Welcome to Gaia! ::

Aphismet couldn't believe his ears. "A... a house? Th-that house would be ours?" A slow grin spread on his lips, and he turned to flash Isi an excited smile before turning back to the woman. "W-wow, I don't know what to say!"

"Well, you have to say yes, Mister Aphismet, otherwise you can't have it," the Social Worker said with a dry smirk.

Aphismet nodded, squeezing back on Isi's hand. "Oh, right, right! Y-yes, yes, I consent or agree or whatever it is I'm supposed to do."

"Very well. Now I have all the papers here for you to sign, Mister Aphismet. The foster care form, the deed transferral form, and I brought an adoption form that I filled out for you. This should get the ball moving on making the adoption final, but these things take time." She shoved the entire briefcase at the man, having closed it and placed the papers to be signed on top.

Aph took the leather case, spun it so that the papers faced him, and accepted the silver-plated pen that the woman handed him. She then pointed to a myriad of places, reciting the duties to be performed. "Sign here, and here, print name here, initials here and here and here, sign here again, initials here, and finally print name here and sign under it."

Aphismet struggled to follow along, scribbling his name and initials however she dictated. She then grabbed the briefcase back and nodded curtly as she checked each one, making sure nothing was missed.

"Um, your pen?" Aph said, offering it back.

She reached up absently and took it, nodding a final time.

"Well, everything seems to be in order! Good day gentlemen." She put the forms in the leather case, extricated herself from the chair, and looked at Isi before leaving. "Don't ever think you have to put up with anything like that again, young man. You come and tell me if something else goes wrong with this one." With that she spun, and walked off in her too-full shoes.

Aphismet turned back to Isi, and almost shook with happiness. "Can you believe it? We're a family now! And, and we get to stay in your house! I, I could never ever afford a place like that normally... I'll have to get a bike to go to work every day, it's pretty far... But that's fine, it'll still cost less than my place does right now!" He laughed happily. "Good things in disguise have happened to me since I met you, Isi. How strange!"

Aph grinned at the boy's enthusiasm. He got up and sat on the side of the bed to give the boy the hug he seemed to want, although Aph was careful not to squeeze his sides; it would hurt the broken rib, no doubt.

At the question, Aph made a pensive face. "Errr, I don't know! What do you WANT to call me? I I mean, I don't feel like a "dad" or "uncle"... How about Supreme Master Aphismet?" Aph joked, poking Isi's forehead with a smile. "But seriously, I think just Aph or Aphi is okay. Kinda like what you'd call me if I really WAS your big brother. Right?"

"Things are finally looking up. ...Oh, crap!" Aph exclaimed. "Rivener and your whale! They must be worried sick! I'll call the apartment and let them know what ha-..."

Something finally dawned on Aphismet, and he frowned in concern. Why hadn't this stood out to him before? "L-last night, I saw Beauregard at your house. He-he-he... he was floating around you when you fell. Did you notice? Maybe I was just hallucinating, I was pretty dazed..."

The worse case scenario played in his mind. Rivener and Beauregard were always together. If Beau was there, then there was a good chance Rivener had been, too! That window breaking, upstairs... the sound of gunfire imitated from someone's voice... Could it be? Could it be that Maasi's collapse was...?

Aphismet was starting to panic. "Rivener was there! He must have been! It sounds like he attacked Maasi, poisoned her!... That window breaking we heard, it must have been him as well! He might be hurt! I, I have to go home and check on them. You'll stay here, ok? You have to stay here and keep pressure off your ribs. I'll be back as soon as I'm done making sure Riv's fine. Riv and Beauregard, that is."

Suddenly feeling in a big rush, Aphismet scrambled for the phone on the nightstand. Perhaps there was nothing to worry about... Rivener might just answer the phone and tell him that nothing was wrong, and that he had indeed been there at Maasi's.

Aphi dialed clumsily, having to hang up and try again three times before he got it right. The phone was ringing, ringing... Ah, finally, it came off the hook! "Hello?! Rivener?" Aph immediately said, but heard no voice on the other side... Only music playing acappella. Almost like something had just knocked the phone off the hook, and the radio was on.

"s**t!" Aph swore, and hung up, giving Isi a worried look. "I'm going now. Please don't worry, I'll be back shortly."

Aph then turned and scrambled out of the room.

The man stumbled down hallways, heading for the elevator. He passed a nurse's station, and they rushed out to meet him, asking him where he was going in such a hurry. "I have to get home!" he screeched, trying to get past the women, but they outnumbered him three to one.

"Sir, you're wounded, you can't just go! In a hospital gown, no less?"

"I have to! Rivener needs me!" Aph managed to shove past the women and press the elevator's down button, but they grabbed him again while the doors slid open...



****

The previous night, Rivener had returned home, his floating more erratic than normal. The gashes in his hands were bleeding a lot, and although he had wrapped his own ribbons around them to try and staunch the blood, the ethereal fabric had been soaked through quite fast, and hadn't helped at all.

As Riv landed on his window, he let out a sigh. The effort of keeping himself afloat was taxing; this was a first. As he entered the house, he went for the kitchen sink, turning the faucet on with his elbows and putting his hands under briefly, to wash off most of the caked blood.

