We are the Hunted (Invite only)

[Ma Sai The Caged Tiger]

Travel seemed even longer than it actually was. Tobin's head was buzzing with little waves of pain from his leg, and his back felt like someone had stabbed him, well right in the spine. No wonder they never moved him till long after the shots in that tank.

He clasped his hands around the other male's neck, moving in and out of conciousness as they made their way to an unknown destination. He wanted to ask, but felt as though any questions right now would not be answered.

When they came to a stop at a small apartment, his eyes flitted over it tiredly. The quick movement and sudden kick startled a sqweak from the brunet, and his hands tightened around the man's neck. He calmed down relatively quickly though as they made hteir way in.

Dumped unceremoniously on the bed he watched the other man make his way around, taking hold of the blanket as it hit the bed and watching a shirt join it. The man disappeared into an adjacent room and Tobin tried to wait, he really did. But things had added up to an overwhelming degree and he quickly sank into a blissfull dreamless sleep.  

[Sorrow_Mirth_and_Sin]

Tithe moved quietly back into the room, trying not to wake the boy. He worked as quickly as he could, applying the salve to the burns with surprising care for a man who had torn someone's throat out without hesitation perhaps only an hour ago. He didn't bother to put the salve away, opting instead to leave it on the dresser. Most likely he'd be needing it again anyway, there wasn't much point in burying it again.

He climbed into bed after that, making sure the boy was securely wrapped in the blanket he had provided before he lay down. His eyes glowed like coals in the darkness, picking out every detail of the room and boy beside him. It was a long time before he closed them but eventually his consciousness wavered and then blanked. Tomorrow was going to be hell for Icarus.  

[Ma Sai The Caged Tiger]

The slender brunet barely took up any room on the bed, curled in a ball in the safety of the loaned blanket. His hair that had once hung short and wavy about his cheeks, now hung in a long unruly mess, dried into an almost black color from the greenish gel that had dried into it. It clung uncomfortably to his skin and he brushed at it in his sleep with a frown.

He slept through the day and well into the night, uninterrupted for the first time in months. It was a godsend to have so much rest, and his tired body took advantage of the fact. Sleep was something that had often evaded him, even during the few moments alone that he had. Usually he could only sleep when they made him, injecting something or other when they required him to be unconcious.

His entire body was one mass of uncomfortable itching. His only clothing in his watery environment had been a pair of shorts, thankfully giving him some shred of modesty. The rest of his body as well as the shorts still carried the tank's dried liquid, giving his skin a slight sickly looking hue.

Once he had been sunkissed and golden, long days spent out in the garden tending to his small vegetable crop had given him a nice tan. But now he was pale from lack of light, and skinny to boot from a diet of I.V. drips and forced proteins to keep him alive. He felt as fragile as a child, and he hated it. Almost a year ago he had been in top physical form, moving his tools and equipment about his house and yards with no problem. Now he was a mere wraith, a shriveled ghost of his previous form.

Finally the boy stirred, long dark lashes fluttering open to reveal vivd green eyes. Staring up at the ceiling, Tobin took a moment to realize that he was no longer in that horrid facility. There was no sterile hospital smell, no glow of artificial lighting, and best of all, no scientists.

He would have grinned, had the pounding in his skull not reminded him of its presence. Wincing he put a hand to his head and gingerly sat up, peering around the small room curiously. He had to thank the man that had saved him, but he had many questions about that as well. If the other was truly an experiment, how did he know where to go after escaping?  

[Sorrow_Mirth_and_Sin]

Icarus sat at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and working his way through a stack of papers. He'd given his students free reign the week before, the result being a flurry of poetry and prose, the subjects plucked from a very wide array. Some of it was quite good, some of it was s**t but that wasn't anything out of the ordinary. He would have preferred to be doing this elsewhere; the shop, the diner, anywhere really. He never spent much time in this apartment and it showed. The place looked scarcely lived in but at least it was clean.

He was only here now because of the boy. He'd left earlier to collect the papers he was grading now and to stock the fridge. Transition from hell to normalcy was not an easy one to make. Icarus didn't think it would be a good idea to drag the boy out in public simply to eat.

Tobin's cat weaved around his legs as he worked, wanting attention. He'd retrieved it some time ago, when Tobin had disappeared. Having something familiar around would probably only help Tobin but as he thought about it now, he was starting to regret the decision. Like the papers in front of him, the questions he would have to answer were going to start piling up soon and he only seemed to be adding more and more.

