Fandom [CLOSED] Tokyo Ghoul: Dead Enmity

[Yoki]

Dead Enmity

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Adrian had wondered whether Claire would want to go outside again to see what was going on, but it seemed that she'd forgotten quite quickly, instead focusing on the inside of his room. That was good, if Tilly and Eric saw that they had someone random in the house they might not be happy...plus...a ghoul might scare them. That wouldn't be good, he didn't want them to be frightened. Would they be frightened if...if they found out about...him?


The boy was broken out of his train of thought by the sound of Claire's excitable voice. He blinked, turning his head to look at her sprawled out across his bed. His head cocked to the side, whilst his tired eyes softened, panic disappearing, and a smile upturned the corners of his lips. Adrian pushed himself away from the door, nodding, he moved to stand in front of Claire, looking down at the bed.


"Yep." He started, "We have losta rooms..." His words were slurred and it was almost impossible to keep himself from falling onto the bed next to Claire. "This one's mine. Jackson bought a lotta stuff for me." Half of the things in his room weren't bought by him, instead they'd been given to him. The Lamberts had done a lot for him over the years, but...Adrian had never found a good way to repay them for it.


"I like that." He pointed to the treadmill against the back wall of the room, "It like...makes you run and stuff...and you can change how hard it is." Although simple, it was entertaining to Adrian, he'd fallen off quite a few times from going too fast. When Jackson first bought him it he really didn't know how to use it...many injuries were caused due to the treadmill, but Adrian still loved it.


Once again he attempted to move his broken wrist, forgetting that it was in fact broken. The boy yelped and backed up, looking down to his hand. "That...hurt..." He didn't want to stay awake any longer, and if he hadn't remembered something else he might have just let himself collapse on the floor then and there.


He still had another wound to attend to. Could it wait? He...should check.


Grabbing his jumper sleeve and turning around, Adrian removed the warm jumper he'd had on, revealing a rather battered and torn shirt. Oh...yeah. That happened. His mind had been off of it for a bit, but staring at the reflection in his window he remembered it all.


After a few seconds of silence, Adrian tugged at the shirt pulling the remaining pieces off and throwing them to the side. His torso was covered in dried blood, and there were small gashes here and there that were healing rather quickly, there had probably been more during the day... It was clear he's been in a rather serious fight, especially from the fabric that was wrapped around one of his shoulders. The whole thing was soaked in blood, and it was starting to come loose, he wanted to do something about it...but...he didn't have bandages...


"Oh." Ignoring Claire, Adrian moved to his cupboard and pulled out a shirt, wincing as the pain in his arm as he moved. He needed a shower...but...he didn't want to. At first he was going to go and sit down on a chair or his bed, but as he turned back around again his body won and he sank to the ground.


"Sorry." Weary grey eyes stared up at Claire as Adrian took the shirt in his mouth and ripped at it. This was difficult, using his injured arm wasn't fun, but his broken wrist wasn't going to do much better... Maybe he should have waited until Jackson was around to help... He'd never been good at patching himself up, he always did it wrong... Why wasn't it healing like the others anyway? How did that work? But if he kept on the same thing too long he'd...get an infection right? That's what he'd been taught... Did it still work like that?

 

[yaint]

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NOTES

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lol i can't believe i let you watch me when i wrote this. it's not a surprise, but heeere you goooo!!


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@Yoki

MAIN

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It was not often that Claire had the time or fortune of feeling the softness of a mattress gently caving beneath the sharp points of her shoulders, and she wasted little time in settling down to enjoy the comfort. "I bet'cha Lee'd love to sit here, y'know?" Her white-grey eyes flicked eagerly towards the shape of the strange boy whose home she had invaded, but when the words came rolling and tumbling out of his sleep-dumbed mouth, she only took the liberty to pay Adrian half of her attention; her imagination was busy exploring every nook and every crevice in the room that Adrian said was his.


Reluctant to sit and abandon the softness of the bed, Claire attempted to turn up her head for a clear view of the treadmill. The movement of her face against the sheets caused Jackson's glasses to catch on the fabric and fly off the girl's white face, briefly dangling over the edge before noiselessly dropping to the carpet where they then laid forgotten.


"I seen one of 'em machines before, I have," Claire thought out loud, pushing aside a dirty lock of hair as she pushed a finger into the corner of her mouth. Exactly where she had seen this device she couldn't quite recall, but what she did remember was that they looked like the kind of fun that Lee would never let her have in a million billion years. I hope it goes really fast.


Claire considered abandoning the bed to go and play with the running machine, but then a flicker of movement in the corner of her eye and pulled the thought away. The strange boy named Adrian was on the ground? Why'd he do that? There were so many other places to sit, and of all of them he had chosen the rock-hard carpet. Claire thought that it was strange how he behaved. She thought that Adrian was strange all on his own. It was interesting, and one of the reasons she had come back to find him again.


With an exaggerated grunt, the young girl rocked herself back into a sitting position, collecting stray locks of hair together into a bundle with her bony fingers.


"What'cha doin' there?" she questioned in a sing-song voice, blinking thoughtfully. Her legs swung forwards so that her toes could poke at Adrian's back and explore the strange wound and the make-shift bandage that he was attempting to cover it with. Blankly she pointed out, "Hey! That's a cut," and leaned forwards to stare at it with huge eyes. "Ain't it healing properly? Oh! I could get'cha some food, if you want it, there's loads of humans around here. There's a point, who's them that were hiding before?"


***


Like a deer caught by the eye of the hunter, Jackson sat frozen in place, petrified by the stare of his own mother. Tilly was quick-moving and hard to follow, but neither was she one to miss out on all the pauses and tremors in her son's voice.


Please just buy it, Jackson wished against inevitability, his lips pressing together so that the corner of his mouth was not tempted to turn up in a show of false honesty. Even his father looked somewhat skeptical - he might have been standing in his usual spot behind Tilly's back, but his arms were crossed and his head constantly turned towards Adrian's bedroom door and then back again.


The seconds passed slowly, eternities stretching between each tick of the clock. Jackson tapped with one hand at the arm of his chair, looking for some way to break the icy tension without saying anything that would land him in further trouble. Goddamn it, he thought, struggling not to hiss out his frustration, I'm not doing this for me! Get out, get out!


"Jack," finally came the high-pitched, strained start of conversation from his mother. Jackson winced. He knew that tone, it was that strange you're-in-trouble tone that only parents could seem to use. Damn it, sorry, Adrian, he thought to himself as he braced for the rest. "Have you and Adrian-"


"Mum, no - err, look," Jackson interrupted, breaking through Tilly's voice to drown out whatever scolding or interrogation that might have been about to be inflicted upon him. "Just - just t-take my word for it, okay? Uh, don't worry about - about dinner and stuff. We ate already. You can go home if you want..."


The silence that followed was almost thunderous in Jackson's ears. For once he was glad that he wasn't wearing his glasses, because it meant that he didn't have to see the look on his parents' faces.


Jackson expected some kind of questioning, some further uncertainty and stalling that would give his parents an excuse to stay lurking in the apartment, but to his surprise - and to his delight - he was met with a soft grunt from Eric. "Daisy's been on her own for five hours," he pointed out, scratching with one hand at the back of his head.


"Yeah!" Jackson agreed loudly, subconsciously mimicking his father and raising his own hand to touch at his mop of golden hair. Daisy. The perfect excuse. Tilly cared about that frail old dog that almost as much as she cared about 'her two boys'. That's got to get her out of here. "You - she's going, uh, she's going to be panicking."


Please, come on, he urged inside his head, a tiny prickle of pain shooting through the back of his head as he grabbed viciously at his own hair. Tilly averted her gaze briefly, leaving Jackson hanging in wait of a response, but finally a shift in her balance indicated that her mind had been made up. "You are so obvious!" she sighed, her head shaking from side to side as she regarded her son with raised eyebrows and a bout of snorts and tuts.


"M-Mum, are you-"


"Yes! Yes, dear, give me a moment," Tilly carried on, still shaking her head in despair but flapping back one arm to pat at Eric's shoulder. "Eric, love?"


"Hm? What's what?" Eric grumbled, an arm dropping to his side. His wife was already halfway to the kitchen, arms outstretched towards the various tools and ingredients laid out in patches on the worktops. Jackson craned his neck and squinted to see, but gave up when his father moved to obscure his line of sight again.


"Go and put Jack to bed, would you?" she wearied upon arriving at the few lonely shakers of herbs and pepper arranged before her. "I'm cleaning up - somebody is in a rush to be left alone for the night, it seems."

 

[Yoki]

Dead Enmity

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"Leo." Adrian sat with his back against a cold wall, blankets curled around him, held at the front by small hands. His wide, grey eyes stared over at a bed on the opposite side of the small room. The bed which Leo slept in. His brother's form was laying down with his back towards him, mostly likely asleep... It was late.





"Mhm." A tired voice uttered back the simple reply, it surprised Adrian, but he was glad that Leo was awake...even if just barely.





"Do you hate me?" His voice was quiet, he didn't want to wake anyone up, and as he spoke he looked down, his feet shifting uncomfortably on the cheap mattress below.





"Huh? What? ... Adrian..." Leo turned over to face his younger brother, blinking a couple of times in surprise. It seemed he hadn't been expecting that.





"You don't...right?" Once again the younger of the two looked up, meeting his older brother's gaze. He didn't look tired, he just looked...upset.





"No, of course not. Why...Why would you think that?" Whilst speaking, Leo rubbed his eyes, trying to wake himself up slightly, but it was late...and all he wanted to do was sleep.





"I dunno. I just...I was wondering..."





"I see."





After Leo's reply Adrian didn't say anything for a good few minutes, he just curled back up against the wall, head down, thinking. He knew that the older boy was going back to sleep, but he found it hard to resist asking him something else. He needed to know, he really needed to know...





"Leo." His voice was even more hushed than before, in fact it almost seemed like he wasn't meant to be heard. Leo had closed his eyes again, maybe he wasn't meant to wake him up.





"Yeah?" Whilst Leo's eyes didn't open, he did reply to Adrian in the most awake voice he could manage.





"Do mom and dad hate me?" As he spoke his eyes darted around the room, almost as if he thought someone could be listening in on them...surely they weren't.





"Adrian they...-" Leo didn't seem to know how to reply, he paued for a moment, eyes staying closed as he thought of how to word it to such a young child. "No. No Adrian, they don't. They just...they don't get you is all."





"So then...how do I make them...get me?"





"You...You don't. I mean...you can't, you-..." He fell over his words, sighing and then shaking his head as he turned back over. "Sorry, I'm tired. Can we sleep now?"





