Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I like him. He's social. He knows people, places -- names --" Ever floundered, tugging on Zac's braid as he shot a look around the room. It was harder to explain than he'd expected, especially considering how little he knew the kid. It meant his eyes wandered, his posture shifted, uncertain.

"Don't you think?" His attention flicked back down onto Zac as he said it.

Nerves jittered, butterflies in his stomach, but Ever grinned down at Zac at the agreement, and took advantage of the tipped-back head to steal a kiss. Someone in the room would see them and laugh and get the idea to do the same with their neighbor. An infectious kiss, even if it was brief.

"Is it cruel to do it on his birthday? Or is it a prize of a gift."

"If things go too crazy, then just take your clothes off. I'm sure that will serve." Another bright smile, another brief kiss, and Ever finally pulled away -- to mill through groups of lounging people in search of the birthday boy.

And to search.

And to search.

It was a small apartment. It should have taken him moments, really, to locate Sawyer in the crowd, especially considering how he threw himself at friends and strangers alike, the noise he brought along in his wake. Yet somehow, despite circling the apartment three, four times, stepping out onto the balcony, peering out into the hall [and, yes, drinking a few beers], the kid eluded him.

It was a mystery. It was baffling. It was annoying. But it was also, perhaps, a good thing. It meant his nerves were replaced with annoyance and frustration, and it meant most of the people passed out or began milling their way slowly out onto the street.

An hour and a half, maybe a bit more, and Ever'd give up for long enough to step onto the porch and light up a cigarette, huffing to himself. Perhaps it was not meant to be.

Sawyer got a look, slow and assessing, as Ever handed over the cigarette -- his eyes narrowed and some of that frustration flicking through. How the hell had the kid disappeared for so long in such a small space? As payment he stole the bottle out of Sawyer's hand to take a sip as he drank, beer and cigarettes mixing in his mouth in a familiar way.

"We kind of were, actually." It sounded reluctant, though, because Ever definitely was questioning himself, now. He'd been given too much time to think about it. He rumpled his hair and sipped again. "He might be asleep on a couch or something, I don't know. I was trying to find you. Has everyone left?"

Quiet for the moment, almost chickening out -- almost -- Ever reached out to steal the cigarette back, beer pressed into Sawyer's empty hand again. He drew on it, looked around them, and then nodded toward the door, his eyes just a hair distracted. He was thinking too much, and it showed on his face, in his posture, even in the way he blew smoke out the corner of his mouth.

"How about we go inside and see if he's awake. We could chat a bit, now that there's privacy."

“God, I am so not…even remotely cute.” He glanced at ever and then back to Sawyer, leaning just to the right of the door frame so they could pass.

“Give him some credit, my boyfriend, has a plethora of talents, you should just see what he can do with those hands.”

Zac had definitely finished his beer, and potentially spent a little too long in a closed room with all that smoke to be so, well, glib. There was something oddly ‘inside joke’ to the mention of hands though, it was clearly written on Zac’s face for all that he was blushing to have said it.


He pushed a hand through his hair, tucking the braid for a moment behind his ear before gravity tugged it loose again, along with the rest of it.

“Don’t worry, we won’t judge you if you’re hetero.”

He looked wary. He was a trusting soul--he'd fallen asleep in the subway dens of meth addicts he'd just met hours before and felt completely safe--but there was something about the situation (perhaps he was feeling Ever's nerves) that unsettled him, and it was obvious in the way he held himself, slightly hunched, his bare feet (coated in dirt and grass stains, now) curling toes into the shitty carpet. He'd jumped when Zac materialized at the door wide awake--that was probably contributing--but he hadn't shed the general look of a startled mouse ready to dart.

"No," he said tentatively. "I mean, not generally speaking. I mean it depends on the change, you know? Like someone punching you in the balls is technically a change, and no one wants that." He rambled on, spurred even more chatty by nerves. "But I mean generally speaking, no, change is good. s**t gets dull, you know? Boring? Change makes you stronger." And that was a thing he knew painfully to be the truth. "But yeah if it's..." He hesitated. "I'm not 'hetero,' so don't... feel like that's a change you need to be making. Haha."

"Watch the door, would you?" He tugged on Zac's buttons as he said it -- and then, as he stepped forward toward Sawyer, he summoned his uniform around him, going from a scruffy, skinny twenty-something to a full-blown Negaverse General, with the green of his coat whipping about his legs and the cap pulled low on his head.

It was, in a word, imposing -- but even as Ilmenite reached out to grab the front of Sawyer's shirt and tug him forward two steps, well and thoroughly caught, he also braced himself for the cute, clever comments that were sure to come. "This is something entirely different."