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 Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 1:49 pm
The thing Babylon was quickly learning about senshi was that if you weren't paying attention to where and when you had met them the first time, they were hard to find again. Considering his life had been in imminent danger when he met Vindemiatrix, Babylon wasn't exactly clear on where he might find the other boy again. Just that he desperately needed to.
Between then and now there'd been camp and finding a job and lots of patrols spent... mostly trying to find Vindemiatrix again, he had to admit, even though that sounded pathetic. Okay. He had a crush. He could admit that - he wasn't some goofy fourteen year old. But liking Vin and finding Vin were two different things, and while he could take liking Vin for granted... Finding Vin was easier said than done.
However, he had a good feeling about tonight. Babylon had already canvassed half of the neighborhood in hopes of catching sight of a dark-haired senshi with a cool hat, and as he rounded the corner near TGI Thaidays he spotted another figure moving along the rooftops. The energy felt like a senshi, and although Babylon couldn't tell who exactly it was, the silhouette looked promising.
The page picked up his pace to close the gap between himself and the senshi. Score, he thought. It was definitely Vin. "Hey, hey! Wait up!" he yelled, flailing to cross the last rooftop between them. "Vin! Hey! Wait!"
Of all the things Babylon Page could happily say he was, a smooth operator was not one of them.
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 3:05 pm
Vindemiatrix had been in a weird sort of place with regards to Babylon. On one hand, he still had quite a lot of figuring out to do. About himself as a human and also as a senshi. While high school provided ample opportunity for confusion and social stress, summer was, in some ways worse - while he did not have to see certain people every day in class, he also had more free time to worry. Andrea had elected to fill a portion of that time with Vindemiatrix, including the planet itself.
And, well, one thing his senshi powers were not about to do was make things less confusing.
Andrea was a careful planner, structured, organized, taking things one step at a time. Relationships were one of those things that were not something he was eager to just leap head-first into. He tried that once and the result had not been so great. But on the other hand, he had taken a chance on Tallulah as well, and that had worked out swimmingly. No pun intended.
But Babylon.... Babylon had been the one to take a chance on him, just all of a sudden at their first meeting. A whirlwind of battle and then the rush to Chinatown, and then the kiss. It had been utterly spontaneous, and Vindemiatrix, and Andrea at his core, had been okay with that. But, rather than taking refuge in this fact, it had made him feel weirder: this was unusual. Was it also right?
Vindemiatrix was less hung up on these sorts of things, at least. The Senshi of Wine dressed like a Renaissance fop, complete with pink hat, but no one who teased Vindemiatrix would come after Andrea in the everyday world. It was liberating, and, well ...
Andrea felt like it was the perfect license to experiment, at least. No one would come after Andrea in the hallways for kissing whomever Babylon was out of his Knight uniform, hurling insults. And it helped that Babylon seemed so giddy an excited. It was contagious.
Still reluctant to completely surrender his structure, Vindemiatrix stuck to his regular schedule of patrols, working them in where they fit into his schedule at TGI Thaidays and dance class. He wished he would see Babylon again, to a greater or lesser extent depending on the day, but had no idea where to look for him. Admittedly, he had returned to the corner where he had saved him from the youma a few times, and also once to the apartment on the edge of Chinatown, but he had not seen the fur-trimmed boy with equally fuzzy hair.
Then tonight he heard a voice. Turning, he caught sight of the faint blue glow of Babylon's glowstick, and a grin spread across his face. He didn't just wait, he hopped, nimbly with his ballet-honed grace, to meet the Page of Mercury.
"Long time no see," he breathed, and then wondered if that was the right thing to say.
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Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 4:01 pm
Vindemiatrix was far more graceful than Babylon, and for that small mercy the page was grateful - had they both been equally clumsy, sooner or later they would both fall off a roof and break bones and inevitably wind up two very unhappy magical boys in traction casts. "I'll say," he grinned goofily, skidding to a halt in front of the senshi. He wasn't sure what to say next, and settled for a slightly giddy utterance of "Hi."