"Mhm. I'm sorry." Noticing that Leo didn't seem to want to talk to him anymore, Adrian wriggled into a laying position himself, although he wasn't tired... So he resorted to staring at the wall.





"Don't apologise just...just sleep, you need it."





"Okay, goodnight Leo."





"Goodnight Adrian."





Finally, Adrian closed his eyes, Leo wanted him to sleep, so he'd try and sleep...





"And Adrian."





"Yeah?"





"I'll never hate you."





"Promise?"





"Promise."





What did he do? He must have done something. Leo promised him. He promised. Which meant...Adrian messed up. He did something to upset Leo and now his brother hated him, he wouldn't have hurt him unless he'd done something to make him. Leo was mad and it was all his fault, he didn't want this to happen, he didn't want Leo to hate him... He just...he didn't understand... What did he do wrong?


The boy let out a stifled sob, staring down at the ground for a moment. Where...Where was Leo now? If he could find him... If he could find him he could fix everything, right? He just had to find out where he was. Jackson would understand, Jackson would get why he had to go. They were friends after all, and Leo wouldn't have meant to hurt Jackson, if they found him he'd apologise...it was just because Jackson got in the way. That was all. Leo would have never have done that to him otherwise.


It was Claire's voice that snapped Adrian out of his thoughts, her high-pitched, inquisitive tone caused his head to snap up, his look of sadness suddenly replaced by the realisation that he still wasn't alone.


"A-Ah."He swallowed, hand tightening around his arm as he attempted to wrap it up. "It's okay." In his tired state he managed to mumble the words, but they were slurred, so he added a smile and a shake of the head to help her understand. It wasn't a good idea to let Claire run around and hunt for him, she might hurt someone in the building...or...Jackson's parents. That wouldn't be good.


"Hm?"Adrian's head cocked to the side as she asked about the other people in the apartment, he thought she'd forgotten. "Oh...they're...they're..." He yawned, sighing again, "Jackson's...parents." It wasn't like he was thinking before he spoke, he was too tired for that, "Don't...Don't hurt them...'kay? Jackson will be mad at me..." Pulling at the cloth that he'd managed to wrap around his arm, Adrian winced once again, it hurt...but it'd hold. A relieved sigh escaped him as he fell onto his back, a squeak came from him as a sharp stabbing sensation was sent through his shoulder, but he didn't really care about the pain in that moment. That...felt better.


His eyes stared up at the ceiling. He wanted to ask Claire something...but would she know? She...She might.


"Hey...Claire..?" Adrian's voice was almost silent, it was hardly even a whisper...hopefully she heard. "Claire...Do...Do you know someone..." With an exhausted groan he turned his head to the side, "Do you...know someone who wears a big, white cloak thing and...and a gold mask?" Maybe she could give him answers, maybe she knew something he didn't... Maybe...

 

[yaint]

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NOTES

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btw, i thought i should let you know that when claire was playing with adrian's phone she actually changed the language to german. lol have fun navigating that, adrian!!


TAGS


@Yoki

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"Oh." Claire pursed her lips and allowed the foot which she had used to poke Adrian to drop down to the carpet below. The chipped toenail dragged at the boy's make-shift bandage as it slid down.


Weird. It failed to settle in the girl's mind as to why Adrian would turn down her offer, even if he had insisted that he didn't need her help. Didn't he like food anymore? Claire seemed to remember that he had wolfed down that leg of flesh almost without chewing - but then again, it felt like forever ago. Maybe her memory had gone fuzzy, like how Lee always told her she 'couldn't remember for pocket pennies'.


A split second after that thought crossed her mind, Claire felt the familiar heat of denial bubbling in her stomach. Nah, that can't be right, she convinced herself. She blew a lock of hair out of her face to clear her line of sight, but her eyes were focused on some point a distance away. Her memory wasn't that bad. Lee was just silly - he liked to say things like that. It was Adrian who was all strange, turning down an offer for food when he looked weak and his wrist had gone all squishy. Maybe he was one of those people - the kind she had heard Lee and Taylor's lectures about, the 'weirdos with too much pride'. But somehow that didn't seem right.


Oh well. If Adrian said not to hurt somebody, then he must have some kind of reason. Claire didn't bother asking 'why' as she usually would have done - instead she simply whistled out a simple, "Okay, I won't!" and kicked at the bed with her legs as she put the weight back on her feet. The bed was comfortable, but her undying curiosity had won out after those minutes spent sprawled on the mattress.


When Adrian first started talking again, calling out to Claire with the blonde girl's name, she only responded with a 'humm'; it hadn't taken the small Irish teenager much time to find Adrian's mobile phone, whose flashing and glowing screen had instantly made it Claire's new favourite toy - even if she had no idea how it worked.


Do you know someone?" Adrian had asked, but as before, Claire was more interested in the phone. "Yeah..." she mumbled as her fingers found the screen and began tapping at buttons she couldn't read. There were some symbols that looked like numbers, some pictures of things like globes and envelopes, and every time she touched them something changed.


Tap tap tap. Nothing interesting was happening anymore. The phone had made a sound - and then Claire had thrown it down at the floor in shock - but after that, she couldn't understand what it was doing. Instead she decided to look for something else to play with, but before she could find the 'on' button for the treadmill she was met with the rest of Adrian's question.


"Oh, what? Uhh..." White cloak, gold mask. Was that a real person? Sounds like a superhero, she thought, but then again some ghouls did dress strangely like that. It could be one of the big leaders in those groups she tried not to talk to. Maybe it wasn't. She wouldn't have known either way. "Nah," she admitted eventually with a rolling of the shoulders, "I know someone with a mask though, at least that's what I was sayin' to Tay earlier when I thought maybe one of them Doves that were chasin' us were lookin' for the wrong guy. Why?"


***


It was only after Eric had taken him back into the bedroom that Jackson allowed himself to relax, his shoulders slumping forwards and a sigh escaping through his lips. Mission accomplished, he congratulated himself.


Tilly was still skeptical, she was using that tone of voice that suggested an impending explosion of curiosity, but for now Adrian - and the ghoul in his room - were safe from her eyes as she busied herself by tidying the kitchen. It wasn't easy to tell what Eric was thinking as he lifted Jackson up and turned him about like a rag-doll in an attempt to position him comfortably - after all, Jackson struggled to see without his spectacles and the fact that his father was constantly behind him didn't help. It was with a sudden, irritating realisation that Jackson once more remembered how his parents always placed him belly-down on the bed. That made it really impossible to tell what was going on.


"Y-you good, Dad?" Jackson finally strained past his pillow. There was some kind of ragged breathing coming from behind him. I'm not that heavy, am I? the man suddenly worried, awkwardly reaching downwards with his left arm to feel at the softly-padded flesh on his stomach. Maybe he was gaining weight. I've got to start working out again.


"Hm? Wha- oh, yes, yes, of course," Eric responded absently from wherever he was. The breathing suddenly silenced, but there was something of a strain to the voice.


"Okay." I can worry about that later. Now wasn't the time to be tutting and humming over himself. There was a ghoul one room across. There's a ghoul in Adrian's bedroom. He had to get his parents out.


Come on, come on, he urged silently as he continued to say 'goodnight' to Eric over and over. It was a bad time for his father to be terrible at finally leaving, but after reuniting with Tilly, the woman managed to usher her husband out of the apartment, leaving Jackson enclosed in the thick silence and darkness of his bedroom.


I did it.


They were gone. Eric and Tilly were out, out of the apartment, gone from the ghoul's reach. They hadn't seen nor heard Claire. Adrian's secret wasn't found out. It's okay. Now... Now all that he had to do was figure out what he was going to do about the ghoul itself - his parents were only one part of a larger equation, and all the while there was a monster in his house he would not be able to rest. Especially if it's with Adrian. What would happen if it saw how tired Adrian was? Even with his new strength, the poor boy wouldn't last more than a minute in that state. Maybe I should text him.

 

[Yoki]

Dead Enmity

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Adrian couldn't help but feel a bout of relief wash over him as Claire agreed to leave Jackson's parents alone, sure, she'd never seen them, and it was very likely she could attack them without knowing, but he wasn't thinking of that. He didn't want them hurt, they were like family to him and if they got hurt because of Claire well...that would be his fault. After everything they'd done to help him they didn't deserve that.


It was too much effort to move his head anymore, so Adrian chose to stay in the same position as he saw Claire start to mess around with something. What was she doing? There was nothing in the room that he didn't want her to touch, well nothing that was visible at least, so he didn't mind. He was just...curious. Curious about what she had hold of.


Whatever it was she seemed to enjoy messing with it, and so after a little while Adrian decided to leave her to it. He didn't know whether she had heard him or not at any point, or if she was too involved in the item in her hands. It was important he found out whether she knew Leo or not...he might finally be able to find his brother, but it wasn't worth distracting her from having fun. After all, it was only important to him, and that was important to her... He didn't have to right to take away her enjoyment.


There was a ding just as the girl dropped the item onto the floor, finally letting Adrian land his eyes on it. His...phone? Oh, she must have found it cool! But was she bored now? Seemed so. The girl had gotten up to look around, but Adrian hardly even reacted to it, he just stayed laying on the floor, arms outstretched. It was the only comfortable position he'd been able to get into in awhile, he didn't really want to ruin that. Jackson wouldn't mind if he slept on the floor, would he? He'd done it before, but apparently it wasn't good for your back... Still, it was comfortable to him.


Adrian felt like kicking his legs up and down, he hated staying still, but his body ached and he really couldn't be bothered. That was a change...it really showed that he was completely fatigued when he made absolutely no effort to move whatsoever.


He could hear Claire walking around as she started to answer him again, for a moment he had his hopes up, she was a ghoul, Leo was a ghoul, it was very possible they knew each other right? But that hope was destroyed when she uttered the simple word 'Nah.' His heart sank and his body seemed to visibly slump. She didn't know. Maybe he hadn't explained it well enough? But...surely if not everyone wore that then she would have known who he was talking about, and by the looks of some of the other ghouls he'd seen that day not everyone wore the same thing as his older brother.


"Oh..." Adrian's seemed even more drained than before, he really thought he'd had a chance... Turned out that not every ghoul knew every other ghoul after all. How could he have even expected such a thing? Not every human knew every other human...so why would every ghoul know every other ghoul? It was just something that he'd...expected. Like they were all part of one big community or something.


