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 Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 9:43 am
Ever justified this as being twenty minutes late for work: nothing major there, nothing new, nothing unusual. It wasn't out of character for him to come crawling in after the hour, with his head still ringing from booze and his eyes just a little bit red.
It was the three days that were the problem. Three days of failing to step into the library even once, instead sprawling out at home and working his way through a mountain of books, waiting to heal up enough that people wouldn't ask too many awkward questions. Not that he thought Tony really would, at this point. It seemed like Ever got beat up a lot.
Twenty minutes late, though, and certainly hungover, Ever came creeping into the library in a nervous sort of way, picking at the scabs around the edges of his fingers and approaching the desk while Tony was occupied elsewhere. He thought it would be perfect if Tony turned around and found his missing employee standing well at work...
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Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 11:43 am
Tony had been a little worried the first day Ever hadn't turned up for work. The second day, that concern was upgraded. The third day had him slightly afraid that Ever had either quit without word or had gotten into another fight with the senshi that had attacked him in the street before.
Not that Tony was absolutely sure that Ever had been hit by a senshi. Once, he had been attacked by a Nega in senshi clothing, and that had been enough to fool him. At least fleetingly. Maybe that was something they were doing something like that now...
Either way, he was worried.
But he had to go to work, and had no way of contacting Ever because the boy had never given him a number or address. He worried, but what could he do? He checked the newspaper and hospital reports just in case, but beyond stumbling on a description matching Ever's, he had no real leads.
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Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 8:52 pm
Hopefully, then, he'd be relieved instead of angry when he turned around to find Ever stripping off his coat behind the desk, smoothing hands over his hair before he remembered and stopped, shaking scared palms away from his body. A mess, yet again. It looked a bit like he had been beaten up by that senshi again.
Well. Or a different senshi, maybe.
Ever pretended like nothing had happened, because if he pretended hard enough, he might just get away with it. Maybe Tony's be too pleased to yell at him or ask probing questions. He didn't look up, just set to logging in.
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Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 9:53 am
Tony came out from the back room with a stack of books in his arms. It was piled up almost to his head, and he couldn't quite see around them as he stumbled down the familiar, straight, usually unobstructed path between the work room and the drop off box. His plan was to put the stack on the counter over the boxes, then scoot them to the side so he could do an inhouse count check that he knew hadn't been done.
None of the carts in the back had been free. Things were a little backed up, though he was certain it was still all under control.
He had managed without help at the desk before, he could do it again.
Peering over the stack of books, he saw someone behind the counter, opening his mouth to ask them to wait on the other side if they needed help, then realized it was Ever. He stumbled and dropped the books, his feet lost under the crashing wave of pages and bindings, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Ever! There you are! I was beginning to fear something happened to you! Are you alright?!"
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Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2011 12:28 pm
"...um." he'd flinched at the first sound of Tony's voice, wincing as if he'd been hit, and turning very carefully to blink back at his boss. It took him a moment to summon up a smile, shoulders rolled in a quick shrug, shaking away any concern at all.
"Same old, same old. You seem...overwhelmed." The words blended together too much, Ever didn't even pause for a breath between the two thoughts. He didn't want to give Tony time to really think about it, wanted to cut off the hard questions before 'where were you' and 'what happened to your face' spilled out between them...
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Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 8:03 pm
Tony continued to look stunned and baffled, standing in a pile of books. He blinked, not sure when Ever had arrived, but certainly glad that he had. All his fears about the hospital and dead people were immediately lifted, as none could be true considering the younger man was standing right there.
Alive and well. Or at least alive.
"That's nothing unusual," he said, trying for banter but failing in the delivery. He sounded like he meant it, like he was trying to convince Ever that overwhelmed was normal and, oddly, important. He shook his head, dismissing the subject entirely.
"Where were you?" He snuck in immediately, little realizing he was saying the exact thing Ever didn't want to hear. He had a knack for that, "what happened to your face?" He just saw the injuries, and made to walk toward him, except his feet were lost under heavy books and he fell forward immediately, landing on his hands.
Not his most graceful day.
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Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 4:05 pm
It was a wonderfully welcome distraction. Ever finished shrugging out of his coat and then sank down to a slow crouch beside him, reaching out to grab a couple of the books. His face looked bad, but his hands were certainly worse, something made clear by the way he struggled not to touch any of the books with his palms or fingers, instead tugging them in closer with his wrists...
"Um. Things got kind of crazy." Which answered exactly nothing, and deliberately so. Ever huffed out a breath and finally gave in, wincing as he grabbed a book and tucked it into the crook of his elbow.
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Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 1:38 pm
"I can see that," Tony said. He struggled to get himself to his knees, looking at Ever as he started helping with the books. Tony's hand moved carefully but quickly, catching Ever's upper arm and stopping his hand from moving.
"What happened?" he breathed, worried. He hadn't seen injuries like that before, in the 'every day' life of people around him. He immediately assumed the worst.
Ever had been attacked by something stronger. A youma? A Negaverse soldier? That same Senshi he claimed attacked him before?
