[OTA] You don't want to watch

[heartsthespades]

There was no visible reaction to the letter a Two of Spades had delivered to him late last night. A brief flash of surprise, a tightening of his lips, but nothing to indicate what the letter contained. And it was hard to tell, all morning, that anything was wrong. Grouchy moods weren't exactly unknown when it came to him, after all - he and several

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[bitchwithabite]

She'd heard Meghana left shortly after it was realized that she hadn't shown up for work today. It just didn't register with Amy until late afternoon, when it hit her that Jordan and Meghana were dating.

Her invasion of Heart Castle wasn't as shocking as it used to be. Nor was her calmness. But Jordan wasn't in his office, and that meant she needed to find him without raising anyone else's suspicions. And when she did, finally, find him, Amy looked beyond concerned. "The fuck is wrong with your leg, J?" Because that was a limp. And she was concerned.

[heartsthespades]

His mood wasn't getting better the longer it took to limp towards Heart Castle, and Amy got a sharp glare more frequently aimed at her in their teen years before she decided he could just fuck off and die for all she cared. "It's wrenched," he said shortly. No mention of the car, but that news would probably spread soon enough. Mechanics gossiped about as much as bartenders and baristas.

[bitchwithabite]

She won't push that. So his leg was fucked; that ruled out their typical form of Dealing. That left two other options, and one sounded better than the other right then. "Ice cream and privacy sound like a plan?" Of course, she'd retrieve the alcohol just in case, but that needed to not be her go-to and she recognized that. Time to fix it, even if she was scared to try because she'd probably fail.

"No need to go back to a castle yet. I'm sure we can find privacy easily enough elsewhere."

[heartsthespades]

He slanted her an annoyed look. "I'm not a twelve year old girl, Amy, and I don't want ice cream." And he sure as hell didn't want to bond over angst and pain. "And I do, actually, need to go back to the Castle now, because my knee is already swelling and I want it taken care of."

And then he wanted to be alone because, frankly, hanging out with Amy was so often an exhausting exercise in hearing about how her life was worse than his, and he could not fucking deal with it right now.

[so_complicit]

Davin had been just finishing up a delivery to a shop near the garage when he catches sight of Jordan limping away.

Cue the frown.

"Jordan!" he calls, walking swiftly to catch up with his nephew, "what happened?"

[heartsthespades]

Oh, well. Joy. The ideal thing, he thinks, would have been to get home - get this wrapped - and come up with a reasonable not-lie to weave by the time Davin and Hadyn heard.

But apparently not. He grimaces. "An accident."

[so_complicit]

Davin looks over his shoulder, back at the garage, then at Jordan, his expression completely even.

"An accident."

That isn't an explanation, Jordan.

[heartsthespades]

But it is the truth. He shrugs.

"The roads towards the outposts are still slick. The Mustang went off the road."

Also true, of course.

[maskofhearts]

Hadyn lived in town these days, and town was not large. He'd heard, mostly through the grapevine, about the Mustang being brought in looking trashed. The repeated telling of it made the story wilder and more insane, too, by the time it reached Hadyn's ears...

And at that point he'd almost run to the shop to find out for himself what was going on.

And while it wasn't as bad as he'd started to believe it was, it still wasn't great as Hadyn worried at his bottom lip and paced in front of the shop for a while, trying to think of what to do. To go see Jordan? He hadn't really heard from his brother in a few days, and the news about Meghana's leaving was delayed to his ears as well- and most trumped by Nico's sudden disappearance the that day. They'd had an appointment after all.

For a while he just stared at his phone, considering just calling before sighing and turning toward Heart Castle.

Fucking life.

It was going to be an unhappy conversation, he was sure.

[heartsthespades]

By the time Hadyn got to Heart Castle, Jordan had been subjected to Abby, who both iced and wrapped his knee, and cleaned and bandaged the scrape on his arm - and the story was getting ridiculous. By this time, Jeannie had reported that apparently he'd barely escaped from a burning fireball straight out of an action movie.

