avith + tobias; insert usher lyrics here

[cobrashot]

Who: Avith and Tobias
What: Avith takes Tobias off the street and is a bro.
When: Post-Silas stabbing.
Ratings: PG-13 for a few lines of graphic burn..manipulation??



He had kept busy that day, not even really realizing it until the day had started to fade. Unlike Tobias, he didn't feel too constrained within the Citadel walls, so long as he didn't focus on it, and today had been enough to keep his mind from considering such. Other things, however, were not out of the question. The safety of the Citadel would not be comprimised just yet- the Others seemed as disturbed as they at what had been going on, though he strongly suspected it was for their own well-being than that of anyone else's. Fair enough, he thought.

And along those lines, he kept thinking back to the first night and the strange encounter with Sister Isvelle in the nave. Perhaps it was a foolish thing to keep thinking back on. Maybe, he considered, he had imagined it. But then, in his room, reading through the ledger (not much had happened... not that he could see, at least), he found himself clencing and unclenching his hand, recalling that chill.

He pushed it aside as well, considering how quiet it seemed tonight. Tobias hadn't bothered him for much of the day, which was strange in itself. Turning his thoughts to that instead, he stood from his bed, ledger still in hand, and left his room to go to Tobias'. It was in its usual disarray, looking quite as it usually did, simply without the cause of the literary vortex at its center. He frowned, flipping the cover to a book or two open, before sitting in Tobias' chair and opening the ledger again. He'd show up eventually.

...he hoped. He frowned when he saw the earlier conversation between another newcomer on the ledgers and his brother-at-arms, and felt a certain dread creeping over him. He closed the book, tapped the cover, then stood and left the room, going to his own for his cloak before he headed out, taking the stairs two at a time. East Gate, it'd said? He took a moment to ask a passing Initiate if they'd seen Cancellarius Wellington, then mentioned his going out before doing just that. He knew Tobias didn't appreciate being treated as incompetent, but Avith had long since learned, through him and others, that facing his anger was better than facing the possibility of his death.

It was growing increasingly dark now. At least there weren't many people out now.

The dog had disappeared. He'd been killing it, and it disappeared. Tobias hadn't left immediately. He'd thought the thing only meant to hide and leap out at him again, so he'd stayed, his burnt hand still gripping the blade in agony. When it became apparent the dog was gone, he'd started back to the city. The knife was still clutched in his hand and cradled against his chest, the other holding his sword.

Strange that few would even notice him burnt and worn, covered in foul ash, and that fewer would stop him. Or maybe they had noticed him, and he hadn't noticed. Who he'd spoken to on his way to the Citadel was already gone from his mind as he rounded the corner towards the stark white towers. Shock was setting in. His mind felt numb. He couldn't quite feel his hand anymore. He knew all of these things were happening for a reason at the back of his mind, but it didn't stop them from happening. He saw his brother walking towards him, but it did not register. His eyes stared through him, only focused on the entrance to the Citadel.

Much as he had with Isvelle the night before, Avith approached Tobias without hesitation, gripping his shoulder, though he did not block him. The chill in his hand was chased away by the heat rising off of Tobias' armour, and he almost let go. He glanced behind them, as though expecting to see whatever it was that had done this to Tobias. Was it the- the dog? A fire-breathing dog... he hadn't been sure what to think before, and now that he knew that much seemed to be true, it was everything else he wasn't too sure what to think on.

"Come on," he said, wondering if Tobias could even hear him. The man was starting to stumble on his own, though he was focused intently on the Citadel. Careful, unsure where the other man had been hurt, he took a better grip on Tobias' arm, trying not to breathe in the ash that floated off of him or the sickening stench of sulfur, noting the knife he clutched to him, the burns in his armour. While it was only leather, it was good leather. It would take a fair bit of heat to cause damage like that. "Infirmary. Come on."

He almost had to kick the door in, noting that the only thing Tobias would do is- ram it with his shoulder, maybe? He didn't seem intent on letting go of either his sword or the burnt knife. "Tobias," he said, sharply. "What happened?" He could see shock starting to glaze over his eyes. Get him talking. That shouldn't be hard, right? "What happened, Tobias."

