[ota] shake me, break me....

[maskofhearts.livejournal.com]

There was always a chance of injury when sparring. Particularly when sparring with someone that you were particularly competitive with (like ones brother). Hadyn didn't even remember how it happened, other than a series of complicated moves, and progressively annoyed Jordan. He'd lost his knife, but thanks to Elisha's training over the past year, losing his knife was no longer the most worrisome thing in a match.

He'd blocked a slashing motion from Jordan, and had moved to step in and disarm his brother when Jordan suddenly (and unexpectedly) changed tactics. He let go have his knife and latched on to Hadyn's arm before he was able to adjust and scramble back- and then, between his own twisting, and Jordan's- he felt the searing, hot pain rip through is shoulder as he came crashing down on it, Jordan having flipped him, almost without his notice, onto the training mat.

Surely people would forgive him for looking pained as he gets his shoulder iced and wrapped before heading to the theatre to work.

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[heartsthespades.livejournal.com]

Jordan didn't actually point out that it was entirely Hadyn's fault. But it was, of course, and Jordan's face said it all for him.

"Hold still," he said. "It's going to bruise, you know." Of course Hadyn knew. It wasn't the first time one of them had separated their shoulder in a sparring match.

"Elisha's going to throw a fit, you know."

[maskofhearts.livejournal.com]

Not the first time, no. But the first time in a while. Certainly since Elisha and he had started....sleeping together. He rubbed his face with his right hand, sighing just a little bit more.

"I know. Thanks." He said with a sharp tone. Though he'd argue it was hardly his fault. At least not alone.

"Oh yeah? No one ever said he had to know." He could....keep if from him somehow.

[heartsthespades.livejournal.com]

He should have been alert enough to brace enough to not get a dislocation out of it, at the very least. Jordan didn't fancy himself so far above Hadyn that he could just throw him around like a rag doll.

"Oh, yeah? How are you going to pull that one off?" He raised his eyebrows as he wrapped Hadyn's shoulders. "Disappear off the face of the earth until Saturday?"

[maskofhearts.livejournal.com]

"Fuck off." Hadyn muttered, wincing a little as he looked at his shoulder. He had to believe the worst part of dislocating a joint wasn't the act itself- it was the wrenching it back into place that hurt most. He'd almost emptied his stomach over the pain.

"So maybe I'll just say it was a training accident." He snapped, frowning as he rolled his eyes. "I was just trying to help you prepare for your triumphant return." Or some such like that.

How pissy could Elisha really be? Accidents did happen.

[heartsthespades.livejournal.com]

Well, he wasn't Jordan's boyfriend. He couldn't, honestly, say he even knew Elisha Kagan all that well. He just remembers the fluttering he got from god and everyone over his knee...which, admittedly, was a little more serious than a dislocated shoulder.

"And I appreciate it," he said after a moment. "Even if I haven't picked out a victim yet."

[maskofhearts.livejournal.com]

"Maybe you should get on with that." He said, tipping his head ever so slightly before he sighing. This was just ridiculous.

"It isn't even that bad." It was just something, that happened.

[heartsthespades.livejournal.com]

"I've got a little time," Jordan said mildly. He'd been told to wait until the new year, after all, and he needed to tie up loose ends at Heart Castle, anyway.

If Blythe was still talking to him enough to do that, at least. But, no. She'd be completely and painfully professional about it.

"So just tell him you were training with me and you landed wrong." Surely that was good enough, right? It's not like Elisha didn't train.

[maskofhearts.livejournal.com]

"I imagine that is what I will say." Just because he didn't have anything better to tell him, aside from sighing greatly. That aside, he just sort of let his eyes close as he hung his head a bit.

"Are you going to get me a speech about all this, or can we just skip it?"

[heartsthespades.livejournal.com]

"Well, I should." But it wasn't exactly fair, was it, considering Jordan did the same thing. Maybe the strain wasn't as visible - maybe because Jordan's job didn't require quite as many hours.

"But maybe I'll skip it, just this once."

[maskofhearts.livejournal.com]

"You're a saint." He said, standing once Jordan was done wrapping his shoulder. "Is it bad?"

The concern wasn't so much for anything other than- did he need to go to a doctor about it. Because otherwise, he'd try very hard not to.

[heartsthespades.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, get me a halo." He frowned though for a moment as he bagged ice and wrapped it in a towel. Sometimes he felt like a bad older brother; he should probably press Hadyn to take it easy.

But he wouldn't take it easy in his position, would he? So telling Hadyn to would be kind of hypocritical.

"No," he said after a moment. "Just the usual. Ice, sling, try not to push it too hard until you have to."

[maskofhearts.livejournal.com]

"And here I was planning to challenge you to a rematch by the end of the night. I almost had you, I wasn't even fighting dirty and I almost had you." He smirked at that in a bit of triumph.

"You really shouldn't get so pissy about that."

Apparently SWS is broken.

[heartsthespades.livejournal.com]

"And now you won't be rematching me until next week." Because he might have almost had Jordan, but he didn't. Not entirely.

