the higher i get, the lower i'll sink | max

[rhys alexander greyback]

i can't drown my demons

they know how to swim

August 27, 2027
maxima ruqayyah greyback

Work, travel, work, travel home, take care of his daughter, spend time with Vasilia, and sleep. Rhys’ life felt predictable even to him. While he wasn’t going to complain about parts of it. Spending time with Charlotte, who had turned one less than a month before, was truly a highlight. He watched her curiosity grow and was slightly worried about how fearless she was. But he still felt weary. He felt tired. There was no balance, and thankfully his siblings were more than happy to help with their niece—though, at this point, she was going to learn a few languages between them and her mother.

Rhys had actually worked on his birthday, not that he thought much of it. Those expectations had been destroyed as a child and never built up again. In fact, he’d already used that energy to make sure his daughter’s birthday was far more memorable. Not that she would remember it at her age, but he enjoyed it nonetheless. A freshly framed photograph of Rhys and Charlotte sat on the coffee table next to the one with Elias. His eyes gleamed with something different, and Charlotte’s identical eyes were much the same. However, they didn’t share the same haunted glow behind them.

Finally, he’d been able to return the day before. Exhausted from dragging along two trainees to Egypt as they finished their summer courses and ensuring they got out of there alive. This had pushed Rhys to a point where he was incredibly surly and short-tempered. It wasn’t often he was knocked over by a fast-moving wooden beam. They were easy to dodge typically. But it ended up bruising the entire right side of his ribcage because the dumber trainee had distracted him. So, he’d arrived home, and Vasilia was always very excited for Rhys’ birthday, and he indulged her because he loved to see her so happy, plus she would bake enough to feed all the students at MAGIC.

So, he’d pushed himself to go, and unsurprisingly there was very little energy left to pretend to smile or be in any pleasant mood. So it began with Rhys snapping at her. She did that thing where she put him back in his place, he’d argued, and the next thing Rhys knew, he was three-quarters of the way through a bottle of Australian whiskey that Vasilia had brought him the previous month. Technically, he was supposed to go to Maria’s that day. There wasn’t the same fuss about his birthday, but they tried to do the family thing as best as they knew how, both being essentially orphans. But he’d told her that he would come by the next day due to exhaustion from work. Not that Maria couldn’t read between the lines and see that Rhys had again drunk himself into a stupor and would be spending the day on the couch. Rhys didn’t hear his phone buzz. He was almost dead asleep. The bottle on the coffee table had a few ounces left in it. And he certainly didn’t hear the door, nor did he remember any of his other plans in this state.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

August 27, 2027

Working at St. Mungo's, no two days were exactly the same. The Creature-Induced Injuries floor was its own beast—no pun intended—because of the critical conditions in which their patients often made their way to the hospital. The hours after the arrival of a full moon were always the most intense, in Max's experience, because the hospital staff never knew if they would have to spring into action to keep someone from dying from a werewolf's bite, but that didn't make every other day an easy one. It wasn't just werewolves and their bites that they treated, after all; they handled all sorts of different injuries. She had had to heal everything from Murtlap bites to dragonologists' burns, and there usually wasn't much rhyme or reason to what sorts of patients might come in.

With as much experience as she had gathered as a nurse since leaving Hogwarts over a year prior, one might have thought that there wasn't anything that Max couldn't handle simply because she was no longer in training. She knew that wasn't true, though, even with her ability to heal minor issues through touch alone. Hospital work was still work, and Max had no doubt that she would have been thrown for a loop if she were to be dropped on the Janus Thickey Ward for a shift, for instance.

That didn't mean that she lost all her skills as soon as she was off the clock or that she couldn't treat conditions outside of her area of expertise, but Max found that she had to remind even her own relatives that she wasn't capable of treating everyone and everything just because she was a nurse.

