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 Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 8:25 pm
With his eyes closed as they were, Arawn didn’t see Remarque come through the mirror. But he could hear the magical shifting of the glass and he could feel the tension of Laon beside him.
He wanted to try and soothe Laon, just as Laon was trying to soothe him, but there was very little he could do on the ground.
He could hear Remarque’s voice, but things were starting to sound distant. He was conscious enough to make a face at Remarque’s request, and managed to crack an eye open to see what the heck he was talking about. Especially if Laon was asking if it was safe. It was too blurry to see what he was supposed to be breathing in, but…
If there was any person other than Laon that Arawn was going to trust, he supposed it would be Remarque.
So he breathed in -- as deeply as he could manage at least. Remarque was right about him feeling less pain right away, but then again, a lot of drugs did that.
But as the seconds ticked by, he felt like he could breathe a little deeper and for longer. The pressure and throbbing in his very bones seemed to subside.
“I absolutely won, you know,” he growled from where he was on the ground. All five, maybe more, of them.” As long as Remarque didn’t think he was pathetic for ending up like this. “What the ******** did I breathe in?”
He opened his eyes once more, already feeling the pain subsiding. “It’s down to maybe a five now.” Remarque wanted him to give him status reports. Hopefully that’s what he meant.
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Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 8:33 pm
Remarque was waiting in a position that probably wasn’t comfortable but definitely was practical. If he had to grab Arawn to move him, it would have been easy to do so. But, the pain was going down. Maybe an emergency room visit wasn’t in the books for tonight.
“A five’s better than a seven, that’s the right direction at least. I don’t know if I can explain it. Just some magic. Highly compressed, very effective healing magic. I’ve got a couple more. For emergencies.”
He should probably hand over at least one for these boys with their luck.
Laon was already breathing a sigh of relief; he bowed his head gratefully but was quick to sit up straight so he wasn’t tickling Arawn with his hair.
“We’ll give it a little more time, no rush. You just take it easy and we’ll figure out where to go from there. Congrats on your win, I hope you taught them a lesson.”
Laon nodded firmly in agreement. Remarque wasn’t acting like he didn’t believe them so he didn’t feel like he needed to make a scene or be dramatic about it, but he kept it on the back of his mind so he was ready to go if needed.
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Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 8:36 pm
“Turns out Remarque does have healing magic,” Arawn breathed and closed his eyes again, but groped around to wrap an arm around Laon and make sure he was close.
“Thanks,” he tiredly mumbled, but it wasn’t so much for the congratulations as it was for Remarque showing up. He didn’t have to, but he did.
Now he just had to make sure Remarque didn’t know how badly his memory was, otherwise he might get second thoughts about helping them or--
“I don’t remember,” he confessed before he could change his mind. He kept his eyes squeezed shut, but was grateful that the pain was continuing to fade. Maybe it would have been better not to tell Remarque…
But he hated the look of fear and helplessness in Laon’s eyes. The stress he was under for school and everything else. He didn’t need not knowing what he was up to on top of that.
“I don’t know what happened. Or how I got hurt. It just-- I was looking for Laon, that’s all I know.”
If there was anything Remarque could do for them, he’d let them know. Arawn had to trust that, loath of him to admit it. Remarque hadn’t done anything to harm them or put them in a bad position yet.
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Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 8:43 pm
Laon stiffened immediately. He looked surprised, both eager and alarmed. His eyes darted from Arawn to Remarque. He moved closer to Arawn in a small effort to make sure he didn’t have to work so hard to keep him close.
He couldn’t tell if Remarque already knew about Arawn’s memory issues. It wasn’t like they’d talked about it before. But he saw him often, didn’t he? Jett wasn’t always in the office; he had a lot of places to be. Sometimes he had full shifts where he didn’t see him at all, or sometimes Jett just dropped in to see how things were going. More rarely, Jett was there for more than just a few minutes.
But still, he’d spent time with Orien.
Remarque raised his gaze to Laon but he looked away quickly. Remarque didn’t press whatever silent communication he’d been looking for. “Well, you look like you got into a tumble. I’d guess a concussion. If you get hit too hard in the head it can make you feel confused and mess up your memory. Might make you groggy, you might feel like you’re going to throw up. Dizzy, off balance, bad vision. Light and sound hurt, headache?”
Laon looked worried again, and he chewed on the inside of his cheek as he listened. Maybe a concussion, sure. But this wasn’t the only time he had memory issues. Laon just didn’t want to say it.
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Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 10:40 pm
Arawn fell silent, doing his best to relax with Laon next to him. He knew he shouldn’t have said anything. He didn’t know if saying would really matter. There wasn’t much anyone could do about bad memory, anyway.
