“You know,” Ari said, shifting the cookies he’d just finished baking onto a tray to cool down, bringing the tray to rest on the low coffee table in Gil and Rowan’s living area. “I was like…two. Or one? When these came out. I didn’t get to watch them for a few years after but my brother was obsessed, so I learned a lot from him. For example, did you know there were over eighteen thousand costumes made for the three films? And that the first scene was filmed October 11th, 1999?” Gil's eyebrows shot up. He always kept forgetting that Ari was actually young, not just looked young.

Gil was not alone in his reaction, Rowan’s eyebrows might not have moved, but his eyes had definitely got bigger when Ari confessed to just how young he was. Admittedly, Rowan wasn’t old or even ancient by any stretch of the imagination, but he was more pushing eighty than he was twenty’ish.

With the tray placed down, Ari tucked his hair behind his ear (glamour firmly in place because Gil may have seen his fae features but Rowan hadn’t yet) and then rested a hand on his hip. “Either of you want anything else while I’m on my feet? This is a limited time offer, I’ll have you know…”

When Ari said movies, Gil did not expect this to mean a marathon. Like a real real marathon. But spending a day hanging out with Ari and Rowan was something that would be nice. He finished his written exams earlier this week, so taking a day to just be was something that he was enjoying. He kept his glamour on, even if Ari had seen him separately, but it just seemed polite at the moment.

"Eighteen thousand costumes," he repeated and looked back at the screen. "That's a lot of work." He leaned over and grabbed a cookie, because he had no shame and clearly Ari was feeding his sweet tooth obsession. "You already fed me cookies." And then Gil's eyes lit up, and he put the cookie back down and sprinted to the kitchen, pulling out ice cream container from the freezer. "Cookies and ice cream?" He stood next to Ari, offering it. "Right? RIGHT?"

Rowan’s mouth was opened to ask for a soda when Gil was suddenly on his feet, racing over to the kitchen and the dragon couldn’t help but laugh at the burst of energy and enthusiasm that accompanied the movement. “I’m all for cookies and ice cream,” he hollered. “And a soda, definitely a soda.”

He paused and nodded towards the screen: "See? Elves are not really haughty. Especially wood elves. So I have words for Leggy-las."

Rowan lounged back onto the couch and reached up to rub a hand through his newly washed still slightly damp hair that was curling. “Leggy-las, I like that name better than his actual name.”

Ari snorted, nodding at Gil to take the ice-cream over to the couch while he grabbed sodas from the fridge, heading back in.

“You’re both dumb, Legolas is an important character!" Gil preened, mouthing: "wood elves are always important" but not interrupting Ari. Rowan barely repressed the grin that erupted across his face at Gil’s antics. "And okay so maybe not all elves but some have to be stuck up, right? I mean if I came from a place where monster spiders were—” he paused and then looked at Rowan with a grin because some of the spiders in Australia were huge, “—trying to kill me all the time I’d feel tense all the time too.”

“Huge,” Rowan agreed, really emphasising the word as if he could do the spiders back home any sort of justice. Honestly one of the worst things was to wake up with a spider on your pillow just staring at you.

Gil shrugged. "There may have been giant spiders, but like - why would you be stuck up about it to dwarves? Dwarves are friendly. I knew a dwarf fighter, and she was awesome. Taught me how to hold an axe." He grinned at Ari. "Look, yes, there are some haughty elves, just like there are haughty humans. But that attitude: it's just not good business, you know? People don't buy goods from assholes." And that part was true: his dad's shops very much depended on trades with other fae. "I just think this is a bit of an elf propaganda: we don't walk on top of snow, we are not the fairest of all creatures, and we definitely are not infallible, though yes - we blend in the woods." He paused and then added: "And we do date brunettes." Or at least he did

“Well, this is a seminal piece of fantasy, and pretty much formed the opinions of western fantasy for the last fifty years.” Ari pushed his fingers through his hair, “Do you want me to do dinner now or wait until we’ve finished the last film? I know we have snacks but…that’s not exactly proper food.”

Gil was standing there with an ice cream container, looking at Ari like he was from another planet: "what's wrong with ice cream and cookies?"

“Because contrary to what you might think, ice cream and cookies aren’t not food. Also, not all of us have hollow legs.” Gil could eat anything he wanted and never put any weight on or that was what Rowan had observed anyways. Gil settled back down on the table, and nudged Rowan: "You jealous?"

Rowan snorted at Gil’s question, rolling his eyes at the Fae. “Some of us work hard to look good, I’ll have you know.” He grinned a second later as he winked, glancing over to look at Ari. “I think we should finish the last film and then have dinner?”

“I mean they are food,” Ari said with a nod, “as in you eat them, but they’re not like… dinner or meal food. We’d need to have something with a bit more sustenance. I don’t mind cooking with what you’ve got or we can order pizza?”

