rhy maresh (goldenhelm) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2018-09-26 21:44:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, alucard emery, kell maresh, rhy maresh |
WHO: Rhy, Alucard, & Kell
WHAT: Rhy wakes up from his cursed sleep
WHEN: 3 days after the ball (backdated)
WHERE: Maresh Palace
WARNINGS: I don't think there are any?
Rhy was overly familiar with unconscious darkness, and the slow rise from it. As he came closer to consciousness, he became aware that he had been out for a while. Longer than a normal night’s sleep, certainly. More than a day, even.
He hadn’t been asleep that long since the last time he had been truly dead, when the connection to Kell’s magic had been severed by Holland in White London.
He pushed sluggishly towards waking, and finally opened his eyes. He blinked a few times before the room came into focus. He was in his bedroom, and there was a warm body beside him, a familiar one. He turned his head to look at Alucard, lifted a hand to touch his lover’s cheek.
His arm felt stiff as he moved it; he had definitely been lying here for at least a full day. Had he died again? His thoughts were fuzzy, but he remembered the faerie ball, remembered Gansey trading a year and a day of his life away to get Kell back. And then… he wasn’t entirely sure what had happened after that. Maybe the faeries had done something to sever his connection to Kell at that point.
But he could feel the bond now, Kell’s heartbeat in his chest beating strong and true. Whatever they had done to him had not been permanent, or someone had managed to solve it. He hoped no one had traded any more years of their lives away for him. With his attention on the bond, he realized Kell was close by, possibly even in the room with them.
“Kell?” he asked, his voice rough and cracking with disuse. He cleared his throat, and turned his head to look for his brother.
--
Alucard woke at the movement. Immediately, he drew on the nearby water, freezing it into ice. At the same time, he focused beyond the bed toward the door. The most likely intruder would be his sister, kindly bringing breakfast. But the door had not opened; nor, a moment later Alucard concluded, had the windows. It took that long for him to return attention to the bed and to his lover beside him.
The ice melted and returned to its bowl near the bed. Alucard took in Rhy’s state, as alive as before, but now awake. Awake and returned to them. “He’s on the couch,” Alucard answered the inherent question. “Kell’s fine.” Kell had been fine since he had returned. To the contrary, Rhy had been the one they had been worried about, longer than they had needed to worry about Kell.
--
Rhy’s subtle change in consciousness woke Kell mere seconds before Rhy actually said his name. He was up in a moment, going to his brother’s side.
It had been grating to live through another moment when he couldn’t do anything, magic or otherwise, to save his brother. He knew that it was something that would wear off. These Tumbleweed tricks always did, and there were many people who were cursed. Still.
And too many people were his people, leaving Kell at an overwhelming loss on what to do.
So, he did the only thing he could do: He stood vigil by Rhy’s bed. (And didn’t even once goad Alucard into a fight.)
As soon as his name was said, Kell was at his brother’s side, peering down at him.
“How are you?” he asked, gaze briefly flitting over to Alucard to see if he had any concern over Rhy’s state at the moment.
...
Rhy started to push himself up with his hands, into a sitting position -- his muscles complained, but then went quiet -- and then relaxed against the headboard as Kell came into view. Thank the saints, he had come back all right.
It was clear from the way both of them were looking at him that Kell had been fine for a while, and it was Rhy who had been worrying them, though he hadn’t intended it.
“I’m all right, I think,” he said. “What… happened? Did I...” Tactfully, he trailed off, but they both knew how that sentence ended.
--
“No,” Alucard replied definitively. “It was a sleeping curse. Fae magic.” While his gifts had been limited at the ball itself, this brand of magic had been all over in the days following. Not that Alucard had bothered seeing most of it. But Anisa had arrived, and many people had been going to the military base to receive services for their curses. So Alucard had seen enough to know what held power over Rhy but not enough knowledge of that magic to dissect everything about it.
His nights had been dark, even as he held his worst habits, those outside his mind, at bay so as not to worry either Kell or his sister. But the bonds had never broken. If anything, there had been a distinct haze to the nights, lit by the silver threads between the bed and the couch, something he had watched as he lay awake.
