meninopequenuno (meninopequenuno) wrote in summerview, @ 2019-02-10 14:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | complete, matthew rodriguez, nuno chavez |
Matt Rodriguez and Nuno Chavez
Jan 1 | 3am
Nuno's Apartment in Atlantic City
N for Nuno (offensive language)
STATUS |
Nuno was awake in an instant. The apartment was small. It was a studio after all, and the sound of a key sliding into the lock echoed in the silence. He had never been a heavy sleeper with how he grew up, and it only got worse after deploying. Nuno was also aware that his best friend was coming over for a few days. It was why he had pulled out the extra blankets, after all. But there was something off. Matt never took this long to move. Ever. Even when he was dead exhausted, weighed down by over 100 pounds of gear in loose dirt. There was something off about this. It was like his hair was on end. All of it. And he got up from the bed immediately and turned on the light. He crossed to the door and listened. There was heavy breathing. Maybe it wasn’t Matt after all. He lived in a shit neighborhood. Yet another thing his friends and family bitched about. Silently, his hand slid to the back of the end table and pulled out his pistol. When he snicked the safety off Nuno shifted in the shadows to catch a glimpse of whomever was outside the door. There was a familiar build. It was sad that he knew his friends’ forms by now. He knew Holmes’s slight lean. And that was Matt’s posture. Nuno’s eyes scanned for anyone else, in case this was someone using Matt as a shield. Hearing only one person breathing, he felt okay. Okay-ish. The man kept his weapon off safety and angled at the ground when he flung open the door. The sight before him was not comforting. Matt looked pale. Which was impressive. He was darker than Nuno was, after all. And he was bleeding. He could hear his pulse pounding in his ears as his eyes took in the wounds. His mind went from tired to concerned friend to corpsman in an instant. “Fuck, Matt. You’re bleeding on my welcome mat,” he murmured with his gaze still cataloguing what he was looking at. He stepped forward and threw the man’s arm over his shoulder and helped him in with some effort. They limped to the kitchen and Nuno dragged a chair out with his foot and dropped the man into it before heading to the large closet. The small man scaled the doorframe and climbed up to the built-in shelf where he could reach his attic access. Nuno pulled out his old medic pack and slung it on his back before dropping back down and returning to his friend’s side. “The fuck happened?” -- Over the past week Matt had given his friend nothing but hell for dragging him all the way down from Brooklyn to Nuno’s crappy apartment. It had become a ritual among the two men, and something Matt loved nothing more than to do in his down time. However, for all the shit that Matt gave his best friend, the truth was they both knew that Matt was itching to climb into his car and head down to see him. Not that he would ever admit that out loud to Nuno, because that would mean letting Nuno win in some way shape or form and really, the man talked enough as it was. And he couldn’t wait to have a few days of nonstop, totally uninterrupted peace. Since he had moved back to Brooklyn to help take care of his ailing grandmother, among other things, Matt’s life had been way calmer than it had been since, well...since he was a teenager. The service had provided routine, and a framework that Matt loved, but in it was its own set of controlled chaos that lead to friendships like the one he had with Nuno. Even being separated as long as he had been by this point, there were still some days he had a hard time dealing with a lack of true framework. Though, some things got swapped out for doctor's appointments, dinner with his sisters, and even somehow being ‘forced’ into watching his nieces. But this weekend? This weekend he was ready for just some good old fun with an old friend and laughing until his abs hurt. Well, apparently the fates had other things planned for him. Instead of his abs hurting from laughing with his best friend, his back was killing him, and he was sure that blood was soaking through his shirt. He’d already ripped part of his sweater off and used it to bind up his arm. A little hard, but he did his best in the moment. Enough where he was confident enough where he could get to Nuno’s without passing out or causing a wreck. He thought briefly calling him, but in the moment, he needed to use all of his focus to get back on the road and get to Nuno’s as fast as he could. Why he didn’t think to call an ambulance was beyond him now that he was here, but it had made sense at the time. Nuno was a damn good medic and besides, there was no one else he trusted more than Nuno. Save for maybe his mother, but that was beside the point. And if Nuno though Matt had to go to the hospital after, so be it, but right then it had been all about driving the last little bit until he got there. One step at a time. Get to Nuno’s. Park. Turn off the car. Find the keys. Get in. Make Nuno fix him. Everything would be fine. Go from there. As Matt tried to stab the key into the lock, he heard muffled movements, maybe something he only picked up on because of his years of training to look for all of the small details. When the door