Who: Michal and Seth
What: Bi-annual Bro Feels Cleanse
Where: Seth's house
When: Errr Couple days ago? idk whenever makes most sense
Status: Finishing in comments



Michal caught the blanket slipping from his shoulders, holding onto it tightly as he rummaged around Seth’s cabinets for something that resembled quality food. It wasn’t that his own cabinet food, at his house, was insufficient, it was just that they were... in his house, a place he currently did not want to be, so he was here. Had been for quite a bit, actually, though it was unclear how much Seth actually knew he had been hosting a guest for the past couple of days, being that he hadn’t exactly been home very much.

Minor details, really. How many times had he been in this house? Stayed here? Helped move in just about half of its furniture? Guest was really too formal of a word. Michal preferred the term housesitter now that he knew Seth had not been spending a lot of time in it. Yes, house sitting, that sounded good. Feverish house sitting, in which he mostly laid on the couch and listened to the wireless, but housesitting nonetheless.

At also relieved him, if temporarily, of Vinny’s sickeningly condescending spur-of-the-moment visits that usually ended in Michal wanting to throttle the young seeker, but simply didn’t have the energy too. Letting out a disgruntled huff, he gave up on locating anything and shut the doors closed with a flick of his wand. Back to conjuring and summoning pumpkin juice from the living room it was. Shuffling back over to the makeshift fort he had created, Michal fell back onto the long couch he called home during the day (he was not about to give up sleeping in one of the many guest rooms Seth had here) with a heavy sigh.

He didn’t pick his head up when the front door opened, just continued to stare at the ceiling and let out a low grumble.

Seth was not having a good week. The off season was suppose to be less stressful, but that was far from the case. Everything he usually relied on Henry for, he was doing for himself, plus he offered to keep an eye on other day-to-day basics that he didn’t blame his brother one bit for putting aside. It was far more important for him to be with Heidi. Seth was never going to give him shit again. He was only doing a small percentage of the work and still didn’t understand how Henry did this everyday, but he was managing decently right up until his mother sent an urgent owl.

She had fallen ill herself and in fear of making his fever worse, felt it would be best if Brandon didn’t stay in her care. Which was fine, while he did not have Leanne while she was that small, he couldn’t imagine it being that much harder.

Except having two small cranky children in his care was so much more exhausting that he could ever imagine. Leanne whined the entire way back to the house because she had to walk while he carried Brandon, and it wasn’t fair. It was the first time he had been back to his house before dark all week and still all he wanted to do was crawl into this bed and sleep. His daughter tugged on his robes yet again begging to be picked up. “If you wake your cousin up Leanne, I swear,” Seth let his threat trail off as he opened the door ushering her inside.

He didn’t notice Michal until he had already taken Brandon and Leanne upstairs and put them to bed. He had planned to come back down and crash on his couch and just do nothing, but someone was already there. Looking around the room, Seth got the feeling that he had been here for a while. He almost didn’t even want to know how long. He crashed down on the couch anyways, sitting on top of Michal’s legs. Sure why not. What was one more thing to add to his day.

“Hello Michal, please, make yourself at home.”

“Done,” Michal retorted moodily, twisting under Seth’s weight. He promptly gave up after a few mere seconds of vainly attempting to tug his blanket back over his body, not feeling that chilled he supposed. Who needed to feel warm when you were sick and experiencing some emotional discomfort? Not he.

“Where have you been?” he asked vaguely, turning as much as he could to look at Seth. Who, he promptly decided, had seen better days. “You look horrible,” he stated briskly, then turned back to properly lay on his back again. Looking up at the ceiling, Michal breathed in deeply a couple of moments to help settle his swimming head after the exciting last few moments.

“Someone could have broken into and out of your house like five times while you weren’t here for the past few days.”

Seth prodded Michal harshly in the ribs, “Did you mean someone other than yourself? How long have you even been here? Why are you even here?” Though he would never admit it, and would continue to put on the exasperated front, deep down he was pleased Michal was here on his couch. Even if it was annoying, it added a bit of normalcy he desperately needed in his week.

“Unlike some people, I haven’t had the time to live on someone else’s couch.” He said a bitterly kicking his feet up onto his coffee table. He sighed deeply, finally just taking a moment. Seth didn’t even know where to begin to tell Michal what was going what on in his life at the moment. How to even explain just how much of a weight it was on him that he felt utterly useless while everything fell apart around him. “It has been a bad week.”

A disgruntled frown formed on his face, and Michal recoiled from Seth’s forceful jab. “Yes,” he responded in a gutted manner. “I’m sick,” was the only answer he felt like providing. And it was the truth! He was feeling ill, and when you felt ill, you didn’t want to sit home alone in agony just waiting for something to happen, or someone to walk on in so... his frown deepened.

