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One of those phonecalls no one wants came through in the early morning for Vitale. When a good looking guy you mack on at a pool hall calls you back up and it's because his brother, your resource, just took a few rounds at close range and they need help right now? Well that's not the kind of 'hey are you free tonight?' one generally welcomes. For Vitale it was also not an atypical request for his time by the world.
Directions given Elmo drove the car while Severin kept JP awake as he could to get them where they needed to go. At least they had someone on the team that was local and knew all the back roads and shortcuts from traffic. Arriving they pulled around back to avoid discussion on the street. Currently the crew was not dressed to impress.
And by not dressed to impressed, Severin managed to pull on pants at some point, and his boots, and that's it as he was more focused on keeping JP conscious than getting re-dressed after his shapeshifting. JP was in boots and boxers and bleeding from a gunshot wound to his shoulder and chest and covered in blood. So was Severin, for that matter. Elmo was likewise spattered from being at close range during the shot and helping to carry JP.
Severin helps carry his brother toward the house from the car saying, "Next time, you go away from the door, away, not toward the door, not through the door, and you sure as hell don't try to close the door, you hear me?" He seems more to be trying to keep JP conscious than genuinely angry with him, though let's be fair, he's just a bit scared for his brother at the moment, but trying not to let that show through too much.
Vitale would rather they call him than not call at all though. He is worried that every time the phone rings, its one of his new friends in danger. So often it's been Kaleb, or Jay calling for someone else. He could have placed bets on it one day being JP, considering the moment they met, Vitale leeched a rather awful batch of bruised ribs off of him. When they call, he hastily makes sure his father isn't home. He usually isn't most nights. There are either deals to be made, or some other woman to cheat on his mother with. Most no one else matters. If a brother wakes up, he'll just assume that Vitale is doing his father's bidding when they see it's just another young man riddled with bullet holes. His mother on some kind of dinner date with cousins who talk and dress as fancy as she does, comparing the diamonds they wear given to them by the husbands that are rarely ever loyal, over linguine, most likely. Besides, it's rather easy to pull a date off of someone after you save their brother's life.
Vitale's ears are waiting for the sound of a car pulling up his driveway. When he hears it, he's already got the front doors to the huge house open wide. He'd rush to them, if he didn't know that the moment he got his hands on JP, he'd start leeching wounds off of him, better to keep that scene at least inside. Bullet holes were his speciality, after all. He waves them inside, unable to see most of the carnage just yet.
JP's olive skin was pallid and pale. A sweat broke out even though he had little on, and that white t-shirt? well wasn't white. Focus was hard. Lucky there was the biting pain of the wounds and his brother's chiding wit keeping him mostly to. He did what he could to stay calm, and collected, but the truth was he was shaking and scared as hell. Severin was strong though and JP relied on that to lean on. It was a long enough drive but he was putting more focus into staying awake enough to walk and help than he was justifying what possessed him to make a terrible, almost life-ending, choice. "…I could… do that…" a series of short, pained breaths later and sure, he would agree with Severin on that point. He was, in illuminated clarity, not wrong. What he was was a mess.
Severin is strong-framed to begin with, and his enhanced strength doesn't hurt either, and so he is pretty easily able to heft his brother to wherever Vitale needs him to be, following the medic into the house and to whatever location is designated on which to lower JP's frame, keeping his head up a bit. "You're gonna do that or next time I'm gonna shoot you, myself, you hear me?" Okay, so maybe there is a little worry showing through there. Once he gets JP settled down, he looks over at Vitale and says, "Thanks.. for bein' here, for helpin' out. Is there anythin' I gotta do?"
Vitale directs them to a couch that he's already covered with a drop cloth. It's clear that Vitale has done this a time or two before. Enough to be experienced with how to keep blood off the nice furniture. "Red's not your best color, friend." He says to JP once they've got him laid down. He looks at the wound in his chest. He looks over to Severin when he asks if there's anything he's got to do. Leveling him with a serious look. Severin hadn't really gotten to see how Vitale's powers work just yet. "Just don't panic, okay? And maybe.. maybe you could take my other hand? Help steady me." He leaves one hand up for Severin to take if he so chooses. "I've got ya, JP. You're gonna be okay." He promises before he wastes no more time and pulls JP's hand into his own.
