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The door to the manor shut gently, and Abolish was quickly ushering Pyro down a certain hallway, barely giving him a chance to look around - high walls and old, fancy paintings - before the bathroom door was closing and he was being helped onto a chair in the corner of the room. Soft brown eyes looked him up and down, full of overwhelming concern he hadn't seen from him before, not during Oakhurst.
"Do you mind if I, uh…" The shorter man paused, hands lingering on the edges of their coat. "I just need to- check your injuries. If that's… fine."
They blinked a few times. Right, their injuries, the ones that were currently giving them an awful migraine and making them feel like they were going to vomit. It'd probably be a good idea to do something about those. Although that did mean taking off at least some of his clothes, which made him want to throw up even more, he didn't quite feel like dying over it.
He nodded wordlessly and Abolish was quickly yanking off his clothes with a surprising amount of dexterity, clearly experienced as he tossed the dirty, torn up fabric aside and began inspecting his torso. Only sparing the bandages around his chest a quick glance, the man seemed to note down several more major injuries - ugly ones that he'd never gotten enough blood in him to heal - before darting over to the cabinets above the sink.
"I'm guessing your… wounds didn't, uh, get much of a chance to heal?" he hummed, saying it casually like there wasn't an awful, suffocating blue elephant in the room. They could only nod slightly, throat tightening and not letting them force out any words even if they wanted to. "That's fine. We have… bandages and everything for a reason."
Walking back over, he bent down and pressed a slightly damp towel to their side. Had he turned on the water? They hadn't even noticed, like there was some void infecting their head and obscuring all their thoughts, tearing away their memories of things that had just happened. Swallowing hard, they distantly hoped that this would fix things, that being here would fix things, that they weren't broken forever like they felt. A pointless, fruitless hope.
His pretty dark curls fell in front of his face as he worked, but they were too weak to reach up and help get his hair out of his eyes. With slender, freckled hands and a steady hold on him, Abolish seemed to know exactly what he was doing, and he could only wonder how much practice he'd had over however many years he'd been a vampire hunter. He'd never gone into any specifics, just saying that he'd been doing this a long time.
Maybe he'd forgotten things to, maybe even for the same reasons Pyro had. He leaned his head back against the wall behind him and desperately pulled himself back from that thought.
"The bandages on your chest, uh-" The soft sound of Abolish's voice dragged him out of his thoughts, his heart dropping into his stomach. "Are you…? I'm not- not judging or anything, I was uh- born… y'know. But um, bandages probably aren't… the best for that."
Deliriously, they could only mumble with a laugh, "I was unaware there were… other options, are there?"
"Mhm."
His deep brown eyes met their own washed out blue ones, peering up at them through thick eyelashes, and they slowly processed what exactly he'd said. He had also been born into the wrong body? But he looked so… perfect, to put it plainly, with how easily he wore that suit of his, hair cut just right, chest much flatter than they usually managed to get theirs.
Had his father - or whatever Morcant was to him, they weren't exactly sure - been supportive of him? That was the only plausible explanation for why he was here looking like this right now, not forced to pretend to be a woman like Pyro always had been. His stomach twisted with jealousy and an unfamiliar feeling of excitement that maybe, just maybe, he would finally get to be himself outside of his own head.
"But that can wait til later, I think," Abolish continued as Pyro swallowed down the sob pressing on the back of his throat. "I still need to check for any other injuries, get you something… clean to wear. I'll send someone out to buy you new clothes. Any colors you like, or…?"
If he ever had to see that much red again he was pretty sure he'd vomit, same for blue - he wasn't really sure what he wanted. Not that he'd ever had any idea, even before all of this. Taking a deep breath, they glanced away from his face and murmured, "I'm… not sure. Just, uh, brown, maybe?"
Abolish hummed in acknowledgment, gaze lingering on their face for a moment before he looked back down at the wounds he was still bandaging. He'd managed to clean up most of the blood and dirt caked to their skin, which was great because the very thought of going anywhere near a bath right now made them feel awfully lightheaded.
They weren't exactly sure how much time passed before they were eventually being helped to their feet, Abolish having left the room at some point to grab some spare clothes they could borrow, a simple black shirt and pants. He instructed them to take off the bandages from around their chest so they wouldn't injure themself further before he left, the door clicking softly behind him. They dutifully did as he'd asked, avoiding looking in the mirror as they carefully unwrapping the old bandages from their chest and then pulling on the clean clothes they'd been given.
It felt awkward, to say the least, wearing someone else's clothes in someone else's house, miles from home with no possible way he was ever going back there. To his family, he was dead - and it was better that way, much better. He'd really been dead the second he'd foolishly tried to come out and disappointed them for the first time, murdering their daughter in front of them, and it was strangely freeing that he really was finally gone. Even if the circumstances were far from the best.
