[FIN] Back Again

[BlackFireKitsune]

Both Isaac and the Bulbasaur followed the pair of humans inside the building - the latter appearing much more enthused and entranced than the former - and into the bathroom.

"Really? That's actually pretty cool," Abel said with raised brows. That definitely wasn't something he'd been aware of. He knew, of course, that one trainer couldn't catch another's pokemon, but he didn't know the specifics of how that worked. Once inside, he lingered near the redhead, not about to just leave him there but rather unsure what exactly he could do to help him at this point. "You should probably put pressure on it to staunch the bleeding," he suggested, and then, after a few moments, added a little more hesitantly, "Is there something you want me to do to help, or something I can get for you?"  

[Suudonym]

"Aw..." Putting pressure on it would definitely hurt. He was not looking forward to this. He drew a breath and exhaled a resigned sigh, then carefully pressed the cloth against the wound, biting back the instinctive wince. His words came less easily when he spoke to reply, "Uh... I don't guess you'd happen to have any superglue, would you?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Nope, sorry," the blonde replied with a sigh, "I don't have any superglue conveniently in one of my pockets. I dunno how you'd use it anyway," he noted, mostly because of the blood all over his face, and smeared in some places. "Want me to wet a paper towel for you or something to clean some of that off? How many times did she get you, anyway?"  

[Suudonym]

"It's good for closing wounds, long as they're not too wide," he said, lifting the cloth briefly to see whether or not the injury would still bleed and then replacing it. "Oh, sure. And just once. I probably could have gotten off fine if I'd paid a little more attention. I think I'm a pretty good fighter." There was a faint hint of amazement in his tone; he knew that he was athletic enough to handle training for Special Ops, but he wasn't aware that his reflexes were so sharp. It seemed there was nothing wrong with his muscle memory.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The blonde swatted a hand at him, "Don't lift it - it won't stop if you take the pressure off like that. Hold it there and don't move it again," he advised before he moved to grab a paper towel, hastily fold it into a smaller, thicker form, and held it under the faucet for a few moments. "That's good then, because it sure as hell looks like she got you a couple times; I'm glad it was just the once. And man, with all the s**t you get into you have to be a good fighter. Either that, or just unlucky. Or lucky, I guess, I dunno which you'd prefer," he said with a shrug, turning to offer the wet towel but frowned a little. Would he be able to keep enough pressure on the cloth on his face while also cleaning himself off? Possibly, but... "You okay doing it or d'you want me to get if off for you? I don't mind blood so don't worry about that," he preemptively reassured him with a dismissive wave of one hand, "I had a really active little brother - and that's putting it mildly."  

[Suudonym]

"Okay, sorry." Blood staunching 101, diner restroom edition. He held the cloth firmly with the heel of his left hand, leaning on the sink counter with his right. "Uh, I think I can do both, maybe... or maybe not... Probably should err on the side of caution, I guess."

It occurred to him that this individual, who seemed to him like a helpful stranger, had originally greeted him by name; this was a person who knew him. The sudden weight of guilt that stemmed from feeling as though he was taking advantage of the man's good nature led him to think that maybe playing along wasn't the best option this time. Besides, he hadn't shown any ill will and didn't give off the impression that he needed to be careful or secretive.

"I probably should have mentioned this before," Luke began carefully, "but I, uh, sort of have amnesia right now... I'm afraid I don't remember your name, though I really appreciate your help..."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Yeah, probably best," Abel agreed, silently glad the redhead had decided against trying. "Just focus on keeping pressure on it so it stops bleeding sooner." He repositioned the towel in his hands and frowned lightly at Luke's face, wondering just where to start, when the young man began speaking again. Abel wasn't quite sure what he expected Luke to say, but it definitely wasn't that. Complete surprise bloomed in his expression, and a few moments passed as he absorbed Luke's words. Amnesia - he didn't remember anything - he didn't remember him. "How -- do you remember-- Actually," he cut himself off with a frown, "that isn't important. What is important is cleaning you up," the blonde said decisively, bending down a tad and reaching forward with both hands, one sort of to steady Luke's face but mostly to hover near it just in case, and the other to clean the blood off with the towel as carefully and as gently as he could. "Just hold still - don't worry, I'll be gentle. I had to do stuff like this for my little brother a lot." He wasn't entirely sure how comfortable Luke would be with him in his face like this, but hopefully that helped at least a little bit.

"Thanks for telling me," he started, figuring it best that he talk rather than ask Luke questions with his hands all over his face because that was probably awkward as hell to experience let alone talk during it, "I've never had amnesia and I've never known anyone that's had it before, but it sounds like a pretty scary thing. My name's Abel. We met when you came into the gun shop I work at here in the city cuz you had some questions. I helped you out sometime after that when you got mugged by some trainers - you got a nice concussion from it too, if I remember right," the blonde added with a brief, wry smile, moving away to toss the bloody towel once he'd finished most of Luke's face, only to grab a new one to make another pass over to ensure he got all of it off. "We hung out once in a while, I was -- here, tilt your head back a little," he asked, bending down a little more to better see under his chin and on his neck in case that needed to be cleaned too, "I was helping you out with practical shooting, and you were helping me out with pokemon training and stuff like that." Blood, why was there so much blood? How badly did faces bleed when injured like this? Hell if he knew. Thankfully it didn't take too long to clean the blood off; he'd tried to get all of it, or at least as much as he could without making him move the towel held over the wound itself, and once finished, he stepped back to give the guy more space - he knew he sure as hell wouldn't have been too comfortable with someone all up in his face like that, but that was just him - and also to toss the bloody towel and wash his hands off. "How's that? Better?"  