"I was looking for you," he continued, still wearing the same goofy grin. "I mean not stalking-looking, but looking-looking, 'cuz I wanted to see you, 'cuz I think you're cool, and... I'm babbling, aren't I?"
His suddenly-sheepish smile said that he had surmised as much as yes, whether or not Vindemiatrix agreed with the statement. Mind suddenly blank, Babylon flailed about physically as well as mentally trying to remember what he'd meant to ask Vindemiatrix once he saw him again. Something about stuff other than patrol - oh right!
"So!" he blurted, clasping his hands together abruptly. "There's, ah, do you like Alfred Hitchcock movies?"
He'd had this planned out way better in his head, but right now all he could do was smile hopefully and hope that there could be things other than patrol on the menu tonight. After all, he'd finally managed to find Vin again! And it would all be wasted effort if, despite consenting to be kissed (twice!), the senshi didn't actually want to spend any more time than he had to with Babylon. Which seemed like an unlikely outcome given the gleeful greeting he'd gotten (alliteration!), but it was still a distinct possibility in the back of Babylon's mind. Rejection was always a distinct possibility, and one to be dreaded and avoided, and right now the page's internal monologue went something like this:
Please say yes please say yes pleasesayyespleasesayyes PLEASESAYYES.
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Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 7:22 pm
Vin nodded, laughing a little at Babylon and hoping that the flush of warmth he felt in his face was exercise-related. He had been expecting an offer to go hunting youma or patrolling again, and had not been expecting any sort of social invitation. It threw him for a bit of a loop, really - Vin had time set aside for patrolling and time set aside for seeing movies, and, if nothing else, he was not expecting to get invited out while henshined up.
Which was perhaps a bit foolish, considering how he knew Babylon.
"Uh, yeah, I've only seen like one or two, but I remember liking them," he replied, needing a moment to remember the original question before he could supply an answer instead of just gaping like a fish. Vin's smile then returned. "Why do you ask?"
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Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 7:51 pm
Babylon tried to disguise his nervous giggle as a laugh of triumph and failed pretty miserably. However, he took comfort in the fact that Vindemiatrix didn't hate Alfred Hitchcock, which certainly some people did. "Well," he announced, rocking back on his heels in some manner of forced casualness. "There's this midnight movie series going on down by the lake?"
He over-balanced and had to flail for a moment before composing himself enough to finish the proposition. Hopefully Vin was still following and hadn't written him off as just totally goofy. "It's a different Alfred Hitchcock movie every night in July. And they're playing North by Northwest tonight?"
As far as Hitchcock movies went, Finn thought it was fortuitous that he'd found Vin tonight as opposed to, say, the night they were playing Psycho. It always seemed easier to hate a movie that was going to give you nightmares than it was to hate one starring Cary Grant. "Anyways," the page finished, "We can't really go sit on the lawn dressed like this, but I was thinking we could go watch from the trees? I know an oak with a good view of the screen..."
He trailed off and gave Vin a giddy smile, inner monologue still chugging away with the same mantra. And then, just because he wasn't sure if his awkward flailing hadn't been clear enough, he added, "It's, well, um, it'd sort of be like a date."
Any moment now, he thoroughly expected for his luck to run out and for Vin to punch him in the face.
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Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 9:59 am
A short laugh escaped Vindemiatrix's lips when Babylon nearly toppled from the roof - and felt a pang of guilt, as he did not want to embarrass the other boy too badly by laughing at him - but at the same time stretched out, extending a hand if the Page needed it.
Vin was fairly social, in spite of his tight schedule. And, truth be told, he really wanted someone, a nice guy or nice girl, to ask him on a date, but actually getting the offer still made him feel sort of oddly fluttery inside. In a good way. Babylon was sort of like his great experiment, in dating guys, especially after the brief attempt with Ladon had not quite panned out. ... But the Senshi of Wine, and the boy in the costume, still wanted things to work out.
This would be like- like- like patrolling all the way to the lake. And then keeping watch there! For two hours, give or take, with another boy, and a movie going on. But the oak Babylon had suggested would make a most excellent vantage point over everything, not just the screen. So, Vin justified to himself, this was not exactly the same as skipping out on patrol time in his schedule.
