[CLOSED] 13th Contraption

[pineapplesalmon]

Who: César Salazar, Johnny Summer, and John Watson
When: Morning of February 1st
What: Reacting to Rich disappearing
Where: just outside and inside room 102
Warning: N/A

Rich is no where to be found and messaging him doesn't work. César returns to room 102 with a small teddy bear in a trembling hand. His eyes are glassy.

"Rich's gone."

Comments

[businessorlibation]

Johnny's barely awake, and then suddenly he's very awake all at once.

"What? No, he can't be."

Standing, leaping out of bed, grabbing his robe immediately.

[lightconductor]

Watson is awake in an instant, a light sleeper at the best of times, following Johnny out of bed.

"Are you -- you're sure? He isn't just -- César, when?"

[pineapplesalmon]

"Sometime during the night." César looks between them, expression blanking. "The phone isn't working."

[businessorlibation]

"Maybe...maybe it's broken. It has to be broken!" There's a deep desperation in his voice, probably familiar to both his partners.

[lightconductor]

Watson reaches out to touch Johnny on the arm, an attempt at grounding him, though his face, his voice, are stricken.

"He could... he could be ignoring his phone, surely. That is a possibility."

[pineapplesalmon]

The desperation in Johnny's voice cuts through the static in César's brain. He puts down the teddy bear on the desk before joining his husbands. César touches both their sides.

"He left his shoes. His binders. The bed's covers aren't thrown to the side like he does when he wakes up. Nor are his PJs thrown anywhere." César swallows, crestfallen. "I'm sorry."

[businessorlibation]

Johnny looks paler than usual, and he's not sure if he'll throw up if he opens his mouth again. Eventually, he wrenches himself from his husbands so he can go sit on the edge of the bed--so his knees don't give out.

"I don't understand."

[lightconductor]

This had always been a possibility. He knows that. He always knew that. The reality is... harder. Watson, very much not liking the look on Johnny's face, and honestly because his own knees are feeling a bit weak, sits down on the bed as well. He puts one hand on Johnny's back, moving in gentle circles, and beckons to César to come as well.

"Another cruelty of this place," he says, his voice hoarse. "It should be expected, but... no. It never is."

[pineapplesalmon]

César won't fail them like he did last time. He's here. And trying not to think of the similarities of supporting his parents when Rex nearly died.

Before Watson even beckons him, he's joining them, climbing onto the bed behind them and holding them both tightly with an arm around their waists. "Bonito, osito...."

A beat, his voice tight. "We'll save Rich somehow. W-We have to."

[businessorlibation]

Johnny leans into both of them, closing his eyes. "It's not fair. We love him, we're here to love him, he can't just be gone. I hate this. I hate this." Tears might be starting to leak down his cheeks, he can't quite hold them in.

[lightconductor]

Watson swallows the hard lump in his throat, his own tears welling up in his eyes. It's too early to have this many emotions, and sometimes it feels that he is, constantly, losing people he loves.

He doesn't have any words right now. There's only his desperate grip on the two of them.

[pineapplesalmon]

César can't hold back his own tears anymore, not with Johnny crying in one arm and Watson nearly crying in the other. He holds them both tightly as he lets out a sob.

Rich is their boy. Their son. And now he is lost to them.

[businessorlibation]

And so, there is crying, for a while. It happens, like spring rain, heavy and miserable and cleansing.

Eventually, Johnny gets up to grab a roll of toilet paper for everyone to blow their noses in.

[lightconductor]

Watson draws in a shaky breath.

"I suppose this is news to be shared. All the same... I would rather not let either of you out of my sight, for a little while."

[pineapplesalmon]

César certainly will need to clean his face and clear out his nose. He sniffs. And nods his agreement to Watson.

"Yes. I feel similarly. Please stay close." César murmurs, wiping tears with the palm of his hand. "W-We'll need to secure his things and keep them with us. For his privacy. I know how to pack small."

He shifts forward so he can lean against Watson's side, listless.

[businessorlibation]

"I propose a group cuddle until at least lunchtime, if not dinner. And perhaps we beg Erin or someone to bring us that meal, so we don't have to leave immediately."

This said as he returns to the bed to, you know. entangle himself with his husbands.

"All in favor, say aye?"

[lightconductor]

"Aye," Watson says, with feeling. His voice is heavy, but he follows into the bed gladly. "And when it does come to packing up things, well... we do that together."

Not a task anyone should take on alone, he thinks.

[pineapplesalmon]

"Aye." César agrees, following both of them and wrapping himself around Johnny with one arm thrown over Watson. "Cuddling, then delivered lunch. And eventually, packing. Together through all of it."

Unlike last time.

But there's not Rich to rush to protect, anymore.