Blaine hadn't heard from Aemond for almost a month. Cin and Désmoda hadn't seen him at school, either, but since Cin was a senior and Désmoda was post-grad, Blaine hadn't thought much of it. Every time he tried to call or text Aemond, he got a plausible-sounding reason as to why Aemond couldn't talk or meet up right now.
By now, Blaine was worried. He called a few of his parishioners in the hopes that one of them may have contact with Aemond. They didn't, but come to think of it, Aemond probably didn't want much to do with this church. He called some folks from the college, but no one there had heard from him either.
He decided to try texting and this time, forego the niceties and lay all his cards on the table.
[I should have kept you safe. I'm sorry. I'll be at the café by the bookstore where we met if you're willing to talk & get things off your chest. Don't let your inner demons drag you to Hell with them.]
"Mr. Targaryen"
The nurses voice was the only thing that interrupted the trance Aemond was in staring at Blaine's message. God he was getting tired of being blown up like this maybe he'd stop by if only to tell him to quit. Or make Criston... No that would seem to douchy. Moving to stand he soon went texting back as he walked back.
[K. Be about an hour though. Therapy]
He left it simple as that before putting his phone away and he didn't end up even checking it until nearly an hour later when he'd gotten into his truck and started the engine.
Therapy. That was a good sign. It meant Aemond was actually talking to someone about his troubles. In that case, Blaine should probably stop badgering him. He knew it wasn't Aemond's job to ease his guilt, but it had been weighing him down ever since that morning. The last he'd heard from Aemond, he'd been in a squad car. Daemon probably would have known how to get a hold of him but Daemon was Trent's boyfriend, and Blaine figured Trent and Serena had had something to do with Aemond getting arrested, so he wasn't in any big hurry to talk to them.
Blaine was sipping a nice, smooth, sweet blend of two rooibos teas that tasted like Tootsie Rolls when mixed together. He didn't know Aemond's tastes, but even the act of holding a warm mug could be comforting, so he'd ordered the same for Aemond five minutes before the hour.
Getting to care Aemond parked and... Well despite being a few minutes late it took a moment of just sitting there to convince himself to get out. The last time he'd been in a place like that he'd been sitting across from Sebastian being told he was such a bad person for what? Wanting to go home? Quickly shoving it from his mind he moved to open the truck door and headed inside. His expression rather neutral despite how tense he was as he walked in and finally spotted Blaine.
At least he was alone. He half had expected at least one of his little church friends to be lingering somewhere which, he definitely did glance around a brief bit as he walked over and moved to sit across from the other. "Sorry... Ran late" He apologized as he moved to slouch back where he was sitting.
Blaine greeted him with a warm smile. "I'm glad you came," he said. That he had been worried about Aemond was an obvious thing he didn't need to guilt trip the other over. "You've probably been over everything in therapy, but I must ask. Is there anything that happened before you were arrested that you feel comfortable sharing? And if you don't want to, is there anything I can do to help or distract you?"
Aemond sort of looked at Blaine with an unamused expression. Nosey wasn't he? "Oh so now you're a shrink?" He remarked sort of chuckling a bit sarcastically and shook his head. God he hated therapy, though he still had it court ordered once a month. Thankfully not until next week if he didn't decide to call in sick for it. The guy was a real asshole. "Look... Not to sound dickish but... Actually I don't really care. Why do you care? I've literally spoken to you a handful of times and wasn't it your friend who's in a psych ward right now? Shouldn't you be making sure Sebastian is ok?" He asked all to bluntly leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest. Honestly he found the whole notion Blaine gave a shit pretty fucking weird. His own family didn't even ask such things and some hadn't even checked in on him sense the bit where he'd gotten ripped into for being so careless. So was Blaine some kind of Serial killer? No even they were more subtle.
Blaine didn't think Aemond sounded dickish at all. His sour mood was completely understandable. Blaine shook his head and answered, "I haven't spoken with Sebastian since that night. Him being in a psych ward is news to me. To tell you the truth, we don't know each other that well. His friend, Trent, is friends with Father Blackwood, the leader of my church. You on the other hand, I was interested in getting to know. It's okay if you don't want to be here, it's your time after all, but... Look, man, can I level with you? Something happened on the campus of my church, at a party I invited you to, and it's my fault for not keeping a better eye on things. I shouldn't have been so trusting of the others. If there's anything you need help with, I'm happy to. If you want to tell me to buzz off and drive back home, that's fine too but I figured a face to face apology was in order."
"Mmm" Aemonds simple response to finding out the guy hardly knew Trent or Sebastian. Well that was perhaps a bit relieving. Least he wouldn't have to hear about poor pity Sebastian potentially. Eyes briefly straying to the window as Blaine spoke he seemed to be thinking for a long moment. Ok so perhaps the apologizing was understandable. Enough. Chewing his inner lip for moment he finally nodded "Ok, not your fault but... Guess that makes sense" He replied moving to cross his arms as he looked back to Blaine for a moment. "Sorry I haven't been to good at the um... Making friends thing sense then. Got alot on my plate. Parents are fucking pissed, my uncle's getting raped by the damn law for all he's worth, it's been...." He paused a moment thinking about how to word it. "A grand ol time" He added a bit sarcastically sort of waggling an eyebrow briefly. "But I'm fine for the most part. Lawyer got me off with, well basically a warning I guess you could say. Mainly because what they found in the car all got slapped onto trying to put away my uncle. Your friend must have been VERY offended I wanted to go home" He added the last part a bit sarcastically. He wasn't sure how much Blaine really knew other than it had been a scene and caused cops to show up but... Who really knew?
