The spell is broken

[Shimizu Susumu]

How cute.

Susumu's latest target was hanging around the sheriff's station, like he thought that was going to keep him alive. Weren't hunters supposed to be so badass that they didn't need to be afraid of those that went bump in the night? Was he really afraid of a little witch like Susumu?

His lips curved upward slightly. It didn't matter, though. The hunter could hide from a physical being but he couldn't hide from a spell.

Susumu, who sat beneath an umbrella in the summer heat, the tiny cafe across the sheriff's station the perfect waiting position. All he needed was a line of sight and a bit of hair. He already got the hair from an altercation between one of Susu's "friends" and he now looked at the tuft of hair between his fingers.

He let it drop into the thermos in front of him.

The stink of the dark magic briefly made him wrinkle his nose. Then it was gone, as quick as it had come. There he is. Susumu began to whisper the words of the spell as he stared at the man. But before the spell could properly wrap about its target, somebody hit Susumu in the arm, causing him to spill the contents of the thermos all over the table.

Susumu immediately got to his feet and turned toward the idiot who ruined his spell.

[Alva Ren]

"Ah--I'm so sorry!"

Alva put out a hand but the thermos had already tilted, spilling a strange-colored liquid all over the table. He had been trying to navigate between the tables to get out onto the sidewalk but something caught in the wheels of his chair, causing it to jerk suddenly. As he attempted to keep himself from falling, he bumped the elbow of the man close by and--well, a perfect mess ensued.

Wrinkling his nose a little at the noxious concoction beginning to congeal--was it oriental medicine?--Alva sheepishly looked up into a rather angry face. Understandably, anyone would be upset at having their drink spilled. Alva just wasn't sure he didn't do the man a favor by knocking the thermos over because what was inside looked terribly unappealing!

"Oh!" He exclaimed softly as his brows arched in surprise. "It's you!"

It was him! The man from the library! Alva had seen him checking out books--same kinds of books that he, himself, had been looking up, on various forms of white and black magic. For Alva it was mostly background reading, since he had no magical abilities to speak of and his fox form was, to put it bluntly, as crippled as his human form so he wasn't even really a whole shifter. But that was also precisely the reason that he was picking up books on magic, in the hopes that he might find some sort of cure.

However, he quickly realized with a jolt of embarrassment that just because he knew the man didn't necessarily mean that the man knew him! So he hastened to explain, "I've seen you at the-the library." Sheesh. He had to stop blurting things out--he was starting to act like Rae!

"I'm so sorry about your drink. Will you let me buy you another one?"

[Shimizu Susumu]

The spell was broken--completely ruined. The curse dripped all over the table's frosted glass top. Its smell filled the air and the glass began to change color from a sweet frosty white to a disgusting greenish brown not unlike a swampy mud. Luckily, the table was ringed in iron, so the spell remained on the table top and didn't touch either himself or the idiot who smashed into his arm.

Susumu looked him over. As tall as he was and as low as the person was, it took him a moment. The other man was in a wheelchair. Even before the apology, it was obvious that what happened had been an accident. The way Susumu's heart beat faster in the moment where he thought he'd been caught felt almost like a cruel joke now. No reason to lose his calm. This was just a silly little accident. Still, Susumu's sharp gaze slid across the street, where his target was no longer within sight. Susumu sighed and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose briefly.

Me? He lowered his hand and looked down at the man. How did he know him? Immediately, his adrenaline was back and he was in fight mode. Should he rip a hair out of him and cast the curse on him before he could do anything about him first? His fingers began to form into pinching mode but they settled as the man continued, sounding utterly disarming, naive, and completely without ulterior motives.

Had he seen this man at the library? Actually, come to think of it... He had. The library was a common haunt for Susumu and this man had been spending more and more time there--especially lately.

"Oh, no." He wrinkled his nose slightly at the ruined curse. "That was just... a health shake I brought from home." And cleaning it was going to be interesting. He grabbed a fistful of napkins from the dispenser on the table but the curse soaked them immediately. "I've noticed you at the library as well. You've been coming a lot more lately. Studying something?"

[Alva Ren]

"Ah. A health... shake."

He had to pause after saying 'health' because the liquid on the table was taking on a puke-green tinge, mingled with the muddy brown in noxious swirls. It sure didn't look healthy. Alva suddenly felt distinctly light-headed and put a hand to his temple briefly, blinking rapidly a few times. What was that strange scent in the air? It wasn't entirely unpleasant but it made him feel a touch dizzy.