"Ow," he finally said, turning his head to look at the grip on his arm. It was making the rest of it throb worse than it already did. He followed the arm upon him to its owner's face. Avith. His brother had found him. Somehow, he didn't find this surprising. He just wasn't sure what was to happen next. His feet knew the way to the infirmary as well as anyone else's, and he followed Avith's lead without another protest.

"It didn't lie." Now that he seemed to have found his tongue, he'd lost his composure. He felt a shivering in his limbs and a shaking in his jaw. "It breathed fire."

Tobias had always reminded him of a teenager in most aspects. Trigger temper, easy laugh, sharp tongue. The shiver that shook his brother's body made him look at Tobias. The shock on his face, so like fear, made him look very young. "Sorry," he muttered, though he didn't let go. Instead he shifted so that his arm went around behind him, taking him under the opposite arm. All he could feel was that ungodly heat.

Initiates and Priests alike were watching them pass by. He snapped an order at one to go ahead of them and make sure someone was there. "The dog?" He'd have to try and pry the knife from Tobias. He didn't want him to lash out at anyone unexpectedly. But what of the master? And how the hell did a dog breathe fire??

He tried to keep from giving Tobias commands, especially obvious ones. To do so would only show his own worry. When they reached the infirmary, he helped Tobias to sit, a priest already there. He left him a moment to shut the door from the press of Initiates trying to peer in, then moved back, putting his hand over Tobias'.

"Let go. The knife. You can let it go now."

"Yes." Sitting sent a painful jolt through him, but it did not stop his shivering. "The dog. Breathed fire."

He was aware of the priest rustling around them and Avith in front of him, the barest weight of something on his injured hand. It made him react the exact way Avith did not want him to. He pulled back with a loud hiss and raised his hand, knife still curled tightly in it. "That hurt," he ground out, glaring at the offender without really seeing him.

"Help me... get this off," he said to the priest, quickly taking off Tobias' cloak and working on the leather pieces. When Tobias lashed out, he dodged a little, glaring. "Stop it," he snapped. "It will hurt more."

The leather had burned, after all, onto his skin. He smacked Tobias' face, forcing him to look at him. "Drop the knife, Tobias." He raised his eyebrows yes he has them gosh and then went back to helping the priest try to get the breastplate off.

"Water," he muttered. And he was shivering. The cloak would have to be washed. Instead, he grabbed one of the heavy blankets from a cot. The poor priest was trying to avoid more flailing- Avith pushed the blankets into his hands, gritting his teeth as he pulled off the chestpiece with or without Tobias' consent or cooperation. "Get some water," he snapped, taking the blankets back and wrapping Tobias up tightly.

"What else," he demanded of Tobias. "What else did it do." Cita, his hand was a mess...

The slap caught him completely unawares, though it brought him back some. He swayed to the side much more than he should have, putting down his uninjured hand to catch himself. The sword clattered to the floor below from underneath the blanket. For the first time since he'd happened upon him, he saw Avith clearly. Drop the knife, he'd said.

Except, with clarity came feeling. He was cold, so cold, he realised. His teeth chattered. Where had his armour gone? And any move he made with his hand forced the blistered, raw skin to stretch and pull in agony. He let out a wounded howl when he tried to let it go, good hand clutching the bad one at the wrist, above the burning. "Take it," he rasped and shoved it at Avith. Let him do it. He'd be quick. Like ripping off a bandage that had molded to a wound.

Avith did hesitate this time, looking at him briefly, stunned to realize what had happened and what he was asking. He kept the blankets around Tobias' shoulders, but let go to take one of his gloves off. Good, thick leather. "Bite," he commanded. "Hard." He stuck it in Tobias' mouth and took him by the wrist of the burned hand, above where the burns began, and without further warning grabbed the hilt and pulled it off. He couldn't hide a wince- he could hear the crackle of burnt flesh rip when he did it.