He was about to close his eyes, defeated, when Claire mentioned that she saw someone with a mask. "You know someone with a mask?"The boy's eyes shot open and he sat himself up in an instant, arms out behind him. It wasn't until his was fully sitting that the pain set in in both his wrist and his arm, shit...he shouldn't have done that. He winced, taking in a sharp breath as he removed his hands from the floor. It had been especially painful to his wrist, and he was pretty sure he'd moved something he wasn't supposed to.


"It's um..." Why, well, it wouldn't hurt for him to tell her the truth now would it? "I saw...my brother today." A smile tugged at the corner of his lips, and his eyes were filled with a strange sense of...desire for something. "I tried talking to him, but he hurt me..." He held his wrist out in front of him, "That's why I'm squishy." Adrian's gaze dropped as desire turned to reflection. "I think I upset him..." His voice was a little quieter, but he didn't seem visibly upset, just a slight bit annoyed, where that annoyance was directed was unclear. "I want...to see him again."

 

[yaint]

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Several 'humms' and grunts of acknowledgement came from Claire's direction as Adrian continued to explain his situation, but there was no real change in tone that suggested that she might have been listening to the speech about Leo - though she did manage a tiny 'oh' upon hearing the word 'brother'.


When the boy was finished, Claire simply licked her lips and bounced on the balls of her feet, staring at nothing in particular as silence resumed its reign. Adrian didn't look like he really wanted to be bothered about the running machine in his bedroom, so despite her apparent buzzing curiosity, Claire stifled whatever questions she might have had and let her thoughts wander elsewhere.


Someone with a mask, she thought to herself again and again. That was strange. What did masks have to do with all that he had said just now? Maybe it did have something to do with the mask... Once again, Claire was forced to admit to herself that she had forgotten whatever she had just been told. The few words that she could recall didn't make sense on their own - 'brother' and 'upset' and 'squishy'. It was difficult to try and find the phrases to fill in the blanks, and she simply wasn't prepared to take on that challenge; it wasn't worth the mental effort.


Lee's got a mask, went the memory that suddenly popped into her head from seemingly nowhere. Lee had a mask, and Claire had a mask too, and some of the other people she sometimes stole clothes from all wore masks. Lots of people have masks. Maybe it was one of those people Adrian was looking for... But Lee? His didn't look very golden.


It suddenly crossed the young girl's mind how she would be greeted when she arrived back at camp. Oh yeah, Lee's gonna chew my ear off. It would have made her shudder to think about all the shouting and insulting that she would have to endure, had she not already heard everything in Lee's arsenal a thousand times already. It wasn't pleasant either way, though. Maybe I should just get to the point.


"Uhmm," Claire began, struggling to find the words to start her question for the boy. What was it she had to ask about again? It was the whole reason she had come here in the first place, the whole reason she had completely scratched up her hands and feet climbing up nine floors' worth of wall. What was it-? The... Oh! That was it. Adrian's kagune, the one that looked like her Granny's one. Eventually, having found her place again, Claire resumed. "Uhmm, Adrian? See, look here, there's somethin' I gotta ask ya, right?"


The girl plastered that strange, unsettlingly wide and yellow grin across her face again, but this time it didn't have that same ghostly coldness to it for her lips trembled with uncertainty. "Euh, I gotta go back soon, see, 'cause Lee an' Taylor are gonna murder me. You remember 'em, right? I... Oh yeah! Lee totally beat on you. Um, anyway, could you show me your ka-"


Beep.


Claire paused mid-word, interrupted by the tinny one-tone sound of something she had never heard before: Adrian's mobile phone. Of course the girl didn't recognise the noise, but she understood that something must have happened, so without further thought she bent forwards to scoop the device off the carpet next to where Adrian was sat.


"You wanna look?" Claire suddenly chirped at Adrian, thrusting a hand towards him to show the glowing screen to the boy. Her fiddling had opened some kind of app of browser, but the words displayed were not in English. There was a familiar-looking strap-line of text and an icon towards the top of the screen, though. It was the notification that indicated the reception of a new text message.


00:41 - Jackson, it read after some incomprehensible-looking gibberish.

 

[Yoki]

Dead Enmity

​

Sure, Adrian would have liked to pursue questioning about the person in the mask that Claire had mentioned, but it was very unlikely that it was anyone he knew anyway. He'd mentioned the golden mask and she said she didn't know anyone with one, plus most ghouls wore masks when faced by the CCG. So...could he really expect it to be someone that knew where his brother was? Maybe. Maybe not. What if Lee or Taylor knew them? He should really ask them, but he didn't know if Lee was going to hurt him again if he went near their home... Well, he could at least try, and if Lee hurt him for it it didn't matter, as long as he got some answers.


For a few moments he sat there with his head down, thinking about whether to mention anything else about the situation, but it could be getting boring for Claire, and she didn't know anything anyway... He shouldn't bother unless she wanted to know more.


"Uh." Upon hearing that Claire needed to ask him something he gave his full attention to the girl, inquisitive, wide eyes focused on her as he tried to push the rest of his thoughts to the back of his mind. She wanted to ask him something? What was it about? Surprisingly, he'd all but forgotten about when they met, and unless someone brought up specifics it would probably stay that way. He didn't exactly want to think that someone he now considered himself to be friends with once tried to kill him, it wasn't like it mattered anyway. He didn't hold it against her.


As Claire continued Adrian turned his head to the side, why would Lee and Taylor kill her? They were like...family or something right? Did they not know she was here? Oh... Then she should probably go, he didn't want her to get hurt or anything because she'd stayed out too long. Lee didn't seem like he liked it when people didn't listen to him...


"Could you show me your ka-"


Claire never got to finish her sentence, unfortunately, as both the teens' attention was taken away by the sudden beeping that came from Adrian's phone nearby. Whilst the boy had turned to pick it up, Claire had gotten there first, sweeping his phone off of the ground and staring at it, probably reading whatever message he had gotten. It wasn't often that he got messaged by anyone other than Jackson, so Adrian assumed it must be the other male, but...why when they were in the same house?


"Oh...yeah..." He'd already been looking at his phone when Claire asked if he wanted to see, he probably should, Jackson might need something from him... It might be urgent. He hoped the other wasn't hurt or anything. Surely not, his parents were around, they would help him out if he was.


Deciding it was best not to move his arms too much, Adrian didn't reach out for his phone, instead letting Claire hold it in front of him. It took a moment for his tired eyes to focus on the screen, but...the moment he did he knew something was wrong. "Huh?" His head cocked to one side in confusion as he squinted at the screen... This...that... It wasn't English? "I...can't...read it." He mumbled, unsure of what to do. At the top of the screen it obviously said 'Jackson', but that was the only part of the message he could actually read... Last time he used this he swore it was in English.


Maybe he was just too tired and everything was blurry or something...maybe he was being silly. He could read it because he was too tired most likely...but...Jackson might need him. Where was he? "Claire..." He mumbled, did he even have the energy to go look? And...what if Jackson's parents were still around? They couldn't see him like this, "I...think I need to...um...see Jackson..."

 

[yaint]

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NOTES

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and claire is being inconvenient again


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@Yoki

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I... Can't... Read it. Claire's otherwise-smooth face contorted in a deep frown when she heard Adrian's words, and she felt her tongue slip out to sit between her lips as her mind began to work again. That was strange. Couldn't Adrian read it? He didn't look like the type of person who came from the same kind of life that Claire did. Even if he didn't look very intelligent... Maybe it's not as easy as I thought!


The frown quickly dissolved as her yellowed teeth showed themselves again. Hah! She wasn't that stupid! Lee could eat that... Call me a dumb girl, he will, wait 'til he hears that! Maybe Taylor would be able to back her up on this one. Would Taylor want to side, though? Could he even read? Maybe... Maybe he could, or he couldn't... Claire couldn't remember, and she didn't want to keep trying; it was hurting her head too much. So instead, she decided to finally listen to what Adrian was saying, just in case it was important or interesting.


"Huh? Who..." As quickly as it had replaced her frown before, the smile disappeared again, dissipating into another blank, mud-crusted canvas decorated only with two large, round and white-grey eyes that flickered with a new-found curiosity. Jackson. Jackson? Who was that? It was a name, the name of that... That person... Who - oh, it's him! "Nevermind!" Claire piped suddenly, cutting off her previous dying sentence with a sudden squeaky outburst. "I remember, that's - uhh - yeah! The human with the dead legs, right? Uhh..." She had almost said, the human with the cool glasses, but at the last moment she decided to leave those out of the conversation. They were under the bed somewhere... Maybe, if she let Adrian forget that they were there, she would be able to keep them without anybody noticing. It wasn't like they helped her see - they were just interesting, and shiny, like a cute little trinket or toy.


There was no hesitation in Claire's movements now - Tilly and Eric, the pair of grey-haired humans she had caught a brief glimpse of before, had either been wiped from her mind or buried among all the other cluttered thoughts scattered throughout her head. She simply raised her arms with her elbows jutting out before her to ram the door open, giving way to the darkness of the unlit lounge.


"H'llo?" Claire sang out into the nothingness around her. It didn't look like there was anybody around - no old couple, no visitors, no sign of that strange human called Jackson. In fact, the indoors was so silent that the muffled noise coming in through the glass of the window seemed to grow suddenly loud and overwhelming.


Just as she was about to give up and turn around to find Adrian again, there was another sound that broke through those coming from the outside world. It was a voice she recognised, but it was quiet and restrained, like what would happen if somebody tried to shout and whisper at the same time. At least, that's how Claire imagined voices like that to work.


"Adrian?" said the voice. Claire licked her lips and turned her head upwards. Being a ghoul had its advantages in that she could almost feel the words prickling on her face, she knew which direction the word had come from.


Once more, Claire did not have the forethought to call back or ask Adrian what was happening - instead, in true Claire fashion, she simply barged straight through the closed door of Jackson's bedroom and toppled forwards into what seemed like an even denser darkness broken only by a cold blue light shining from the face of what looked like another mobile phone clutched in a hand.


Claire was sure that she could hear the voice saying something else - there was a lot of babbling and stammering - but her mind was no longer present to register whatever Jackson was saying. Her eyes were busy picking out all of the details in this new room - the desk, the mirror, the other door in the adjacent wall. There was the shape of a man moving about in the bed set up in the room's corner, too, but she wasn't so interested in him.


"Whoa!" the girl blurted out suddenly, unable to contain her wonder for what must have been the fifteenth time that evening. She twirled about on the spot, pushing her heels into the carpet to face the direction from which she had just come, and then searched about for Adrian in her line of sight. Without thinking, Claire allowed herself to fall backwards into that odd-looking chair with wheels, squealing suddenly as it moved beneath her weight. When she eventually recomposed herself, the girl shuffled backwards into a more comfortable sitting position and opened her mouth to speak again. "Adrian! Adrian, d'you own this room too? It's real big."

