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Someone had been inside the quaint little room. It wasn't the same as the last time he remembered seeing it. The blankets had been moved, shuffled around, and it seemed as if someone had scavenged through the place at one point or another. Seeing it all made him hopeful but not hopeful enough to keep the doubt in his heart and mind from springing forward. She had been a stranger, after all, no matter how alike he had felt to her in whatever way it was. Still, she had mentioned Laurent by name, said that he had returned and was looking for him. How would she have known that he had gone in the first place?
Stepping further into the empty room, Jasper turned his back to the bed, settling down in an awkward fashion on the very edge. He inhaled, sniffed and struggled and tried again, but it did him no good. Someone had obviously been in there at some point or another but, because he could no longer smell, he couldn't tell how long ago that it was or even if it actually had been Laurent. Despite the unsuccessful search for the man that he had missed so badly, Jasper couldn't bring himself to leave. At least not yet. "Laurie?" He called out into the silence, timid and quiet, hoping he might get an answer back.
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Of course, he didn't. Laurent was sleeping, sleeping so deeply and what appeared to be so soundly that he didn't hear his boy as he came into their room. Rather than using the bed they had made for themselves, curling up in somewhat normal fashion, Laurent was sleeping underneath the bed frame like a true dog. Growling every once in awhile, thrashing until he struck something and it hurt him, Laurent had no idea that he was making any sort of impression on the outward world he was letting pass him by.
The sound of someone calling out his name, of coming into the space that had so very intimately been theirs didn't stir him completely out of sleep, but only caressed him, soothing him further. He mumbled something intelligently, something mixed between 'Jasper' and 'Love' that was just garbled enough that it couldn't quite be made out. The man shivered again, and jolted strongly, kicking out at the leg of the bed enough to make it jump.
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After a few moments of silence, Jasper was certain he wasn't going to receive the answer that he had been waiting for. Unaware of just how wrong he was, the sandy young male prepared himself to stand so that he could further rummage around the room, only to be met by the faint sound of something beneath him. The sound made him plant his rump firmly back down onto the bed, jerking his feet and legs up as if there was some sort of monster waiting to grab him and pull him underneath. The simple fact was, it very well could have been a monster, and he wouldn't be sure until he either looked or the thing showed itself.
That was what he thought, at least, as he leaned over to peer at the floor. A foot came shooting out, startling the young man and making him jump. He scampered back to the middle of the bed on his hands and knees, waiting for the silence to return before scooting forward. With each hand on the end of the bed, he peered over once more. The leg looked awfully familiar, that was his first thought, and he couldn't deny that it belonged to someone of the same species as him. Reaching one hand down, a single finger extended, he stopped it before actually touching. He wanted to poke it, feel the leg, even if only because the color of the fur that lined it looked so much like Laurent's.
Instead, Jasper extended his other arm as well, reaching out until both hands laid flat on the floor and he drug himself from atop the bed. On his hands and knees once more, he spun, careful not to disturb the appendage, and dropped himself to lay on the floor. The sight was there immediately, one he hadn't expected he would ever see again, slumbering quietly. The monster under the bed was really his Knight in Shining Armour. Scooting forward some, Jasper laid his head flat on the ground until he was able to stick it up under the bed, reaching out with one arm to faintly touch the slumbering man. "Laurie.."
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He didn't realize when Jasper came so close, didn't even register in his head that Jasper was right there next to him, right there in the room they had shared with all of their memories and times together. Even just lazy nights of telling stories, of exchanging sweet nothings and eventually falling asleep curled up together. It was all so easy to recall, but Laurent had purposely put it off, afraid of those feelings and afraid to face knowing that he had been too late to save Jasper. Fatin had known what to do, and if he had set out at the start of things, not waited until Jasper had been sick then maybe, just maybe, he could have saved them all. But when he came home, Jasper was gone, and he had lost everything.
When he heard his name again, he thought it a piece of his dream and rolled over, curling up into a ball as if to ward his mother off. "Five more...." And he was out again. He'd been asleep since yesterday, with really no intentions of waking up again. Colibri had been a kind friend to take care of him when she could visit, but the cripple didn't want to lean on people forever. He'd always imagined himself being strong enough to hold them all up, to save the world. But he hadn't been fast enough, and Fatin too tied down to make the trip herself. What had meant to be a few weeks turned in to a few months, and he felt all the guilt crash down on him, weighing him down.
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Jasper couldn't help but wonder, laying there in the silence, just how long ago Laurent had gotten back. Jasper hadn't even been able to say goodbye to him, to sick and out of it to have an inkling of what was going on. He hadn't found out that Laurent had gone until he'd gotten a bit better, which only made his state from then on worse. On top of that Jasper was still struggling to hide the random twitches that came, something that had gone on since he'd gotten better. Something neurological, whatever that meant, which was what he had deducted from the few scattered books he had read. Whatever it was, at least it wasn't so scary anymore.