At the same time, Max had become accustomed to dealing with Dahlia and Rhys when they were drunk or hungover. One or the other was practically their default setting. When she didn't hear anything from Rhys after what felt like her millionth attempt at contacting him because she knew that he had just gotten back home from yet another work trip, she decided that she was going to take matters into her own hands. She didn't think Rhys was dead; she would have received more panicked messages from others who knew him and couldn't reach him if he were dead, but she knew that he wasn't fully functional, whatever state he was in.

The full moon had already passed over a week before then, the timing of which Max had become even more aware because of her work, which meant that alcohol or some sort of potion was the likely culprit. She decided that she would bring a bag of basic Healing supplies with her on the off chance that they were necessary, packing what she figured she would most likely need. With that set, she Apparated to Rhys's flat, knocking loudly on the door.

When knocking didn't work, Max tried what she felt was the next best option: She had a key, and she wasn't going to hesitate to use it. If Rhys wasn't coming to the door—and she waited to make sure that he wasn't coming before barging in—she would come to him. (That was why she had a key, wasn't it? In case of an emergency?) Max turned the key in the lock, opened the door, and stepped inside.

There was nothing that immediately stood out to her when she entered Rhys's flat, apart from the fact that he hadn't come to greet her. "Rhys? Are you home?" Max called, not sure where else he could have been.

rhys alexander greyback
OOC: Vanessa gave me permission for Max to have a key.

[rhys alexander greyback]

i can't drown my demons

they know how to swim

August 27, 2027
maxima ruqayyah greyback

Rhys had been told many times that he never appreciated or saw what was right in front of him. That assortment had never made sense to him. Of course he did. It wasn’t lost on him that his life was far different than what he’d imagined at seven or eight years old. He’d gone from all alone to belonging to some semblance of a family. Even the chance encounters in his life like Maria. Whatever had been between them had been primal, like some potions ingredient that burned hot but fast. In the end, however, there was always that understanding. Rhys rarely met anyone who had any idea of what he felt.

Elias had been someone who did, at least on some level. Their mothers had similar experiences, except that his mother was still alive. Dahlia, however, had been alone like him after a point. So as much as he clung to anything that felt good, familiar, or tugged at his heartstrings in any way, he liked to be alone. One of his friends might have knocked him upside the head if they’d seen his behavior the day before with Vasilia. Saying how he took her for granted. Rhys had heard it all before; frankly, he was tired of hearing it. He loved her, yet he walked some tightrope where he carefully balanced his desperate need for that connection and remembered the pain of losing it.

At least other physical pains were easier to deal with. At least once in the past year, he’d forgotten his Aware Wolf potion and wolfsbane, and he’d gone to that werewolf hotel. And to think he’d almost forgotten how painful transforming was and how much longer it took him to recover. So, aside from the lecture from Sienna on the importance of not missing his potions before the full moon, the pain would keep him in line. At least for a while. And Max was a godsend for him and Dahlia after a night of heavy drinking. Rhys was certain people in his life were unhappy with people enabling him.

Earlier Rhys had thought about the past. Juniper never said much about his nights out. Not that he drank like this in those days. No, Rhys would typically go out to clear his head after some fight and come back a little wobbly but not so inebriated he couldn’t crawl back into bed. He stirred a little on the couch, the sound of the door opening slowly creeping into his brain. Like a lightbulb flickering back to life, Rhys groggily opened one eye. Was it always this bright in his flat. Whose voice was that? With a groan, he finally uttered an answer. ”Yea.” His throat was dry, and he didn’t attempt to sit up just yet.

The voice. Max. That was Max. Merlin, what time was it? Rhys recognized his sister’s voice, was she here the whole time? He closed his eyes again, his head felt heavy. Hungover was such a constant state for the werewolf that it might as well get promoted to a personality trait. But there was something about this particular one that caused him extra pain. Perhaps it was the trigger for his drinking, or the swirl of anxiety in his chest fueled by whatever he was feeling. Either way he was just a hair close to swearing off whiskey once and for all. ”I’m awake.” He announced, voice scratchy from his dry mouth.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

August 27, 2027

Rhys responded when she called out his name, though he sounded a bit hoarse. He let her know that he was awake, at least, which Max knew only meant that he was awake for the time being. One thing that Max noticed immediately, too, was that his voice sounded nearer to her than she had expected it would be.

