In the Middle of Summer

Once Reena heads off, Wolf moves over to the dresser and sets the basket down there. He then moves over to the window to glance outside while he waits for Reena to finish. Once she exited the bathroom, he glances towards her and nods.

"Alright." he replies.

He starts walking over that way.

Reena washed her paws quickly, dried them, then stepped away from the sink. She made her way over to her laptop bag and began taking out and setting up the portable computer on the bed and letting it power on.

Wolf slips past Reena and into the bathroom. He closes the door behind him.

About ten minutes later, he exits the bathroom and walks back over towards the foot of the bed. He looks at Reena as he walks, just checking to see what she's doing.

Reena had settled comfortably into the bed, tucking her feet underneath the covers. She had her laptop in her lap and was tapping one key every now and then as she glanced down a page on her screen. When the bathroom door opened, her ears perked up and she looked over.

"Feel a little better?" the dog asked.

"Yeah, I suppose so." Wolf replies, "I wasn't really feeling bad or anything before."

He makes his way over to the foot of the bed and takes a seat there.

"Gee, I couldn't tell past the sudden mood swing you had earlier," Reena pointed out, raising an eyebrow slightly at him. She didn't frown when she said it, at least.

Wolf fall silent and glances away from Reena, clearly still not willing to talk about it.

"So that, that right there isn't feeling bad?" Reena asked, "I'm trying to understand here so I can think of the right ways to tiptoe around you."

Wolf doesn't look back at her.

"It isn't good and I'd prefer not to think about." he replies, "And if you were trying to avoid it, you'd not refer to it."

He sounds a bit distant as he speaks, like he's trying to keep from confronting whatever is on his mind.

Reena frowned. She wasn't much enjoying the somewhat mixed signals she was getting. Rather than argue, though, she looked back to her computer. After a few clicks, she started tapping away rapidly at the keyboard for a little while.

Wolf remains quiet on the foot of the bed for many minutes. Eventually he stands and starts heading for the door leading back outside.

Reena typed for a short time, then stopped and went back to clicking or only occasionally tapping at her keyboard. She remained silent otherwise, though.

When Wolf stood up, she watched him move towards the door. She started to not say anything, then decided otherwise and piped up with, "Take the room key with you!"

He pauses and glances back.

"Won't you need it? It's your room." he asks.

"I'm not goin' anywhere for a while," Reena replied, "At least if you got a key you can get back in the room easily."

"Well... if you're sure." Wolf says, "I'm not sure how long I'll be outside for."

"Well, unless you're gonna stay out all night, it should be fine," Reena assured him.

Wolf nods to her. He moves over to pick up the room key, then resumes heading for the door. Without another word, he opens the door, steps out and closes it again. He doesn't even think of locking it since Reena was inside. He then makes his way towards the stairs and heads down to ground level.

Reena watched Wolf leave, turning her attention back to her laptop promptly after. She could find plenty to do for the time being as it wasn't too unlike any other evening of her travels. The Klee Kai remained settled into the bed, tapping away at her keyboard every now and then, but mostly just scrolling along.

Wolf descends the stairs and heads out from the motel. Taking note of where it was, he begins to walk along the streets nearby, making sure as he goes to keep track of where to go in order to return. For the most part, he just wanted to get some time alone. Have a chance to gather himself once again.

Reena's casual chatter and slight prodding had brought some recent events back to the forefront of his mind. These were things that he had been trying to bury for the last several weeks. He did not want to talk about them with Reena either as he felt it wasn't right to put that burden on someone else either.

For now... he just hoped he could regain some of the composure he'd had several hours ago, while he walks.

As the time passed, Reena didn't move much from her spot on the bed. She spent some time texting back and forth with a friend and also did some searching to try and find where a good beach was for them to visit the following day. Otherwise, though, her social media websites kept her plenty entertained.

As night continued to roll in, the Klee Kai remained comfortably in the hotel room. She wondered where Wolf had gone, but figured he would come back whenever he was ready.

As he walks around, Wolf comes across a grassy area several blocks from the motel. He decides to stop there for the time being as night falls. Taking a seat on the grass, he stares up to the sky while he continues to let his mind search for its comfortable balance. Just being able to sit there alone with little to bother him, allows a feeling of peace and calm to fall over him at last.

By this point, he's been away from Reena for almost three hours. He figures he should return to her, especially since she might have wanted to go somewhere, but can't since he has her room key. So, he gets back to his feet and start walking back to where he'd started from.

Throughout the three hours that passed, Reena got up to snack on more of the cookies, which were cold now in the air-conditioned room, but still tasty. She was considering the idea of what they might have for dinner that night, but wasn't entirely ready for another meal just yet.

The more time passed, the more she grew a bit concerned about just what was eating at her wolf companion. Not knowing or being able to help was incredibly frustrating for the small dog, but she couldn't just make him tell her either...

The Klee Kai eventually settled back into the bed again, continuing to kill time online and see how long it would be until Wolf returned.

It was another twenty minutes or so, before Wolf finally made his way back over to the motel.

At last he makes his way back up the stairs to Reena's room. Then he searches his pockets for the key he'd taken with him earlier. Withdrawing it, he unlocks the door, and then opens it. He glances inside, looking for Reena, but he doesn't say anything in greeting. He then steps inside without waiting for any acknowledgement and closes the door.

Reena's ears perked up at the sound of the keycard being put into the lock and the door opening after. She looked up from her computer as Wolf re-entered the hotel room.

"Hey," she greeted simply, unsure of what she should or shouldn't say to him just yet.

Wolf nods to Reena as he moves over to set the key down where he'd picked it up from earlier. He then moves around to the side of the bed that Reena wasn't occupying and sits down at the foot of the bed with his back to her. He's quiet for several moments.

"I'm sorry about earlier." he says, then pausing for a little while before continuing, "I know you mean well and just want to help. I... am just not sure that I want to revisit such... bad memories. I deal with them as I know how."