Sighing, Icarus leaned back in his chair, pulling his tie loose. He'd dressed for work this morning thinking he could at least teach a few classes - the boy was out cold anyway but it wasn't that easy. He felt like the wolf who chased the sun across the skies in old Norse mythology. It seemed appropriate, he'd been all but stalking the boy for some time before the boy had even disappeared. It wasn't right. He wasn't the boy Tobin had known any more, but he couldn't help it. If you could chase the sun, who wouldn't? And the boy really was the last point of light he had. He'd been clinging to memories to help himself survive - both in the hell he had just rescued Tobin from and in mere day to day life - for so long, it was difficult to let those things go now but dealing with real flesh and blood was very different the smoke and mist of memory. In the myth, when the wolf caught the sun it was the end of all things. Icarus had to wonder if that wouldn't be true of him now.  

[Ma Sai The Caged Tiger]

A quick glance told him that he was the sole occupant of the room. He couldnt really expect anyone to stick around for however long he had been out. The curtains werent lit as they had been when he was last awake, suggesting to him that it was sometime in the evening or night.

Moving gingerly to the edge of the bed, he tugged the blanket off and set it nearby on the comforter. He felt disgusting and extremely uncomfortable, given the residue still on his skin. Swinging his legs over the side he moved to stand, his legs immediately crumpling beneath him.

The brunet landed heavily on the floor with a startled yelp, planting his hands on the floor as he panted. He had forgotten, he hadnt used his legs in months, no wonder they couldnt hold his weight. Gritting his teeth with determination he straightened and put his arms on the bed's edge, slowly pulling himself back up. Hopefully he hadnt disturbed his mysterious rescuer, he didnt want to be seen like this.  

[Sorrow_Mirth_and_Sin]

Icarus glanced up at the noise, his chair scraping against the tiles as he stood. He hesitated, wondering if he should let the boy sort himself out on his own and retain some dignity but he didn't linger on the thought long. No one came out of circumstances like that looking pretty and if the boy had any dignity left to begin with, he wouldn't be losing any on him.

Icarus walked down the hall, tripping on the cat as he went. He turned left instead of right, flicking on the light in the bathroom and drawing a bath. He let the water run on the cooler side, knowing that too much heat would only aggravate the burn. When the tub was full he turned back towards the bedroom, lingering in the doorway. He eyed the boy calmly, noting the apparent effort it took for him to get his feet beneath him.

"Would you like some help?" He spoke softly, everything that he was a contrast to the thing that had pulled the boy from the tank. The only connections between the two that he could offer were his missing right arm and his eyes, and as much as he would have preferred to hide the latter, he'd opted against the contacts today. In the head, he wasn't the monster the boy had met the night before but it was probably important that the boy had something to recognise, rather than having the rug yanked out from under him at every turn.  

[Ma Sai The Caged Tiger]

Whirling towards the door, Tobin shook his hair from his eyes, inhaling loudly at the sight of the man in the doorway. He stared frozen, eyes scanning the new man as his heart clenched. For a brief moment...but it was gone. This man had too many differences, but the similarities had given him short lived hope.

His eyes flickered over the man's missing limb and familliar eyes, brow furrowing in confusion. It couldn't be. His voice quavered as he spoke, fists clenched tightly in the covers of the bed. "W-Who are you? Where am I?" Dozens of other questions swam in his mind, but the basics had to be covered first.  

[Sorrow_Mirth_and_Sin]

"Who I am depends on which version of me you are dealing with." Icarus said calmly, leaning against the door frame. He extended his arm towards the boy as coarse, black scales suddenly emerged from the skin. "You met Tithe. I am Icarus Marx and this is my home. I'm sorry, you didn't seem up for conversation last night and Tithe is not usually the talking sort."

He winced, knowing how crazy he probably sounded talking about himself like that. "Split personality of a sort, though I don't believe personas are supposed to know about each other in real cases." He shrugged. "I thrive by splitting myself into three people. It makes dealing with this, what they did, what I do, how I live... it's easier this way."  

[Ma Sai The Caged Tiger]

Raising a brow at the man's statement, he jumped a bit when the scales came into being.Glancing from said hand to his face, Tobin put two and two together even as the man explained. Though his two and two definitely did not make up to the four of Icarus' actual reason.

"So...you go to these places, and set people like us free? I...That's wonderful. I suppose that's how you knew my name too? I remember...Tithe, he really wasnt the talking type, but he did call me by name. And he protected me from a blast of some sort." The boy completely forgot his words of a third persona, caught up in his excitement. "I'm grateful to you. I don't know what they were doing, but I was getting put in that tank more and more. I was afraid I wouldn't ever get out of their agian. Thank you, so much."  

