Chapter Text
Jin woke up alone. The wrongness of it was enough to set his skin crawling. He was alone on his mattress, which wasn't uncommon given how small it was, but the mattress that had been pushed up next to his was empty, and room temperature. No sign of Corin anywhere. He couldn't hear the enchanter either, which meant he was almost certainly not in the apartment. He pushed himself up, feeling his arms shake. Where is he where is he where is he?
Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to slow down. Or he tried to because doing so only made him more jittery and aware of the silence. He pushed himself to his feet, moving aside the curtain that acted as a barrier between the sleeping area and the rest of the small apartment. It was, as he had expected, empty. He clenched his fist tight enough that the nails bit into his palms. "Breathe, Dalen," he whispered to himself. "They might just be checking the mail." That was a solid explanation. He nodded to himself. Corin wouldn't have gone far, not after the close call they had last night. Not when he'd been the one to recognize that Jin was starting to spiral and that it might be a good idea for them to call it a night and sleep off the nerves.
It clearly hadn't worked, but they had known it might not. Corin would have woken up early to check the mail, maybe even send off a letter to the others explaining they were going to take a few days off. He'd have done it in the hopes that he'd be back before Jin woke up. The same way he had before whenever Jin's past reared its ugly head.
It was just unfortunate that Jin had woken up before the enchanter had gotten back, that was all.
With shaking legs, Jin sat in one of the creaky chairs at the dining table. He just needed to wait. Corin would be back soon, and then Jin would be able to tell him that he needed to be able to see him, he needed Corin to be there and to stay where Jin could keep them both safe. Corin had promised to help him through it, so it wouldn't be an issue. Except that he wasn't here. 'No!' he thought, angry at himself. Corin would be back in minutes, he hadn't meant to leave Jin. He would probably apologize endlessly for it.
He forced a deep breath into his lungs and let it out in a rush. Clasping his hands together on the table, he waited.
Seconds ticked by, turning into minutes.
Minutes inched by, now five, now ten, now fifteen.
Where was he? Surely checking the mail wouldn't take this long. Not with his haste spell, not when he must have left quite some time before Jin had woken up. Their mattress wouldn't have been room temperature if he had just left. He'd had the Selys-Lyann with him when they fell asleep, the mattress should have still chilled, because the sword was freezing, and it took a while for it to fade from the fabric. He'd timed it once, though now he couldn’t remember how long it had been. Only that it had been one day, when he was healing from a broken ankle from one of his extracurriculars that had gone wrong. Corin had been insistent that he sit and wear a healing bracer. Jin hated it, but he convinced Corin that they only needed to see a healer to set the bone and not actually heal it. It was just so expensive to get it fully healed. Corin had grumbled about it but had reluctantly agreed if Jin agreed to rest.
Goddess what if Corin was hurt? They hadn't been hit in the ambush yesterday, he'd made sure of that. Had he missed something? Had the enchanter left to heal with his bracer without Jin knowing and worrying about it? It wouldn't be the first time one of them had tried to hide injuries from the other. But it had been months since they'd talked about how not okay that was. And Corin had agreed to stay near until they were sure the nerves had settled. Nothing short of an emergency would have made Corin break a promise, especially one as important to the pair of them.
What had happened why hadn't they left a note, why wasn't he here he was supposed to be here he needed them here how was he supposed to protect him if he wasn't here they was all he had left he couldn't lose him.
Standing abruptly, the wooden chair knocked on the floor. Another glance at the battered clock showed that another half hour had passed. He'd been lost in thought, panicking for forty-five minutes. That was far far too long. Gritting his teeth he paced back to the sleeping area. The shaking had returned to his hands. It was worse than it had been before. He grabbed his blanket and whipped it up, eyes scanning. Something must have happened. Corin would have left a note though. Jin must have just missed it.
Nothing.
On Corin's bed?
Nothing.
Nothing on the table, the chairs, the door, the window, nothing nothing nothing.
Ducking into the small bathroom Jin's eyes flicked around franticly, desperately willing a note to appear. Nothing. Just their soaps and toothbrushes strewn across – strewn across the sink? That wasn't right.
Swallowing Jin started straightening them, taking note of everything that was out of place. It looked as if someone had knocked them over, made a half-hearted attempt to fix them, and then knocked them over in a hurry as they left. And Corin, disorganized though he could be, was meticulous about how things went, because they had so little room, and everything needed to be exactly in its place for it to all fit.
So, something was definitely wrong.
But was he injured? Had someone taken him? One of the extremists from last night?
Jin felt his stomach drop at the thought. He'd wasted so much time in either case, he should have been out looking for him, he needed to go now.
But where would he even start?
Marching back into the living room, mind buzzing with useless unhelpful thoughts he shoved the curtain aside to get to his boots.
Boots.
Where were Corin's? They should have been next to his. Shoes were the only thing they had taken off before going to bed. He hadn't even wanted to, wanted to keep them on in case they needed to fight or run. Corin had insisted that they not sleep in them, that this was their home, that their little sleeping nook was sacred. That unless someone had actively sent a threat specifying the address they were not going to sleep with shoes on.
The fact that the worn boots weren't there meant Corin had left of his own accord. Or worse, that someone wanted Jin to think that they had. Resh. Should he wait for some kind of sign? A ransom note of some kind? Or should he just go out and look? No, he had no leads, that would be a bad idea. He needed to be practical about this. The disarray in the bathroom meant that something had happened, but what?
What if he just left? a horrible voice whispered in the back of his mind. He realized you were more trouble than you're worth and he left. He didn't even care if he made a mess.
No! Corin wouldn't. Corin didn't think of people in those terms. They never had. If They had wanted to break things off with Jin, whether that was as roommates or as- whatever it was that they were they really needed to put a name to it, they never had because it had just been so slow and natural - he would have told Jin. Face to face. Awkwardly, yes, but face to face.
So, either Corin hadn't left of his own free will and Jin had no leads whatsoever, or he had left and would be back. Either way, there was nothing Jin could do. He sunk down onto his mattress and buried his head in his hands. What did he do now?