[ Action | OPEN ] if love's a fight then I shall die, with my heart on a trigger

[black_black_heart]

Who: Cassian Lynch, Tannusen, and OPEN
Where: The hospital folks wake up in when they've died.
What: A direct continuation of this scene.
Where: Six+ hours after Cassian's death.
Warnings: Angst, probably some gore, more angst.
NOTES: Folks are welcome to encounter him wandering the hospital, but please don't prevent him from finding Cass in that thread at the end of it.

- - - - -

Tannusen could be found wandering the hospital in a daze, dried tears caked on his face, his right arm and hand a bloodied, burned mess. His soul, already crumbling to ash in places from the act he'd just committed, smoked and hissed at being inside this banal place that ate away at the Faerie like an acid.

He didn't care.

The tiger wandered the halls, brushing aside the fake people who tried to stop him for one reason or another -- it wasn't visiting hours, his arm -- without seeming to really even register them.

...

Eventually, eventually, one of the rooms he glanced into made him stop in his tracks. Pause, for a long few minutes in shock. He hadn't really expected Cassian's body to re-appear here, and wasn't sure, yet, what it meant that it had. Tannusen stepped into the room and stared at the body for another long moment, not quite registering that it was breathing; the expression was no longer slack with death.

It was only after he'd climbed right onto the hospital bed with the unconscious man that he realized there was a heartbeat drumming away in that thin chest.

He didn't know why.

The tiger just clung to the smaller man and shut his eyes, listening to the sounds of life where there shouldn't have been any.

Comments

[feckinboomstick]

Lil won't take it personally, don't worry. He kind of understands.

The other man stares back, just for a moment, before the faint aggravation of waiting for Tannusen to finish the conversation just... melts away.

Gone in a heartbeat.

"Aye, that we can, can we? Ye want a bath, Tannusen?"

[black_black_heart]

Well he is kind of covered in Cassian's blood from the stabbing, and his face and throat are still caked in dried tears. It doesn't sound like a bad idea, other than holy hell is it going to hurt if his arm goes into hot water...

Still, a soaking might pull out anything that's gotten in there.

"Is... that what you do with a burn like this?"

Though he still looks half-mad with relief until he manages to get to his feet and cross the distance over to Cassian, reaching out with his good hand to reassure himself the other man's solid. "...You've said 'we' twice now, are we both climbing in? Because I have no objection to that idea."

He's not even being a pervert about it; Tannusen just wants to be close.

[feckinboomstick]

"Aye, soakin' it is a good idea, but don't scrub at it. It'll only cause more issue."

Tannusen reaches out to touch him, and Cassian reaches up with both hands, cupping his face gently.

"I think I'd like to share it with ye this time, yes." Had enough nights bathing Tannusen, after all.

"It looks so comfortable when it's just you in it, can only imagine how nice it might be with both of us."

[black_black_heart]

"Okay," Tannusen bowed his head to press a kiss to the top of Cassian's, relief flooding him at the touch -- both his to Cass, and Cassian's return gesture. He's real. He is, he is, he is.

"Let me... find us some towels and clothes, then. You can start the water?"

Yes, Cassian's in perfectly clean stuff that Tannusen dressed the corpse in; no holes, no blood except the bit that's transferred from Tannu -- but no soaking through of the cloth with it -- but, it's not like he's going to live in it for a week or more.

Probably best to save Cass' usual for whenever they emerged from the basement.

[feckinboomstick]

"Of course, luv."

Yeah, these clothes were fine, but no he wasn't going to wear the same clothes for a full week. Honestly, he hadn't even thought about getting a spare pair yet though, the fact that he didn't bring a change with him just hadn't reached his mind yet.

There were other things to concern himself with.

With a soft kiss to Tannusen's jaw in return, the smaller man vanished into the bathroom again to start the water.

[black_black_heart]

The basement had been retrofitted into a tiny safe-house with the idea of it containing a few people with no warning given. So of course, there were clothes and things in here. Pajamas and sweatpants and tshirts and sweaters, mostly. Stuff that could fit anyone. The tiger grabbed some likely clothes for them both, and a pair of towels, and was quick to join Cassian in the bathroom, shutting the door behind himself out of habit more than necessity.

Look, he'd even found black clothes for Cass!

"This doesn't feel real," which was saying a lot, coming from a Faerie. He'd been so absolutely certain for so long that the stabbing would be the end...

[feckinboomstick]

He's still gonna be cranky that he doesn't have his usual seven sets of priest clothes, Tannusen, Cassian's had a thing for two thousand years.

He's not even started getting ready to get in, though the tub is mostly full now. Rather wait for Tannusen, honestly.

"... Nae, I guess it doesn't..." Too good to be real. Never mind being stabbed and killed, never mind coming back from it, never mind still having someone he cared about around.

He'd never felt so clean before.

"... Doesn't feel right to question it terribly."

[black_black_heart]

"I'm not questioning it," Tannusen set everything down; clothes on the counter, towels in reach of the tub, and closed in to wrap his arms around Cassian's shoulders -- yes, even the crackly, painful one. "If this is a hallucination, or an illusion, or just a psychotic break... I don't want it to end. I don't care."

He just wants to be with Cassian.

[feckinboomstick]

"Easy with your arm-" Oh, Tannusen would do as he pleased in the end, though Cassian was careful to not let any of the thick, harsh wool scrape terribly against the burn.

"T'would be a strange one, considerin' the circumstances."

He didn't think visions upon death worked quite like this.