He dropped the knife immediately, holding tightly still to Tobias' wrist while the priest came up, already ready with poultices and dressings looped over her arm. He took Tobias' head and pressed it against his shoulder, mostly to keep him from falling over, and to muffle whatever noise would surely come. The priest dressed the wound quickly, thank goodness, and was already off looking for the painkillers. "Cita," he breathed. The stench of the brimstone was almost overwhelming for him. He imagined Tobias had better things to focus on now, though. He hesitated, then took off his own heavy Cancellarius cloak, throwing it over Tobias as well on top of the blankets. Shock would kill him faster than anything if they couldn't get him to stop shivering. "Stop. Try to stop."

The yelling was loud. Loud even muffled, the veins in his neck bulging with the strain of allowing himself to continue to be touched, for the wound to be dressed, to not spit the glove in his mouth out and continue screaming anew. It tasted of sweat and dust. Avith's shoulder smelled the same. It hurt beyond most of the hurts he'd ever felt. Each new swipe of the priest's swabs brought another bellow against the cloth of Avith's robes.

On top of all that, he wanted him to stop shaking? Tobias leaned back enough to glare at Avith, his eyes narrowed and wet as he did. He spit the glove out with more force than necessary. "Do you- do you have any idea. What that felt like?" And yet, he'd asked him to. He sucked in a long breath and held it, tensed his muscles against the urge to shake. It lasted for a few beats, until he exhaled.

"No," Avith said candidly. What was he supposed to do, coddle him? "Burns. Not my expertise. Breathe."

He would never admit how shaken he was by the whole thing. He'd get it out of his system later. Already his mind was racing on what they'd do, hoping he hadn't damaged Tobiath's hand. It wasn't his sword hand, there was that, but that was hardly of comfort to him.

The priest hurried off, came back again with a glass. Avith pressed it into Tobias' good hand, holding it as steady as he could when he noticed how badly the shaking had gone into his limbs. Avith detested the taste of the opiates, preferred pain to them, but he wasn't one to get beat up very often. He looked at the priest. "More blankets. The water?" he took the glass the man had brought in the first place and gave it to Tobias as well. "All of it. Then lie down."

He breathed. And shook.

Something was at his lips. He drank it without protest, followed by the second glass. All of it. Already weighted down by so many blankets, laying down proved a little difficult to manoeuvre. He did so eventually, his lips a thin, pale line as the priest reappeared to pile more blankets on top of him. Cita bless, his good hand was on his side closest to Avith. He gripped his brother's wrist tightly. "My chest," he croaked. "Remains intact?" It felt a little raw, stinging from the blankets on top of it. He'd worried about the leather catching flame altogether when the best was on top of him, flame and ember spewing from its mouth and wounds.

"My pride perhaps.. very broken."

Forgetting his glove on the ground, he used his bare hand to check Tobias' pulse by his neck, careful to avoid burns there, too. He made a sign to the priest, who went about putting more poultices together. It would be easier done once the opiates kicked in.

He didn't protest to the hand gripping his wrist so tightly, he felt it might break, though he had to take a deep breath and expel it quickly. "Burned. Not as badly." For all the dickish behaviour Tobias could manage, Avith was again caught off guard by how much like a child he looked in such a situation. "Your hand... upmost necessity. Your shoulder. And neck, as well." The priest could manage the rest. "I'm sorry. The opiates. Are they working?"

The statement almost made him laugh. He snorted instead. "Surprised... you had. Any left." A joke, a poor one at this point. Always the best kind to make, though. "You were not. Entirely wrong. Clearly, it is. A threat." Without intending to break Tobias' grasp on his arm, he bent down and grabbed Tobias' cloak, shaking out the ledger which he picked up. Had he missed anything? Awkwardly he opened it and flipped through it.

Ah, there wasn't anymore to that conversation, but something had been added in for Tobias. "...did you speak. With the Lieutenant?" he asked, frowning. What did she know?

Opiates? In his wounded state he was unable to hide the momentary fear from his expression. He'd had them not two weeks past. Addiction was a terrible, slippery slope, Tobias the most paranoid of all about getting addicted to the medicines the priests provided. His grip loosened for the briefest of moments. "They work." He could imagine his own face as his pupils contracted and muscles relaxed.

