#hans.

mikkel is a hearty young lad. with a sick father and young siblings to feed, he'd boarded his first sail in hopes of bring some semblance of fortune as a deck crew. whilst, he'd imparted with the sort of excited naivety a boy age fourteen years of living would, i could go about to see the world, as well. killing two birds with one stone, hans had told him quietly right back that first night they'd spoken, while mikkel coyly nodded. again, he's a hearty lad. hardworking, good. every instructions hans laid out, the very few he could as they worked among other sailors, he'd followed well. smart, too.

it's unfortunate, is what it is, that through the throbbing of the pain from where the welts where his brother had laid his whips and tore at hans' skin, the boy has to bear witness to this as well. hans could hear him cry somewhere in the background, hurrying someone else inside their room. foolish, foolish boy ! he thinks vehemently, though he has no strength—nor attention—to genuinely scold. his back feels as though his prince brother alek had burned the flesh along with the whipping; it is searing. hans grunts, cries, and screams a guttural scream into the floors of the inn—if only, for a moment, he could direct the excruciating pain elsewhere.

mikkel is crouching besides hans now , tears stream down his face as he informs hans that he had brought in a healer. ❛⠀LEAVE ! ❜ hans screams. all— and he thinks so jaggedly, haphazardly, as though his own train of thoughts could not bear the pain long enough to have the words strung together. all he needs is some balm, he thinks with a lot of effort, some clean clothes to clean the blood, and any drinks that could let him sleep. that is all. that is all. ❛⠀i need not to be attended to. i need— i need rest. please—leave me. ❜

in the end, he begs.

Sabrina’s heart was beating faster and faster the moment he spoke. Him just being at her shared apartment with Alex was already such a dangerous situation and she had pulled him aside and to her room so fast that she was sure that she had never moved so fast in her life. She knew Alex wasn’t home but she felt like Hans in any space that they actually shared together felt wrong and she didn’t need to upset the space more than she already had just by seeking Hans out again in the first place. The last time they spoke, Sabrina had cut him off and felt proud for holding her ground. Now....now she was being sucked back into his turmoil and she didn’t know if that was a good thing or bad thing. He left his fiancé. And while she wanted to hope it was for the noble reason it was because she was doing the very thing to him that he had done to her. It was all out in the open and worse...he was sad. At least she thought he was. It was hard to tell when she was feeling an overwhelming rush of it from him being in her depression room alone. She didn’t let many people in her space and him being there was putting her on edge. But he came to her because he was sad and felt she understood and she didn’t want to just....push him out because she was anxious. “I...I am sorry that happened.....maybe it was for the best....considering....everything....” She didn’t know where she stood with him now and she was scared to find out. “I....How can I....How can I help? Did you...Did you want to go...somewhere?”