finally flung open, he couldn’t help but give a relieved sigh followed by a wince because everything was on fire right now. “Fuck off Sparky.” Matt said through gritted teeth waiting for the other man to help him into the apartment. Which for someone who prided themselves on being strong and being able to take care of himself, spoke volumes of how much pain the man was in right now. “Pulled over to take a piss and something fucking jumped me.” he closed his eyes and tried to think about the situation a little more clearly, start remembering details that he might not have remembered during the struggle. He winced as he moved to pull his phone out of his pocket. “Got some shit on there.” at least he thought he did, everything happened so fast, Matt wasn’t actually sure if he was able to capture anything at all, but at least he had been thinking clearly enough to try. **** Nuno’s face screwed tensely with concentration. He had applied pressure to his wounds. He was not gushing with blood, but the pain he was in would mean he needed something to take the edge off. The amount of blood all over the place was bad, but not life threatening. His face was pale but not ashen. He could work with this. “Should hose your brown ass down with the garden hose, motherfucker,” Nuno snipped back as he kicked the door shut and locked it. He would have to clean. Everything. The porch. The stairs. Fuck. Well, one fiasco at a time. It was late and not too many people walked around this neighborhood at night unless they were looking for trouble. Once he got Matt settled and returned with his stuff, Nuno pulled out his own phone to record what he was doing. In case. He was in habit of recording or reporting his findings, anyway. It was all just habit. He took Matt’s phone and placed it next to his on the table before disappearing for some towels. He filled an empty container with water and brought it over and dropped it by Matt’s legs. Next, he filled the lobster pot his parents insisted he needed with salt water and turned the stove on to boil it. “Fucking figures you’d get fucked up whipping your dick out, Rodriguez. How did you survive without Holmes or me up your ass?” He shook his head before carefully untying the sweatshirt and tossing it into the sink. Next went his shirt, which was slowly peeled off Matt’s angry flesh. That, too, was put in the sink, and Nuno washed his hands before using his pinkie to unlock the phone and start the recording. He put on his gloves while saying the date, time, and who was getting worked on. His hands were steady and voice calm as he slipped into Doc mode. There was no hesitancy anymore. No bouncy, boyish Nuno. HM1 Chavez was back and his large brown eyes looked over the damaged site intensely. “We have what looks like…. Multiple puncture wounds and lacerations in oval shape,” he told the phone as the area was cleared of dried blood with a wet towel. He dabbed the warm water again to clear what looked like the deepest puncture. The man used his fingertips to manipulate the whole and he felt bile in his throat. Not because it was gory. This was adorable compared to what he’d treated. He just had a feeling he knew what this was. But he continued documenting everything. The inflammation, the superficial scratches along his side and back. Then, he told both Matt and the recording he would be stitching each of the punctures closed after disinfecting and administering a low dose of morphine. He looked up at Matt with his sharp gaze before taking off the first set of gloves and tossing them to the trash. “I’ll check your phone in a second, but what did it feel like hit you? Really, it looks like someone’s poodle thought you were a beggin strip.” -- Matt could handle a lot. He had been shot at, he had done the shooting, he had watch friends get injured, race card played against him growing up, and he'd been through a nasty divorce. The difference was though that he had been expecting all of that on some level. Even his ex leaving him to some degree, but that was another thing entirely. Mostly. But he had not expected this, and that was what had him shaken up so much at the moment. This wasn't him in his gear waiting for the other shoe to drop. No, this was him needing to piss because he made the oh so smart decision to get the large fountain soda from the gas station instead of something more reasonable sized. The door locking behind them did a little bit to ease his mind, knowing that here he was about as safe as he could get. Besides, if anything, even with him playing hurt, it would be two against one and the odds were definitely on their end. “Just another excuse to get me naked.” now that he was here, he was trying to act a little normal, but it was coming out a little strained and forced rather than their natural cadence with each other. In its own weird way, it actually kind of helped to try and act normal. It gave his mind a focus point, a ground wire, to help him process what the fuck just happened and figure out what the fuck to do next. “Now you know why I never take it out. Too many people want what they can't have.” he winced and clenched his teeth a bit as Nuno started to peel off of his clothing, so Nuno could patch him back up. There was a palpable trust between the two men, where this didn't seem weird or out of the ordinary to Matt. As a kid he