…
“You’re all right,” Kell echoed, half to help convince Rhy and half because he needed to hear the words said aloud himself. He knew this likely would all fade soon and the after effects would be gone, but this particular Tumbleweed occurrence had smarted if only because of how it had affected him and Rhy.
…
A sleeping curse. As odd as that was, it was something of a relief -- to Rhy, at least. Though it was hard to say whether it had caused relatively less trauma to his loved ones than the alternative. He looked between them, at their faces, seeing the combination of worry and relief, each in their own way.
“Yes,” he confirmed, “I’m all right.”
Alucard was close by; he extended a hand to take one of his lover’s and squeezed it gently. He patted the bed beside him with his other hand, inviting Kell to sit down. He wanted to hug his brother, but still felt sluggish and stiff, not entirely ready to get up, even though he had surely spent more than enough time in this bed lately. “How long was I asleep? Is everything alright?”
--
Alucard moved to a sitting position as well, holding Rhy’s hand and simply enjoying Rhy’s conscious and healthy presence. Even a normal sleep would have been a welcome relief. This, even better. “A few days,” Alucard replied, “Many people were cursed. But some curses have started to end.”
But a smile flickered to his face, despite the previous terror that had reigned over the room. “You also missed something better than all right,” he shared. Leaning slightly closer, as though it were a whisper, despite the three of them being close together, Alucard said, “You may have noticed Esa has not kept constant guard around your bed. She’s had better company.” His face lit with joy, no longer balanced by worry and helplessness.
…
Kell smiled faintly when Alucard alluded to the news that he had to share. Anisa was a welcome presence in the palace, and Kell was glad that she was here, especially for Alucard’s sake. But it had also been nice to have someone else to talk to and be around with everything that was going on.
He knew that Rhy was likely going to be thrilled that she was here as well.
He wanted to give them some time alone, but he thought the withdrawing of his presence at this moment might be a greater distraction than if he just stayed in the background for a bit.
…
When Kell made no move to come sit next to him, Rhy looked at him more intently, and patted the bed again. Kell had been here because he was worried about Rhy; he clearly needed the relief of a hug as much as Rhy did. If he was holding back, it was for some stupid reason, and Rhy wasn’t in the mood to put up with that. He had worried about his brother for a full twenty-four hours and then some, and he had only just confirmed that Kell was back safely. It might have been old news for them - a few days old, apparently - but it wasn’t for him.
But he looked over at Alucard a moment later, as his lover spoke. He hadn’t noted Esa’s absence yet, but he noticed once Alucard drew his attention to it, that indeed, the cat was not to be seen anywhere in the room. More notable, however, was the absolute joy on Alucard’s face. Rhy’s heart leapt to see it.
“Anisa?” he guessed, his voice quiet but hopeful. He wanted to be right. He didn’t know of anyone else whose presence could light Alucard’s face up like that.
--
Alucard took a moment away from Rhy’s face to look at Kell with every bit as much expectation as Rhy’s pat on the bed. Where Kell slept had been an element of conversation. And while it had not been the bed, his presence was fully expected here. The whole family was here now, all of their families that still mattered.
But having done that, Alucard looked at Rhy again and nodded. “The one and only,” Alucard replied. “She’s moved in and started to get to know this world.” There were further conversations due there. Rhy’s coma had not particularly made it a good time to discuss Anisa’s death, much as it remained present between them. Anisa had been smart enough to know something was up and smarter still to wait to hear it.
Even that could not dim Alucard’s happiness, not when she was here. It changed some plans for the wedding - for the better - and greatly shifted, well, nearly everything. But it was good. And Rhy had his own lost time to make up for now.
…
Kell sat down on the bed beside Rhy. In this moment, there were few things that he would have denied his brother, but this wasn’t even one that he wanted to reject.
He remained quiet, though, as Alucard shared the joy of his sister’s arrival with Rhy. There was little for him to contribute to this conversation.
…
“That’s wonderful news,” Rhy said, with a wide smile. “I can’t wait to meet her.” He was, also, a little bit nervous of what Anisa thought of him, but determined to win her over nevertheless. It surely couldn’t go worse than Alucard and Kell’s original relationship.
