thenearshore | [CLOSED] Aha… it’s true, it’s always easier in theory.

He'd gathered a lot of different samples, but... he still hadn't drawn any useful conclusions. The substance in his eye is still a total mystery.

But, so far, he's only taken samples of his tears—external lubricant from the eye's surface. The substance is just too diluted to properly identify. So, if he wants to properly analyze it, then... then he has to take a different sample. A more direct sample. If the substance is originating from inside of his eye, he needs a sample taken from inside the eye.

In theory, it makes perfect sense. Trying to actually take that sample, though...

He's been sitting at his desk for well over an hour now, staring at the needle in his hand. He... really doesn't want to do this. It'll just be a tiny poke, right? He doesn't even have to go very deep, so it should only take a second... but just thinking about sticking something in his eye, it kind of freaks him out. It probably isn't advisable to perform eye operations on yourself, either.

... but he has to do this. He can't trust anyone else. It's not a big deal, so he just has to suck it up and take care of it. Add inhales slowly, steeling himself.

Eager to get it over with before he loses his nerve, he jabs the tip of the needle in his eye before realizing he forgot to use the anaesthetic first.

He swears loud enough to be heard from the other side of the temple.

Almost immediately, frantic footsteps can be heard outside his door. Jakob is at best a light sleeper, after all, and likes to busy himself with the miscellaneous household chores in the evenings, when all is quiet and still and he can maybe patch a hole in someone’s trousers while sipping a nice hot cup of tea.

And being of a rather military persuasion, an alarming noise like Add’s screaming within the idyllic sanctuary of Change’s temple is bound to catch his notice, and Jakob has wasted no time in chasing after the source of it—short of actually knocking down Add’s door.

Which he is about to, particularly if it’s locked.

Instead, he opts to knock first, like a gentleman. “What is the meaning of this, Add? Are you under attack?”

"I'm fine! Everything's fine!" Just ignore the fact that he's screaming this, sounding everything but fine.

He is not fine at all. There's a needle in his eye and it hurts like a bitch and he still needs to finish taking the damn sample. He bites into his lip to shut himself up as he very carefully starts to extract the substance...

Eugh, that just makes it feel worse! He hisses out a pained whine before hastily pulling the needle back out, praying that he got enough to work with. His eye feels like it's on fire. He flips the mirror propped in front of him down so he doesn't have to look at it, clamping a hand over the eye and pushing the needle to the back of his desk space. Stupid idea.

Well, at least he locked his door so no one can bother him... it's not like anyone would be crazy enough to kick his door down.

“There is no use hiding it,” he says from behind the door, with increasing alarm as he takes in the noises coming from within Add’s room. And he knows the bastard’s a bit of a weakling—what if he’s being tortured there or something? What if he’s been physically incapacitated somehow?

…Maybe he should stop thinking of whatever dreadful thing might be happening to Add at that moment before he accidentally commits the sin of enjoying it.

Given his assessment of the situation, the truth could be either wearily mundane or too inscrutable for his old-fashioned mind. In any case, he presses the sole of his foot against the door, before delivering a swift kick underneath the doorknob, punching a hole through the door.

Whereupon he slips his hand inside and unlocks the door like a normal person.

He shrieks loudly when a foot suddenly punches through his door.

A disaster. This is nothing but a disaster. Now he'll need to patch up that ugly hole somehow...

... He should probably be using his time more wisely right now, though. He scrambles a bit, hastily grabbing the suspicious needle and stuffing it in a desk drawer. He slams it shut and rolls his chair in front of it, facing the door just in time for Jakob to make his entrance. He still has a hand clamped over his aching eye.

"What do you think you're doing?! You broke my door! This is an enormous breach of my privacy! Get the hell out of my room!"

A disaster is right. His work boots are scuffed from the impact. What do you have to say for yourself, Add.

“Not to worry,” Jakob replies cheerfully, letting that door swing wide open to reveal a scene that’s…perfectly normal.

And therefore deeply suspicious.

“I am quite skilled at carpentry. But before I attempt repairs, I must inquire as to the cause of that row earlier.” He’s still smiling.

“I would advise you to keep to the truth as much as possible, Add. Otherwise, I must insist that I practice my interrogation skills on you instead.”

And he won’t repair the door. So there.

"You wouldn't have to repair anything if you didn't kick a hole in my door. I already told you, everything is fine!"