Trying to shake off the odd feeling and hoping that it would pass soon, he reached for napkins on the adjacent table to try and help with the clean-up. Funny how no matter how many napkins were used, the liquid stayed just as full on top of the table. As soon as the napkins came into contact with the mess, they were soaked but even after a good handful, there was still quite a lot of liquid remaining.

"I was just doing some light reading," he explained as he tossed another handful, watching them rapidly turning the same color as the 'health shake.' "I--oh..." The world spun. He tilted forward and had to brace a hand against the edge of the table; his fingertips just dipped into the spilled liquid, for the barest fraction of a second, before he jerked them back.

[Shimizu Susumu]

Yes, yes. His health shake. He got the distinct feeling that the man didn't quite believe him. Hmph. Well, it was the color of something that came out of a sick person so he could imagine why he'd think it was the exact opposite. It looked, in fact, like the poison sludge that it was. The way the spell worked, the curse needed a part of the person and it needed some time to sink in. Had he not been interrupted, that noxious little cloud of gas would have hunted down the intended target and cursed him--and rightfully so. He was on Susumu's hit list.

Instead, it was taking over the small table and it wasn't quite soaking up... because it was meant to enter a body as it rose into its gaseous form. Unfortunately... it was doing just that. They just had to make sure not to--Susumu went rigid before his hand shot out to the man, seeing how he was starting to brace against the table.

"No!" The word passed his lips just too late. And his hand grasped the younger man's wrist seconds too late. "Did you touch it?" he asked harshly, turning the man's wrist in his hand. The spell had touched him. It had reached a target.

[Alva Ren]

What was this strange feeling? It was like something was grasping at his throat, blocking off his airway. "I..." Alva's brows knit together as he tried to get a hold on what was happening. His captured hand twitched; there was nothing on his fingertips when he looked at them but he swore he touched the liquid on the table. "Just a little," he forced out, as the squeezing seemed to intensify around his throat.

Alva coughed and shivered. "What--" he croaked, bending forward as a sudden spasm of pain rocketed through him. It was like nothing he had ever felt before. A strange darkness encroached on the edges of his vision; his skin prickled and cold sweat broke out along his body.

"Ohh... I feel..." Strange. Heavy. Yet, his head was light. It was the rest of his body that was leaden. Dimly he felt his heart pounding and heard the rush of blood in his ears. Darkness danced before his eyes.

That was no health shake, he realized a beat too late. The man was a witch, Alva guessed that before today but he never thought that he would be so brazen as to do something like this out in public.

[Shimizu Susumu]

The liquid was basically the curse in a concentrated dose. Had it done its job, it would have followed that asshole hunter around and made him sick for days before he succumbed to a withering death that no amount of healthcare could save him from. The young man in the chair had touched it and the curse moved quickly. The curse had already seeped into his skin, just as it had done with the napkins.

Witchcraft was a dangerous thing to practice in public the way he had done. He should have been more careful. Hunters were his main target--not innocent disabled people who happened upon him on accident.

Any witch worth his salt had counter curses and antidotes, though.

Quickly, Susumu pulled his coat off and let it soak up the rest of the damned curse before thrusting it deep into the nearest garbage receptacle. Hopefully by the time anybody else happened upon it, it would have dried. Leaving a cursed coat out in public wasn't ideal but he had no way of taking it back with him without touching it and ending up in a similar position as the other man. Covering the coat with as many napkins as he could pull from the nearby dispenser, he turned back to the young man.

He had passed out. Swearing softly in Japanese under his breath, Susumu checked his pulse. Still alive. Lucky for him, the man was in a wheelchair, so moving him wasn't difficult at all. He was smaller than Susu, too, so when he got to his car, it was just a matter of picking him up and sliding him into the backseat, storing away the wheelchair and then speeding back home.

This was not ideal; he didn't know who he was dealing with and didn't necessarily want him to know where he lived but it was that or leave him to let the curse kill him.

Back at his apartment, Susumu laid the man out on his futon so he could roll up his sleeves and get to work. Curses were his speciality. Not so much taking them off; as he worked on the potion, he wondered if it would lead to some kind of permanent problem. The curse was a strong one, meant to kill within days. It was meant to be painful.

While the potion was steeping, Susumu checked the man for identification. Alva Ren. He had a phone, too, although it had a lock screen that Susumu didn't bother trying to crack. He set the things down on the table, watching Alva struggle even in his unconscious state. Great. So he cursed somebody who had already been cursed physically. After a moment, Susu looked away, disgusted with himself. And somewhere out there, another hunter went blissfully free.

When the potion was finished, Susumu brought it over, then took the man's limp hand and slipped it inside the mug, so that the point of contact met the same point of contact. He hoped it worked; reversing curses had never really been his style...

