telling him it was dangerous.

"Yes. I could have. Would that have made it better?" Somehow, he doubted it.

And then the final blow. Telling him to leave. Oh great, so now Yin was going to push him away, again. The growl he had suppressed before he let loose now, a frustrated sound just before his fist came up to slam against the wall. "Are you jacking kidding me, Yin? You have no idea what I am going through, and what I am trying to do, for you. I mean, if I could tell you, I would, but I literally can not get the blasted words out of my mouth. You keep secrets from me, and apparently that's okay. But I'm not allowed to do the same? Ya, that really just makes all the sense, doesn't it!?"

He should have just left. He should have walked away when Yin told him to. But he was just so angry now. Nothing he ever did was good enough. Nothing he ever did was right. He was always the one screwing up, somehow, unintentionally.

"I shouldn't have come back." He muttered. "This." He gestured, "This was not worth coming back to." He backed up towards the door, shaking his had, perhaps in disbelief, perhaps just in anger.

"Fei!" He called out to the runic vaisel, who stood up, looked at Alex, looked at Yin, back to Alex, and then finally over to Lady Terror.

And then he sat back down. Alex's upper lip curled back from his teeth, a look that was far from happy. He reached behind him to open the door, his hand shaking, fumbling a little before he clutched at the doorknob tight enough to turn his knuckles white.

"Goodbye then, Yin." He let his steely pale grey gaze seek out the green eyes of the weremantis's one last time before he made his exit.