As if Add is going to cave to threats so easily. He already knows from their first meeting that Jakob is a lunatic, but he also sucks up to their god like it's a contest. There's no way Roxas would approve of Add being violently interrogated...

... although, he also doesn't want Roxas to find out about any of this. They've both been way too loud already. If he doesn't shut Jakob up somehow, he'll probably snitch about Add's suspicious behaviour, and then Roxas will definitely know something is going on.

This is already way too much of a headache. He sighs, dragging his hand down his face a little. Alright, fine, he can make up an excuse to get Jakob off his back.

"I... something got in my eye while I was working." Technically true! "I already got it out, so it's fine. Now can you please get the hell out of my room? I'll fix the door myself."

He wouldn’t do anything that would blight Roxas, at least—and that includes violence. But Add doesn’t need to know that.

“Your eye, you say?” Inexplicably, Jakob frowns at him with an expression of paramount concern. Treating injuries are generally his forte, and Add’s eyes have always been rather odd…

He steps inside the room, gently shutting the door behind him as if he hadn’t kicked a hole through it moments earlier.

“Let me see that.”

He scowls, making no effort to hide his irritation. He doesn't want Jakob to play doctor with him. And that bizarrely concerned expression is just... too weird.

"That's not necessary," he grumbles, looking away. He doesn't do any more than that, though, and it's not like he'd be able to overpower Jakob physically. So if he still wants to look at it, Add won't put up too much of a fuss. It's just a matter of prying Add's hand off his face and getting the damn eye open.

And if he does... well, it looks a lot worse than it is. There's a dark splotch of blood on his schlera with something black and oozing mixed in, and the whole eye is red and watery. The extraction was a bit messy, so instead of just a pinprick from the needle he sliced open a small cut. It's still not that bad, but it is bleeding more than it normally would...

And the black substance doesn't make it look any better, probably. The injury seems to be keeping it from reverting back to white, at least for the moment.

This would have gone so much easier if Add had been more cooperative, but Jakob does seize his chance to take that hand off of his eye to examine him more closely. You don’t make a noise like that and expect people to buy a hasty “It’s nothing” reply, after all.

He can’t help that noise of disgust, however, as he presses fingers to the edges of that injured eye, keeping it as wide open as he possibly can.

“Good gods, man. Who did this to you?” He releases that eye a moment later, and looks back toward that busted door, muttering half to himself: “Lord Roxas won’t be too pleased at the sight of that. Perhaps, a healer…”

He's allowing Jakob to look at him, but that doesn't mean he's comfortable with it. His reaction to Add's injury only makes that discomfort grow, and as soon as he's released Add goes back to covering the eye with his hand, bowing his head slightly. The floorboards are very fascinating all of the sudden.

"I already told you, it was just an accident." This is his story and he's sticking with it. With a bit more confidence, he continues, "Roxas doesn't have to know. It's not a big deal. It'll heal on its own, so I'll take care of it until then."

“Unacceptable, Add.” Does this guy plan on staying like a shut in for weeks? Er, not that he isn’t capable of it, but really…

“That sort of injury will not heal in a day, and lingering here will only increase the chances of Lord Roxas finding out.” As satisfying as watching Add get poured on with boiling hot tea will be—wait, no. Bad Jakob, bad.

He continues: “Therefore, I must insist that we take you to a healer immediately.”

Add always plans on being a shut in, but that's beside the point...

"It'll heal in a few days, at most. I don't need to waste my time with a healer." He would know, since he's now an expert when it comes to performing eye injections. He did a lot of googling in advance just to make sure nothing would go wrong. He even has an eye patch prepared! Hiding the damage would've been necessary anyway, it's just a pain in the ass that Jakob had to hear him because of one tiny mistake.

It hurts, but he doesn't need a healer. He's at least 90% sure about that part. Maybe 85%, since he nicked himself on exit...

"If you don't want Lord Roxas to find out, then make sure he doesn't. Keep him busy and out of my way. I have important work to do, you've already wasted enough of my time."

He bristles at that last comment.

“As I recall, I am his butler, not yours.” Therefore he’s perfectly allowed to be selectively oblivious with regard to Add’s instructions on the matter. Besides, it’s easier to hide genuine concern behind massive amounts of snark, and Jakob’s supply of those is nigh-inexhaustible.

“Although it would be quite uncharitable of me to leave you languishing in pain over here. So come along now. I’d like to avoid further threats to your person, if necessary.”