He was relieved when Kell finally sat down beside him, and immediately wrapped an arm around his brother and pulled him in for a one-armed hug. He rested his head chin briefly on his brother’s shoulder, and murmured quietly, “You know I didn’t mean a word of what I said at the ball, don’t you?”
As big as the news of Anisa’s arrival was, his first priority was to make sure his own brother was okay. If Anisa had needed them urgently, that might have changed, but if Alucard was here resting in bed with him, then there didn’t seem to be any urgency in it.
--
The push and pull of family, the varying important relationships, was not entirely familiar to Alucard. His mother had died so long ago. He had only had his relationship with Anisa that mattered. The others had been a matter of safety, to keep his reflexes sharp and his behavior proper, rather than a true concern. But he was used to Rhy’s concern for Kell being a part of this, so it was familiar enough. Alucard had kept both crew and family. It was the closest he knew.
He relaxed against the bed, considering the time by how it looked coming into the room. “She’ll probably bring breakfast up in not too long,” Alucard shared idly. Always on communal dishes, with small plates on the side. So as neither to include Rhy in a painful way, were he not awake, nor to exclude him if he were, as was the case this morning.
The giant six foot bird looking over her also helped reassure him. Esa was a dear but not much for combat.
…
Kell went into the hug without complaint. They weren’t positioned in the easiest way to hug, but he doubted either of them minded. He leaned his head back against Rhy’s, even though he quietly prickled with awareness of Alucard. He knew it wasn’t any news to Alucard that they were close, but still.
“Of course,” Kell answered without any hesitation, He had never doubted that, not for an instant.
…
Rhy was relieved by both the hug and the words. He was grateful that Kell trusted him enough not to believe him when Rhy called him a servant. He knew that he had managed to convince Kell that he would not be kept at the palace and ordered around during Rhy’s reign, but he also knew that his parents had treated Kell badly enough to make him take those words to heart.
Kell already believed him, so he didn’t offer any further explanation. Probably, Kell had already figured it out, or maybe he had talked to Gansey about it.
“Good,” he said simply, and squeezed Kell gently before releasing the hug. He kept his shoulder resting against Kell’s, though, hoping that he would stay sitting there, at least until they all got out of bed. To Alucard, he added, “Breakfast sounds lovely. I wouldn’t mind getting up and going to her.”
--
Alucard had not been there when Rhy and Gansey had saved Kell, but he didn’t need to know the exact words to guess what they might have been. He knew plenty well how to push Kell’s buttons and knew which ones took someone else to push. It was good that they both knew it had been only for the purpose of saving Kell’s life. It had been terrible enough dealing with the faeries, without anything further getting in the way. As a rule, Alucard tried not to give people the emotional trouble they stirred around for.
“Mm, we could sit down, the four of us,” Alucard suggested. The table the royal family had used, when it was just the four of them, would be the right size again. And it was something Alucard wanted to see. It was a fairly easy time for them all to get along. Worries over Rhy always set Alucard and Kell on the same side.
…
“That would be nice,” Kell agreed. He would have done so even if he hadn’t wanted to because he knew that it meant a lot to Rhy and to Alucard as well. But it so happened that he did also like the idea of all of them eating together. It was more time to spend with Rhy, a play at normalcy, but Kell had come to find that he also liked the youngest member of the Emery family.
...
It pleased Rhy immensely that Kell agreed without having to be asked directly. “Excellent,” he said happily. He hugged his brother again, and then let him go. “Let’s have breakfast.”
Before he moved to get up, however, he lifted Alucard’s hand to his lips and kissed his knuckles, lingering just for the briefest moment. Kell had drawn the majority of his focus since he’d woken, since he’d still been worried about his brother when he’d fallen asleep, and feeling guilty for what he’d said. But they’d worked through that now, and what was left was to make sure his lover was alright after having to watch him sleep for three days. He had surely been worried, and if nothing else, Rhy had not been here for him when his usual darker thoughts came at night.
It was not something he would ask about right now, though, with Kell here. It could wait until they were alone. So he let go, and moved to get out of the bed. Simply being here, being awake and moving around and talking, would have to be comfort enough for the moment.