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Cellbit's tail, which seemed to have a mind of its own, strengthened its hold on the leg of the old-fashioned wooden chair he was currently glued to. Looking around the room, he was suddenly hit by a damp leaf of lettuce. He peeled it off.
Why the hell did he invite the entire island to dinner?
Alerted by the beer-smelling breath on his left cheek, he turned his head to see Forever smiling as if he had just told a bad joke.
"What? I didn't hear you, what'd you say?" he asked, paining himself to get the words out. Forever's smile quickly dropped and he rolled his eyes, turning back to Maximus on his other side.
Forever was never really interested in repeating what he said. Cellbit didn't know why he expected anything different.
He looked down at his food, picking up the sharp metal cutlery, cutting off a piece of chicken and putting it in his mouth. No matter how many bites he took, he couldn't get over the chewy texture. The way fat got stuck in his sharp feline teeth.
He grimaced at the way it slowly made its way down his throat, putting a hand to his mouth to stop himself from regurgitating the abomination he had just swallowed.
"Oh, Maximus! You're so funny!" Forever laughed loudly, and the sound grated awkwardly against Cellbit's ears, which immediately flattened against his head as if they wanted to disappear into his skull. They probably did.
However, Forever did not notice Cellbit's discomfort - and neither did anyone else - as he continued to animatedly tell a terrible story that Maximus had heard millions of times before.
Desperately hoping to rid himself of the unbearable aftertaste of the chicken, he picked up his wine which resided in a sticky metal goblet, and took a sip.
It was horrible. It was horrible. It was horrible.
Cellbit slammed down the goblet on the table, and the impact spilled the bloodlike liquid all over his ironed white shirt. Cellbit stared at his now red sleeve in shock for what seemed like hours, until he was pulled out of it by a very humored Forever, laughing loudly and open-mouthed at the state that Cellbit's shirt was now in.
"Cellbit!" Forever gasped between breaths. "You- you spilled it!"
He looked around the room as if he had just said a punchline, before meeting Cellbit's eyes. The cat hybrid automatically hissed, retracting the wine-covered hand that had previously been frozen in place.
He needed to leave. Right now.
Cellbit stood up with a jolt and turned towards the door, trying to leave. But the tail that had been wrapped around his chair leg for the past ten minutes refused to let go. His eyes filled with tears as he pulled and pulled at his tail, before it finally came loose with a final effort.
He needed to leave. Right now.
Cellbit could tell that all the eyes in the room were burning holes in the back of his skull as he frantically ran out of the loud room and into a quieter, dimly lit hallway where he could hear the sound of his own racing heart like bomb shells landing in the sea.
It was here that he sunk to the floor, his knees bringing themselves up to his chin as tears streamed down his face. His tail, as if on instinct, wrapped itself around one of his legs and came to rest at the bottom of his thigh. Cellbit's face was dug deep into the small hole he had made in between his chest and legs as he rocked slowly, back and forth.
He didn't know if it was the chicken, the noise, Forever, or the wine - but something in that claustrophobic room had set him off.
But he didn't care what it was. The aftertaste of the chicken and the wine sat unhappily in his stomach and the sound of Forever's laughter still echoed loudly, bouncing off the sides of his head. Cellbit clamped his hands over his ears forcefully, as if willing the noise to stop. He retreated within himself, the only welcome sound being his own breathing (which reassured him that yes, he was still alive.)
It was here that Roier and Jaiden found him, exactly five minutes later, rushing over to the man.
"Cellbo? Gatinho? Are you okay? Me and Jaiden were worried," he started, but was only met with Cellbit grabbing his long hair and pulling, hard.
"Look, gatinho, I don't know what's happening, but I promise that Forever was just drunk. You know that he's the nicest person, like, ever, and he would never make fun of you on purpose. And if he did, I would probably beat him up--"
Jaiden pinched him, hard, before reaching up with a hand to cup his ear, dropping her voice to a whisper.
"Roier. He's overwhelmed, and noise only makes it worse. Don't talk so much, and when you do, do it quietly. So you don't sound so much like Forever," she explained, before turning back to Cellbit. Roier tried again.
"Cellbit?" he asked softly. Cellbit looked up for a second, eyes watery. He nodded.
"Can you speak?"
Cellbit thought for a couple of seconds, before shaking his head. No.
Jaiden whispered something else in Roier's ear, to which Roier quickly brought out his communicator.
"Do you think you could talk to me with this?" Roier asked, smiling and reaching to Cellbit with the communicator.
Cellbit's arms were glued to his chest. Jesus. First he can't speak, now he can't move his arms?
Cellbit responded with another shake of his head.
Roier messed with his own black hair, at a loss for what to do. However, Jaiden clearly came prepared as she retrieved a pack of around ten cards from her pocket, each with different words on them. She spoke quietly.
"Cellbit, these are nonverbal cards. I use them when I can't speak. Do you think you could use them to tell us what you need?"
Cellbit looked down at the cards now laid in front of him.
The first one said, 'Hug'.
He didn't think he could stand even a fly touching him right now.
The second one said, 'Alone'.
Another thing he couldn't stand. Now that his husband and best friend were here, he definitely did not want them to leave him alone to rip all his hair out.
The third one: 'Company'.
Cellbit, through staggered and pained motions of his arm, picked up the card and gave it to Jaiden. She glanced at the card, smiled, and showed it to Roier, before placing it back down.
"Sure," was all she replied with, before placing herself down beside Cellbit. "Roier, do you wanna go back to the dinner? I don't mind being with Cellbit."
Roier frowned, sitting down next to the cat hybrid.
"He's my husband, I want to be there for him. Even if I don't understand what he's going through, I need to try," he replied, almost whispering.
Cellbit wiped his eyes, unfurling slightly. He managed to croak out a single word.
"Sorry."
Roier's eyes filled up with tears at the statement.
"Cellbo... It's okay. No one thinks this is your fault."
"I didn't--" he hiccuped. "I feel so... immature." Cellbit's eyes wet themselves immediately after he wiped them. "Nothing even happened-- but-- but--" he dissolved in tears again, falling into Roier's side, who immediately took him in.
Cellbit said nothing for a while, simply sobbing quietly into Roier's shirt. Roier hugged him without judgement, rubbing his back with one hand and slowly massaging Cellbit's head with the other until he calmed down.
"Cellbit?" Jaiden asked softly. Cellbit looked toward her. "Do you think... Would you like my headphones?"
Headphones. Yeah, they could work.
Cellbit nodded gently, taking the headphones with a shaky hand and a small smile.
"Thanks." He slipped them on over his head and ears, sighing happily at the comfortable silence that now surrounded him. Jaiden grinned hopefully.
"They work for me. I thought you might like them to cover the noise a bit more," she explained, running a spare hand through her hand.
She was right, Cellbit thought. He could feel tension drain from his shoulders and neck as he relaxed his body into the lack of noise.
"Shall we help you up? Everyone's cleared their plates away now, and we all told Forever to shut the fuck up, if that helps," Roier asked with a twinkle in his eye, reaching his arm out to Cellbit.
"Okay."