There were so many things Rhys had seen and heard over the past couple of nights that he'd never even thought of. Not being able to help some of the suffering had been the worst, even more so than those that whimpered in the sleep he put them in. It helped, to keep them from pain and frenzy, but he wished it had been a complete outage. Towards the end, he started getting more effective and the spells took less time to lay, but the fledgling was tired. More than tired. Even so, there was actual pride floating around in him. Pride in himself.
It had been hard not to reach out to Joseph literally every time they had been close, but the people around them had needed them more. There was no sneaking off for just a moment.
By the time Bruno was coming at them to take them upstairs, he hadn't even fought him this time. Last night had been a different story. One more person, one more ghoul, one more spell. When they stopped, he idly watched Joseph as he stripped, appreciating the show even through his exhausted state. It took him a moment to follow suit, but instead of dropping his clothing in that pile, as well, he picked all of it up to place it in the bin. Autopilot was in full swing there.
The burn he'd found that first morning after the fire? All he'd wanted to do was make him stay face down in bed and concentrate on healing. He almost asked for it. Instead now, he stood behind his lover as they waited for it to fill, gentle fingers running and rubbing where it used to be. It was gone now, as if it hadn't been, but he could still remember what it had looked like. If he ever saw the man that saved Joseph from the collapse, he probably would want to kiss him.
Speaking of kisses, there were a couple laid between the older man's shoulders. Soft and lingering.