Blaine was surprised that Aemond didn't blame him for what had happened. What had happened? He wasn't sure he understood.
"You've made friends," Blaine said simply. At least, Blaine considered him a friend. They'd hung out a couple times and he wasn't bad company.
But something about the way Aemond talked made it sound almost like his parents were mad at him for what happened. Why would they be? Blaine's brow puckered in concern.
"Aemond, you don't need to tell me if it's too stressful, but... what is it that happened? You passed out at the party, and then you were getting put in a squad car the next morning with your uncle. I went downtown to tell them what I knew, but it wasn't much." There were a few rumors in a few circles that had attended the party, but Blaine tried not to put much stock in rumors. He didn't believe that Aemond was okay, but Aemond clearly didn't want to be fawned over or coddled, so Blaine respected that.
Hearing Blaine's confusion he let out a bit of a sigh. "Well...I wish I could answer that but... I guess I sort of blacked out at some point. Um, and Sebastian was acting all angry the next morning which is what started it. I called a ride and he got mad at me, and my uncle once my uncle showed up" He replied casually as if it wasn't a big deal. Though he wasn't about to share some of the details as he didn't need Blaine's pity. "Anyway I guess my uncle is with this guy's ex? Things got heated and from my understanding he made up a bunch of shit that got us pulled over on the way home" He added blandly before sort of rolling an eye. "My uncle is.. well not the most upstanding of people I suppose you could say. They found enough illegal stuff in the vehicle to arrest us both, make us take blood tests and all that bullshit. He's going to be caught up awhile and I'd say I got lucky I don't have a history with anything they found so ... Naturally it was put on him" He added with a bit of a sigh. To say he or Daemon hadn't both equally been blamed would have been an understatement however ... One does not simply walk around announcing 'MY FAMILY ARE CRIME LORDS!' so he didn't bother mentioning much more on how upset his family had been about the attention. Probably still were honestly. If his dad killed over of heart attack one day it was probably going to be over something like this. "Anyway so, yeah, I'd say you keep marvelous company at those party's" he added. A part of it a joke, but perhaps a piece of it making it clear he might not be angry but, fuck ever hanging out at anything Blaine threw like that again. For all he knew those girls could have been equally as insane.
Blacked out? Blaine held his mug up and took a deep sip. Yes, that tracked. Aemond had been resting in one of the overnight rooms; no way would he have gotten up under his own power, and Blaine had found Serena's clothes and hair ribbon on the floor in an adjoining room. He had been hoping for any other explanation. They never had come back for the footlocker, so Cin had hauled it away to her lab to check the contents. She'd reported a few herbal tinctures and an empty vial labeled in a language she couldn't read.
Sebastian had gotten mad at Aemond for calling a ride, that was unusual. Definitely a red flag. A normal person would have expressed concern for Aemond's well-being and been relieved he had someone he could call. Sebastian had a reputation for being clingy and unstable; if he'd latched onto Aemond like that and refused to let him leave, that certainly lent credence to those rumors.
He wondered if Aemond had told the police Sebastian had lied, or if it would have done any good, considering his uncle already had some sort of contraband in the car.
He listened sympathetically and, when Aemond had finished, Blaine offered a wan smile. "Thank you for telling me. I'm sorry again about all this. Excuse me a moment." He took out his cell phone and dialed a number. "Father Blackwood, this is Brother Menchineel. I must humbly request your assistance on a rather delicate matter, and I'm not able to share the reason for my request.... Would you please close the church? Ah, tell the public it's for maintenance.... Well, it could be anything. Maybe someone found roaches in the soup kitchen or got lice in an overnight room or found a large container of various questionable substances on the lawn. Tell the press anything you need to, but please don't mention any names.... Thank you, Father. May the gods walk with you."
He ended the call with a sort of mirthless laugh. "Well, we won't be having any more parties for a while," he said, trying to lighten things a bit.
"Heads up!" called a male voice behind them. Blaine looked up just in time to get whapped on the forehead by a rogue Frisbee.
"Whoops!" A young man came jogging over to them to retrieve the disc, long hair flying behind him. "You okay? Sorry about that. Wind must have caught it." His voice was a pleasant, almost soothing baritenor. Blaine rubbed his forehead a moment and blinked up at him, amber eyes meeting those of a bright turquoise blue.
"Yeah, call it karmic," Blaine said, laughing it off. He glanced at Aemond, not sure the latter would welcome the company. "Hey, I'd ask if you wanted to join us, butー"
"Nah!" The boy waved off the rest of Blaine's sentence. "Promised my friends I'd go to the beach with them, play some volleyball." He smiled and was about to head off, but paused when he noticed Aemond. They had a couple classes together, but he hadn't seen Aemond in school for a bit. "Hey, man. See you in class next week?"
