Laboratory Beta
He'd wrangled with Ayden, really wrangled with his patron because he'd been furious. He'd already been ready to go through the brunette for a shortcut the previous evening after Lars, gods...
The bastard had made him choose between two fates for his roommate and he'd chosen a disastrous one, the other blond's blood left everywhere, blood pumping out of the older servant while Ayden dragged Fionn away. He hadn't been able to help his roommate at all and it had broken him. He'd chosen Lars obviously, unable to forgive his patron and long-term lover, and that had started it all really, hadn't it?
When he'd gotten back to the room and found the older boy gone and Jamie had given directions that sounded like they had headed to Laboratory Beta, the young man had been able to bury many of his thoughts, going off the deep end in terms of sanity for a little while but it had come back to him.
Maybe he'd have been better off if he'd managed to stay out of his right senses.
He'd chosen Lars, too little too late as he could hardly tell him at that point, and then he'd remembered exactly who the boy was to him - had been. If he'd just been left with that then perhaps he would have been able to cope, not well but it was possible that he could have done it. Unfortunately, two things happened. Lars didn't make an appearance and neither did word of his well-being and a particular piece of gossip finally reached his ears.
It had been during his shift with some of the seamstresses, struggling with a needle and thread (he'd never been great at sewing and the like) when he'd overheard it and nearly shoved the point through his finger. Fionn had to bite his lip to stop himself from swearing fluently, simply shoving the injured digit into his mouth while he went the stealthy route for a change, cocking an ear in the direction of the conversation while he continued to work away.
The conversation was an interesting one indeed but to the passive, it was mainly horrifying. It was about what had happened at the 6th year's formal dinner, the infamous dinner where Lars was meant to have upset some galdori. Ayden had told him that the blond had fucked up but... apparently he hadn't. Instead, he was the talk of the Passive Wing - Clock the Circle, why hadn't he heard this sooner?! - because the Gioran ambassador had treated Lars like a person and then apparently gotten into a spat with one of the professors. While the blond had committed a minor infraction by spilling something on said professor, the main thing seemed to be that he'd been treated like something on a level with a galdor. When they'd started talking about how the blond was moony and how such a thing could go to his head, Fionn had finally lost his cool, snarling at them that they couldn't talk about Lars like that; they didn't have the right.
He'd stormed off after that, putting as much distance between the gossiping passives and himself as possible. He didn't want to believe it. He didn't want to think that the boy had done something so minor and Ayden had tricked him into-
No, he couldn't bear it.
But the whispers had followed him, the topic an apparent favourite among the servants who talked rapidly, oft beneath their breaths although he caught the odd words, enough, as they spread it from one to the other.
He'd beaten Lars up for nothing. He'd beaten his roommate so severely that he'd been fairly certain since that his wounds had been mortal. And he'd done it to save him from what he deemed to be a worse fate, all because Ayden had lied well enough, twisted the truth just enough that Fionn filled in the gaps himself and had done his bidding. The parse wasn't solely to blame, he wasn't the one who'd jumped to conclusions after all but gods, as soon as his shift was over, he was out of there, ready to confront the bastard, to call him out on his lying and manipulation.
Which hadn't gone well.
Not only had something snapped in the considerably taller parse that had made him slam a punch into his gut and very nearly dislocate Fionn's arm, but he'd also left the young man feeling worse than when he'd gone to confront him. Not only had he shifted the blame onto Fionn for jumping to conclusions, for taking things so far. But he'd also pointed out something that had been on every passive's lips who'd talked about it, that Lars couldn't be allowed to think too highly about himself, to get any moony ideas about his station.
It was something that was left to haunt the blond, plaguing his thoughts when he finally escaped his patron's room, the world sitting heavily on his shoulders.
"The boy needed to be reminded that he's worthless; you did an excellent job of that, Fionn."
He didn't think that he'd ever get that statement out of his head, least of all because it was true, so bloody true. He'd made promises to Lars and from the other's perspective, he'd broken them almost gleefully because what was Lars worth to anybody? He was a scrap and a lowly one at that. He'd beaten him bloody and then left him there on the floor like he was rubbish, utterly worthless.
Except that to Fionn he wasn't and that was what made it so agonising and standing up to Ayden had been so utterly pointless.
If Lars was on the bottom of the scrapheap in everyone's eyes then Fionn was right down there with him and glad to have such company. Provided that Lars was still alive. He'd heard nothing though, the silence either a good sign or an ominous one depending on how you looked at it but the middle Madden had to know. He had to find out where he was, if he was okay, if... he'd ever want to be in the same room as Fionn again. The passive wanted to be able to tell the other that he didn't think that he was worthless, to debase himself at the other's feet and if he made good on his promise to kill Fionn for hurting him then so be it.
The teen passive was his slave to do with as he saw fit honestly. He just wanted a chance to explain first, to apologise, to try to undo any damage he'd done psychologically.
And so, in spite of the fact that it might get him in trouble, the passive made his way to Laboratory Beta, hoping that he could find the answers he sought about Lars' wellbeing from Devlin or Moore, maybe even seeing the young man himself. Maybe it was the idea of seeing Lars that made him so jittery or perhaps it was the idea that he might arrive at the lab and they'd have no notion of what had happened to his roommate because he was in some tunnel somewhere... gone.
When he got to the lab door, he hesitated for a scant moment before knocking briskly, preventing himself from backing out of this. The knock was the sound of his presence and he didn't think that he had to wait to be invited in so he turned the handle, taking a step through the doorway before stopping dead as he found himself met with the sight of a galdor woman instead of either of the expected male professors. Fionn froze and stared, wondering if he should simply bolt.
He couldn't be around a galdor woman, he couldn't guarantee that he'd be able to keep a civil tongue.
Oh boy!