The pain racking through JP's poor body, the worst of it would dull considerably in that second that their skin meets. His skin coughing up the bullets he's keeping first before it starts to slowly knit back together. No more blood escapes JP for the moment as he heals, but Vitale's previous gentle grip turns into a vice as a nearly animalistic groan explodes from Vitale, blood starting to seep through the front of his blue dress shirt.
Severin nods his head and reaches out to take Vitale's hand. He might be flippant and irreverent at the best of times, but when it comes to his brother, and getting him fixed, he'll stand on his head and recite the alphabet backward if it's going to get these bullets taken care of. Steadying the medic while he helps out seems the very least thing he can do. He settles himself next to Vitale and takes his hand firmly in his own, keeping an eye on both JP and the medic.
When JP's skin coughs up the bullets that had been lodged in his shoulder and chest, Severin's eyes widen a bit, but then when Vitale starts to bleed he blinks, "Oh, shit.. is that supposed to happen?" Because he has no idea. He grips Vitale's hand tightly and places a hand on his back to steady him but he's clearly not sure what else he needs to do at the moment.
JP had little energy but the brass moving back out of his body with the small shrapnel fragments/ OH yeah he was more awake than he had been the last 23 minutes. His hand pulled into Vitale's seized tight, knuckled blanched; a grunt that wheezed out of him became more of a growl with rapid short breaths trying to keep from screaming. See, when one gets shot? There's that lovely thing called adrenaline. After 11 minutes that shock tends to wear off which meant this go around JP was on his own. His eyes swam but he hung in there not really responding to being told, fashionably, that bullets don't suit him. Fingers, still cakes with his own blood from trying to help staunch his wound gripped the medal of St. Nicholas around his neck; that Catholic saint of repentant thieves, children, and people who learn the hard way to run away from bullets. It was quiet but Severin got an answer through his brother's gritted teeth, tears matting his cheeks, "Oui…oui…"
"I got you, I got you." Vitale tries his best to comfort through gritted teeth as he takes on that wound. It's a /bad/ one which means it takes Vitale a little longer to take it. Breath bursts out of Vitale's lungs in short pants as he forgets to breathe. His grip on JP's hand is fierce, refusing to let JP pull away if he tried, refusing to let JP keep any part of these wounds. He rearranges their arms, twisting his and JP's together, more skin contact, quicker transferring. "You're alright, JP." He continues to soothe even as his shirt moves from blue to a damp black, the source matching the exact place on JP's chest. "It's alright, Sev. It's alright. I'll heal this quicker than he will. This is.. this is just how it works." Comfort oozes off of Vitale.
The hand caught in Severin's squeezes too as he tries to work through this pain, but it's one he's trained with. He looks up, blinks hard, chases away tears of pain and then looks back down at JP. Eleven minutes seems to last a life time before JP answers Severin. Anything that Severin was ailing from leaches off of him as well but isn't as violently felt as JP's wounds are. "There you are! Hey handsome. How you feelin'? You just tell me when you aren't hurtin' anymore, alright? You're okay. I've still got you." Easily bubbly and sweet to the frightened man beneath him who'd just nearly had a brush with death, despite the fact that new blood was still wetting the front of his shirt.
Severin watches in somewhat rapt fascination and no small amount of concern as this entire process goes on, though with the reassurances that this is how it works — he no longer casts about for something to /do/ to make it better and instead just keeps a hand pressed against Vitale's back to help keep him upright, and the other continues to hold his free hand, tightly. "If you say so," he says somewhat under his breath, never having seen anything quite like this.
There's little physically wrong with Severin. He had some bruises and scrapes from the tumble off the balcony, but he was the one on top when he and the thug hit the ground, and also the one with claws. None of the blood on him is his own. Those miner bruises and scrapes vanish though, leaving him without any injuries as well. The other guy? Well, the other guy looked like he'd been mauled by a mountain lion, and there'd likely be reports on the news of some big cat wandering the city, a whole new myth like the alligators in the sewers.