At the mention of pizza it was possible to see Rowan’s entire face light up. “Pizza, definitely pizza. Also, sides, we gotta get sides.” What? Rowan ate and he ate a lot, his appetite was voracious in so many ways.

“I’m so glad I didn’t have to feed you when you were a teenager. Okay, I’ll stick through an order for pizza.”

"Wait, can we get one with pineapple on it?" Gil leaned over to where Ari was sitting to look over to the magical phone device, before settling back and sighing. "All right, all right. We can do real dinner for all of our extreme exercises afterwards." He paused and looked over at Ari and then Rowan. "For now, we can watch Return of the King. Let me guess- we are going to watch Aragorn become king? I have to say, he reminds me of my ex a lot. In looks. Not in everything else." He leaned over to grab the same cookie again, and put a scoop of ice cream on top.

….Wait, wait. Rowan turned his head and lifted an eyebrow. “You dated somebody that looks like Aragorn?”

Ari’s jaw dropped and then he pouted (just for a split second and it was gone), looking up from where he had been trying to place a pizza order on his phone. “You dated someone that looked like Aragorn?!”

Gil was paying attention to the still screen on the tv, before he got basically an echo of the question from Rowan and Ari, and turned his attention to them. "Yeah. I guess you'd say my boyfriend, but like - he had that same hair, and a bit of scruff, and yeah - he looked like that. Very close to it." It's been 7 years, but he could still picture Lumin: dark shoulder-length hair, a bit of scruff, a much sturdier build than Gil, who was truly a beanpole. For all of Lumin's mind-controlling tricks, the other man didn't need it to hold anyone's attention. "Why? Is that significant somehow?" He looked at his two friends, confusion obvious on his fine features. So his mind went to the only explanation possible: "I don't think I can easily find him, if you are trying to get a date. Apologies for the disappointment."

“Huh?” Rowan blinked, clearly confused. “Yeah, no. That wasn’t what I was going for. It’s just that- I mean, I think Aragorn is hot so the idea of somebody like that existing in the world that we inhabit is-” He placed both hands on either side of his head before mimicking the sound of an explosion with his mouth while wiggling his fingers in the universal sign for the mind being blown.

Gil shrugged about it. "Sometimes, things aren't as they appear. We all know that."

The dragon did however notice that the ordering of pizza had ceased and he stole a look over at Ari while clearing his throat, loudly and on purpose, looking pointedly at his phone.

Ari glanced away from Gil to look at Rowan when he cleared his throat. “What he said,” he mumbled. “Just—hot guy syndrome. Besides, he’s your ex for a reason, which probably means he’s not dateable material. And also, he’s off limits even if he was.”

“That, what Ari said,” Rowan agreed with a nod of his head. The bro code was a thing, it really was.

"He isn't. I mean, if he shows up, go for it. We broke up for external reasons." That was a good way of phrasing it.

“Honestly, I’m pretty sure we won’t go for it, if he turned up.” The fae cleared his throat and then blinked. “Wait, Gil? You want pineapple on your pizza?”

"Yeah! Can we? And once you click yes, I can get cash." He smiled, before pulling out a wad of cash as to how he kept his money. "Also, when you talk about hot guys, we need to do a mirror exercise" and before Ari could protest. . "For both of you. Like Aragorn got nothing." He paused, eyes cloudy a bit. "Besides, your guys' company is much more pleasant."

“I keep telling you, Gil. You need a bank account. One of these days somebody’s going to figure out how much cash you carry around and it will not be pretty.” They might also run the gauntlet of chance as far as a pissed off and over protective dragon was concerned, but that bit Rowan chose to keep to himself.  He frowned at the mention of a mirror exercise and glanced down at himself, knowing confidently he had a good set of abs, but he wasn’t too sure about his face. Ari and Gil were better looking. “He was a total douche, huh?”

“You don’t have a bank account?” Ari asked, adding the monstrosity that was Gil’s pizza request and then holding his phone out for Rowan to take and put his own order in. The dragon passed it back after browsing quickly through the selection and Ari pressed complete to put the order through. “How do you—do you get paid in cash? I have so many questions but they’re probably not—Let’s just finish the movie. Or start the movie. Oh god I need to be fed.” Ari slumped down on the couch, the tips of his ears pink in his embarrassment at his rambling.

Gil shrugged at Rowan's concern. "I don't carry all the money. This is mostly tens. I hide the rest." He looked over at Ari, sheepishly. "I didn't have all the ids until recently. So hard to open one. And I just cash the checks that I get. So it's fine." He nudged Ari lightly, before passing him a cookie and ice cream, because the fae looked adorable as he was sheepish. "We can finish the movie, and you can ask whatever you want." He looked over at Rowan. "Lumin wasn't a douche, but it was - umm - complicated is the easy way to describe it." He handed Ari the remote. "Here, start us off on the epic journey, quest, thing." He picked up a cookie, and curled up on the couch, half leaning against Ari. Because it was easy, and comfortable.