had stubbornly disliked going to the doctors, even going as far as to pretend his arm wasn't broken when he was ten. Granted, it lasted all of thirty seconds, before he caved, but even still. But as he grew older and his friendship with this man, and a few other medics over the years, formed there was this trust built and it didn't seem like such a big deal. Hell, he specifically blamed the man poking and prodding him right now for being able to handle everything with his grandmother. Matt was a good patient and let Nuno do his work, only talking when asked a question about his injuries, and tried to focus on his own breathing. Slow his heart rate down, be ready to answer the harder questions once Nuno had worked his voodoo magic on him. Once the gloves were thrown out Matt started to relax a little bit more, or it could be the low dose of morphine taking the edge off. Maybe a bit of both. His initial response was to say he felt like he got hit by a tank, but now wasn't the time for comments like that. They were unhelpful, at least at this moment. “It felt like a linebacker hitting me in my blindside.” which felt a little better of a comparison at the moment. “I didn't even hear anything until it was right on top of me. Thank Christ I had my sidearm on me, didn't get more than a wingshot off, but still man. Thing was gone before I could get a good look.” he paused for a moment before shaking his head. “More like a Doberman than a poodle. Best I can remember had a few inches on me, wider shoulders.” he shook his head. “I'm not even sure about the rest. I went in pure fight or flight mode man. I think my head is making shit up.” he started to lean back into the chair but then realized that was still tender and leaned forward instead. “I always said you'd get me killed.” he said after a moment looking up at Nuno sounding faintly more like himself. ***** “Yeah, yeah. I’ve seen your fat ass naked enough to not want that half chub a mile from my mouth,” Nuno replied. He was on autopilot. Distract. Make him comfortable. Laugh but never enough to hurt. It was how he processed. Each of the men he worked with had their own tells. Matt was never shaken. Nuno had watched this motherfucker take being shot at for a month straight, miles away from the nearest ally outpost and still laughing. That was how Matt was. The calmest guy on the field. But now? He could feel the way his body shook. It was the excess adrenaline. He understood it. Mentally. But it was something not corpsman Nuno would have to evaluate later. He loved Matt. But the guy didn’t need his best friend right now. He needed his Doc. And like fuck was Doc not going to be there for him. When he claimed to whip it out, Nuno gave a snort of humor and went about cleaning him off. “It’s not that great, Dude. I’ve handled plenty.” When that was done, he got a syrette and gave a low dosage of morphine. Nuno switched out the gloved for a fresh set and started meticulous process of cleaning, sanitizing, and stitching each of the punctures together. The smallest only needing one, but the four largest needed two each. He nodded along with what the man was saying but let him talk. He catalogued what was being said to ask again later when his brain and body had rested. But this all lined up with what he feared. That being said, he knew there were no rogue wolves out tonight who were from Summerview. Jay needed to know about this. This was… potentially bad. But he did not need to stress Matt out just yet. The asshole needed sleep first. The description on what bit him made the man’s brain freeze. His hands never faltered, but that as all the information he needed. “Yeah well, you probably smacked your goddamn head on the way down. When I finish this up, I’ll check back there. Just more worried about your pussy civilian ass passing out from blood loss,” Nuno replied as he finished the last stitch. He then, carefully, covered each in ointment and a small gauze before placing a larger bandage on. The next set of gloves were pulled off and tied up. The man washed his hands again before pulling a chair over and sitting right in front of Matt with his flashlight out to check his pupils and reactions. He ran him through the basic questions. Date. Hometown. High school name. Last four of his social. Mother’s maiden name. Godson’s name. And him squeeze his hands. All the while watching the stitches in case they bled more. After thirty minutes of checking him over, Nuno flopped back in the creaking chair and ran his hands down his face and gave a long, guttural groan. He stood up and got out the orange juice he drank in the mornings and put it down without a cup. They both knew he drank from the container. Next to it was a sleeve of double stuffed Oreos. “I’m tossing in a pizza to get real fucking food in your stomach but eat that shit. Drink that shit. I have to clean my porch.” And when he came back, Nuno peeled off his now dirty shirt and tossed it in the trash with everything he used. He glared at the orange juice still in the container, then at Matt. “I know what happened, but I ain’t saying fucking shit until you’ve finished the fucking orange juice.” --- Matt let Doc work on him and for, possibly the first time, he actually felt a little bad about Doc having to fix him up. That time where Matt sprained his ankle because they were both