JP hung in there with raw determination. He was a fighter and from a place where showing weakness turned any predator into prey for the scavengers fast. Weirdly Sev was too but Severin dealt with actual animals, and JP the savages he was locked in with on and off. This didn't stop his face from being soaked in sweat and tears. He was still shaking from blood-sugar drop, lack of blood, having the life scared into him, and the threat of their mum ever finding out. Stronger short breathes followed, and an amused half grin flashed on his face, "Hey… here I am." His eyebrows popped preening at the compliment, for the show of it bolstering from any salvaged bravado lying around. "Sev you… Elmo? You guys … you alright?" Because in the last half hour? He'd finally been able to ask. Those brown eyes moved from him to Vitale watching him: chest and shoulder bleeding out and healing as if purging the unclean blemishes from his body. "Woooooah that lookin' ugly." yeah JP, you're a dumbshit that ran at the danger at the wrong damn time, asshole.
Vitale's eyes are blurry and unfocused for a moment while he tries to find JP's own, hearing his voice. His grip goes slack in Severin's own as he falls a little forward, barely catching himself on his elbows from slamming face first into JP's newly healed chest. "Y-yeah, I think I wear this better than you did." Vitale has enough semblance to tease at JP despite the fact that he's trembling beneath Severin's touch. "You're.. You need sugar." He lifts his head weakly to look back at Severin, pupils unfocused. "Hey gorgeous. Sorry I've been giving your rotten brother all my attention. Do you think you could grab him a cup of orange juice? Kitchen's right across the hall, cabinet to the left of the refrigerator has all the cups. I'll watch over him, I promise."
"We're fine," Severin says to JP with a little bit of a lopsided grin. "Elmo's got a few scrapes from the door but he's otherwise alright and I sent him on home to go ahead and get changed an' get some rest. Vitale took care a' me when he took care a' you so I'm even' righter than rain right now." There's a little grin over at Vitale as well for that. "Rest, alright." He catches Vitale when he suddenly slumps forward, one arm around him and the other gripping his upper arm to help steady him. "What about you?" he asks, "Should I bring somethin' for you as well?" He doesn't know how that works, and he seems reluctant to let go, given all that blood.
JP held up two bloody fingers and looked, well earnestly relieved. Sure he was a cowboy, all balls and no common sense running face first into things without thinking, but he had priorities still: family first. Actual or acquired. He was really relieved to hear they were alright. "Apportez-en un pour lui. Les serviettes aussi, s'il vous plait?" He was too tired to English rightly but the message, broken up was still yeah bring the man a juice, and towels. please and thank you. Taking a deeper breath now that he could he let the weaight of himself sink in hte couch, still holding Vitaley's hand, grip around his thumb. The other hand patted the back of Vitale's knuckles. "We be a'ight. You did good. I owe ya."
Vitale's grateful for the way Severin catches him, JP probably is too. Probably wouldn't much appreciate Vitale hardcore headbutting him after he'd just healed his chest. "It's gonna take me another half hour to heal it on myself, but I promise you I'm going to be just fine." He says and already he's speaking easier, not growling the words to Severin through his teeth. He moves his free hand to the one on his upper arm, guiding Severin's hand up to his mouth, kissing his knuckles lightly. He's better enough to /boldly/ flirt with Severin, at least. He gently releases it and move his hand across JP's forehead, the other still caught in JP's own, checking for a fever, making sure that there's not a damn thing he's missed. "I'll think of something."
"D'acc," Severin says, a quick slang okay, to JP. When Vitale kisss his knuckles though, he glances over at the medic and raises a brow, a little smile touching his lips. "You keep an eye on him, make sure he don' leap in front of more bullets 'fore I get back," he tells Vitale, giving his hand a little squeeze, and only then does he let the man lean up against the couch under his own power to go wander off toward the kitchen. He looks like a crime scene and would likely terrify anyone he ran into, covered in dried blood, not to mention the dried blood around his fingers and teeth. It's actually kind of terrifying if one spent any time actually considering it. He grabs some paper towels and finds a bathroom along the way to clean himself up a bit. His clothes are a bit of a loss, but at least his face, chest, arms and hands look like he hasn't torn a thug apart with his bare hands anymore. He stops in the kitchen and pours some juice, two glasses, and brings the towels back with him, and some water in a bowl, and a trash bag. While the two drink their juice, he begins cleaning JP up a bit.