“I’m still hearing douche,” Rowan replied with a shrug of his shoulders. He glanced over as Ari slumped down into the middle of the couch almost deflating as he puddled, bemoaning about how hungry he was. He drew his leg up and rested his foot against the cushion as his arm stretched out along the back of the couch, getting comfortable but not too comfortable so he could hop up and get the pizza when it arrived.

With Rowan on one side and Gil on the other, Ari felt cuddled and comfortable, and completely secure. That small part of him that caught him off guard every heat made him want to snuggle into them both just to make sure that when he went home, they wouldn’t forget about him. He very much repressed the urge and instead pressed play and checked the order status.

“Half an hour for pizza, Gil’s ex is the Bruno of this apartment,” he said, munching on his own cookie that he had been given and humming in approval. “Ah they came out okay. That’s good. Now ssh, movie masterpiece.”

"Bruno?" The elf looked confused, but then the movie was playing, and he pushed that out of his mind, as he settled against Ari's smaller frame, watching the movie. There was a lot there. Though he still maintained that most of this adventure wasn't the way that adventures usually went. At least in his experience. The whole "evil overlord" part was a bit much.

Ari seemed to be so gun-ho about the movie, so Gil bit back any snarky commentary he might have about the dialogue. Something around Shelob popping up, and he could feel his skin prickling. "Spiders are the -"

But he never finished that sentence as he felt his skin sliced in about 20 different places at once. He screamed, pain searing through his frame, as his body stretched out involuntarily, his glamour faltering. Blood was starting to seep through his clothes, as he gasped for breath. "Shit, fuck," - and another wave hit him, as he tried getting up off the couch, because that blood would never come out, and instead - he just fell over next to the table.

Rowan had been about to pitch in when suddenly out of nowhere Gil’s skin began to open up as if he were being sliced by a sharp blade and for the longest moment he felt frozen in time completely unable to move or do anything. It was the worst feeling, it really was. Eventually something must have kicked in because he cried Gil’s name and was moving, vaulting the space that separated him from Gil. He didn’t even think anything of tugging his t-shirt off and pressing it to one of the most free flowing of the wounds, lifting Gil’s head carefully to rest in his lap.

Sure he’d get completely covered in Gil’s blood, but that was least of his concerns.

“Gil, look at me,” he urged. “Do we- What’s happening?!”

“Do you guys have a—” Ari was on his knees too, beside Gil’s knees, watching Rowan press his shirt to one of the cuts. His heart was in his throat, having never seen magic like this before, his experiences already limited. “What the fuck—Rowan do you have a first aid kit? Gil, what’s—shit.”

The last time this happened was when he was signing the fucking contract. "So you don't think it's fake." But this time - this time felt worse. He couldn't prepare himself. He could just feel his body being sliced up, and he was gasping, and trying to stay with it rather than black out. Rowan was next to him, and he could feel the shirt being placed and pressed against a wound.

Rowan registered that Ari had asked him a question and he looked up at the other. “Uh, yeah. Kitchen, under the sink.” This all felt so surreal, he felt as though his senses were i in overdrive, from being overwhelmed by the scent of blood - Gil’s blood - to hearing the rushing of Ari’s heartbeat in his ears and honestly, same, Ari, hard same. When he looked up again, Ari was already disappearing towards the kitchen.

He almost thought there'd be another wave, steeling himself, but instead - he was just left with the wounds that were still bleeding, and two worried friends. "Knew you'd end up shirtless," he looked up at Rowan, wincing, his voice weak.

He really didn't feel like explaining this. He didn't know where to even start with that. "Umm -" he tried to sit up and well, that wasn't going to happen as he fell back down.

Last time he didn't need that many stitches. Just a ton of bandages.

“Not the time, Gil.” Rowan said with a shake of his head. ”Really not the time.” He noticed how one of the wounds seemed to be bleeding more than the others and that was where he focused his attention. “Seriously, man. What is going on?”

“It’s magic isn’t it, Gil,” Ari said as he came back with the first aid kit, dropping to his knees. “I mean I’m not up on my human medical care but it—I mean it’s not that different? Gil, I’ve gotta—I need to get your shirt off you to see where the worst of the bleeding’s coming from. Is that okay?”

He blinked up at Rowan, smirking. "Got to have a sense of humour," he said through gritted teeth. The shock slowly waning, and was replaced just by pain. But he could bear that. He was cold, and that - that was helping some of the bleeding from smaller wounds to stop. He nodded to Ari, slowly sitting up, grumbling as he pulled his t-shirt off. The wounds were now matching some of the scars that were there. "Just - more bandages. And it'll be okay." He looked at Rowan. "It's what happens when someone doesn't hold up their part of a deal." And that part was true. "I don't want to drag you all into this."

