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 Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:18 am
Ilian Jones did not like admitting that he needed help. After learning to live first without his parents, and then still trying to learn how to live without his brother, it seemed as though he had no one to trust but himself. He knew what was best for himself, was able to break free from the control of the foster system by becoming an emancipated sixteen-year-old who now had a job at a crappy burger joint and his own apartment in a run down part of town.
Even when it came to his duty as an agent of the Negaverse, he refused to back down, regardless of the danger. It was his new life, and unless he pushed himself, he knew he would never get better. But this time, he might have gone a bit too far.
He knew he was in bad shape when he stumbled through the backyard of a home he’d only been in when necessary to put his pride on the line and ask for help. In previous instances it was more a matter of borrowing clothing he couldn’t afford himself, or to have some access to an actual piano, rather than the keyboard he had. He loved his keyboard, but it wasn’t the same as an actual piano.
Having powered down a few blocks back to hopefully escape from the senshi he’d fought, Ilian was surprised he made it as far as he did. He could barely see out of one eye that was sure to be black and swollen by the next morning, had a busted lip, and among the other various cuts and bruises he sported, there was a particularly nasty gash across his abdomen. As the clothing he wore now were not damaged other than being old and worn, the only indication of injury was the blood that soaked through his shirt.
Chances that Lovely would even be awake to realize he was there was… probably pretty slim. The floodlights in the backyard lit up when he approached the door, but when he reached to try and open it he found it locked. Ilian let out a groan of distress and defeat as he slumped down against the door, trying to summon enough strength to knock louder than he currently was attempting. At least if he passed out now, he would be in a much safer place than some back alley.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:18 am
Luckily for Ilian, but unlucky for Lovely, Lovely’s bedroom happened to be at the back of the house. Lovely also happened to be a light sleeper, so the sudden wash of light in his room from the flood lights at the back of the house accompanied by the sounds of someone stumbling around outside roused him from sleep. At first he was content to ignore it. It was probably a stray cat. Or a racoon going for the garbage.
Or a burglar. It could be one of those. He wouldn’t put it past someone to try and break into their house.
Annoyed that his sleep had been disturbed, Lovely hoisted himself out of bed and went to the window which overlooked the backyard, pulling the blinds up to stare out into the darkness. The flood lights only helped enough to show that there was indeed a person outside. Anything distinguishable about the person in question was lost this late at night.
Dangerous though it might have been to do so, Lovely left his room and stomped down the stairs to the kitchen. He carried his phone with him in case he should need to call the proper authorities, but a quick peek out the back door upon arriving in the kitchen showed his late night guest to be not a burglar, but a familiar adolescent with dark curls…
… and a very noticeably swollen eye.
Rolling his own eyes, Lovely unlocked and opened the backdoor, stepping outside in his pajamas with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Bitten off more than you can chew again?” he asked.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:19 am
Expecting to end up sleeping out in the backyard that night, the sound of the door opening and Lovely’s voice allowed relief to wash over him, and he let out a little laugh at the question. He assumed Lovely was annoyed that he was woken up so late at night, but Ilian would worry about that later. Right now he was just glad to see him.
“P-probably,” he groaned through a weak grin as he pushed himself up from the porch floor. He knew he should be more careful, but how was he supposed to know when he really was in over his head, or if he’d improved any, if he didn’t take on more difficult opponents?
“Sorry, your place was closer,” he explained, making to stand after he was sure he wouldn’t fall over. “I won’t ruin anything…. just let me sleep in the kitchen or something,” he requested grimly, knowing very well that he wouldn’t be able to afford replacing even a pillow if it was ruined. “I’ll leave first thing in the morning…”
It was really all he could offer, having very little to his name. If it was a matter of giving the other a starseed or the energy he’d collected, he supposed that was a decent price as well, even though he had worked hard to collect what he did.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:19 am
Lovely sneered at the offer and rolled his eyes again. He reached out to grab Ilian by the arm, not to steady him, but to drag him into the house. Then Lovely slammed the back door and locked it back up, muttering to himself all the while about stupid hotheads who didn’t know when to call it quits.
