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Standing on their doorstep, René paced for a moment as he thought about how to explain things. His throat hurt still and his wrist was worse off than he could deal with but he was glad it was his left one when it came down to it. The only problem was that he couldn’t get to his keys easily so he knocked on the door and hoped that Hudson wasn’t home.

Rubbing at his throat gently, he could tell there were bruises already started to darken. He’d seen the early signs when he’d looked in the rearview mirror of his car. Normally he looked at least a little disheveled but usually it was because he was coming over on the weekend after a long work week but tonight was barely the start of the week. He’d only been home just one day before this had happened and now he was back here where he felt safer in this city of magic and war.

Yelping as they pulled his bad arm, he pulled his wrist away gently and babied it. It already had a dark bruise forming as well and had just the slightest wrongness to it from where it had been broken. “One of those things… cavaliers? I mean knights. They got a photo of me powering up near my shop.” Pausing every few words as he wrapped his good arm around them to hold them close.

“I chased them but whatever thing they did made their hits harder. It’s okay though, I’m okay.” Well as okay as he could be after having taken a starseed for the first time, alone. “I can’t say I’ve been strangled that hard before.” He tried teasing but he ended up coughing a bit from the soreness. “Water maybe?” He’d figured out the rest as it came but it hurt to talk still so he needed to fix that first.

Pulling away, he made for the couch and settled into the cushions as best as he could without jostling his wrist too much. He’d been banged up worse through normal means but back then he hadn’t had someone who worried the same way about him. Once settled, he pulled the memory card from his pocket and tossed it onto the coffee table for them to see.

After that, he just sat there and thought about what to say and how to say it because he really didn’t know enough about all this even if he’d been reading into it. Just the fact he was casually trying to joke and reassure them after he’d murdered someone should have felt wrong, but it didn’t. It worried him, if only because he was afraid that this could cause problems in the future with them. They’d said he might change if he did this but he couldn’t just let things happen and stand by and wait for the fallout of whatever might happen.

“Not sure… didn’t say.” Pausing for a moment, he grimaced and the thought of navigating a hospital here. “Lorcan but it’s broken, so clinic.” They said some things but he really didn’t recognize the names or what they were meaning as he mumbled over the words trying to think of if there was a translation he might know.

Taking the water before answering, he sipped at it slowly. “Not really but I’ll try most things at least once.” That was something he was cautious with because people reacted in widely different ways.

He’d been mid-swallow when they questioned him, causing him to choke a bit and sputter some backup. He stared just for a moment and poked them in the chest, his finger lingering there for a moment before he pulled his hand back and picked the bottle back up.

The second question left him silent again because he wasn’t sure how he felt. It wasn’t bloody, it wasn’t like he’d beaten someone to death. It had been just a fluid motion and then they’d been done like a candle being snuffed out. It had been a spur-of-the-moment thing because they’d probably have crushed his throat if he hadn’t done it.

Leaning forward he rested his head on them. “I don’t know Alexandre…” He’d show them it later after things were figured out. It was his job to turn them in, even if they weren’t a requirement like the energy quota he had.

Going to Lorcan also meant having to answer less questions and deal with less overall. With how he felt, he wasn’t up for the poking and prodding that would happen at a hospital either. It was going to suck still though to get everything set or in a brace but he could maybe get away with punching this doctor if it came down to it because it might just happen when they shifted things back into place.

Alexandre’s words weren’t wrong, if anything they fit how he’d been thinking in the moment when things had happened. Even without the roles being reversed things could have ended with him dead in that alley if he’d hesitated anymore than he had. The kiss helped as well as the fact they were being patient with things. It’s not something he’d ever really thought about as much but they were always okay with him taking whatever time he needed for things, especially with all this.

René leaned into their touch and nodded. “Me too.” That had been the thing he’d thought the most at the moment, about leaving them behind if something had happened to him. Watching as the phone rang, he just worked on drinking a bit more water. He knew he would be mostly fine with his throat in the next day or so, other than any bruises, but his wrist would be an issue with work.

It had been a quiet enough night, something that was rare nowadays since the night Alexandre had shown up at his door a bloody mess. It was one thing after another with them and now that they were involved with someone, he’d had yet another person to look after. It meant longer hours and more to deal with though it was still a cakewalk compared to his time in med school, at least in part.

So when his phone started to vibrate softly on the kitchen counter, he grabbed it and preemptively walked towards his door to grab the keys for his car. “Hello Alexandre, I’m guessing something happened. Do I need to make my way over to your place?” His comments were matter-of-fact, without much emotion or annoyance even if he’d been enjoying the peaceful evening watching a documentary. It was just another part of things now and he had accepted it begrudgingly because he’d been hedging his bets that the tart of his would pay out big when it came to lowering the risks his cousin took.

“Alright. I can meet you there and have everything prepped. You are right about that ER though, it’s a nightmare and understaffed even when they had all of us doing our rotations. Can you pay me back by avoiding trouble for at least one of my days off?” He didn’t wait for an answer as he ended the call and got to driving. It would only take a few minutes to get there and he could get a fracture kit from the sterile processing room. Since they hadn’t sounded hysterical, it couldn’t be a catastrophic break so he could probably get away with stabilizing it in a splint. If not, he’d have to wait until the morning if surgery was needed.

