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the rain was heavy today, the rain pitter-pattering heavily against the window. simon blackquill and bobby fulbright were looking over case files. the detective being oddly silent.
truth be told, simon was indeed a bit concerned about the detective, he hadn't been himself since detective gumshoe found him in a forest of sorts, being left for dead a few months back by the phantom, who was, now infact, rightfully incarcerated.
the detective had just seemed more... exhausted, like something was keeping him up at night. blackquill didn't sleep that well mostly, but the detective was probably worse with the sleeping habits at this point, the circles under his eyes were worse than blackquills at this point.
"foolbright, are you even listening to what im saying about this case?"
after simon spoke, a few minutes went by with fulbright still zoning out. then fulbright snapped back to reality, yawning softly. his words came out in a soft mumble, but simon could still figure out what he was saying.
"h-huh? yeah! s-sorry, prosecutor blackquill!"
fulbright lightly chuckled before simon went back to explaining the case. filling fulbright on the details he missed while having time off.
"thank you for filling me in, prosecutor blackquill!"
he streched, putting his hands over his head, the bandages on his wrists showing slightly before he put his arms back down.
"well, do you have any theories? i think the defendant had an argument with the victim, causing them to get upset and kill the victim!!"
"..."
"uh, p-prosecuter blackquill...?"
"..."
"uhhhhh....helloooo!! earth to prosecutor blackquill? is anyone-"
"foolbright, can i see your wrists for a second?" blackquill asked, staring at fulbright.
"...h-huh!? p-prosecuter blackquill! that is-"
"...foolbright."
"n-no! why would you-"
simon forcefully grabbed his wrist, causing fulbright to hiss in pain. blackquill pulled fulbrights sleeve up, unwrapping the bandages, only to see somewhat-faded, and shockingly, new self-harm scars.
"...i thought i was the only one doing this." blackquill joked in a half-hearted, yet concerned manner. fulbright didn't respond, his expression grim. not seeing the joke as funny as blackquill did.
"foolbright, mind explaining why you have these faded and fresh cuts on your wrists?" simon asked, turning his gaze to fulbright, the detective looked away, biting the inside of his cheek.
"i-i... uhm... i've been in a.... s-sorta dark place...." fulbright mumbled, holding his wrist to his chest as he sat down, tears starting to sting his eyes. "i-im sorry, prosecutor blackquill... f-for... doing this to myself... i-i-..."
blackquill just looked at him, sighing while standing up. he walked over to a drawer, and opened it, grabbing a medkit. he walked back to the desk, sitting back in his chair and gently grabbing fulbrights wrist, starting to treat fulbrights wounds.
"...i-i... i seriously don't deserve this kinda treatment..." fulbright mumbled, his thoughts racing. it was a quick patch-up, but even still. blackquill seemed concerned, even behind the walls he put up.
"yes, yes you do, detective. stop belittling yourself."
once the patch-up was done, the medkit was put away, and blackquill stared at fulbright. waiting for fulbright to respond, but instead, he covered his face with his hands, tears started streaming down his face. it usually took alot for fulbright to be vulnerable like this infront of somone, so to see fulbright crying was somewhat of a shock to simon, although, the prosecutor hid it well.
through sobbing, fulbright muttered something. "...i-im sorry-... i-..."
blackquill went silent, fulbright muttering before he could say anything about fulbright crying infront of him. "...i-im tired... r-really, really tired..." fulbright let out a few soft hiccups, interrupting his sobbing, he only seemed to curl into himself a bit more on the chair. "...i-i... just wanna go back to bed... n-not waking up would be preferable at this rate...."
"fulbright." blackquill hesitantly put a hand on fulbrights shoulder, taka swooped in, resting himself on fulbrights shoulder, resting his head on fulbrights.
"wh-what..."
"breath, just-...just follow my breathing."
....
....
....
....
....
after awhile, fulbright wiped his tears, sniffling. "i-i don't know what came over me... s-sorry, prosecutor blackquill...!"
blackquill sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "you still seem utterly drained of life, detective."
"i-hey! i do not-"
"yes, yes you do."
"...i-i suppose it's because i haven't been sleeping properly... i guess the phantom fucked me up in the head that much, huh...?"
blackquill stared at fulbright for a second, not many people other than gumshoe or skye had heard fulbright swear, so it did take the prosecutor off guard. "did you just-"
"i don't really swear that much, y'know. only when i get, like, really uoset about something, which is quite the rarity!"
"to be honest, i couldn't imagine you swearing even when upset."
"yeah......... uh, what-what were we doing again?"
"case files."
"oh, ohhh! right! let's continue, then!"
the two of them continued discussing the case. blackquill made a note; not mentioning the scars the detective had in the report on how he was doing, since he just came back to work, after all. he wanted to respect fulbrights privacy, and the whole thing could stay between them.