JP shut his eyes and croaked defiantly with what little energy he had to his brother, "How else'm I gon' hook you up?" Oh sure turn a stupid idea into some clever plot to get his brother doted on? MmHMM! Let it not be said he wasn't an opportunist. Once Severin's out His thoughts were swimming but just as aloof as ever, trying to keep Vitale's pluck up while he was healing the mess he got them all into. "Ya know… Sev's life was a lot quieter b'fore I got back. I think just in time." He blinked his eyes squeezing Vitale's thumb a bit to focus his attention, "Frere almos' got bored. Scary." There was a tired wink. He pushed himself slowly to a sit to not go through all that only to choke on the juice. He made no fuss letting his Brother clean him up. He had pride, not dignity, and he certainly wasn't one to stand on ceremony. He came around to ask Sev agani, "Sure you' alright?"
"I'm sure that it was so boring without you," Vitale agrees with a smile. Vitale moves a hand behind JP's back to ease him up, effectively ignoring the pain he's in. Bullets were something he was accustomed to, a pain he was familiar with more intimately than he'd like to be. Bullets and broken bones are something he's been training with since he was fourteen. He used to cry, used to scream but a backhand from his father and the look of severe disappointment in his father's eyes had taught him young to take everything off his father's soldiers quietly. You grit your teeth and you swallow it. That's how a De Angelis deals with pain.
He sits back and out of the way for Severin to clean his brother up. He hasn't quite yet released JP's hand, JP hadn't said that he was through aching after all so his arm is stretched, still clinging to JP's, as he takes the extra glass from Severin, a surprised looking crossing his features, clearly unaccustomed to someone caring for /him/ after. "Thank you, Sev."
To Severin, it just makes sense. Yes, JP had the injury and needs to recovery, but Vitale is also currently undergoing the /same/ injury and is going to need recovery too, even if it isn't as much or as long, and Severin may be many things, but he is not callous, not when shit really hits the fan. He gets JP cleaned up and takes the bloody holey shirt from him. Then he goes over to the pile of clothes that they'd brought in from the car. He finds his own shirt and he gives that to JP, helping him into it so that he's not completely freezing. Then he drapes JP's pants over the back of the couch for him to put on when he's up to it. His jacket is perfectly clean, as are the jeans, since neither were worn during the entire adventure, and both are set on the back of the couch. Sev then settles back down next to Vitale, checking to see how he is doing. "You need more juice or anythin?" he asks.
JP peeled out of the shirt handing it to Sev for the burn pile. For now he's climb into his brother's shirt and looked at the mess that was himself well, He causght the jeans and felt up the back pockets to check inventory. Ooh! Someone grabbed his knife. That was good news. He checked the other side. "Merde. Wallet's gone." One eyebrow arched high murmuring, "Well tha' guy's bout to have a bad day." The good news was he rarely had a wallet that was his own. That got keps in his jacket, hidden, always. "Where you suppose them boys came from?"
Vitale finally releases JP to allow him to get dressed, satisfied that he must be healed when he's able to pull on his own clothes. He surveys the lack of blood on his pants and narrows his eyes. "Who were you fightin' in your boxers, JP? That for one was probably a bad hand played." Vitale asks, settling back and opening the front of his own shirt, the wound he'd taken from JP already slowly knitting itself closed. "Me? I'm okay, Severin. I mean… I /might/ need a kiss. All this hard work of saving your brother.. I'm feeling so out of breath…" He pretends to be woozy theatrically with a little wink at Sev.
"We were crashed out at the motel after ditchin' the cops. We busted up some anti-mutant protesters an' they didn't take too kindly to our tanglin' with them. Then some thugs were doin' a shakedown next door, and then only thing I can figure is they were after someone else and ended up bustin' into our room instead.. it's not like we ah.. paid for it. So maybe it was registered under whoever they were lookin' for?" That's his guess, and he's sticking to it, shrugging his shoulders. Then he glances over at Vitale, watching the wound close with a mixture of curiosity and concern, but it does indeed seem to be knitting itself up quite quickly. One brow arches a little bit at Vitale's swooning and he turns, sliding an arm around him as though to catch him, and he leans in, planting a kiss right on his mouth that is sure to leave him actually out of breath.
JP answered Vitale indignantly, "Whom's I fightin without pants? I dunno. Everyone eventually is my guess." Hell to him it kinda sounded like the start of a good ening. Maybe. Tonight proving the exception. He pulled his pants over off the couch working on removing his boots when Vitale disappeared out of view. "WhooooooOOOO 7-point-two." Apparently he was not above rating these things. Hell he was fucking proud of that one. Apparently a knack for caprecious adventure ran in the family.