Laurent's words hit his ears and Jasper quickly realized that he was still a bit out of it, not awake enough to realize what was going on. "Okay.." He nodded his head, if only at himself, and scooted up farther under the bed. "Five more minutes and then you have to wake up." Because it didn't matter how long they had been apart or how much Jasper had desperately missed him, he didn't have the heart to wake the tired man. Using his elbows to help him along, he drug himself farther under the bed until only his legs were sticking out, scooting close to Laurent and pressing himself there to wait for him to wake up.
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The more he heard the voice the more comfortable he got. He relaxed, letting go of the tension in his muscles and eventually he was calm enough so that he could stretch out in gentle motions, not jerk around thrashing uncontrollably. He moved slightly until he was brushing against Jasper's body, which was now close enough that they could touch. He shivered, drawing back in a sudden jerk as if the body was burning hot to his touch. His lithium eyes opened slowly, and he blinked repeatedly to try and reduce the haze. No way.
He tried to sit up, forgetting for a moment that he was underneath their bed and he struck his head, muttering a curse. He sat back on his elbows, one hand massaging his head weakly. "I'm dreamin'...." He told himself, stating it firmly. There was absolutely no way that Jasper was really here, after all this time. "Boy always saw ghosts; no wonder he's come to haunt me now." He muttered, and looked at the figure of his beloved. He wanted to reach out, wanted to touch him.....but it would hurt too much when it wasn't really Jasper, it would hurt too much when he knew the truth that it was in fact just a dream.
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In the comfort of the moment, in the warmth and the simple knowledge that Laurent was so close to him after so long, he might have been able to drift to sleep himself. He did his best to stay awake though, forcing his eyes to stay open and focus on the sleeping man. In a way Jasper was afraid that, in the case that he did fall asleep, he might wake up only to find Laurent missing again. It would have been a good sleep though, a calm one without the worry of someone finding him and doing something bad to him. It was still hard to sleep in Inferni, even knowing that Corona had been there and that any of the others hardly ever came into the house.
For a brief moment his eyes had drifted closed, only to be prompted open by the sound of movement and the faint feeling of it. He saw Laurent again, just in time to watch him bang his head on the underside of the bed, and whined faintly at the fact. "Are you-" The words came promptly, faintly, only to be cut off by the quiet ramblings that seemed to come from the other man. "Rusalki didn't come." He assured him, still not quite sure what Laurent was going on about. He hadn't seen his ghost friend in some time, now that he thought about it. "It's just me."
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That voice all his rhyme and reason seeped away and he sighed softly. Almost resigning himself to the fact he was crazy, to the details of his madness that spread like a wildfire burning on broken dreams. He all but melted as those soft tones dragged themselves all the way to the depths of his soul. "Jasper.." He murmured, dropping his gaze because it was way too painful to look at him. "You...Rusalki should have been here, to show you things." of course his first instinct was to think that someone should have been helping him, should have been showing him the way of things. "Jasper...I didn't come back in time." He said softly. "You know you're dead right?" he asked, and his voice broke, catching on the emotions that ran rampant through his body.
It hurt to look at him, hurt to be here next to him and not be able to hold him, it hurt to realize that it was all his fault and there was nothing that could be done. He hadn't been fast enough, he hadn't been good enough, and in the end he was responsible for losing the only thing he'd ever given a damn about in his life. Laurent was a man who didn't need. He was a wandering vagabond, he was happy to go where the wind took him. Jasper had changed everything, Jasper had made it so different. When Jasper came back into his picture he had broken his resolve, wandering felt wrong and leaving wasn't an option. And now, without Jasper, what would he do with himself?
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His name was spoken and the young man lifted his head even more, eyes falling on Laurent's face. "Rusalki shows me lots of things..." He tried to explain quietly, confused. He wasn't entirely certain whether Laurent was awake enough to really understand what he was saying or what was going on. It just seemed like sleepy rambling, but the sadness in his lover's face and the way he moved his eyes away scared the young man. Laurent was supposed to be happy to see him again, happy that he had gotten well and that they had been reunited. The only thing preventing that, that he could think of, was that something had happened to Laurent while he was away.
His next words both surprised and left Jasper confused. He was dead? How did it happen and when? It didn't make sense, though the more that he thought about it, the more convinced he had become. How did someone know that they were dead? Rusalki seemed to know, but maybe someone had told him also. "R-really?" He asked quietly, confused. "Am I haunting you?" Maybe he had died a very short time ago and had found Laurent only because he was meant to haunt him. Fighting off the confusion and the many thoughts that filled his head, he lifted a single hand to touch himself on the chest. Solid. From there he moved that hand, aiming for Laurent's leg. Instead of going right through, though, his hand landed on top of Laurent's leg, fingers feeling the softness of his fur and the warmth that his body gave off. From what he had experienced with Rusalki, he was fairly certain that ghosts weren't supposed to be able to do that.
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