 

[Yoki]

Dead Enmity

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"Mmn...." Not really knowing what to reply to Claire, Adrian just mumbled and stared at his phone. He'd never been taught another language, and he didn't even recognise what language this could be in... Was that stupid? Should he at least know what language it had been turned to? Maybe...maybe Jackson would know if he went to ask him. Jackson was smart, of course he would know, even if he might not be able to read it. That was a thought, could his friend read multiple languages? If he could then Adrian should get him to teach him some time, that would be fun, it had to be easy enough right? If he could learn a first language, then he could definitely learn a second!


"He's...pa...paralysed." The boy yawned, at least that's what he'd been told. Jackson couldn't move his legs because he was paralysed, so Adrian had to help him. Honestly he didn't mind it, Jackson kept him company, and he helped him out. Plus he owed it to him, the man had done more than he'd needed to for him, so it was only fair that he did something to repay him for everything. Although, Adrian didn't believe that he'd ever be able to properly repay Jackson for his general kindness.


He opened his mouth to speak to Claire again, but the girl was already up and away. Adrian's eyes didn't leave her as she exited through his bedroom door and headed out into their apartment. That...couldn't be good. What if there were still people around? He couldn't hear anyone, and he'd noticed that recently his hearing at been a lot more...sensitive than normal. He could hear much better than he'd ever been able to before, it happened after the Quinx surgery...and it was an attribute of ghouls so...that's what he put it down to.


"Claire! W-...ait..." Adrian had hardly even gotten a single word out before she'd disappeared into the hallway, oh god, Jackson wouldn't be happy if he let her run around. He had to go and get her back...but...


The boy wined as he put his hand down on the floor to push himself up, he was too tired for this. He managed to get to his feet, although he stumbled a lot once up on them, he just...had to find Claire... That was it. Holding his arm with the broken wrist with his opposite hand, Adrian stumbled out of the room. His vision kept going in and out of focus as he walked, causing him to stagger from time to time. Nothing was steady, he didn't want to be standing up...he just wanted to go to sleep. Why...was there so much to do tonight?


"Mmn..." Adrian groaned, but looked around. The apartment's lights were off, which meant Tilly and Eric must have left, and Jackson must be... His eyes widened and he immediately turned to look towards the other's room. Jackson must be in bed. So...where was Claire?


The sound of voices bounced off of his ears, despite exhaustion, he could hear his name being called out from Jackson's bedroom...and that high-pitched, child-like tone definitely wasn't Jackson's. Which meant that's where Claire was.


"Claire... We can't go in there..." Moving a little faster, Adrian came upon the door to the room and smashed his hand onto the light switch, illuminating the darkness. He stood in the open doorway, watching as Claire played around in Jackson's wheelchair. He was going to continue his sentence...but she looked so happy, and he...he didn't want to ruin that. So he closed his slightly open mouth and swallowed the words that he'd been about to say.


Staring at the girl with slightly vacant eyes for another second, Adrian nodded, "Yeah..." His voice was a whisper, he didn't have the energy to talk louder, plus if Jackson was asleep he didn't want to wake him up, "Well...Jackson does..." After mentioning his companion's name he realised something once more, Jackson would be in this room...


Lifting his gaze, he looked over to the bed across the room and noticed the man, phone in hand, he didn't look very comfortable. His eyes rested on Jackson for quiet some time before he did anything at all. Finally he managed a smile at the man, blinking a few times in order to stop his eyes from closing. He mouthed the word 'sorry', but he didn't want to say it out loud, who knew how Claire might react to that. She wouldn't get it.


Jackson just wasn't used to her yet, he'd hate her less eventually... He had to, right? Because Claire wasn't mean... She was nice, Jackson just didn't realise it.

 

[yaint]

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The words were coming out faster than Jackson could hear them or even think of what to say - no doubt that by this point they had all merged into an unintelligible stream of whimpers and curses that Claire had likely never heard before in her life. There was a ghoul. In his bedroom. There was a ghoul standing right behind him, somewhere he couldn't see, somewhere he had no chance of reaching should it try anything drastic. There's a ghoul in my bedroom.


"What's that on the wall?" Claire asked in her obliviously lilted voice, simply batting the question at Adrian like any ordinary child would. What's what!? There were lots of things on the wall. A mirror, a painting. Was it a decoy? The ghoul could just be trying to distract him. Or Adrian. Oh God, Adrian's in here too. Somehow that made everything worse. He wasn't exactly in a state fit to fight. If it came down to an attack, both of them would go down, one after the other... The only question was which of them would die first.


Damn it, damn it! He couldn't just lie around when all of this was happening. He could not just sit and bury his face in the pillow like some kind of small, frightened boy - but every time he tried to push himself up into an upright position, the piercing agony that shot through his arm reminded him that he was down to half his usual strength.


Suddenly, a light flashed in the corner of his eye - a somehow-cold, artificial yellow he recognised as the ceiling light he barely used, but now after minutes of darkness it was blinding. What was it doing? Was it Adrian? No, He wasn't there, even when Jackson had to squint, he could see that Adrian's silhouette wasn't in the shape of a small girl. And he didn't have long hair. The ghoul named Claire, the ghoul who had invaded his apartment and then his bedroom, had scooted forwards on Jackson's wheelchair to stare at him beneath her looming shadow.


"That's a funny way to sleep," Claire commented mindlessly, leaning in to peer at the man who had been lying awkwardly on his front with one arm curled in, useless, towards his side.


Jackson bit down on his lip until he could taste blood, then finally mustered the will to find his rationality and speak with sense - even if it was still difficult to hear him beneath all of the ragged breathing and voice tremors. "G-get... Get the hell out - out of my face," Jackson attempted to warn, balling his one free fist towards Claire.


Though Jackson could not see it from his distance, the girl met these harsh words with a frown and pout coupled together in some kind of exaggerated expression of confusion. "Why?" she simply asked in that same blank tone. When Jackson didn't answer her with anything more than a weak glare, Claire swivelled around in the chair with her feet to face Adrian, casting her ghostly white gaze towards the younger of the two males instead.


What the-!? Jackson blinked several times as the huge silhouette flew out of sight, giving way once more to the painful brightness of the light on the ceiling. In the light his eyes were just as lost as they were before, but at least he could make out the blurry face of his friend, pale against Claire's dirt-smudged skin.


Oh no. It didn't matter what he could see now. Claire was there, she was facing towards Adrian. Was that a twig-like arm reaching out towards him? Oh no. There was that panic again, that unrelenting fear that he had felt when he had been trapped beneath the ghoul's gaze himself. What was it doing? Why was it looking at Adrian? What's it doing to him!?


There was no time for the man to even think about what he was doing - before he even knew what was happening, his good arm had reached out and he could see the rough shapes of his fingers curled around a bunch of her greasy white-blonde hair. Suddenly he was pulling backwards, yanking Claire's head - and then her entire body on top of the chair - back towards him. The girl released a cry of something that sounded like shock or pain, but if Jackson thought for a moment that she was going to back away then that thought was clearly dismissed by the grimy claws that suddenly found their way into the skin on his wrist.


"Ow," Claire repeated, toppling forwards out of the wheelchair to rub at her head with one hand. She still had Jackson's arm siezed in the other, and she seemed to know that she had done something wrong as her head whipped quickly around to face Adrian with a sheepish grin.

 

[Yoki]

Dead Enmity

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Adrian found the way Claire acted around the room oddly uplifting, seeing someone so happy about things that were now quite minor to him really was interesting. He remembered back when he would have acted the same way about such things, when he was younger everything Jackson had ever given him was fascinating and cherished, not to say that it wasn't now...it definitely was... Just, unlike his younger self, he didn't marvel quite a much over such simple object. There were, however, quite a few things that he would gladly sit in front of for hours and just watch...as long as he could interact with them at some point or another.


Claire was getting awfully close to Jackson, now Adrian knew the man wouldn't like that. He was still afraid of Claire, or he hated her, Adrian wasn't sure which one. Either way, he didn't want to do something that would make Jackson uncomfortable, telling Claire to back off would be the best idea.


"Cla-" The boy had started his sentence, but he was interrupted by an involuntary yawn, his arm came up in front of his mouth and he sighed afterwards. He was about to speak once more when he heard Jackson try to fend Claire off of him, Adrian couldn't tell whether he was nervous or angry...it might have been because he was so tired, but his voice just didn't seem to portray either clearly enough for him to make a solid conclusion on either emotion.


Of course the young girl next to his friend would be confused on why Jackson wanted her to get away, she didn't get that he didn't like ghouls. It was Adrian's job to inform her of this, he'd already been asked to get her out, so he should just do that already. Claire said she needed to get home to Lee anyway, so everything should be fine.


As she turned around to look at him, the boy smiled and tilted his head to one side, eyes closing for a moment. A few seconds after he regretted ever closing his eyes.


"Hey....Claire...we-" Once again, Adrian was cut off by the sounds of crashing and Claire repeating the single word 'ow'. What was going on?


His almost vacuous eyes had shot open only to fall upon a scene that he really didn't want to see at this time of night. Jackson had pulled Claire out of the wheelchair by what seemed to be her hair, that must hurt...why was he doing that? And...Claire looked almost guilty. What?


Adrian blinked multiple times, trying his best to take everything in. As what Jackson was doing started to properly sink in the vacancy in his eyes was filled by a look of worry. No, no, no, he shouldn't do that, he didn't get it. He needed to stop, he was hurting her. Adrian knew Jackson didn't mean harm, he was probably just scared something was going to happen, but he was hurting Claire. Adrian needed to stop this before someone got even more hurt.


"Jackson...Jackson, Claire, please stop." He jolted forwards, falling to his knees next to the two with a soft thump and a slight wince, he should really stop doing that... Maybe he should have taken up Claire's offer to eat something. His gaze landed on Jackson's arm as he put his hand over Claire's fingers that had grabbed it to gently attempt to move them away, he was about to use his other hand to deal with Jackson's grip on the girl's hair, but this time he realised his mistake before he made it. Instead he used his good hand and just laid it over the top of Jackson's, trying to get him to let go on his own.


"Y-You're hurting her...she doesn't mean i-it Jackson...She's not gonna hurt anybody..." Adrian was desperately trying to get the two to separate, "She's really...not bad...I promise..." Although he said this, he knew Jackson's opinions on ghouls... Did...Did he think Adrian was a monster too? He didn't mean to be, but...he guessed he was... It was okay. He'd understand if Jackson really did think that. "If...you don't want her here I'll...I'll get her out, just please...can...can you both let go... Please..."