“Yeah,” he agreed, because it was easier than to tell Remarque that he didn’t think he’d hit his head. Or to tell him that this wasn’t the first time he’d had problems not knowing what he was doing. Jett was aware that he sometimes needed to be reminded about things at work, but nothing like this. Or maybe it was like this and he just couldn’t remember.
Laon said nothing to verify that it was an ongoing issue. And Arawn figured he did the best he could to present an opening, but he would trust Laon. If he didn’t want to say anything, then that was fine. It was them against the world, after all.
And Remarque had helped them out, and he really was starting to feel better, but he knew it was probably pretty selfish to burden Remarque with something like that. So he either thought Arawn was exaggerating, or he believed him and was offering other excuses because he didn’t want to deal with it.
He was disappointed but not surprised. He just didn’t want to see Laon so worried and stressed all the time.
“Well… I’m feeling a lot better now, so I guess I’ll see you tomorrow for work.”
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Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 10:41 pm
“No,” Remarque made a face at him. He could tell by Laon’s dumbfounded expression that Arawn hadn’t said what he expected, but it was far from the first time tonight that he’d understood the two were keeping secrets from him.
“I’m not going to make you come to work when you were just at a ‘seven and rising’ on your pain scale. What, do you think I’m some sort of monster? Stay home tomorrow and rest. Just because you’re feeling better doesn’t mean you’re not going to be exhausted. If you really want to work, I’ll drop off a laptop tomorrow and you can clean up some of our product images so we can get things listed. And that’s a strong if you want to work. Because I’d rather you not strain yourself.”
He knew Arawn could do that, he’d done it before.
Laon looked like he wanted to say something more but his eyes had fallen to Arawn. He was struggling again, and Remarque could see it plainly. More secrets.
And yet, he knew some of what they skirted around. The way Orien’s hands trembled. The way he could sometimes zone out so effectively that he looked surprised to come to and realize he was still at work. The way he could know how to do a task perfectly for a week straight and then seem like he’d forgotten everything. It was well beyond the ‘bad at telling time’ or ‘forgetting what day of the week it was’. Orien was good at filling in the gaps, at least enough to make it less obvious.
But he saw the notes Kaelan left him. The little text reminders that came in throughout the day.
Remarque wasn’t stupid.
Maybe this was a concussion. Maybe it wasn’t.
“Do you want to see a specialist?”
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Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 11:06 pm
He knew it had been a bad idea. Arawn could feel his cheeks flush with frustration, and he made to push himself up to sit now that his body didn’t feel like it was on fire.
“No,” he growled. What was the point of seeing a specialist for anything if they weren’t going to believe him, either? And what? What kind of specialist dealt with stuff like that?
And, if a specialist like that did exist, what would the cost be? Surely astronomical. There was no way he could wipe out their savings just because he had an issue with remembering things every now and then.
“I just want to go home and rest.”
It wasn’t really a lie. He did want to go home. But it was also a good excuse to get out of having to deal with anything. He would cry on the bed while Kaelan took a shower and cried in there. Try as he might, the walls tended to echo and the sound of a shower was much different than that of quiet sobs. He left Kaelan alone when he needed to escape. He figured he was part of the problem, anyway. Might as well give his boyfriend a chance to breathe, away from him.
“Thanks for your help,” he said with a nod, pushing himself up to his feet and holding a hand out to Laon. See? He was perfectly fine now. Whatever happened didn’t matter. It was probably a good thing he couldn’t remember it because now he didn’t have to think about it.
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Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 11:07 pm
Laon looked like he was trying very hard to hold it together. He wanted to grab Arawn into his arms and hold him still so he could think about what he was doing right now. He’d just gotten hurt–badly–and was already flinging himself up like he was fine? What if he wasn’t! What if he wasn’t as healed as he thought! What if they went to bed tonight and Orien didn’t remember him when they woke up?
He took Arawn’s hand but he didn’t use it to pull himself up, he just held it while he rose.
Jett was not so fast to rise, but when he did it was with something not quite disappointment, but he wasn’t really happy either way. Arawn was stubborn. Maybe more so right now because Laon was here.
Remarque looked at Arawn like he was giving him a moment to change his mind, and then he shrugged. “Okay.”
You could lead a horse to water but you couldn’t make it drink.
Laon wasn’t looking at him or Arawn; he’d fixed his eyes on a distant mirror like he was planning an escape, or trying to disappear into his own reflection.
“Head injuries can be rough. If you’re still having problems, let me know. I got to know a neurologist pretty well back when I was boxing, I can introduce you if you want. Just keep an eye on things and don’t push yourself too hard. Are you going to be able to make it up all those stairs tonight? I can book you a hotel room for the night.”
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Posted: Sat May 18, 2024 10:10 am
Arawn’s heart hurt. He hated seeing Laon so upset. And he felt as though everything he did only made things worse. knew he only made things worse.