The rest of the night was a blur. They declined eating, knowing they wouldn't be able to stomach any food with everything weighing on their mind. The next few days went mostly the same, the week blending together meaninglessly, dark and cold and lonely as they hid themself away in the room they'd been given and sank deeper and deeper into the fragmented memories of everything that had happened to them.
At one point, they heard voices outside their room, talking about them. Something about how he needed time and space. Abolish sounded worried, and he wished he would do something, anything, offer him a hand and help him get out of here before he really did die. And this time, there would be no coming back as a vampire, coughing up water from his lungs as he was dragged out of a lake and-
Inhaling sharply, his now much blunter nails dug into the pillow he'd been clinging to, and he didn't realize the voices had stopped until there was a soft knock at the door. He curled in on himself more at the sound of the other man's voice. "Pyro…? Do you, uh, mind if I come in?"
What the hell had he been thinking earlier? God, no, he didn't want anyone in here, especially not Abolish, ever so perfect, handsome, wonderful, far too kind Abolish, seeing him like this. Weak and vulnerable and pathetic. Choking on his tears, he breathed, "I- I don't- I-"
Hiccuping a bit, he went silent, sniffling and trying to figure out how to speak again. Their voice was hoarse and they could hardly remember the last time they'd drunk any water, the tears running fown their cheeks probably only making that worse. As they did, the door creaked open, and there were soft brown doe eyes staring right at them before they could beg him to leave.
"Sorry, I just… wanted to, uh, check in on you." He stood in the doorway, hands lingering on the edge, brow furrowed with clear indecision about what to do here. Pyro didn't have a clue either, unsure if they wanted him hugging them and cuddling them until they got any sort of sleep for once or if they wanted him to abandon them there until they wasted away. "Um- You haven't… eaten much, or come out of your room, since you got here. And I don't- I don't mind, I know you're trying to… recover and all, but I…"
Abolish trailed off, his gaze dropping to the floor as his teeth sank into his lip. Nevermind, Pyro knew exactly what he wanted. If only he could figure out a way to say it properly. "I- Please?"
His head lifted again, and in an instant, there was a hand running through his awfully tangled hair, a deep frown etched into that gorgeous face of his. God, Pyro felt like a disgusting creep for even thinking that. "Yeah…? Please what, Pyro?"
"I don't know," they breathed, tucking their face into their pillow so they wouldn't have to look at him. So he wouldn't have to see them. "I just… it's so much, I don't- it's so much?"
A brief pause, and then the mattress shifted slightly as Abolish climbed into bed with them. Before they could protest, he'd replaced the pillow in their arms and was pressing himself against them, arms around their waist even though they probably looked and smelled and felt godawful right now. But he only ran his hand through their hair and murmured, "Yeah, I… I get it. I- You said at one point that you… don't remember much about what, um, happened to you? When you were turned?"
They shook their head slowly, a shudder running down their spine. His eyes slowly traced over their face, not judging them but simply taking in whatever information he could, and Christ was it horrifying to be perceived like this.
"I remember what happened when my parents died," he said after a couple moments, and Pyro couldn't pretend not to notice how his voice became strained. Don't, don't. He didn't want him to be hurting himself like this, forcing himself to talk about things he really didn't need to reveal to anyone, much less Pyro. "But I… didn't use to. I, uh- I don't recommend trying to… make yourself remember things. I haven't tried to… uncover what happened to me at the, um, orphanage I was in, because I- I guess I sort of… learned my lesson."
He took a deep breath, then let it out, burying his face in Pyro's hair. They wanted to stop him from revealing any more, but at the same time, they had a feeling that this was helping him as much as it was them, so they stayed quiet and just sniffled into his shirt.
"It's really hard," he whispered, voice even shakier now. "Really hard. But it- it'll pass, eventually, I… well- It probably won't ever be entirely gone, I at least haven't gotten there yet, but it's… better. A lot better. Stuff like that, it… feels really big until you keep going and build more stuff around it, y'know?"
Pyro exhaled slowly, tightening their grip on him. They weren't sure if they could keep going. Coming here, they'd felt so confident, like this was a new start, but… here they were now, feeling even worse than when they'd first been cured. In all their life, so many things had happened that they'd never even been given a chance to have better experiences, not without even worse things happening and wrecking all of it.
But Abolish was running his hand down to some bandages wrapped around their forearm, touch featherlight as he breathing into their hair, "We should probably… replace these, at some point. Make sure you're healing alright. If that's… fine with you, uh, after… dinner, maybe? If you're up for that."
Tears burned in his eyes for an entirely different reason this time, a real smile tugging at his lips for the first time in a long, long time. "Yeah, that… that works for me."