drunk and trying to hop a fence did not count. But, this, this might have been the first time that guilt had started to creep into his mind as he started to calm down a bit. He still had this feeling that he had passed some feeling of a point of no return, that foggy, unsure, and almost acceptance. He knew that it might not exactly fit, but one way or another, something happened and there was no taking it back. If he had just been a little more careful and surveyed the area for three seconds instead of hurrying to relieve himself, things could have been different. He knew those roads, he knew the shortcuts, he probably could have gotten away with speeding a little bit more. What happened had happened, and Matt did his best to stop thinking about the what-if-I-hads, and just tried not to think about how much he was putting Nuno through at the moment. Yes, Matt knew that Nuno would have done this no matter what, but at the same time, it didn’t mean that he wanted to put the other man through this. He knew it was a better option that the hospital, because, well, there would have been more questions, more paperwork, and quite possibly having to deal with more leave and paperwork before Matt was supposed to start back at work in a few weeks. He just had a few more things to settle with his grandmother’s will and he’d be done. Though, right now, that was the furthest thing from his mind. “Oh, fuck off, I could kick your ass even in this state.” he grumbled back making a small face and attempted to roll his eyes a bit, though it was half-hearted. Besides, he wanted Nuno to focus on patching him up and not to distract him too much. The other man was a genius in his eyes when it came to this. Nuno had patched people up in the most extreme circumstances, not to mention dealt with some of the biggest assholes on this planet. And not only could the other man do what he was going to do with a calm demeanor, but he could throw it right back in their faces when he knew he could. No one fucked with Doc. That was just pure and simple, you never piss off your healers. Unless they’re taking the piss out of your first. Really, that’s how the two became such fast friends. And thankfully, that friendship meant that Nuno did know all of the answers to the questions he was asking, so he knew that Matt would be okay. Not that they were particularly hard, but even still, he’d seen more than one person try to bluff their way into being okay when they weren’t really. As he peered up at his friend from where he sat across from him now that he was done, Matt’s eyes softened a little bit trying to find the words to say he was sorry about this but couldn’t voice them. And yet, Nuno didn’t give him the chance because he was presented with cookies and juice. Matt just nodded when his friend left to go clean up more of his mess. “Mother fuck.” he whispered under his breath leaning the closest arm against the table and then putting his chin on it, thinking. Okay, it was go time now. Now that his body had a chance to calm down, and he shook the emotional bullshit from his head while he waited for Nuno to come back (truth be told, he felt like he should be out there with him right now. But he knew better and stayed put). He tried to think more clearly about what happened and even managed to eat a few cookies from the package. He even opened up the juice container, but it never made it to his mouth as he rubbed his face and closed his eyes trying to picture what the fuck had happened. Just as he started to get somewhere with that, he heard the door open and lock behind Nuno. Without moving his head, he looked up and over at Nuno who still had that serious as shit look on his face and knew that arguing right now wouldn’t do any good. Even if the irrational side of his brain was running crazy with what must be his imagination right now, and he just needed some time to think about all of this. He didn’t take his eyes off of his friend as he proceeded to down the orange juice like he was downing a beer. He knew this was probably a stupid idea, but at this point, he wanted some fucking answers. “Done.” he said setting down the container. “What the fuck happened?” He was trying to erase any trace of fear from his face and voice right now. To most people, it probably would have worked. But considering who he was talking to, Matt was unsure of how well it was working at the moment. ****** Nuno cut off the banter with a sharp look in his eyes. It was time to focus on answers and checking for anything else. His sure hands ran over the back of Matt’s skull and pressed for any bruises, lumps or cracks. He had none, which meant the idiot still knew how to fall correctly. That was good. All that football training and attempting to get permanent brain damage just to score some cheerleader sex came in handy for once. And he did not have a concussion. Just a fucked up set of bites and scratches. Minus the one thing he was fearing, Matt could have had a lot worse happen. This was not too bad in the long run, and he was at least calmer. The man now just needed to rest and recover. And Nuno needed to clean up the murder scene outside and make a few phone calls. If Matt so much as apologized for showing up like this rather than a hospital, Nuno would have added a few broken ribs and maybe a nose to the list of what he had