Tony couldn't doubt that it looked bad, and he hated that it happened to someone he was friends with. It was bad enough reading about the attacks and strange reports, seeing the strange events himself, or watching them happen to other people. But something about his friends, people he cared about and had the dire need to protect, being involved just made his chest hurt.
"Have you been to the hospital about this? You shouldn't be here working, with your hands like this." He reached for the books Ever had already gathered.
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Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:13 pm
The 'what happened' made Ever go wide-eyed, deer in headlights, digging for one of the lies that he'd worked on during his commute to the library. Somehow, with Tony standing there and holding onto his hand [something that, yes, made him flush just a little with memory] it was hard to dig up his clever stories. Something about a porcupine -- or had that gone into the 'definitely don't say this one" side of things?
He was so grateful when Tony moved on to lecturing that his knees went limp and he dropped down to sit on the ground, still clutching several books against his chest with the unhurt part of his arm. "...ah. It's okay. I had them looked at."
Zac wasn't exactly a doctor, but he had looked. That made that a truth. "I'll be fine. Trust me, I wouldn't be here if...if, well, if being home weren't driving me a little crazy..."
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:25 pm
Tony did not look happy. The complete opposite of it, in fact. He was worried, to say the least, and he hated the idea that Ever was keeping something from him.
That either meant it was too difficult to talk about, which Tony understood but could only worry even more about, or that he was involved in something dangerous. True, there might have been more than two explanations for it, much simpler ones at that, but Tony didn't think of any of them.
He was too preoccupied with his worry.
"You went to a hospital?" he asked, skeptical. He remembered he had a bit of trouble convincing Ever to go get looked at when he had been beaten up in the street outside the library. He amended himself. "The clinic?"
He didn't stand up yet, watching Ever.
"I'm not going to send you home if you want to be here, but I don't think dealing with the books will be helpful. Computer and patrons only, okay?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:34 pm
Ever stayed sitting on the ground, hugging books, his attention turned absently up toward Tony. It was possible his eyes lingered a little too long on the man's mouth before he blinked, snapped back into focus, and tried to process the things he'd been asked.
"It's, um. It's just skinned palms, Tony...but...yes. Computer and patrons." Which came with a sigh, as he unfolded his legs out from under himself and finally offered the books up to the librarian.
"How are you? okay?" He cleared his throat, struggling to divert attention to just about anywhere else. "Things sorting themselves out some?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:26 am
Tony did not budge from his order. Skinned palms or not, Tony was not going to let Ever hurt himself further. The young man had bad enough luck with keeping himself healthy, just like Tony in a way. Though, on that front they were completely different. The civilian simply had a bad habit of getting involved in things way over his head. He was not fighting as a senshi or a nega, as Ever was the latter.
Tony had no idea, though, and imagined that Ever's bad luck must have rubbed off of him because he spent so much time around Tony. And for that he was guilty. The least he could do was make sure work was easy on Ever while he healed up.
And anyway, they were friends. Drinking buddies. Tony didn't exactly remember everything from that night, particularly what had happened before he zonked out on the couch, but it still rang in his mind as a fun night that he appreciated.
"Me? I'm fine. Besides the... ah... falling down thing," he finally smiled, shoving the books into a pile and finally standing himself up. "I'll pick the rest of these up, don't worry about it."
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Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 5:20 pm
For another long moment, Ever just stared up at him, sprawled on the floor, looking young and awkward. Not his usual mocking self, the smile he usually wore was wiped away by worry and fatigue. He hadn't worried this much before...
He clicked back into himself like a switch had been flipped, abruptly shaking his head and clearing his throat, fighting down all his immediate answers as he struggled to stand. The hands were better than they looked, but worse than he'd admit: Ever tried to get to his feet without using them, and he lacked the grace to do it well.
"Things seemed kinda messed up for you, before. I don't know..."
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:31 pm
Tony moved to help him up on instinct, supporting him by the arm and not getting anywhere near his hands just in case. The librarian didn't want to do more harm than good, which was often a problem. Once Ever was properly righted, Tony breathed a soft sigh.
"No, it's fine for me. You just soldier on, right? I think the night off was more helpful than I want to admit getting drunk can be. Don't worry about me, I'm fine. I'm here to help you, whenever you need it."
He looked serious, though his eyes were soft and warm.
"I hate seeing you getting hurt so much... I hate to think it's because this library is in a dangerous area or... I know it sounds stupid, or if my bad luck has rubbed off on you. And even if neither are the case, it's still difficult seeing you getting hurt."
He indicated toward the computer, in case Ever needed help walking over to it.
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:39 pm
"...I'm fine, Tony." He gently extracted Tony's hand from his arm, flushing just a tiny bit as he did, and hiked one shoulder upward in a shrug. Maybe the librarian didn't remember all that much from their drunken escapades, but Ever certainly remembered enough to leave him a little flustered by the contact. And also to leave him thinking he was an idiot.
"This didn't happen anywhere near the library." He patted his palms against his pants, eyes flashing to the books -- but this time, he didn't go for them. Tony'd just pout at him, and as nice as that was..."And it's my fault, I just...don't really...want to talk about it."
That was too serious. He flicked a look up at Tony, and struggled for a smile, tone gone joking. "You should see the other guy, eh?"
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