And that was when she realized that Rhys was on the couch. While she was glad that she hadn't found him sprawled out on the floor or in a more… compromising position, say, Max was immediately concerned for him. She approached the couch with caution, noticing the bottle of whiskey on his coffee table. Either he'd had a very good time celebrating his birthday, Max noted, or a very bad one.

Still carrying the Healing supplies that she had brought at that point, Max set the bag down by the side of Rhys's couch and then nudged his coffee table just enough to give herself some more space in which to wedge herself. "Alright… How much have you had to drink?" she asked him right out of the gate. She wasn't sure that Rhys himself knew the answer to that, but a rough estimate was a good enough place to start.

rhys alexander greyback

[rhys alexander greyback]

i can't drown my demons

they know how to swim

August 27, 2027
maxima ruqayyah greyback

Fuck. Rhys felt a strange pressure in his ears, his brain finally retaliating from the constant stream of whiskey. It didn’t matter that Rhys knew he would be hungover the day after attempting to numb his brain, so the thoughts stopped racing around. But sometimes, he just felt so desperate for some peace and quiet. Carefully he moved his legs off the couch so he could sit up. The shift made him feel a little dizzy as a wave of what was either nausea or anxiety swept over him. Even that last time he’d blacked out—well, blacked out here he didn’t recall his head hurting that bad. But Vasilia always had that gentle touch that could calm him most of the time. Maybe that had been a factor he had not considered before.

Slowly he blinked to clear his vision. For a moment, he wondered if he’d wandered through the desert or something. His eyes and throat felt so dry. Max approached him, and he heard her drop something on the floor. ”I um…” Rhys closed his eyes again for a few seconds. It was rare for him to feel nauseous at all when hungover. Years of potions for wounds of all kinds, broken bones, the full moon, and other various things had given him a strong stomach. ”I don’t know…a lot.” He muttered. Leaning forward, he put his elbows on his knees and ran his hands over his face as he let out a deep sigh. ”I’ll be fine.” Rhys muttered, though more to himself. ”I always am.”

There reached a point where even Rhys didn’t believe what he told himself or said out loud. But he just had to get through it, like he always did. He supposed what bothered him the most was that Max saw him like this. It wasn’t the first time, nor would it be the last. Sometimes he forgot she wasn’t a young first year he first met after he’d already graduated. She was an adult now herself and a trained healer no less.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

August 27, 2027

As Max anticipated, Rhys hesitated to give her a straight answer. That was, as it turned out, because he followed up by admitting that he didn't know how much he had had to drink. Whether he really knew and didn't want to tell her or he had indeed lost count after some time, Max could tell that Rhys was right about one thing: It had been a lot.

On the bright side, Rhys was sitting up, though he looked like he was about to fall back over. He leaned forward a bit, his elbows on his knees, and let out a sigh that signaled to Max that he wasn't doing as well as he claimed he was. Because his physical symptoms seemed to be only a result of the alcohol and not anything magical, though, Max felt pretty confident in her ability to help him out without needing many of the supplies she had brought with her. She had helped to cure a hangover for Dahlia with her hands, so she didn't doubt that she could relieve Rhys of some of what he was having to endure.

