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Hal pushed open the door to the bathroom, which was mostly closed but not latched. When he glimpsed someone inside, he instinctively backpedaled from the room, closing the door.
“Sorry!” he said, his hand still on the handle. Then, his brain caught up to what his eyes had seen. It hadn't been Shadia home for the night forgetting to close the door fully, but someone else. He pushed the door open again.
“What are you doing?” he asked Azune. The man was dressed in just boxers and had his right leg propped up on the edge of the bathtub for better reach. His armored half-skirt and pants lay on the floor. For a second Hal thought he was shaving his legs, like Shadia did if she was going to have to wear body paint for a show. “Actually, I can see what you’re doing.” Azune was cleaning grime out of a long gash on his thigh. “Why are you doing it in my bathroom?”
“Sorry. I know you wanted to keep stuff away from your house as much as possible.”
“I did, do, but this looks like it's obviously an exception,” Hal said. Even with the privacy of the aviary, Azune couldn't very well go to the Seven Stars while bleeding heavily, and there was a reason Hal had made sure Azune still had a house key even all these years after he’d moved out. “I'm not mad. You can always come here for anything, you know that.”
Azune hesitated before nodding, and Hal realized he might not know that. Not that he would have forgotten it, not with his memory, but more that he had never let himself believe it in the first place.
“And now that I’m here, let me take care of this.” Hal moved in to sit on the edge of the tub and took the washcloth gently from Azune's hand. The man had an awkward angle trying to reach the injury that wrapped around to the underside of his leg, and seemed off-balance with only one leg on the ground and both hands occupied. It was more of a long jagged scrape than a clean cut, and there was even what appeared to be stone or gravel embedded into the skin that would need to be removed before Hal could heal him. Which was probably also why Azune hadn’t just mended the injury himself.
With his hands now freed, Azune reached out to hold the grab bars along the wall. Hal had installed them long ago in case any guests needed the devices for safety getting in or out of the bathtub. Older friends sometimes visited, after all, and both Thjazi and Thaisha had come back home wounded more than once, with injuries that had taken a few days or even weeks to heal. Elodie had also made good use of the bathtub when she was pregnant with Hero and off-balance from her swollen stomach, and said the grab bars made it a lot easier. Not that that usage was likely to be needed again, since Hal wasn’t planning to have any more kids, or at least no more babies. Accidentally adopting children, or young adults, was a different matter.
“Tell me if anything hurts too much,” Hal instructed as he ran a finger carefully over the edges of the wound to check for debris embedded in it. The muscles of Azune's thigh were tight under his hands. “Or if it would be easier for you to sit while I do this.” That would leave Hal kneeling or sitting on the ground to be able to reach easily, but his knees weren’t yet that old and creaky that he couldn’t handle it.
“I’m okay. Thank you,” Azune said.
“Of course. How did this happen?”
“I, um, this is stupid, but I slipped on my way down from the Falcon’s Rest. If it was anything else, I could have gone to the infirmary at the Brethren Hall, but obviously I couldn’t give them the real explanation and I was worried they might recognize where the stone was from.”
Hal didn’t know if the stone on the path to the memorial was distinctive enough for that to be an actual concern, or if Azune’s caution was bordering on overcaution or even paranoia. But was it paranoia when they were really out to get you?
“Do you not have any medical supplies at your apartment?” Hal asked. Azune glanced down at him, looking worried for a moment, and Hal raised his hands. “Not mad,” he said again, “Just curious. I know you know some healing, but I want to make sure you’re well equipped for anything you can’t take care of yourself, given that injuries you can’t explain as part of your duties are likely to be more common going forwards.”
“I have some, but your home was closer.”
“Makes sense.” The gash Azune bore now wasn’t particularly serious, but it was bad enough and situated in such a place that walking on it had to be painful. He probably also didn’t want to risk running into any of his colleagues and having them asking questions before he could get patched up either.
“Let me get you set up with the locations to the rest of Thjazi's old hideouts too, and I'll make sure they're stocked with medical supplies, so you’ll always have a place nearby to go if you get hurt, no matter where you are in the city,” Hal added. It would honestly be good for all of them to have a safe house in as many neighborhoods as possible, given how things had been escalating. He was very glad Thimble had thought to give him the addresses before she left town again.
“Okay,” Azune agreed. “If you let me see a list, I can memorize it. I shouldn’t have a list of them on me, even for a bit.”
So, that answered the question of whether Azune was a little paranoid or not. The odds of him being stopped and searched by his own employer had to be slim, didn’t they? Especially now that he’d been made Captain. Unless he was in a lot more danger than he’d let on to them.
In which case having safe houses would be doubly important. Hal resolved to make sure all of them were both as well-stocked and hidden as possible, in case Azune needed them as more than a temporary place to patch a wound. If he was found out, they would have to keep him well hidden until they could get him out of town, and that might take a little while. Hal would make sure that each of the hideouts had medical supplies and non-perishable food and water in them. And he could bring the list of all the hideout locations to their next meeting at the Seven Stars.
Hal found that he understood why Azune was so attached to his lists, as the planning helped calm him. This wasn’t that much different from the plans he had with his kids about where to go if there was ever a fire in the Rookery or a rockslide from the mountains or any kind of other emergency. The current circumstances were less a natural disaster than a person-made one, but the principle still applied.
He finished cleaning out the gouge in Azune’s leg and cast Healing Word into it. Azune seemed to relax for one second, letting his leg down from the side of the tub, before tensing again with a frown.
“You didn’t need to heal it. It wasn’t serious.”
“I also had no reason not to heal it,” Hal replied. “We’re not in such dire straits where I need to hoard every last healing spell for emergencies.”
“Not yet,” Azune said grimly. He picked up his pants from the ground and cast Mending over them.
“Can you stay for a little while? I can make us something to eat,” Hal offered as Azune got dressed.
“I should be going.” Azune belted his armored half-skirt on, clearly getting ready to go back out and face the city. “I’ll get something to eat on my way.”
In one last bid for the kid to let down his emotional defenses for a moment even as he put his physical armor back on, Hal opened his arms. He didn't get a chance to see the younger man's face and whether it softened at all before he folded himself into the hug. Stiff in his arms, Azune squeezed him back tightly.
“You come over any time, you hear?” Hal instructed as he held the back of Azune's neck. “It doesn't even have to be if you need something. There's always people coming and going from the house, you know, and that new trick of yours will mean it shouldn't be too risky.”
“Okay.” Azune's voice had gone very quiet. Possibly in deference to how close his mouth was to the point of one of Hal's ears, but more likely because he struggled to say it louder. His voice had gone tight and a little strangled, like it did before he cried. With a sniff, though, he pulled back and pulled himself together. His sunset eyes only shone a little brighter than usual. “I'll come when I can. Anything I can bring?”
“Takeout is always appreciated,” Hal said with a smile. “Haven't had much time for cooking lately.” He knew it was more likely that Azune would actually take him up on the invitation if he thought he was providing a service. The kid never believed that his mere presence was more than enough. And if he brought food, Hal could ensure Azune was eating too. Not that not eating had ever been a problem for him before, but he was under a lot of stress, and hard things were hardly ever improved by doing them on an empty stomach. So Hal wanted to make sure.
“Can do,” Azune agreed. He slipped into a disguise as Hal walked him to the door, appearance altered to make him look Rungjani.
“See you later, kid,” Hal said farewell. Azune walked away without a limp, and Hal watched from the porch until he turned around a corner out of sight.