“Think we’re already in it,” Rowan pointed out, shifting with Gil as he moved so he didn’t want to interrupt the pressure he was applying with his t-shirt which was most definitely ruined.

“Agreed,” Ari said tightly as Gil stripped, “we kind of…yeah, we’re involved.”

He looked at Ari: "Okay, Doctor Ari, what can I do to help?"

“You can lie still and let me have a look at you,” Ari said with a little frown, not quite chastising him but close. The scars on Gil’s chest made Ari’s heart clench painfully. “I guess these don’t need cleaning? Rowan can you—” he held out a large gauze and micropore tape, wiggling it demonstratively, “—on that one there? What do you mean more bandages? Did this happen before? Who did this?”

He looked down, and shook his head. "Nah. those… those are fine. And - " he shifted, and gritted his teeth. "That one. That one is - " he wasn't sure if he agreed about them being as into it as he was. This was just injury. It wasn't a big deal.

Gil held up his hand that had several smaller wounds that weren't bleeding any more, but definitely there. "Just so I don't reopen them. But we can do it after." He winced as Ari and Rowan were moving over the deeper ones. "Umm, it happened once before. And now… now it happened again. Because apparently, someone failed at keeping up their side of the deal. And the person who is causing it: you can't get to them."

He held out a hand to Ari: "I can be useful. I can bandage myself." He'd done it before.

“Gil, quit it,” Rowan bit out, tone slightly sharp, a pulsing of emotion stirring up particular responses which he knew were attributable to his Alpha side. Gil visibly winced from Rowan's tone. It actually stung, though a lot less than the open wounds. He focused on keeping his body cold, hoping that this would help the shallower wounds. “We’re here, we’re helping, so just let us help you.” He did his best to pull back on the sharp smell of pine and fresh cut grass as he knew better than anyone that those were the scents he gave off when he was upset, stressed, worried, just any sort of bad no good emotion. Gil was sure that it wasn't Rowan's intention, but it smelled good.

Ari responded automatically, one hand reaching out to touch Rowan’s wrist, a pulse of calmreassurancecalm towards the dragon because honestly his stress and anxiety wasn’t helping Ari. Plus his scent was sharp, acrid around the edge which was distracting in a bad way.

Rowan glanced over at Ari as his friend sent that pulse through him, taking a slow breath in to try and calm himself as he knew he had a lot of big emotions and they weren’t always appropriate or helpful.

“You aren’t bandaging yourself, Jesus,” he grumbled, checking on some of the larger ones and flexing his fingers. “I can try and do that thing again?”

Gil nodded, as he laid there, not moving again. Cause apparently, Rowan had that side of him, even if it was both touching and hurting at once. He nodded up at Ari. "You can. I know you can do it. You also - don't have to. You'd feel tired." It was one thing to heal a bruise. It was another to try and close a gash.

“Wait, wait, what thing?” Rowan asked, looking between the two of them.

He looked up at Rowan: "I can answer any question, as soon as I can sit back up." He'd have had a snarkier response, but it seemed that Rowan was not in the mood.

Rowan was very much not in the mood, not in the slightest. This? This was worrying and as calm and together as Gil appeared to be because apparently this had happened before so it was fine, but it really was not fine. Not fine in the slightest.

Ari pressed his lips together, “I can at least try a little, to help,” he said to Gil, eyes flicking up to Rowan with an apologetic smile. His own glamour faltered slightly, dark eyes giving away to the cerulean. “I’ve got a few…powers? That I can access outside of my, uh, y’know.”

Placing his hands flat on Gil’s stomach after securing one of the bandages, Ari’s nose wrinkled and the tip of his tongue poked out as he focused, closing his eyes to try and summon up that feeling again.

Well, interesting. Even in his state, clearly Rowan knew maybe something about Ari, and some things they didn't know. The point was that if Gil was divulging, there was clearly more he wanted to learn about his compatriots here. He took a deep breath in, nodding to Ari, a small smile on his lips. Magic was scary to practice - he knew that much.

He could feel the familiar warmth spread from Ari's hand that he'd felt before, and then some stings, and then … he looked down at the deeper wound, and while he couldn't tell outside of the bandage, the blood wasn't spreading at the same rate. As long as he was not about to bleed out, that was all.

Rowan was still very confused about what was happening especially when Ari shot him that apologetic look until he watched the glamour slip, replacing dark eyes with a blue that reminded the dragon of the ocean, and then the worst of Gil’s cuts seemed to be closing up all on their own. What the fuck? Seriously, he knew Ari was a Unicorn, but he hadn’t shared the fact he could heal stuff with Rowan so this was super eye-opening.

