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He’d known Vincent to not quite err on the side of caution for many things, but this. This was almost so absurd it was comedic!
It had been such a simple task too. Simply dispose of a body properly in the manner Alastor had instructed him to. The killing had already been done! All Vincent had to do was the clean-up, and the only reason he was tasked with that was because he was so insistent on being helpful. Oh please let me help, Alastor, please please please? I can do it! I can!
So why was Alastor now standing at Vincent’s bedside at the hospital a town over with the man’s leg bound in a cast while he laid there pouting, eyes glued to the partially cracked open window since anywhere else risked him seeing his mentor’s face?
Alastor had spent the better part of five minutes simply standing there, smiling silently. To Vincent’s credit, he was holding out pretty well! Under normal circumstances, not filling the space with chatter could last anywhere from the time it took to take in another breath to the upper limits of maybe a full minute on a good day. Maybe. So, to last five was either a testament to his own stubbornness or to the power of some well-deserved shame. Perhaps it was a bit of both.
The next inhale of Alastor’s was the hair that broke the camel’s back, it appeared, since it was just a tiny bit louder than the others.
“Okay! Okay! Go on! Say it! I know you want to say it! Tell me I fucked up! Tell me I should’ve-“ Vincent began before a finger was placed over his mouth, effectively silencing him if only because Alastor was touching him.
“Need I remind you of discretion?” Alastor asked. Even if the door to the private room was closed, it was still prudent to remain discreet in speech about their—ahem—shared afterwork hobby. It wasn’t exactly listed under the great American pastimes to casually murder people either for slights, revenge, or to restock Alastor’s special little icebox in the basement.
“No,” Vincent replied, crossing his arms all the harder. To think a grown man could pout so childishly. Truly a talent to behold!
Alastor moved his hand back, bending over to shift the rough hospital blanket a little more snugly over Vincent’s shoulders, offering him the opportunity to be acceptably close to his ear. “Now then, I’m sure you’ve had adequate time to contemplate your…. misstep. Tell me what happened between the time when I left you alone with the guest and my receiving your ever-so-gracious phonecall from this facility~?”
Vincent’s ears reddened from shame but he tried to play it off like he was really irritated by Alastor’s wordplay, though he wasn’t exactly struggling too hard to move his head away. Funny how he leaned in even closer somehow when he should be so insulted. “Don’t wanna,” came his mature reply before he choked from how tightly Alastor tucked the blankets up past his shoulders and across his throat. “Alastor!! Be nice to me, I’m injured!”
“A lack of reflection breeds even greater room for error. I’m being gracious enough to facilitate thinking that you should be doing yourself. But if ingratitude is what I’m to be met with, I could leave now and let you stew in your thoughts until you’ve been discharged~.” With the type of breakage Vincent bore, that would mean about 6-12 weeks without contact with Alastor. It was a time period that wouldn’t bother the radio host. The TV star, on the other hand, who was as eager for attention as a little puppy….
“Hey, hey, let’s not be hasty!” countered Vincent predictably as his eyes widened with the lonely thought of being left alone in the hospital room with hardly any Alastors around to pay him visits or bear him get-well gifts that he surely deserved simply for being injured.
All Alastor answered him with was the raise of a brow. Vincent knew what must be done to stay in his good graces. Which was it? Alastor or his pride?
Vincent let out a harsh breath before he grumbled through pouty lips, “Well…. after you left the woods to retire in the Cabin, I escorted our guest to the swamp like how you showed me in a way that was efficient and would protect the back yadda yadda. I was even able to get them into the water without any trouble!”
“Mmn-hm,” Alastor prompted when Vincent paused just so he could receive the encouragement to continue.
“But I heard some sounds and seeing as how the gators are getting more active now that it’s getting warmer-“ Vincent paused again since that was definitely something Alastor had taught him and he wanted him to acknowledge that he did listen to what was taught him, “I didn’t want to risk coming back the way I had since the scent of blood would attract them. So, I took the route about 14 degrees away from the way I came. If I went far enough and closed that gap, I’d be able to return to the Cabin without any problems.”
Yet Vincent clearly hadn’t but Alastor wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of another prompt. He’d been too generous already.
Seeing as how he wasn’t going to get another reaction, Vincent sighed heavily and spoke through the next parts as quickly as possible since they were the most embarrassing, “So—I guess—because the trees were so fucking thick in places and I kept hearing sounds and I was TRYING to be cautious, I ended up going much further than I expected which led me to finally taking pause after a few hours to regain my bearings. But when I stopped to pause, the sounds got even louder! Now, how would a gator follow me out this far from the swamp? So, clearly, it was something else! A wild dog maybe? A wolf, even?! I started to think of getting to higher ground when the sounds suddenly stopped! Was I just imagining them? I stayed really, really still…..
