Thursday October 16, 2008
Who: Declan and Rorie What: Herding the drunk student Where: Grounds then Dec's apartment When: Evening
Rorie was blazed beyond belief. He was high, drunk, and was out in the middle of a light rain walking his dog. Well he had left to walk his dog, who had just already been out curtsey of Finn after dealing with his little brother ripping into him. Now the hound was with the older brother chilling out because Rorie was just. . . Gone. Soaked to the bone already from wandering around in a t-shirt, jacket, and jeans with two mismatched tennis shoes, he now had mud caked on his face a bit from stumbling and falling over a few times. The man was just so out of it he forgot he didn't have Pete to walk him. So there he was, out in the evening, in the rain, shitfaced and high, pissed at a bush because he thought Pete was hiding in it. "Come on!" He yelled at it ready to go pass out already.
Declan wasn't on shift for once, but he was out in a shirt and jeans enjoying the rain shower. Soft weather, they called it back home and it was lovely and refreshing. Smiling through the drops, he noticed a friendly face and called out. "Hey there, Rorie lad!" Jogging over lightly, he paused a few feet away, taking in Rorie's bloodshot and glassy eyes. The lad was three sheets to the wind.
Looking up from yelling at the bush, Rorie ran a muddy hand through his wet hair. Declan. His friend, that also probably messed around with Garret. Of course Rorie was trying to figure out who Garret hadn't messed around with. Kind of. He was mad and hurt and right then, making an ass of himself because he couldn't deal with the break up properly, was some how making it bearable. "Hey," he said forgetting about 'Pete' in the bush.
Declan glanced from the obviously empty bush back to Rorie. "So what are ye doing me friend?" The dryad could understand selkies, water and nature nymphs like himself out in the rain, and the occasional human, but Rorie didn't seem like the kind who played in the rain. Or the mud for that matter, taking in the state of his clothes.
Looking back at the bush, Rorie went to answer, but stopped. What had he been doing out here? "Ino know," he mumbled looking around confused. Taking a few steps back towards his dorm he stumbled a bit. It was weird and he felt like he needed another drink, which was back in his dorm. "I should go back to mah dorm," he said. "Gettin' thirsty out here ina rain."
Declan stepped forward casually, but slowly. No sense in spooking someone who was drugged up. "Why don't ye come with me? Me place is closer and a fair bit warmer I'd wager." Rorie looked practically soaked to the bone, which mean he had to have been in the rain since it started. Declan wanted to help him.
"No 'm good," Rorie said as he stood as still as he could while Declan was moving towards him. It wasn't really that hard to over take him either. When the Irishman was in close enough distance, Rorie didn't even try to, he just went over to him and leaned on him, heavily. "Everythins spinin'," he muttered. "I should sits down now."
Declan sighed softly. Poor lad. He was so out of it. "Tell ye what. Ye come with me and I'll save ye the trouble of walking." He would be more than willing to carry Rorie to his apartment and help him clean up if it would get him some answers to his growing questions.
"Mmkay," Rorie said closing his eyes, everything making his head spin and start to ache now. "Sounds goods ta me," he murmured nearly going limp against Declan. Too much whisky and vodka. It was nap time for Rorie, though he probably shouldn't be sleeping.
Leaning down, Dec easily hefted Rorie's light weight into his arms and started walking back towards his flat. "Ye wanna tell me what's going on?" He spoke quietly, just in case Rorie wanted to ignore it for the time being. In the back of his mind, Declan thought that Garret should be notified of Rorie's condition. As his boyfriend, he'd want to know.
Leaning down, Dec easily hefted Rorie's light weight into his arms and started walking back towards his flat. "Ye wanna tell me what's going on?" He spoke quietly, just in case Rorie wanted to ignore it for the time being. In the back of his mind, Declan thought that Garret should be notified of Rorie's condition. As his boyfriend, he'd want to know.
"S'nothin' goin' on," Rorie mumbled. "Cept mah exboyfriend hates me," he muttered half coherent. "I just. . . I got m'stuff back at m'dorm," he said moving, but barely. The drugs and alcohol were finally starting to hit him hard. "Prolly need ta just lay down a wee bit," he said as his head rolled around a bit. "Be better in jus' a few winks."
