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 Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 6:05 pm
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Prelude HereThe russian boy can’t help the bitter laugh that bubbles out his mouth when his head tips back because, well, it’s ridiculous. It has to be some horrible, awful joke that he’s showing up at his best friend’s door with all of his belongings in two boxes because he’s been kicked out of school and he’s aged out of the system, finally.
Ellis doesn’t bother to say anything, just sighs and steps back, fingers gripping the door like it’s the only thing holding him up.
And Kavinsky tries to keep the bitterness out of his voice but fails when he mutters, “happy ******** birthday to me,” and steps inside.
It was a hard thing to hide disappointment but for someone like Pie, Ellis couldn't just show it. Kavinsky was a downward spiral of self loathing and resentment and Ellis had been practicing the fine line walk ever since he could remember. So, yea, he was disappointed - but he had to hide it if he wanted to make sure Pie got back on the rails.
When the man had shown up earlier in the day with his things in hand, it wasn't quite the happy reunion he had wanted. The plan had always been for Pie to finish school and come live with him, proper roommates with their whole lives left. Now it felt like a prison sentence, somehow. Was this happy plan about to crumble? Would Pie really resent him for being the only option?
Ellis stood waffling on his own front doorstep, hair tied back from his late shift at the bar. There had been no time for him to talk about it before he left for work and, due to a thankfully busy night, no time to worry about it while he was there. Now there was only the cheap, whitewashed door standing between him and a world of hurt and anger and feelings.
How did he make this OK? He wanted to be upset, but he also didn't want Pie to be upset.
A long, resigned sigh was his only answer as he reached for the door and twisted it open.
“Hey, you hungry?”
A takeout bag was tossed on the counter - nothing special, just some discount bar food he had gotten from the late night chef for the two of them. Food was always a good icebreaker, anyway. His pale eyes were already swiveling through the dim interior if his living room, one of the old cheap varieties that required the tenant to provide their own light source. His was an old hand me down lamp, shoved in the corner.
“Barley threw in the leftover fries for free.” |
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Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 6:13 pm
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[Nuxaz]
He didn’t want to be there. Well, that wasn’t quite right but Kavinsky could feel the tension thick in the room; climbing up the walls and filling the space between them. It sat heavily on his broad frame, threatening to crush him as he stared back at the face of his best friend with a lump in his throat.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
He was supposed to finish school, graduate in the winter, and move in with Ellis after. He wasn’t supposed to have been kicked out of school and become that screw-up drop out everyone else always expected him to end up as. Figures they were right, he was just a kid fresh out of the system.
It was hard to keep his gaze level with his best friends and when he swallowed he felt like the lump was going to get suck and he’d choke instead. There was a part of him that wanted that, but he knew he needed to face this, deal with it as much as he allowed himself.
Still, he wished it wasn’t his birthday. Or what was left of it, with a few minutes until the clock hit twelve.
“I’m not hungry.” Kavinsky’s reply was shorter, harsher, than he meant, with a clipped tone and blank face. “You eat though. You cope better when you’re not hungry.” |
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Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 6:16 pm
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Of course he wasn’t hungry.
Ellis frowned where he stared down at the greasy little bag of food and brought a hand up to his chest, kneading the flesh just above his breastbone with the flat of his knuckles as he was prone to do when he was stressed out. His chest hurt, again, like his heart was freaking out while he was standing still. The tension in the roof was so thick that he was sure he could cut it with a knife and that meant he was on edge, and that, unfortunately meant his anxiety was rearing its ugly head.
“Yeah, I know,” he said, gently, in answer. Sometimes dealing with Pie was a lot like walking on eggshells. That were on fire. And filled with acid.
He rounded the little island counter that separated his small living area from the kitchen and went to the old, cheap microwave installed above the stove. It opened with a click of released hinges and he pulled out a single cupcake - one of the big ones from the bakery, covered in sprinkles. He’d stashed it there before Pie had ever showed up with his boxes, intent on stealing at least five minutes of his best friend’s day so they could blow out the candle. Just the two of them.
He set it on the counter, balanced on its own paper plate, before he pulled open the drawer next to him. There was no hiding it from where Pie waited for him but it didn’t matter.
“Will you at least come blow out the candle? I meant to come find you on my break between jobs earlier, but -”
But you found me.
His long, skinny fingers plucked out the box he had stashed away and in no time he had a tall, blue candle protruding from the icing and a lighter flicked to life to light it. It was more like a sparkler than a candle once it was going and just the sight of it made Ellis smile to himself. The pale skin and red hair were set to the flickering light, like the world’s laziest, dimmest strobe light.
As his bright eyes swung up to find Pie, a weak smile was in place. He didn’t want to fight, he didn’t even really want to talk about anything right now. Pie’s birthday wasn’t about fighting.
“Come on, there’s not much time left.”
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Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 6:17 pm
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[Nuxaz]
Kavinsky didn’t like watching Ellis in pain, but there was nothing he could - or would, really - do about it. Gray eyes watched knuckles press against a chest and despite himself, and the guilt churning in his stomach, he still stared at his friend with a hardened expression. Sometimes, especially during days like this, the russian boy wondered how they’d stayed friends.
They weren’t really compatible but -
Ellis was all that Pietro had.