His brother would joke at him, even now. He felt his grip slipping away, and his hand fell to the bed. "Yes. I talked to a Lieutenant." His eyes flicked to what his brother held. Red. "You are reading my ledger now?" He felt preemptively guilt at first, until he remembered he had nothing to be ashamed of. "What does she say?"

"Just for now," he said, realizing belatedly what the look was for. "For the worst of it." Until he had slept off some of the pain, let his body rest from the stress it was going through. Tobias hadn't been all that keen on the opiates the first time around. But for now, it would be necessary.

Avith watched Tobias' hand slip. He didn't move away, but continued to read through the journal. "She asks. Of the dog. Size. Other details." He frowned. "...extra heads?" He looked down to Tobias. Surely he would mention something like that. Like the statue at the Fest, the three-headed one? "May I?" he asked, noting Tobias kept his pen with the ledger. Perhaps he ought to do that with his pencil.

"Extra heads?" Why would she be aski-

"She does not know her lore. Cerberus did not. Breathe fire. Father did." Typhon, a giant. He rubbed his good hand to his eyes, trying to focus on the question. Trying to forget that Avith had fed him drugs, that his limbs still shook, that his hand had residual aches and would likely take ages to heal fully. "Ah." He sucked in a deep breath and looked back to Avith, another tremor passing through him. "No. One head. It only had one head."

He'd realise later that holding onto Avith while he was trying to write had been a bastard thing to do, but for now he only knew that his brother's arm was warm and his eyes were sliding shut, so he tried to pull him closer. "Tell her such."

He did not like the fact that Tobias still shuddered. It'd been a fool's errand, but he could hardly say as much now. What was done was done... for the time being. Avith sat on the side of the cot, nodding. "And size. It was big?" he asked, scribbling out the introduction and answer to the Lieutenant's question. He tried not to let Tobias' grasping at his arm ruin what he was writing. He'd have to wipe off Tobias' ledger as well- it was as covered in soot as the rest of him.

"Are you cold still?" he asked, concerned, ignoring the ledger a moment on the side of the bed to check his pulse again. Erratic, the skin still clammy. The priest came over to start applying bandages to his shoulder, his neck.

He tilted his head to let the priest at his neck and shoulder, grateful once again for their gentle touch. "Yes. big. Very big. Very, very big." His brow drew together when he winced as an ointment was applied to his skin. "It bleeds ash. Ash and fire. And-" Another wince and he let out a quiet yelp. "Very big."

The dog had been monstrous, now that he thought back on it. If it hadn't moved, he could have been done with it by now. instead he'd been forced to fight with it, stab it over and over until it could no longer stand it. Guilt washed over his features for the poor creature, and then it was gone. "Why are you so arm?" His grip on Avith redoubled."Yes, cold."

Scribbling these details, he nodded, more vigorously than needed maybe, to let Tobias know he'd heard him. Luckily he'd finished writing while Tobias pulled him further down. Trying not to look annoyed, he glanced to the priest, nodding to see him off. There were warmed blankets for such occasions, though neither'd had a chance to retrieve them just yet.

"Tobias... you'll pull me over," he cautioned. None of the other things in the infirmary would do any more good. They'd replace the blankets with warm ones, rekindle the fireplace. They'd have to see to the chest wound, too, though Avith was loathe to keep any more warmth off of him. "Anything else?"

"How unfortunate for you," he snorted, shoulders shaking with both a chill and a laugh. "You may fall over." It did not occur to to him that he would tip onto Tobias, but he let him go anyways. For the time being. "Big." How many times did he have to keep saying that. He felt along for Avith's waist and held out his hand, going a big higher til he found his stomach, his chest. He waved his hand somewhere in that area. "As tall as a child."

Cita bless, how he'd hated that dog in the moment he'd stabbed him. Everything that came after was a blur, fueled by hatred and rage. Yet his heart still felt clean. His god did not see anything wrong with what he'd done. It only felt heavy that he'd have to be more silver-tongued than before to get around Avith's knack for knowing his lies.