[Alva Ren]

Alva drifted in and out of consciousness, as his entire body was wracked with shivers and shakes. Sometimes he awakened to horrible pain and thrashed back and forth on the futon, but had no voice to scream. His eyes refused to open; his mouth worked but no sound came out. Unconsciousness became a blessing and a relief as darkness claimed him sporadically.

When he finally came back to full consciousness, he let out an agonized groan and twitched his hand from the wet sensation surrounding his fingers. It felt like his entire body was on fire, every nerve ending flashing and every cell aflame. Alva took in an unsteady breath and even the air was hot. Deliriously he muttered Rae's name and reached out with his free hand to grasp at what felt like a sleeve, with weak fingers.

"...What...?" It happened only earlier but his recollection of what happened was spotty at best. There was a little cafe... He went in to get something to eat while waiting for word from Ryland... Something happened and there was the man from the library...

Alva tossed and turned restlessly. His too-heavy eyelids refused to cooperate and opened only a slit when he tried to look around to the effect that everything he did see was blurred and indistinct. The only solid, real thing was the cloth between his fingers and he clutched it as tightly as he could like it was a lifeline.

[Shimizu Susumu]

He was going to get up and check the spell book for more information after he administered the anti-curse but he was stopped by Alva grabbing onto his sleeve and clutching onto it. When Susumu attempted to pull his arm back, it seemed like the grip only grew tighter. It was to be expected. The pain alone could kill a man but there would be nightmares, too. Susumu wondered if his nightmares had anything to do with the legs.

Rae, he said. Or Ray. Susumu tilted his head and watched the young man trying to open his eyes but his eyes didn't seem to be cooperating. The potion probably paralyzed his entire body with pain for a while. For somebody who was already halfway there, that was probably a nightmare in itself.

Not being totally heartless, Susumu lightly brushed dampened hair away from Alva's eyes. The curse worked so quickly because of its liquid form. Hopefully the reversal would be just as swift. It didn't seem like it, though. If he were a white witch, he could heal what he had done to him but his abilities didn't lie in that realm, unfortunately.

"It'll be over soon," he said in a soothing tone, then eyed the concoction. It might work even faster if he ingested it. But when he attempted to bring it to Alva's lips, his body shook and spasmed too much--half of it ended up on Susumu's pants and the futon. Only slightly frustrated, Susumu set it back down on the coffee table and dipped his own fingertips into it.

"Here..." He pressed his fingertips to Alva's lips. "Open your mouth."

[Alva Ren]

It was the night that Bryan died.

As he fell back into unconsciousness, it was that scene which replayed in Alva's dreams, the sharp report of a gunshot and the smell of smoke and blood and death in the air. He could still hear the frightened cries of Ryland and himself as they bolted for home, mapping out a zig-zagging course between tree trunks, the way that their parents taught them to. They were twin streaks of red and gray in the night but they could never have outrun a bullet.

Alva arched almost off the futon with a low, distressed cry as the bullet hit him--in the back, snapping his spine--in his dreams. All he remembered was the searing pain, and then... nothing. Numbness where once there was feeling. He had fallen heavily and luckily the impetus of his fall rolled him underneath the root of a tree, where he dragged himself into deep loam to hide.

His flailing knocked aside the cup and he didn't even feel the splash of potion against one side of his face. Alva's whimper was almost all animal, the scared whine of a fox as it hid down beneath a layer of mouldy leaves and broken branches. Thankfully the hunter passed him by. Luckily he hadn't thought to check Alva's hiding place.

With the departure of the hunter, Alva's movements subsided too. He laid softly panting on the futon as he awakened by degrees. Something damp was pressed to his lips. Open your mouth, a voice said and mindlessly, Alva obeyed. He opened his mouth and curled his tongue around the fingers that were pressed to them. Something pleasant spread across his tongue. It was a nice taste, a soothing, calming sweetness, so Alva suckled gently, swirling his tongue to get the most of the potion.

He hardly realized how lewd the motions may have been. Aside from being only partly conscious, he was... well, being with Rae for so many years, he learned how to be creative with various parts of his body.

[Shimizu Susumu]

Hm. There was definitely something animalistic in the sounds that Alva made. It could have been the pain from the curse or it could be a part of his nightmares. Or it could mean more. Susumu was quick and sharp--he knew about the shifters in the area. He couldn't tell exactly what was happening but he understood that the arching back meant something, that it was connected to the useless legs. A lot of the shifters and other supernaturals in the area were in harm's way. That was why they needed somebody like Susumu--somebody to take care of their would-be hunters.

"Ah."