"Easy Tiger-" Vitale raises his hands up in surrender to JP's grumpy retort but then Severin is swooping in on him and quite literally stealing the breath right out of his lungs. Startled hands find their way to Severin's back, the back of his neck, pulling him closer gently, forgetting for a moment that they are in his /family's home/ and any of his siblings could wake up and spot him kissing another man. It doesn't matter, none of it does for just that moment when Severin's lips are on his. His eyes even slipping shut until Severin pulls away, leaving Vitale dazed. "That was at /least/ a nine." He argues softly, fingers lightly massaging at the base of Severin's head.
Severin can't help but laugh rogueishly, both at JP's rating and Vitale's contesting of that rating. He gives a rakish little grin, particularly when Vitale continues to hold onto him even after the kiss is over. "Well, I figured you've earned at least an eight." He gives Vitale a wink and then straightens up a little bit more, satisfied that he'd sufficiently fulfilled Vitale's earlier claims of lacking breath. Severin has no shame and is probably unhealthily cavalier about his sexual preferences — it's gotten him into a number of brawls in the past, and will likely get him into a number of brawls in the future. He then smirks over at JP and says, "I'd believe that.. but the no pants fightin' was not intentional in this particular situation."
JP norted and said off-handedly, "I seen Sev at a 9. That ain' no 9 but you's in for a treat, mon ami." True fact: JP Bonaventure will flirt with anything and everyone, but was more than happy to talk up his brothers. His sisters? They're all saints and he may start breaking legs. At the consession made back to him he nodded proudly, "Weeeeell, I thank you, Snd no, it was not." He paused and a bit of the truth of it came out when he said with some concern, "Hope that gal's alright." Of all teh things that bothered him he was worried about the hooker? Well, that's the charity in him.
"I save your life and I only get an eight? And only from your brother?" Vitale teases dramatically, fingers moving down the back of Sev's neck to his spine. "I'm just not experienced enough with this Severin Kissing Scale. I'll just need to sample all the ratings until I can easily tell them apart." He flirts, shamelessly. It's amazing the way that Severin and JP can make him forget where he is, forget to be quiet. To shut up and assimilate in case his brothers come down the stairs or his mother comes home. "Well, at least it was intentional, I knew you were a better fighter than that."
"Only from his brother, eh?" Severin says with a smirk, but he doesn't seem to be taking it personally. In fact, it seems to amuse me, "I think he's issuin' you a challenge, JP." Severin Bonaventure is shameless in most things. He doesn't seem any hurry to pull away from Vitale, and he almost makes a light purring sound at the trail of fingers from his neck to his spine. He has no idea who else might be in the house either — or he might even be the slightest bit more discreet. He's capable of it, but he doesn't often try.
JP put his pants back on. Show's over folks. It'd be a while before he was 100% and the irony is Vitale would be before he was, he was certain. The challenge brought a dimpled half grin "Ooooh it sound t'me he is doin just that." Those dark eyes shift sideways to Vitale, as he idly sucked at an eyetooth. That wolfish grin of his hung but, unlike any other time he was cooling his heels right now. "Eh, V, better fighter than' most, but I'm no mountin lion." He looked back to Sev arching both eyebrows pointedly. "I don' like fightin lions."
JP lost real blood that his body would have to replenish. Vitale can only give some of that back, not all of it. The blood that Vitale had lost replenished itself immediately. Though, they did have extra in the freezer, O negative of course. Vitale was lucky to be born with that blood type as well. There was a cure all for everything that Vitale couldn't cure. "You want a transfusion, Gorgeous? Will help ya feel better. I can hook you up." He asks. Not /everyone/ wants a needle in their vein, it's not the best idea for romancing anyone, not even the man in question's brother. "Wasn't so much a challenge as I believe it was a reasonable request. I mean, I /did/ save your life. You don't think I should have a little kiss?" But he's only teasing, mostly. He does have his fingers traveling up and down Severin's spine, memorizing each new swatch of skin, of muscle as he goes. "I could of course, just give Severin here a 10, show him how it's done." A hand coming up to caress Severin's cheek lightly as he eyes the other man's lower lip.