Grinning, he nodded, having to place a hand on top of his hat to keep the chaperone from sliding back at the movement. "I'd love to. Actually," he agreed, hoping he did not sound like he was stammering or anything. "North by Northwest is the one with the scene where he gets chased by the airplane right? I know I've caught part on TV, but I haven't seen the whole thing." Vin's arms stretched to the sides momentarily to mimic crop duster wings, and then fell back to his sides as he reached that awkward realization that he had no idea what to do with them in this situation.
A moment later, he shrugged lightly, arms relaxed but fists lightly clenched, and laughed again since that seemed to be how Babylon was venting his nervous energy. "I guess let's go!"
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Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 3:38 pm
Babylon gratefully accepted the steadying hand, although he had to admit he was a bit reluctant to let it go once he found his feet again. Still, no fist had yet found it's way to his face and the page was astounded by his stroke of good luck. "Yeah!" nodded Babylon giddily. "That's the one!"
He considered offering Vin his arm as they traipsed into the night, but thought better of it - if only because holding on to someone and jumping over roofs was a surefire way to windup sprawled together in a dumpster within three minutes. Instead, a few rooftops later, he reached over and gave the senshi's slipping hat a stabilizing pat.
"Maybe you should staple it," he suggested playfully. "You know, like what the prop guys supposedly did to make Indiana Jones's fedora stay on?" Actually, he was pretty sure that was an urban legend, but whatever. He kept a wary eye on the shadows for youma, but either didn't see any or was just sort of willfully ignorant of them. The boys made it to Babylon's promised tree uninterrupted and with time to spare.
"Awesome," said Babylon, sticking his glowstick into a knot in the branch. "Made it in time for the previews!" Apparently there was going to be a Marilyn Monroe festival in October, and they'd be live streaming the metropolitan opera every Sunday in September. The more you knew, huh?
Babylon beamed at Vindemiatrix. "Don't tell anyone I never took you anyplace nice, huh?" he joked, and suddenly something else crossed his mind. Babylon's eyes went wider than usual. "Oh! Hold on! Be right back!"
And with that, he leapt from the branch.
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 4:58 pm
Vin ran alongside Babylon across the roofs, and laughed when the Page tried to fix his hat. "Oh, I think it's fine," he assured his friend. "It stays on pretty well most of the time, and I'm not sure I want to keep it on badly enough to use a staple." He quirked a brow at the bit of movie trivia, though. "... Is that really true, about Indiana Jones?"
When they reached the branch, the Senshi of Wine wobbled on it slightly - his carefully honed balance helped, but the branch still bowed under the weight of the two boys landing on it. He had little trouble settling down on it, though, and was happily swinging his legs from his seat within a few moments.
"Oh, haven't seen enough Marilyn Monroe films," he commented. Then decided a moment after he had already let the words out that saying so in front of Babylon had been on purpose. Vin fidgeted slightly, and was venturing to glance over at Babylon when the Page made his speedy exit, leaving the dark-haired boy with one hand reaching for the tree trunk as the branch bobbed again when the Page of Mercury jumped off.
"Aah, sure!" Little awkward.
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 6:42 pm
A tuck, a roll, and several stealthy runs worthy of Batman later, Babylon reappeared on the branch, holding a tub of unbuttered popcorn and grinning from ear to ear. "Got you dinner, too," he said proudly, offering the tub of popcorn to Vindemiatrix. "And Harrison Ford's hat? I'm not so sure."
He sort of sincerely hoped it was an urban legend, but really he had no idea. Movies seemed like a sort of dangerous business. Stunt guys died in the name of Indiana Jones. Knowing that, Babylon's chosen professions of trainee park ranger and sometimes superhero seemed particularly safe.
"Movie's starting," he beamed, reaching over and taking a handful of popcorn for himself. "Hope you're okay that it's plain," he added lamely. "I can't really stomach fake butter."