We’ll work through this, eventually, he reminded himself fiercely, gaze following the redhead as he moved across the apartment. He knew he wasn’t being fair to Ellis, with his cold shoulder and his gruffness that was usually reserved for everyone else, but he was tired, disappointed, and quite frankly felt like a failure.
There was a softening of features when the cupcake was produced and Kavinsky swallowed, then allowed himself to cross the apartment to come and stand on the other side of the counter.
“Y-yeah,” he said, voice cracking as he shifted, braced his hands on the sides of the counter and bent over. “Happy ******** birthday to me,” he grumbled, voice barely audible when he blew at the flickering flame.
Kavinsky didn’t want to celebrate, but he supposed he could at least give Ellis this. |
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Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 6:19 pm
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Despite the way Kavinsky made his irritation blatantly obvious, Ellis watched him intently as he crossed the room and came to blow out his single birthday candle. The redhead couldn’t ever let the day pass without at least one wish for K to make and, as he watched him lean down and blow it out with a grumble, Ellis’ eyes lit up at the child-like wonder of the moment. Even Pie’s temper couldn’t dampen this. He might not have loved the moment quite so much as Ellis himself but he knew, after what they had been through, that they had to take joy from even the tiniest, most inconsequential things.
A smile spread across his lips, undiluted by the tenseness in the air around them as his fingers tapped the first few beats of happy birthday against the chipped linoleum.
“It’s not so bad, we’re so close to never having to look back.”
Ellis had hated the conformity of school, himself, and he knew Pie was clawing at the ceiling to break free of the institution. One more birthday down was one less left between them and the final lap. That thought was what had put the smile back on his lips and what made him look across as his burly best friend with a new found peace. He and Pie just had to hold it together until he was finished with school and that was it, the end, and Pie could do whatever he wanted and be whatever he wanted.
A laugh, awkward but genuine, broke the silence as he realized he was just staring awkwardly at the Russian man over the last few winding plumes of candle smoke as it rose between them. Pie knew his dreamy looks for what they were by now but he always felt inclined to apologize for the spaciness anyway.
“Sorry. Do you want to go halfsies?” He was fumbling with a kitchen drawer as he spoke, trying his best to pull it out even though the runner always came off the cheap track. It made a few screeching, grating sounds but he had only gotten it to budge about halfway. Forgetting the cupcake momentarily, he disappeared on the other side of the counter as he squatted to look at it from the underside. “I have to fix this stupid thing.”
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2017 9:29 am
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Ellis was delighted by something so simple that Kavinsky couldn't understand the how or the why behind it. It was just another shitty day that showed him that he was incapable of doing even something as simple as school correctly. ********, how was he going to explain all his boxes to Ellie...
"We've already made it Ellie," K said bitterly, an accompanying laugh to match. "I got kicked out. I can't go back." At this point, Kavinksy couldn't even look at Ellis for fear of what he'd see. "Just another thing to add to my shitty resume." He could hear the rumors and gossip now. That Kavinsky kid's a high school drop out now too. Another s**t thing to add to the ever growing list of s**t people said about him.
His teeth gritted against each other when he finally lifted his eyes, trying to keep all of the hatred and self-loathing off his face only to end up scowling viciously instead. "I don't want any," he said, sparing the cupcake a glance. It was a half-truth, because Kavinsky didn't care that his was his birthday, he didn't deserve it.
The drawer was a welcomed distraction with K rounding the counter to gently push Ellis out of the way. "Let me look at it."
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Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2017 2:08 pm
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Ellis wanted to tell Pie that it didn't matter anymore. It was hard to tell someone that couldn't ever drown out the shitty voices that the voices didn't matter. Highschool was done and there was never another person or place they had to deal with if they didn't want to. He wanted to just open his mouth, speak all the right words, and make Pie happy that he was one year older and safe with him.
But he didn't.
Ellis just shook his head at Pie's grumpiness and let him push if softly away from the drawer he had been fussing with. Instead, he reached for the cupcake and pulled himself up onto the counter where he would be out of Pie's way. Piece by piece, he unwrapped the glittering paper cup that clung to the spongy cake.
"More for me, then," he mumbled, dismissing Pie's bad attitude as they settled into their favorite roles - Pietro the tinkerer and Ellis, the adoring onlooker. His tongue flicked out and caught a bit of the multi-colored frosting while his eyes settled on Pie's strong hands - Ellis had always admired how deft they were, delicate for a kid that had grown up into a brute. He was just as good at fixing things as he was beating them to pieces.
"If you're feeling really generous, let me know, I'm pretty sure that Russian woman at the front desk is just pretending to be on the phone every time I need to ask for maintenance."
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 7:34 pm
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Ellis seemed to know his limits, or rather, Kavinsky's limits when it came to things and as usual, he backed off and let the teen stew in his anger. That was the thing about Pietro Vladimir Illya Ivan Kavinsky, he was made up of anger and self loathing somehow composed in human form and that, when he was in moods such as this, it was best to let the sleeping bear lie.
While naturally abrasive, K was never outright mean unless pushed. Years of being friends had taught the boys when it was time to step back.
It was always Ellis, taking hits and chips to his exterior for Kavinsky.
"Enjoy it," he snapped, pulling the drawer off it's track so he could fix the wheels. "Don't count on it," he stated, words practically a growl when he glance up at his friend before distracting himself with something that was smooth and mindless. He didn't have to think when he was fixing something, he just did.
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