Sure, when it's autumn, wind always wants to creep up and haunt you...

[equal_shots]

Most nights lately Kid has only just made it in before lockdown. Tonight isn't an exception, rushing in with an empty pack and gasping for air. He slams the door behind him, collapsing against it and sliding to the floor; the locks click not a full minute after.

He stays on the floor, unable or unwilling--or maybe most accurately both--to move from his spot.

As far as noticing anyone else in the building...Kid is a little busy.

Comments

[exequies]

It's the slam of the door that wakes him, body jerking from where it's been propped against a corner of the next room. There's a powerful feeling of disorientation as well as adrenaline that comes with the jolt into consciousness, like awakening from a particularly intense nightmare. Undertaker blinks his eyes a few times, gaze darting around in an attempt to make sense of his surroundings, trying to recall the last thing he remembered.

Snow and the faint howl of the wind moving through empty buildings. Obsessive thoughts. A lingering paranoia that made him check the back of his shoulder on occasion.

He doesn't remember how he made it inside of a building. There's a large gap in his mind that's concerning. As hard as he tries, nothing comes out of wracking his brain and only causes a faint, throbbing pain to creep up in his temples. But he knows he must still be somewhere in Norfinbury; he finds his pack sitting near his feet, but with a sinking feeling he discovers it's empty of most of the items he'd spent all those days collecting.

With a quiet curse, he picks it up and grips the wall with one hand, rising to his feet. Ah, but wait--he'd been awoken by a sound, he's sure of it. And that means he may not be alone right now. Using his hand as his guide, he creeps along the unsteady floorboards until he finds a doorway and listens.

[equal_shots]

[Kid doesn't move. He doesn't hear the creaking of the floorboards. He's too preoccupied coughing, the pain that had worked its way deep into his joints.

Eventually, he struggles to his feet, wiping blood from his mouth. His gait isn't steady and his movement is shaky. He tugs his pack along with him, tottering forward as he heads away from the freezing door. He can still feel the chill against his back where he'd been leaning against the door.

His focus is on the ground, his gaze entirely on the steps he's taking in front of him and not what might be three steps ahead.

It's for this reason that he's on a track to collide directly into Undertaker, the taller reaper's figure dark and difficult to make out in the dark doorway.]

[exequies]

[Even though it isn't a voice, he catches a familiar cough or two before Kid rises and ventures further into the house they're in. Slipping further into the doorway, he can barely make out the outline of the younger shinigami as he comes towards him, only the white lines on his hair partly visible in the low lighting.

He waits until Kid practically smacks straight into him before he acts, reaching out to place his hands in a firm and steadying hold against the other's shoulders.]

You still have quite a nasty cough, I see.

[The confusion and disconcertion over not knowing where he is are put to the side, for the moment, in favor of revealing his presence.]

[equal_shots]

[Kid jumps when he feels hands against his shoulders, his focus shooting up to look at whoever has grabbed him. Though he wobbles from the wave of dizziness--he doesn't think the stranger is holding him upright, they can't be--his instinct is to swing at them in self defense.

Before the strike can even make contact with Undertaker, he speaks, and the arm swinging falls to his side.

"Undertaker?" His voice is hoarse, but incredulous. "You...when did you..."

[exequies]

Just a few moments ago, it seems.

[He sounds terrible, too, is what he thinks but doesn't vocalize. Had Doctor Watson ever been able to arrange a blood transfusion for him?

His grip on Kid relaxes, still holding onto him but in a less assertive way now that the initial shock of being grabbed has passed. His eyes squint at the teen from beneath the parts in his bangs, glowing that phosphorescent yellow-green from their irises.]

What have I missed? [Because it doesn't take a very big leap in logic to figure out that he's been gone, judging by both Kid's response and the state of his backpack.]

Have mercy lets pick a formatting prose or brackets I WAS USING BRACKETS geeze self

[equal_shots]

[He'd had his transfusion, his brief reprieve from the symptoms of the MN poisoning. And now the symptoms were back, as bad as before and worse with pain settled deep into every bone.

Undertaker doesn't release him, and if he feels he'll notice how dangerously thin the teen has grown. He's quite literally skin and bones now, white as a sheet, shivering in the chilly room. His single eye stares warily, and there's a hint of panic there.]

The Administrator is no longer answering us. These creatures followed us, and could get into houses, could open doors... [He's talking fast, anxious and panicked.] We forgot being anywhere else.

[Weakly, he squirms from Undertaker's grip, stepping away.] Professor Stein died. As has Miss Marie. [The panic in his expression shifts to something just slightly more dangerous. More fearful.] I am not safe to travel with. Everyone who has...

LMAO no worries. Brackets it is!!

[exequies]

[Undertaker's eyes narrow briefly at that answer. He also takes note of the thinness of the shoulders beneath his hands, which had always been somewhat bony themselves, but were nothing in comparison to the fact that he can practically feel the whole side of Kid's clavicles and the socket were his humeri connect.

Then Kid squirms out of his grip and he's left with his hands poised in the air. They lower slowly to his sides as he listens to the rest of his statement.]

I see.

[Briefly, he's drawn into his own thoughts. It had been... a while, then. How long he still isn't certain, but he's even more confused as to why he's been brought back now, of all times. If he was needed then surely...

But he shoves those thoughts from his mind and focuses on Kid, instead. It's much easier to let someone else's panic override his own to give him something he can latch onto.]

Don't think that way, now. It has nothing to do with you, you know?

[He glances about once, still assuaging their surroundings before his gaze settles back on Kid.]

I very much doubt the Admin would single you out in all of this. It's just... an unlucky set of circumstances.