Guns & Roses

Chapter 22

[Hank]

Hank watched as Deimos and Sanford were goofing off by, to his understanding, seeing which could balance longer on top of a large rock they found and sabotaging the other's efforts to stay on. He wanted to join, after all they made it look pretty fun, though whenever he tried joining them in anything previously he always felt awkward and out of place, no matter how welcoming the duo seemed to be, so he decided to stop trying a long time ago.
"I believe I've completed my observations." 2B said suddenly, Hank flinched, turning around and fighting back his initial instinct to attack.
"Observations of what?" Hank asked, still a little disoriented after being caught off guard.
"Of Sheriff. I've been watching fairly close for the past few days, they don't seem to be a threat." They elaborated. Hank once again felt his frustration return, he thought of all people 2B would be on his side, but apparently not.
'How don't they see what's going on?!'
That southern bastard was just charming his way out of suspicion, surely somebody other than him had to see that too.
"And what about that grunt? He left them alive-" Hank tried to argue, but was cut off by 2B halfway through.
"...Because he didn't have any weapons. I want you to tell me Hank, whose idea was that?" 2B accused him, and he couldn't deny that.
'That slimy bastard'
He couldn't believe it, they were making him out to be the bad guy, even when he was trying to keep everyone safe.

"Hank, listen. I understand you're concerned about their intent, especially with how long you've hated each other, but I want you to think for a second, how many times has the 'suspicious' behaviour happened because of something you did?" 2B pointed out, leaving Hank with no argument. How many times had that happened?
'Five? Six times? Maybe more?'
Now that they mentioned it... he realised most of the things he considered "suspicious" happened after he'd threatened them way back at the warehouse. But he had to be right, after all they had been avoiding him and specifically him.
'Probably because you threatened to kill him, dumbass.'
He hated that he was hurting his own case, but he was disappointed that he didn't think about that earlier, if he wanted them to screw up in front of him, he needed them to actually be around him. "Befriending" them now was going to be infinitely harder simply because he didn't think about the consequences of what he was doing.

"If you have nothing to say, I'm going to assume we're done here." 2B said matter-of-factly, they lingered for a little longer, waiting for a reply Hank didn't have. Finally, they started walking to the rock that the duo- no, the now trio were still screwing around. Hank watched Sheriff, trying to find something in the actions that indicated some kind of bad intent, and as he was watching how easily Sheriff could manage to fit in with their group, he felt jealous. Despite how spineless, how arrogant, and how utterly pathetic they were. Despite everything about them, he was jealous. Over a single thing they had that he didn't, just because they could make friends without batting an eye, and take that ability for granted. The one thing he'd always wanted so badly to be able to do, and Sheriff was the one to receive that blessing. In a moment of self-realisation, he doubted his own suspicions, how could he know that he hadn't just been jealous this whole time? If that were the case, would it really be a stretch to say he'd want to find some way to hate them?

But he had to be onto something, if all he'd done all of this because he wanted some way to convince the others to kick Sheriff out of the group to protect his ego, then it would all be for nothing in the end. All those months obsessing over trying to expose them for something, anything, would have been a waste of his time. Which is why he had to be right, he refused to believe he would be that petty over something so small. If he kept going and was wrong... well he'd look like an idiot at best, and now that Hank had stopped and thought about it for a second, he really didn't have much reason to keep investigating them.