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Zaeth stared at his fucked up face in the mirror.
Okay, he didn’t. He just imagined what it would look like.
And it wasn’t pretty to say the least.
He knew his jaw was wedged into his collarbone, requiring a pretty gnarly self-correction that he wasn’t looking forward to. Zaeth ran a hand through his dirty blond hair, likely turning it dark red from the blood that had leaked out from his shattered visage. The movement from his arm sent shocking chills of pain down his spine.
Turning into a vampire didn’t save him from the pains of shattering his bones on the side of an empty pool.
(But, seriously, who has an empty pool as a house party?)
His tongue poked around the copper tasting area of his jaw, flinching when he reached parts that were still tender. His vampiric healing wouldn’t kick in until overnight (or day, he supposed), so he was stuck feeling this way until the moon’s face set beneath the horizon.
Zaeth just needed to man up enough to rip this jaw out from his collarbone.
A sharp knock on the bathroom door startled him as he reached for his broken jaw. He hissed in pain as those waves of agony rippled through his nervous system.
“Zaeth, you in there?” A gruff voice asked through the door.
Zaeth grumbled under his breath.
Of course Darkness Man would be the one to check on him. Despite their little tryst into the Cold War silo earlier, he wasn’t too keen on the man(?) seeing him like this.
Another knock on the door shook him out of his thoughts.
“I can help you reset your jaw. I know HJ didn’t do it when he brought you back,” he said, his voice slightly quieter on the second go.
As though Zaeth would run away if he spoke any louder.
Zaeth rolled his shoulders as best he could (cursing himself out for doing so when the pain got bad enough) and opened the door.
Darkness Man tried to not flinch as best he could upon seeing Zaeth, but he didn’t hide his reaction well.
Zaeth just ushered him into the room, slamming the door shut behind him. He turned to the tall man, practically shrinking into his cloak of shadows, and gestured to his jaw in a question for help.
“Right, right, can’t talk much with the jaw like that, huh?” Darkness Man muttered, moving towards him.
His pale hand brushed Zaeth’s jaw and he flinched again, shrinking away from the man’s touch.
“Sorry, sorry. Hold on… here! Hold onto this,” he turned and produced a handkerchief out of nowhere.
Zaeth took it, reluctantly and extremely confused. He quickly learned its purpose when Darkness Man ripped his jaw out from behind his collarbone. He dropped the handkerchief to the tiled floor to rub his jaw, ignoring the pinpricks of pain in his palm from his fingernails piercing the fabric.
“You’re welcome, by the way. Probably would’ve found you in here tomorrow had I not come in,” Darkness Man said, picking up the fabric.
“What, you think I’m not strong enough to get it out of me?” Zaeth bit back, shifting his slowly reforming jaw back and forth.
“No, just stubborn enough not to ask for help when you need it,” he crossed his arms, staring down at him.
(How was he so tall? …and why did he like that…?)
“Whatever man, at least I’m not a big pervert like you,” he said, poking a finger into his chest.
“Yeah? Well, at least I don’t uh… uh…” Darkness Man stuttered, fidgeting with his mask.
Zaeth just smiled (as best he could with his jaw still shattered to bits), letting his fangs slip out a bit.
“Whatever, have fun sleeping tonight with your broken jaw from falling in a pool,” Darkness Man said, slipping past him out of the bathroom (brushing his shoulder, though it felt like his everything).
Darkness Man trudged down the hall, his boots shaking the paper-thin foundations of this AirBnb.
Zaeth rubbed his jaw again, shuddering with pain but not flinching like before.