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René stood up and moved in closer as the other motioned for him with that concerned look on their face. Wrapping his good arm around them he rubbed their back as the line went dead. “I’m alright, I’m pretty sure I’ve had a worse break falling from a tree as a kid. But yeah… something for the bruising because it’s obvious this wasn’t done by you.”

By now his customers knew he had a partner, with some knowing exactly who they were and how they liked to leave some marks on his neck that sometimes were above his collar. But these weren’t going to be explained away like that and he didn’t want to deal with the questions. Worst case, he was considering getting a turtleneck or picking up some sort of makeup to cover it up. He’d used it before on his tattoo when going to certain events so he had some idea of how to cover bruises too if it worked under the same color theory.

Moving with them to the door, he sighed. “I still don’t get how you two are related. He’s so uptight you could probably give him coal and you’d get a diamond back in return.”

“I know you aren’t and that you wouldn’t hurt me.” He could tell there were thoughts going through their head, probably similar to the ones he had when they’d shown up hurt at his shop. But he also knew how things could have gone if they’d been there, it would not have been an easy thing. It wouldn’t be as palatable as what had happened, even if that in itself made him a bit uneasy. It was probably a bit of shock and the fact it had been a bloodless thing, at least he hoped it was shock and not everything being rewritten each time he powered up.

“You also have me now too and I’m not going anywhere, believe me.” Holding their face with both hands, even if his wrist hurt and the fingers on that hand weren’t as dextrous right now, he wanted to make sure they knew he was serious because that was a rarity and it was important. What he wanted to say in addition, the main reason for things, he still couldn’t bring up. It was a very serious thing to say and he wasn’t sure if they might get spooked off by it because even he was a bit nervous about it when he thought about things. It wasn’t his way to be tied to things, to be tied down really at all but they’d changed that in more than one way. The proof of it came with him powering up at all, showing up at their place more frequently, and considering the thought of this being his home more and more as each day passed and the lease renewal for his apartment loomed on the horizon. It was written on his face though, probably just as much as it had been on New Year’s but he’d been hurt after that and it made it harder to say it now even if everything else was going well.

Letting go slowly as they mentioned Christmas and gift-giving, he smiled a bit back at them. “Maybe you can help me pick something out for him.” It would be a nice Christmas if things were still going well by then, he had an idea of what he wanted to do for them for their gift.

Settling into the car, he was glad to not be driving but also was prepared to grab the handle if Alexandre got a bit hasty while driving. “It’ll be a nice change of pace and now you know why I just put a brace on when my ankle was sprained in winter. I don’t think I want to deal with a wait that long, we had a family doctor who handled most things, and when they couldn’t handle something I got a referral and just went in without sitting too long.” It had been a nice perk of his family, one of the few ones he liked and got some use out of.

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Getting to his clinic, Lorcan only turned on some of the lights while he gathered what he needed and set one of the rooms up. Setting down the trays, he went ahead and started to work out what he’d put down for the inevitable prescription that he’d have to send in. He’d probably have it put under Alexandre’s name because he wasn’t sure if René had set the rest of his things up here given their status. It wasn’t something he knew much about, nor did he really need to know much about it. It wasn’t often he saw people from out of the country because it was a private clinic where most of his patients were people who knew the Evans family or had known him during his time working in the ER at one of the larger hospitals.

Another sigh drifted out as he pulled fresh paper over the examination table, he was hoping this wouldn’t be a serious break because he didn’t want to bring more people into this if he could avoid it. He just kept telling himself that this was the lesser evil, it was the only way he could deal with some of these antics from his cousin. Sure he was an on-call doctor for his family but Alexandre had taken it a step further and now had him piecing back together their tart and also looking over another general who hadn’t seen the inside of a doctor’s office in over a decade from what he could tell. The work itself wasn’t bad but the constant wrench in his carefully scheduled and organized life was wearing on him. In fact, he could swear that he’d seen a gray hair the other day and he knew Alexandre had been the cause of it.

The response Alexandre had given helped and washed away a bit more of the doubts. That smile helped too as he leaned his head back against the headrest and watched them drive. It was a lot smoother this time, probably because of the lack of cars out as well as the other wanting to avoid jostling him too much.

“You’ve got him patching me up too so I guess he’s never short of things to do outside of his job.” Teasing just a bit as he looked at his wrist, it wasn’t as bad if he kept it still and didn’t try moving his fingers too much. Thinking back to winter he shook his head. “It wasn’t that bad back then, I was alright with the wrap I did plus you kept me company.” It had been nice considering it was the first Christmas Eve he would have been alone, even if he never really had a proper one with his family.

“I think I would rather have Lorcan deal with me, the rest of the healthcare system is a bit much for me to handle with my status. I’d rather wait for some things to change before I try that route and I’m still not sure enough of things with the Negaverse to try that yet either. Not that I don’t trust them or anything, I just don’t really know much yet still and don’t want to seem like an idiot to them.”

Finishing off the bottle of water between words, the cool liquid helped get him talking a bit more. That hint lingered in the air though, that the offer didn’t just cover this. It was probably how they’d gotten his case moved forward but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to try and push things faster with their help. He didn’t mind doing things the normal way, it was making it easier to get on a schedule and settle a bit in things. It also reminded him of how they’d offered him their name on their first meeting even if they hadn’t probably meant it like he’d taken it.