[Suudonym]

Luke had the impression - or rather, knew for a fact, given what he had recently learned from Rosie - that he had experienced much worse in the past. That certainly didn't change the fact that what he was currently experiencing was far from comfortable, though, so he did still appreciate being handled carefully even if he felt that he could probably tolerate reasonably rough treatment.

He realized that in his preoccupation he hadn't really considered the possibilities of how the man, Abel, might have reacted to the sudden information, but Luke was grateful that he seemed to take it in stride. He resisted the reflex to nod in response to the dialogue and instead listened quietly. He'd heard something about his learning to use firearms before, so that didn't come as much of a surprise, though he did feel a little bad about the pokemon training thing; he was fairly certain that he wasn't as good a trainer now as he had been before, so he was unsure that he would be able to continue providing that advice.

He nodded in response to the question posed, "Yeah, thank you." Not being caked in drying blood did wonders for not feeling like a criminal. "I, uh... I can't really say any of that sounds familiar, except what lines up with what other people have said, but I guess it's safe to say we're friends?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"No problem," he said with a smile, tossing the last paper towel in the garbage. "And I like to think we are. All right, you gotta sit down somewhere so you don't pass out or anything," he said as he cast around for someplace for Luke to sit.

Around then, though, the bathroom door opened and a paramedic stuck his head in, his gaze fixing almost immediately on the redhead. Once ascertaining that Luke was the one attacked, he ushered the young man out and to the awaiting ambulance parked near a police car.  

[Suudonym]

One would think that friendly behavior would indicate a friend, but Luke had already learned that that wasn't necessarily the case. He was glad to know that it was the case this time, at least.

He turned at the sound of the door opening and met the scrutiny of the individual standing there. It still seemed kind of excessive to him to call an ambulance for a cut, but he supposed it was technically a stabbing... or, not really technically so much as literally. As he was led to speak to the police, however, he paused, fishing his gear from his pocket and offering it to Abel, "Would you mind sending a quick message to Rosie, to let her know I'll be back late?" He didn't know if his company knew Rosie, but he knew that her name was in the contacts, and he knew that she would likely appreciate the information.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel followed along, partially in case he needed to answer any questions (which he highly doubted) but mostly to stick close to Luke, in case he needed anything or if he could help in any way, given his concern for the redhead. His face had been all smeared with blood from, essentially, a stab wound. That kind of thing didn't normally happen. He was close by when Luke paused and offered the gear and his request, so Abel nodded with an easy "sure" and accepted the device, happy to be of any further assistance, and thus began tapping out a message to send to Rosie.

[This is Abel, Luke asked me to let you know he'd be home late tonight. He got into a little trouble, but he's mostly fine. I'm with him right now, I'm not 100% sure he has to go before going home, but I'll let you know as soon as I find out]

With the message sent, Abel frowned lightly - in hindsight, it was probably incredibly obvious that he was with Luke, given he had used his device to message Rosie with - and briefly debated giving it back to his friend before deciding to pocket it for now. He'd given it to him for a reason, and that reason was probably because he was too preoccupied keeping his face from bleeding even worse and was a valid reason for more than just a single message.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Kiss Kiss was happily enjoying taking up lost of the space on the love seat in the living room, sending an innocent shock into anyone that got close enough to touch the couch, and playing asleep when they would protest of try to confront her about it.
Her act broke though, when the buzzing of Rosie's gear by the coffee table caused the Raichu to open her eyes.
In an instant she was on her paws and in a single bound, on the table where she picked up the gear into her hands, and looked down at it curiously.
... it had something on the screen... but she couldn't read it.

"Raaaiichu!" Kiss kiss called out, knowing that instead, Rosie could read it! in all honesty it was probably for her aannyyway.

"Hm?" Rosie glanced over when she felt a Raichu land by her and practically stand on her feet to hand up the gear.
"Oh, thank you sweety." Rosie said, crouching down and taking the gear from her, before giving her a kiss on the head.

It was Luke's number, though the first thing said on it confused her.. Able? it sounded familiar, though any more though she could have given to it was put on complete hold as she read on.
... mostly okay?

She felt suddenly ill, unsure if she should reply to the message or not, since obviously Luke didn't even have his gear... why didn't Luke has his gear?

[What kind of trouble? Is everything okay? I'm sorry, are you one of Luke's friends?]  

[BlackFireKitsune]

It wasn't long before Abel felt a buzz in his pocket, and he reached down to withdraw his phone. A quick glance at it revealed it wasn't his phone that had received a message, and only then did he remember that he had Luke's device there too, so he swapped one for the other so he could read the message.

Aww, she didn't remember him? And here he thought Luke was the one with amnesia. Nah, she was probably just too worried about him to really think about much else. They were engaged, after all -- or, wait, were they still even though Luke had amnesia? Was that what that second announcement about the wedding was about? Pushing such thoughts aside for now, he tapped out a reply:

[Some chick attacked him he said, and got him pretty good on his face, but he's fine, getting that cleaned up and taken care of right now, and I think he's gotta talk to the police that are here too about her. They have her pokemon too, and Luke said something about them being able to get all of her information from that, so she won't be running around hurting anyone else pretty soon. Luke seems fine despite everything though, he's a trooper for sure]  

[Blood_Goddess]

It took her a lot longer to read though what had actually been sent back to her, as she kept having to stop with all of internal panic and conversation she was having with herself, having to start over every now and then.

She didn't know how to reply to that, what the heck was she supposed to say? how was that okay?
finally she just sent that kept going through her mind

[Someone attacked him again?]  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The blonde flexed his thumbs a little with a light frown; he didn't normally text such long messages.

[Yeah but he's fine, don't worry. I think we're leaving now but I'll keep you posted. I can drive him home afterwards too if he needs a ride]