[Sorrow_Mirth_and_Sin]

Icarus' face fell a bit. It would be so easy to let the boy believe what he wanted. With that one lie, so many of the others he would have to spin were cancelled out but...if he let him believe that that's really how things were, the mistakes he could make under that impression could easily get him killed. "No," he sighed, looking away. "I'm afraid you think too highly of... us. He does go to places like that but if anyone is saved it is usually by no direct intention of his own. The blast he protected you from was of his own creation. Checking if you were even there was an after thought."

He fell silent after that, leaving some of his own thoughts unvoiced. He planted the bombs, he is the reason your leg is burned. There were other people in that building, other experiments, and he didn't care. Letting them die was the kinder mercy, not that he was thinking of that.  

[Ma Sai The Caged Tiger]

At that moment the ginger tabby made its presence known, a loud mewl leaving its mouth as it rubbed past Icarus' leg. As Tobin's eyes flickered down at the noise, widening in disbelief as his cat came around the man's legs. His kitten had gotten bigger, become more of an adult. But he could still recognize her.

"Senna!" Hearing its name the cat trotted over, immediately rubbing up against her master. The brunet's eyes watered with emotion at the sight of his cat.Tobin dropped back to the floor, scooping her up and holding her close. "My sweet little girl, I missed you so much!" Nuzzling his purring little companion he sniffled, looking up at Icarus with a confused expression.

"How do you have my cat then?" The cat demanded attention with a paw to his face and Tobin laughed, scratching under her chin. "You...went to my house?"  

[Sorrow_Mirth_and_Sin]

Icarus marvelled at the fact that the boy could find any measure of happiness at all after what he'd been through, especially over something so small. It had taken years for any version of himself to feel anything short of hatred and agony but then again, he had been alone - worse than that, he'd had to choose to be that way, to give up everything and struggle through this hellish mess by himself or risk destroying everything he had ever known. A selfless choice perhaps but a rather bitter making one. At least he had come far enough now to enjoy the boy's happiness. He didn't regret saving the cat so much at the very least.

He started at the boy's questions, his mind scrambling for an answer that wouldn't put him in deep water. He relaxed and shrugged when the simplest truth came to mind. "I didn't and I don't think you'll get an answer out of the other." His expression darkened slightly, less than eager to be the bearer of bad news. "While we're on that subject though, I don't think it would be a good idea to go back there... at least, not for some time. If that's where they snatched you from then they've probably had their eye on you for some time. Unfortunately, the destruction of one facility won't distract them enough to forget about you. When your bones fail to turn up from the wreckage, they'll start hunting. Your home and everything you ever had any sort of connection with will be the first things they search."  

[Ma Sai The Caged Tiger]

His cat was a welcome distraction. She was something he had desperately needed, it helped ease the thoughts in his head of his imprisonment. But this man, he claimed his other part had picked her up, but wouldn't explain? Why did Tithe seem to fixate on him so? It was something he would need to think about later.

Icarus' next statement had the boy frozen. Panic bubbled in his chest as he shook his head. "But, I've been gone so long. I need to go home, if I'm not there-" He cut off shaking his head, his face showing a bit of desperation. "I'm sorry but I have to be home."

Senna squirmed in his grasp, uncomfortable with his tightening grip. Noticing her discomfort he released her, watching her jump up and curl up on the far side of the bed. He felt bad for sqweezing unnecessarily, but one of his worst thoughts while in that place had been of his long lost loved one coming home, and leaving again because he had not been there waiting.  

[Sorrow_Mirth_and_Sin]

Icarus stilled, staring. "If you go back there, they will find you sooner or later, and what they send to retrieve you will not hesitate to hurt you. So long as what remains of you is still salvageable by the time it drags you back to the labs, they won't care," he said firmly, struggling to stay in the doorway. It wasn't often that he had control disputes between personas but Tithe was fighting for it now and that was a very bad thing. Yesterday, Tithe had been tame, under the influence of both Icarus and the other he kept locked away. It was unlikely he would ever consent to such bastardisation again.

"If there was anything you wouldn't want to part with, I can take you to get it if you'd like," Icarus said tensely, trying to reason with the boy. He leaned heavily against the door-frame as if it were the only thing keeping him there, unwilling to set foot inside the room. His fingers twitched with the urge to scratch his skin raw, his scales threatening to break out with every inch of control he won and lost between himself and the monster.  

[Ma Sai The Caged Tiger]

Tobin chewed at his lip, the other man's words giving him a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He never wanted to go back to that place, but to have to turn his back on his home? It hurt his heart just to think of it. His hands flexed, trying to find something to do, finally content to fidget idly with the hem of his shorts.

"I don't need anything from home. I just, I was waiting for someone. I have been, for a very long time. And if I'm not there he might not stick around." The thought depressed him greatly, and he bowed his head, the picture of lost hope. "I can't stand the thought of that happening."