Not long goes by when the team is waiting outside of Seto's bedroom for updates. Quentin and Adam are inside monitoring his health and helping him stop his head wound, but so far nothings come up since they entered. This whole situation has been making Ty feel uneasy, coming up with multiple irrational outcomes to what could happen. In his head, anything is considered a viable option. Seto could be dead and they're finding a way to let them down easy, or he's fine with a short case of amnesia, or his injury learned the ability to awaken unearthly power and is preparing to send the world into a spiraling downfall. Just your average irrational over thinking.
Ty begins bitting his nails due to the nerves crawling up his skin. The sheer thought of endless possibilities of failure are freaking him out more than he was before. Jason was standing right beside him, his hands tucked away in his pant pockets. He was passing his time starring out to nothing as if in a daze. He imagined his projects in his head and making a list of things he needs to do after Seto's situation is dealt with.
He would've continued day dreaming if Ty bringing his hand to his face didn't catch his attention. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed how shaky Ty is acting. Jason didn't like seeing him like that, knowing it must be weird being caught in the middle of something like this. He stretches his arm out towards him and pats his shoulder, assuring him everything would be okay. Ty was caught off guard by Jason's presence, but allowed the pats to sooth himself. Off to the side were Mitch and Jerome having their own whispered conversation. Since the hallway is painfully silent, they're whispering stood out more, being the only sound filling their surroundings. Ian leaned up against the opposite wall from everyone else. He was right next to Seto's door to try to be in earshot of what's going on inside. Sadly, he didn't overhear anything.
The hallway filled up with silence as they waited in anticipation. Mitch and Jerome stopped whispering which brought out the silence even more. It's as if they were all waiting for the sirens of the apocalypse to ring and bring them out of their awkward shell. Suddenly, a click captured all their attention. They quickly shifted their heads to face the door and watch how it creaked open. Quentin stepped out from behind the door and analyzed who was outside waiting. He caught a glimpse of Ty and carefully shut the door behind him so everyone else wouldn't peek inside. Before anyone of them could ask any of their burning questions, Quentin exclaimed, "Ty, Adam wants to talk to you."
Ty was brought aback, not expecting that to be the first thing said to him. It confused him and made more nerves crawl down his spine than before. He hesitated walking forward, but Jason gave him a little nudge to get him started. Ty complies and slowly makes his way into Seto's room. Quentin holds the door open for him and shuts it completely once Ty's all the way in.
The first thing that got Ty's attention was how organized the room and it's attention to detail. The different shades of purple thrown around complemented the exquisite, yet simple, aesthetic of the room. The objects placed on shelves and walls were noticeably strange compared to modern day decor. They were more antique, most likely artifacts reaching back hundreds of years. Nonetheless, they seemed to blend in well with everything else. It was on thes same playing field as a museum. Although he found the stuff he owns strange, it makes sense for Seto to collect these objects. They must've been brand new at the time he got them considering how long he's been alive. It still baffles him knowing Seto's actual age range.
"Ty, come over here," Adam waved him over. Ty brought his attention to the bed located at the right hand corner of the room. Adam stood right next to Seto who was on the bed, sitting up right and leaning back on a white pillow. He made his way up to them, leaving the sight seeing for a more fitting circumstance. "What's wrong? Is everything okay? How can I help?" Ty bombarded Adam with questions. "Woah, relax. Everything's alright," Adam cleared things up for him. Ty took deep breaths in and out while sneaking a glance at Seto. He wore a comfortable sleeveless undershirt. It really brought out how skinny he was; at least, not to the point where it's considered unhealthy. Otherwise, he looked okay. His head was wrapped in bandages, his hair puffing out in many scattered directions. Everything about him seemed fine besides not bothering to give Ty a glance back. He was facing away from Ty, looking at the draped windows instead. He seemed to tense up once Ty was only a couple feet away from him, almost as if he was afraid of him.
"I called you in to get your side of the story," Adam explained. Ty blinked back from his train of thoughts and happily complied to Adam's request. He explained everything that had happened. Down to the detail of when they stopped teleporting, being stuck in a tree, and convincing Seto to step forward and end the madness that ensued. He gave him enough to get a good understanding of what happened, but kept the conversation he had with Seto exclusive. Some stuff he said seemed too private to tell anyone else about. Adam would worry about something already behind them, and he wouldn't want him to. It was better to leave it at that.