suffered from the attack at all. He had no time for that pity me shit. Especially as he knew Nuno would never turn him away and rarely felt like anyone could take care of his boys as well as he did. That was how things were with them. Nuno was their Doc, whether people liked it or not. Mostly other medics, who hated when the smaller corpsman hovered. And right now, he had his own guilt while cleaning up the sidewalk and the porch. He had been on the way down to see him. If Nuno had thought about everything happening with his world, he would have suggested a different time. Or maybe drive down in the day, when it was harder to get jumped. Not that anyone knew who Matt was. It wasn’t a hit like that. But there was something going on in the greater world, and he had been stupid. Having someone out on a full moon in the dark when things were shaky was a mistake. After a strong power washing and a lot of bleach, Nuno was back in the apartment. Matt looked like shit. At least neither were too masculine and shameful to share a bed, because like fucking hell was he sleeping on the couch. And they both knew Matt would not let Nuno sleep on it. The smaller man watched his friend drink the orange juice like a frat boy making a point and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, when you puke that up, aim for the trash,” Nuno commented before opening Matt’s phone and looking at the picture. Just as he thought. He had obviously never seen a werewolf in their wereform, but it was huge. And this was a far cry from a coincidence as they were in the middle of coastal New Jersey not Amishtown Pennsylvania. He sent the pictures to his own phone and put it down. He’d send those to Jay later and ask her to warn Gigantor. “Well, Matthew. It is the full moon,” Nuno commented. He dropped into the chair and sighed. The oven pinged and he stood back up and shuffled his medic pack to the pantry door. “Just as you know… witches and shifters are real, like that little community you found for me. So are werewolves. And it seems one of them either does not belong to a specific pack or local community. Or someone was out on purpose looking for an attack. Either way, you my friend. Have a lupine STD.” While aiming for light, Nuno knew his voice fell flat. If anything, that spoke the most about how serious he was. “I’m going to ask Jay if I’m right and send her the pictures but. Yeah.” --- Matt stared at Nuno when he started to speak again. Actually, stare at him. Not in his usual, oh-you’re-just-being-stupid, kind of way. Unblinking, unmoving, and seriously deciding if he was being fucked with right now. No. No, not judging by the other man’s body language, the way his voice fell flat instead of holding its usual cadence. He knew that shifters were real. He’d known for years. Witches too. But, at the same time, he really didn’t know any besides Nuno and his family. At least not that he had really been truly aware of at the time. Somehow even with that knowledge, that...just didn’t feel right to him. He was having trouble linking up what his best friend was telling him, and the reality of the situation. Of course, if supernatural beings were real then it could be possible that werewolves did too. But...somehow Matt never really...believed that they were really real? That somehow just, that there was still this line and they were still on the fiction side of things. But what was more than then just the realization that they were real. If Nuno had just explained to him that they were real in any other setting it would just be an okay cool, yeah, good to know. Kind of a thing, depending. But....they were a thing...and now apparently...he was a part of that thing? Matt wouldn’t pretend that he heard what Nuno started to say after ‘Lupine STD’ as he just sat there staring in the general vicinity of his friend and slowly starting to blink. It had been a long time since Matt had been in this kind of headspace. The kind where he was confused, worried, and kind of freaked out if he was really honest. Maybe it hadn’t been since they were waiting to find out news about his dad or trying to get all of his family into the same place those few days. Finally, he decided that he couldn't sit any longer. He stood up slowly, not wanting to undo Nuno’s work, or at least he thought so when he stood up and got a little bit of a tunnel vision. He popped another cookie into his mouth not even processing that better food was an option or would be in a few. He didn’t move far, simply behind the chair and leaned forward gripping the top of it tightly. Partly for support, partly because he wasn’t exactly sure what to do right now. Yeah, standing probably was a bad idea, he thought, but he was being too damn stubborn to sit down right now. Besides, if he got tunnel vision or star lights at the corner of his eyes, he’d sit down. But right now, he just couldn’t. “What is this going to mean?” he said after a long silence, to which later, he would realize was probably not the most comfortable. The men could go a while without talking to each other, or rather, Matt just nodding his head, or not answering as Nuno went on a long rant about...whatever it was he was going on. It wasn’t that uncommon for Matt to be the quieter of the two. But he was sure this was different. And he knew that he was going to have to talk eventually. He