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 Posted: Thu May 16, 2024 7:43 pm
Someone had been hit by a car.
On its own, it would have been surprising, but from what Kaelan could make out from the gossip as he shuffled through the area, it sounded like they’d been hit but run off. There were police around, investigating. Kaelan’s stomach was upside down as he tried to avoid them. He’d kept a clean record but he was still anxious. He didn’t want to look at someone wrong and get thrown in prison.
And, right now, he was sure he looked suspicious. He was pale and his hands were trembling. He called Orien’s phone again but it was going straight to voicemail, which could have meant any number of things–maybe he’d forgotten to charge it, or turned it on silent and left it somewhere out of sight, or maybe it was in subspace, or maybe he was dead–
No, no. He wasn’t dead. He probably hadn’t been hit by a car, even though he did technically fit the description he’d heard the bystanders saying.
Kaelan was five seconds away from calling Jett in tears but he knew he couldn’t be that fragile and pathetic–and he really didn’t want to wear Jett out or make trouble for himself and Orien.
Maybe there was a perfectly fine excuse.
Voicemail again. Kaelan was hardly paying attention to what he was doing. He was vaguely aware of rushing to the nearest dark alleyway to power up and just as thankfully as there were no cameras and no one to see him, he also felt a familiar Dark Mirror energy signature nearby.
Close enough to run to.
If there were other mirrors he could have used in the area, it wouldn’t have been as quick as he was when he bolted towards the aura desperately.
Orien–Arawn–wasn’t too far. Powered up, it only took Laon a minute to find him. Relief was somewhat short lived because on one hand, he found Arawn.
On the other hand, he looked dazed. He wasn’t walking right, he looked too stiff. Laon didn’t want to surprise him but he couldn’t contain himself. “Arawn,” he called, hurriedly trotting over. “I was looking for you, I’ve been worried sick. What happened?”
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Posted: Thu May 16, 2024 7:46 pm
He didn’t know where Laon was. He didn’t know where he was. The buildings looked both familiar and foreign. And their height was weighing down on him, making him feel like he was being crushed under the rising darkness of the evening.
There was blood on his hand, and he couldn’t remember what it was from. It felt like everything was in pain, but the adrenaline was still pulsing. The cut across his cheek was as painful and numb as the rest of his body.
Arawn hadn’t gotten any answers from--
Was he talking to someone else? He couldn’t remember. He thought he must have been fighting someone and that was why he was so sore. All he knew was that Laon was missing, and that he needed to find him before anything happened. If he’d been kidnapped…? If he’d been hurt…??
A voice caught his attention, and he immediately whipped around to see Laon there, as if coming out of a dream. Arawn threw his arms around him to pull him close, then held him at arm’s length to look him over.
“Are you okay?? You were missing! I couldn’t find you. I thought someone took you. Did you get away? Who was it? I’ll ******** murder them.”
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Posted: Thu May 16, 2024 8:09 pm
The darkness hid the worst of Arawn’s injuries until Laon was right in front of him. It was too late; Arawn had thrown his arms around him, and while Laon was briefly stunned, he quickly returned the embrace.
“N-no. I mean–I’m okay, yes, but–Arawn, what happened? You’re bleeding?”
Did Arawn even know?
Laon didn’t pull away but neither was his embrace tight enough to crush him or hold him in place, so when he was moved to arm length it was without resistance. He took the opportunity to look Arawn over too, but Laon was already panicking at the sight of the blood. “I was at the library, I was printing out some study materials for my finals. I’m sorry, it must have taken longer than I thought…”
He always tried to stay on schedule. It was good for him and it was good for Arawn. Especially when he had bad days.
Today sounded like it had been a bad day.
Laon was always careful not to say anything that might sound like he was blaming Arawn; he knew this was hard on him. There were too many blank spots in his memory and Arawn was always so hard on himself about it. “I did get held up,” he lied quickly, because if Arawn was really hurt then the last thing he needed was for him to start beating himself up too. “I don’t know who they were. They didn’t give me too much trouble, I’m okay. I got away, so you don’t have to murder anyone. I’m sorry. I came as fast as I could. What happened to you? They said someone got hit by a car, I was so afraid it was you. You weren’t answering my texts so I was freaking out. And you’re bleeding–”
He reached out as if he wanted to touch his face but quickly pulled his hand away. “Do we need–you don’t need to go to a hospital, do you?” He knew Arawn hated doctors. He knew if it was an emergency they could just call Jett, but he didn’t know if Arawn would even tell him if he was hurt so badly. He looked dazed right now, like he was in shock or something. Laon’s stomach was doing flips and wringing itself in knots.
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Posted: Thu May 16, 2024 8:28 pm
“What??” Arawn snarled. Hearing that someone had actually harassed Laon-- more than one -- made his blood boil. He’d been afraid of something like that happening, but to know that his mind wasn’t actually playing tricks on him, to know that someone really had bothered Laon? Arawn couldn’t say that he was relieved, but he felt like he was right to worry.
“Nothing happened to me. I was looking for you this whole time,” he insisted, not knowing what Laon was talking about. Everything was blurred around them except for Laon in front of him. He held onto his arms a little tighter than he intended. But his hands were shaking -- his whole body was wracked with tiny tremors, really. It wasn’t anything new, but it was more prominent when he was stressed.