Really, all Alva had to do was let the potion drip back into his throat or even let it moisten his lips before licking it off. Instead... Ahem. Alva's tongue was slick and warm as it rasped over his fingers, suckling every drop. Not hungrily, either. Not like a dog after a bit of peanut butter. Alva's face was sweet. His lashes were dark, casting a shadow over his cheeks. His lips were soft and full. Something in Susu's groin stirred and tightened. His heart beat faster.

"That's enough." His voice was rougher than he intended as he removed his hand. He ran his hand over his own leg, but it did nothing to deter the soft tingle Alva's ministrations left against his skin. Or maybe that was the anti-curse. He studied Alva for a long moment, watching to see if his color returned. After a moment, he slid two fingers over his throat to check his pulse.

"It seems to be working." His hand moved to gently take Alva's chin in hand to turn his head and his gaze toward him as he leaned forward. His eyes searched Alva's as they worked to open, trying to get a glimpse of his pupils. "How do you feel?"

[Alva Ren]

By degrees, the pain and the darkness receded and Alva was left aching and sore all over. His skin tingled unpleasantly and he became aware that he was laying in a damp patch. Was that his own cold sweat? Or was it something else? Slowly his eyes opened, sluggishly but no longer with the same heaviness as before.

A man's face swam into view as his vision cleared, an almost painfully handsome face hovering very close. Alva blinked dazedly as he tried to process what the man was asking. How did he... feel? Alva's brows drew together; he gave it a long period of thought before he spoke, wearily. "Hurts... all over." Everywhere above the waist still felt the aftermath, still burned and stung. Under the waist, as always, there was a total absence of sensation.

"Who...?" He struggled to speak since his throat was swollen and his tongue felt like sandpaper. But the sweetness was still there, just at the back of his throat. He swallowed and laboriously reached up to touch the man's jaw, just to make sure he wasn't part of the horrible dream too. "What... happened?"

[Shimizu Susumu]

"Hm."

Hurts all over, he said. That was to be expected. Alva would probably be in pain for some time yet. He was just lucky that Susu was around when he got himself cursed. Or, as Susu reminded himself, he was cursed by him. That had never been his intention and he still felt thoroughly guilty for his part in it. Funny how protection could go so wrong so quickly. Whomever Alva was, he certainly wasn't a hunter. He couldn't be, not in his condition. There was nothing on his person to suggest he might be affiliated with them, either.

Susu's lips parted to answer the question who? but he paused while Alva reached up to touch him. Susu let him make contact with his jaw, not fully sure what he was doing it for. The way he looked at him, it was as if he had been dredged from the deepest recesses of a dream. Nightmare, It had definitely been a nightmare. Swallowing hard, Susu turned his head away.

"Let me get you some water." He rose from the futon and quickly took the mostly emptied glass of his anti-curse with him. Setting it on the counter, he nudged it away while he reached for a new glass to fill with clean, cool water. When he came back, he sat gingerly on the edge of the futon. Not really trusting Alva's current abilities, he took hold of one of Alva's hands and set the glass directly against the palm.

"Can you hold it?"

[Alva Ren]

Thank goodness he was real. He was real and solid and not something from out of Alva's nightmares. Letting the hand drop limply, Alva settled back against the futon and dimly nodded. Soon the man had returned and placed a glass of something cool into his hand. His fingers curled automatically around the glass. They felt shaky and weak but he could just about hold on.

"Yes... I think so..." Slowly, with almost exaggerated care, Alva brought the glass to his lips. He tilted it, opening his lips to drink, and managed one sip before his hand lost all strength. The glass tumbled out of his nerveless fingers, splashing water all over the front of his shirt as he coughed. Some of the water spilled into his mouth but went down the wrong way.

"Ah-- I'm sorry!" Clumsily he made an attempt to right the now-empty glass, with water dripping all over his shirt. Crap. Alva's cheeks heated up. He didn't want to look like an idiot any more than the next guy and he'd just made a silly fool of himself, upending the glass like that.

[Shimizu Susumu]

"Don't be," Susu said as he quickly made a grab for the glass before it tumbled onto the wooden floor and shattered. Slippery as it was, it was a miracle he didn't--it only thumped hard against his ribs as he clutched it close. Water was everywhere and even poor Alva didn't seem to get much of it down, what with all the coughing and spluttering.

I did this to you, he should have said. He didn't. He looked down at the glass for a moment and then got up to refill it. As he stood at the refrigerator, he bit his lower lip. How much should he say? If he said too much, Alva would just be overwhelmed. Now wasn't the time to explain anything. Now was the time to let the anti-curse reverse the effects of the curse. Water would help though. What couldn't be fixed by a little water?

Coming back, he held the glass of water.

"Allow me?"