closed;

[reticence]

WHO: Faolan & Laurent
WHERE: Their (Laurent's) swanky apartment
WHEN: Various dates throughout the month
WHAT: Several moments throughout the month between their trips to their respective team locations.
WARNINGS: Laurent's mouth is not PG and neither are the dubious consent implications in regains


WEEK ONE
It's been one hell of a day, Faolan thinks to himself as he stumbles down the street to the apartment that he shares with Laurent. His shirt and jacket are covered in blood and hanging off of his shoulder where the wolf had bitten him, though there are hardly any people out on the street and those that are apparently have seen enough trauma today themselves they are paying the sight of it little heed. Which is probably for the best. All he wants is to get back to the apartment and make certain that Laurent does too.

It's only once he's riding in the lift up to their door itself that he realizes he probably might have sent the other man a message checking in. But if he was in the middle of something he doesn't want to distract him and risk his life with a text. Who knows what Laurent had encountered down in the depths of those subways. Perhaps Laurent has made it back before him -- perhaps he will not make it back for a while yet. Faolan laments the fact that he will have to get used to not being able to perform his full duties, as he carefully sets the key in the lock in the front door and lets himself in.

Comments

[reticence]

Again, the skin underneath Laurent's touch is sensitive to the other man's touch, and Faolan has to hold himself back from flinching away -- not because he does not like the feeling, but rather the opposite, in fact.

"No," Faolan replies. "I was only bitten in the shoulder by the wolves in the forest. The bite was... It hurt. Like being stabbed with ice. Cold to the touch, with ice in my veins. And you saw how much it bled. I would have realized I had been attacked elsewhere. And I did not. But I remember..." He trails off for a moment, glancing away for how ridiculous it sounds, before forcing himself to elaborate. "I remember fighting wolves, in a forest. Around a fire. Fighting them with only fire and a knife to defend myself and my companion. Them attacking me. And I remember... Being saved by a third."

[anguinous]

"A third wolf? Are you some sort of animal whisperer now?"

An ice cold bite, though. That sounds... unpleasant. He draws his fingers back from the scar and pushes to his feet, regarding Faolan thoughtfully.

"If I hadn't seen everything happening the past few days I'd think you were on drugs."

It's a mad sort of story, after all. Having some form of vision or dream of wolves then gaining scars in the place you were dreaming they hurt you.

[reticence]

Faolan glances up at Laurent as he accuses him of hallucinating the memory, narrowing his eyes slightly as he speaks up to correct, "A third person. There were many more than three wolves. I can assure you, if I were an animal whisperer, I would not have been bitten in the first place."

He watches Laurent's face for a few moments, attempting to gauge his response, before he asks, simply, "Do you not believe me then?"

[anguinous]

"I didn't say that."

If he hadn't seen everything, he said, and after the things he has seen the concept of what seems possible has definitely become more broad.

"All the same, I'm failing to see how this is possible."

Magic, Laurent supposes, yet the magic itself -- most magic in fact -- is far beyond Laurent's understanding. He can't conceptualise it. He doesn't know the rules by which it works, if any.

[reticence]

Faolan lets out the breath of a laugh at Laurent's words, though there is hardly any humor to the sound.

"One of my teammates healed my wounds with magic light. Another held a pistol to her head and upon pulling the trigger she summoned a giant dragon to aid in our fight. Her dog knew how to fight with a knife," he continues, sounding a little hysterical even to himself. He tries to rein it in.

"I was summoned to a bunker in the forest, to fight wolves made of shadow, and if what they are saying is true, the whole place could be connected to the founders of the city themselves. I don't know in the first how any of it is possible. But I have seen it with my own two eyes, and therefore I cannot deny that it is real."

[anguinous]

Laurent finds he can't even begin to process what Faolan is saying as remotely sensible. He recognises, distantly, that this is probably what denial feels like. Yet all the same -- a person shooting themselves to call a giant dragon down? A dog who can fight with a knife?

He swipes up the glass Faolan has abandoned on the counter, sniffs it to gauge what Faolan has been drinking then goes to refill it and pull down another glass for himself.

"I think you need a drink, and I might too after listening to this."