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Red had decided that he did not like dogs.
He had decided that he did not like having a strange, shockingly sensitive organ down there either. He was used to the armour-plated scales that covered his genitalia, not a soft thing that felt like it was awash in the flames of hell whenever someone kicked it. He, in fact, had not thought much of it until Alisa Lee swung her steel-booted toe right between his legs.
It still hurt to walk.
So he limped, a short distance behind the two most attractive people he'd ever seen---and their rather adorable but still terrifying beast. The gun felt heavy in his palm, the cool metal seeming to wrap around his wrist and permanently mold itself to his unknowing hand. Alisa had taken her brother's rope and demanded that Red give her the gun as well, so she could keep all the weapons they had been given, but he had refused.
Red would never have the guts to pull the trigger, but it was comforting knowing he could place a bullet in Alisa's head if she decided to push him off a metaphorical cliff.
The passage they were travelling through seemed to get colder and darker with each step. There were no signs of forks in the path, no glimpses of exits. All they could do was continue walking straight ahead, moving closer to the gloom that would soon stare them in the face. Red could feel the hate that radiated off Alisa in waves, annoyance at having to work with him.
She'd called him an idiot. He hadn't been insulted, because if he hadn't been such an idiot in the first place, he would still be enjoying his normal life on X9-7. He missed it already. Red made a vow to the heavens to always follow traffic signs---and for good measures, to let little old aliens zoom across the borders in their motorised wheelchairs first---if he ever got out of Vanguard.
"You'll get used to her eventually," a voice said. Red snapped out of his silent prayer, noticing how Cheng Xin had dropped behind, now sidling up next to him. Red made sure the dog was in Alisa's arms, a safe distance away from him. Only then did he let down his guard a little, shrugging lightly. Cheng Xin seemed nice, unlike his sister.
How could two people who looked so alike act so different? Red couldn't quite fathom the idea.
"She wouldn't harm you. Not without reason, anyway," Cheng Xin continued.
"Before you woke up, the first thing she did when she saw me was kick me, uh..."
Cheng Xin's cheeks coloured as he audibly winced. "Oh. Li's not...normally like that. She's just...on edge."
That's an understatement.
A string of expletives made their way from Alisa's mouth as they took another step forward into total darkness, so complete that Red couldn't see an inch before his face. It was like walking into another world, this one even more despondent than the earlier.
He felt Cheng Xin brush past him as he ran, assumedly, to help his sister. Red caught snatches of their whispered conversation, mostly the boy telling his twin to not be afraid. He knew it wasn't nice to eavesdrop, but he managed to gather that Alisa---bold, sarcastic, tough Alisa---was afraid of the dark.
