Not Quite As Hoped

Who: Brian, Hunt, and Domino
Where: Brian's house
When: Late afternoon, around 5

Before starting on dinner for himself and Domino, Brian put together the usual soup for Hunt. It didn't take long, and was ridiculously simple, but it was all he could figure out how to get into the man. He gave Domino's cheek a kiss in passing, then headed into the bedroom with his burden of liquid.

"Dinner time, Hunt," he said cheerfully. He figured talking to him wouldn't hurt anything, even if it didn't help or Hunt didn't even notice it. "Your favorite, again."

Hunt wasn't where he'd been left. He'd woken a couple of minutes beforehand, not recognising where he was, and had slipped out of bed, moving silently across the room to stand in the shadows behind the door. He felt odd, strange - his mind was buzzing, but very little was getting through. Everything felt wrong and it had him on edge, very on edge.

Brian stopped at the sight of the empty bed. He was awake. Hunt was awake. ... and Hunt was gone. Fuck. "Hunt?" he called. The light was on, and there were only so many places Hunt could have gone. He came further into the room, cautiously, still holding the bowl and spoon.

Hunt eased further back in the shadows, watching as the man headed across the room. He muttered under his breath, no more than a whisper on the air, the lightbulb dimming very slowly, increasing the shadows he was standing in. He needed to get out of here. His head hurt, cloying, wrong. He needed to leave.

Brian wasn't an energy-based worker for nothing. He sighed and strengthened the light again. "C'mon, Hunt, stop playing games... I've been looking after you for two days now, and what're you doing? Messing with my lights. Cut it out." It didn't look like Hunt was going to be all there, if he was hiding from him and casting spells. Shit. The faint breath of a murmur behind and to his right suggested he was there, but Brian deliberately didn't turn to face him-- he just listened hard and felt tentatively for movement. "I'm not gonna hurt you, man. I'm your friend, remember?"

Hunt drew back a little further, cautious, unsure. No, he realised. He didn't remember, unsure what he was meant to be remembering, where even he actually was. Flashes kept coming to him, but everything was mixed up, screwed, wrong. Times that couldn't sit next to each other tried to suggest chronology to him - enough that he didn't trust what his mind was telling him. One day he was eighteen, then very next he was in his thirties. He didn't know what was going on, what to trust or not to trust - but he recognised power when he saw it. And he saw it here.

At least Hunt wasn't attacking. That was something. That was better than the alternative. Brian didn't move, but his attention was very firmly directed to the spot half-behind the door, in the shadow cast by the lamp by the bed. "Hunt, I know you're there. If I turn around, will you promise not to freak out on me? Please? I just wanna help. Just wanna see how you're doing. I'm not gonna hurt you."

"Like to see you try," Hunt said, his voice sounding deeper than he'd expected in his throat. He licked dry lips, preparing in case he was taken up on that offer, parts of memories, or dreams, or something flickering through his broken mind at random.

"Not gonna try, man," Brian promised, but he did turn around, slowly, to face the source of the voice. All he held in his hands was a soup bowl and a spoon. "Hi," he added with a smile that looked more worried than anything else, now that he could directly address the man. "How you feelin'?"

Hunt looked him up and down, suspicion written all over his face, but his eyes eventually dropped to the bowl of soup. A worry rose in his mind absently that it was poisoned - or drugged. Though he could think of no reason for it to be either, equally he couldn't think of any reason for it not to be either. Paranoia seemed like a sensible state until he could get his mind sorted out. Maybe. He lifted his eyes to Brian's, the name swimming to the surface of his mind, then diving back down again as quickly as it had come. "Where am I?" he asked.

"You're at my house, Hunt," Brian said patiently. "My bedroom, actually. Where you've been unc-- out cold for the past two days and then some. Do you remember anything? About what happened?" About me? He was guessing no, honestly, but... he could hope, couldn't he? "And you didn't answer my question."

"I remember... The ocean. A clifftop. Blood. Laughter on the wind - everything's going to end. Everything needs to end," Hunt intoned, his voice sounding far away. "How did I get here?" he asked again, ignoring Brian's questions.

Yeah, Hunt had lost it. As if that hadn't been obvious already. Shit. Brian had no idea what to do with someone who'd lost it. "You got here because I brought you here. I couldn't leave you at your place, Hunt-- you were hurt. I brought you here to look after you, keep you safe. Because, you know, I'm your friend." He figured it wouldn't hurt to reiterate that.

"Can I leave?" he asked, looking from side to side, then quickly back to Brian. "Who else is here?" That was important as well - if he had to force his way out, would he face anyone else in his way? Would Brian tell the truth? But any answer was better than none at all. Hunt hadn't moved, not an inch, still standing in the shadows by the door.

Brian was taking a while, not that feeding an unconscious man was quick business, but after the first few moment Domino's ears picked up talking. It wasn't the first time of course, Brian had been talking to the sleeping Hunt every time he went to feed him, but this time Domino could swear there were two voices. Slowly he got up from his meal and walked to the end of the hall. He could see Brian standing in the open doorway, looking at something out of view. Was his friend awake?

"My boyfriend is here, and you can if you want to, but do you even know where you're going?" Brian asked gently, oblivious to Domino coming to investigate. "If you don't remember me, I'm guessing you don't remember Marquette, much less where you live." Though honestly, Hunt not remembering him was a guess, too... just an educated one. The Hunt who knew him wouldn't be asking these questions. "I think it'd be better if you stayed. Or at least got directions, a shower, and a change of clothes before you left. I mean, you've been in those since-- hell, since I brought you here." Which would at least give him time to call Isabella and ask her what the hell he was supposed to do, now.

