Who:Brielle Leblanc [GUARDIAN] and Viktorus Petraitis [PRINCE OF FLIES] with unconscious appearances by Danny Best [MIRACLE} and Sebastian Leventis [DEATH HOST] What: A Phone Log When: Pre-Dated to November 1 (aftermath!) Where: California and Camulus Status: PG-13ish. Only a couple swears! Completed log!
Tori should have been asleep by now. Danny had finally drifted off into a half-rest that he didn’t want to break. Tori rested his hand on the other boy’s head, still very unwilling to stop running his hand through his hair, letting his fingers linger on his neck, letting him know he was still around. Tori’s hand came to a tangled stop in the middle of Danny’s head as he looked down to make sure, one more time, that he was sleeping. It was tempting to lie down beside him and sleep as well. Tori was exhausted, for once. But there was no time for that yet. He had things to take care of, people he had to ensure were safe. As unobtrusively as he could, Tori pulled his phone from his pocket and picked out Brielle’s number, never taking his eyes off the sleeping figure below him.
If it was up to Brielle, she would be packing. Packing all of her things and keeping her mind occupied, numbing her feelings. Danny had swiftstepped away, Tori just behind. She wished she could do more, and had sent Danny a text earlier: take all the time you need, but please be safe, Danny. I’ll be at Camulus waiting. In her mind, Brielle had already planned it out. She would finish cleaning and packing her room first, then Danny’s. Perhaps even Tori’s, if he would let her. But for now, Sebastian was first.
She glanced over at a sleeping Sebastian only a couple of feet away. His room was halfway packed and Brielle had paused for a moment on a chair by his bed to watch him, as if proof that he was still here and alive. She was hugging her knees, her head resting on top. The only one she couldn’t heal.., though the obelisks had fixed most of his major injuries.
It was late, and the only light source was the small desk lamp on the opposite side of the room. When her phone began to ring, Brielle jumped, quickly picking up the small device and muting the ringtone before glancing at who was calling. Tori, it read. Brielle picked it up immediately. “Hello?” Her voice was soft but her worry was completely transparent, even from the single word. Please let Danny be okay, she thought over and over.
Tori wasn’t expecting her to answer as quickly as she did. He had to turn away from Danny, his hand remaining on a shoulder. “Hey.” Tori’s voice was soft, but sharp and quick. It wasn’t because he was angry or anything. He just needed to get his words out as quickly as possible before Danny woke up. Tori was relieved, though. He’d known Brielle was alive, but he had no concept of what had happened in the aftermath, how many survivors there were, who was still at Camulus. He hoped vaguely that she’d have the good sense to get out as quickly as she could, but this was Brielle, who’d stay til the bitter end if anyone was hurt. On the phone, he sounded neither upbeat nor depressed. It was at a distinctly clipped middle ground, emotions indiscernible. He didn’t want her to worry about him or anyone else right now. He was sure she was worried enough. “Is everything over there okay?” He asked, unwilling to give up any information before knowing whether or not she was in immediate danger.
“Yes, of course,” she replied quickly, though her eyes lingered on Sebastian. Well, at least everything was as okay as it could be, in the aftermath of such destruction. The only solace Brielle had was having been able to heal Danny before he had swiftstepped away. When she saw Sebastian stir slightly, she crossed the room, leaning against his desk as she eagerly asked her next question. “Are you all right? Are you with Danny?”
“I’m with him.” Tori confirmed, looking down at the sleeping boy next to him and grasping a little more at his arm, as though to make sure he was still there. To ensure that he didn’t wake, though, Tori started touching his hair again. “He’s...” He looked down for an answer. Fine didn’t seem accurate, he wasn’t fine. But he didn’t want to scare Brielle any further or she’d never sleep. “He’s here. And he’s safe.” A pause, and Tori’s voice softened. “We won’t be back right away. But don’t worry, everything’s under control.” Which was,he knew, sort of a lie. Nothing was in control anymore, but he was working on it.
Her sigh of relief was audible on the other line. Brielle didn’t need to know the state Danny was in. She knew that eventually, someday in the near future, that he would be okay. No, she didn’t expect him to ever be the same, how could anyone?, but she truly believed he would be okay. He had to be. He was Danny Best.
Worry immediately crept in as she listened to Tori’s voice, and especially at his last sentence. But she tried to remain optimistic and pouted playfully to the side, even though he couldn’t see. It kept her feeling less heavy-hearted. “Everything’s under control, Tori?” she said with obvious disbelief. But from there, she didn’t press, mostly because her partial smile had fallen once she glanced back over to Sebastian. Her voice was soft once again, vulnerable. “That’s all right, I didn’t expect you to be. I think I’m going to be staying in Danny’s room and start packing his things for him so he doesn’t have to worry about it when he gets back. Did you want me to pack your room also?”