"Have you been listening to anything I've said to you?" Ugh, this conversation is just going in circles! Is Jakob really this stubborn? It's not even that serious of an injury.

Add hunches his shoulders, gripping the arm of his chair with his unoccupied hand. If Jakob wants to bring him to a healer, fine. But he'll have to drag Add there by force, and he is damn well going to make it as difficult as possible this time.

He also attempts to make his eyes spark intimidatingly before remembering oh yeah, he has a hole in one of them, so don't mind that sharp wince he makes before dialing it back again. Jakob might still get a bit of a static shock if he touches Add, though.

“Of course I’ve heard every word.” Which is why he’s taking this situation seriously—even if he also does feel a measure of enjoyment from just being contrary with Add. He might as well, given how difficult Add is going to be about this. So he reaches to take Add gently by the arm…

“I know, it might come as a shock to y—augh!” He quickly pulls his hand away at that shock—it’s a good thing he isn’t wearing his armor tonight, but ooooh he’s gonna get him back for that, somehow.

“Must you be such a child? I had every intention of avoiding violence until now—”

That shock ended up stinging Add as much as it did Jakob, but it's still worth it. Totally worth it. He snickers unapologetically.

"And how do you think Lord Roxas would feel if he walked in on you attacking me? I don't think that's something either of us wants, hmm?" Just give up, damnit. What if he gets dragged outside and someone sees them? It would defeat the entire purpose of keeping this a secret! "I'm not moving from this spot, so if you want me to see a healer you'll just have to bring them here instead."

He tangles his legs around the base of the chair, just to further emphasize how much he's not moving. Are you really prepared to go down this road, Jakob?

“An uninvited guest intruding upon temple grounds would only complicate things further!” Jakob exclaims, staring Add down with a vengeance. He knows he’s physically stronger than him already, but Add would cause such a row, unless Jakob knocks him out, maybe…

But then he doesn’t want to create more work for the healer than necessary. “I cannot attend to your well-being and keep Lord Roxas distracted from your myriad foibles like that!”

"They won't be uninvited if you invite them." As if that was the whole problem—now he's just trying to be a shit on purpose. He snickers, smiling a little too much for a guy with a painful eye injury (though it also makes it more obvious how much he's gritting his teeth right now, fuck his eye hurts).

"If I leave like this then it only raises the chances of getting caught, so that's not an option. Look, it's perfectly fine—"

He attempts to make a show of how totally fine his eye is by pulling his hand away, except he flinches pretty much immediately. He can barely keep the eye open, and in trying to force himself he ends up blinking a lot, which only spreads around the blotches of blood and... black stuff...

On second thought, that's a terrible idea. He hisses and covers it up again, pressing down around the socket to try and distract himself. At least he's not grinning like an asshole anymore.

Yes, keep cackling like a mad scientist while Jakob looks on in horror as blood and sclera leak out and oh gods thank you for the nightmares, Add; he’s almost glad he barely ever sleeps anymore.

Is he…is he a masochist? Yet, despite how horrified Jakob is at this play, he is also profoundly admiring of the kind of ironclad balls Add must have to continue trucking through the pain of having stabbed himself in the eye and still taunt Jakob like that.

For all the good that respect does to either of them.

“That’s…That is it!” He’s putting his foot down, dammit! He’s not going to lose to you!

“I cannot allow you to remain here any longer.” Herein he advances closer, with his arm poised as if to give him a chop to the back of the neck and knock him out.

It's less about being a masochist and more about being too stubborn to live. If Add was blind and bleeding to death he'd probably still be looking for an excuse to refuse help. As it is now, he's completely convinced this is something he can and should fix on his own, and damned if he's going to admit defeat just because his face feels like it's burning and there's all kinds of colourful liquids spurting from his eye socket. This is fine.

With Jakob looming over him like that, though, he's starting to feel a little nervous. He makes a face and tries to slide his chair back, but of course he put himself right in front of the desk drawer earlier, so there's nowhere for him to retreat. He tenses up, anticipating Jakob's attack...

Ah. But he does still have something he can do. He prepared a spare needle in case something went wrong with the first attempt. This would count as something going "wrong", right?

He reaches back into the desk behind him before brandishing the short (and thankfully unused) medical syringe like its a knife, waving it at Jakob threateningly.

"If you even think about touching me then we'll both be heading to the healer!"

He can’t remember a time when anyone had been so stubborn about accepting help from a healer—then again, maybe it’s for the best.