He reached out a hand to Ari. "Hey hey - you did it. That's enough. The rest will heal and give me some more souvenirs." He didn't want Ari overdoing it. It was with some reluctance that Ari sat up again, a little paler from the effort and hands trembling a little, but he didn’t argue. "Thank you, Ari," he said softly. "And you, grumpy," He looked up at Rowan. "I think I owe you guys my life now."

When Ari sat back looking paler than before and shaking slightly Rowan’s worry worsened rather than lessened. There was a lot going on right now and a lot of stuff happening that Rowan felt very blind sided by. “I’m not grumpy,” he replied defensively, obviously grumpy.

Ari’s breath left him in a soft laugh, “You’re definitely grumpy,” he said with an affectionate smile, rubbing the back of his hand over his forehead. “It—I’d hoped to do more. Sorry, Gil.”

Gil shook his head, as he slowly pushed himself up. "Hey, hey -" He winced as his skin stretched under the bandage, but at least it wasn't bleeding. "This was amazing. That one was deep. Thought I'd have to go to a doctor, and usually - well, - this is hard to explain." He reached out a hand and rubbed Ari's shoulder. "Thank you."

He looked at Rowan, because Ari gave a laugh. "You are grumpy, but I suppose that's to be expected." He paused and grinned at Rowan weakly: "I ruined your shirt."

He shifted to lean back against the couch, so that Rowan wouldn't be pinned, and reached out to hand a cookie to Ari: "Eat it. It'll help." There's a reason he ate a lot. He was sure the questions would come, but for now - he could just breathe.  

Rowan grumbled under his breath and as he sagged back he realised he was half naked, but more to the point he was still covered in Gil’s blood. Mmm, that was not a good look or a feel. “I’ll be back,” he muttered as he got to his feet and headed towards the bathroom.

“Pretty sure we can get him a new shirt if this won’t wash out,” Ari murmured, looking after Rowan with a little crease of concern appearing between his brows even as he munched on his cookie. “I should—we should get you cleaned up too. Do you want me to help you sit up on the couch?”

Gil watched Rowan disappear, feeling slightly guilty about ruining what was a totally pleasant evening. He was trying to maintain his light demeanour, even as the fatigue, hurt, and anxiety set in. It was his usual MO. "or you know, we can keep him shirtless." He mumbled, watching Ari closely. Magic took a lot out of you even if you were trained. Ari wasn't. "I want to make sure that you eat and recover," he said softly. "I'll probably get up in a bit." He listened for Rowan's movement, half afraid of ending up without a home, or without a friend, or both. "How are you feeling?" He looked at Ari, closely.

“I mean, I’m down for keeping Rowan shirtless. That’ll probably make us both feel a lot better, huh?” Ari asked with a quirk of his lips. He sighed and shook his head, waving his hand and stuffing the rest of his cookie into his mouth. “Don’ worry ‘bout me, man, I’m not the one that was just magically wounded. I’ll be okay after a nap. I just—that was scary, Gil.”

He reached out and grabbed another cookie for Ari. What? Sugar helped. "I think that'll make me feel a lot better, but he didn't appreciate my joke before." There was an edge of worry in his statement, and then he fixed Ari with a look. "You are a friend and you risked your well-being for me. So I get to worry." He looked over the array of red lines along his body. "Yeah - it's not fucking pleasant." He sighed, reaching up and tucking a silver strand behind his ear. "For … well … I didn't expect it either. I thought everyone would keep up their end of the deal." His last sentence was weak. He was so paranoid about following every clue. Who wasn't? Who was okay with the other people getting hurt like this?

He licked his lips, and reached to get a cookie for himself, as he heard the knock on the door. "Crap - is that pizza?" There was some blood on the floor; his own skin was covered in gashes and dried blood, and Ari looked pale as a leaf.

As Ari and Gil talked the missing member of the film watching trio was in the bathroom hunched over the sink frantically scrubbing at the blood which covered his arms, chest, hands and was stubbornly refusing to budge from beneath his short nails. He was totally not freaking out except he totally was, it wasn’t every day that somebody you knew, somebody you cared about, randomly started being sliced open in front of you without any prior warning. And then Ari made with the healing so it was… a lot.

It wasn’t until he was totally convinced he’d got all the blood off his skin that Rowan left the bathroom, changing out of the jeans he was wearing (because they were also splattered) into a pair of sweatpants and tugged on a muscle tee, but stopped midway tugging it on over his head when he heard the knock at the door.

Oh, shit, the pizza.

“I got it,” he hollered as he appeared, heading over to answer the door.        

“You didn’t need to put a shirt on,” Ari rumbled, mostly just to himself and Gil, mournfully watching Rowan go to the door. Gil smirked at Ari, mouthing: "seriously," as he ate the cookie, a comfort and some sugar to hit his blood stream after the adrenaline crash.

“Thanks!” He called to Rowan, sliding back into the floor and picking up the wipes from the first aid kit, carefully reaching out. “Let me clean you up a bit? Unless you can—can you move? Do you need a hand?”