He could hear her incredulous doubt states away, and even though everything should have been so crushingly depressing that his vocal cords weren’t capable of it, he let out a quiet laugh. “Shut the fuck up, Brielle. That’s what I said.” His voice was laced with a hint of amusement. but it sobered quickly when hers got more quiet. “I don’t have much shit left to pack. A lot of it’s in Danny’s room anyway.” He paused, fiddling with a stone under his foot. He was worried about her. But that was no surprise, really. He was worried about a lot of people. “You should sleep, though. It’s even later there. Don’t worry about packing yet. Just stop for a minute, shit.” He didn’t want to even think about the amount of hypocrisy that went in to that statement, but if she took it to heart, he didn’t particularly care.
The amount of sheer joy that Brielle had felt from hearing the faintest of laughs from Tori was probably ridiculous, but she didn’t mind one bit. Her smile was effortless, compared to the ones that she had been forcing to keep herself from crying when Sebastian was awake.
She sighed when Tori told her to sleep. He was right though, it was three hours later here in Boston and Brielle had barely gotten any sleep. But how could she?, when there were only a few students still here at Camulus and with the battles was still so fresh in her mind. What if the war wasn’t really over? She would need to stay up while Sebastian was sleeping. “I --” can’t. Brielle was too scared to close her eyes. “-- should,” she ended up replying with another forced smile to keep her tone light. Tori was with Danny and that should be all he should be worried about, there was no need to burden him with anything else.
Tori wished, briefly, that she was here too. It would make it easier to keep an eye on everyone at once. But that would have undoubtedly made it much, much worse for Danny. Maybe even impossible. This is the way it had to be, him across the country from everyone else. But he didn’t mind too much. They could take care of themselves. Still, he wondered about Brielle, who was the most blatantly self-sacrificial person he knew. “Yes.” He said more firmly, then. “You really should.” But he had caught the trepidation in her voice, and wasn’t overly stern when he spoke next. “You’ll be no good at all if you don’t rest yourself.” What he meant was something along the lines of You can’t save the world, it’s already fucked. So rest.. But he didn’t imagine she’d appreciate that line of thought, so it went unsaid.
Brielle had perched herself on the chair besides Sebastian’s bed yet again, unable to be even a room apart from him for more than a few minutes. She took Tori’s word to heart, and knew it to be true. She exhaled somewhat unevenly before nodding to herself. “Okay. I’ll try,” Brielle said, trying more to convince herself than Tori. Perhaps another war wouldn’t break out while she took a short nap and, hopefully, Sebastian would still be asleep when she woke up. “Take care, all right? Of yourself, too,” she added, since telling Viktorus to make sure to look out for Danny was not something that needed to be said aloud. “If there’s anything I can do..”
“You’ll do it. Oh, I know.” Tori smiled despite himself yet again. He was a hard one to bring down, and even in the wake of death and destruction, little things were amusing. Brielle certainly was. He nodded, though of course she couldn’t see him. “Don’t worry about me, of all fucking people. Honestly.” He paused. “Get out of there if you can. Camulus, I mean.” He knew, of course, that she wouldn’t. But he had to tell her. He looked around, finally taking in the view beyond the now ghostly ferris wheel by the pier, and he breathed a breath he’d been holding for what felt like years. “If you do go in my room, don’t look in my top drawer, though.” Brielle finding his drug stash even now was not the most welcome thought.
Brielle smiled tiredly. Of course she worried for Tori. It didn’t matter if he was part-demon or gave people diseases for fun, he was still her friend, and a very dear one at that. “I’ll be here until Danny comes back,” she said in yet another optimistic tone. But just saying his name made her heart ache, as if she could feel the reverberance of Danny’s hurt, even from here.
Although she was about to ask Tori what was in the top drawer, she figured it was something illegal. Brielle decided to nod instead. “All right, I won’t.” Her voice sounded somewhat defeated. She was too tired to talk much longer. “See you soon Viktorus, sleep well.”
Tori rolled his eyes, knowing there was no arguing with her at this point. If she wanted to stay in the remainders of Camulus, even though it was sure to be a shithole by now, she could. “All right.” He could hear the exhaustion in her tone by now. He was a sensitive boy, despite all appearances. “Go to sleep. Night, Brielle.” Without waiting for an answer, he hung up the phone and lay down, his head resting on Danny simply to ensure him that he hadn’t moved. Tori closed his eyes hopelessly. Sleep wouldn’t come tonight. But he hoped,as always, that for Brielle it was different.