youfeelluckypunk | (no subject)

It's been all of two hours since Reid had stopped by the store to surprise his boyfriend with a late lunch. Luke can never have too much to eat, after all, and they'd both agreed just the other day that they ought to stop by the Thai place near their apartment for a meal again sometime soon. Today had seemed like a good choice. Today had seemed like it could only go well.

Now, the food sits in its paper bag on the ground, just inside the doorway of the store, discarded and forgotten as Reid rushes to lock behind him before moving to his next intended destination.

Luke is gone. Not gone from the city, Reid knows that much, he's already called his boyfriend's cell phone and it's still in service and anyway, it'd been clear the second he'd approached the outside of Graymark Books that something wasn't right. The closed sign had been put up, the door locked and the lights shut off, but it's not a full moon tonight and Luke had mentioned nothing about closing early. If there'd been an emergency, Reid would already know about it, and it'd been past the time Luke typically takes a lunch break so that'd been another possibility dismissed, too, all before he'd even found what was inside.

It's clear there was a struggle, unsurprising considering Luke is a werewolf, but what's puzzling is the fact that while the inventory that'd been knocked over hadn't been cleared up, someone had still taken the time to make it look like the store was closed. His first thought is that this is a message directed toward him. Reid remembers Luke mentioning an attempted attack last week, he certainly remembers Marcus admitting the leaders of the vampire clan responsible for the string of murders they've been investigating had see to it that he be followed; but foolishly, he realizes, he'd never thought Luke could possibly be any real danger. That he might be responsible for the love of his life being in any kind of trouble, any kind of pain, just as a pointed message to get Reid to stop digging makes him physically ill--to the point that he'd actually had to rush to the bathroom to throw up before attempting to text every contact in his phone who might have seen Luke today.

The only person he texts again, after the slew of questions he receives back, is Alec. Of all the people he knows, Alec is the one closest to what he considers family, one of the people he trusts the most after Luke. Now, Reid stands at Alec's door, pounding as hard as he can, entirely ignorant of the noise he's making in his desperation to seek help.

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"No," Reid says, his voice void now of any real hint of emotion, and he suddenly feels so tired. Whatever Alec had done, it hadn't worked, at least not in full, though Reid supposes he should at least be grateful for the confirmation of something he hadn't doubted. "No, he's not gone from the city."

His legs practically keep out from beneath him then, and he reaches out to steady himself against the arm of the couch before sinking down on the cushions, staring blankly at the book of poetry they'd been flipping through together the previous night, before they'd ended up distracted by each other. That's what their life is supposed to be, nights spent reading poetry to each other or pretending they only watch Space Hospital ironically or falling into bed without any regard for the fact that a delivery is meant to come to the door at anytime.

It's not supposed to be this: a severe sense of grief, of terror that he can't shake, because Reid knows if anyone had been able to overpower Luke, this isn't just a random coincidence. Luke had been a target and more than likely, so had Magnus.

"I should go back out there," he says, forcing himself to look back at Alec. "After I've fixed up my hand. I need to keep looking. If I stop, I might allow the possibility that he might not come back, and I can't do that. He's coming back, all of them are."

Alec knew he'd given Reid basically nothing. He knew that what he'd done had been something but not enough. Nothing would be enough until Luke was back home, until Magnus was back home. Anything else was a failure.

"Fix your hand," Alec said, glancing down at Reid's injury. "Do you need me to take you by the hospital? If you don't set it properly, it's going to heal wrong and it's going to be painful."

Mundane bodies were fragile. He was so used to being able to draw an iratze and heal himself within minutes, hours, days where mundanes needed weeks and months sometimes. He normally wouldn't care how Reid handled his injury but this time, he cared.

"No."

He nearly apologizes for the shortness, but Reid doesn't. Alec likely wouldn't acknowledge the apology, anyway, which is just as well, and Reid examines his hand more closely with a mild grimace.

"It's not that bad." Not exactly the truth, but he's still not going to the hospital. When Luke is found, maybe then Reid will go, but he won't waste time with any doctors to be told what he already knows-- some of the knuckles are fractured, he needs to take care not to aggravate the injury and ice it so the swelling goes down.

With a sigh, he stands back up from the couch. "I'm going to go get a towel from the bathroom." Hesitating, Reid nods toward the kitchen. "There's ice in the freezer. If you could make me a pack, I'd appreciate it."

Alec didn't argue. If Reid didn't want to go to a hospital, Alec wasn't going to force him to. He knew that he'd likely react the same way if the positions were reversed, if he wasn't able to heal quickly and couldn't use iratzes. So, he nodded at Reid and walked into the kitchen.

He found the ice easily enough and rummaged for a few more seconds before finding a plastic bag to dump it in. He sealed the bag and went back out to meet Reid once again.

While he waited, he let himself think that, if anything, once Magnus and Luke had been found (because he couldn't entertain any other possibilities), Magnus would be able to heal Reid if he was feeling up to it. That was Alec's optimal scenario.