Private Finished Cold Anger

When the doorbell rang, Vladimir answered it almost immediately. He had been waiting for Konpeito to arrive. His text had left Vladimir mildly concerned, and if he were honest, a little bit angry. Not with Kon, but with the idea that he had somehow been targetted.

Vladimir had heard, to some extent, about some of the weird happenings and rumours going around the island. Although, to him, the whisperings were really just small, sometimes exaggerated, snippets of what was going on from his patients, nothing really verifiable, and to some degree, Vladimir had thought they were just idle gossip.

In fact, he had had no idea that the young man peddling blood was about Kon. In fact, the way his patients had told the story it had seemed like it was some overzealous thrall or vampire; and not his very outgoing and friendly boyfriend.

"Come here," Vladimir half ordered as he reached out and instinctively gave Kon a quick hug when he saw him standing at the door, guessing almost immediately that he was not in the greatest of moods.

"We will sort this out, okay?" he added calmly as he let go of his boyfriend, ushering him into the living room where Kon could take a seat on one of the black leather couches.

While Kon was making himself comfortable, Vladimir grabbed a cold beer and a sparkling apple cider from the fridge for Konpeito and then went to sit on the couch next to him.

"Truthfully," Vladmir said as he handed Kon a drink. "I haven't heard too much about what happened. I mean I do hear my patients talking, mostly just gossiping about the going ons. But, it wasn't til you texted me that I realised that the "Connor" guy some patient was babbling about the other day was actually about you," he confessed with a slight frown, feeling a bit bad that he hadn't paid more attention to the rumors floating around. Vladimir had, in fact, just waved them off as idle gossip and now he was beginning to realise that whatever was happening was more serious than it appeared.

Vlad lightly patted Kon's knee after he had tried to reassure him. "Thanks. Though I still feel bad that I dismissed the rumours as being just that ... idle rumours," he explained, now trying to remember who else might have been affected.

"You mentioned your friend, this Alma Malivani..." Vlad said as he held his beer bottle between both hands. "What happened to her exactly?" he asked, not quite sure he really knew what had gone down with her. His patients, while being great sources of gossip, weren't always the most reliable when it came to correctly remembering detailed information like the names of who had been affected or how something really happened, especially if the story had been embellished in some way.

"That does sound strange. Even if she is - or was - an activist, I can't see her openly attacking anyone. That might jeopardize her cause or put in question all she has done," Vladimir surmised, very much in agreement that things were not adding up, and something odd was happening on the island.

"And how about you? How are you holding up?" Vlad asked Kon gently, concerned at how this might be affecting him, but knowing that at times it was best to approach topics patiently and in a roundabout way.

"I think that's the best way to handle it," Vladimir stated in full agreement as he listened quietly to Kon talk about how he was dealing with everything.

"Besides, people will quickly move on to something else once the next rumour comes out." Vladimir said, pretty sure these strange rumours and island happening were going to continue for a while longer. He couldn't say why he thought that, and if asked, all Vlad could really say is that he had a very odd feeling that someone had some sort of agenda.

Hearing that Kon was investigating, made Vlad frown. "Whatever you do, just be careful, okay? You have no idea what you are dealing with, and it seems like this person knows and studies who it's targetting," he pointed out.

"For all you know, it could be somebody close to you, or that can blend unnoticed into a crowd. A shapeshifter, maybe, or even a ghost," he explained. Vlad didn't want to stop Kon from what he was doing, however, he didn't want him getting hurt either.