[black_black_heart]

The pain had really faded to a loud -- but background -- concern by now, six hours into it. What hadn't been burned away had gone mostly numb by now... most of the time.

He drew back carefully, and with great hesitance.

Yeah, no, this was going to be a very clingy week. Or longer.

[feckinboomstick]

Don't worry, Cassian was quick to follow up by just leaning into him. Contact would be maintained as long as possible.

Just... mindful of the burn.

"Ye need help removin' the shirt, Tannusen?"

[black_black_heart]

"Probably not a bad idea," that arm wasn't the most mobile right now. He'd ditched the suit's jacket at some point, probably wrapped around the remains of that shitty knife before he'd taken it into the house. No leaving that crap out in the open, just in case.

He'd help strip himself down, of course; and the stripes did, indeed, go everywhere they would have in his other form, curling over his ribs from the back, laid out across his arms -- where the skin wasn't missing, anyway. Legs, too. His back was where they got particularly intricate and interesting, knitting across his spine.

[feckinboomstick]

Cassian would help remove what he could without brushing against that burn, aware that yes, Tannusen could handle some pain but on that note... unwilling to actually harm him in any way shape or form.

Everything removed was then folded carefully and placed aside. If only because he hated tossing things everywhere, seemed rude.

Still, those stripes were a marvel, and he couldn't help but run his fingers over them, tracing them around to Tannusen's back and spine in quiet appreciation.

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen managed a faint smile at that, even reaching up with his good arm to sweep his hair out of the way for Cassian to get a better look. "I'm glad you can finally see them," he'd said it before, but it bore repeating.

It was nice that Cass could actually see him, now. When Enchanted, at least.

[feckinboomstick]

"Completely and without a doubt." One finger slowly traced down his spine, admiring the pitch black on soft tan.

It really was... such a lovely thing to see.

"Ye didn't need more things to make ye magnificent."

[black_black_heart]

"Yeah, well, I've got this freaky shit too," Tannusen offers his good hand, where his fingertips are marred by really not okay slits for his retracted claws. No fur to hide them, in this form. They ran down the center of each fingertip, vertical just like on a cat.

[feckinboomstick]

Yeah that's... pretty wild looking.

But then, Cassian is Cassian, and after an expected look of concern, worry, what the hell is this-, its wiped away and replaced with fascination as he takes Tannusen's hand, gently swiping a finger over the slits.

That's... pretty incredible, actually.

"Y'know I can't quite figure out how this works on a human hand."

[black_black_heart]

"Dream logic," Tannusen reminds him, and only when Cassian's fingers are safely away from the strangely-hard slits, does he let his milky white claws emerge. They're too damn big to fit in there, surely. Especially with actual finger-bones and... yeah, dream logic. "It's best not to think too hard about it, I find."

[feckinboomstick]

Dream logic. Right.

Sounded about like the same explanation another weird dream oriented fairy gave him at home about literally everything.

"It doesn't hurt at all does it?"

Look, that just sort of came out unbidden, huge goddamn claws are coming out of your fingers, it looks like it should hurt.

[black_black_heart]

"Of course not," Tannusen chuckles softly, "I mean, it probably would on the other hand, but I'm not trying that one right now."

Everything's sort of... cooked, over there. His claws retract again, and then it's just a regular hand... with those freaky god damned slits. This is why he usually wears gloves, at least on the chimerical side of things.

"...You're extremely over-dressed, you know."

[feckinboomstick]

"It just-" Okay no dream logic got it. Stop thinking about it, it just works. "Aye. Leave that hand be, I can see everythin' I need on this one."

Oh... yes.

They were going to take a bath.

He'd never actually bathed with someone before, which was saying something considering he was there for Rome.

He plucked at the buttons of his shirt- He wanted this! He did want to take a bath with Tannusen!

It was just... getting the clothes off.

... Like taking off a bandaid, right? The quicker the better.

"Aye, you're right." Before he started to fumble at the buttons, starting to stubbornly ignore the butterflies waking up in his stomach.

[black_black_heart]

And Tannusen was more than willing to help, turning to pluck at buttons and such with his one good hand. He knew his way around Cassian's clothes by now, at least.

And they'd both been nude around the other a handful of times, by now, but never... at the same time.

So, that was... something. Not to mention climbing into a tub together guaranteed a lot of skin contact.

Also a first.

...Firsts he'd assumed would never happen.

[feckinboomstick]

Skin contact and naked at the same time, yeah this was kind of a step, wasn't it?

At least Tannusen was helping, the tiger was pretty good at getting Cassian undressed at this point.

Cassian wasn't even aware there would be a new scar, until the shirt was opened. He didn't get much of a chance to cover it back up either.

Too surprised to see it.

Brilliant, pink and new. Freshly closed and tender looking, at least it had skin and not a scab.

Not... that it made the three inch long jagged mark any nicer to look at.

"... Oh."

[black_black_heart]

Tannusen paused at that point, too, and gingerly touched it with a few fingers -- the pads, not the harsh slits at the tips.

Silent, of course. Expression... well, it wouldn't take someone who knew Tannusen as well as Cassian did to read the guilt and pain there. He'd murdered Cassian. Assassinated him, as surely as any other target. And with much the same methods, although he'd rarely had anything as conventional as a knife involved...

Convenient.

Add going paler under his stripes and looking a bit ill, to that expression.

[feckinboomstick]

"Tannusen." That tone. Full of warmth, of love.

The smaller man took the hand that brushed past the scar, and pressed it firmly to it.

The beat of a heart could be felt beneath it, strong and alive, no matter how big that scar was-

"Ye saved me."