 

[yaint]

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rip adrian please do not cry


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@Yoki

MAIN

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It was as though Jackson had not even heard Adrian's exhausted plea for peace between man and ghoul. Deafened by his own panic, the blond man's fingers tightened further around the long locks of white-gold hair that was already bound in his grip whilst Claire, who had not been paying attention to anything but what kind of trouble she might have been in with Adrian, attempted to push herself further away from Jackson with her claw-like nails again.


For several seconds the two locked eyes, transfixed on each other and almost forgetting that Adrian was in the room with them until Claire felt the touch of his hand on her fingers. As quickly as she had first grabbed hold of Jackson's arm, her hand withdrew and slid back to hang loosely by her side. With surprising force she flicked her head backwards to tug her hair out of Jackson's hand.


Jackson hissed something inaudible beneath his breath, but judging by the sour look on his face it was most like some kind of curse or another. His face twisted in a disgusted grimace, he squinted to inspect the five deep crescent-shaped cuts in his arm where he had been resisted against. Tiny beads of bright red blood swelled at the corners. He wiped them away on his chest.


Neither of the two spoke for quite a long time. Whilst Jackson was busy picking apart all of the swirling thoughts that exploded like fireworks in his mind, Claire simply tapped her bare feet on the carpet and kept casting Adrian quick, subtle glances. She knew that she had done something wrong, but perhaps if she didn't mention it, there would be no trouble...


"Argh," Jackson inhaled through clenched teeth as he twisted and turned his arm about to look at it from every angle he could manage in his strange position. "What the - wh-what the hell is-"


"It wasn't on purpose or nothin'!" Claire blurted, suddenly quick to cover herself with rushed words. She was standing very stiffly for a change, but her watery eyes kept flitting to the side to check Adrian - just in case he decided that Claire was a liar after all. "Look, I di'n' mean it, I swear, okay? It's not even that bad!"


Even if he could barely feel the sting of the cuts, tiny pinpricks in his skin next to deeper gashes and a snapped arm, Jackson did not waste time in turning the affair into a bigger deal than it might have been had he not been deathly afraid. The cuts were small. They were also a step up from wandering around, inspecting the layout of the apartment, finding out everything about the people who lived in it. Exploring the apartment was a step up from wandering through the hall like she had done a few days ago. Claire's actions were becoming more extreme.


What was next? What was the next step up after the first signs of violence? Theft? Claire was wearing dirty clothes, her hair was filthy, and she expressed a great interest in all of their belongings. If they let her stay any longer, they might wake up to find their home empty. More bloodshed? Of course. Ghouls, ghouls and their blood, they could never get enough. One taste - of even one smell - and they would want more. What if it went after Adrian first? What if it killed him first? No, no way, there's no way that can happen, no, no no no...


"Uhm, Adrian?" Claire began suddenly, seeming to regain some of her bravado after hearing no further complaint from Jackson. "Would'ja mind if I-"


"Shut up!" Jackson interrupted, more loudly than he had first intended. Claire closed her mouth quickly and cast the man a frightened glance, then folded her hands together behind her back. 'Mind if I' what? Take something? Have the room to herself? There it was, the start of the rest of her plan. Animal, he thought, It's a horrid, deceptive animal... Using Adrian like that when he was tired... The poor boy was naive enough when he wasn't falling asleep on his feet, and that was bad enough. But taking advantage of his exhaustion for free roam of the apartment? That was several steps too far.


I guess... Maybe Adrian still had some sense. He listened to what Jackson had to say all the time anyway. Would he even understand what to do in his state if Jackson gave him an order? It's worth a try. He just had to trust his friend's obedience. He had to trust that Adrian could still remember his loyalties.


"Adrian," he said after gulping loudly. There was suddenly a thick, sticky film of sweat encasing every inch of his skin from the shoulders and up. Jackson licked away some of it on his lips. "A-Adrian, you... Uh - g-get me my, my quinque. It's - it's under my desk."

 

[Yoki]

Dead Enmity

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He didn't like this. He didn't like it at all. Claire and Jackson were at odds with each other, which was the last thing he wanted, Claire kept looking up at him as if she'd done something bad, and Jackson just looked...angry. Why wouldn't he stop? Why wouldn't he just let go? Claire really didn't mean it, Adrian knew that, but...neither of them seemed to be listening to him, in fact he didn't know if they were even acknowledging the fact that he was there.


Adrian's hands were forced to drop when he saw Claire go to pull her hair away from Jackson, the boy whimpered and pushed himself backwards with his feet, why wouldn't they listen? Why were they doing this? No one...had to get hurt. If Jackson would just listen to him instead of getting so upset... He understood the other was scared, there was a ghoul in their apartment, but by that logic...wasn't there always a ghoul in their apartment? So, technically shouldn't he be this afraid all of the time? Deep down, was he this afraid of Adrian?


There was nothing that he could say to make the situation any better, and so Adrian didn't speak. His eyes simply darted from his best friend to the ghoul that he'd met only days ago. Didn't Jackson understand, she'd helped him, she was the reason he wasn't starving anymore. He hadn't had to actively kill a human, which he knew Jackson wouldn't have liked, because Claire had given him food instead. And here Jackson was hurting her when he shouldn't be, Adrian knew he didn't mean it, he couldn't mean it. If he was willing to hurt any ghoul Adrian was friends with because he hated them that much, then...was he willing to hurt Adrian himself if he deemed the boy to be dangerous? Adrian felt like his head was being screwed with, he didn't know what to do.


By the time he had somewhat sorted his head out he was hearing his name being called by a young, high-pitched voice. Adrian's head shot up, perturbed eyes staring directly at Claire, he seemed to be in a slight state of shock from his sudden...realisation. For a moment he tried to shake it off, closing his eyes and rapidly moving his head from left to right. Once he thought that he was calm enough he opened his eyes and looked back up at Claire again, trying to smile, but...he was honestly too fretful of the situation to try and make everything seem like it was fine.


"Jackson..." Hearing Claire cut off by the male's rather aggressive 'shut up', Adrian turned to look at him, worry returning. He was angry, wasn't he? Did he think Claire was disgusting? Did he hate her? He hated her. He so hated her. Adrian felt awful, he didn't want to be in the room anymore, he didn't want to hear Jackson talking to Claire like that, could he see she was scared? He was scaring her! She didn't want to hurt him, she even said it was an accident and he was still scaring her.


That wasn't even the worst of it.


Jackson had asked Adrian to get his quinque, and whilst Adrian couldn't say he was the brightest of people, he wasn't stupid enough to not know what Jackson planned on doing. He...He couldn't let him do that...but...


Slowly, the male attempted to get to his feet, he used his good hand to push himself up, wincing at the pain that stabbed at his right shoulder. Once he was up he cradled his broken wrist in his arms and practically limped over to where Jackson had said his quinque was. Adrian just wanted to go back to sleep, he didn't want to stay here, none of this was meant to happen.


It was a pained effort to crouch down and grab the quinque from under the desk, but once he had it and was standing up straight again he didn't move for a few seconds. Instead he just stood, staring at the weapon he now had in his hand.


He gave this to Jackson...and Claire got hurt...but if he didn't...well...he wasn't going to keep it from him, was he? That just wasn't how it worked.


Adrian whispered something under his breath whilst staring at the weapon, but he was probably inaudible to Jackson.


"I'm sorry.


Finally, the boy lifted his head, eyes landing on his friend laying on his bed. "H-Hey...Jackson?" His voice was shaky and get breaking, he was having a hard time keeping it straight, "Are...Are you gonna...h...hurt Claire?" Adrian's head tilted to the right slightly, there was a wobbly smile on his face, but he looked far from happy. "Is...Is it because...she's...a ghoul?" He swallowed, grip on Jackson's weapon tightening slightly. For a few moments he didn't say anything else, he didn't really know what to say, how...did he ask Jackson a question like that?


"Jackson." This time his voice was a little more sturdy, "Jackson, does that mean you'll hurt me too?" Something somewhere between a sob and a laugh escaped Adrian, "You...wouldn't...right?" He didn't want Claire hurt, and Jackson wasn't listening to him, plus now...now he had some legitimate concerns about whether or not Jackson would turn on him because he got turned into a ghoul. "I-It's just...we're the same, right? I'm...I'm the same as her... So...So why w-would you h...hurt her and...and not me?" He felt sick, this was awful, he didn't want to talk about it anymore, he didn't even want to think about it anymore. He didn't want to think about anything. But he forced himself to continue.


"D-Do...Do you hate me?"

 

[yaint]

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His arm had been outstretched ready to receive that silver-steel case he so desired, but when his friend had said those words, those four words that silenced every other thought in his head, Jackson could not help but stop and look.


Do you hate me?


Jackson's entire body froze but for his eyes, which slowly, ever so slowly drifted up to meet those belonging to Adrian. For a thousand seconds he stared at his friend. Something in his upper chest tightened painfully, but he couldn't tell what it was. He didn't even want to be able to tell, at least not really.


It seemed to take forever for time to begin moving again, and when it did and he saw that his arm had become weak and shaky, Jackson was quick to pull it back in to his chest where he cradled it against his warm, bare skin.


The involuntary movement of the arm seemed to shake Jackson out of his trance, and he tore his eyes away from Adrian with a suddenness that made him dizzy. What did it mean? Why was he suddenly so weak? His body, his body was betraying him, it was showing signs of an emotion that didn't exist. It could have been some kind of sorrow, or it could have been a regret - after all, wasn't it normal for somebody to feel guilty for inspiring such a question from their best friend of all people? And yet... No!


Guilt. Yeah, right... There was something there, but whatever it was, Jackson had now decided that he was not going to care to find out. He hadn't done anything wrong. He was protecting his friend from the monster that was trying to kill him. A pair of sharp brown eyes briefly shot an icy glare in Claire's direction.


There was a quiet, restrained shuffling noise. Another quick, sharp look told Jackson that it was the ghoul; she was dragging her feet over the soft carpet to stand closer by the door. Was it scared? It should be. The way it kept looking at Adrian with those ghastly eyes, the way it kept showing its disgusting teeth. There was no doubt - it was sizing up its prey. Adrian, who had been so cleverly deceived, had no idea what kind of danger he had put himself into.


Ridiculous, Jackson silently scorned the boy, swallowing the imaginary word along with another lick of sweat which had plastered over his sore and scabbed lips. He's being ricidulous. Unreasonable. Close-minded. Adrian had to understand, he had to somehow know that this was all for his sake. But now? It didn't look like there would be any chance of that. Adrian was too tired. He was being used.


