(Untitled)

[rainingcereal]

Characters: JGL-facetwins.
Setting: An alley in the fort.
Date & Time: Day 48, moments before sunrise.
Warnings: Violence, Neil, Arthur, Freudian-ness, Neil's mouth, Arthur's gun.
Summary: Neil took a bite out of his facetwin, and now he has to deal with the consequences.

Comments

[specificities]

What the-

Damn it.

"Neil?"

Arthur's finger immediately pulled off the trigger before he had the chance to squeeze, flicking the safety back on. Dawn, he realized after a moment, glancing up at the sky, previous darkness quickly giving way to increasingly lighter shades of blue. The teeth of the werewolf form Neil had just been in had torn easily through the fabric of his jacket and shirt to rip through the sensitive skin in the crook of his arm. It was bleeding heavily, but he pushed the pain aside for now, and the consequences that would likely come from the bite in the first place. Isn't that how this thing spread?

He slipped the gun back into its holster at his side, reaching down to offer Neil the hand of his uninjured arm. "Can you stand?" he questioned carefully.

[rainingcereal]

Neil stared at the offered hand warily, and with good reason. After all, just a moment ago, Arthur was pointing a gun at him. With the safety gone. The closest he had come to seeing a gun was in movies (or from stupid homophobic truckers who took offence at getting hit on by fags, but that was besides the point.) What was he doing here naked anyway? He wasn't tripping, and-

Don't go there. Don't think. Don't remember.

"Y-yeah, I guess." Neil murmured shakily, bracing himself against the wall to stand without Arthur's help.

[specificities]

It was- over, in a sense. In all likelihood they'd be hearing from Simon or Red soon, gathering up everyone they could, and getting out of Dodge. That much Arthur could hope for - he wasn't staying here for another period of night time, and he had overheard one of the heads talking about some sort of cure. Still, he retracted his hand when he saw Neil getting up on his own, straightening. He carefully maneuvered his jacket off, jaw clenching at the flair up of pain as the fabric shifted over his bloody elbow, but removed it completely and offered it up to Neil to cover himself with

[rainingcereal]

There was a part of him that wanted to know what was going on. But there was another part, a bigger part, that wanted to block everything out. Brian did that, and denial was the first step towards insanity. But Neil liked to think that allowing whatever it was to take him over now would be worse.

He took the jacket, pausing only a little when he saw his own hand - dirt and blood crusted under his nails - and then putting it on.

"Is this some kink of yours? Playing catch with a naked teenager?"

[specificities]

Arthur's eyes narrowed briefly as he swung his gaze back over to Neil, retort at the tip of his tongue, then paused. Neil's reaction alongside the barb suggested, in a way, that he wasn't sure what was going on. That didn't make sense, though, not with what had just occurred. Arthur'd watched the way the werewolf had transformed back into the kid in front of him.

"No," he said flatly, though his irritation simmered just under the surface. "You don't remember, do you." More of pointing it out than a question. "What's the last thing you do?"

[rainingcereal]

"Guns and robbers then?" Neil tried again, though he was feeling much shakier than his words implied. He leaned a little more heavily against the wall, pointedly not looking at the rip and the blood on Arthur. Or the taste of the blood in his mouth that he rather desperately wanted to spit out. Except doing so will acknowledge it was there in the first place.

[specificities]

"More like vampires and werewolves," Arthur corrected, though without much humor as the words might otherwise suggest. He turned his attention to his sleeve, undoing the link on his injured arm and carefully rolling it up above the bump of his elbow to better inspect the damage. It's a deep tear, and a wide bite, but at least it didn't break his arm in two - which is as much as Arthur ca, be thankful for, in this instance. It'd felt like it might have.

He recovered the wound for now, glancing back at Neil. "I'm not going to shoot you," he added, somewhat belatedly.

[rainingcereal]

It was on the tip of his tongue to ask where his cape was then, but Arthur seemed more like the Dracula type. If Dracula went around in Dunhill suits and magnum guns. Which would make Neil the--

Stop thinking!

"Glad to hear that. Well, if you want to shoot at me with something else, I can roll with. I haven't... that guy at the bar, thought he was going to, but..." Neil frowned.

"Yeah, that's the last thing I remembered. Guy at the bar. Or pub, or whatever they call it here."

[specificities]

"Guy at the bar?" Arthur echoed, then hummed shortly to himself as if in agreement with his own thoughts. "From what I can tell, most people were either ambushed when they left the fort- or led out." He canted his eyes at Neil, then. "It would make sense of that guy had been one." Though as to why Neil couldn't remember the specifics, he wasn't sure - trauma, maybe, or maybe he didn't want to admit some sort of fault.

Whatever. Arthur wasn't here to be Neil's guidance counselor, nor his attacker.

[rainingcereal]

"Guy at the bar," Neil repeated. "Thought he's a john, but-" he shrugged in an attempt to look casual. He pulled the jacket closer to himself.

"Look, is there anywhere that we can go? I'm freezing my bits off as it is."

[specificities]

Arthur's lips thinned into a line briefly, but he mimicked the shrug just as easily. "Yeah. Let's head back to the caravan. You have extra clothes?"

[rainingcereal]

Not much. Neil couldn't remember the last outfit he was wearing, or what happened to it.

"Yeah, I think. I could always borrow something from my roommate." He gestured vaguely in the direction of Arthur's arm. "I could uh, help you wrap that up or something."

[specificities]

Arthur's initial response was going to be I'll take care of it, but he paused. He'd only have one hand available to wrap it, so it wouldn't actually work well. Besides that, it needed to be sanitized, and who knew how long it would be before he could find the caravan's medic.

"Yeah," he replied. "Sure, thanks." He started off in the direction of the caravan, pausing briefly mid step to check and see Neil followed.

[rainingcereal]

Neil was following close behind, seemingly deep in thought. Though, it was more likely that he was desperately trying to keep his mind blank. Too many things were not linking up in his head, and curious as he was, Neil sure as hell knew that linking them up was not a good idea.

It was like a train wreck, somehow. You know it was bad, but you couldn't look away. Or a bit like poking at a wound. It hurt like a motherfucking bitch, but you would keep poking at it anyway.

[specificities]

Arthur had been right, when they reached the caravan - seemed as though Simon was rounding everyone up, even those that had been turned. He paused before they could come in direct line of sight of the mini-men and Simon, unbuttoning his vest to drape casually over his elbow to hide the wound. The Way-Warrant's assistant had kept turned travelers and normal (for the extent of that word) separate, and everyone seemed a bit too distracted with the night's event to notice them head into the caravan through the front entrance, focused too much on the side entrance Simon was funneling other travelers into.

He'd hand Neil over to Simon and get himself checked out later, but the least he could do was make sure the kid was clothed before he ended up wherever they were keeping those who had been turned. Arthur headed for the stairs.

"After you get dressed, meet me in the bathrooms." At least he could set about trying to flush out his injury as much as possible.

[rainingcereal]

Vaguely, Neil wondered if his roommate would be in, or if the room would be locked. Or if his roommate knew something that he didn't. Considering how Arthur found him earlier (and vice versa), there was something big going on in this place that Neil wasn't aware of.

Not to mention the generally tense atmosphere in the caravan.

Neil didn't want to be alone yet.

"Can I borrow something of yours?" Neil asked quietly.