"Hunh, still bleeding," he rasped. "...must need stitches." He looked around and saw the kitchen towel. Grabbing it, he wrapped it around one hand, before fishing another similar towel from under the cupboards, which he wrapped around his other hand. Dots of red were already peeking through the fabric.

"I'm so tired," Riv whispered as he headed for the couch, letting himself fall on it. He almost immediately lost consciousness.

Aph had lost the battle with the nurses, but they had agreed to let him make a phone call once he'd explained that someone needed help. They'd offered to send an amublance over, but Aphismet had to admit that the person needing help was not human.

Good thing for Aph that strange species were not a novelty in Gaia.

Aph dialed furiously, the only number he had ever memorized apart for his workplace's. The lab.

Riiiing! Riiiing! No answer? Riing! Riiing! Rii-click Ah, finally!

"Hello!" Aph immediately jumped. "I need help, I-"

"You've reached Lab 305. There is no one to take your call at the moment, please leave a message." Chloe's recorded voice rang out, and Aph almost cried from frustration.

After the beep, Aph spoke quickly, but tried to remain clear enough to understand. "Um, h-hi! This is Aphismet, I'm in the hospital and I think Rivener, my Raevan, might be needing medical help, he's stuck at home! I can't get to him! Please, please! My adress is 35 Mercy Street, floor 5 apartment 4! He needs help urgently, I think he may have passed out! Please he-"

The dial tone cut him off. Seems he'd filled up the time for his message. Aph looked at the receiver regretfully, and sighed, putting it down. He then returned to Isi's room, escorted by the two nurses who now refused to leave his side, lest he do something foolish like try to sneak off.

Aph smiled sheepishly at Isi as he was ushered in by the two ladies. He offered a slightl shrug before sitting down. "They wouldn't let me leave. I called the Lab, that's the only number I remembered. I hope Dr Tsu or Dr Kyou get the message soon... I'm so worried. Why would Rivener have followed us?"

Aph was scratching idly at his bandage as Isi scolded him, a playful smile on his lips. It was endearing to see how grown-up the kid could be; he was most likely used to scolding his grandma this way, for her own good. He decided he wouldn't mention anything about it, since Isi was actually right. Aph shouldn't be rushing about. But if he wasn't going to do it, who would? Someone had to look after Riv!

He sighed at Isi's question. Aph was not a very empathic person. "Oh, I dunno! Let's see, what is Riv like... Well, he's selfish, and easily jealous, possessive, disobedient, rebellious... He already acts like some kind of teenager. When he hits "teenage" Raevan phase, I really hope he doesn't get any worse." The though made him shiver.

"I really don't know why he would have followed us! I mean, he was having so much fun with Beauregard, I didn't want to bother him... and besides, I wouldn't have to worry about feeding him, so I thought he'd be okay at home." Another sigh as he ran a hand through his hair, wincing as he snagged the bandage. "I'd say he was worried about us, but that's highly unlikely."

"Well then, what is possible? If he wasn't worried...You said he was jealous, possessive and whatnot. Do you think he got jealous when you left without telling him anything?" Isi pressed the cold of the blankets to the side of his face where he still felt the bruise that Old Maasi had delivered unto him. His chest was still aching and he could feel the area where it was stiff with pain and throbbing hot tissue. In his spare time at home, the boy had actually dived into philosophy books. He was four years ahead in schooling than other kids of his age. "Because you're his guardian...Perhaps he got jealous because I came in and stole the attention he was used to recieving." Isi looked away, he now felt kind of quilty about it, whether or not that was the actual case. "Plus, you say he already acts like a teenager. Maybe he believes himself to be an adult and he wanted to be included? I get like that a lot, even more so because of my legs."

Rivener hadn't moved since he'd plopped down onto the couch. He lay face-down, one arm bent under his head as a pillow, and the other arm dropped carelessly off the edge of the sofa. Blood had soaked through the kitchen towels wrapped around his hands, slowly and surely throughout the night. A dark pool of blood stained the couch under his head (where his hand was), and there was a small puddle of blood on the ground as well.

The medicine boxes that Beauregard had found throughout the house were still strewn about him, from Nyquil to wart remover... He hadn't woken up once to see them.

Rivener's face, normally so tan and sensual, was much paler, looking drawn like a corpse's. His breath was slow and weak.

Aphismet sighed and kept his eyes on the ceiling as he considered what Isi was saying. Aph was more than a little intimidated to see how smart his little brother was... Especially when he himself wasn't really intellectual at all. He truly hoped Isi wouldn't lose that gift, when he began living with Aph. As though stupidity was contagious.

"I really don't know... Jealousy, yeah that sounds like something he might do. He might have been jealous that we left without him, or that I'm paying attention to you. But he didn't seem to mind before! He was playing with Beau really happily before we left! And besides, he never looks like he cares wether I pay attention to him or not..."

Aphismet sighed. All this thinking was giving him a headache. "I should go call the Carafe too, and tell them I'm not going to make it tonight. It'll look bad to miss work after only a week, but this can't be helped," he added with a shrug.

The nurses, having overheard what he said, walked forward and offered Aph a cordless phone and a phone book. He smiled sheepishly and began flipping through the pages, while still paying attention to Isi.

"I'll just ask Riv what the problem was, when we get home," he asked as he dialed.