“You’re not sleeping in the kitchen,” he said as he turned the lights on. “I don’t feel like scrubbing blood off the tile. At least if you’re on a bed the sheets can just be thrown in the wash. Or tossed in the garbage, one or of the other.”
He didn’t know why Ilian did these things. More often than not he was sporting some new cut or bruise, courtesy of the Senshi and Knights that populated the city. Lovely thought it pointless, the way Ilian went at things, getting himself hurt, and for what? Revenge?
With a sigh, Lovely turned toward the refrigerator and pulled a bag of frozen peas from the freezer. He tossed it at Ilian and said, “Put that on your eye,” then left the kitchen for the downstairs bathroom, where he found a first aid kit under the sink.
Returning to the kitchen, Lovely set the first aid kit on the counter but made no move to open it. “You can take care of yourself, can’t you?”
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:19 am
Ilian winced when he was pulled into the house and stumbled into the kitchen counter as he sought for a solid surface for him to steady himself, lest he crumple to the ground again. “I would have cleaned it,” he argued, but couldn’t deny that the idea of sleeping in a bed instead of on the floor was more appealing. Of course, he was still concerned about what would happen if the blood soaked through into the mattress.
He definitely wouldn’t be able to afford replacing a mattress!!
The bag of peas being tossed at him startled him, and he nearly dropped the bag as he tried to will his arms to work to catch it. Lovely was already doing more for him than he’d meant for him to, and it made him feel guilty for putting the burden on him. The question about him being able to take care of himself prompted Ilian to give Lovely a strange look, as if he was crazy.
“Of course I can,” he said, sounding almost offended by the implication that he couldn’t take care of himself. He’d taken care of himself for years. Okay, so he’d had the help of his brother before, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t take care of himself!
“Thanks, I know where the bedroom is. Sorry for waking you,” he added, not wanting Lovely to hover and make comments about how he was stupid or whatever. Ilian set the bag of peas down on the counter so he could open the first aide kit and fish out some bandages, peeling them, and pulling up his shirt to apply them on as much of the large cut as he could.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:20 am
Lovely made a disgusted face when Ilian pulled up his shirt.
“Shouldn’t you have a doctor look at that?”
It would heal, but it looked like the sort of cut that would scar without proper attention. Somehow Lovely doubted a first aid kit was up to the task. Not that he was going to insist that Ilian go to a doctor if the idiot didn’t want to, but it seemed appropriate to at least suggest the idea.
Despite himself, Lovely couldn’t help but feel mildly concerned. It was an odd feeling, given that he didn’t often concern himself with anyone other than himself. But he was loyal to those friends he did happen to make, and he supposed Ilian was the closest thing he could consider to a friend these days. It wasn’t as if anyone else hung around and put up with his attitude, after all.
“It’s not worth it, you know,” he said. He crossed his arms over his chest again and leaned against the counter. “Whatever it is you’re doing. The Negaverse isn’t worth this,” he added, motioning to Ilian like he meant to encompass all of his bumps and bruises.
“What did you get yourself into this time?” he wondered. “Tried to take on another Eternal?”
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:20 am
“With what health insurance?” he grumbled and winced as he attempted to use one of those butterfly bandage things to get the wound to close, but it was difficult to tell if he managed it with the blood, both fresh and dried. “I can’t afford a doctor, you know that.” Even if he wanted to see a doctor, he knew very well how expensive it got. The last time he ended up in the hospital he had to sneak out before they realized he used a fake identity.
Now that the adrenaline was running low, Ilian slumped back down to the ground, pulling the kit and bag of peas with him. With his hands covered in blood from trying to bandage himself up, he gave up on trying to open any more for fear of contaminating the whole kit, and relented to laying down on the ground so he could hold the bag of peas over his face easier.
