Re: log: antique store - louis, misha, and damian
Louis was working his way through the medicine cabinet when Misha walked up. There were still some flexible adhesive bandages left over from the early stages of his healing, and he cut a neat strip from it using the surgical scissors in the first aid kit. He was just removing the antibiotic ointment when Misha apologized to him.
He looked up. It was that same bafflement from earlier. “You make me uncomfortable? Misha. If anyone should be apologizing for making someone uncomfortable, it should be me.” He wasn’t even fully confident what Misha was referring to, and it made it difficult for him to argue it off. “I’m uncomfortable with myself, not with either of you. If I gave you that impression, I apologize.”
He glanced past him to Damian, who was smoking out the window like the cigarette had done something to him. He handed the bandage and the ointment to Misha, since Damian no doubt wouldn’t accept it if he tried to hand it over personally - that look of distaste had been evident enough. There was at least a chance he would take the help came from Misha instead.
Strangely enough, the heightened sense of desire in the room had tapered off. What had been an almost irresistible undertow was now a dull heartbeat. Perhaps it was because they both looked so miserable, with Damian radiating quiet hate and cigarette smoke, Misha dragging his feet all the way across the room. “Thank you,” he said, meeting his eye. “Really. I think it’s helped, doing this. It will be easier for me to get a baseline, now, and to know when I’m at my limit.” As for Desire, he said nothing about that. There seemed to be no preventing that, if the Endless wanted to have its say. It had only happened once, though. Perhaps once would be all.
He did know that he’d clearly taxed them both to their limits, and he gave Misha a small nudge toward Damian. It was obvious that he needed Misha right now far more than Louis did. “I’ll be fine,” he said. He was a little less pale, at least, and neither his hands nor his voice shook. He was determined that he would take things from here. No more inflicting his problems on people with enough problems of their own. But this had helped, and he wanted to be sure they knew the value of what they'd done for him.