sicparvasmagna | [March 23]

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[March 23]

Nate's been hit before. Nate's been hit a thousand goddamn times but this time he's pretty sure his entire face is broken. He'd known the guy was tall, he's not a complete moron, but there's a difference between tall and apparently made of fucking stone. He'd been impulsive and stupid and Sully would probably chew his ear off if he were here, but Nate doesn't need a verbal lashing because the physical one has been lesson enough.

His hand is broken. He can't move his fingers and the pain shoots up through his wrist and to his shoulder, throbbing harshly. He's broken bones before but this is somehow made worse by the embarrassment of it all, by the fact that he was put down quickly and without preamble, his ego as bruised as his fucking face. Which, is also broken. Nate's broken his nose before, been punched by enough steroid-loaded goons that it was just about inevitable, but this is worse. His cheekbone is fractured, swollen up around his eye so that he can hardly see out of it. Breathing hurts, talking hurts worse, and Nate's spat enough blood out onto the sidewalk to draw stares.

He needs to get off the street. That's the first point of call. He should probably go to the hospital, but he's nursing a hurt ego and a chip on his shoulder that steers him in the opposite direction instead. He just wants to go home. He wants to go home, cover his face in ice packs and then drink until he passes out, probably. He should text Sam, but his right fucking hand is broken and Nate's always been pretty useless with his left. The thought of trying to type anything legible is a lost cause, so he doesn't bother.

Instead, he picks himself up off the ground, blinks blood out of his eye and starts walking. At least his goddamn legs aren't broken.

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Lila's on her way home when she comes across Nate. She sees the gore before anything else, the bloody, broken face, not even realizing it's him at first. But it's only a moment, and when she recognizes him her stomach gives an uncomfortable lurch.

"Christ, what happened to you?" she asks, her long legs briskly carrying her over to him. She touches the side of his neck, trying to get a closer look. His nose is practically demolished.

Nate groans when he sees Lila. He'd wanted to get home without anyone spotting him, so just his luck it would be Lila who finds him. He knows that as soon as she gets over the shock of seeing his face such a mess she'll probably never let him live it down.

"You don't like the new look?" he quips, but it hurts to smile so the joke falls flat. He leans back when she touches him, knowing that if she comes near his face it's going to be more agony than it already is.

"Hey, steady." She actually looked concerned which Nate admittedlt isn't used to seeing. "I'm fine," he tells her, even though it hurts to talk.

Edited 2017-03-26 22:10 (UTC)

"Oh yeah, you look fine. I'm serious, Nate, what happened?" Lila demands, her palms itching to unsheathe the blades hidden on her body to make whoever did this pay. His nose is broken, and some of the fingers of the hand he's cradling in his other are bent in ways fingers do not bend. Someone attacked him, maybe more than just someone. She gently presses her own hand along his stomach, looking for a reaction that would tell her if he has any cracked or broken ribs.

"I'm going to kill whoever did this to you, so make it easier on me and tell me who they are."

"Got hit," he says, even though that much is obvious. It's his own fault for getting himself into that kind of situation in the first place. He should have walked away, he'd meant to walk away, but he'd just been so goddamn smug and the second he hit something of a nerve the writing was on the wall. Sully taught him better than that, he thinks, but all it took was a moment and Nate was twenty goddamn years old again, spoiling for a fight.

"Doesn't matter who," he tells her, shaking his head. He can see her itching to go and do something about it, but he's not about to send her into that guy's path. He's not human, and Nate's not convinced that Lila and all her knives could make a scratch on him. Besides which, it was only a punch. Nate's pissed off and he wants retaliation but Lila wants blood, and it doesn't call for that.

She presses against his stomach and he waves her away. His ribs are fine. "Lila, 'm fine," he mutters, shrugging her off.

"You're a stubborn ass, you know that?" Lila says gruffly, irritated that he won't tell her. She'll find out on her own, then, it isn't like she doesn't have an overabundance of time in this place.

"Come on, I'll take care of you," she adds with a sigh, taking his good arm in hers and leading him toward her apartment. They aren't too terribly far from it, and it will afford them some privacy while she fixes his nose and hand. "You weren't mugged, I hope?"

He's heard that before, so he lets it roll off his shoulders without complaint. Better that she be pissed with him than go off and get into a fight that could end up with her the same way as him.

She takes his arm and Nate follows obediently. Maybe he is a stubborn ass but he knows better than to completely avoid help. At least she's not calling an ambulance, so he trusts that she's taking him home rather than to hospital.

"No," he says, shaking his head a fraction. It makes his head spin so he stops quickly. "Picked a fight I shouldn't have." He's not sure who started it exactly; Cassius was being a dick but it's Nate who threw the first punch. He still has his wallet on him so it was hardly a mugging, more a matter of proving a point.

"Well, I'm no stranger to that. I still feel like I ought to lecture you, though," Lila says, but she doesn't. It would be hugely hypocritical of her to scold Nate for being reckless when she prides herself for that very thing.

She also realizes, now that she's gotten over her initial shock of finding him bloody and beaten, that she hasn't seen him in awhile. On purpose, on her end. So it's probably not her place either way. She'd been horrified after the enchantment had been lifted, maybe not entirely that she told him he was like a father to her, but the way she'd said it, and the way he'd rejected her affection. She doesn't blame him, who wants someone simpering to them about how they wish they were their parent? In short, it had been embarrassing, a feeling Lila does not appreciate. And deep down it hit too hard, making her think of Barron, who back home really had been the closest thing to a father she'd ever had. And how she'd never been kind to him the way he'd always been with her.

She lets them both into Bramford, ushering Nate into the elevator to take them up to her apartment. "Come on. Try not to get any blood on the couch, at least."

