justscribing | The City

[ For the fourth time, Midnight pulls his mouth from Alhaitham's arm, presses the alcohol pad down, and waits for the sluggish flow of blood to halt entirely. He gives Alhaitham his arm back, shifts toward the coffee table, and begins setting out the bandages, the gauze. He'll help with his arm in a moment, but the wound will have to be clean and relatively dry first. ]

This arrangement doesn't suit my needs anymore. I don't expect a lecture this time, so please feel free to leave when you're ready, but this should be the last time I feed from you.

[ Notably, Midnight doesn't look at Alhaitham for most of the declaration, but he does stop what he's doing and face him by the end. Alhaitham deserves that much, at least, for fulfilling his part of the arrangement. ]

[For the second time, Alhaitham is stone. The stillness he usually is, but as an unmoving, smooth-faced obelisk. Since the story, Alhaitham hasn't openly regarded Midnight with anger. He hasn't regarded him with anything and deflected all personal and off-topic conversation.

It's a defense. Expressing his anger is a vulnerability, faced with Midnight. It's too much of a sign that Midnight affects Alhaitham, has a perch in him he doesn't want to exist. So he's shaved down all those flashes of humanity in his presence. It works for him, for now.

But it figures it doesn't work for Midnight. Alhaitham doesn't react except the slight, calculating narrow of his eyes. That, too, leaves the moment he's done considering his answer.]

Fine.

[ Midnight nods, picks up the gauze, and waits for Alhaitham to remove the wipe. When he does patch his fang wounds up, it's with the same attention to detail, the same meticulous attention. He gets up to gather the wrappers and throw it away, leaving the usual arrangement of fruit juice and snacks on the coffee table for Alhaitham. The differences are the silence, the more recent halt to his usual practice of eating with Alhaitham.

For Midnight, that's the end of the conversation. Once they're finished, he'll see Alhaitham off at the door, then carry on with the rest of his day. ]

[It's as soon as the gauze is wrapped that Alhaitham grabs his glove and stands up. Neither the food, nor Midnight are given a second glance, and he speaks as he's turning to the door.] Kaveh will care to know, so I'll tell him tonight our arrangement is over.

[Which he expects no response to. It's only an establishment after all, that Kaveh will be well aware and there's no need for surprise or for Midnight to do it himself.]

[ ... Midnight stands, scoops up an orange from the table. If Alhaitham makes even the slightest movement to leave the coffee table, he'll reach out and put it in Alhaitham's hand. He doesn't expect Alhaitham to hold onto it, of course, but he doesn't want Alhaitham getting woozy on the way back to his own quarters. ]

If he has questions, tell him it was my decision.

[ He doesn't mind who tells him, honestly. That's a future concern. Right now, immediately, Alhaitham doesn't appear to be giving a second thought to his blood sugar. Once an end has been put to that, Midnight can proceed to the rest of his schedule. ]

[Alhaitham doesn't look down, but he deftly plucks the orange from Midnight's hand before he has the chance to reach Alhaitham's.]

He'll know. [It being Midnight's decision was always going to be part of it. But Alhaitham isn't going to ask the details of why to rebuff Kaveh's curiosity--that, if he asks, is something Midnight can answer himself.

He simply reaches for the door knob himself to walk out.]

[ ... Good spatial sense. Midnight will simply watch him leave.

Except it's not that simple. He doesn't have visual confirmation that Alhaitham's eaten something. Midnight paces his threshold for a few moments, wondering if he's worried enough to follow Alhaitham back home. Sure, Alhaitham hasn't eaten, but he isn't like Midnight or Kaveh. Alhaitham surely eats regularly, has enough energy to get back home under his own steam, even if he's missing half a pint of blood. Surely.

... In 15 minutes, Midnight will take a walk. That's enough time for Alhaitham to get home, not so much time that he'll be outside and unconscious in the cold for long. (He wouldn't be unconscious, surely. Alhaitham knows himself. Respects himself. Surely...) ]

[Alhaitham is definitely the only one of the three of them with enough self-respect to not end up randomly passed out in places. Kaveh will never get to live that down, either.

So in fifteen minutes, Alhaitham won't be found anywhere in the streets in between Midnight's apartment and his own. The most logical location is his home, of course. And if Midnight needs further confirmation, he can either go to the door like a normal person or climb up to the third floor balcony where the extremely spoiled Super Mint plant with its automated drip-water system is.]

[ Logically, yes, of course Alhaitham is at home. Midnight doesn't need visual confirmation for that, he's smart enough to figure that out for himself.

Yes. He really doesn't need to know that Alhaitham actually made it home. At this point, if he isn't home, he got himself kidnapped, and that is outside of Midnight's scope of responsibility. (Probably. Maybe. He'd make a token attempt to rescue him and that's it.)

So really, it takes Midnight a minute to stand there, outside Alhaitham's building, trying to figure out what he's doing, why in the world he's getting this worked up when he's been effectively absolved of responsibility. He can leave. Before he does.

Of course he does. He's done his due diligence; Kaveh will contact him if he can't get a hold of Alhaitham. (And Kaveh will raise unholy mayhem if he can't get a hold of Alhaitham.) He turns on his heel and makes his way to the nearest train station, ready to work on his host club again. ]

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