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When Isiah's hands went around Bornes for the second time, he flipped.
He shouted things in French, his slurrs slowly disappearing as he was gulping in more fresh air. His arms struggled more than his lower half, as he was afraid his pants would fall off him if he struggled too much.

When he was dumped on the bed, he tried to make sense of the situation. He breathed through his mouth, on his hands and knees on the mattress. He simply stayed there for a few seconds, breathing, before he waved his hands in front of him, but still on the mattress, searching for the headboard. Or the pillow. Something to hang onto. He found the end, but there was no headboard. Just an end. This must've been the foot of the bed. He gave out a low whimper, and then opened his eyes.

It had just occured to him that he was indoors now. His eyes open, he looked around behind his sunglasses. He saw junk. He looked down to himself with a frown, and zipped up his pants. He unbuckled his belt and pulled out the broken pieces, tossing it on the floor, and then laid on his side, back to Isiah, knees to his chest and himself hugging the pillow on the cot.

He didn't know just what to say yet.
What should he say? He was still in shock. He still felt lingering numbness from whatever it was he had inhaled.
But at least he could see now.

Bornes wanted someone to hold, someone to tell him it was okay, to not worry. Everything would be okay. Someone who had boobs and a v****a who could reaffirm that he was truly not a f**, that he had prided his father and indeed not shamed his academy by being overcome by a simple drug addict.

But there was no one who fit the qualifications who could do that. Just the pillow he was holding. He let out one last whimper and squeezed the pillow again before he leaned his face into it and willfully went into the darkness again.

He still sobbed occasionally, but eventually he cried himself to sleep.
He slept so hard that day, that he didn't wake up until well after sundown. And when he did wake up he didn't want to.

When he woke up, he knew exactly where he was, how he got there, and why. He groped the pillow one final time before taking off his glasses and wiping his eyes. He sniffed a few times before turning around on the bed, to see if anyone was there.

He thought Isiah was there when he had first been carried here, but he couldn't recall for sure.

Bornes jumped slightly at Isiah's voice. He was so used to knowing where people were.
Isiah was right there but Bornes had not seen him. Why not? Was his vision at night failing, too?

The hybrid simply looked away, not wanting to bother answering Isiah's question. What was the point, anyway? He wasn't even really human. Isiah could never understand. Of course Bornes was just some dog to be taken advantage of. Just some Kaie to be talked at, not talked to. In that annoying fake caring voice, to boot.

Bornes stood up, his knees still shakey, though not so much that it was visible to those who weren't looking carefully. He looked down to his pants, which were sagging now. He pulled at them, and they seemed to stay up without the use of a belt, so he called it a win for now and would just live with the uncomfortable feeling of low riding pants.

Bornes face was devoid of expression for the most, except his eyes. They were still full of regret, confusion. He was still unsure of himself and his posture definitely showed it. He no longer stood up straight or bothered to put up a strong man act. He was slumped, broken, waiting for some shining knight to come by with a spear and put him out of his misery.

He gave a look to Isiah, wondering if he was going to do anything, before wandering off himself.
He didn't go anywhere in particular. He walked around the outskirts of the town at first, trying to avoid the people. He didn't want to talk to anyone. He didn't want anyone to give those weird 'is that a tail?' looks at him. But eventually he made his way back full circle. His hands in his pockets, himself trying to look smaller than he was.

He ended up, once again, looking into the well. He couldn't see himself in it. He tried to concentrate, to make his eyes glow, but nothing happened and he just became frustrated with himself. He couldn't bring himself to go anywhere else, though, so he just kept staring dumbly at the brown well water.
He wondered... If he fell in. Would the water be high enough for him to drown? Were the walls tall enough he would be trapped down there?

Bornes was startled again, not hearing the other man until he spoke. He gripped the mouth of the well as he turned to face the stranger.

The man looked vaguely familiar. His voice, moreso. But he couldn't place his name, or even who he was. What had they talked about before?

Then he remembered.
This man was the one who called him gay earlier.
"This is all your fault," his words muxed in with a guttural growl, his lip curling.

Bornes knees were still shaking, they'd never stopped. His whole body was sore and his eyes felt like they were burning all the time now.
But it was this man's fault. It was all this man's fault.

It was because of what he had said that Bornes had succumbed to the other drug addict.
That's how he rationalized it in his mind and that's how it was. Isiah was angry at him too, that gave more reason to validate his claims.

Bornes didn't know what possessed him to jump forward, but he didn't care. Kaegan was the new target of his hate.