Adam took in every word Ty told him, closing his eyes to visualizing the scenario. He was connecting the dots in his head from the story Seto had told him to Ty's. Truly, the amount of trust he has on Seto has been straining lately; and no matter how much he hates to admit it, Seto's been a pain in the ass to keep track of. No matter how much he wants to believe Seto, he really wanted to hear the story from a different perspective. Though it only proved Seto is still as trustworthy as before despite his usual tantrums and random outbursts. Adam understands why he's like this, all those years of life and events being a burden to maintain. It's even possible that somethings come back to haunt him, but what?
He nodded approvingly and looked back up at Ty, "That story checks out." Ty sighed in relief, glad this interesting event has finally closed. He's glad Seto is back and how everything can start like new again. Ty sends a warm smiles over to Seto as he exclaims, "I'm glad you're okay." Seto still didn't budge from his ignorant stand. He continued to refuse any attention to Ty, not even flinching after being talked to. Even after relieving the weight he had on his shoulders, Ty could feel a new one beginning to loom over him once more. Though it might seem far rigjt now, he hopes his relationship with Seto improves.
"I'll be back to check up on you Seto," Adam grabbed Ty's shoulder and began walking him to the door. "In the meantime, sit still and rest."
Seto gave Adam a menacing side glare, obviously annoyed by those two terms. He's not the one to just sit still and rest. He wants to be doing something more productive than wasting away in a bed. It helps him keep his mind busy and gives him a sense of self worth. If he were to relax, the only thing he would find enjoyable is a good book; but Quentin asked him to refrain from reading since his vision is a bit wonky after getting hit in the head repeatedly. He can't do anything unless he purposely disobeyed, but just for today, he felt like doing what they asked of him.
Adam caught on to Seto and stated, "I'm serious." Seto rolled his eyes and dug himself deeper into his bed sheets -- the last thing he wanted to do was socialize. Ty felt uncomfortable during that one sided conversation. He wasn't sure what exactly happened, but he felt the tension building up between the two of them.
They exited the room and found the rest of Team Crafted standing right outside, awaiting further info. They were noticeably calm since Quentin has a way with words during stressful situations. Jason was the first one to speak up by asking, "Can we see him?" Adam shook his head, "Not now, he needs to rest. But we need to talk about the elephant in the room, Ty."
Ty was brought back to reality from the sudden acknowledgement. He took a moment to think about anything, but he must've gotten lost in it if he was genuinely surprised by being called out. "Huh, me?"
"Do you want me to set up the meeting room for this?" Ian questioned Adam. "No, we're doing it here since it's pretty important to call it out now," Adam clarified. "A few hours ago, Ty officially became a part of Team Crafted. As much as I want to give him some serious work to do based on his role, I believe priority number one is teaching him combat. He's proven too vulnerable and that's not good information to have out there for our enemies and status with other kingdoms to discover."
Ty felt embarrassed being called out for something like combat. It's not his fault he hasn't learned any fighting skills back at his home kingdom -- not that they would've taught combat to the citizens. If anything, he feels more bad for taking up their time to teach him how to physically injure people. "So let's train him! Who's taking the reigns?" Quentin suggested enthusiastically. Even more excited were Mitch and Jerome who responded, "I will!"
They all looked over at the dynamic duo bubbling with energy, demonstrating how eager they are to teach Ty. "You two want to do it?" Adam asked, wanting more confirmation than a yes. "Uh, duh! We are the best fighters in the team," Jerome said cockingly. "It only makes sense for us to do it."
Adam was not impressed.
"How about this, I can teach him sword wielding and Jerome can teach him one on one stuff," Mitch explained their positions a lot better than what Jerome had said. Adam didn't look completely pleased with the idea, knowing how slacking Merome can be if put together, but that wasn't always the case. Nonetheless, he went with it. "Fine, you two can train him. Go with Ian so he can set up your new schedules. Everyone else, get some rest before going to breakfast in a couple hours."
The team circle breaks off and starts going different directions to their respected rooms. Ian heads down the hallway away from where everyone else's seems to be heading. Mitch quickly follows and Jerome was as well before noticing Ty hadn't moved at all. He was staring off to nowhere as if lost in thought again. The look he had made Jerome feel guilty over what happened last night. He was irresponsible disobeying what Adam had asked him and this is what ended up happening. He could only wonder how things would've turned out if he had just done what he was told.
Ian and Mitch were already far ahead, so Jerome scurried up to Ty and firmly grabbed his arm, dragging him along. The sudden jolt brought Ty back into consciousness, bringing attention to the fact Adam has dragged his arm so much lately that's it's sore. Jerome let's go of him once they were closer to Mitch and Ian, but still keeping their distance. Ty walked along side Jerome, confused on why they weren't catching up to them properly. He was going ask Jerome about it, but he spoke up first.