"You'd prefer it if I stayed, or you're going to stop me leaving?" Hunt asked him, stilling as he heard footsteps coming down the hallway outside. He eyed the door, still suspicious, ready to slam it closed it he thought an attack would come from here, his fractured mind providing the moves that would work best, though there was no guarantee that his muscles would hold up to that. His body felt different, alien.

"Hunt, if I stopped you from leaving, you'd probably throw spells at me, and I don't really feel up to a spell-battle," Brian said with a sad little grin. "It's been a long few days. But yes, I'd prefer it if you stayed. Something ain't right here, and I wanna help you, if I can."

"You, out in the hallway - come in here I can see you," Hunt said, his eyes still on Brian. He'd feel better if he could see both the guy and... Domino his mind supplied, another name swimming up from the depths. Was that it? Or was that just another name? He had no idea.

Domino's brows furrowed at Brian as he walked down the hall to the room with light, slow steps. Something was clearly not copacetic. He looked up at Brian as he stepped into the room and peeked around the door to the guarded Hunt. He stood next to Brian, brushing a hand over his in quiet support.

Giving Domino's hand a brief squeeze, Brian then let it go to indicate them both to each other. "Domino, meet Hunt." Sort of. "Hunt, this is Domino. I told you about him, and you might've seen him around at the diner." If you remember that. Either of those. This is so fucked up.

Hunt looked the two guys up and down. "Right - Domino, right?" he said, carefully, as though he honestly thought that it really might have been wrong. He pushed the door, starting to close it, but mostly moving across so that he could move around it and get out of here.

Stomach sinking and face falling a little, that Hunt wasn't even going to listen-- stay for a few minutes, even-- Brian asked slowly, "Hunt, man, do you remember where your house is. Do you want directions? An address?" He almost offered a lift, given Hunt was still pretty cut up-- everything was healing, sure, and he had clean bandages, but it was a long way to walk-- but he really wasn't sure Hunt wouldn't take it as a threat, at this point. When everything he did was apparently being taken as suspicious....

Domino nodded at the question directed at him. This was quite a first meeting, with all the tension in the air he kinda felt like if he twitched his nose wrong he could suddenly be impaled with a sharp something. "Are y'hungry?" Domino asked softly. "Brian's been givin' y'soup, but I'm sure that if y'r goin' t'go the long walk home y'might need somethin' a bit more in y'r stomach." He probably wasn't helping.

"No - I'm going to leave now," Hunt told them, edging towards the door. He didn't trust the offers. In moments, he felt like he could, then the next, he didn't even know these people. he didn't know anything. He needed to - he needed to be gone. He could find his own way home. Maybe. "Don't follow me," he added.

Running his hand through his hair, Brian said, "Sure. Your choice, man. Call me when you get home, my number oughta be around the house somewhere if you don't remember it."

Hunt eyed both men again and then stepped into the doorway, before starting to back down the hall. When you get home. Hunt didn't exactly know where he was going, but that didn't faze him. He'd take whatever came - he just needed to be somewhere where he could sort his head out. Somewhere he felt safe.

Shit. This is not how I figured this thing would go. Brian put a hand on Domino's shoulder, in case he felt like stopping Hunt. Or trying to. He had to call Bella... and he couldn't let Hunt leave alone, they might never find him and he might well disappear into the forest and be-- be eaten by a bear or something.

Hunt didn't turn until they were out of sight, sure that there'd be something, paranoia ruling right now. Once he reached the turning point, he twisted, darting towards the front door and out into the world at large, randomly picking a direction and running full tilt away.

"He's going to fucking get himself killed," Brian muttered, limping painfully out into the living room once he heard Hunt hit the door and escape outside. "Torziel!"

The demon-cat on the couch heaved a huge, reluctant sigh. "Oh, please, don't tell me...."

"If I don't have to tell you, then you can just go."

"Can't you do this?"

"I can't keep up with him, and you're healed up more than me." Brian pointed firmly at the door, and Torziel continued to not more. "Go."

"You're the big, clever, spacial willworker... you track him."

"Tor', if I have to tell you one more time--"

"Okay, okay, I'm going." Torziel flowed off the couch with at least most of his usual grace, healing up pretty well for it only being three days after his attack, and trotted out the door. Brian slammed it behind him unhappily.

Domino followed Brian and once Tor was out of the house he approached the man and put hand on his shoulder. “He’ll be ok.” Dom said softly. “If he lashed out before like you said then he clearly has -some- form of Defense, and with Torziel on his tail…” He stepped closer and slipped a loving arm around him. “The thing to focus on is how t’get him better.”

Settling back against Domino's chest, Brian sighed and shut his eyes a moment. "I don't have a fucking clue how to get him better... unless Bella taking the rest of the spell off will do that." He had to call her. But he could wait a minute; he didn't want to move. That had been... really rather disappointing. Even if Hunt hadn't been perfectly fine and normal, Brian had still kind of hoped for recognition. Maybe even a little gratitude. But suspicion and immediate flight? Not good for the ego, or the mood.

Domino held him close. He didn’t need to say anything more, he knew it wouldn’t help. Right now Brian just needed him to be there, so that’s what he would do- be there.