CHULANE
Chulane took a step back when the water started, averting his eyes from the thin, bruised and battered form that was Korbin. The boy had once claimed to be totally apathetic towards him, and so why should he feel shame and embarrassment that Chulane saw him this way now? Had things changed?
That was a stupid thought. Of course things had changed.
He didn't know if things between them had changed for better or worse, but he couldn't stop himself from caring for the boy who had saved him off the Tundra those handful of months ago. He knew that Korbin had some good in him, had some promise, some hint of something great, and yet it seemed Korbin thought that quality had dissolved when Weaver had passed, and only sought to meet her in whatever afterlife Caido offered.
He himself felt helpless against the pit of despair Korbin so clearly currently occupied. Who was he to try and help him out of it? To offer him a hand, to prolong his suffering in his grief?
He had already turned his back to give the boy privacy before Korbin had even shed his underwear. Once they plopped wetly on the ground, Chuy simply gathered them up with the rest of the boy's clothes and stepped outside the washroom, gently closing the door behind him.
In the hallway was Lenny, with the same matronly healer Korbin had managed to get for Chulane not long ago. Chuy kept the wry smirk to himself as he nodded for her to enter, handing her a fresh change of clothes to take in for Korbin. He then stepped quickly to the room he had prepaid Lenny for Korbin's use, and hung the coat over the back of the chair, before putting the rest in the laundry-room of the lodge, to be dealt with later.
He returned to the hallway just outside the washroom then, patiently waiting for the healer to be done with her craft, hoping to have a less-cut-and-bruised Korbin step out soon enough.
That was a stupid thought. Of course things had changed.
He didn't know if things between them had changed for better or worse, but he couldn't stop himself from caring for the boy who had saved him off the Tundra those handful of months ago. He knew that Korbin had some good in him, had some promise, some hint of something great, and yet it seemed Korbin thought that quality had dissolved when Weaver had passed, and only sought to meet her in whatever afterlife Caido offered.
He himself felt helpless against the pit of despair Korbin so clearly currently occupied. Who was he to try and help him out of it? To offer him a hand, to prolong his suffering in his grief?
He had already turned his back to give the boy privacy before Korbin had even shed his underwear. Once they plopped wetly on the ground, Chuy simply gathered them up with the rest of the boy's clothes and stepped outside the washroom, gently closing the door behind him.
In the hallway was Lenny, with the same matronly healer Korbin had managed to get for Chulane not long ago. Chuy kept the wry smirk to himself as he nodded for her to enter, handing her a fresh change of clothes to take in for Korbin. He then stepped quickly to the room he had prepaid Lenny for Korbin's use, and hung the coat over the back of the chair, before putting the rest in the laundry-room of the lodge, to be dealt with later.
He returned to the hallway just outside the washroom then, patiently waiting for the healer to be done with her craft, hoping to have a less-cut-and-bruised Korbin step out soon enough.
it is better to know some of the questions
than all of the answers
than all of the answers
