broken heart-strings (seer x embalmer, +more ships apparently)

fifty

"So uh... that's a little chaotic, don't you think? Sounds worse than when we found him, huh?" 

Norton sighed loudly, throwing himself onto Demi's bed. He rubbed his aching forehead, closing his eyes and just trying to breathe. 

Demi laughed gently, looking down at him. 

"What do you think really happened?"

"They all seem to assume he did it to himself, but there was no fucking way. There was far too much blood than what could've come from the wounds I saw. Where they were placed looked like he was guarding something above him with his arm. It was crazy, dude."

Demi took all the information in, listening to what he had to say. 

"Maybe go check it out? It's been thirty minutes. Go ahead."

Norton sighed heavily, throwing himself up. He exited the room, walking straight down to the end of the hall, where Eli's room was. The door was wide open, and all of that friend group was in there. He felt a little bit like he was intruding, but still walked up to the door anyways. 

"Uh..."

The room was clear of blood and cleaned up, and it looked like they were all tidying up the room. Emily and Eli were missing. 

"So, what happened?" 

Aesop looked up and smiled gently. He quickly took off his mask and sat it on Eli's desk, making Norton's eyes go a bit wide. He had never seen the other like that before. 

"Oh, we are just cleaning everything up and trying to figure out what the fuck happened. Eli was attacked. His window is broken."

I fucking knew it...

Norton looked over at the window, the glass almost all being gone from it. It made him laugh gently. The room was almost fully clean by now. Tracy was sitting on the bed, sipping juice from a box while the other two finished up the room. It smelled fresh, almost like they knew exactly what they were doing. 

"Is Eli okay?"

"He'll be alright! He gets hurt quite a bit, and he usually recovers really quickly! We just hae to find the bastard that hurt him!" Tracy chirped happily, kicking her legs and drinking her juice. It was almost like she was a small child. 

"Uh, alright."

Naib stood quickly, looking over at Norton with a small smile. 

"Thank you so much, dude. I really appreciate it all. That could've been a lot worse if anyone else had found him."

Norton nodded gently, feeling pretty anxious overall being around this group. They were just... too chill about everything. 

If only he knew the emotions they hide away.

-:-:-

'Open your eyes..."

Eli shot up, gasping for air as he came up. All the memories came back to him in a flash.

Sitting there, Eli sighed loudly, pulling off his headphones to separate from the music playing. Brooke Rose was resting gently on his shoulder, right when someone came crashing into his window. 

"Joseph, what the fuck?!" he screamed, jumping up and looking at the man, who finally stood up.  

Joseph was bleeding everywhere, obviously heavily wounded. He was quiet though, and it was eerie. 

Eli began to run for his door, when a loud screech materialized behind him.

OH FUCK-

Eli grabbed the injured owl off the ground, placing her in his lap. He began to sob, still trying to get to the door, but he had fallen down hard. The sword came flying down towards the owl again, but Eli did all he could to deflect it. 

The weapon struck his arm, making him cry out in pain and bite his lip hard. 

"What the fuck do you want from me?!" he screamed, tears running down his face. Joseph just continued to swing down on his arm, chopping it up far past repair. 

"Please-"

"How dare you make up with the embalmer! You even kissed him! You fucking bastard; he's mine!" 

Eli's jaw dropped gently, as the sword came down on his bare arm again. He couldn't breathe. Everything in him was fading out, and this hunter was not in his right mind. Eli tried to scream, but nothing came out, so he just kept protecting his owl and is face.

Right as the sword was about to come down again, Brooke Rose flew up. She threw her body into the photographer's face, making him fall back. Before Eli could move, the owl and the hunter fell out the broken window. 

"BROOKE ROSE! FUCK!" he screamed, standing up. Eli ripped down his cloak's sleeves, which had been rolled up from earlier. He swayed on his feet for a moment, when everything started to go black. 

Eli froze, tears coming up in his eyes from the memory. He choked back a sob, beginning to cough violently. "Oh god... where's my owl..."

Slowly, the tears finally broke past the barrier and fell down his face. His window had a black sheet over it, but the wind was pushing it into his room. He could see the dark sky; it was late or really early. 

Soft footsteps made their way to his room, the person quickly entering and sitting down on the bed beside him. The familiar hands began to wipe the tears off the boy and rub his back gently.

Eli fell into the person, taking in their scent and everything else he could. They pulled him into a tight hug, rubbing his back gently and running their hands through his hair. 

"Shhh, Eli. It's okay. We caught him, and Emily is taking care of your owl."

The boy just cried harder into the other's chest, making him frown. 

"It'll be okay."

When Eli pulled away, he grabbed his shirt and wiped his face off with it. When he looked down, he realized he was actually wearing one of Aesop's hoodies with his own shorts. He looked up at the other in confusion. 

"It's big on you. We didn't want to hurt the wounds on your arm or pull at the bandages, so I put you in that."

Eli shivered, remembering that he was indeed in much pain that he, himself, could not control. 

"Are you alright...?" the other finally asked. 

Eli smiled gently, slumping down where he was sitting. He shoved his hands into the hoodie pocket, looking down at his lap. His arm ached horribly, but he couldn't do anything about it now. He just huffed a bit, finally allowing the tears to stop. 

"Sure. Is she okay?"

"Brooke Rose is fine."

Eli sighed in relief, before falling into the other's lap. 

The taller male sighed in relief, pulling the blanket over Eli and playing with his hair. Eli fell asleep with his head in the other's lap, finally being able to calm his nerves. 

"I missed you, Eli. I love you so much."

"I love you too, Aesop."