"Aesop should be... down there. I'm just gonna wait out here." Luca was clearly nervous, the quiver in his voice and anxious looks towards the downstairs door told Andrew enough.
While Luca thought Aesop's job was cool, he couldn't handle guts. Or dead people. He never failed to pass out or vomit each time he saw them. He didn't want to imagine seeing his best friend's dead, gutted boyfriend. If he didn't have to, he wasn't going to. Andrew was fine with that.
Andrew let in one more deep inhale, and prepared himself for whatever he would walk into. Opening the door, he made his way down the stairs. At first, he only saw Aesop. And then Norton.
"Where's his piercing?" Was the first thing out of Andrew's mouth. He adored Norton's nose bridge piercing, and Norton took pride in it. It took all of his strength not to find a random needle to shove in the empty hole.
"Oh. I took it out. It can't be in... for the funeral." Aesop mumbled through his mask, his anxiety spiking. Andrew wasn't wearing proper PPE, and he was complaining about Aesop's embalming techniques. He understood that Andrew was struggling, but he still felt somewhat hurt. Grieving didn't give anyone an excuse to be rude.
"What funeral?" Andrew had not planned for any sort of funeral, and he was frankly offended that Aesop thought he would have one. He slowly moved closer to Aesop, who was suturing the wound he had created in order to get the blood out and embalming fluid in.
"I assumed you would have a funeral for him. Will you not?" Aesop said, avoiding eye contact with the older man. His nerves only got worse as Andrew pried.
"You don't know what you're doing with him. Once you're done, I'm doing his makeup."
"No, Andrew. You can't. This is my job." Aesop could not understand why Andrew didn't want him to do his job, why he was being so rude. It wasn't like Aesop was the reason behind Norton's passing. He didn't deserve to be treated as such.
"Yes, I can. I don't care if it's your job," Andrew was just getting angrier and angrier, before stomping up to Aesop and physically shoving him out of the way.
"You don't know anything about him. I should be the one doing his makeup. You didn't even know what he looked like." Andrew was more so talking to himself at that point, mumbling as roughly grabbed hold of the suture needle. It couldn't be that hard to suture up the wound.
He pierced the needle in and out of Norton's delicate skin, the sound of flesh breaking making him feel ill. He felt the bile rise in his throat, but he kept it down as best he could. He finished off the suture with a small knot.
Aesop froze up after being shoved, and began to feel his heart pounding. He didn't know what to do, but he did know he certainly didn't want to be in this position. He just wanted to finish Norton's embalming and be done with it. But he couldn't even do that.
"Tell Luca to get Norton's clothes from my house." Andrew mumbled again, glancing sharply at Aesop. His red eyes stared holes through the embalmer, who was very clearly panicking.
Aesop fled, dashing up the stairs and out of the door. He couldn't even get the words out to Luca, who was clearly very confused. He focused on his breathing, and also trying to rid himself of his anxiety. He shook his hands, which seemed to relieve him a little for some reason. Clenching and unclenching his fists seemed to also help.
Andrew paid no attention to how he had affected the other, only rummaging through his materials to find Norton's piercing. It didn't take him long to find the rather thick bar, and the ball that screwed onto the end of it to keep it in place.
He removed his gloves, knowing it would be much easier. This wasn't the first time he had to help Norton with his piercing; there were many occasions where it hurt too much or Norton was too tired to clean it or change it.
