“I’ve got it,” he huffed, his voice as I would have expected, a low rumble that just made you want to curl up by the fire.
“No, no that’s alright,” I scooped the paint tubes and dumped them into the bin.
Gathering as many of them as I could, I took the bin and held it out to him to put his own tubes before handing it to him again.
“Here you go. Are you okay? You seemed like you were in pain before.”
Standing face to face with the bear, I could confirm how large he was. Not only was Ajax extremely tall, hitting well into six and a half feet, he was also broad shouldered and bulky. Only wearing jeans and a black T-shirt, his muscles strained against the fabric, almost to the point where I bet if he flexed, he would pop a few stitches.
How the hell was he only wearing a shirt in this cold?!
Moving my eyes up his body to his face, I saw that he had that lumberjack look going on, scruffy brown beard and messy short hair to match. His eyes startled me in a way that was different than the others’. Jason, with his intense, dark green. Percy, with cold, calculative brown. Theseus, with a warm blue-gray, or even Hip’s, with their ever-changing mischief. Ajax was unique, as he had heterochromia.
One eye was a striking icy blue while the other matched Percy’s chocolate brown. And those eyes were filled with so much pain that I clenched my chest, my own pain and sorrow drawn to the surface.
He mirrored my movement as his eyes locked onto mine. “Too much.”
“What?”
“What did they do to you?”
My stomach dropped as the shock and confusion settled. How could he know? He couldn’t know. Flashes of those days bubbled into my mind. The terror, the pain, and God, there was so much blood. I clutched my chest harder, the tears flowing down my cheeks as the panic began to set in.
But suddenly my thoughts were pulled off their panicked track when the man, Ajax, doubled over and heaved up the contents of his stomach.
“Holy shit! Are you okay?!” I shouted.
He held up his hand for me to stop as I instinctively moved closer to him. He continued to throw up until there was nothing left, and he began dry heaving. I felt helpless, wanting to help him but not really knowing what to do. I scrambled up the steps of the library and swung the door open. Inside the lobby Dorris sat at her desk, chatting happily with Lidia whom I had only just met the other day.
“Dorris! I need help!” I shouted.
The two women jumped, and their eyes turned to me.
“What's wrong?” Dorris asked, standing up.
“The guy who was painting the walls, Ajax. He’s really sick!”
She put her hand to her cheek. "Oh, dear. Lidia, can you go get some water and chocolate.”
Lidia nodded and ran into the back room while Dorris shuffled out from behind her desk and made her way over to me.
“We’ve got it from here, Atalanta. Why don’t you go find Theseus and start work?”
“But…are you sure?” I asked, my voice quivering.
I felt just as sick as he appeared, my whole body shaking from the afterthoughts of my past. I also couldn’t help but somehow feel responsible for his sudden illness and wanted to help.
“Yes, Lidia and I will help Ajax. This happens every once in a while. He just needs some rest.” She said, practically shoving me away from the door and towards one of the hallways.
Lidia came out of the office holding a giant bottle of water, a box of chocolate and… was that a bottle of salt? Yes, it freaking was! What was it with these people and their salt?
With another nudge from Dorris, I reluctantly went down the hallway to go and find Theseus.
A moment later I found him in the Rec Room, a room full of entertainment: a ping pong table, video game consoles, a whole wall of board games, and a huge projection screen surrounded by bean bags. Thesis was in the corner, vacuuming the carpet.
Approaching him, I tapped his shoulder.
He turned, his eyes lighting up when he realized it was me. "Atalanta." his face morphed into a concerned frown. "What's wrong?"
"I met Ajax outside, and he just started throwing up," I said. Might as well tell some of the truth, right?
His eyebrows shot up. “Oh, is he all right now?”
"Yeah, Dorris and Lidia went to go help him. She told me to come back here to find you, so I could start working." I said as I slowly began to sort some of the game board boxes.
He nodded. "Okay."
I turned my head so he could see my face easily. "They said that was normal for him? Like, should we be taking him to the doctor or something?"
"Don't worry, it normally only happens when..." He paused, studying me for a long moment. "Atalanta, what happened to your face?”
I gently touched the poorly covered up scratches. "Oh, these? I got into a fight at school yesterday.”
“A fight?!” He shouted, his voice far louder than it should have been, but it wasn’t like he could hear his volume.
“Yeah, it’s alright now. The other girls came out of it worse than I did.”
“Worse than you?” He spoke slowly as if not really understanding what he read for a second. “You’re a bit of scrapper then? Taking on the whole school single-handedly?”
“I did not take on the whole school,” I snorted and shoved him gently in the shoulder.
“But seriously, are you okay?” he asked, coming over and touching lightly on the spot on my face which was scratched up.
I nodded. “Yeah, I only came out of it with a few scrapes and bruises, nothing too serious.”
“That's good,” He said, his voice a hoarse whisper as his thumb stroked my check gently.
We stood there silently staring at each other like a couple of love-struck loons.
“You were saying something about Ajax? About him getting sick only happens when-?” I asked, wanting to find something to break the trance we had been under.
“Oh, uh, when he doesn't eat enough. He works too hard. Gets caught up in his art and doesn't eat." He replied, his tone a bit nervous, but I brushed it off.
"Do you know him well?” I asked.
He tilted his head “Just about the whole town knows Ajax."
"Jason said he tends to keep to himself,” I pointed out.
"He doesn't talk much or interact with many people, but with how much he does for the town, it's kinda hard not to be well known, you know?"
No, I didn't, but I nodded anyway.
Theseus put his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels. “Any-who, wanna help me finish dusting in here and then take out the trash?"
“Sure!” I said, going back to organizing the board games.
We cleaned the rest of the Rec Room in companionable silence. Most days were like this, it seemed. Together in a comfortable silence with little pockets of conversation here and there. With his condition, it was slightly difficult to work and talk at the same time, but I didn't mind it. It kept us from slowing down too much and we finished each room rather quickly.
He hadn't started teaching me sign language yet, but we didn't get much time as we hadn't hung out outside of work. Not for lack of trying though, as Theseus had invited me to hang out several times in the last couple of weeks. I had turned him down every time with excuses. 'I have a lot of homework', 'I need to help my sister with dinner', 'I need to go home to feed the cat and clean his litter box'. I didn't own a freaking cat.
I was torn, because I wanted to hang out with him more and get to know him better, but it was also easier not getting too attached to people. So every time he asked, I panicked and came up with some lame excuse. Not that I had been doing an excellent job of keeping my distance so far. The ride with Hip yesterday had been extremely intimate. On his motorcycle pressed up against him, and then later practically breaking down in his arms. Of course, there was Jason and that date on Saturday, and Percy...Well, perhaps I wasn't going to the library just to read books. The not-so-well-mannered librarian was intelligent and funny to annoy.