She's relatively quiet as they walk, and in all honesty Nate is grateful for it. His head hurts and the blotches in his vision are starting to make him feel a little woozy. What he really wants is to go to sleep for days, but he knows that's probably a bad idea right now, so he focuses on putting one foot in front of the other and staying upright.

They get to Bramford and Nate remembers suddenly that this is exactly where Cassius was trying to get to before he took a detour to ruin Nate's face. He glances around but there's no one else here for the moment, which is lucky. If he were to show up, Nate would paint on the bravado again quick as he could, but the thought of having to do that right now is exhausting.

When they get to elevator he leans against the wall, closing his eyes for a moment to fight off the dizziness as it starts to move. He's grateful when it's over and he can follow Lila inside, though he does give her a weak smile at the joke. "I'll try to keep it on my person."

Lila's concerned when Nate leans against the wall and closes his eyes, but then he speaks and it eases a little. She's almost positive he has a concussion, and she's pretty sure you're not suppose to fall asleep or pass out when you have one of those. She doesn't doubt she can bring him right back to consciousness with her magic, but still. A knock to the head is rough. "Good boy."

The elevator pings to her floor, and she helps Nate to her apartment, not bothering to dig around for the key. She opens her door with her magic and guides him over to the couch. "There you go," she says, plopping down next to him with a sigh. She shrugs her coat off and brings out a small knife from under her shirt sleeve. "This is probably going to be weird for you."

Lila hasn't done a whole ton of healing with her magic before, so she cuts her arm deeper than usual to bring up more blood. Gathering it on the pads of three of her fingers, she presses them Nate's broken hand. "As Hasari." Heal.

It's a slow process, and she keeps her fingers in place as the spell works on mending him.

The door opens with magic, and Nate follows her inside, doing his best not to bleed on her floor. Most of the blood is starting to dry and he doesn't think it will be a problem, but Lila is a vengeful enemy so it's better to stay on her good side.

He sinks into the couch and breathes out heavily, leaning back. She pulls a knife out and for a moment Nate tenses, though why it even occurs to him that she might want to hurt him, he doesn't know. He's about to tell her he's seen weird and whatever she has planned probably won't measure up, but then she's slicing into her arm and he makes a noise of protest, leaning forward to shake his head.

"Hey, woah, no," he argues, looking for something to tie the cut off with. There's nothing lying around so his next thought is to rip his shirt and tie the material around her arm, but before he can she coats her fingers in blood and presses them against his hand. He's seen Lila do magic before but not like this. He resists the urge to flinch at the first press of her fingers, but then he can feel it, feel the bones resetting and mending.

It doesn't hurt but it feels absolutely cringe-worthy and Nate makes a face as he watches his hand heal, but it's still better than going to hospital. "That's a handy skill," he tells her, talking to keep his mind off what she's doing more than anything else.

Lila glances up, a little surprised at Nate's concern. Maybe she should have told him what she was about to do before diving in, but she's always been an act first, explain later type of girl. And with a hand as mangled as his she has to imagine it hurts like hell.

She gently covers his hand with hers as the magic works to help keep him from watching. She remembers how unsettling it had been when she'd first experienced it, but by now she's so familiar with the magic it's like second nature to her.

"It beats wearing a splint or cast. So if you ever find yourself in trouble again, you can come here if you want," she offers, a little awkwardly. She isn't used to being the one to help, or dole out kindnesses, but Nate isn't one she'd want to see suffer.

She covers his hand with hers but he can still imagine it, picturing the bones moving under his skin and everything knitting back together. It's both kind of cool and horribly unsettling at the same time.

When he feels like he can move his fingers again, he pushes her hand gently away and looks at it. There's still some bruising around his knuckles and blood has dried in spots on his skin, but the bones are healed and he can move it. He wriggles his fingers, huffing a small laugh. "Really handy trick," he notes, glancing back up at her.

She seems hesitant all of a sudden, a little caught out, and Nate wonders if she's ever made that kind of offer before. It's not like he plans to go and get himself beat up again, but he supposes it's helpful to know that he can come here instead of the emergency room should he need to. "I don't plan on taking you up on that," he says, shaking his head. "I kind of thought I'd try and keep my bones not broken for a while, but thanks."

Lila can't hold back a smile at his praise, or at least that's how she takes it when he studies his own working fingers, repeating his earlier comment about how useful her magic is. It's far from a trick, though, it's power. It's her favorite part of herself, the best part.

"No more picking fights?" she asks with a raised eyebrow. Not that she has any ground to stand on, she's picked more fights than she can count. "What'd they do, anyway, to get you so pissed?"

At the very least, now he'll be able to hold an ice pack on his broken face without hurting his hand, so that's nice. He doesn't know exactly how much juice she has in her and there's a chance he'll still need to go to hospital to get his nose set, maybe, but his hand is a good start.

"Can't promise that," he admits. Elena has asked him to make that promise time and time again, and he always comes up short. He doesn't mean to pick fights, but apparently Nate has the kind of face and attitude that invites punching, who knew? "He kept talking like I was some kind of slave," Nate answers, and he'd wrinkle his nose in distaste if he didn't know that would hurt like hell right now. "Told me to lick his shoes."

It's not even the worst that anyone has ever said to him, but it rubbed him the wrong way, hit a nerve that hasn't been struck in a long time. Nate worked hard to get himself off the streets and try and make something of himself, and he's not about to let some douchebag throw it all back in his face and treat him like he's nothing.

Lila's expression sobers, her whole body going still. Her run-in with the guy looking for Bramford is still fresh on her mind, having only just happened earlier in the day. The way he'd talked to her, like she was beneath him, and the volatile way he'd reacted to her magic. He was giant, muscled, he could have easily done this to Nate. Could it be the same person?

"Wait a minute," she says, frowning now, "was he really tall, gold eyes and hair?"

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[March 23]

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