"Look, I'm sorry about last night. Adam told me to give you a sword for you to use if anything like that happened, and I didn't. Then look what happened. I can't help but feel responsible, so I'm sorry," Jerome apologized, rubbing the fur on the back of his neck awkwardly. Ty couldn't help but smile at Jerome's soft side. He's only seen the silly side where he causes mayhem with Mitch and jokes around. It was sweet seeing him come forward with how he's feeling. Ty smiles and chuckles, "It's okay. I wouldn't have know how to use it anyway."
"Ha! That's why Mitch is going to teach you," Jerome lightened up the mood, laughing at Ty's remark. Ty felt pleased to had made Jerome laugh and Jerome felt content with having no hard feelings between each other. Mitch overheard Jerome's laugh and turned around to see them walking a distance from them. "Come on, catch up!"
"What's the rush?" Jerome questioned as he jogged up to them, Ty following quickly behind. "I'm tired and I want to enjoy a decent amount of hours in my bed," Mitch yawned while stretching his arms. "I am too, but we can't leave this alone. We don't need to make Ty more worried than he already is."
"Worried? Who says I'm worried?" Ty jumped into the conversation. "I'm not worried." Ian chuckled, grabbing all their attention. "Maybe you should worry a little. Mitch and Jerome are going to be your trainers afterall."
Mitch scoffed jokingly, responding back with, "Like we've done anything wrong before."
"Mitch, I can pull out written documents of all the times you guys have done something wrong," Ian reminded him. "Let's not bring up the fact Jerome has only been her for little over a year and we've dedicated cabinets to just both your shenanigans."
Ty snickered, finding their predicament quite humorous. "Honestly, I've never felt more honored than to have a whole cabinet dedicated to the 50% of wrong things I've contributed to the kingdom," Jerome exclaimed. "That's not something to be proud of. You're lucky the recruits love you or else you would've been kicked out by now," Ian retorted. Ty found the last bit outputting considering the negative stuff he's been saying about Mitch and Jerome. It kind of seemed to put the icing on the cake and quiet the conversation completely.
They approached a room that seemed to be tucked near the back of the hallway. It had a keypad off to the side of the door where Ian punched in an arrangement of numbers. The iron door slid open and revealed an office space inside. It was dark, but once they walked in, the lights began flickering on due to the motion sensors they had equipped. It was like a maze of cabinets, placed wherever feels comfortable and maintaining order at the same time. Despite the many cubicles there were, the room seemed to only belong to Ian.
Ian led them into the only cubicle that was set up as an office. He had desks, chairs, sofas, a water dispenser, and even more cabinets. Ian quickly made himself at home, sitting at the chair in front of the computer and booting it up. "Take a seat while I organize myself."
Mitch and Jerome each took a seat over at one of the empty desks in case Ian was going to make them write anything. However, Ty was taking his time to get to a chair. He couldn't break his gaze from the cabinets Ian had off to the side. He had to ask this or else his curiosity would get the better of him. "Are majority of these cabinets on Mitch and Jerome?"
Ian, Mitch, and Jerome look at Ty for a second before bursting out in laughter. Ty blushed a small hint of red, not expecting it to be that funny, but he won't admit that he was completely serious about the question either. "No, I'm the paperwork guy. I keep track of all the kingdoms information. While the other guys do have their own stuff stored in some of them, it's pretty minor compared to what I have to deal with," Ian explained. Mitch snickered, leaning over to Jerome to whisper, "That's what she said."
They giggled to themselves as Ty finally took his seat next to them. They waited for a bit before Ian recaptured their attention. "Alright, let's try doing this pretty quickly," Ian twirled a pen in his hands. "Mitch, at what time do you begin morning practice with the army?"
"At 8 am till noon with necessary breaks in between," Mitch answered fairly quickly. Ian jotted down information faster than anyone Ty has seen before. "Jerome, clarify."
"It's true. I hop in to deal with the rest of practice starting back up at 1 pm and going to 3 pm," Jerome piled up the details. Ian stopped writing stuff down and stopped to think for a moment, tapping the pen on his chin. "Who's a morning person?"
Jerome raised his hand. "Alright, how about this. Jerome will train Ty early in the morning before breakfast starting at 4:30am to 5:30am. Then in the afternoon, Mitch can finish of training for the day at 3pm to 4pm. Any questions or concerns?"
"Yeah, will it be possible to switch between our times?" Mitch asks, "Like Jerome takes over afternoon one week and vice versa."
"It's fine as long as Jerome has the energy to train Ty immediately after training the army," Ian answered. "I could as long as it doesn't happen often," Jerome agreed with what they have so far. "Great, I'll electronically update your schedules for you, and it'll become effective in a day or two."
