We are the Hunted (Invite only)

[Sorrow_Mirth_and_Sin]

He was going to have to do the responsible thing and quit his job, Icarus decided as the sun swung slowly across the sky and the boy stilled against. He doubted he'd be able to keep up with it for awhile after this and he knew that the temptation to roll over and let Tithe handle this pain would be too welcome to pass up and Tithe would not deal with these things silent and peaceable like. He cringed to think of just how much blood would be on his hands but he didn't care. Even he wanted compensation for this.

He started when Tobin spoke. He hadn't anticipated that the boy would wake again. Was he imagining it or did he sound a bit better?

"Yeah?" He said tentatively, his voice notably strained, caught between hope and despair.  

[Ma Sai The Caged Tiger]

Blinking the rest of the sleep from his eyes, Tobin pulled away, noting his current resting place with a vivid blush. "Why....am I in your lap?" His voice was hushed but held a note of alarm. He couldn't remember how he ended up in this position, and it boggled him completely to think how it might have come about. He sat up fully and slowly registered their surroundings.

The yard was small and bare, its earth dry and parched, begging for life to be had upon its hard packed soil. He realized as a cool breeze shifted over him that his torso was bare and his flush deepened. Whay was he curled up against a man he barely knew, and half naked to boot? "What happened last night?"  

[Sorrow_Mirth_and_Sin]

Icarus looked the boy over carefully, though it was harder for him to see in the light. It hadn't been some desperate delusion of wishful thinking, Tobin did look remarkably better and the sickly sweet stink of death was much weaker on him now. The man wanted to get a look at the boy's back just to be sure but Tobin had already pulled away.

Icarus cleared his throat, trying to loosen the lump that had formed there. "You got pretty sick a while ago. I thought it was a bad fever at first but..." he trailed off, not even wanting to finish the thought. He rubbed at his face with a hand that shook slightly, hiding his eyes for a moment. He felt like hell, like someone had poured concrete over his bones, his skin pulling tight and painful as wet stone and dust solidified and expanded. He'd really thought Tobin was dying but maybe that had been the trick of the mind. He'd already been worrying, hadn't slept much. Maybe what had happened really had been an after effect of the shock and the rest had been some twisted waking dream? That sounded too much like another persona, not him.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly from behind his hand, "I didn't know what to do."  

[Ma Sai The Caged Tiger]

Frowning in mild confusion, Tobin placed a hand to his head, feeling for any signs of fever. True, he did feel a little warm, but it could just have been the sun that warmed him. What gave him pause was how stringy and crusted his hair felt, like he had run a marathon and it had been drenched in sweat from the effort. His eyebrows furrowed more as he inadvertently put light pressure against the skin of his forehead and felt a dull throb of pain in response to the contact, and he recalled the feeling tenfold from his earlier 'dream'.

Looking back at the man he currently rested on he quietly voiced his confusion. "How sick...?" Now that he was more awake he was remembering bits and pieces of the morning, the ache that had been spreading fire in his back was now a mere pulse at each movement. It was an ache he could live with, but his curiousity was getting the best of him and he wanted to see himself in a mirror.

Pulling away even further he moved to stand but his legs gave immediately, like they had days ago upon his first waking. Yelping in surprise he flailed his hand out to grab at anything to break his fall.  

[Sorrow_Mirth_and_Sin]

Icarus reached out and grabbed the boy's outstretched hand, pulling the boy back up and steadying him as he stood up. "Do you think you could stop trying to die on me for a little longer than that?" he said a little sharply, eyeing the rocks that jutted out like old bones from hard-packed soil. He meant to say it humorously but it was too soon to jump emotions like that, not when he hadn't dealt with the first, not when he was still drowning in it.  

[Ma Sai The Caged Tiger]

Tobin was greatful for the hand, but the sharp tone that accompanied it was hardly something he expected from the normally composed man."I'm sorry, I was only trying to get up." He felt uncomfortable on the man's lap, and he doubted it was comfortable for the other as well to have his weight upon him. He steadied himself using said hand and once he was on his own albeit weak legs he turned away from the taller male, letting go of his arm as he picked his way across the bare earth into the darker interior of the house.

As he moved into the shadowy area he paused, giving Icarus a perfect view of his back. The lighter spots had all disappeared, and the areas that had been black with deather were now flaking with dead cells, though many sores still remained. They didn't look as gruesome as they had mere hours ago, but neither were they fully healed. In any case they stood out like a blatant flag, the illness had been quite real and quite deadly.  

