Something wasn't right. Zenith could tell that much. Now Ash had gone and puked, he was absolutely internally panicking that something was wrong. He wasn't even just nervous now, he was plain freaking out how different Asher was acting, so it had to mean something. He had crouched down at the water with him, still rubbing his back, a deep frown on his face as he tried to connect dots here. He just didn't know what the dots were, so figuring out how to connect them was impossible. Once they were standing again, he took his wallet out of his back pocket and found the strip of gum he kept in there. It always paid to have gum on you. Gum and condoms. Not that he had as much need as general dudes for the latter, but he still carried them anyway. He wasn't going to let a guy with HIV fuck him without one, just like no other guy with any sense would.

He unwrapped a piece and handed it to Asher, and when he took it, shoved the wrapper in his pocket. He braced himself, drawing in a deep breath, and nodded. "Okay. What is it? Are you sick? Or hurt? Are you in trouble?" He put his hand on Asher's shoulder, and his thumb was rubbing tiny circles there. The confusion was creeping into his features again. "I'm just not sure why you would have been giving me the cold shoulder and getting shitted off with me if it was any of those things. We've always been a team..."