Severin smirks over at JP and says, "When have I ever fought you as a mountain lion? Never. You gotta admit though, the look on that guy's face when I came up over the bed was pretty priceless." He grins, a broad and mischievous grin. "Oh, a reasonable request," he says with a chuckle and then grins over at Vitale. He might not currently be a mountain lion but Sev still does purr a little bit at the touch, shifting his muscles a little bit as he rolls his shoulders and settles a bit. Then he laughs and says, "You could, could you?" looking over at Vitale with that arched brow and amused grin. He looks back over to JP and says, "What do you think?"
JP laughed, energy and a bit of colour starting to come back to him. "Never, because I know not to take your shit." Which is true! He snickered, "Maaaah that goomba withthe bat did not know what hit him. He got lit up and mauled. He uh, he ever singin' for the church choir again?" Shooting a look back to Vitale his expression relaxed into a grin, "For serious? Sev are you endorsing this?"
The more subtle noise he pulls off of Severin, the closer Vitale scoots to the other man, despite the fact that he's trying to goad his brother into kissing him as well. "I could. I could show you my ten. Then we could compare. If JP's afraid to show me his gratitude, that is." Vitale teases more, sliding a sly look over at JP, fingers still moving over Severin's back. "You know, as gorgeous as you look like this, I do have a shirt I could let you borrow, once we're done here of course." /Flirt/.
"Ain't that the truth," Severin agrees with JP with a bit of a smirk, not that he wouldn't give his brother anything that he had anyways. There's a slight shake of Severin's head then, sobering from the playful banter for a moment or two. "There ain't no way he's gettin' back up again without divine intervention." Because mauled by mountain lion. Yep, Severin Bonaventure is not above killing. They were attacked first, after all. But those fingers drifting up and down along his back are also lulling him into a happy place. He grins at JP and says, "I endorse all things that feel better than a bullet to the chest right now, frere," with a laugh. The offer of a shirt has him chuckling, "Sure." Clothes are kind of an afterthought. He spends most of his time in forms that don't require them, after all.
JP swam his head in a figure eight having no pity for the late, and not so great thug with a nail bat. "Good. Sadly, that guy ain't the only one getting up without divine intervention right now. Right now honestly I don't even know if I could manage a five. Sittin up is challenging. ANd it definately ain' you. You got your game goin on, V. But… really do owe ya."
"I was only harassing you, mostly, JP. You need to rest. You need more healing than I do." Vitale gestures down at his chest, now a red scar, slowly fading. "You can both stay here for the night too. You don't need to be going anywhere else. We have plenty of guest rooms and there's nothing wrong with my friends staying the night. I don't want JP going anywhere tonight. I want to monitor you, make sure you don't pick up an infection or something throughout the night. I could have missed something. I can't risk that." He grows very serious when he says this, making it a demand, not an offer. "That's what you can do to pay me back, JP. Stay the night and put up with my mother henning."
Vitale draws designs along Severin's lower back and hips gently while he speaks, no interest in severing contact with him just yet. He doesn't seem fazed by death. His daddy's a Don. Plenty of people have died in Vitale's lifetime. Some of them, Vitale was forced to heal just before death, over and over again. That Severin and JP did what they had to do to survive didn't make Vitale look on them any differently.
Severin shrugs his shoulders at the mother henning and says, "I'm fine with not goin' back to the motel tonight. We'd have to go an' find another room somewhere anyway. Crashing here's as good as any place else, and yeah.. I'd like to be sure you aren't gonna turn green and parts aren't gonna fall off before we go gettin' into any more trouble." He grins over at JP, then, apparently down with this idea, and not particularly looking forward to trying to find another crappy motel at this hour. He stretches just a little bit, like a contented cat being scritched and then settles a bit. "You want to take JP on up to a room? Then I can help clean all this up?" He nods toward all the canvas and blood and whatnot.
JP croaked, "And Elmo's got Jeanne and lookin after her, soo we'd be walkin. Merci, man. Besides, I heard you Italians have the market on making good coffee. I can get behin' that." Severin pulled a laugh out of him that, shockingly didn't hurt as he expected it to. "Yeah I don' want my parts fallin off either. I got plans for em." He stretched and wa slightheaded. Damn. That was going to be a couple hours. Not that they got much sleep at all up til this point. "Find me a corner to crash I'll be happy then y'all can fuss like ol' hends and prove me wrong bout my ratin' system." Such an enabler, but really? Sleep. That was his siren that called to him.