[Sorrow_Mirth_and_Sin]

Looking at Tobin's back, Icarus had to wonder what kind of omen this was, if it was something that would clear up or if it would only come back. He was abundantly relieved that the boy had survived and seemed to be doing so much better but he wasn't sure how to take it, if the boy would remain that way or worsen. He felt shaken and stretched thin but he wandered back into the house, dropping heavily onto the couch and laying down.

"If you want to shower, go ahead," he said almost gruffly, rolling onto his side to face the back of the couch. "You know were it is. You probably should, it might help."  

[Ma Sai The Caged Tiger]

Nodding the boy turned towards the hall and the small bathroom. He was concerned with the man's odd behaviour, but he didnt want to pry. Moving made him a bit woozy but he pressed on. He was convinced that he had been sick now, but he couldn't understand how it had cleared up so quickly, or why Icarus had been so distraught earlier.

And why the hell had the man taken him outside? Maybe in his sickness he had asked to be outside. It made sense, he loved being outside...maybe Icarus had thought the fresh air would help him. Shaking his head he pushed the thoughts away, starting the shower up and turning the handle to adjust the temperature. Stripping and stepping in he turned and began to relax as the spray touched his face, only to freeze up immediately as pain flashed through his back.

He fairly jumped away from the jet of water, arching his back with a hiss as intense jolts spread from his spine. Blinking away tears he grabbed onto the wall for support and stumbled right back out of the shower. His first action was to turn and face his back to the mirror, angling his head to see what had caused such agony.

What met his sight shocked him speechless. The wounds on his back werent very pretty, but they seemed like there was pink healthy skin scabbing over them. It puzzled him, he would have felt these things when they had first appeared right? So why did he only know about them when they were healing? He wanted to immediately go show them to Icarus, but realising his earlier lack of shirt he came to the conclusion that the man already knew. Well, that explained his mood.

Well, he didnt want to cause himself any more agitation, and he didnt want to push the healing injuries anymore, so showering was out the question. He would make do with washing his hair and rinsing off the sweat carefully. It didn't take long and soon he was tiptoeing back into the bedroom, eying his box of clothes and hastily grabbing a change.  

[Sorrow_Mirth_and_Sin]

Icarus lay on the couch with his forehead pressed into the cushions and his arm folded stiffly around his head. He listened to the running water, trying to find some kind of hold over himself, to push the coil of black deeper inside him but it was a losing battle. When the water silenced and he heard the door to his bedroom creak, Icarus got up, moving quietly down the hall and into the bathroom. He practically slammed the door behind him, flinching. He hadn't meant to do it but his control was wearing thin and he didn't have the time to stand there and worry about it. Yanking his shirt over his head, he tossed on the floor, his pants and boxers roughly following suit. Turning the shower on once more, he cranked the setting as far as it would go to the right, hissing through tightly clenched teeth as icy water poured down on him. He leaned heavily against the shower wall, needing it, his breathing becoming shallower, unsteady, until all he could manage was sudden shuddering gasps. His shoulders starting to shake hard, scalding water spilling down his face and searing his skin.

He stayed there for a long time, until his skin felt icy and numb but neither cold nor heat could kill the black. Eventually he gave up, turning off the water and drying himself quickly and redressing. He told himself that everything would be okay, that Tobin was okay - the black whispered, for now. He told himself that he knew what he was doing, that he'd figure something out and that everything would work out in the end - the black reminded him that the end was much closer for him and if Tobin's wasn't as well, neither Icarus nor any other persona would be there to see the boy to any sort of end, let alone a happy one. Choking on a sob of too many emotions at once, he lashed out. Spider webs split across the mirror as he introduced his fist to the glass and the solid wall behind it, shards flying loose and clattering across the counter and the floor. He felt stupid almost immediately but slightly better at the same time. The pain coursing through his hand seemed to clear his head and silence the black, his frustration leaking away with the blood that spilled past the gashes on his knuckles. He snorted, laughing at himself though he really didn't find anything about this morning or his actions very funny.

He scraped up the broken pieces and cleaned up the blood as best he could with a still bleeding hand. He left the broken mirror on the wall, not caring enough to move it. He didn't have anywhere to throw it anyway. Shouldering the door, he went to the bedroom, finding Tobin seated quietly on his bed. He didn't look like he was feeling very well but as long as he wasn't like he had been that morning, Icarus could handle that. "I'm sorry," the man said quietly. "I didn't mean to snap at you before, you just scared the hell out of me."  