At first Aemond had merely watched the other with a bit of skepticism. Was he really calling off anything like that in the church on account to... Well ok maybe it had been a bit... Much? He was still conflicted on his own feelings on the matter. A part of him feeling like he'd been violated in the worst of way but the part that told him he could have avoided it and maybe had even been a cause of it considering he couldn't remember anything? Who really knew other than the next morning had been an absolute nightmare. "You .. don't have to..." He'd started giving Blaine a confused look when the Frisbee had came flying and wacked Blaine upside the head.
At first he shifted in his seat half a mind to give someone a glare when he spotted the other nearing. Oh yeah that kid. Ok now he was chuckling as he saw the other jogging over to apologize "Well the wind had perfect aim. Now you can stop beating yourself up the frisbee did it for you" He remarked smartly towards Blaine before giving a brief smile to the other as he moved to fish out a cigarette. Damn Blaine really was a social butterfly wasn't he? Hearing Troy however he sort of glanced over and shrugged "Yeah, definitely" He replied with a faint chuckle. Fuck honestly with all of this he'd fallen behind. Not quite enough to get more than shitty grades though at least. For now... But he definitely couldn't miss more or he'd definitely get kicked out of a few.
Blaine laughed at the smarting. "It did at that," he agreed. It was like Citakua herself, the Goddess of Mystery and Dichotomy, had whacked some sense into him. Well, if Aemond wasn't angry with him, he had no reason to be angry with himself now, did he? He fished out a lighter and held it up for Aemond.
Troy grinned and gave him a respectful up-nod. "Cool. I'll email you my notes if you want," he said, then was off jogging back to his friends.
Blaine took another sip of his tea. It was at that perfect temperature where it was nice and warm, but not scalding going down. "Okay," he said after a moment. "I won't beat myself up, but you shouldn't either. I may not know for sure what happened, but I can take an educated guess and, no matter what anyone says, I don't care who, it was not your fault in any way. Hear me?"
Watching for a moment as Troy had jogged off Aemond let out a slow breath at hearing Blaine, head turning again so he could see him he eye'd him for a long moment before sort of cracking a faint smirk "You sure you're not a shrink? Because I'm kinda getting whole read me vibe quite constantly. I never said I blamed myself, frankly.... For what? I've no clue what we even did? There could have been more people than just Sebastian at some point and I wouldn't know. At any rate I hope they let him keep the sheets" He remarked, the last bit a fair amount hatefully. He'd wondered why the first time he'd been in there and they'd taken his for the first twenty four hours. The day before he'd left he'd seen why. They were thin yet strong enough to absolutely strangle yourself with if you really wanted to.
"I'm a priest," Blaine reminded him. "My religion may be somewhat unorthodox, but I do hear confession. You'd be surprised the amount of guilt people carry with them over things that happened to them. Actually, from my understanding, people losing time and waking up with strangers is among the more common things people blame themselves for. 'I shouldn't have talked to that person. I shouldn't have accepted a drink. I shouldn't have gotten out of my shell. Shouldn't, shouldn't, shouldn't.' I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, I'm just telling you what I've heard from other people coming out of similar situations."
He didn't comment on Aemond's last remark. It was Aemond's right to judge Sebastian and lash out at him. Better than keeping everything bottled up. Blaine didn't know the guy well enough to defend him, nor did he think he'd have been particularly inclined to. He already knew of one person who was after Aemond, and now the poor guy had to worry about another one who was demonstrably dangerous and unstable.
Aemond listened, his expression a bit neutral for the moment. This guy was seriously on one wasn't he? Was he trying to pry? A few thoughts by now had began to enter his own as usual warped perception of the world and one was the possibility that Blaine could be attempting to get him talking long enough to figure out if he was going to press charges on the idiot. He'd grown up around so many liars and snakes perhaps it was easy to see everyone as such but .. clearly for good reason. Taking a slow breath he seemed to think for a moment his gaze briefly going off to traffic. "Well, guess you've met alot of weak minded pathetic individuals. I don't blame myself I blame him. And if he ever gets out of that place? Well I hear Karma can be an awful bitch" He remarked smartly before moving to stand finally. "Anyway thanks for the apology I suppose. Now, I really should be going I've got to meet my grandfather for something in like thirty minutes or so" He added if only to be, somewhat polite. The guy hadn't been mean per say, he just. Well he didn't trust anyone nothing special to see here. But Blaine just happened to have a few red flags dancing about his head.... At least from what Aemond could see.
Blaine nodded firmly. "Good," he said. Aemond wore hate like armor. He was clearly someone who had gone through a lot of pain. He didn't need judgment or correction right now; he was probably getting that from all sides, judging by how much suspicion he treated Blaine with. He was putting the blame where it belonged, and that was what mattered. "Thanks again for meeting with me. You drive safe, and text me if you need anything." He finished ihs tea and stood. Maybe he'd go try to see if he could get in on that volleyball game.
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