He watched Rowan go to the door, and he was still not sure how the other man felt. That last snap made Gil feel very uneasy and on edge.  Rowan shook his head and gave a dismissive gesture with his hand as he opened the door, took the pizza boxes and gave the guy a tip. Gil looked over at Ari to see if the other was still just as pale, or if there was some colour returning. Important questions. Thankfully, the colour was beginning to return to his cheeks. "Won't know until I try," He gave a small grin, as he started standing up slowly, holding onto the coffee table, then the arm of the couch, and then straightening. Couple of deep breaths, as he looked at Ari: "See? You made that happen." He was currently calculating how to walk to the bathroom and what the shortest path was. "Give me a sec here. And the moment there's pizza in front of you, eat it."

The shirt that he wore and was discarded got chucked onto the small pool of blood that remained. Whatever, it cost 50 cents at Goodwill.  He waited until Rowan closed the door before starting to move slowly to the wall and towards the bathroom.

Rowan intercepted Gil and wordlessly tugged the slimmer man into an impromptu hug with the arm not currently busy with supporting the weight of the pizza boxes before simply pulling away after having dropped an affectionate kiss to Gil’s temple.  Did Gil almost start being emotional about it? Totally not. Okay. Maybe. He patted Rowan's shoulder, as he straightened at the wall. After that Rowan let the other go and wandered in the direction of where Ari was.

Ari had been processing his own anxiety after Gil had stood (definitely not hovering a little) by dabbing at the blood that remained and then pulling his phone out to google how to clean up bloodstains, praying that the NSA agent watching his communications and google searches didn’t decide that this one thing made him a serial killer.

He looked over at Ari typing away on the phone and Rowan sitting down with the pies. "Ari, make sure you eat." And then continued to use the wall as support towards the bathroom. His turn to clean up. It wouldn't be that bad: the shower was flexible after all, and maybe - maybe by the time he'd come out, they would have forgotten all the questions that were coming his way.

When Rowan joined him, he looked up and smiled a little, getting back up onto the couch as he flicked through the google search results, patting the spot next to him invitingly.

Rowan slotted into the space seamlessly and effortlessly,  but not before he’d put the pizza boxes down. “How are you feeling?” He asked Ari, reaching forward to open up the box and dig out a slice or two for Ari, passing them over on a plate. He still looked pale, but he seemed to be in one piece, which was good.

“I’m fine,” Ari said quietly, looking after Gil and then leaning to the side softly until his arm pressed against Rowan’s. He folded his slice in half and took a bite, letting out a slow breath and looked up at the other. “Are you okay?”

“Freaked out,” Rowan admitted with a shrug of his shoulders. “Like, what the fuck?” He shook his head and reached out to help himself to a slice of pizza. “Between Gil getting sliced up and you healing him I’m like… what the hell is going on?”

“I didn’t heal him,” Ari muttered. “I wish I could have. Sometimes I can like…close a paper cut? That wasn’t a paper cut.” He glanced at the television. “We should pause the movie.”

“That was still more than I knew you could do,” Rowan muttered right back before shoving what was left of his pizza into his mouth, freeing up his hands so he could pause the movie.

“Are you—wait, Rowan are you upset you didn’t know I could do that?” Ari asked, brow creasing in concern. Unease settled further in him, first Gil was hurt and now Rowan was mad at him? He wondered if it was a Rowan thing or a Dragon thing but didn’t know how to ask that tactfully. “I can make flowers grow too.”

Rowan wrinkled his nose and promptly shoved another slice of pizza in his mouth, using it as a convenient excuse as to why he couldn’t really talk because talking with your mouth full was rude. He chewed slowly and sighed, wondering what was wrong with him that he reacted the way he did when Gil was flippant about his injuries and Ari had this magical healing power that he knew nothing about. Seriously, worst friend ever.

“Okay,” he said with a nod.

“I didn’t keep it from you, Rowan,” Ari said softly. “I’m still not sure on what I can do. My birth parents helped me control my shift and that’s it. I’m still learning.” He tilted his head, listening for Gil—either the shuffle of him returning or the thud of him passing out—and then leaned against Rowan again.

“I’m sorry,” Rowan mumbled, lifting an arm to wrap Ari’s shoulders. “I’m a jerk.” He offered an apologetic smile before merely pressing a kiss to Ari’s hair.

“You’re not,” Ari hummed, folding into Rowan’s side. “Dragon thing?”

Rowan hummed and nodded his head. “Dragon thing.” Also a Rowan thing, feeling like he’d been left out of something important, in both the lives of those he was closest to.

It took Gil some time to navigate into the bathtub, strip while sitting, and then use the thankfully flexible shower head to rinse off the blood that covered his body. The red lines of the new wounds were parallel to the faded scars on him, almost like notches, and he gritted his teeth from both the pain and frustration. He was going to find this fucking amulet, and then kill the noble. The last one was almost more for his satisfaction than anything else. At least she spared the face.