"We weren't exactly raised to be zen about that kind of thing, you know." If Mother had seen how close it had been...well. Jordan would have been in for several more hours of training. He might do it anyway. Now wasn't the time to get sloppy.

[dreamsofwords.livejournal.com]

"Henry is going to throw a rage-fit." He almost wanted to see it, Alasdair thought as he leaned in the door with a box in his hands. The DeWitt Family Revelry was over - it mostly involved eating until they were almost sick and ripping into presents, anyway - and he had a house to move into, the perfect excuse for escaping questions about he and Elani.

"Want some ibuprofen? I have some in this box, I think."

[maskofhearts.livejournal.com]

"Henry can kiss my ass at this point." He said, looking up at Alasdair in the most unamused manner he could manage (which was rather good at the moment.)

"I already took about five." He assured the man though, as he leaned back and held out his hand for Bond to crawl over to him. In a rather unceremonious manner, the puppy just sort of flopped down next to him, his head pillowed on paws that rested over Hadyn's hand.

[dreamsofwords.livejournal.com]

The world might be better off if more people told Henry that - but Alasdair was, of course, entirely unbiased. It's not like Henry had laughed the last time he'd brought him something.

Oh, wait.

"And you've got a live-in nurse, I see," he said, though, with a slight smile. He didn't think either Novak had been the type for pets, especially adorable puppy types of pets. "He's probably got it in hand, anyway. What is it? Dislocation?"

[maskofhearts.livejournal.com]

"He's happy to help, I suppose." Hadyn said, wiggling a finger as Bond tried to catch in. "I need to get him some chew toys, I think." Stuff to keep a growing puppy occupied.

"Dislocated," he said with a mild shrug. "Not the first time, won't be the last. It sort of...happens." It was the nature of training.

[dreamsofwords.livejournal.com]

"Rope was a favorite of my dog, growing up." Harper had passed a few years back, though, and Alasdair hadn't grown up to be the kind of man who wanted a golden retriever underfoot. "Something he can tug. He looks like he's got shepherd in him. He'll probably want to herd you and everyone else in sight."

He shifted the box to his other arm and winced a little. "Sucks. I dislocated mine a couple of years back in copoeira practice. At least it's only a few days of recovery?" He won't ask if Henry will give him time off. They both know there's no way in hell.

[maskofhearts.livejournal.com]

"I'll see what I can find then." Which was a start, really, before he barked out a sharp enough laugh that Bond looked up at him in a startled manner and barked a little at him while trying to climb into his lap.

"As if. We've a play opening on Friday. Come hell or high water, I will be well enough to perform."

[dreamsofwords.livejournal.com]

Alasdair shook his head with a bit of a smirk as he set the box on the table and flopped into one of the chairs. He was only really at the apartment to cajole Freddy into helping with boxes, anyway, since the house he'd ended up with wasn't far.

"The ranting over Hanukkah was loud enough that I heard it." Or rather, one of his seniors was an understudy and had whispered all about the drama queen fits in class. "I think he might have a voodoo doll of King Elisha, somewhere."

[maskofhearts.livejournal.com]

"He pretty much hates the king of Clubs," He said with a shrug, and then a wince before shuddering. "Fuck, I need to not do that."

Or something.

"Whatever Henry wants, Henry gets. Or something to that effect." He sighed, though. It was, going to be a fun argument to be sure.

[dreamsofwords.livejournal.com]

"I just bet," Alasdair said with a snort before wincing and getting up to fix Hadyn fresh ice.

"Is that your opinion or His Majesty's?" He asked after a moment. He and Hadyn weren't particularly close - unlike most of the Hearts Hadyn's age, Alasdair hadn't taught him in school - but he'd never particularly disliked the Novaks. Maybe in part it was because of his job, but he saw enough kids in every Suit that he didn't make judgments about the two boys who'd switched to the Hearts when he'd been fifteen.

[maskofhearts.livejournal.com]

"That Henry gets what he wants?" Hadyn asked, raising a brow curiously for a moment before tilting his head to the side and blinking a little.

"I don't know. Elisha probably does think that, if not something worse. I do know he isn't a fan of Henry's." Though some of that, he imagined, was because Henry interrupted the chances of sex at times.

[dreamsofwords.livejournal.com]

"Who is?" But there was a faint curve to Alasdair's lips as he handed Hadyn the ice. Henry wasn't a bad man, just...single-minded. A workaholic, too, and expected everyone else to be.

"Maybe you should point out to Elisha that he probably would expeect 130 percent or so out of someone working for him." The P.A. before Pete had been one of his youngest sister's friends, and he'd heard stories.

[maskofhearts.livejournal.com]

"You'd be surprised how many people are fans, you know." He said with a vague smirk. And no, Henry wasn't a bad man- he was just a demanding man. A very demanding man.

"I don't think Elisha would agree it was quite the same." But for reasons he didn't feel inclined to explain to Alasdair. It was just one of those things that people needed to understand...as complicated as it was.