Jakob’s hand stops in mid-reach, glaring at that syringe suspiciously.

“Have you forgotten that I can overpower you in armed and unarmed combat, Add?” Yes, he’s literally going to pause from quickly knocking him out just to brag at him a little. “I can easily wrest that pathetic instrument from your grasp, so don’t you dare—”

Oh, he can easily get it away from him? Is that how it's going to be? Well fine then. Challenge accepted.

Not that he actually wants to hurt Jakob, since that would just mean way more hassle than he wants to deal with... but he's still going to jab that needle at Jakob's in the middle of his sentence, just as a non-verbal "fuck you". Just try and wrestle that needle out of his hands!!

Except he's lacking a usable eye right now, so instead of a feint there's a 50/50 chance Add is either going to actually stab Jakob in the side or miss him so completely it's laughable.

And the more they go at it, the closer they’ll get to making Add’s injury bad enough for a hospital visit and possibly a surgery, besides. Although the latter is a strong probability regardless, if the bastard would just hold still—

“You—” He deftly moves to the side, using Add’s lack of depth perception to his advantage, but at the same time he brings his hand up—foolishly forgetting that he doesn’t, in fact, have his armor on, and the needle stabs clean through the back of his hand.

He immediately stifles that cry of pain—when you’re used to a good deal of knitting and sewing and stabbing people in the middle of a war this isn’t as much of an issue, really—quickly pulling his injured hand away and reaching for that syringe with his other.

...Okay, yeah, Add definitely wasn't prepared for the consequences of his own actions. He winces hard when the needle goes clean through Jakob's hand, reeling back and holding the syringe away from himself to avoid getting blood on his clothes. This is less gross than jabbing a needle in his own eye, but it's still pretty gross.

On the bright side, he shouldn't have too much trouble getting the syringe out of Add's grip now. He hisses once it's taken away from him, back to gripping desperately to the arm of his chair.

He should probably just give up at this point. This whole night has been a disaster.

“Now look at what you’ve done,” Jakob retorts, a little weakly, as he snatches that syringe from his grasp. He’s been through worse, he keeps telling himself in his head. This is nothing.

He tosses that syringe aside, nursing his injured hand with his other. Gods…he’d been careless. That needle might have been better left lodged in his hand until he could have a healer who can actually heal look at it.

“It is fortunate that Lord Roxas will be unable to perceive such a small wound.” He can hide it in his glove, probably—Roxas has never seen him out of uniform, anyway, unless he’s skulking around where Jakob isn’t looking again…

“Now, you will cease this foolish resistance immediately or I will carry you out, chair and all, to a healer.”

He glares, fuming in silence for several long seconds before huffing out an annoyed sigh and glancing off to the side. He manages to force on a small, smug grin.

"Fine. Since it looks like you'll be needing it after all. If we get caught, I'll blame everything on you."

Jakob attacked him and they were both injured in the struggle! It's a decent cover story, if he needs to resort to that. And he's confident now that Jakob will keep quiet about it. He stands up on his own, keeping a hand pressed against his bleeding eye. There... might be a bit of darkened blood starting to drip down the corner now, though. This is totally fine. Really.

He also gives Jakob a wide berth so as not to risk getting any blood on his clothes. Even though he's already bleeding from his eye...

"Let's just go before someone notices."

“Very well.” He’s swallowing a lot of pride in those two words—Add might be the one who’s lost the argument, but that damn smugness just makes Jakob feel like he’s lost the fight after all. And he absolutely hates to lose.

But as they’re moving out the busted door (which he can maybe repair if he hurries), he pauses to glare at Add again, before starting to undo his cravat.

“I’ve no bandages on hand, I’m afraid.” Note to self to stuff some first aid supplies in his pockets from now on. “But this might take care of the bleeding somewhat. Don’t press too hard.”

He stops, confused by the gesture at first. If he's going to ruin it anyway then wouldn't it make sense to wrap up his own hand...?

... Unless Add's eye really does look that bad. He winces reflexively at the thought. Ugh, now he wants to know what it looks like even less. He snatches up the cravat, carefully removing the hand from his face so he can clean himself up a little before placing the cloth over it. It doesn't make it feel any better, but at least the injury is properly hidden.

"You try not to bleed all over the place, too," he offers helpfully, except he doesn't have any bits of clothing to offer like Jakob did.

[CLOSED] Aha… it’s true, it’s always easier in theory.

ROUND 2

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