"Why would it only be a motel? Where on earth do the two of you live?" Vitale asks, tone somewhere between worried and curious. Did they live in that car? Vitale extremely reluctantly severs his contact with Sev. "Don't worry about all that, sweetheart, I'll take care of it." He promises nodding to the mess on the couch. "I've been here a time or two before. "You're not gonna put up a fuss about being carried, are ya?" Vitale asks as he slips his arms up beneath JP's legs and behind his back to haul him up.
Severin grins a little over at JP and then shrugs, "I can be a horse. We got ways of gettin' where we need to go. But right now we've got nowhere we need to be, eh? So we stay here, get you right as rain again." He reaches over to ruffle JP's hair and then he very slowly pulls himself to his feet. Then he looks over to Vitale and says, "Eh, here and there. Don't you worry none, you just get my frere settled in an' I'll get to tidyin' up down here."
JP croaked giving him that, "I don' have the hat for you to be a horse. I got the hat still fo' you t'be a reindeer tho." Little puffball on the end and everything! Smoothly he told Vitale the truth, "We settle where we need to, and never wind up without. Sides, worlds can't keep what we can't take." Oh he was so proud of that point. Seems though he was shot in the chest it missed his pride by a couple of inches.
Vitale hikes JP up and into his arms pretty easily. "I'll be back for you," He promises Severin, who's insisting on cleaning up despite how much Vitale says he doesn't have to. So stubborn, it's endearing. "You know.. you don't have to stay that way. You can stay here with me. If I tell my father that I recruited you, he's not going to question you staying here and I highly doubt that anyone's going to notice you. It's a big place, JP. Just don't break any of my sisters hearts. Or you know, or my brothers, for that matter either." He teases as he starts to guide JP towards a guest room that borders his own.
While Vitale carries JP off to get him settled, Severin does begin the cleanup downstairs. With their sheer number of siblings, Sev's done his fair share of cleaning up in his life, and with their lifestyle, he's done even more cleaning up of blood as well. He gathers everything up into the trash bag that is to be thrown out, wraps up the drop cloth to be washed out and used for the next victim, and even takes the juice glasses back to the kitchen and washes them, dries them, and puts them back where he found them.
JP had that way about him and stopped. "Vitale, if it come' t'that? I let you know. I live in trade, but not in anyone's back pocket, mMm? I coulsn' do that t'your family. I Might do jobs for, but Jp is his own man." He's not one of the DOn's men.
"He wouldn't own you. I don't even own you. I just worry about you sleepin' on bed bug infested hotel beds and making me heal your bites every week." He teases as he carries him into the guest room, settling him down on the bed, layin' him down on one side so he can pull the covers back and then picking him up again to deposit him down beneath the blankets this time. "You don't have to take my offer though, it sounds a lot like handouts, I know. I just worry about you, JP."
Meanwhile, downstairs, Severin continues to erase any sign of their presence and the gruesome scene that took place with the healing. He's good at this. He has a lot of practice putting things back exactly as they were. By the time Vitale returns to the downstairs, it will seem as though the brothers had never stumbled through the front door.
JP reached up a hand and while tired, was blunt slapping Vitale's cheek. "S' why I like you Vitale. Yous good people." He gave him a wink and murmured, "Tween you an' Elmo I'm not ever gonn'a catch a break bout where I nap I swear. BUt yous right. I cannot do handouts cause ain' nothin free, mon ami." Head hit the pillow and almost immediately he was out.
Vitale smiles and reaches down to give JP's hand a squeeze, even after the slap. "Then I'll just pay you a lot, you pain in my behind and the best option you'll have is to spend it on getting your own place." He tells JP's most unconscious body before he vacates the room and walks down the steps to join Severin.
He doesn't expect to find the living room spotless, as if nothing had happened there at all. "Sev?" He calls, looking for the other man, hoping he hadn't run out.
Severin Bonaventure, having completed his cleaning while Vitale took care of his brother, was standing in the livingroom where he'd been left. Everything was clean, and he was just sort of looking around, hands in his pockets, not touching anything, just kind of making sure he'd gotten everything cleaned up. He glances up when he hears Vitale come back down and he asks, "He passed out?" Because that's what he figured.