#lielie

It’s his grandfather that he has to lean on when the call comes, the best of the people crowding the waiting room to keep an eye on a sedated Faolan so that Gabe can deal with the call he’s received. His wife was here, not for Fiona but for herself, for injuries she received. Injuries that he couldn’t account for, that she wouldn’t give him a cause for over the phone. That told him enough to make a guess, one he didn’t like the scent of at all. He hated it and feared it in equal measure, which was precisely why he ran down the hall of the hospital towards the room she indicated and nearly missed it by several feet, sneakers skidding on the linoleum. “Ah shite. Lielie!” He called, backpedaling and then darting into the room despite the look on the nurse’s face. Gabe held up a hand, showing his wedding ring, then found his way to his wife’s side as best he could with the table of supplies in his way. “What’d he do, Lielie? What did he do to you, darling? That’s what you wouldn’t tell me, isn’t it?” Burns, by the look of the skin that hadn’t been bandaged yet. Burns and bruises that were blooming on her skin, enough to make his blood boil, but the object of his ire wasn’t here. That was what he had to remember. Fiona was unconscious for now, Faolan was resting, his focus had to be here. With her. “What happened?”

 @aureliemarchand​ @arthur-talbot​

A point had been made to him a week prior that he shouldn’t wait out his illness until the last moment, that he had a better chance of rising if he wasn’t on death’s door at the time. By Arthur of course, who above all was a practical man who didn’t fuss around with sugar coating unless he was talking to his own children. Gabriel knew he was right, but he...well, he was afraid. It was fair to be afraid, he knew that well enough, but he also knew how short his time frame was to be messing about as well. By a week after that suggestion he was finding blood when he coughed, so finally he caved. His father was in the other room after a long, painful goodbye and his wife beside him on the sofa, with Arthur standing to the side. “I feel like one of those little old ladies in sitcoms who puts plastic on their sofa cushions.” Gabe said, prodding at the covers that he had bought the day before to avoid destroying their sofa. It had been pointed out to him that once he was drained he would collapse, so he was propped up on crinkly cushions across the chaise lounge portion of the sectional. They were all antsy, but he couldn’t put it off forever. So he sighed, then reached into his pocket for the rosary he had snagged when he was upstairs. “Lielie, ma vie, my entire soul. Your mother gave me this when I went to the funeral we held for you. So I want you to have it back. Even if I rise.” He said, grabbing her hand to fold it inside. A quick kiss, a smile he wasn’t really feeling, and he turned to Arthur. “Well, if I wait until I’m ready I’ll be waiting all my life. So I suppose now?”

Date: September 20th, 2020 Time: 12:11 pm Location: His home on Willow Ave

@aureliemarchand 

“Nope, nope, that was a doorway ma vie. I’m quite terrible at this apparently.” Gabriel said, wincing slightly as he backed away from the crown molding he had just smacked his knee into trying to guide himself down the hallway. Fine, she won. He reached back for her hand and let himself be led, though his other hand he brushed along beside him so that he didn’t hit anything else on wherever she intended on taking him. Come home early, she had said on the phone. Something to show him, something important but not speeding important, as if she knew how he drove whenever she was one place and he another. So he had not resisted the blindfold at the door of a house he had lived in nearly a year and he had been willing to bumble his way down the hall with minimal prodding. It was better to follow though, wasn’t it? Especially when you were a congenital klutz like he was. Disoriented entirely, Gabe was led to a stop in a room he couldn’t pinpoint but the blindfold stayed on. Alas, not a seduction attempt given she had dropped his hand. A thought for another time. “Ah yes, I see you brought me home to look at the inside of this scarf of yours. It’s uh...” Gabe shrugged, grinning despite himself. “It’s very beautiful. The polka dots are like stars when they’re jammed against your eyes.” She pinched his arm and he let out a proper laugh, shaking his head at the situation. “Lielie, what is all this?”

If he was to be truthful with himself, this was worse than the first loss, and perhaps that was why he had abandoned any semblance of self care past the bare minimum the moment she walked out of his apartment. He gave her the choice, she took it, and he regretted every damned word he had thrown at her the moment she began to speak. Maybe it was his empathy, the Fae half of his genetics, that had made it so easy for a miserable Gabriel to pick up double pneumonia in the middle of May. Didn’t the stories talk about Fae willing themselves to waste away out of grief? He wasn’t sure, but he was also on a rather stupendous mixture of antibiotics, decongestants, and codeine laced cough syrup right about now. He also was standing near his door holding the same mail from several minutes ago, having realized that he hadn’t even processed the action at all. That was good, that was...there was a knock at the door, swift as lightning and just as quickly it opened. Brynn didn’t enter like that, neither did his Da, and the whole thing made his head spin enough that he lost his footing turning around to look. The sofa arm narrowly saved him from hitting the floor, but it wasn’t easy to right himself again. Nor was it easy to process just who was looking at him, or to handle the jolt of pain in his chest at the sight of her. He looked like shit, that could account for some of what he saw, but it still didn’t make sense. “I thought...I thought you weren’t coming back. That you didn’t want to see me again.” He said hoarsely. “I deserve as much, I think.”

He thought nothing of Brynn’s remark about how she had let an old friend of his upstairs earlier to wait for him at the time. There were few people who sought him out and Brynn? She had solid judgement on the relative danger or annoyance levels of anyone she met. She had mentioned it as a brief aside as he was heading upstairs and she was heading out for the day, Saturday being her normal half day of the week. So it was probably Lenie or Shiloh, maybe even his Da, which was precisely why he opened his door without another thought towards the matter. It wasn’t until he was heading towards the kitchen that he caught sight of her, and his eyes went wide, his hands suddenly loose around the handles of his grocery bags. They fell to the floor with a solid thunk just as he could feel tears coming to his eyes. It couldn’t be, it was entirely...and yet there she was. Could he be hallucinating? He’d never done so before, he watched his bloody sugar so he wasn’t going too low and all that nonsense. He wasn’t sick, for once. “You’re dead, Lielie.” Gabe said hoarsely. “Je suis allé à tes funérailles.” He paused, still frozen in place. “Mon coeur est mort avec toi.”

Exactly

how dare that Lowly Creature Uses My Boy Ao Lie as His PFP, My guy is The Complete opposite of this Loser.

Very Respectful, Very Nice, always there to Help JiuYue