Avith righted himself again, scribbling down those details as well. Those also came haltingly, much like his spoken words. "You won't... like it, if I do," he muttered, glancing over the ledger to him again, forehead creasing in concern. He could only assume the Lieutenant was relaying some kind of information to the guards, glancing over her short replies. He scowled again somewhat but let go the fact Tobias was almost groping at him, realizing what it was he meant to do.

"I think she tells... the guard," he informed Tobias. The priest came shuffling back in, and he stood up, quickly trading the older blankets for the new ones, warmed by being placed next to a furnace. The same area heated much of the Citadel's water as well, which they would have to take advantage of later to get the ash off Tobias. The priest did what he could for the chest wound- it looked a bit nastier than he recalled, but he hadn't looked very hard to begin with. His own first aid experience was limited; this went beyond it. He let the priest do what he would. "That seems... about it," he added, shutting the ledger, smoothing the hot blanket over Tobias' shoulder, tucking them in and trying to keep the one hand tucked in as well. The priest was doing the same for his feet, removing the dirty boots and letting them fall onto the floor with a puff of ash when they hit.

Good. The best should not be allowed to re-enter the city. It had attacked a Human, without provocation. Tobias knew it wasn't true, but it was the attitude he had to take. Belief need be on his side for this. "Good."

Avith had not asked him what had happened in detail. Instead, he only tucked and stuffed him in blankets while the priest did what they could for this chest. He went through a similar bout of wincing and whining before it was done. The hand smoothing over his shoulder made him sigh, the cloud of dust that rose from his feet made him frown. Everyone was touching him. Avith especially. His brother had proved himself to be a hands-y person, as of late. He'd manhandled Tobias on a bench to keep him from falling once, then forcefully grabbed and dragged him into a hug. Now he rubbed him down with blankets. His face suddenly scrunched with annoyance, so bothered he was by this realisation.

A breath went out of him, and suddenly he was calm again. Calm, and still cold. It was a difficult thing. "I feel that the blankets are warm, brother. Yet my body does not." The disconnect between brain and body was actually fascinating, distantly. No doubt he'd be doing the same for Avith were there positions swapped, but he'd certainly be asking more questions.

In all truth, Avith normally wouldn't have gone this far, but Tobias had been getting himself hurt quite badly, and it was a very strange situation to be in. It seemed they went through so much together, for this to be the disconnect seemed odd. But, Avith did not often go looking for trouble. Perhaps that was why.

What had been a peaceful life had been increasingly upset. Perhaps he simply felt that he could trust no one else but himself to do these things. Besides, if he'd known Tobias' thoughts he could shoot back that Tobias was the one pulling at his arm.

"I do wish... I knew why... you'd engaged it. To begin with." He scowled a little, trading for his own ledger, noting that the woman was writing to him as well. He kept Tobias' pen with him, for the time being. Nothing else written yet. "What of the master?"

At the comment on the blankets, he breathed in, out, then nodded a little. "It will... have to pass." He felt a chill of his own, recalling Isvelle again unbidden. Hopefully it was not a residual effect from the creature... he frowned again, seemingly at nothing. No, whatever that was, he didn't dare speak of aloud lest he were to be misunderstood.

Now Avith was treating him like a child, scowling and frowning at him. He was always treating him like a child. They all did. Laughing at his theories and expecting him to lash out irresponsibly. He glared at the ceiling as another tremor passed through him, and then his eyes slipped shut. It did occur to him that he was annoyed for the sake of being annoyed. An effect of the drug. He loved Avith fiercely, as well as the rest of his Cancellarius brothers and sisters. Yet, he knew they would think these things. It rankled him.

"I did not invite the beast out to engage it," he said. It wasn't a lie - he'd meant to kill it. "I wanted to see if truly such a beast existed. I realised it did not have a master when it ran up to me and began to speak."

Because you're acting like a child Tobias, gosh. But it wasn't those things that concerned Avith, not so much as the repercussion of what his actions had done to him. He tried not to look again as another shudder passed through Tobias, tried not to worry that it might be something deeper they couldn't see. Let it be the drugs, he thought to himself. Everything had been so calm these past few years, why was it all exploding in his face now?