Once the water started running clear, he turned off the water, still drying himself mostly seated. He needed to gear up to move, and it took effort. But he also didn't want Rowan or Ari to help and freak out more. Slow and steady, he climbed out, grabbed a towel, and again used the wall to get to his room. Pj pants found. New black shirt (in case any of the wounds opened again), and he was shuffling out, hearing just some mumbling and something "thing", as he used the wall to navigate back to the couch, his long silver hair wet down his back.

"You guys look very cosy together," he said softly, as he finally settled back into his corner of the couch, noticing that Ari didn't look as pale. Good. Rowan still looked grumpy though, so he wasn't sure where to start, or if he even should say anything. "Thank you again. Both of you." He'd leave it at that.

“Pizza.” Ari said, finishing his slice and licking sauce off his upper lip, wiggling his fingers for Gil to come closer. “Are you alright? Do you need anything re-bandaging?”

“Make sure you eat some,” Rowan pitched in as he gestured towards the one with the pineapple all over it. “I think you’ll need it after what happened.”

He noticed how no one touched the pineapple one, and leaned over to grab a slice, unable to hide a wince. "Fruit goes with everything," he mumbled, as he shifted in his corner, appearing a lot smaller than his usual bravado did. "I'm all right. I think everything is okay. I'm cold, remember? At least that helps." He looked over at Rowan. "I'm sorry. I really am."

“Don’t apologise,” Ari told him softly, expression open and worried, “it just frightened me. Us?” He glanced at Rowan for agreement. “I’ve never seen anything like that. And you—you can come sit with us if you don’t think we’ll—oh we might hurt your injuries. If you think it won’t, you can come back?” He’d rather enjoyed being squished between the two of them. Gil nodded, slowly moving across the room and then settling into the corner of the couch, next to Ari.

“Us.” Rowan nodded his head, glancing from Ari to Gil, his gaze heavy. “You frightened us because we care about you and nobody likes watching somebody they care about being hurt and not being able to do anything about it.” He worried the edge of his lower lip and took another bite from his pizza.

His guilt was apparent, as he looked from Rowan to Ari, and if the grey skin would show the full extent of the redness - shame, that's what it was - then, there was a definite tinge of something on his cheeks. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. Believe me, while I knew it was a possibility, I didn't really think it would happen." He took a bite of pizza, before finally able to meet Rowan's gaze full on. "I get it if I need to find a new place to stay. Just… can you give me until the morning? Please?"

Rowan’s brow drew together in obvious abject confusion when Gil started talking about needing to find somewhere new to live. “Wha?” He asked with a blink. Thankfully his brain caught up with his mouth a moment later. “You don’t- I’m not kicking you out, Gil. You don’t have to find a new place to stay.”

It was a good thing that Gil was eating a slice of pizza, because at Rowan's comment - there were definitely tears welling in his eyes, and focused intently on the slice, his body touching Ari slightly, but not fully. "I just… I'm really really sorry. I hate this happened. I hate that this ruined a nice evening, and you both - " he looked over - "are looking at me with this fear. And I don't know if anything that I say can make it better."

“You don’t have to make anything better, we’re just worried about you,” Ari soothed, squeezing Gil’s knee gently. “And you didn’t ruin anything. It’s not like you planned this.”

“What Ari said,” Rowan agreed. “And if we can help we want to.” He felt confident speaking for both him and Ari as he couldn’t imagine the other wouldn’t want to help if he could.

Gil focused on eating his pizza, not really sure how to handle this. It's been a long time since anyone cared for him. Granted, he had Lumin, but it was a - well - odd relationship, to put it mildly. But for the past almost decade, he had been on his own, on this quest. And he wasn't sure how to start. "I didn't plan it. I just… I don't know how to even ask for your help. There's not much you can do. It's just…" he took a deep breath. "I'm bound to this contract for a while, and if something goes wrong - this happens. If someone screws up - this happens. And if I screw up - other people get hurt." He was now more onto rambling mode. "And it's not something I can easily control. Or you can easily help with. It's just… a thing."

“You can’t get out of it? Don’t all contracts have a loophole? Or a break clause?” Ari frowned, “have you had a lawyer look at it?” Ari's question got Grin to smile. Seriously, Ari was just precious.

Rowan had a nagging feeling that the sort of contract Gil was talking about was not the straightforward simple contract that a lawyer would be able to help with. He didn’t know a lot about Fae or Faerie for that matter, but there were definitely stories about the tricksy nature of creature and plane alike. His parents had always warned him about Fae and look at him now with two good friends that were both Fae.

“I assume the contract has you do X for me or well,” he gestured towards Gil. “That happens. So what is X?”

