WHO: Seth Wadcock & Michal Conway Lynch
WHAT: where have you been for the last three weeks Michal?
WHERE: SCOTTISH COUNTRYSIDE
WHEN: now!


Today was the first day that he was allowed visitors. They had to be screened, of course, and pre-approved by his Healer, but Michal knew he needn’t worry about that. The one, and only, person he wanted to see had been the one to check him into this rehabilitation center in the first place so surely, out of everyone, Seth Wadcock was going to get a pass. And if he wasn’t the first bloody person to walk through that door---

Michal closed his eyes, and took in a death breath. No, that anger was a bit misguided. He had been struggling for a while, and as much as he didn’t want to admit it, perhaps a bit of help was necessary to get better. This kind of extreme, expensive help he wasn’t sure he agreed with, but that was why Seth was getting owled all hospital bills, wasn’t he?

Adjusting the soft robes provided by the center, Michal waited patiently for the door to his room to open. Visiting hours had started fifteen minutes ago, and he wasn’t getting any younger here.

Seth had shown up on time, would have been walking into Michal’s room fifteen minutes ago if he hadn’t of gotten held up by the check-in desk for having ‘contraband’. Which was ridiculous, all he had was food. He figured if rehab food was anything like hospital food, his friend would appreciate the gesture of something that actually tasted decent. And it might also ease the whole awkward ‘so I checked you into rehab’ situation. Seth glowered as the security wizard whisked the cupcakes away tutting that he should know better. It wasn’t like he was sneaking in whiskey. Bastard was probably going to eat them himself.

Finally Seth made his way to Michal’s room, pausing momentarily at the door. At least he hadn’t been banned, certainly Michal had the power to say who could and couldn’t visit him and he took it as a good sign he was even let it. Though it could be so that he could be yelled at in person.

He knocked on the door slightly before turning the knob and poking his head around. “Hey.” he said lamely walking into the room. What were you suppose to say to the person you checked into rehab? Was there a proper etiquette to it? He took in the room, which was nice. As it should be for the amount of money he was paying for it. Eventually he ran out of things to look at and was forced to turn his attention back to Michal. Who looked multitudes better than the last time he had seen him. “I tried to bring you some decent food, but they confiscated it.”

His cheeks had puffed out, ready to form a disgruntled face, but upon seeing Seth they deflated. His friend looked guilty, and a bit uncomfortable, which Michal supposed he found acceptable. Appropriate? He sunk a bit further down into his chair, feeling a bit of guilt himself for having spent so many days deciding what item he would throw at Seth’s face when he saw him next.

“Sounds about right. They hate fun here,” Michal nodded in solemn agreement. Also the truth. You weren’t really allowed to do anything that promoted stress or reminded you of the outside world in this place, so things like exploding snap or setting off firecrackers in the middle of the night was frowned upon. Instead, there were walks in the garden, and reading books, and laying in the grass to watch clouds pass by for hours on end while you waited for your next potion. There were times that Michal enjoyed doing nothing, but other times that he really just wanted to break a chair or watch a Healer trip and fall into the pool.

“Look, Seth,” Michal began, despite having previously decided Seth would be doing all the talking. The growing silence between them was something neither had quite experienced before; he didn’t like it.

Michal pulled his lips back, and quickly rubbed his face with his hands. “I know that…” he began, but fell short. He kind of didn’t know a lot at this point. “I’m not---” he tried again, but found he wasn’t sure where to go with that either. Michal turned his head to rub under the back of his neck.

“I---”

“I’m---” Seth had been about to apologize when he realized he wasn’t sorry at all. He shoved his hands into his pockets hovering near the door. He could almost feel the silence feel the room. When had either of them ever struggled with their words? Neither of them were ever careful with their words to each other. “I was concerned. You had-- you said ‘I did a bad thing’ and then kinda flipped out on me before you just passed out drunk. At nine in the morning. That with everything else, and what Liddie had told me---” he trailed off shrugging his shoulders. “You stopped talking to me, and when we did it was always a fight. I didn’t know what was going on, or what else to do.”

Eventually he moved to settle into the chair next to Michal’s. He hated how awkward all this felt. Then again, he supposed that was a side effect of this particular decision. Michal looked better though. Seth was trying to remember the last time he actually saw his friend while he was sober.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t around more.” Seth said eventually. He had wanted to apologize for that ever since he showed up to Michal’s house weeks ago. If anyone was going to notice that Michal wasn’t being his usual asshole self, that this was something completely different, it should have been him. “I-- This--” He pursed his lips because sentimentality was a new thing for the two of them. “I should've known something was wrong months ago. I should have noticed.”

Michal frowned, and feeling relatively embarrassed, looked down at his hands. Unfortunately he couldn’t say he remembered much of the event in question that Seth was referring to. But, it didn’t exactly sound like something that wouldn’t have happened. He had been feeling… the last year had not been an easy one, and obviously, he had not handled it well at all.

He had been about to open his mouth and say everything wasn’t all Seth’s fault, but when his friend began to speak again, Michal hesitated. Perhaps he hadn’t realized…. how much Seth had took on by bringing him here, and it was with a guilty heart that Michal quickly moved on from his previous anger. Seth, and his sister, had only done what Michal had been incapable of doing for all those months. Was it his place to be angry with them?

Well, he supposed, they could’ve picked a group that was perhaps less peppy and more fun, but in-the-moment decisions weren’t based on that. Privacy and healing were.

He had been doing a lot of healing.

“It’s not--” Michal began, playing with his hands. He stopped fiddling with them, and dropped them to his sides completely. “It’s not your fault. I need help. You did the right thing bringing me here, and no one’s died from it so---”

His face twitched, and Michal immediately wished he hadn’t used that word. He finally looked up at Seth, resting his chin on his own shoulder. “It’s not your fault,” Michal reaffirmed.

Seth nodded along to Michal’s words, relief rushing over him. Not that he suddenly felt it was okay that he didn’t notice, no that still wasn’t acceptable. But the concern he had over Michal being upset over this, not talking to him, hating him--- that worry almost consumed him the last few weeks. He didn’t know what he would do if Michal legitimately stopped talking to him. “Right.” Seth said a bit awkwardly. “Well, I’m glad you are doing better. You seem better. And I’ll be here, whenever. Next time I’ll try harder with sneaking in food.”

He wanted to ask. He wanted to know what had caused all of this. Why his friend flinched at the mention no one dying, but asking questions--- well now really wasn’t the time to pry. He was certain that Michal would share with him when he was ready. “They were so concerned about the cupcakes, they didn’t notice the exploding snap cards I brought with me,” he offered digging the deck out of his pocket, holding them out to his friend. “Fancy a game?”

Michal’s face lit up, and he immediately scrambled to put between them a makeshift table.

“Yeah?” he threw over his shoulder, already tugging over their playboard. He pulled over a short, round ottoman from the corner of the room, thinking it would be the easiest piece of furniture he definitely wouldn’t mind catching on fire. Pushing it in between his and Seth’s chairs, he flopped back down into his with a small, pressed smile.

Touching his own face, he pushed his fingers into his cheeks. “Do I look like less of an alcoholic now?” Michal asked, finding that the only way he’d found to deal with his current life was through inappropriate humor. His healer disapproved, of course, but Michal had never been the star of anything so why anyone thought he would be one now was ridiculous.

“Go on then,” he encouraged, waving his hands vaguely between them. Seth had no idea how boring life was when all you had to do was sit around quietly and think about things. Sometimes a wizard just wanted to have a bunch of cards inexplicably explode in his face.