I know what I'm doing, the man told himself as he pushed down another lump of false guilt that had grown in his throat. I am protecting him. Adrian is in danger, and I will protect him, and then he will appreciate it later on. Yes. Yes, that sounded right - all Jackson had to do was act, and then the talking could be saved for the next day, when there wasn't a ghoul to be chasing off.


"No," he finally said after minutes of silence filled by the strain of suppressing whimpers, screams and cries of panic. I don't hate him. "Y-you're - no, Adrian, you're not. L-like 'her'. You're not. Stop... Stop being ridiculous, you're being ridiculous. J-just - do as I say, give me my quinque. Give-"


This time there was no cry from Claire to stop Jackson from speaking. Instead he simply appeared to give up mid-word, abandoning his attempt to reach Adrian and instead electing to try and reach the weapon himself. A moment was wasted scrabbling aimlessly at the air, but then the man utilised whatever strength he still had to push against the side of his bed, forcing his body to slide sideways. He snatched the case out of Adrian's hand, struggled with its weight, and heaved it up in front of him.


The sides of the case fell away with the click of a button, the quinque's shell peeling back to reveal the mounds of pulsing muscle hidden away inside. He had it. He had his weapon, everything that he needed to fend off this ghoul - or at least buy himself and Adrian some time before it slaughtered them both. I just have to kill it.

 

[Yoki]

Adrian's eyes betrayed the worry and fright that he felt as he clutched the weapon that Jackson was demanding he gave to him. He was waiting silently for the other's answer to his question. If Jackson really hated him then what was he even doing here? The other shouldn't have to just put up with him, if Jackson preferred he wasn't around then maybe he shouldn't be. It wasn't fair for him to burden someone else because he couldn't be on his own. Jackson would be fine if he wasn't there, but...by staying was he making the man unhappy?


The initial reaction that Jackson gave wasn't something that Adrian had expected, the man pulled his arm back, and for a moment he convinced him that he really wasn't going to hurt Claire. That he had realised he didn't need to do this, that Claire wasn't a threat to him. He thought his words has gotten through to the other, and that he didn't hate him, he didn't hate Claire, he wasn't going to hurt anyone. 


Adrian's head tilted to one side, his expression changing from fearful and distressed, to more relaxed. A small smile even managed to cross his face. He could see that Jackson wasn't comfortable, but he really was convinced for a few moments that no one was going to get hurt, that they could talk through this, or Claire could go, or...or something that meant everything would be okay. Jackson must be as tired as they were, surely he didn't really want to fight, he wasn't like that, he didn't want to hurt anyone. He was just scared, and Adrian was scared too, after all, thinking your best friend might hate you because of what you were...it...was a scary thought. 


Everything was okay until Jackson reached for that weapon. 


Pushing himself up with one arm, Jackson had snatched at the weapon in Adrian's hands, and of course, being too stunned to do otherwise, Adrian had let go. The smile disappeared from face, his eyes widening as he realised that Jackson really didn't plan on just letting this all go. That paused wasn't what he thought, he didn't know what it was, but it definitely wasn't Jackson trying to take a more civil approach to things. 


He just... He didn't understand. Why?


Jackson refused hating Adrian, he told him he was being silly, that himself and Claire weren't the same...but Jackson didn't understand. He didn't get it. 


The boy opened his mouth as if to say something, but all that came out was a feeble whimper. He didn't know what to say, he didn't know what to think. Jackson wanted to hurt Claire still, but why? Why did he want to do this? Adrian wasn't sure he'd ever be able to understand it, no matter what Jackson told him. It wasn't often that he went against what Jackson said, but this time he just couldn't see where the man was coming from. He couldn't say he wasn't worried that Jackson would regret it, he didn't want the other to kill someone friendly and then feel regret for the rest of his life...but...that wasn't the only thought running through his head. 


If Jackson wanted to kill Claire because she was a ghoul, then was he forcing himself to keep Adrian around? Even though he didn't want to? 


Adrian had seen his animosity towards ghouls, he'd seen how much they angered Jackson...so...was he forcing himself to forget what was happening to his friend? Did he feel disgusted by him yet keep him around because he had no other option? It wouldn't be a stretch to say that Adrian scared Jackson enough for him to think that he had to keep him there, would it?


Was he keeping his friend prisoner without realising?


"N-No!" His head turned as Jackson started to release the weapon that he'd seized from Adrian, he couldn't just let him kill Claire like this... It wasn't fair on her. She only came here to talk, she didn't deserve this. 


It didn't take Adrian much time to move across the room to stand in front of Claire, of course in his exhaustion he stumbled, finding it hard to stand at all, and when he finally stopped he kept swaying slightly. He couldn't help it, he'd just wanted to sleep. 


"Please...Jackson...You...You don't...get it..." Heartbroken grey eyes locked onto the man on the bed, Adrian was quite literally begging Jackson not to do this. "I...I...know you don't..." He swallowed, "I know you don't...like her...but she's...really nice, I promise." Saying more would have helped his situation, but Adrian was finding it hard to keep his sentences coherent as it was, going on a tangent wasn't going to help anyway. 


"I just..." Tears welled up in his eyes as he spoke, "I-If...you need to...to kill a ghoul tonight... Kill me instead....I mean...I-I know I'm a...burden anyway and-..." His breath caught in his throat for a moment, but Adrian found the strength to continue anyway, "I-I'm...sorry... I'm s-sorry for...for everything..."  Once again the boy managed to put a smile on his face, closing his eyes for a moment and sighing.They were all meant to be friends. This wasn't meant to happen.

 

[yaint]

Jackson forced himself to swallow that lump in his throat that felt a lot like guilt. Why? Why did he feel so guilty? Was that even what it was? No, no way, it couldn't have been. He hadn't done anything wrong that deserved regret. Adrian... Well, Adrian certainly wasn't happy about whatever was happening - so much to the point that even looking at his friend would cause Jackson to shudder - but he wasn't being rational. This would all help him in the end, it would keep him alive. Adrian was just too exhausted to realise it at that moment. So then why did he feel so awful..?


 


No. No, I... I can't. Jackson shook his head to clear away all of the different thoughts and ideas which kept pecking at each other, trying to win their place in his mind's perception of truth. It wasn't working. He couldn't think properly, and since he had no lack of sleep to blame after dozing in his chair for most of the afternoon, Jackson cursed whatever painkillers had been pumped into his blood back at the hospital. Stupid medicine. How was he supposed to think now?


 


Something had to be said or done to Adrian, even if he couldn't think what. "A-Adrian," Jackson tried once. He couldn't find the words to finish his sentence, so a few seconds later he began a new one. "I - y-you, uh, it's not..." Nope, nothing. No matter how much he kept stuttering and stammering his way through each phrase, nothing seemed to fit or make sense.


 


Damn it, he cursed, fingers tightening further around the handle of his quinque. It was clear enough in his mind. 'You're not a ghoul.' 'I'm not going to kill you.' 'Adrian, you know I can't live without you - you're the opposite of a burden.' But somehow it didn't work when he tried to turn it into something he could physically say with his lips and tongue. So there's no point in trying to communicate anymore... I should just do something instead. Get it over with before he says something else.


 


As if waking up from an eternal slumber, Jackson peeled his eyelids apart, allowing his tired brown eyes to roll around and take in all that existed around him. The bed, the pillow that obscured half of his vision. Yellow light. A plain carpet. Desk, mirror, Adrian... Ghoul.


 


That was his target. He could see it, even without his glasses, even though its eyes were not black and red and there were no sharp-edged claws protruding from its back. After all, one did not need good eyes to find sight of another's true colours.


 


For half a second Claire and Jackson locked eyes, and then, inhaling as deeply as he could in his restrained position, the man flexed his thumb to gain feel of his weapon. The three snake-like red tendrils extended from the handle and twisted slowly into a short, fat pike. 


 


Die, he thought, thrusting his arm at the girl and watching as the quinque's spikes stretched out towards her. They would have cut straight through her heart, had she not leapt promptly out of the way - but lucky for her it was the mirror that shattered and not her spine. 


 


Pieces of glass cascaded into a heap on the floor, tiny sparkling shards skittering over the carpet where Claire had been standing not a moment ago. The girl herself was crouching bug-eyed in the doorway, her own white eyes wide and wild with shock. "He's actually jus' done it, he did," she wheezed, having to make an effort to move her slack-jawed mouth. There was little time for her to marvel, though, as barely a second later those spikes were back upon her. 


 


"Uh-oh," Claire said, ducking out of the path of another blow which tore upwards into the light fixture and plunged the room back into darkness. Jackson did not feel the thousands of shards of the light bulb which rained down on his back. Claire wheeled around and hovered by Adrian's side. "Uhm, Adrian? I think I'd ought'a go. I'm real sorry 'bout not gettin' to talk to ya like I was gonna do, jus' remembered actually that I wanted to ask you about your ka-" Swish. The sentence was cut off mid-word, and instead Claire released a high-pitched yelp. Another slam from Jackson's quinque had caught her off-guard, slicing through the skin on the back of her knee whilst she was distracted by trying to explain herself to Adrian.


 


Claire started to bend down so that she could wipe away the blood, but then remembered that her attacker was still in the room with her. Awkwardly, she scuttled backwards, hopping on one leg until she was out of the bedroom. Jackson followed her with his quinque but soon lost range. It was difficult to see in the darkness of the unlit night, but there were some black marks on the floor in the lounge that seemed to trail towards the window. Blood?


 


There was no quickly-uttered 'goodbye'. If the window had creaked open and slammed shut, Jackson's ears were ringing too loudly for him to have noticed. But... The prickling on the back of his neck subsided, and he automatically allowed his quinque to fall limp. Nobody was in sight. The room was silent. "Adrian," Jackson whispered hoarsely, his mouth dry, "Is it - is it g-gone?"

 

[Yoki]

His focus was dwindling, it was hard to follow both Jackson and Claire, hard to hear their voices properly. Adrian didn't know what exactly was going on, but he hoped it was Jackson coming to his senses. He stood there in front of Claire hoping that Jackson would either kill him and get it over with, leaving Claire out of it, or...just stop all of this. He didn't like it. It was scaring him. Jackson was scaring him. 


Everything was silent and Adrian hated it, he hated waiting in anticipation, hoping Jackson's next move wouldn't be taking a life in this room...but...if it was nobody could say he was wrong to do it. If he'd be better off without the other around, then maybe this was for the best... Adrian just didn't want him to kill Claire, she had people to get back to, it wasn't fair. If he killed her people might come after him, they might hurt him, and that was the last thing Adrian wanted... 


