"I know you are," he says quietly as they pass one another on Leonardo's path towards the chair, and Mike's exit to the hallway.

He'll have to be quick about it. Leo's room wasn't large, but still he has to check for himself, to see for himself, and the last thing he wants to do is leave The Bookends...

He stops in his tracks. No longer The Bookends, are they.
Is he.
Damn that's sobering.
Mike shakes the dissonance from his head and continues on towards Leo's room, hoping to find something in there to prove that Leonardo's intuition is wrong.
That the youngest of the cousins still left was...well, still left.

Mike doesn't turn on the light to the room, he doesn't really need to. As per usual the room is neat as a pin, but ever so much more so than when it was inhabited. The bed isn't made, it's a stack of folded linens on a naked mattress. Any books that were collected are gone, as are any mementos or tchotchkes. In fact, the only thing left to be found is a single peace-bonded sword on a plain display rack.

"damnit," he swears as he carefully lifts the sword and scabbard, and slings them both over one shoulder.

When he returns to his room he presents Leo with the water first, because he knows if he leads with the sword he'll never get his cousin to drink.

Mike pi