Laon’s comment that he was bleeding was met with an incredulous scoff, but watched as Laon reached out to touch -- but didn’t. Finally, Arawn moved a hand to his face, touching the mostly dried blood and wincing from the pressure.
How…? When?
“I… just fell,” he lied. Poorly. He didn’t remember what happened. Did he get in a fight? It was a blur. “No!” he then snapped, but his reaction wasn’t at Laon, it was at everything else involved with it. “No,” he repeated quieter, shaking his head -- and regretting it. “I don’t need a hospital. Are you sure you’re okay? Did they rob you?”
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Posted: Thu May 16, 2024 9:50 pm
Maybe it was foolish to lie but Laon didn’t know if he could feel bad about it right now. It was better that Arawn was mad at some fictional villains than at himself, especially because apparently neither he nor Laon had any idea what had happened.
Laon flinched only slightly when Arawn told him no. He thought he did a good job of hiding it. He couldn’t help it. It wasn’t Arawn’s fault. Laon was already rigid and tense, boardlike beneath his grip. He could register the bite of Arawn’s fingers into his arm but it never occurred to him to ask that he relax, or to say that it hurt.
It was just nerves. He wasn’t afraid of Arawn, never.
Especially when he could see, feel how tense Arawn was. He was trembling, so obviously that it almost looked like it hurt.
Arawn hadn’t fallen. He looked like he’d gotten into a fight. Laon just hoped it wasn’t with a car. “It’s okay,” he tried to reassure, even as his voice hitched between words. He looked frustrated at himself, but Laon wasn’t always good under pressure. Not like this.
“I’m okay. Nothing happened. You look really hurt, Arawn…should we–can we sit down for a minute? We can go into Mirrorspace even, there’s a mirror nearby. It might be nice for some peace and quiet.” Away from everyone. Especially the police. They were a few streets away, but it wasn’t helping his nerves so it couldn’t have been good for Arawn’s.
“If you got really hurt, if you’re in shock…I just–I’m just worried. It looks like it might have been a bad fall,” he said, unwilling to not play along if that was the lie Arawn wanted to go with for now.
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Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 3:59 pm
Mirrorspace? Oh… yeah that would probably be safer. He didn’t like the look on Laon’s face. Not because there was anything wrong with Laon! But because he looked frightened almost. Of him? He wasn’t afraid of what Arawn might do, was he? No… no, Laon wasn’t afraid of him. Right?
“I… yeah, okay,” he agreed, but only because he was starting to feel like something might be wrong. He felt weak in a way that he didn’t like. He didn’t understand why. All he knew was that he was relieved that he had Laon in front of him.
Now he just needed to not worry him more than he already was.
“Let’s get to Mirrorspace,” he reiterated and turned to look around them. “I… I’m sorry, I don’t--”
He didn’t remember where the mirror was. But that was okay. He had Laon and everything would be better now.
“It’ll be okay,” he promised, reaching out to brush back some of Laon’s hair. “I want to kiss you, but let’s get somewhere safe first. Then you can make sure I’m okay. And I’ll check to make sure you are.”
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Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 4:41 pm
“It’ll be okay,” Laon repeated, and forced a quick smile as if to reassure Arawn. He squeezed his hand gently and leaned into the touch. Maybe it was selfish. Arawn was hurt and dazed, but Laon was just so happy to have him here that he let his thoughts get muddled for a minute.
“I know where we are, I know where there’s one. Can you walk, do you need to lean against me? I can carry you.” Oh, poor Arawn. It was too dark to see if he’d gotten hurt or had blood anywhere else, but Laon wanted to hold him. Wanted to help him.
He was trying not to panic. There was a mirror maybe an alley and a half away from here? He knew he’d used it before because of the neon sign just across the road.
Laon already had one arm around Arawn, ready to support him even if his hand was hovering lightly over his side as he tried to test for injuries.
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Posted: Fri May 17, 2024 6:01 pm
“I can walk,” he insisted, despite the groan that escaped when he leaned into Laon’s support. “I can carry you,” he huffed. But now that Arawn knew Laon was safe, it was suddenly becoming not as easy to ignore the way his body screamed at him.
He tried taking in a deeper breath, but when it was met with coughs, he stopped trying. He just needed to rest. He was just so worked up trying to find Laon that he was too tired to really do anything. That had to be it.
“Okay, yeah, I remember now,” he lied, but he wanted to give Laon at least some sense of relief that things weren’t as bad as he probably thought they were. He could not remember where they were. It all looked foreign. But that might have been because it was dark and hazy.
“I’m just so glad you’re okay. I was worried. I didn’t know what happened. One minute you were with me and the next you were gone--”
That wasn’t right, was it…? Laon had already said he’d been at the library before being held up. Arawn placed a hand against his forehead, as if rubbing at it would jog some better memories.
It didn’t take too long to get to the mirror in the alley down the street, at least. And it was a relief to step inside, away from the rest of the world. It wasn’t until then that Arawn put his arms around Laon once more to hug him as tight as he could. Which wasn’t much at all.
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