Before she did anything, however, Max began to talk Rhys through what she was going to do. She imagined that he'd be more comfortable that way—and more receptive to her. "I'm going to sit beside you, and then I'm going to try to get rid of your hangover through touch first," she explained. It was something that she couldn't necessarily do in her work at the hospital, especially not in Creature-Induced Injuries because of the nature of what she was treating, but it was different with family. "That shouldn't hurt or anything," and there was no reason why it would cause him any pain, "but tell me if you need me to stop." She had never had anyone react negatively to her ability, apart from being skeptical about its existence. "Then," Max continued, "I'll get you some water, and we'll see how you're feeling, alright?"

rhys alexander greyback

[rhys alexander greyback]

i can't drown my demons

they know how to swim

August 27, 2027
maxima ruqayyah greyback

His head hurt too much to remember that his little sister was just that. Rhys was the older brother, the oldest of the pack. Why wasn’t he watching out for them? Half the time, it was like this, while the other half, he struggled to forget she wasn’t eleven years old anymore. It was different than with some of his siblings. Since Rhys hadn’t known Dahlia when they were younger, his mental image of her was just as they’d met at Gringotts those years back. Merlin, it had been some time since Rhys had drank that much. He usually was pretty functional the next day, but this was not that.

With his head still in his hands as he fought off vertigo that came and went, he tried his best to listen to Max’s words. Focusing on that helped ground him and make him feel less like he was upside down. ”Alright.” Rhys muttered. Fate had given his younger sister quite the gift. Rhys and Dahlia had been floored when they found out. Maybe it was merely to balance the tragedies that littered the stories in their family. Rhys waited to feel different. It never felt odd in any way. So he just waited as he felt hands on his arm and hoped it would stop the pounding in his head.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

August 27, 2027

All that Max managed to get out of Rhys was a simple "Alright," but at least it was a verbal acknowledgement on his part of what she had just gone over. It was better than if he had decided to fight her on it, which could have happened. With Rhys's consent to what was essentially her treatment plan for him, though, she could move forward with what she had told him she was going to do.

First, she seated herself carefully beside him. Max couldn't make Rhys any promises, but they both had been there when she had cured one of Dahlia's hangovers through touch. Logically, anyway, that meant that it would almost certainly work on Rhys, too.

Though Max could have spent ages thinking about the nature of her ability and what she had pieced together about it over time through trial and error, that wasn't what she was there for. Instead, she reached over and touched Rhys's arm with both her hands.

rhys alexander greyback

[rhys alexander greyback]

i can't drown my demons

they know how to swim

August 27, 2027
maxima ruqayyah greyback

A healthier and far less hungover Rhys probably would have cringed at the thought that his baby sister was yet again coming to his rescue. Her ability wasn’t some miracle cure, but any sort of relief was a miracle when in such a state. And Rhys knew a hangover was bad when his mind teetered on the brink of deciding never to drink again. But then he’d come to his senses and realize it was simply impossible. With eyes closed, Rhys could feel Max’s hands on his arm, and very slowly, the thick fog in his brain began to clear. The sensation was always odd because it was never this instant feeling. More feeling slowly human again.

But he supposed he was used to things like that. Life as a werewolf introduced a person to many strange sensations, especially with one’s mind. The throbbing in his head began to fade, and it didn’t take long until Rhys only really felt exhausted. Looking at Max, he nodded gratefully. ”Thanks, Max.” Again, he ran his hands over his face. His mental connection to time always suffered on days like this. ”I wasn’t expecting you today—“ Or at least he didn’t remember any specific plans. Clearing his throat, Rhys stood up and made the short walk into the kitchen for some water.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

August 27, 2027

Max knew that her ability to alleviate Rhys's hangover through touch might not have been the best deterrent to keep him from drinking heavily, but she could have that conversation with him some other time. Her healing him at least made him capable of functioning again, so it wasn't all bad.

Rhys thanked her for having gotten rid of his hangover, though he still seemed to be a little bit out of it. He also mentioned that he hadn't been expecting her there. Max, for her part, figured that he hadn't been expecting her (or anyone else) to show up, but it was better her than Mediwizards or his supervisors at Gringotts.