“Super,” he said through gritted teeth. “She had some… strange magic, though. It made everything seem warped, like time slowed down or something like that. I don’t know… I couldn’t really see her. She attacked me, by the way… I was just trying to gather energy.” It was their duty, after all.
The cool floor felt nice against his bruised back, but he was sure Lovely would make him get up before he could bleed everywhere. “Your brother isn’t home?” he wondered, realizing that he was lucky it was Lovely who found him and no one else.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:21 am
“He’s home, as far as I’m aware,” Lovely said. “Probably up working on his next manuscript.”
He looked down at Ilian with a disgruntled expression, reaching out a bare foot to dig his toes into Ilian’s uninjured side as a means of encouraging him up off the floor.
“Have you ever stopped to think that if you weren’t gathering energy, maybe the Senshi wouldn’t have had any reason to attack you?” he asked.
It was a traitorous thing to say and he knew it, but then Lovely wasn’t as invested in the Negaverse and what it represented as Ilian was. He went along with it for the power and the glory, but at the end of the day, common sense won out. Draining energy was not the way to get on anyone’s good side, much less their enemy’s.
Then again, if it wasn’t for Ilian, Lovely probably wouldn’t be involved with this whole mess to begin with.
“You think getting your a** handed to you is going to get you promoted faster? It’s not. It’s just going to end with you dead.”
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:21 am
Uninjured, maybe, but he was still bruised all over, so when Lovely dug his toes into his side, he whimpered pathetically, but forced himself back up from the ground, holding the bloody bag of peas to his eye still.
“If I wasn’t gathering energy, I wouldn’t be able to make quota for the three of us,” he grumbled, knowing very well it was his fault as to why both Jericho and Lovely were in this mess. He figured if he submitted enough to cover for all three of them, the Negaverse wouldn’t need to question when Lovely said things like he did. It was dangerous.
“You think I like ending up like this? Like it’s fun? Yeah, absolutely.” Part of him did want to get promoted faster if only for the extra power it would give him. To be able to teleport himself and his allies out of danger or to have better weapons…
Maybe then he wouldn’t end up like this all the time.
“You don’t have to nag me. I know the dangers,” he said, not having the time to feel sorry for himself, but he knew very few people would care if he did end up dead, if any.
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:22 am
“You know the dangers, yet you still go out and put yourself in situations where you could be killed.”
Lovely didn’t care if the things he said were dangerous. It wasn’t like he said them to anyone but Ilian. He wasn’t so stupid as to go mouthing off around their superiors. That was just asking for trouble, and Lovely thought the Negaverse was enough trouble as it was without adding anything else on top of it.
He was disenchanted, but not stupid.
Although, could you be disenchanted if you’d never been enchanted in the first place?
“Go clean yourself up,” Lovely demanded. The sight of blood all over Ilian's hands was starting to get to him. “You know where the bathroom is. When you’re done, you can sleep in one of the guest rooms.”
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Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 11:22 am
“Would you care?” he finally asked, although it was nothing more than a mumble under his breath. Figuring he didn’t want to hear the answer, he forced himself up and took the bag of peas and first aid kit to stumble his way towards the bathroom.
Not having anything to really clean himself up with, he figured a hand towel would be inexpensive enough to replace. Locking the bathroom door behind him and taking off his shirt he could see just how bad the wound was. Ilian soaked the towel in warm water and after it became saturated with blood, he wrung it out and started over until he managed to get enough off. Trying once more to bandage himself as best he could, it was a little easier now that he could see what he was doing, although fatigue was quickly creeping up on him.
He didn’t get a chance to see if Lovely had gone to bed by the time he dragged himself into the guest bedroom and passed out with the bag of peas on his face.
Once morning came, he did his best to clean up any mess he’d left and snuck out the back. Lovely put up with him enough. He shouldn’t also have to babysit him.
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