[Ma Sai The Caged Tiger]

The small brunet had curled up cross legged on the bed when he heard the bathroom door slam. It startled him and immediately he felt guilty for hogging the bathroom. Shaking his head he returned to his previous task. He had been idly feeling out the sores of his back, looking for any hints as to what might have caused it or just as quickly ended it. He couldn't be allergic to whatever detergent Icarus used, he had slept on the bed plenty of times already. And he couldn't remember eating anything besides the eggs, so food allergies were out....maybe the chip had a failsafe in it?

The sound of something smashing in the bathroom jerked him up from his thoughts and he wondered what had happened. Silence reigned from the small room though and Tobin figured whatever it was, he didn't dare venture to find out. The slammed door earlier had firmly squashed his idea of seeking out Icarus before he wanted to talk.

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he failed to notice Icarus appearing in the room until he spoke. His head jerked up at the taller male's words, taken aback by his quiet sincerity. "It's alright, you were only trying to help right?" A small smile appeared on his face as he continued. "In any case whatever...this stuff that happened is, it's leaving now, I just don't understand ho-oh gods what happened to your hand?"

Reaching out gently, he placed one hand under the injured one and coaxed him closer with a light pull. Getting a better view, he squinted in the dim lighting. "There's still debris in this, we should get it cleaned out." He mumbled, already focused on the task dare he think it, at hand. "Do you have a first aid kit and som tweezers?"  

[Sorrow_Mirth_and_Sin]

Icarus would have preferred to have pulled away and taken care of things himself rather than troubling Tobin but the fact of the matter remained that he couldn't do that one handed. He shrugged off the question of what had happened and let the boy examine his hand without putting up a fight or offering any complaint.

"There should be a kit under the bathroom sink," he replied, taking his hand back carefully and turning back to the room he had just left, flicking on the light as he passed. He retrieved the kit from under the sink and set it on the counter, leaning against the counter while Tobin picked through the kit. He knew there was tweezers in there somewhere. The so called kit was rather large, containing everything he could ever even remotely need. He'd been doing dangerous things and taking on injuries as Tithe for quite some time. He was nothing if not prepared to deal with the consequences.

"whatever that was," he said slowly, "it might come back. If you start feeling worse again... you should tell me." He didn't know what they were going to do if something like that happened but he didn't want to find out about it unprepared and facing the worst once more.  

[Ma Sai The Caged Tiger]

Following after the taller male, Tobin quickly set to work pulling out the needed supplies once the kit was unearthed. Gently he grabbed ahold of the man's palm, holding it on his own handloosely as he used his other to lightly tweeze the shards of mirror glass from his knuckles. His concentration was focused on the task, and he barely mumbled a response to Icarus as he worked.

"I will, I didn't mean to worry you. I'm really sorry it must have been a dreadful thing to see if you reacted that way." Pulling back he set the tweezers down and pulled out a cloth and wet it, wiping lightly at the shredded skin to clean the rest of it out. With that done he applied ointment and set to work bandaging the injured knuckles. "I'm sorry that I got so grabby, I must have been really out of it." He didn't know what else to say, this man had kindly let a stranger into his house and in less than a week he had gone delirious with illness and clung to him like a lover would.  

[Sorrow_Mirth_and_Sin]

Icarus winced as Tobin worked but he didn't complain. He listened quietly while the boy talked, feeling guilty for how harsh his behavior must have seemed, he just hadn't wanted to break down in front of him. He took his hand back when the boy had finished bandaging it, flexing his fingers experientially. His brows knit together, uncomprehending of the boy's last comment and then he caught on to what the boy's line of thought must have been.

"You were," He pointed out carefully, "but you weren't grabby. You were pretty much out cold the minute you closed your eyes. The fever gave you bad chills, that's why you were in my lap."  

[Ma Sai The Caged Tiger]

He busied himself with replacing his tools in the kit, closing it up and storing it where he had seen it come from. He felt nothing but gratitude for the older man as he explained. That and an immense relief that he hadn't offended him with his earlier actions. "In any case, thank you, for doing what you did. I remember feeling...comforted." he really couldn't remember much more than sensation and fleeting images from the morning, but it was one major thing that had stood out.