AU - Locked to Alec

[everymonstrousthing]

It's probably almost as bad as it looks. His cane lost, rolled into a gutter, stepped on, snapped, Kaz has no choice but to limp. He doesn't have a clear idea of where he's going. He turns his head and spits blood onto concrete for what feels like the thousanth time. He's not sure how far he's walked; he glances back but can't tell which direction he came from.

He recognises his surroundings, though. He knows more or less where he's headed.

He makes it to Alec's door. He's got no idea how late it is. He knocks with a curl first, blood smeared on leather, and then his knees give out and he slides down to sit on the floor with his back against Alec's door. He closes his eyes. Darkness comes flooding in. He fights it, as much as he can.

Comments

[deflectere]

"This is my apartment," Alec told him, shaking his head and sitting on a nearby chair. His seraph blade was nearby, unnamed and harmless looking. "I get to sit where I want. You should try and sleep."

[everymonstrousthing]

He does. Sleep. He must because he loses track of himself for a while. When he wakes up, there's pain, deep and throbbing in the skin where Alec burned him. He groans softly.

"Still here," he says.

[deflectere]

"Congratulations," he said dryly. His dagger was in his hand and his hand rested on his knee. "How do you feel?"

[everymonstrousthing]

"Like shit that needs a shower," he says, shifting, grimacing at the way his shirt sticks to his stomach when he moves. "But no more of a problem than usual." his eyes dart to the dagger against Alec's thigh. "You don't need that."

[deflectere]

"You don't know that," Alec said, keeping a hold of the dagger. "I'm not taking the chance. "You're going to be Forsaken. I can't let you out of this apartment until it happens."

[everymonstrousthing]

"So, what?" says Kaz, pushing himself up onto his elbows, wincing when burned skin pulls tight. "You're just going to...keep me prisoner here until the inevitable?" He arches his eyebrow. "Do I at least get to get off the floor?"

[deflectere]

"You're not a prisoner," Alec said, rolling his eyes. "Do you want to leave? You're free to leave. There's more than just me in this city that'll watch you that I trust. Go."

[everymonstrousthing]

"What I want," says Kaz, managing to get himself to sitting position, though it's difficult, leaves him breathing heavier than he'd like. "Is coffee. And a shower. and clean clothes. That's what I'd like."

[deflectere]

"You don't ask for much, do you?" Alec asked, rising to his feet and shaking his head. "Show up at my door bleeding and then ask for food and facilities and clothes."

He could do the coffee, at least. He tucked the knife in his waistband and disappeared into the kitchen to get something brewing.

[everymonstrousthing]

Kaz leans back against the wall. He tugs one glove off with his teeth and then he hitches up his shirt, fabric gone stiff with dried blood. He examines the rune that Alec burned into his skin the night before.

[deflectere]

Alec glanced behind him, wincing at the Mark on Kaz's skin and wondering what in the hell he'd been thinking. He could lose everything for that stupid thing, lose everything for a mundane.

"How's it feel?" he asked, keeping his emotions carefully locked down while he went about making coffee.

[everymonstrousthing]

"Sore," says Kaz, prodding at it cautiously with one naked finger. He's not sure that he's ever felt anything like it, not pain like it. And he has measured his life in pain, hasn't he? "But I'll live."

[deflectere]

"Let's hope so." Alec wasn't convinced. "Get up and get some coffee. I'm not waiting on you."

[everymonstrousthing]

"Your beside manner leaves a lot to be desired," rasps Kaz, his breath catching as he prods freshly burned skin again. "And you're going to have to help me up off the floor. Between this and my knee there's no way I'm getting up on my own." He shoots Alec a flat look. "Sorry."

[deflectere]

Alec scowled but dutifully came over and offered Kaz a hand. His expression was stern but not angry. Cautious. Wary. Worried.

"Did you ever think about going somewhere else last night?" he asked, curiosity taking over the scowl and solemness.

[everymonstrousthing]

Without thinking about it, Kaz reaches for Alec's hand with the hand not wearing a glove. Skin touches skin, but there's none of the usual dark spots touching the corner of his vision, no blood rushing in his ears. He leans into Alec's weight and tugs himself gingerly to his feet. His glove drops to the floor, for the moment forgotten.

"Where else have I got to go?" he asks.

[deflectere]

"I don't know," Alec said, giving Kaz a gentle nudge towards the counter so he could have something to lean on that wasn't Alec. Alec continued to want to keep some distance until he knew what was going to happen.

"That's why I asked you," he added, grabbing a few mugs and filling them with coffee. "I can't be the only one."

[everymonstrousthing]

"Inej won't have me. Krem has troubles of his own." Kaz is painfully aware that he doesn't have many people to fall back on, these days. Gone is the luxury of being Per Haskell's favourite monster. "I didn't think you'd turn me away." He shrugs, leans back against the counter, his eyes slipping closed with relief as he takes some of the pressure off his knee.

[deflectere]

"I was a third choice?" Alec asked, raising an eyebrow and shaking his head. "If I could throw you out, I would. You need more friends."

Alec didn't have that many people that he kept in his loop either. It was mostly his siblings, his family, and a few select others.

"Drink the coffee. Then maybe I'll think about letting you go home."

[everymonstrousthing]

"No," he says, "You weren't." He reaches out for the coffee but ends up curling his hand around Alec's forearm instead. Skin against skin sends a weird, unfamiliar shiver through him.

"I trusted you to do something. I don't trust many people, Alec."

[deflectere]

Alec wasn't really used to being touched and he was even less used to Kaz doing it. He eyed the hand on his arm for a second and made no move to remove it.

"You need to stop getting into trouble where you even need to come find me," Alec told him, shaking his head. "I can't stop you from dying every single time."

[everymonstrousthing]

Kaz keeps waiting for the nausea to hit him but, instead, he finds himself distracted by the heat of Alec's skin under his palm. He doesn't pull away.

"You mean this thing you burned into me isn't going to make me immortal?" He says, with a corner of a smirk.

[deflectere]

"You want to be immortal, you're better off talking to a warlock or a vampire," Alec told him, bringing his mug up to sip his coffee. "Nothing I can give is going to give you immortality."

[everymonstrousthing]

"And here I am, talking to you any way," says Kaz, corner of his mouth lifting in a smirk. "Is there..." He frowns. "That rune. Would it affect..." He looks down at his naked palm.

[deflectere]

"Would it affect what?" Alec asked, following Kaz's gaze down to his hand. "It's a healing rune. It'll heal you and it'll turn you into a Forsaken if I'm unlucky. It doesn't do anything else."