“Rustle… rustle…. No, something was definitely there but it was aware of me being aware of it. Now I feel it pertinent to remind you it was dark as fuck out there— bear in mind before you make judgments! I stayed as still as I could but nothing came out. Must be something like a raccoon, I finally decided. So, I decide it was time to move on. I took a cautious step forward. Then another. But then my foot caught onto something and I hadn’t realized I’d tripped onto something because suddenly the most awful screeching yowl you’d ever heard assaulted my ears! I panicked and tried to get out of the way, but the path at that point was at an incline so…” He needn’t illustrate the stupidly comedic way he tumbled down and slammed his leg against a tree like something out of a damn nickelodeon cartoon at the theater. Even the SNAP that went through his leg was practically a stock sound effect.
Alastor didn’t even hide the small laugh that exhaled through a snort at the mental image which only made Vincent’s whole face flush with dark red.
“You’re so mean, you know that? Mean, mean, mean!” Vincent retorted even though he knew that’d only result in making Alastor laugh more. That was the reaction of mean people!! Alastor didn’t even ask to be forgiven for meanly laughing at his predicament!
“Right~ so how did you manage to get to a hospital when you were this far out from civilization?” Alastor asked after. At least he’d still grant Vincent an audience.
Vincent huffed indignantly before he finished with, “Well, turns out I’d tripped on a goddamned cat. A rusty uglyass thing with eyes spread too far apart and this smile that never went away no matter what. That thing stares into your soul and probably devours it. Turns out that cat belonged to someone since it had this stupid black bowtie license tag thing when I got a better look at it. I was stuck with that damn thing for a good hour in absolute agony, but because it was a pet, its owners were looking for it. This blond girl and her really short father. They saw my predicament, called the ambulance and here I am.”
“So not only did you botch up a simple disposal and got lost, you were seen and incurred a debilitating injury~,” Alastor summed up with a smirk.
Vincent looked like he was going to cry but not sissy sad tears. Manly angry tears! For- for the indignation of Alastor being so callous to an invalid!
“Oh don’t give me that face,” Alastor finally said, pinching the end of his nose briefly which made Vincent’s face redden for an entirely different reason. “I’m here to help you realize the error of your ways so there won’t be any repeats. And there won’t be, correct?”
“Well- well yea! This is never happening again!” Vincent declared, pouty that Alastor would even doubt his resolution on the matter.
To Vincent’s surprise, Alastor chirped a cheerful, “Good! That’s what I like to hear. The how I will leave to you since you are not a baby and do not require things spoon-fed to you~. Granted you have at least six more weeks here— that will give you plenty of time to ruminate.”
Vincent despaired being reminded and finally pulled the covers up over his head to groan from beneath them. “Just end me noooooow. I’ll perish from boredom!”
“So dramatic,” Alastor tsked. The sound of his retreating footsteps had Vincent scrambling to tug the covers back down.
“Wait, wait! You’re just going to leave me here all alone? Alastor!” Vincent called out, reaching out for the radio host’s retreating back. “Alastor come on! Be nice to me! I’m injured! Don’t leave me all alone!”
“Again, so dramatic,” Alastor said, shaking his head. “I won’t be gone for long, though the drive will take me some time to return.”
“Drive? Where are you going?” asked Vincent, wincing as he tried to prop himself up on his elbows more so he could get a better look at Alastor.
“To your home. I can’t imagine you’d like to spend six weeks without a toothbrush or clothes other than those awful gowns. Protein is also important for regenerative tasks of the body so a trip to the market is in order for something for you to eat. Annnnnd I was going to bring in a radio too so you wouldn’t die of boredom as you put it, but if you’d rather I stay….”
His reply had Vincent first staring at him blankly as his brain worked to process what he’d just said. But then when they did register, his eyes blew wide open and shone with the realization. Alastor hadn’t just come to make fun of him—he was going to take care of him!
“You won’t be long though? Visiting hours end tonight and it’s still the morning so you’ve got plenty of time but still- still- you’ll be back soon?” Vincent asked. If he had a tail, it’d be wagging a mile a minute.
“I’ll be back when I’ll be back,” Alastor replied not unkindly but firmly. Though Vincent’s whimpering expression did have him add on, “But, yes, I won’t tarry longer than I need to.”
“Yay!” Vincent let himself cheer.
“Now lay back and rest until then. That’s an order~.”
Vincent pouted again but did lay back down, tugging the scratchy blankets up higher to show how good he was at resting. “Hurry back! Or I might wither away! Then you’ll have that on your hands!”
While Alastor didn’t say anything, he did turn back to respond with a smile. Though whether that was amusement at the mental image of Vincent withering to nothing or a genuine comforting gesture was up to debate. Not that Vincent cared—either way he was going to get attention from Alastor! Maybe for six weeks throughout his recovery!
But as he laid back, eyes closed and a smile on his face, a pair of too-spread-out eyes peered at him from the crack of the window. A tail wrapped in bandages swished before a rust-colored form slipped into the room.
Vincent should count himself lucky.
He was about to receive a lot more attention from Alastor very soon….