Once Laon was on his feet, Arawn reached out to wrap his arm around him and pulled him close. He kissed his forehead and rubbed his back. He was still holding onto the hand he’d taken to get him to his feet, even if he didn’t use any of Arawn’s strength.
He wanted to refuse the offer Remarque was giving. He wanted to stubbornly say that they were fine and could figure things out.
But Laon looked like he was ready to fall apart.
“Okay,” he agreed, but it wasn’t for him. It was for Laon. “Thanks. We don’t have anything with us… could we stop by a store to pick up some clothes and toothbrushes? You can take it out of my pay,” he offered, still rubbing Laon’s back. And if Laon needed any school stuff he left at home, he could always jump through the mirrors to get there. He didn’t bother mentioning that he didn’t think he had a head injury. For all he knew, he did.
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Posted: Sat May 18, 2024 10:18 am
As soon as Arawn pulled him close, Laon leaned against him. He wanted to support Arawn–he knew he was hurting! But he–wait, he didn’t say no? He wasn’t chasing Remarque away? He was so concerned about saving money but was saying take it out of his pay?
Laon was searching his face but he had no answers.
“Don’t stress it,” Remarque said easily. “We’ll put it on the company card, I’ll make it off as a business expense. I’ll get it back in tax returns. You can get room service, too. I’ll get a room with a late checkout so you can sleep in. Hell, I don’t care. Stay tomorrow night, too. You got injured on the job, I said I’d help take care of you.”
Laon had a lump in his throat but…
He was so tired of being wary. He was so tired of being anxious. Sure–a hotel sounded great. With hot water in the shower? With room service? That almost sounded like a vacation.
He looked at Arawn desperately, like he was trying to read his mind. If there were no strings attached–whatever, he was desperate. He just wanted Arawn to be okay.
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Posted: Sat May 18, 2024 10:32 am
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said softly, pressing a kiss to the corner of Laon’s eye. There was no chastising in his voice. Just a sad weariness. He had to be strong and make sure he got better for Laon’s sake. He was working so hard for both of them.
He didn’t want to just ignore Remarque, especially with how generous he was being. And getting an outfit at the store was a lot cheaper than an emergency room visit. A dollar toothbrush wouldn’t break the bank.
But he wasn’t sure what to do about Remarque. He wanted to trust him with more than just calling him for help, but he’d been so jaded in the past it was hard to believe that there wouldn’t be something that came to bite them.
“Thank you. I’m feeling better, I promise,” he insisted, although… he paused to reach down and pull up his shirt again, just to check on the bruising. He was relieved to see that it had mostly faded. He even made sure Laon saw.
“I’m okay,” he insisted once more, and with one more kiss against Laon’s cheek. He still couldn’t remember what happened, but at least he wasn’t getting worse.
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Posted: Sat May 18, 2024 2:37 pm
Laon visibly relaxed when he saw the faded bruises, and now he couldn’t help but place his hand on Arawn’s stomach to brush lightly at his skin. It wasn’t an illusion. He didn’t press too hard just in case, but it visibly brought him great comfort to see him in much better condition.
“Okay,” Laon said. He forced himself to nod and then breathed another sigh of relief. “Okay, good. Thank you. And–” he peered over Arawn’s shoulder to look at Remarque. “Thank you, too.”
“Don’t mention it,” Remarque insisted. He knew he was intruding. He knew how these boys were. “You’ve both had a long night. And a long day, too. Laon, do you need anything for school tomorrow?”
“No,” he answered quickly. “I have everything in my backpack with me.”
“Okay, good. Then here’s what I want to do. Let’s get out of here, my car’s still parked at the shop. We’ll head over there, I’ll give you a ride to pick up whatever you need from the store and I’ll get a room for two nights. Laon, you relax and study for your finals. Arawn, you relax and heal up. It’s easy, no stress. All right?”
Laon was guarded still, but he wrapped his arms around Arawn again and hesitantly nodded once more. “Is that okay?” he whispered into Arawn’s ear, as if ready to change his mind and announce it if he said otherwise.
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Posted: Sat May 18, 2024 7:39 pm
Arawn smoothed his hand down Laon’s back and through his hair, trying to offer him a little bit of comfort. “Yeah,” he whispered back, as if giving Laon a chance to change his mind as well. But he already knew he’d do whatever Arawn wanted to do.
“All right,” he nodded to Remarque. He didn’t feel comfortable getting into the details of if he’d need a neurologist or some other specialist that he didn’t know the name of either, but he knew he could at least try to keep it in mind if things got like this again.
He refrained from thanking Remarque again, but kept his arm around Laon as he moved in the direction of the mirror that would lead close to Remarque’s shop. He would have to tell him about Laon getting attacked at some point, but he would probably wait until Laon was settled and not as frantic.
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