“Why? What’s going on?” Michal asked, mind slowly beginning to work to think what Seth could possibly be talking about. Obviously, he had been very busy, but did busy mean bad? For Michal, it did, because he hated having a busy schedule above most things, but Seth had always been the more social one. He let out heavy sigh, and pressed the back of his head into his pillow to adjust himself on the couch.

Seth ran his hands down his face the second the words ‘I’m sick’ left Michal’s mouth. Of course he was sick. Of course, because having one other healthy person in his life was just too much to ask for. At least Michal wasn’t that sick, otherwise he’d already be in Mungo’s. Seth knew his friend, and that he had a fondness for claiming he was dying with every case of the sniffles.

“You and everyone else.” Seth said turning his head to look over at his friend. “Heidi is in Mungo’s, has that virus. Henry is a mess, understandably. I don’t think he’s left since she got admitted. So I’ve been trying to stand in for him. Never will understand how he does his job. Then mum, she’s sick too. So I’ve had both Brandon and Leanne for a couple days now.” Not to mention his daughter had been exceedingly cranky lately and Seth feared she was getting ill too. He didn’t dare verbalize such a thing though. His luck would have it come true.

He turned his head back and took up staring at the ceiling as well. Before he took over watching Brandon, it was easier for Seth to manage to swing by the hospital to check on his brother, make sure he was eating, but now with two kids, it was much more difficult to manage. Selfishly, he was grateful for the excuse not to go. It tore him apart to see his brother in such a state. The last time he was there Henry was sitting at her bedside talking to Heidi as if she was just resting her eyes, not in a magically induced coma. Seth left without making his presence know. He told himself he was being polite by not intruding on a private moment, truth was he couldn’t stand to witness such a heartbreaking moment and all the thoughts that went with it.

“Merlin I am an awful brother,” Seth said shaking the thoughts from his head and returning his hands to his face. “What does it say about me as a person, that my brother’s fiance is probably dying and all I can think about is how if it were me, if I had gotten sick there would be no one sitting at my bedside. No one left behind to take care of Leanne. Selfish!” He pushed himself up off the couch, irritated with himself. Thinking such things, let alone verbalizing them. He paced the room, pulling at his hair.

“Sitting here whining about it isn’t helping either. I should--- I should go take Henry some dinner. He has probably forgotten to eat again. You’ll be fine here, yeah? Have been for a while so---”

Michal quickly closed his mouth, the quick quip about Seth inadvertently obtaining another child at his doorstep promptly dying in his throat. He had no idea that this had been... what Seth had been dealing with for the past few days. And now, because of it, he had spiraled into these... thoughts, these thoughts that he should not be thinking, because you just didn’t... do that. Michal’s frown deepened to show that of concern, and he sat up on his elbows to watch Seth more carefully.

“I’d sit bedside!” he blurted, interrupting Seth a bit too late within his friend’s speech. Better late than never, and the truth. He knew Seth meant a romantic someone that would spend every waking moment by his side in a time of need, but, to think he had no one was simply untrue. Michal struggled next to think of what to say, as it had never been his forte to help impart reason or especially good advice concerning serious... life.. matters. And especially since he currently couldn’t even figure out his own...

“What have you had to eat?” he said quickly, cutting Seth off before he went off again. “Seth!” Michal let out harshly, hoping that doing so would grab his friend’s full attention. Holding back a groan, Michal slowly pulled himself up off the couch and approach Seth. He roughly put his hands on Seth’s shoulders to steady himself and his friend, looking at him expectantly.

“Stop.”

Seth didn’t even process his friends words until Michal physically stopped him from leaving the room and demanded that he breathe. He contemplated twisting out of his grasp, but the idea didn’t hold out as a good one for very long. Instead he settled for slumping down on the nearest piece of furniture. He had eaten, right? When he fed the kids, he was sure he grabbed something for himself except there was also the good chance that he was too distracted to actually finish his own meal.

“I don’t know. Pretty sure I ate something at some point.” he offered lamely, looking up to Michal before pulling on his sleeve so he would sit down next to him. What he really needed was for his friend to not be sick. He could not handle another deathly ill person in his life. He needed Michal to be the fabulous distraction he could always count on when his thoughts got too serious.

“What about you? I know I don’t have any food in the house that doesn’t require cooking.” Seth commented looking over to Michal. He didn’t look like he needed Mungo’s but he didn’t look healthy either. He reached out and pressed the back of his hand to his forehead. Well, he supposed that he could prove to be a distraction even when sick. At the very least Seth could feel a bit helpful. “Do you want something to eat? I could make us both food.”