AV-ME1,pt2: Locked Up Inside

     It had been a long day, and even with all the various contestants onboard, and their different schedules and habits, the time had come when the ship was fairly quiet.
     The door to Johnathan's room opened soundlessly, and the quiet footfalls that followed were barely discernable over the soft hum of the ship itself.
     The small robot curled up doglike on the bed behind the occupant's knees looked up, then jumped down off of the bed, it's metallic body gleaming pale blue in the soft light shed by the figure who now, just as silently, closed the door behind her.  She raised a finger to her face in a gesture of silence as the robot wiggled excitedly, and it sat in barely contained excitement and watched as she padded stealthily over to the bedside table.  The box was missing from the location she had spied it on earlier, but that was not exactly surprising, given his reaction to her touching it.
     It had been that reaction, those hollow words "My reason for being here" that had stuck in True's mind, and brought her sneaking back in like a thief in the night.  With his very private and insular mannerisms, there was no way she would actually be able to talk him around to showing her, and her curiosity was eating at her alive.  About many of the things and people she had encountered that day, but this one she could do something about.
     Ah, he had it sitting on the bed, near enough to his hand that she wondered if he might have fallen asleep holding it.  At least he wasn't now.  Still carefully, quietly, she bent to pick the box up, hoping that her ever-present glow would not disturb him, and wincing lightly as whatever was in the box shifted with a slight rattle like before.
     With a soft squeal of gleeful triumph, she stepped back and carefully opened the box.  It resisted slightly, surface tension of the wood lid against the raised edge inside, then opened easily to reveal a compartment lined in red velvet.
     True just blinked at the contents.  She had been trying not to have expectations, but this. . . the implications set her imagination reeling.
     And then a soft voice, like a growl, thick with malice and barely contained rage.  "Put.  The box.  Down."
     She looked up like a child caught misbehaving, closing the box somewhat, but not relinquishing it in the slightest, stepping back again from the bed as Johnathan pushed himself up, coiled like a spring.  "What did you mean, this is your reason for being here?" she asked instead.
     "That is my business, and mine alone unless I happen to win," he insisted, glaring at her, all pale blue highlights and shadows.  "Close it, put it down, and forget you ever saw it."
     "What are you so afraid of?" she insisted.
     "I'm not," he refuted, sliding sidelong out of the bed, his usually immaculate hair rumpled and sticking in every direction, and his pajama pants clinging to his hips, an almost laughable juxtaposition to his animalistic posture.  There were no scars on his bare skin, in spite of the deep gashes that had rent his arm and face earlier.  "What I am is angry.  I lock my door for a reason, which you have ignored twice now, and I asked you politely not to play with that."
     The Zelian held her ground, head high and wings back, the picture of calm defiance.  "I wanted to know about you.  But you refuse to just talk, so what am I supposed to do?" she protested.
     "Did it never occur to you to simply leave me alone?" Johnathan demanded, stepping forward and grabbing for the box still in her hands.
     She danced back out of the way, and now that both of them were awake, and clearly playing, the spidery robot could no longer sit still, bouncing up, and then back and forth excitedly before darting in about their feet.
     "If I did that, then I would never find out anything," she persisted, holding the box up over her shoulder, out of his reach unless he wanted to risk jostling her and potentially sending it spilling.
     "Exactly!" he replied in exasperation.  "Is this what passes for acceptable behavior toward another where you are from, or are you singular in your inconsiderate selfishness?"
     True just blinked at him, but her wings stiffened.  He had clearly struck a nerve with that, but she had yet to relinquish his possession.
     "You want to know about me?" he glared.  "I have a temper.  I like being given my space and left alone.  I have no patience for meddling females, and trying to act cute will just make me more angry.  I do not like losing my temper, but you are dangerously close to making me do something that I will come to regret only because you are doubtlessly an official of some capacity.  Is that enough to satisfy your curiosity?" he demanded softly.
     True simply regarded him in the silence that stretched out, and the doglike robot looked from one to the other, waiting for something to happen.  "That is enough for now, I think," she admitted thoughtfully, bringing the box back down and closing it.  "Thank you," she added as she handed the box back to him.  "I would like to come talk with you again.  You are interesting," her laugh rang out again.  "I am called True.  And if you will leave your door unlocked on occasion, or come out into the rest of the ship, then I will not have to intrude upon you so."
     "Then you will stop breaking into my room?" he asked, significantly more calm with the box back in his possession, not bothering to turn and watch her as she walked fluidly back over to the door, her tail swaying sedately behind her.
     "Maybe," he could hear the laughter on her voice again, and it infuriated him.
     The robot was fidgeting again, looking back and forth between Johnathan and True, practically bouncing in its spot.  "Go on," he snapped at the little thing in irritation, and it wiggled up at him lovingly before bounding off after True.
     With a soft growl, he knelt and sealed the box into his trunk, and then lay back down, staring up at the dark ceiling.
     Like he was going to be able to fall back asleep now.