He scooted a bit closer to Vin and turned his attention to the glowing screen. So far, tonight was going as well as he'd planned for in his best case scenario (although he was judging everything on a scale of "punched in the face to got a kiss goodnight," so his expectations were admittedly a little bit low).
"Cool credit design, don't you think?" he asked softly, trying to figure out whether or not it was acceptable to talk during a movie if you were sitting in a tree with a guy in a skirt. This situation was uncharted territory, and Babylon was hoping that at some point Vindemiatrix would start to steer.
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Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 9:29 pm
Vindemiatrix smiled and moved over to make room for Babylon when he returned, laughing a little at the popcorn. "Good idea," he said, reaching in to take a few pieces, himself. "Thank you. And don't worry about no butter, I can't stand the stuff, either. Not supposed to eat it, even." Probably not much plain popcorn, either, but this was clearly a special occasion.
Then he fell quiet as the movie started. It was pretty nice up here, with a good view of the screen, and the sound came through surprisingly clearly, as well. Vin was not sure how comfortable the tree limb would be in two hours, but for the moment, it seemed to be working out well enough.
"Yeah it-" he began, then he switched suddenly to: "Oh, hey, there's Hitchcock. I forgot he showed up like that in his movies." The Senshi of Wine laughed softly. He seemed not to mind a bit of chatting during the movie, at least now while nothing of consequence was going on in the film.
He glanced at Babylon, still smiling, then edged closer to get a few more pieces of popcorn.
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Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 9:58 pm
Babylon probably hadn't been thinking about how the tree branch would feel two hours from now when he picked it, but then he'd been sort of pre-occupied with getting Vindemiatrix to say yes. Whether that yes was out of politeness or actual attraction, the page wasn't certain... but he was certainly hoping for the latter, and the slowly closing gap between their bodies was helping his case.
"Yeah," snickered Babylon lowly, taking more popcorn. "Sort of like M. Knight Shyamalan but actually talented." He was hardly a cinephile, but he knew a hack when he saw one: The Happening was bullshit. He whistled lowly, barely audible: "Hello, Cary Grant." It did not take a cinephile to know that Alfred Hitchcock had some excellent leading men.
The page chewed in silence for a while, watching the movie's masterful setup. So far so good on the tree-branch, and at some point his tailbone would go numb and that would be that until he tried to get up and fell out of the tree. But he had a while yet.
Babylon glanced surreptitiously at Vindemiatrix and took a cautious scoot nearer to the senshi, closing the space between their shoulders. He was practically holding his breath, waiting for something to go disastrously wrong - but nothing had, at least not yet. Exhaling slowly as to be inconspicuous, he reached for more popcorn-
Just as Vin did the same, to judge from how their fingers wound up entwined. Babylon glanced from their hands up to the senshi's face and laughed nervously. "Sorry," he blushed.
Any moment now, something terrible was going to happen. He was bracing himself for it.
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Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2011 9:22 am
Vin felt his cheeks warming slightly as his hand encountered Babylon's, but he could not keep from grinning. One hand went for the other boy's face, but his fist was open - there would be no face-punching tonight. Gloved fingers brushed through the Page's hair, slicking the feathery strands of it back out of his eyes.
"Kind of Cary Grant a little," he mused, then withdrew his hand. "He is good-looking, but I guess probably old-fashioned for me."
... That was ... surprisingly smooth. The Senshi of Wine half-expected his hand to be shaking or something. It helped, on some level, that Babylon seemed almost as nervous as he was, almost jumpy, but, senshi or not, all that he felt could not be ignored. Being in silly costumes did not make any of this any less real, nor did it make him feel any less thrilled with it.
Strange, then, that the "coming out" he would have to do would have nothing to do with the sex of the person he was with, but instead with the crazy uniforms they wore. If this proved to be something that would last beyond their magical glamors.
Vin picked up the popcorn and set it on his lap, then slid right up beside Babylon. "Bark doesn't feel as rough right here."