was going to need answers. “...my family...” he said quietly wondering if this meant if he would be able to be around them or not. They’d just lost the matriarch of the family, and it would worry them more if Matt just disappeared. Come back to Atlantic City, of course, but even with the distance they all kept in contact. “Go fucking figure.” he said his voice sounding a little hot under the collar at the moment. “How many deployments? How many days out in the fucking dessert being shot at? How many time taking pissed off drunks in, or dealing with people who can’t be reasoned with? Jesus fucking Christ.” he said that last part quietly and looking a little ashamed at it. Matt might not be a go to Sunday every week kind of guy, but he tried not to say things like that. But at the moment it felt like a moot point. When he got done asking the seat of the chair, he was looking at currently those questions he finally looked at Nuno like...just...what the fuck. Looking for any sort of starting point to just work his head through this. It wasn’t like when he discovered Nuno was a shifter. That was cool. This...this was just...he didn’t know what it was. **** “Well,” Nuno began. He rubbed his nose and coughed. “It means once a month, you will have one helluva period. But instead of bleeding and having cramps, you’ll get hairy and want to hunt anything that moves. Really, it’s like you after tequila.” He sighed and heard the soft ping onf the oven. There was no making this better. There was no point in making it all worse. He did not want to freak his best friend out. Especially when he did not know much of the details. As a shifter, everything was willing. Easy. He could pick who he became and if he focused like he did on Matt’s ferret, he could even adopt a new form. For Matt? Well, now he was cursed. He would have one form that would control him rather than the other way around. And it was something he would have to war with. And it was answers he knew he did not have. All he could do, right now, was make sure the wounds did not get infected. Probably bring him by Tad to get whatever shots the Commander decided he needed to have after being bit by some feral, mostly human beast. After all, both the human and the wolf mouth was disgusting. Coming from someone who spent a lot of time cleaning out disgusting, he knew. “It won’t change much with your family, Matt. Look-” Then Matt started on about all the shit he had been through and never got hit before. Nuno’s nostrils flared as he tried to look at it from his best friend’s side. He was injured. Beyond repair. He had every right to be upset by this. Thrown even. And he did not blame the guy for it one bit. But he was looking at it in a bit of a back-assward way. Hell, anyone would tell you the cards had to come up eventually. No one was that lucky their whole life. And all things considered, this was not the worst attack he could have had. Being a wolf sucked at most three nights of the month. Being a vampire would suck the entire time because there would go all ability to see the sun again. Or travel in the daylight. Or, worse. He could be dead. Which is also a common result of an attack. Nuno clenched and unclenched his jaw a few times before he stood up and took the pizza out of the oven and let the pan clatter a bit louder than it needed to. He turned sharply and brandished the pizza cutter at him. “Be glad you’re fucking alive, dude. The wolf could have been after a fucking snack not a new packmate to take up the ass, okay? Shit, your dick cheese probably smelled like a gourmet fucking platter or whatever. The point is, you’re lucky not to be laying in a fucking ditch, dick out, with your throat gone.” He turned back around and started cutting the pizza. “It changes like… fucking 36 days of the year for you. That’s ten percent of the year. Which you get fucked over with by our career choice, anyway. Family wants you up on a moon, fucking hell. Say you gotta work. You scheduled for a shift on the moon, I’ll fuckign switch with you. I know way to much dirt on the guys at HR and scheduling.” Nuno turned and grabbed a plate from the cabinet and dropped two pieces of pizza on it. He spun and walked over where his best friend was having his time of the month, fucking blood and all. “Eat you fucking whiny bitch. I’m gonna find some of the clothes you left here like the shitty girlfriend you are so you can get out of that shit.” --- When Nuno first started to speak Matt was nodding along with him a little bit to show he was listening. At first it wasn’t bad, it felt a little familiar though the situation was new. He could feel his hands ease up on the chair he was gripping onto a little bit. After all, he wasn’t wrong about Matt on tequila, which is why he didn’t drink that particular beverage all that often, but even though this was still freaking him out a bit, he was starting to relax a bit more. Being the man he was he was worried about what it meant to be around his family. This is the first time he really had this sort of information presented to him. Up until now any information he had about werewolves were from...basically the movies. He didn’t know if it was really going to change him or not, and yeah, he was a little freaked out. It was a relief to hear that it was just those few days out of the year that would