Declan shook his head. So Rorie and Garret had a row, but that was no reason for the lad to be as far gone as he was. "Before I let ye sleep, why dun ye tell me what all ye've had." It seemed like Rorie would be alright, but the dryad didn't want to take any chances. He quickly started up the stairs to his flat, taking the flights easily. Once on his floor, he managed to juggle Rorie and open the door, kicking it closed once they were inside.
"Jus' some whiskey. . . Lo'sa whiskey," Rorie mumbled feeling more and more tired. " 'nd s'm pot. . . Lo'sa pot. . ." It was a miracle that he wasn't dead really, let alone standing around in the rain. Getting out, he caught the slight breeze and started to shiver a bit. His clothes soaked and cold, he was lucky he wasn't sick already with his luck that week.
Declan didn't bother setting Rorie on his feet, instead walking the lad straight back to the bathroom. He needed to sober up and warm up. A hot shower would do the trick. Thankfully it wasn't cold enough yet to worry much about hypothermia or frostbite, so he could drop him right into a steamy room.
The the bathroom, Declan set Rorie on the toilet. "Strip. Ye need a shower ta warm up." If Rorie didn't do it on his own, Dec would do it for him. Reaching into the stall, Dec turned on the water, letting it warm up and start to fill the room with steam.
Barely even knowing where he was, just that Declan was there. Sitting in the bathroom, everything focusing a bit more as he worked his brain harder. Actually managing to sit up, he recognized that Declan told him to strip. Usually it meant sex was going to happen, now he didn't care so he just started to strip as best he could. . . Before getting tangled in his muddy and dirty jacket. "Fuckin' fuck, j'ckt," he grumbled.
Sighing, Declan kneeled in front of Rorie to help him. Of course he forgot to unzip the jacket. Avoiding the flailing arms as best he could, Decl unzipped the hoodie and tugged it off Rorie's arms. Since he was there, he may as well help with the rest. Declan pulled Rorie's sleeves over his hands, bringing the shirt he wore off and tossing it onto the jacket. A lovely, muddy dirty clothes pile on his bathroom floor. Shoes, socks, jeans and underwear were left. The dryad couldn't help but wonder if Rorie could manage it.
Cold, dirty, and wet as well as drunk as hell, Rorie was doing good to just be sitting up. "Cold," he said shivering a bit. Feeling the steam start to surround his dirty body, he started to feel less tense and uncurled himself slightly. His glasses were put on the sink as they were dirty as well leaving him slightly blind. Slowly, using the toilet and wall, he got himself to his feet. A triumph truly. "How'dya get in?" He muttered looking at it like it was an obstacle course.
Declan rolled his eyes. "I'll help ye with that. For now, sit yer arse back down so I can finish helping ye." The shoes and socks had to go first, otherwise the poor lad would fall on his face tripping over his jeans.
Sitting back down, Rorie let Declan do his work. Stripping him down to his birthday suit, not that he cared since the other had seen him naked before, hell they had sex last time! Though he doubted that this would go the same way as last time too.
Declan had zero intentions of sleeping with Rorie. Right now, he was in full-on security protection mode. His goals right now were to get Rorie a hot shower and hot food. Picking up Rorie, Dec carted the man over to the shower stall, setting him inside. "If ye canna stand, then sit under the water until ye warm up, aye?" A bar of soap and a wash cloth were set nearby and the curtain closed so he could shower. As for Dec, apparently he had to do some laundry.
"Mkay," Rorie nodded, getting up on his wobbly legs before getting into the shower. Sitting down, which was so much easier than trying to stand, he let the hot water work it's magic on him as he warmed up and let most of the mud on his body wash off by itself as he just sat there. Maybe twenty minutes later he started to become more coherent. Grabbing the bar of soap and wash cloth, he washed himself up before just sitting there and letting his body start getting the pot and alcohol out of his system even more.