Bornes jumped at the elder, aiming to punch the man directly in the nose with his left hand. If that managed to connect and Kaegan was still standing, Bornes would bring up his right leg to kick the man's side.

[[Where've you been? How'd you celebrate loie's bday? Is everything going okay?]]

Bornes was grabbed and turned around before he even knew what was coming.
He should've known better. He should've predicted this sort of thing from a Marine. And to think he used one of the moves Bornes was proficient at and should've known how to avoid. To think that the hybrid had even attacked this man in the first place.

Why had he done so?!
Because it was his fault, right?
It was his fault, wasn't it?!

Bornes shook his head with a groan of anger.

No, it wasn't his fault. It couldn't be.
Bornes was a rational thinker.
He needed to stop being irrational.
He needed to stop his p***y act.
Nothing had happened that day.
He was fine.
He was better than this!

These stupid emotions!
Only women and their illegitimate children crept to such lows as to think about suicide.
He was better than that!

But right now, he had to get his act together.
He had just attacked a Marine. It didn't matter if he was ex- or not.

He had to come up with some sort of recoup of the situation. He couldn't remember ever having lost his temper before now, ever attacking a superior like this.

He hung his head.
His moment of epiphany wasn't going to help him now.
This marine was worked up and there was no way he'd just let Bornes go.

"Nothing is. I apologize, Sir," he grumbled.
No matter what he said, it would all end the same. The attacked was going to be angry for a while.
Bornes would've been too.
"It was a momentary lapse of sanity. It won't happen again."

His arms began to tremble minutely at the pressure put on his joints. Bornes was surprised he could even hide the pain from his voice.
Maybe he hadn't, maybe he just heard himself differently.

He just had to keep reminding himself nothing had happened earlier that day.
If he did that enough times, it would be true.

He would consider this the start of his aversion therapy.
Think about what happened, be granted pain and humiliation.

[rawrg worst post ever.]]

Bornes was pushed forward and kept his back to the other man, his head low.
"I know, I'm sorry, Sir."

He walked over to the well again, and shoved his weight on a few of the bricks, testing them. When he confirmed they could hold his weight, he turned around and sat on the edge, his back to the depression, his tail hanging down into the well.

His hands were firm at his sides, holding onto the bricks near him and he looked down at his feet.

"I am just... Having a bad day.... I guess."

Bornes took a long time to answer, he had to mull it over in his mind. Was Isiah part of the problem? He had 'saved' Bornes, had he not?

"...No," he finally answered.

How could this man be so threatening yet so... Fatherly at the same time?
Bornes felt like he could spill out his guts to this guy. It was an awkward feeling. A feeling he had to fight to prevent himself from saying anything more.

He instead gripped the well a bit harder and stared intently at his black boots, which were caked with dirt. He hadn't really paid attention to how dirty his clothes were until now... But what could one do? It wasn't as if he had any other clothes to wear. Everyone was dirty.

At Kaegan's groan, Bornes turned his head. He wanted to see why Kaegan was upset. But the twenty-something felt his balance shift unfavorably as he turned, forcing him to correct his posture. Really, it ended up with a rushed jump off the well mouth so he didn't fall in. The whole thing was rather clumsy, but then, sitting on the wall of the well was a stupid idea in the first place. Just like all Bornes' ideas had been this night.
Stupid.

When his feet were planted firmly on the ground he turned to look for Kaegan again, but he was gone. Replaced by Isiah. Who was currently asking some sort of question.

Bornes looked at the other man blankly for an awkward few seconds before finally answering. "I'm okay" was the response.
He averted his eyes quickly afterward, and concentrated instead on dusting himself off. It wasn't long until Bornes realized avoiding Isiah by preoccupying himself with such menial things wouldn't work for any real length of time, and looked back up to him.

Bornes felt so small.

"Do we have any alcohol left? I want to get drunk."
Yes.
Bornes had looked straight into Isiah's eyes and said that. No tact, no clever wording, just straight up, give in.

What else was he going to do?

He looked down and shoved his hands into his pockets. He took a few steps back toward the center of the make-shift town, but if Isiah didn't move fast enough, he would stop and wait. Bornes didn't know how to get back to where they were before. He hadn't been paying attention when he was walking around earlier.

"I'm a happy drunk," Bornes would say to the man, if there was an awkward silence to break.
"Just in case you were wondering."

Had Bornes ever even smirked normally?
To imagine a 'happy' drunk, especially under the circumstances...