Gil chewed on his slice of pizza and shrugged. "Well, me and 2 of my friends have to keep looking for different magical items. If we ever miss a clue, or don't follow it - one of the others get hurt. So - here we are. One of my friends missed something, and - " he pointed to the gash along his arm. "That happened." That was okay, right? "And only way we are getting out is if we find these items and bring them back. Then we'll be safe."

Ari looked confused, but that was largely because magic was still so new to him that the idea of some sort of magical contract made his brain hurt a little. He just nodded a few times and then reached out for both Rowan and Gil, fingers curling wherever was closest.

“And one of those items is here? So…we could help you look? Right, Rowan?”

Ari happened to curl his fingers around Rowan’s thigh that was honestly distracting. “Yeah, we can totally help look.” He offered them both a reassuring smile. “That way we limit how many times that happens.”

He cleared his throat, rubbed at the back of his neck and gestured.

“Did we want to finish off the movie?”

Gil smiled softly, as he finished it up. Thankfully, there were fewer questions than he expected. That was a relief. At the same time, it made him just … scared with people. He shifted a bit, not touching and trying not to bother Ari. "If you can help, I'll let you know." It was hard to describe all the details, and he nodded to the movie. "Yeah… umm… sorry for all this. And thank you." He was further away from Ari, and something about this whole … he didn't feel like he shouldn't pull them in. He put the part of slice of the pizza down, as he nodded: "Yeah, wait, they were with Shelob, right? Is that what spiders in Australia look like?" He was really trying to be his normal self and not an imposition. At the same time, he really didn't want to be alone.

“Aw man, if the spiders were like this I’m sure they’d be the dominant species on the planet,” Ari said, noticing that Gil was shifting away from him and, in reaction, he flexed his fingers where they were resting against Rowan and reached out a little more until his hand was on Gil’s arm, pouting at the elf. “Come back here. I was enjoying being in the middle of cuddles.”

He glanced at Rowan and then added, to Gil, “Stop apologising, please. You don’t have to be sorry for the fact that someone else has been a jerk.”

Rowan sat back into the couch and lifted his arm to drape it over the back so it oh so casually was touching Ari as well as Gil, fingers reaching out to squeeze the Fae’s narrow shoulder.

“Yeah, seriously. No more apologies because somebody else dropped the ball.”

GIl's mind was already going through all the things and who of the other two dropped the ball, but he shifted cautiously towards Ari, almost expecting the other fae to recoil. When Ari didn't, he actually rested his head on Ari's shoulder, his body still keeping a distance because he was cold and didn't have the energy to put up an aura right now. "I can be sorry for making you all deal with the fact that my past comes and bites me in the ass," he said softly, before mumbling: "Spiders don't like fire. Let me get some rest, and I'd definitely burn those assholes down." He didn't remember if Rowan knew this or not, but filtering was hard, and there was a part of him that was angry and just needing to get it out.

He paused and bit his lip: "hey guys?" he said timidly, his voice shaking slightly: "I really don't want to be alone tonight." Because he was deathly scared. If Ari and Rowan would have been there, he probably would have bled out severely while trying to patch up his own wounds

“If you guys don’t mind, I could stay?” Ari said, wondering if that would help even though Gil wouldn’t be alone: he lived with Rowan after all. “Your couch isn’t that uncomfortable.”.

“Or we could just share my bed,” Rowan offered with a shrug of his shoulders. “It’s big enough, but I mean, Ari you could also just take my bed as I’d be happy to sleep on the couch.”

Something about Ari saying that he could stay made Gildor hold on to the fae a bit tighter, as he stayed close, hoping that he wasn't too cold. He looked up at Rowan, and nodded. "I think we could share. Maybe?" The idea of maintaining this contact was really appealing to him, but he also didn't want to presume.

Ari wet his lower lip and nodded, “I’m not gonna put you on the couch,” he rumbled, “but if your bed’s big enough, I don’t mind cuddles.” He hadn’t shared a bed with anyone in a long time but he didn’t think he’d mind too much. “Who’s gonna be in the middle?”

“I could be,” Rowan offered. He ran hot so he’d be able to handle if Gil was cold and also? He’d have one of them on either side of him which was really appealing. “So, watch the movie and then head into my room?”

Gil shifted closer to Ari, still curled up on himself. He could feel the pulse of his wounds, the pain subsiding unless he moved. So he didn't. "Ari, this is the last one right? Or is there more?" He had a weak smile. "Cause I think I might call pause after the 500 hours of walking we watched." He paused and added: "that part is accurate. Adventures require a lot of that."

Ari poked Gil gently in mock outrage. “Shut up these movies are masterpieces. But yeah, this is the last one. There are prequels but they’re kind of shit and so we might skip those…”

And with that, and both Rowan and Gil close, Ari snuggled down with them to watch the rest of the film, anxiety unknotting in his chest as they sat together. Yeah, he thought to himself, I could get used to this.