Dec didn't care how much the water ran, and he was grateful the washing machine and the shower came from two different tanks. God bless the foresight of whoever designed these buildings. Throwing the clothes, including his own now muddied shirt, into the machine, he got it started. Dec grabbed a clean shirt from the basket and headed into the kitchen. Soup and sandwiches would probably work just fine. He pulled out the container of chicken noodle made the other day and poured it into a pan to reheat, starting to work on sandwiches. As he was grilling them up, he heard the shower turn off.
A full hour and some minutes later, Rorie finally emerged with a towel around his waist and his hair dripping into his face. He looked absolutely miserable. Pale, dark circles around his eyes. He hadn't eaten nearly all week. He'd just gone into self destruct mode and that was that. His dog was gone, he didn't have anything else. Silently he went to the kitchen and took a seat at the table, just like last time he was here.
As soon as Rorie sat at the table, Declan had a bowl of thick hearty soup in front of him, and a grilled tomato and cheese sandwich on a small plate. Going to the fridge, he poured a tall glass of cold water. Rorie needed fluids to counteract both the drugs and alcohol. Fixing himself a bowl and a sandwich, he brought over spoons and sat across the table, willing to wait a little bit. "Clothes are in the dryer. They'll be done soon."
"Kay," Rorie said softly as he picked up the spoon and played with the soup a bit. He was hungry and not hungry at the same time. Instead he took sips of his water before even attempting the soup. Slow, tiny slurps of the broth was all he managed. "Sorry. . . Just not hungry," he said softly as he drank his water, more thirsty than anything.
Dec sighed, not letting this diminish his own appetite. "When was the last time ye ate? A real meal, not beer." Granted, in Ireland, Guinness counted as a meal but that was typically a joke. Rorie didn't need that much booze in his system. "Ye'll eat something at least before ye leave. I'll not have ye pass out from starving yerself."
"I don't know," he said honestly, staring at his soup as he continued to play with it. "I really don't." He couldn't tell you the last time he took a shower either, or really slept. Though he wanted to try. Wanted to make someone not miserable. Taking a bit more broth with the meat and vegetables, he ate a bit, but slowly. He didn't know how much time had passed before he'd gotten half the bowl gone along with half a sandwich. "Garret and I broke up," he said softly staring at the soup. "Sunday. I don't remember much of the week since then."
Declan watched the lad while eating his own meal, worried about him. It was hard to remember that Rorie was only a few years younger when there seemed to be such a difference in maturity level. Sure Declan didn't know much about the sexual aspects of life, but they were both men full grown and only one was really acting like it.
He nodded slowly as Rorie spoke, not quite sure of the expected reaction. "Do ye want ta talk about it?"
"He said he couldn't trust me anymore. Because I hid being sick from him and had Mal take me to the hospital instead of him. Garret was mad and upset and said he wanted to take a break. . . But he couldn't tell me if he'd ever forgive me. So instead of waiting for him to decide that he couldn't I said that we just needed to break up. . . I miss him," he said, ending in a whisper as he played with his soup a bit.
Declan was suddenly reminded once again why he was typically a loner and lived out in the woods. Human relationships were almost too complicated for a mind filled with sawdust. "So ye're no longer together." Dec nodded slowly. "I can see how it hurts, but do ye really think the way yer handling it is the best?"
"I don't care. I just want it to stop hurting and this helps," Rorie said chewing on his slightly chapped lips. "It's like. . . Someone just reached inside and ripped my heart out. I just. . . I feel wrong. Like I'm broken and I can't fix myself and the only person who can doesn't want to have anything to do with me."
Declan pushed his empty bowl away rather than play with the spoon, folding his arms on the table. "It's only a temporary fix, like putting a band-aid over a wound that needs stitches. It willna help it heal, and when ye rip it off, it only makes it seem worse." He wasn't sure how to tell Rorie that alcohol and drugs wouldn't solve anything, only make the problem worse.
