The three of them were doing warm-ups at the entrance to Wychwood park that faced their building. Jackson watches as Eddie helps Hakeem loosen up, pushing him by the shoulders as Hakeem bends forward tryingto touch his toes as he sits on the ground. Their bodies pressed together, not an inch between them.
Hakeem still hasn’t gotten used to the feeling of Eddie’s breath on his neck as he helped him stretch, his mind wandering too often for comfort. He really should stop reading romance novels before bed—especially ones with shifters and vamp—“Let’s not go there”Hakeem thinks to himself, reining in his runaway train of thought.
Eddie can’t help but notice the tension in Hakeem’s shoulders as he helps him stretch these mornings they went out for a run together. He saved the man the embarrassment of mentioning the blush running across Hakeem’s cheeks, hoping to hide the redness of his own when their bodies were so close. Eddie helps people stretch all the time; the feel of their bodies and breath had never elicited such a reaction from him before. Now he just hoped Jackson wasn’t looking at either of their faces too closely, or blamed the redness on the chill in the air.
Eddie wears black sweats, white sneakers, and a white tee this morning. It’s chilly out, but he runs hot so cool air is a relief. Jackson is in a black and red tracksuit (designer), it keeps him warm enough, especially if they were going to work up a sweat on their excursion. Hakeem has a puffy coat over a matching blue and silver tracksuit. Hakeem is extra sensitive to the cold but doesn’t want such a simple fact to deter him from working on his stamina.
The run is more of a brisk jog, Eddie and Jackson having to slow their pace to match Hakeem’s as they thread through one of the park’s running paths. They both have years of physical training under their belts, and whilst Hakeem wasn’t out of shape per se, he’s definitely used to more lab work. Compared to the kitchen or the cafe, Hakeem’s stamina for these morning runs is definitely lacking in comparison, but Eddie can see the slow and steady improvement. Hakeem’s unwillingness to give up on their training being a major player in the fact.
The group slows as they reach a fallen tree trunk, perhaps from the wind storm the night prior. They could hear the howls as it threatened to burst the terrace doors open. Surprisingly the mana well on the terraceremained unbothered. Hakeem said it anchored itself with the mana stored inside. Jackson needed to find somewhere else for it, he had kept putting off. Eddie had said it was fine where it was, it even seemed to keep the snow off the terrace. Hakeem gave a lecture on that too, but they had both been too enamored by his passion on the subject to comprehend what he was saying.
Something that Jackson had to be sure didn’t happen during lessons. Hakeem was scary if he thought you weren’t paying attention to the answer of a question you had asked. It was something they both admired about him. Though when that began, neither could tell.
Not wanting to turn back early, Eddie bends down to pick up the felled tree with one hand, well-defined ass shown off by his shorts, and tosses it to the side where it wouldn’t block anyone’s path. The compression shirt stretches thin over the lines of Eddie’s back, muscles flexing with every movement.
Those thick thighs could save lives!
Jackson and Hakeem are still impressed by the man’s strength, the fallen tree wasn’t small by any means but Eddie didn’t even break a sweat. It was as though he brushed a branch out of their path. “After you, gentlemen.” Eddie gestures to the cleared path, flashing Jackson and Hakeem a wide smile that shows off his pearly whites. If they weren’t flushed from the jog, their cheeks were definitely turning red at the sight before them.
They quickly avert their gaze from where Eddie’s shirt stretches over hispiercings.
Their breath fogs around them, a slight sweat building on their foreheads despite the chill in the air. They keep a steady pace as they reach the halfway point, a comfortable silence between them.
As the group is about to turn back, Jackson stops in his tracks. His ears are sharp, the perks of elven heritage, and his sense of smell strong from vampiric blood that flows through him. He could hear the sounds of something whimpering, an injured animal perhaps? But then he smells it, the air sour with a copper tang—blood.
Jackson pauses on instinct, the smell of blood still affecting him thoughhe wasn’t a true vampire.
It wasn’t till he hears a scream rip through the air from ahead of him that he realizes he had missed the smell on their way up through the park, probably due to the direction the wind is blowing. Hakeem’s shriek rattles Jackson, the thought of the incident from weeks passed haunting the back of his mind. He runs to catch up, only to find Hakeem grabbing his mouth and stomach, hunched over to the side of the path while Eddie rubbed circles on his back.
Jackson sees it then, the trail of blood that leads to the other side of the path from where Hakeem tries not to throw up. He sees a twitching leg surrounded by the gore of some predator’s meal. Raccoons, little bandits of the night, nothing more than shredded fur and dried blood. Off to the side, hidden by a bush, the source of the twitching leg. A small raccoon just barely clinging to life, lies on the ground.
Poor thing, there was nothing any of them could do. He hates seeing Hakeem in distress. If it was just the injured creature it probably wouldn’t have shocked him as much, but the remains of a hunt could be too much for someone not accustomed to the sight of death.
Someone like you.
Nope, no. Jackson isn’t going to let the voice taunt him today.
“Eddie, how is he?” Jackson calls from over his shoulder.
“He should be okay, just startled and maybe a little nauseated.”
Hakeem gives a shaky thumbs up. It would just take him a moment to compose himself.
Jackson pities the poor creature clinging to life in front of him. A skilled druidic magic expert or veterinarian might have been able to help, but it had lost so much blood. He can also see the fingers of death coming to lay claim to the small raccoon, it looks like a child. It has barely a minute of life left to it, not even a mercy killing would be necessary. Though he was familiar with death, understood it as a natural part of the animal world, seeing Hakeem so distressed still pained his heart. Was it just from the sight of gore, or was the imminent doom of the small creature what caused tears to form in the man’s eyes?
Wait, tears?
Eddie and Jackson hadn’t noticed the tears spilling from Hakeem’s eyes. He didn’t throw up, but it was becoming cruelly clear that Hakeem’s tender heart was bleeding for the poor thing. He really was too kind for his own good at times. Jackson wished there was something he could do to ease his heartache, a sentiment Eddie echoed in his own mind.
The air thickened around them, static running up both Eddie’s and Jackson’s spines. An answer ringing in their minds, a way to help.
But how?
Neither of them knew magic to heal animals, that was a skill unique to only the most skilled of druidic magic users could hope to achieve. But the sensation was familiar: wish magic. How? Hakeem hadn’t spoken a word or used any of his usual gestures. Neither Jackson or Eddie had spoken a wish -at least, neither of them did out loud.
They lock eyes, Hakeem still resting against a tree averting his gaze from the scene behind him. An understanding sparks between them. It was never spoken out loud, but they both wished to help Hakeem and the little raccoon’s suffering. Eddie gives Hakeem’s back a gentle pat and tells him he’d be back in a moment, not leaving his side till he heard the soft “okay” that followed.
Eddie stands beside Jackson, both of them looking at the little raccoon before them. Interlocking hands, they let their mana flow in tandem. Eddie has the strongest ties to fae magic, no matter how weak his own mana. Jackson can empower the spell with his own mana to make up the difference. Their magic worked together before, though this time they didn’t have Hakeem to guide the spell. The knowledge that filled their mind would have to do. They had to remain in control and focus, together.