change things. Yeah, they could work around it. The last thing he needed was to hit his family with another blow so soon after this one. Let alone, tell them about this shit, which was going to be hard enough as it was, but Matt would find a way. He always found a way. Make sure they weren’t worried about him, because really, Matt was usually fine. He usually could find a way to thrive in high pressure and intense situations. It was one of the many common threads the two careers had. But then the clattering of the plate and Nuno’s words started to ruffle him up again. What the actual fuck, was his first reaction. The first time he ever really had to deal with this sort of information and he was being told he should just be grateful? Yeah, yeah he should be, he knew that on some level. But fuck if he really knew that it was more common place for them to leave people dead in ditches rather than turn someone. Hell, who knew, maybe it was only because Matt was quick on his feet that he even survived. But he didn’t know that. He didn’t even know they were real let along their behavioral patterns. Matt was trying very hard not to lash out at his best friend right now and started to grip the back of the chair again tightly, to the point where he could feel his forearms and biceps tensing. He wanted to punch him. He wanted to break his teeth right now. But Matt wouldn’t. Or at least he would try not to, for a lot of reasons. First and foremost being, Nuno probably didn’t deserve it entirely. Yeah, Matt didn’t want to be treated with kid gloves, but at the same time he didn’t need to be made to feel like an ass either. “Don’t fucking treat me like that.” he said through gritted teeth, clearly trying to check his temper, something he would only really do for family. “Up until now I didn’t even fucking know they were real, so fucking excuse me for trying to wrap my fucking head around this.” he pushed the chair out from him and took a few steps turning his back, reaching behind his head rubbing the short hair beneath it. He steadied himself against the table dropping an arm on it for support and visibly took a few deep inhales, well, as much as he could at the moment and let them out slowly with his eyes shut. Matt stayed like that for a little while, ignoring Nuno’s last comments for the moment, trying to get everything under control. He knew that one some level his friend was right. But at the same time, this was a lot to wrap his head around. This wasn’t like him getting hit by a truck and just having to go through months of rehab. This was literal life changing. By the time that he heard Nuno’s footfalls come back towards him, Matt was back by the chair and chewing on a bite of pizza. “Still best fucking girlfriend you’ve ever had.” he reached over and grabbed his friends shoulder and squeezed it gently. He wasn’t sure what else to say, and he knew that actions spoke louder than words, and he wanted to let him know that he was listening, but it was going to take a bit for him to wrap his head around all of this. But he was trying at any rate. “Speaking of, you need to fucking eat to. I can’t do it with you just staring at me..” he sat down and took another large bite, suddenly starving more than he thought he would be. He was trying to do something a little more...normal. Something to get him into a space where he could deal with this in his head and make the larger picture smaller. It was at least a start. ***** “Treat you like what, that you’re an idiot for acting like this is the end of the world. It sucks. Yes. But like fucking hell are you going to bitch out and fucking give up and we both know it. So let your fucking balls drop and get over it because if you wanted someone to suck your asshole while you cry pity me, you came to the wrong fucking door,” Nuno shot back. His shoulders were squared up in the event that Matt did snap and go for a swing. He was bigger. Matt had a good few inches and at least forty pounds on him, but Nuno was faster and scrappier. They had grappled plenty of times over the years for both of them to know it was a generally equal match. And at the end of the day, all it would achieve was more work for Nuno to fix and for what was already done to rip and need to be redone. It was why Nuno stayed and watched him, not backing down from the moment. Eight years of playing pissing contest in the biggest pit of alpha males with god complexes made him comfortable in these moments. Plenty of fights had broken out between their buddies, but this would be the first between them. Normally it was Holmes they got physical with. When Matt closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, Nuno walked away toward the chest of drawers. There was no leaving the room in this apartment. Not unless one of them wanted to sit in the bathroom like a drunk teenager who watch their crush makeout with someone else at a highschool party. So, turning away and letting Matt collect himself was the best bet. He collected some of the clothes-sleep pants and a ratty shirt he wore whenever they worked on the cars. He turned after a few extra minutes and headed back to the kitchen table. The man looked up at Matt and sighed. His eyes, always cartoonish in how much emotion they expressed, were dark with sadness. He knew this sucked. He knew his friend was in pain and would be