"Okay, bye dad!" Mitch yelled back, preparing to leave along with Jerome. Ty was confused on what he was needed for if he wasn't going to have a word on his training schedule. The only thing that bothered him was how early he was going to wake up to go train in the mornings. At least he can salvage the last few days of sleep while he still can.
"Ty, yours is going to take a while, so make yourself comfortable," Ian stated. "Uh, but I already am?" Ty leaned back on the swivel chair, trying to look comfortable. Ian looked over at him, confused. "Are you sure you don't want to do this over at the sofa?" Ty shook his head no, feeling more awkward now that he's left alone with him. Ian shrugged it off and opened a cabinet drawer near by, taking out a sheet of paper with Ty's name written at the top with a blue pen. He quickly wrote some more stuff on it before being ready to present it to Ty.
"I know Adam doesn't want you to do anything big at the moment," Ian handed the sheet of paper to Ty. He gladly took it and glanced at it. "But I thought giving you some minor tasks would do you some good for the time being."
Ty read through the paper he was handed. It was his schedule for the next month coming up in a few days. On it was written his newly training times along with some sparse activities scattered throughout the month. He was excited to finally be doing something along with the others, but it was still very nerve-wracking to him. "They're not too bad. Majority of the activities for this month are mostly meet and greets. You'll go to the designated location and talk about yourself."
"Ugh, I'm terrible at talking about myself," Ty groaned, disliking the idea already. "I don't think I'll be able to do this Ian."
"Don't be modest, you'll do fine," Ian comforted him. "You don't really have to go into detail. You just need to show yourself off to our recruits, give a little speech, and answer their questions." Ty looked to the side, avoiding Ian's gaze as he sat to think for a moment. He already felt awkward standing in front of the entire kingdom during the party last night. Imagine how worse his anxiety would be basically being one on one with them. Ian noticed how uncomfortable Ty was getting with the idea, feeling kind of bad for him. Nonetheless, he was going to help him get more comfortable with the new attention he's getting.
"Would you like one of us to accompany you during these events?" Ian offered. Ty looked back at him, intrigued by the offer. "We can give you some guard escorts if you'd prefer that as well." Ty felt better about the idea if he had someone as his guide. But the question is who? "Uhm, can I be given time to think about it?" Ty asked. Ian tilted his head to the side, "To choose someone?"
Ty nodded. "Uh, sure. Just so you know, if you haven't decided on anyone to take a day before the event, Adam will just go with you. Sound good?"
"Yeah, thank you."
"No problem, keep the page. I'll send your schedules electronically after this month is over, so please try not to lose the paper," Ian finished off. "Mitch or Jerome will let you know when training begins." Ty got up from the seat and made his way out of the office. He felt proud to hold the paper in his hand, finally feeling like he's going to do something worthwhile in his future.
Now that his adrenaline has dialed down after everything, sleep is finally getting the better of him. He yawns as he makes his way to his room. He reaches out to grab the door knob, but halts. The hallway was empty now that everyone has gone off to bed. It wouldn't hurt if he just had one more peek. He turned around and looked at the door across from his. Since he felt uneasy the last time he was with him, he decided to go check up on Seto.
He slowly creeps over to his door and twists the door knob to its side. He gently opens the door and looks in, seeing Seto sitting up right on his bed. He had the palm of his hand hovering over the wound and omitting a purple aura onto it. Ty watched in awe, finding it weird how real magic swirls around Seto's head, magic being a rare gene to come by nowadays. It was mesmerizing as well, unlike the magic he performed last night to kidnap him. This seemed more purposeful than demanding.
Seto's gaze shifted to Ty who had just been staring dumbfoundedly at him like he couldn't see him to begin with. Ty was taken back by his sudden penetrating sight and began feeling overwhelmed again. "O-oh, uh... hi," Ty came out of hiding and took a step into the room. Seto wasn't pleased by his presence. He's the last person he wants bothering him at the moment.
Ty could feel the awkward tension in the air, making it almost unbearable to maintain a conversation. "So uh, I just wanted to see you again and I just did. So keep doing that and rest up till you're feeling better. Goodbye!"
Ty slammed the door shut as he ran back to his own room to rest. Seto didn't flinch during their entire interaction. It would've been stupid if he had. He's still unsure how he feels about Ty and how he's obviously compensating for something. It can't be a coincidence how much he looks like Majutsu. The fact he's denying being the same person hurts and confuses him emotionally even more. Understandably, he's lived long enough to have seen repetitive and similar faces, but Ty's seems too good to be true. His swarming thoughts made his injury throb with pain. He winced at it and forced himself to continue trying to heal himself.