"Ja-" Not wanting to wait any longer, the boy went to say something, but before he could do so he vaguely noticed something crashing to the side of him. Adrian's vision blurred for a second, before he turned his head to see Jackson's quinque rushing towards Claire. His eyes widened in shock and panic, why...why was he doing this? This wasn't meant to happen, no...no, he couldn't seriously want to hurt Claire... Jackson would never do that...he would never-


Upon hearing the crack of a mirror Adrian took in a sharp breath, eyes locked on the spot. He...really did... 


Even as Claire tried to talk to him his eyes were locked in that same position, he couldn't move, he was frozen in place. Jackson just tried to kill Claire, he really tried to kill Claire. Even after everything that Adrian had said... Why...Why wouldn't he listen? After all, Adrian listening to Jackson's every word...so...why wouldn't he believe him this one time? In order to keep himself calm, Adrian grabbed his broken wrist and just held it close to his body, trying to focus on something else. 


This wasn't happening.


It wasn't.


It was a dream, that was all.


A bad dream. 


A yelp rang in his ears, causing him to jump as he turned to face the noise. It wasn't good. He should have kept looking the other way. Jackson had hit Claire, and Claire had ran for it. So...Adrian followed her. Upon seeing the girl exit, he used all of the energy he had left in order to run out of the room after her to make sure she was okay, but he wasn't nearly fast enough. By the time he'd registered everything and left the room Claire had already disappeared, she was gone, and Adrian was left standing there in a state of stupor. He...didn't want to think about it. His brain kept trying to push something to the from of his mind, but he didn't want to think about it, he didn't want to know... He just wanted it all to stop. 


For quite a few moments Adrian simply stood, staring out into the darkness of their apartment, the only light trickled in from the room he'd just burst out of. Illuminating only himself, it didn't help at all. And then he heard a voice. A voice asking him if 'it' was gone. Of course, even in his dazed state, he knew what that meant... 


"Yes." The boy's voice was almost silent, simply a squeak, he couldn't get anything else out. After that he didn't walk back into Jackson's room, he didn't want to look at the other, he didn't want to think about what just happened, he just wanted to forget. Forget it all. His seemingly absent gaze landed on his own bedroom door and his feet immediately turned his body to start moving towards it. 


Maybe tomorrow would be better. 


Maybe it would all stop tomorrow. 


He wanted it to stop.


He didn't like this, he didn't want to do it anymore. 


When would it end?

 

[yaint]

Yes.


 


As if the word were some kind of command, Jackson allowed his fingers to loosen, his shaking arm which was slick with sweat to relax and drop just in front of his face. The arms of the quinque fell limp and began to slither back into the handle.


 


It was okay. It was gone. Adrian was right for once this night, he must have been. Jackson could hear the solemn honesty in his little mouse-like voice. I did it, he thought again and again, a tiny flickering flame of triumph dancing in his eyes. For just a moment he allowed himself to enjoy that feeling before the horrible, crushing concoction of guilt and fear came back to snuff out that brief-lived glee. 


 


The ghoul was gone, yes. But I didn't kill it. There was a chance it could return, maybe bring some allies with it to help finish off the job that the one called Claire had barely begun. He could try and live in the tiny victory, but deep inside Jackson knew that shouldn't let his guard down.


 


*** 


 


Several minutes had passed since Adrian had called back that the coast was clear, and several times in each of those minutes Jackson had tried to call back to Adrian - but his efforts were in vain. Not once did he hear a response. Perhaps he was being too quiet, out maybe Adrian had simply chosen to go to bed without announcing his intentions. After all, he did look exhausted.


 


Damn. There were too many things Jackson had wanted to say or do before Adrian left him for the night. More than anything he wanted to be moved to a more comfortable position, one where his face wasn't pressed so heavily into the rock-like, suffocating pillow below. But there were other things, too. Adrian was wounded, and Jackson had intended to inspect the damage and use whatever resources in his possession to stop it from becoming worse. But... Well, it looked like all of that would have to wait until the morning. No Adrian, no movement. Jackson was trapped again.


 


With the last ounces of his dwindling energy, Jackson slipped the handle of his dormant quinque beneath the mass of his pillow, then called out one last time: "To-tomorrow - tomorrow we talk." And then he slept.

 

[Yoki]

That night Adrian had flopped onto his bed and immediately fallen asleep, he hadn't bothered to get into a comfortable position, he was too exhausted to think about such a thing...he just wanted to relax. To forget. And that he did, sleep seemed to fix most things, after sleeping for a good while he was usually able to push anything that upset him to the back of his mind.


It was the light that streaming in from his bedroom window that woke him up the next morning, the boy groaned a little and went to rub his eyes. Yet the minute he balled up one of his hands he yelped and immediately let it go limp once more. His eyes shot open at the sudden pain in his wrist, his breath catching in his throat. Oh. Right, his wrist was broken, he should probably pay more attention to that...


Swallowing, Adrian slowly sat himself up, trying not to put too much pressure on his arm...there was still a giant wound in it, even if it was healing faster than it probably should. Claire had mentioned something about eating, maybe he needed to eat something in order for it to heal better. If he wanted to get food then maybe he should go back to her... Speaking of Claire, he hoped that she was okay. Jackson hadn't been nice to her the night before, but she wouldn't hold it against him, would she? He didn't mean it, Jackson just didn't like ghouls and got scared of them easily... That was all. Again Adrian felt as if he'd been hit in the chest with something, Jackson didn't like ghouls... He shook his head, no, he shouldn't be thinking about that, it didn't matter. Jackson...like him! 


...


Right? 


With a sigh, Adrian slipped his legs off of the bed and stood up, smiling. Anyway...Jackson needed help getting up! Adrian hadn't realised that he'd gone to sleep without a shirt on until now, but...apparently he had. He was still covered in dry blood and so he decided it was best to take a shower first and then go and help his friend. 


It it was awkward trying to get undressed and then dried and dressed again with just one hand, but after a large amount of struggling and whining, Adrian finally finished. He'd wrapped his arm in bandages again the best he could and put a shirt on over the top. It was an awkward process, but he supposed it would be over soon. His arm seemed to be healing, he didn't know about the wrist... He should ask Claire about that when he next saw her. At least he felt a lot cleaner now than before, he felt refreshed and new. Which was always good! 


"Jackson!" The boy exited the bathroom and bounced over to his friend's room. He was about to switch the light on to see the other, but realised that it was already on. Oh...had he left it on the night before? Hopefully Jackson had been able to sleep in that. "Are you awake?" He asked, blinking a few times as he walked inside and grabbed the man's wheelchair with one hand, dragging it over next to the bed. Now how was he going to get him into it? Adrian had hurt himself pretty badly, he hoped he was still able to lift Jackson...because they'd have a problem if he wasn't...


It was a choice not to think about the night before as he walked through the hallway and into the room, he'd seen the blood on the carpet outside, but he'd clean it up later. If he dwelled on it too much it would just upset him again, anyway, he was probably over thinking it. Jackson would never hate him like that...he'd never try to kill him... 


"Jackson~! I got your glasses!"

 

[yaint]

Eyes still closed, a low groan slithered out of Jackson's mouth as Adrian's bubbly voice shook his skull from the inside out. "Yeah, yeah," he mumbled into the pillow, not bothering to lift his face away from the mound of cotton and feathers, "I'm awake. M-my glasses? Bring them here, then..."


Whilst it was good that Adrian sounded as though he were feeling better, Jackson did wish that he would keep his voice down a little; it seemed as though Jackson's dry mouth had been more than just fear. He was dehydrated, and that plus the fact that his sleep had been patchy and broken did not make his head feel any better. He blamed the lack of rest on his arm, which today felt alive with a newly-awoken agony - clearly the painkillers had worn off overnight. 


Stupid, he cursed himself silently after a feeble attempt to push his chest up using the force of only his left arm. As if he weren't useless enough already, he had lost his head for a second on the field the day before and ended up with the bone snapped in two. Now he had to rely on Adrian even more than usual. Poor kid. He had his crushed wrist, too... Trust those two, the dynamic duo, to both get smashed up at the same time. It wouldn't make their morning any easier, that was for sure, and it was Adrian who had to do all the making up for it. This time Jackson allowed himself to admit that he was guilty. 


Eventually, Jackson managed to peel his eyes open - and to his surprise and amazement, he realised that Adrian had already cleaned and clothed himself. Did he do that with just one hand? Impressive... However, even if he had managed that by himself, it didn't seem as though he had been in time; there were skinny bars of scorching sunlight striped across Jackson's bare back, he could see them in the corner of his vision. The sun was never that strong through his window until around noon. 


Looks like we missed the start of work, he thought glumly before something turned over in his mind again. Work. Work? We can't go to work today! He had been wanting to talk to Adrian about that, that was what he had been planning on discussing the night before. But... A shudder overtook him again, sending another shooting pain all the way through his right arm. Last night had been chaotic, so nightmarish that it perhaps could have been mistaken for a dream had there not been shards of broken glass from the mirror littered on the floor. I did that. 


There were thoughts swimming about in Jackson's head now. Points, questions, suggestions, ideas, everything that was bursting to be said or written down in a neat pen-drawn list. It wouldn't make sense to start spewing out these phrases here, he would sound like he were babbling nonsense. It could scare Adrian, like it had the night before. Did the boy even remember what had happened? I hope not, he thought, He doesn't need to think about that right now. We have bigger problems to worry about.


"Uh - A-Adrian?" he gulped suddenly, twisting his head around to try and find the boy. It would really help if he could just reach out and put those glasses on by himself, but he couldn't even move enough to see Adrian's full body without the use of his right arm. Not useful when there was an urgency to be dealt with. "Wait - hold on - before you get me up, err... We haven't - um, we haven't had any phone calls, had we?"

 

[Yoki]

"Okay!" Adrian had Jackson's glasses in his hand and was about to give them to the man when he heard him say something else. Had they had any phone calls? Well, he didn't really know, he hadn't woken up all that long ago, and he really hadn't checked. It wasn't often that he ever checked the house phone, that was usually Jackson, and his own mobile was all in some weird language he couldn't understand... Maybe Jackson could fix that for him, he'd been meaning to ask him if he knew what to do. That could wait until later though, they had other things to do first. 


"Ahhhh...." The boy turned on his heel, "Well...I don't think my phone has..." He replied, "I'll go check." With a smile he put Jackson's glasses down on the bed next to him and then ran out of the room to grab the house phone. It was in the living room, one of those detachable ones he didn't know the name of. They were like mobiles, but not because they needed charge and stuff. He didn't know exactly how to work it, he'd never needed to work one in his life. 


