What Do You Normally Do When I'm Gone?

[runes_brand]

Who: Brand & you!
What: Rune goes home. Brand reacts.
Where: Around the Rig
When: After Honeyplank & the Riot
Warnings/Notes: Brand-typical swearing, TBA

Brand is on his way to lunch when the bottom drops out of his world. Between one moment and the next, Rune is gone.

Rune's not dead, he tells himself over the hammering of his heart. He's not dead, he's fine, he's fine, he's back home, he's with Addam and the kids, he's fine--

He's running before he even realizes he's in motion, though he's not sure where. Toward the hole in the center of him, probably.

He's fine, he's fine, he's fine, he's fine...

--

He stuffs Rune's sheets in the vents so that Jorgmund can't take them and toss them in the wash. They're sweaty and gross, Rune runs hot at the best of times, but Brand isn't thinking straight. He's desperate to keep what he's got. How long is he going to be kept here alone? Rune said he'd been here a month before Brand showed up, was he going to be here long enough to even them out? Longer?

Bile rises in his throat, along with the urge to scream. He hates this. He hates being separated from Rune, he's always hated it; everything feels sharp and bruised and wrong when he can't feel Rune's existence on the other end of their Companion bond. He doesn't know how Corinne did it when Kevan died, he doesn't want to know.

He wants Rune. Fuck, he just wants Rune.

He leaves their his their bunk to go find somewhere else to hide. He can't be here right now.

Comments

[ownperson]

South's been coming down to the training space more often than usual, lately; as often as she was back when North and her weren't talking when she first arrived, and for exactly the same reasons.

It's one of the quieter times of the day, when most of the other New Hires are busy doing other things—not everyone has a borderline addiction to running training, after all. She's only just arrived herself and she's ready to get warmed up, get into her routine, but she does a cursory glance over the room to see if Brand's around, as has sort of become a habit. Sometimes he's here and they can go a few rounds, sometimes he's off with Rune, it's a toss up.

He's not on the sparring mats, he's not around the exercise equipment, she doesn't hear anyone around the shooting range... alright, looks like she's on her own, today.

She only realises she's not when she's getting herself set up to do some lifting and sees the shape of someone hunkered away in the corner, behind one of the storage racks. Brow wrinkling, she sets down the weights she was setting up and steps closer to try and get a better look.

"...Brand? What the fuck are you doing back— there..."

She trails off as she actually takes in what she's seeing, which is Brand, hiding in a corner, looking like he's having some kind of breakdown. Oh. Shit. What the fuck.

[hallelujahjunction]

Brand's only just left his bunk when he runs into Dan in the hall, who was looking for him. Dan does his best to keep his finger on the pulse of who's here and who isn't at the Rig, and he felt his heart sink when he found out Rune was gone - not for his own sake, as he only superficially knew the man, but because he's observed the closeness between Rune and Brand.

"Hey, I was looking for you. I brought you some snacks from the cafeteria, since you weren't there at lunch."

There's nothing quite tackier than going to someone whose boyfriend just vanished and offering to cheer them up with sex, so he adds: "as a friend."

[walkingballpit]

What with the danger of being smothered by leaves, the Mothra-esque butterflies, and the eerie animals (sentients?) shifting in the distance when you least expect it, Robbie doesn’t expect to find any New Hires here when he slips out to escape the unending swelter of their quarters.

The air is at least 20 degrees cooler out here, though. That combined with his shower-soaked hair dripping onto his cropped shirt makes him shiver. Definitely worth unexpected company.

There’s something off about Brand’s presence, but Robbie doesn’t know him well enough to pin it down. He thinks there’s a vibe that Robbie is somehow intruding, although nobody’s said anything yet. Maybe it’s his posture or expression... or maybe, Robbie thinks, it’s his own track record of brooding making him see crises everywhere.

“Hey,” Robbie says as he takes a seat on the deck and leaning back to keep an eye out for incoming interesting ways to die. “You okay? I didn’t have you pegged for the whole Gen X sitting on the roof thing.”