for a while. And this was a bit insane. But like hell would he let the guy be mad that he at least was still alive. All the same, Nuno arched his brows and a small shrug. His lip pulled enough for a dimple to crease his cheek. “No competition with a smile like yours, bebé.” He pressed the clothes into the good shoulder gently with the hint of his smile returning. “Yeah, yeah. I’m getting there. Let me pamper my queen before I eat. Gotta make sure your fit ass is ready for me to ravish later as a thanks for helping you out.” Nuno walked over to the stove and grabbed a slice before turning. He took a bite and leaned against the counter. “I’ll get you in touch with people in the morning and get you at least introduced to people who can help. Tad may need you to swing by the clinic for a shot or whatever, but you need to sleep first. How long before you start back up with work?” There was no point in apologizing or getting sappy. It was neither of their style. Matt knew. Nuno knew. That was all that mattered. --- Before Matt had turned away he looked at Nuno with a brief dumbfounded look on his face. Was he really being serious right now acting like Matt was just giving up? When the fuck did he say he was giving up? Because Matt didn’t just give up because shit got hard. Figuring shit out and being overwhelmed was one thing, but giving up? Fuck no. Matt hardly ever just gave up and he held grudges like a motherfucker. Hell, there was a point he was pissed at Holmes for reasons that he couldn’t even remember at which, he kind of decided he had to forgive him if he couldn’t remember why he was so pissed off in the first place. He still held one against his fucking ex-wife. To the point where Matt no longer opened himself up in that area. When he was a kid his mother had to break up a three day fight between him and Mia because he just wouldn’t let her win a game of Candyland because she was younger. There was a reason his family didn’t often play boardgames together, and that was one of the many reasons. Besides them being all competitive as hell. Especially his mother. But instead all of this coming out in an eloquent, or at least a statement that made sense and would probably reassure his best friend that it was Matt just simply being overwhelmed and trying his best to work through all of this instead of shutting down, he just rolled his eyes dramatically, shook his head and gave an almost growl of “Fuck you too.” before turning away and both of the men doing what they needed to. Matt knew that he had to calm down if any of this was going to make any sort of progress. Besides, the last thing he wanted to do was further injure himself, and actually injure his best friend. The last thing that either of them needed was to get hurt further. And besides, Matt rather liked that they had never actually fought before. It meant he thought enough about Nuno to never go that far, to make sure that it never crossed that line. There were very few things that Matt was scared of and crossing that line was one of them. Nuno was the brother that he never had growing up, maybe even more so if they had actually grown up together because they’d chosen to become family. Well, Nuno had and then Matt just kind of went along for the ride and decided that the smaller man was definitely going to be family. To him if that line got crossed he was worried about his ability to calm down and let it go in a reasonable amount of time to fix any damage that might get caused. Logically, he knew that Nuno was just as bat shit crazy as he was and there was a chance that afterwards they’d be fine, have a beer, and they’d be back to normal by morning. However, that wasn’t exactly something Matt wanted to test his theory on. Avoid it if at all possible. For once the path of least resistance was worth it. There was a little ball of relief starting to form in the middle of his chest when Nuno pushed the clothing into him and gave him a small smile. “Just for you, papi.” a small smirk forming at the corner of his lips, as he patted the other man’s hand for a moment and then shifted and started to eat that second slice. “Good thing I packed nothing but lube in my bag. I mean, if you want me to just go lay down spread eagle now...” he said with a faint chuckle in his voice. Probably the first one he’d had since, well, the last time he’d actually talked to Nuno instead of countless texts over the past few weeks. The panic was starting to go away from his chest and he was starting to feel a little bit better about all of this. All the way? Far from it, but there was now a plan in motion, and Matt was doing better with some sort of plan. Something he could take step by step and a direction to go in. Yes, this was going to suck for a while, but at least he could cope by going through some steps. Routines and checklists had always been good for the man. “Good...yeah, that sounds good.” he repeated as he nodded and took another large bite, and after he had chewed, swallowed, and thought about what day it actually was. “Few weeks. Still have to settle a few things at home with her will, but it’s mostly paperwork at this point. Plus find a place to live and all.” he shrugged a bit, suddenly feeling like those were much more manageable now considering what he was dealing with now. One thing at a time, he reminded himself. |