Which was a little far from the truth.

Still, getting work done wasn't happening, so Hadyn found Jordan in his apartment, tossing darts at a dartboard while he had his leg propped up on a coffee table.

"Hey."

[maskofhearts]

"Well, glad to know you aren't actually dead." That had been one of the stories. Though the shop had cleared that one up just by having the car in to fix. Still, Hadyn frowned a little more for it all.

"Not that I can't sympathize with just needing to get away- but what the living fuck?" Jordan, at least, was the supposedly stable one of the two.

[heartsthespades]

Jordan rolled his eyes as he let another dart fly. "Seriously," he muttered. "You'd think no one had ever run off the fucking road."

But it was true that Jordan hadn't done much wild for most of a decade. He shrugged, though. "It was an accident."

[somuchheart]

Blythe will be the last to admit that she has things running like clockwork in the Hearts. It's flustering, being Ace, and there's a lot of slack she has to pick up on. Lots of slack that everyone should equally pick up on. She can manage with the stress load as long as everyone else pulls their weight.

Which is why she's not exactly the most pleased to find out late in the morning that Jordan hasn't been seen all day. Though the intelligence of this decision might be questioned, she immediately gets up herself to go find the man. Of course it's not an excuse to get away from her overflowing desk. Of course not.

When she finds him, though, all thoughts of releasing her stress onto him evaporate. She runs to him instead, frowning as she pulls her hair back over her shoulder. "Where have you been, what happened, and why are you limping?"

[heartsthespades]

"Um, the outposts?" That was the easiest one to answer, after all. "There was a small security issue at one of the farms."

He fell into limping step next to her, heading towards the infirmary, because there's no way he's getting out of that one now. "And I wrenched my knee. It shouldn't be too serious."

[somuchheart]

She hesitates, then reaches to settle a skittish hand around him, carefully helping him walk. "And how did you wrench your knee?"

[heartsthespades]

He's silent for a moment, even though there's really no getting out of it. "Ran my Mustang off the road and into a tree."

[indeliblespade]

Because In Su was facing the window, he could see the man limping past. Dropping his wiping cloth, he ran outside to help a person in need. He was a shy Korean but he was a good guy, beneath the impenetrable shyness. Well, not quite impenetrable, not since the blizzard...

He gasped, seeing the young man up close, who was limping. "Omoomo..." he murmured, running out to help, holding up his hands.

"Wait... sir, you are hurt and bleeding, please be careful... you should sit down." He tried to come and help him take his weight off his leg that was giving him trouble, and guide him to one of the chairs outside the shoppe.

The chairs were made of metal, and they'd be cold, but at least he wouldn't have to walk when he was obviously wounded. Well, if he let In Su help. He might not. He looked pissed, so In Su had a feeling he was going to get yelled at.

[heartsthespades]

Jordan shot In Su an annoyed look and shook his head. "I'm fine," he said, grimacing as he tugged away from In Su and kept walking. "I'm going to the Castle, and they'll look at it there."

This was the new one, he thought. The one who'd completely lost it when Victor Fox had gone in to buy Elani McCartney a cake for her birthday. That story had made the rounds already.

[indeliblespade]

He flushed, looking unsure, but he reached out to grab his arm, carefully, panting "Please... please you are hurt. Wait here, they can send someone..."

But the look of recognition on Jordan's face was enough to freeze him in his place, and he looked about to break into tears. He knew, he knew that there was a mark on his head. That Victor was going to kill him.

Everybody knew... because he'd never seen this guy before, and yet... that look. Everybody had to know... his second greatest fear, realized. He wasn't a face amongst many, people knew who he was.

[heartsthespades]

"It's not that far, Mr. Yeo." He waved at the warm-toned German-style Castle up ahead - Heart Castle. "It's faster for me to go there than it is for them to come here, when they're just going to have to take me back there for x-rays and whatever else."

And he really wasn't in the mood to play nice, he thought as he hobbled along.