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Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2011 2:34 pm
Babylon shuddered awkwardly with relief as Vindemiatrix's had moved to brush his hair rather than slap him. He smiled widely, giddy but not entirely sheepish. Tonight was going better than he'd ever anticipated, although his expectations had been admittedly a bit low at the start. Any lingering doubts over the senshi's sexuality had been solidly assuaged and Babylon was feeling good about this evening.
Actually, Babylon was feeling pretty good about life in general, considering that he had a good looking senshi sitting right next to him and all indications that the warm and fuzzy feeling he was having right now was mutual. That was the essential part, because when that warm fuzzy wasn't mutual he tended to get punched in the face. That had happened (once) but there was still a sort of lingering tendency to expect it.
With Vindemiatrix sitting this close, Babylon was increasingly aware that he had nowhere to put his arm. The solution was, obviously, around the other boy's shoulders. There! That was a good fit.
This was going entirely too well, the page reflected. Did he dare risk it?
He cleared his throat and inclined his head towards Vindemiatrax. Lowly, he asked, "Um. I was wondering if you wanted to maybe... go out?" Slowly, he was turning beet red. "Because I like you. A lot. And I think you like me and... yeah, that's all I've got."
(Well, apparently, he did dare.)
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 2:10 pm
Vin allowed Babylon the pleasure of invading his personal space, and, after a moment, put his arm around the other boy to match. Whenever he had thought about dating, boys or girls, it had always seemed so complicated, and he was never sure if he would ever know what to say. But, well, for the moment, all it seemed was really necessary was a simple,
"Sure."
He smiled because he could not really stop it, but added haltingly a moment later, "It might be a little weird, because we're doing this as senshi. Or, you know, a senshi and a page. And I hope it's okay with you that I do want to make sure I take time to protect people with my powers, too." Vin hoped that did not sound too off-putting. "I mean, we can totally do stuff together, but ... I just hope it's okay if some of it is monster fighting, too."
A thought crossed his mind a second later, and he looked at Babylon, hastily adding, "I think we make a good team, too." A nervous feeling fluttered in his stomach. "And I do like you, and I think I would feel best if we fought together, so we can keep an eye out for each other. ... N-not that I think you're not good enough by yourself but, I mean, just. We have to watch each other's backs, you know?"
... Less words were definitely better than more. Vin jammed a fistful of popcorn into his mouth to make sure he stopped talking.
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 6:24 pm
It was sort of like a light-switch got flipped when Vindemiatrix said 'Sure.' Surely that was the most magical 'sure' Babylon had ever heard. Music to his ears! His face lit up. He grinned from ear to ear. He wanted to shout it to the heavens that Vindemiatrix had said yes, that he had a boyfriend - except they were at the movies and that was hardly appropriate behavior. "Awesome," he giggled giddily.
Talk about patrolling together wasn't off-putting at all. Actually, Babylon was thankful for it, since it meant no awkwardly trying to come up with interesting dates: patrol was a different adventure every night, after all! So it turned out that they were both pretty cheap dates: not such a bad thing. "Patrol, well, patrol sounds great," he said earnestly.
"I think it was, like, the Spartans," he added, babbling a little bit, "They'd send couples out to battle so they'd fight twice as hard to protect each other?" Trust him to remember that: history's most badass homosexuals, part one of five on a possible Cracked.com list. (Not really.)
"I mean, I'd really like fighting monsters with you. Or doing anything with you, really-" More babbling. By now he was pretty sure he'd reduced himself to levels of sappiness usually reserved for thirteen-year-old girls with especially bad crushes. He reached for the popcorn and glanced slyly at Vin.
There wasn't a good way to suggest that now might be a nice time to kiss, Babylon decided as he chewed. He swallowed dryly. "Um." There really was no smooth way to handle this. However, basic math suggested that just grabbing Vindemiatrix and kissing him had worked well enough in the past and there was enough evidence to suggest it might work just as well in the future.
"Excuse me," muttered Babylon, and then did exactly that. The kiss tasted like salt; and, he debated with himself, he still could not decide whether there were hints of wine in it, too. Pulling away, he sheepishly licked his lips. "Sorry, sort of wanted to - seal the deal?"
Smooth.
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