He looked back to Tobias a beat or two after his words, as though they hadn't sunk in properly the first time around. "It... spoke." The dog. That breathed fire. Spoke. He hesitated, tapping the pencil ends quickly against the cover of his ledger. "That's... relevant. I suppose." Perhaps if others engaged it, they might find something out about it. It was difficult to think of Others as having lives in the sense a human did- a life that had self-awareness and didn't feed solely off of instinct. But he knew it to be true, and had to assume that the creature that had attacked Tobias had just such a level of self-awareness.

And if it wasn't dead, it knew Tobias' face now. If it had any allies... and anyone that read the ledgers would know.

He stared at nothing for a moment, then flipped the ledger open. Then hesitated, as though wondering if he should write it, before he put the pen to paper again.

He reached out his arm again to grope for Avith's, felt his grip knock something astray. He'd been writing. To Bertrand? Or the Occia? His mind was rapidly thickening. He silently cursed Avith again for the drugs and reached to scratch his cheek, then winced. The hand he'd always done such with was now tucked against him, burnt and blistered. He let Avith's writing hand be to scrub at his eyes with his fingers, letting the limb rest over his face when he was done. It stunk of the dog's ash.

"Yes, it speaks quite well," he mumbled.

Avith made a surprised noise when Tobias knocked his hand, making a face at the scratch of ink that sprawled across the page now. He pressed his leathered forearm to it to sop up the ink before he could brush it with his hand while he wrote. The priest came back with a wet face cloth while Avith went back to writing, giving it to Tobias and saying something about stopping rubbing ash all over his face.

"...do you think it died?" he asked, looking back to Tobias after a moment. He could see Tobias finally fading. He hated to do it, but it would help him get over the worst of the shock. He would remind the priest and any replacements to give him no more opiates once he awoke.

"It didn't." He was annoyed now at the priest who prodded him, but he supposed he could not blame them. Only two weeks past he'd been in the infirmary. His face was slowly swept clean of the ash, and suddenly he found breathing through his nose easier. His lungs and throat still felt heavy with it. He wondered how much of the dog he'd be coughing up in days to come. "It fled."

What he could reach of his neck came next, and the immediate annoyance of not having both hands became clear. How was he to wash his unbandaged arm? An imploring look at the priest later and he was free to set his arm back down, cleaned of soot. More water came, which he drank dutifully. There was something soothing about the touch of another, or the drugs, or the combination of both. He still felt the tremors and his heart beat erratically in his chest at times, but. He was now disconnected from it. Uncomfortably comfortable, somehow.

Avith sat for a moment without doing anything, trying to gather his thoughts. He wiped his nose with his forearm, made a "nng" noise when the ash got onto his face. He stood while the priest attended to the other Cancellarius, picking up Tobias' cloak once more and then his own glove. He rubbed it in his hand, wondered how damaged it was. He sighed, hated it when he had to request things from the Handmaiden.

He wiped his face clean and walked back over to the bed. "Tobias," he said, to get the man's attention. "We will talk more. When you awake. Should I stay?"

Tobias started at the sound of Avith's voice. He had already drifted into blankness, neither asleep nor aware of his surroundings. He blinked a few times and waited for his eyes to refocus on his brother. Did he want him to stay? Drifting before, he had forgotten he was even there. Now given the choice, he wouldn't have minded it. Then, the fact that he asked.. more expected childishness on his part.

"Yes, we'll talk later." He blinked again, eyes round and dull. "I'll be fine, brother."

Avith smirked a little, rueful. It faded as he looked up again, checked the infirmary, taking his second glove off. In his mind he made an inventory of things to do. Take Tobias' things to be cleaned (and hopefully avoid Isvelle in the process), go upstairs and change himself... and then go to the gate and investigate the scene himself.

"Tomorrow," he said quietly, whether Tobias heard him or not. "We'll speak tomorrow."

He hesitated, then turned, leaving his heavy Cancellarius cloak with his brother and nervously dusting off the shoulder of the black one he still wore. Dusk had just barely passed, and there was a lot to be done.