"Nothing helps though," Rorie said looking up. Like a lost puppy just begging for someone to take him home and take care of up. "It just hurts, more and more every day and. . . I can't make it stop. I keep replaying the whole thing inside my head. What I could have done differently. . . I don't know what to do anymore. It's all I can think about and. . ." He stopped, blinking back more tears that threatened to fall as he looked confused for a moment. Reaching up to his nose, Rorie felt something running. Pulling back he sighed ready to throw something. Another nose bleed. Not as bad as last time, a small one by any lengths. "Fucking hell, can't fucking do anything anymore," he said squeezing his eyes shut, grabbing a napkin and tearing it before stuffing the bits up his nose.
"I know it hurts lad, but ye're only going ta make it worse by near killing yerself. The way ta heal is ta deal with it." He tried to figure out a way to explain it. "If ye break a leg, ye canna just take painkillers and keep walking. Ye need to go to a doctor, get a cast and wait for time to heal it."
"You have no idea how bad it hurts," Rorie said, lashing out again. He'd done it to Finn. Ripped into him like there was no tomorrow. "I'd rather have both my legs broken than go through this." God he wanted a drink. "I just. . . Nothing helps. Time just makes it worse, all I've got is time to think about it and wonder and wish and it just. . . I feel like I'm drowning and I can't stop. . ."
Declan nodded. "Aye, yer right. I dunna ken how ye feel. But I've seen enough heartaches ta know tha' this isna the way ta deal with it." Drinking and smoking led to more volatile habits when you didn't take care of it. The method Rorie was using was self-destructive and Declan wanted to help.
"Then what do I do, oh wise dryad?" Rorie snorted. He was still drunk and high a bit, so he really wasn't thinking clearly. Just that he hurt and he didn't want help unless it made the pain go away. Tell him he just needed time only pissed him off more. He wanted something quick and easy, something to make it all go away.
At least Rorie asked for help. It was snarky, rude and not meant seriously, he could tell, but at least he'd asked. "At this point, ye step away from the bottle. Take a nap, and talk to Lloyd here on campus. Ye go back ta class because it'll give ye something constructive to focus on." Declan would bet money that Rorie hadn't attended classes at all this week.
"Like hell I'm fucking talkin' to Lloyd," Rorie growled. The last thing he wanted to do was talk to Garret's ex-fiance. That wouldn't help but make him more pissed off. He didn't care for the other and want to talk to him about breaking up with Garret. It would feel weird and awkward and he didn't want Garret to think he and the other were ganging up on him as an ex's club.
"Lloyd is a professional. If ye dunna think he can handle it, give me a couple days ta find someone ye can talk to. More than likely off campus." Declan firmly believed Rorie needed someone who didn't know any of the people here. Someone who could help. The dryad wasn't equipped to deal with this.
"Lloyd's Garret's ex-fiance. I'm not talking to him," Rorie said firmly. "I don't want to talk to about it, I just want it to go away." He'd never had to deal with something like this before. The closest was his mother declaring him dead to her. That. . . He had something though. He had Garret and Finn and Tiger and Mandy. . . Now he was losing more people and it just seemed that if Garret left, so would his friends because they saw his weaknesses and didn't want him anymore.
Declan had no intentions of leaving Rorie. Of course, the dryad wasn't used to having friends, so he wanted to hold on to those few that he made. "Alright. Then ye dunna have to talk to him. But let me find someone for ye, aye?"
"I said I don't want to talk about it unless it's gonna make it go away," Rorie said rubbing his face. "It's not going to make anything better, so why bother?" He was at the stage where he was just lost. He didn't want to do anything other than drink or smoke and just wanted to quit.
"Because talking it out with help ye ta deal with it. If ye bottle it up, it'll only hurt worse when ye finally let it free. Do it now, and ye'll heal faster for it." There was the chance that maybe Rorie could find some positives in this. And be able to remember the good times with Garret.
"I don't want to deal with it! I just want it to go away or him to take me back," Rorie said slamming his fist onto the table, rattling the dishes. "Why was I so horrible?" He whimpered glaring at the table. "Why couldn't I have just told him?" He mumured losing his steam quickly.
Declan managed to hold back the sigh, understanding that Rorie was lashing out in a way of attempting to deal with it. "I don't know. But really I can only see two solutions. You either deal with it the way it is now. Or you clean yourself up, show the world the man Garret fell for, and make him regret the decision." Okay, so it wasn't really what he thought, but Declan was grasping at any straw to try and pull Rorie out.