Grabbing the phone, he spun around once more and made his way back towards Jackson's room. Adrian entered the door, placing the phone on a table nearby, then putting a hand behind his head. "I um..." He laughed awkwardly, "You'll have to check...I don't know how." Maybe he should get Jackson up first and then they could check whether they had any phone calls or not? Yeah, that was a good idea. 


"I mean, I can get you up first and then you can check?" He suggested, dragging one of his feet along the floor. It really seemed as if Adrian wasn't thinking at all about the night before, instead he was focusing on the problems that they had there and then. "Anyway...What time is it?" He looked around for the clock, but since he was unable to find it he just sighed and shrugged, "Should we get to work? Is Strat going to be mad at me for being late do you think?" Strat didn't like it when people weren't on time, but no one had seen Adrian since the fight yesterday, at least Jackson had been registered at the hospital... Adrian hadn't... It would be strange for them not to wonder where he was. Maybe they thought he was dead... 


He wasn't even thinking about what work might suspect of him. After all, they'd seen him run off with a shard in his back that probably should have killed him but didn't...he'd then gotten into a fight with a very dangerous ghoul, where he refused to fight back...yet...somehow he lived...and disappeared again. If they didn't start suspecting something soon...then they really were stupid, and the CCG was definitely anything but dumb. 


"Uh... So, were you expecting a call from someone?" Adrian asked, turning his head to the side as he went through Jackson's cupboard to get clothes out for the other, "Maybe they'll call later if they haven't called, I didn't hear anything..." But he was asleep earlier, then he had the shower on and music, it was very possible that they had had a phone call and he'd just missed it. "Was it anyone important?" 

 

[yaint]

"What?" Jackson's breathing slowed after hearing that familiar buzzing of youthful energy sparking with every word that came from his friend's mouth. The tiredness was gone, the desparation dissipated into just a shadow of what it had been the night before. Adrian was feeling better. There was no point in ruining that happiness now, before either of them had even had a chance to figure out what they were going to panic about next. "Oh. Uh, no. Not important. I'll check in a minute anyway, though."


For a moment the man fumbled blindly, patting his fingers down on the mattress until they found the wiry frame of his glasses. The lenses were spotted with grease and grime, no doubt on account of that ghoul's filthy paws, but even so it was a great relief to be able to see more than a globe of colourful, blurred shapes floating around his head. "Thanks," he said quietly as he adjusted the position of the spectacles on his nose. They would sit better when his head wasn't halfway inside his pillow.


A comb of fingers found their way through Jackson's hair, pushing back the ruffled locks of gold which had fallen down over his face. His forehead always looked oddly large when it was bare, but it was refreshing to have a clear line of sight. He continued to rub at his face as he thought, almost as though the movements were helping to stir the ideas sitting in his mind. What time is it? he echoed internally. Were they missing work? "Adrian, we're... We - we aren't going to - to work today. Uh, I'll - I'll explain later. Let's just... Let's get into the lounge."


***


By the time the two roommates had reached the point of leaving Jackson's bedroom, it felt late enough to be evening - even though the clocks had all pointed towards ten o'clock. Naturally Jackson had spent the majority of his waking morning complaining as his arm was pulled about and twisted through the sleeve of his button-up, occasionally telling Adrian to be careful with his wrist, and of course thinking furiously about everything that he had wanted to say.


Now the two were in the lounge together - Jackson facing towards Adrian, his glasses having been wiped clean and hair combed back into a neater style than his mess of a bedhead. He had pushed one leg up so that it crossed over the other, creating a higher surface than his lap where he could rest an old clipboard. On the board was a sheet of paper, some words shakily scrawled between the lines. A ball pen twirled clumsily between the fingers of Jackson's left hand. 


"Okay," he said finally, his usual stutter seeming to vanish now that he had a somewhat clear list laid out in front of him, "I checked the phone, there's nothing. Are you listening? I've got a lot of stuff I need to run by you, so I need you to be paying attention now."

 

[Yoki]

Whilst Adrian had been confused on why they weren't going to work he didn't question it, what was the point? If Jackson said they weren't going he probably had a reason for it, maybe it was because of their limbs...or...something else that the boy was trying his best not to think about. He liked the CCG, he liked working there, he liked most of the people too...he didn't want to have to leave. 


Getting Jackson out of bed was harder than normal, with a broken wrist and injured arm he found it a little more painful to lift the other, but he didn't complain. Instead he just got on with his job, this was what he'd agreed to do when he started living with Jackson so he wasn't going to complain about it. He did talk a lot however, bringing up whatever he could that was somewhat positive, talking about people, places, maybe even a bit more than normal. At least he sounded and felt a lot better than the day before, he needed that sleep, he didn't know how much he got, but however much it was it was enough. 


Soon enough the two were sitting in the lounge, Jackson in his wheelchair and Adrian in front of him sitting on the couch. His large grey eyes stared over at Jackson as he rocked back and forth slightly, Adrian had hold of his ankle with one hand, the broken one resting on his knee, his legs were crossed, waiting for Jackson to speak. The other had said he had something to say, so Adrian was trying his best to sit still and at least listen, he just wasn't very good at staying still for more than a few seconds. Jackson knew that. 


"Mhm!" Upon hearing Jackson ask him if he was listening the boy nodded and smiled, "Okay." There was a lot of stuff? What exactly did they need to talk about? Whilst Jackson seemed to do his best to retain and address information, Adrian did quite the opposite. If something he didn't like happened he did his best to forget it, if he couldn't forget it he pushed it to the back of his mind and left it there, completely unaddressed. He wasn't very confrontational most of the time, he didn't like getting into arguments, that's why he brushed things off easily. He just hoped that whatever Jackson needed to run by him wasn't bad. It could just be simple stuff, but the man had a list...so it had to be long... 


Oh, that was right.


There was one thing that Adrian did want to talk about...one thing that he couldn't quite forget. Leo. He wanted to talk to Jackson about it, tell him that Leo was still alive, because...Jackson obviously hadn't realised in that fight...otherwise he wouldn't have jumped at him right? Leo and Jackson wouldn't hurt each other... Adrian just wanted to see his brother again, and Jackson must want to see Leo too, they were good friends...he'd always heard Leo talk about going to see Jackson or going out with him, so he knew that they spent a lot of time together. 


"I...guess I have something to talk about too!" His smile widened, "But you first." Jackson had brought them to the lounge in order to address whatever it was that was bothering him, and so Adrian would wait his turn. Once the other was done they could talk about Leo, even if he was desperate to tell him about it. 

 

[yaint]

"Err - okay, we'll, uh, we'll get to that later," Jackson promised, his fingers stiffening to hold the pen in place just a second before it would have fallen through his unsteady grip. Adrian wanted to say something? That would be difficult; Jackson had a fixed agenda laid out, any unforseen interruptions could throw him off course and make him stumble over his words even worse than he normally did. But then again, after spending all night and then morning bossing his friend around like some kind of military dog, Jackson did owe Adrian his own say - especially in a topic as important as this. I'll get to it at some point.


A few times, Jackson cast subtle glances up at the younger male to make sure that he truly had his undivided attention. He had known Adrian long enough to have learned that sitting through long speeches was not the boy's forte, but it was also difficult to tell exactly when he might have lost interest. If only he would stop fidgeting! Jackson wished silently, catching himself before he could sigh at Adrian's constant rocking and twitching. Besides anything, all that moving around would not do wonders for his injuries. If they got any worse... Well, Jackson was supposed to be taking care of Adrian. If the boy became even more seriously injured instead of healing, that would be his roommate's responsibility to take.


Nevermind, nevermind!  They hadn't even begun to speak and he was already losing his train of thought. Focus. 


Jackson cleared his throat as though the noise of a forceless cough would rinse his mind of any irrelevant worries. Here we go. His stutter disappeared again as he said, "Anyway, back to the point. Give me a moment..."


A frown furrowed his brow as Jackson craned his neck forwards, trying to read the scrawled letters that decorated the scrap of paper laid across his single crossed leg. His hand-writing was normally messy, but this list was barely legible. It was the fault of his broken arm, of course; Jackson wasted no time in blaming his injury rather than his own incompetence. After all, his dominant hand was curled up in a sling, fingers barely able to flex, and writing left-handed was not in the man's array of skills.


It took several moments to make out patches of the first point. 'Adrian... Events... Hospital...' That was all he could work out, but there was clearly some meaning to the nonsense because the words worked to spark Jackson's memory. 


"Right, got it. Okay, are you still listening? We're starting from the beginning." He paused for a moment to glance up and check that he hadn't lost Adrian's attention in those few seconds of thinking time. "I want to talk about all the weird stuff that's been happening. To you. Something has been off for a while, I noticed it first when you disappeared and left me at work the other day. Jason gave me a lift home, I sat in Liz's lounge all evening, and then you reappeared covered in blood. You with me?" Jackson checked Adrian again, beginning to twirl his pen between his fingers again as he waited for some kind of explanation from the boy.

 

[Yoki]

"Okay." After Jackson told him that they'd get to what he had to say later Adrian just nodded and smiled, he could wait. He knew that Jackson liked to order things, he wasn't going to get in the middle of that and mess it up, he'd just wait until there was a suitable moment, or the man had gone through all his points, then he'd say his piece. 


For a few moments the man didn't say anything, he just say there, thinking. This led Adrian's eyes to wander about the room, he started thinking about other things, like what they should eat. As he thought about he food he suddenly got a strange feeling, something between disappointment and panic, oh...that was right... Whenever he ate anything he threw up. If he wanted to eat then he had to go to Claire, or someone who would help him out, but...would the girl even want to speak to him after Jackson tried to kill her? He could only hope. He'd just have to apologise a lot for it. 


"Mn?" Jackson's voice broke Adrian's thought process, causing his head to turn back towards the other, his attention was locked on the man again as he started to speak. Of course the first thing he had to bring up was the day Adrian disappeared from work and didn't appear until later on that night... Did they have to talk about it? The boy blinked a couple of times, before dropping his gaze, he guessed he knew what happened that day...something went wrong...and he had to leave. 


He nodded his head when he heard the words 'you with me', was he expected to speak? Adrian left it a few seconds before raising his head to look at Jackson. "I...I didn't mean to leave you." He replied, "I just...I needed to do some stuff was all." Whilst he wasn't lying, he wasn't telling Jackson the whole truth. Adrian never saw much point in lying to people about things, he didn't do it often, but he could be vague with his answers a lot of the time. He avoided answering awkward questions by giving answers that were...acceptable, but didn't explain a lot. "Sorry."