John had enjoyed the time out with Selene and Leila as it was a nice distraction from the events earlier that week… But he couldn’t stop wondering how Bran was doing, in the back of his mind. Call the Scouser paranoid, but after Rosacarnis and the children they sired together did quite a number on the people closest to him, and even those that vaguely knew John about a decade or so ago… Well, he had good reasons to get check in on them from time to time, he told himself. Especially when he didn’t know what Maria was up to these days. It wasn’t like he missed Bran already, or cared about him more than a regular mate does, or anything. John needed to say something about that, and Selene and Leila too… but not today.
He’d relocated in the bedroom, determined to just do it and get it over with. He’s a grown arse man, you daft git. He’s fine. John’s around three quarters through with his precautions when he heard Lu give a shout from the living room. “You don’t have to bloody yell; I’m right here, sweetheart.” John lifted his gaze to give her a hardly annoyed look before he refocused on making a protection circle. While she’s there, though… “There’s also a perfectly good door you could use that leads to me flat from the hallway, you know.” John reminded her gently, despite knowing that his suggestion would go unheeded. At this rate, he’d need to put down a bloody doormat at the window she preferred to enter in and exit out of.
John didn’t rise from his crouched position as he continued painting the rest of a circle, “What brings you through me window tonight?” @organizedlightninglu; @streakofemercld
Getting back to his hotel, bleeding and bruised along his ribs, was a right mess. The U-Bahn had been crowded, people heading home or out for shopping, and Bran had been jostled and elbowed in his sore bits more than he’d expected. His jaw ached from gritting his teeth against the pain, but even not back in his hotel room, he can’t take anything for it. Needs to clean it first, stitch it up, get it properly bandaged. What a feckin’ headache.
Shirt off as he gets the door latched behind him, and into the bathroom for a glass of clean, hot water. Supplies lined up on the desk, pushed up closer to the bed, and the bruising on his left side is already starting to swell up. Thankfully, his raven is untouched, though half of it is swollen up. Easier to hide the bruising under the swirls of black and purple ink.
His right side is… messier.
Rust red smeared across the skin, and drips disappear into the waistband of his pants. Hissing as he uses a wet rag to wipe it up, rough material dragging along and inside the bullet’s path. Soap and water come next, and by now the first cup is a pale pink, and there’s still fresher blood spilling out. Fuck him, and he needs to thread his suture needle too.
Trying desperately not to think of John now, how the mage’s calloused hands would feel, calming and warm against Bran’s skin. How his blood had looked on his hands, vividly scarlet.
{ @organizedlightninglu @smellslikesilkcuts }
Following the sound of John’s voice into the bedroom, Lu was pleased to see that he was already in the middle of some sort of magic doing. “John we have this conversation every time I come over.” She rolled her eyes. “If I used the normal door, I’d have to get past the exit door downstairs and pick the lock on your door. Frankly, coming through the window is much easier.”
Lu watched him for a moment, interested in the work he was doing, in the work he was about to do, in the work that she was going to request him to do. She turned Bran’s old phone in her hands, something she had held on to from when they had first met. It was long since unusable, the battery long dead and the memory wiped, but it was one of the only things of his that was nondescript enough for her to hand off to John to use. “I have a favour to ask...” She said quietly.
With John, there was rarely a moment where she lacked confidence, even in some of her softer moments with him, her voice rarely gave way to those softer emotions. But now? Here about to ask this ridiculous request of him? Her words were unsteady, much like her feelings toward both men.
Quickly she tried to shake her nerves, part of her wishes she had raided John’s kitchen for some liquid courage. “Since it seems you’re in a magic practicing mood,” She gestured to the preparation the mage was doing. “I was wondering if you could uh, do your magic thing for me?”
@smellslikesilkcuts @streakofemercld