Rorie looked at Declan for a long moment. "I'd rather drink," he mumbled. Okay, so now he was being a baby and childish. He wasn't wanting to get better, cause better meant no Garret and he didn't want that. He didn't want to know what it was like to be without the man. To go back before he met him. It just wasn't worth it to him.
Better didn't mean no Garret, it meant getting to a point where you could get your life back together. Declan was pretty sure Garret wanted a partner in life, not someone he had to take care of. Rorie needed to grow up a bit to be that for Garret. "I know ye do. But let me try, aye?"
"Fine," Rorie said giving in. "I'll try," he said softly leaning back in his seat. He'd try. . . Later. Maybe next week. He could finish up this week with the last of what was in his room.
Declan nodded, glad to have that at least from his friend. "Good. If ye want, ye can crash here for the night so ye don't have to go back out in the rain." A faint chime rang in the background and Declan stood. "That would be yer clothes. I'll go get them for ye."
"Kay," Rorie nodded, not really wanting to be alone either. At least there, he had someone in the next room or something close. He was tired of being by himself. It just made things worse and harder on him. "I'd like that," he nodded. He didn't want sex, he didn't want affection. He just wanted a warm body so he knew he wouldn't be waking up alone.
Declan was quick, coming back in moments with clothes warm and soft from the dryer. Handing them over to Rorie, he gave a soft smile. "Go ahead and change, warm up and get out of that warm towel. Do ye want to sleep now or talk more?"
Thinking for a long minute, Rorie sighed closing his eyes, checking his nose. The bleeding had stopped and now. . . He just wanted to be alone, but at the same time wanted someone there. "Sleep," he said softly. "If you don't mind."
Declan nodded. "Aye, that's fine lad. Would ye like the bed and me on the sofa?" He didn't want to intrude if Rorie wanted the space alone, but neither was he going to offer his guest the sofa. That was just rude.
"Bed please," he said softly, still just sitting there. Waiting a moment, he bit his lip and looked up at Declan. "Could. . . Could you lay with me?" Rorie definitely didn't want sex this time. He just didn't want to sleep alone again.
Declan nodded. "Aye, I can do that," he murmured softly. "Go take a minute ta get dressed as much as ye want. I'll be a minute." He needed to clean up the kitchen and decide if Garret needed to know what was going on with Rorie. Since they'd just broken up, he didn't think the pathfinder would appreciate knowing just yet. Best to keep silent then.
"Kay," Rorie said, swaying a bit in his still drunk state before taking the clothes and going to the bedroom. Putting his shirt and boxers on, he hugged himself, already cold. Even if he'd just been in a towel. Coming back out, leaning against the wall, he looked at Declan. "Ready," he said softly.
While Rorie was getting dressed, Dec put away the rest of the soup and rinsed out the dishes. They could be cleaned in the morning. "Aye, I'm coming." Leaving the kitchen, he shut off lights along the way, heading back to the bedroom. "Get in lad, afore ye freeze."
Going back in with Declan, Rorie slipped beneath the covers, curling up into a ball slightly. It was warmer underneath the covers, which helped a lot as he pulled them up to his face. Waiting for the other to get in, he pulled his glasses off and set them on the nightstand.
Of course it was warmer underneath the covers. Declan had already pulled out his electric blanket and it was on the bed. Turning on the control, he set it for a moderate temperature and climbed in. "I'll just stay here unless ye say otherwise," he said quietly. He wanted to make Rorie comfortable and feel safe so that he didn't need to destroy himself.
Settling down, actually relaxed down. He let the alcohol and weed settle making him sleepy underneath the warmth. Feeling Declan get in, he couldn't help but curl into the other's body. It was just. . . Something good for once. "Thanks," he said softly as sleep pulled at him. His mind wandered to Garret again, making him ache again. Shifting a bit, the tug of sleep was harder and soon he was on the edge, forgetting where he was, who he was with, what time it was. "Night Garret," he mumbled. "Love you." Tucking his head down under the covers slightly. With that, the boy finally fell into a somewhat restful sleep.