"Right. I knew you were back, but you weren't responding to my messages," Max told Rhys as he got up to go into the kitchen. "From, er, personal experience, I assumed you weren't dead… which you're not." That part was hopefully obvious to him, and her "personal experience" was that it hadn't been the first time Rhys had been hungover. "My guess was either a hangover or a potion," she added, which explained the supplies she'd brought. Erring on the side of something magical gone wrong wasn't a bad approach; it just hadn't been the right one under the circumstances.

rhys alexander greyback

[rhys alexander greyback]

i can't drown my demons

they know how to swim

August 27, 2027
maxima ruqayyah greyback

Rhys tried not to cringe at the comment. He’d seen the messages, not only from Max but from others. The drunken spirals were not the best time to get ahold of Rhys, and if he was far gone enough, nobody got through. And Rhys hated that part. The thought that he could create such a wall and keep out his family or even his daughter? It wasn’t a happy thought and didn’t help those last bits of lingering nausea. It was just another thing to shrug off for now—nothing to be done about it now.

He opened the fridge, letting the cold hit his face and linger momentarily before grabbing a bottle of water and returning to the living room and the couch. After drinking some water and waiting a moment, he finally spoke after a sigh. ”Got into it with Vasilia yesterday.” Rhys admitted, slumping a bit in his seat. Deep down, he knew he’d walked right in and picked a fight, but he still felt otherwise. ”She’s just—“ Rhys waved his hand and shook his head to fill in the rest of the sentence. What had she expected? Pushing Rhys into yet another birthday celebration he hadn’t asked for while exhausted from working and barely getting home.

After drinking more water, choosing to change the subject rather than elaborate, Rhys spoke again. ”Amelia will be with me for a bit starting tomorrow if you want to drop by.” His body relaxed a little. There were some consistently good things in his life. ”Sage was able to keep her an extra day.” Technically, Rhys could have gotten her the prior day or that morning at the latest, but he was hardly in a state to deal with a one-year-old. But he’d be right as rain tomorrow, pushing through as he always did.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

August 27, 2027

Rhys got himself some water and returned with it, but he also shed some light on his current situation: He said that he had gotten into a fight with Vasilia, his girlfriend, the previous day. That explained what had been the catalyst for the state in which Max had found him. It was usually something like that, although it wasn't always Vas. Sometimes, it was work. Or Sage, the mother of his child.

Regrettably, Max had no relationship advice to dispense, not that she thought that she would have had any novel advice for him in that realm. She knew that she was good for Healing advice, and she imagined that that was probably the extent of it. She definitely didn't have the life experience that Rhys had, though she had enough trauma of her own from her time at Hogwarts.

There was some positive news despite the chain of events that had brought Max to Rhys's flat unannounced. Rhys told her that his daughter, Amelia, would be with him for part of the following day. That was enough of a reason for him to ensure that he wouldn't end up hungover again, Max hoped. The other good (or slightly better?) thing for Rhys was that Amelia's presence didn't automatically include Vasilia because she wasn't her daughter, so that at least eliminated the potential for a worsening of their fight there.

"I've got work, but I'll stop by if I can," Max promised him. She wanted to come and see Amelia (and Rhys, naturally) at some point if she could. Between work and Rhys's not having custody of Amelia all the time, she didn't always get the opportunity.

rhys alexander greyback

[rhys alexander greyback]

i can't drown my demons

they know how to swim

August 27, 2027
maxima ruqayyah greyback

Rhys didn’t respond immediately, his mind lingering on his girlfriend. It all felt so silly, the fight. He always did after, despite how justified he also felt in his responses. She just didn’t listen sometimes. Unfortunately, things like this happened. He let out a heavy sigh after drinking some water. ”Sage things I’m in the wrong.” Rhys began, not that Max had asked at all. ”You know I don’t make a fuss about my birthday, I never have.” That had not changed since he was young. Even during his time with Juni, it had always been low-key. ”And she knows that—“ ‘She’ referring to Vasilia. Rhys didn’t want to get too worked up, as it wouldn’t help his headache. ”—but she does the opposite.”

Shaking his head, he forced himself to drink more water, sighing again. He unloaded quite a bit on his younger sister and without any warning. But it wasn’t her problem. ”I’ll figure it out…” Rhys mumbled to himself. He supposed he was just exhausted from working and his limited time at home and with his daughter. And when it came to Vasilia, he only needed to open his mouth, and it didn’t matter what he said. A fight would ensue. And Merlin knew all he could do to stay sane despite the pain he caused himself physically and emotionally was to drink enough to numb it all. ”I can bring Amelia by the Hospital if you aren’t too busy.” Maybe it was a baby thing, but Amelia was weirdly fascinated by all the signs and random things she tried to grab there. Ultimately, she just enjoyed seeing her aunt.

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[maxima ruqayyah greyback]

August 27, 2027

Although he hadn't initially provided her with more context for what had happened between him and Vasilia, Rhys volunteered some more information that allowed Max to fit a few more pieces of that puzzle together. With his complaint that Sage thought that he was the one in the wrong, Max could only guess that Rhys had let his occasional arrogance get the best of him somehow. It was clear that he expected Max to side with him, but the fight itself actually wasn't what Max had expected, either. Rhys said that Vasilia had "made a fuss" about his birthday, and that seemed to have been his breaking point.

Max also wasn't someone who went over-the-top to celebrate much of anything and didn't see the need to draw attention to herself on her birthday, but she understood why Vas might have wanted to celebrate Rhys's birthday more than he was used to doing. The difference, Max imagined, was that Rhys didn't really see his birthdays as special. Without knowing what Vas had said or done, she couldn't really gauge the severity of the incident apart from what Rhys had told her. What she knew was that he had been frustrated enough by it to get himself reasonably drunk.

Rhys said that he would figure out the situation with Vas. Changing the subject, he added that he could bring Amelia by St. Mungo's if she wasn't busy.

"Maybe it'll be easier to talk to her about it after a few days," Max suggested about his predicament with Vas, not that he'd asked. Bringing it up too soon would cause more hurt feelings on both sides, she figured. Vas seemed reasonable enough to her—not exactly the type to escalate a fight because she could—and Max didn't think that it would be a huge problem for Rhys to take a little time to work through his thoughts. "And yeah, we can work out something with Amelia. No worries," Max assured Rhys. They had mobile phones; it wasn't pressing.

"Do you need anything else whilst I'm here, though?" she asked more gently. Max couldn't fully alleviate Rhys's stress without some strong potions, but she could at least be of some more help to him while she was there. "I don't mind staying for a bit if you'd like the company." It wouldn't mean engaging in pointless small talk; she could just sit with him.

rhys alexander greyback

[rhys alexander greyback]

i can't drown my demons

they know how to swim

August 27, 2027
maxima ruqayyah greyback

Rhys lazily shrugged. Moments like this, he felt he couldn’t win. Everything Vasilia did was from a good place; she had a big heart, and it was easy to see. So regardless, Rhys looked like the ungrateful asshole in this situation. Not that he meant to be, but he couldn’t help if mentally he was in a certain place when stuff like this came up. And as he told her, it wasn’t his fault. What did she expect him to do? Unfortunately, there wasn’t a light switch to his moods or how he felt then.

”Probably. She’s working anyway.” Rhys was acutely aware of how Vasilia could throw herself into her studies or work. Much as Rhys did at times. This would be no different, allowing them the space they individually needed. Ultimately, they always moved past it, and Rhys went back into her good graces. ”No…” Not that he wouldn’t mind. His sisters had learned over the years how to act with Rhys. ”I’m going to have a shower and get something to eat.” Aside from the hangover, his stomach felt pitifully empty. ”Thanks for dropping by.” Rhys genuinely thanked his sister.

[ end rhys ]

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