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 Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:50 am
Algie frowned a bit and stood in silence just absorbing the warmth as it slowly filled the small sitting room. As much as Jeremiah was overprotective to a fault, Algie had his own protective streak over the other man. It may have had to do with how reliable and steadfast Jeremiah was, or the length of their freindship (no matter how sporadic) but also that Algie hadn't been in Ashdown long and hadn't built many meaningful relationships. Jeremiah was viewed as pretty much all he had here. The silence was broken by the kettle whistling. Instead of immediately going for it, he instead rearranged the room a bit. The sofa was bumped aside and moved to face the heater so Jeremiah could sit against the bottom of it, and the coffee table pushed just within reach. When he returned with the tea tray, Algie joined Jeremiah on the floor and it was oddly reminiscent of school nights spent studying to all hours- with Alg's mum supplying biscuits and tea until she fell asleep on the sofa behind them.
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Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 10:53 am
Jeremiah smiled (it was tired but a true smile) when Algie rearranged the furniture. It got a little wider when he sat down next to him. The blanket was adjusted, large as it was, and tossed around his friend's shoulders. Eventually it would just pool behind them anyway. "Reminds me of when we were younger," he chuckled, leaning and his shoulder bumping Algie's. Until Algie had come to Ashdown, Jeremiah had not really bothered to let anyone in. There were people who would have liked to call him friend but he did not return the same courtesy. He was a man who wanted to but kept them out in spite of himself. Algie was the only person he had made an effort to let through. "Even the part with me having a nightmare." It was true, Jeremiah had had horrible dreams when he was younger. Mostly anxiety ridden ones. Darkness that was simply darkness and the fear of what was in it.
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Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 11:43 am
Algie fixed the tea on his knees by the coffee table, both how they liked it, and set back under the blanket. Should Jeremiah's milk lose it's warmth, the tea was there to fill the place even if he didn't drink it. "Up late studying.." Algie chuckled softly, "That awful group project we had to to for Mister Jenning's chemistry class?" Jeremiah, he remembered clearly, had said 'I know how to cook, how hard can it be?' Algie sipped his tea and leaned equally against the couch as he did into Jeremiah's side, mostly to be a reassuring weight for the other. He also radiated heat like a furnace, "Mum would insist on staying up to supervise for fear we'd put on football match re-runs.." And they would... when she fell asleep at 10pm on the dot.
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Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 12:11 pm
Jeremiah's mug of milk was empty, having drank it all, and swapped out for the cup of tea. Except that Algie next to him, warm and leaning, was likely more effective for chasing away nightmares than the milk and tea. The detective would not really be able to admit the extent of his nightmare. That before it was the city, raining and empty and things in the shadows, it had been him on the beach watching, waiting, hoping and Algie on the boat and ... "You mean the one where we did the lab and it exploded everywhere?" Jeremiah chuckled. "Then Jenning banned me from handling all the volatile chemicals. 'No, Mercer, never again. Let Mixlin handle them. I'm not even sure how you caused the explosion.'" His Jenning voice was, even years later, spot on. "I think we worked much better with the games on." Another nudge and a soft chuckle. Neither one of them had been poor students. "Not that she ever believed us."
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Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 12:42 pm
"It took much too long to convince you that chemistry was not just like cooking." And near failing a project, but so long in the past that it was nothing but a good story now. He sipped his tea, enraptured by the spinning orange light that mimicked flames inside the heater. "No she always insisted on watching her Eastenders repeats.." But now they both probably had an encyclopedic knowledge of that as well, besides that it had been years since he'd seen an episode Algie could probably recount a whole chunk of storyline from their younger days. "Warmer?" He turned his head a bit. Jeremiah had actually chuckled, which was a marked improvement from shivering, pale, fear.
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Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 6:37 pm
"Eh, chemistry is close enough." The way he said that was deliberate, reminiscent of conversations from when they had been so much younger. "I still can't believe they started EastEnders back up again ..." He shook his head, eyes on the flickering heat and leaning back on Algie.
For the moment it felt more like he was the one being supported than the other way around.
"Yeah," Jeremiah raised a hand to rub at his face. The color was coming back to it, the chill disappearing in favor of warm milk, warm tea, and Algie right there. "I don't think I ever really said it but ..." The detective was looking at Algie out of the corner of his eye. It was the nightmare that made him feel like this was necessary even if he had not really talked about it yet. "I'm glad you came here." A snort. "Or took my advice. Whatever it was that actually happened."
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Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:15 pm
"Well you definitely hit the nail on the head about it being," a nudge, " inspirational." Algie was never very good with compliments or expressing emotions honestly. Too worried about appearances, what the backlash might be, and too self conscious about everything really. Jeremiah and he weren't the type to have sit downs about their feelings, not after the age of 17 anyway. In such a strange mood, he wondered what about growing old just changed that in a person. "Well-" it garnered a knee pat under the blanket, "-mum gone. Dad's fine. Everything else there was just like a ******** spectre hanging over my head." Algie glanced at the other, "The weather's passable here, for America that is. And you are here," A sigh, "The cranky professor's only friend." He then squinted, "We weren't always this cranky." They also probably used to have more friends. Probably.
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Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:55 pm
Jeremiah would always be honest, Algie would always deflect. These were certain universal truths that could not be avoided.
He chuckled, a hand raised to scratch at the stubble on his cheek. "Apparently too well, it seems ..." Jeremiah had not really anticipated that there would have been truth to the Seven True Legends of Ashdown. He had seen a pamphlet once and ignored it but it crossed his mind now.
There was a hum, a slightly sad note because Jeremiah did miss Lucille. Algie's father as well but only when he went fishing. "I ended up here because of the weather. Passable for back across the pond." At some point home had stopped being there and started being here and the detective honestly could not say when.
"Pretty sure we've always been cranky." A pause. "Or I have, at least. My reputation around town says so." Jeremiah truly did have a reputation for being cranky and ornery if you weren't dealing with him for work. He meant to nudge the other back with his shoulder, ended up misjudging and just followed the fall until he was laying partially across Algie's lap snickering at himself.
(Worse because maybe that had been his target all along.)
"... besides, Alg, you're the ornery detective's only friend. So there's that. Consider it your penance." He snorted. "Or the price you have to pay to find inspiration for your next book." Jeremiah glanced up at him. "You know I'm still trying to figure out which character you based on me." This was an easier, much easier, discussion than his nightmares.
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Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 9:42 pm
Algie didn't seem phased when Jeremiah seemed to fall into his lap, mostly due to the fact that it was late and they both were probably tired. In fact he stretched his legs out a bit, warm now that he'd sat in front of the heater, and as Algie slouched against the sofa his lap became a much more adequate pillow. He really just hoped Jeremiah could get some sleep. "Are you kidding me?" Algie blinked, "Is it a cosmic joke that everyone you know hasn't told you and you haven't figured it out?" Mostly because in his eyes, it was very obvious which character was based on him. The bombshell, badass, hard-nosed rival detective turned romance interest of his main character. Yes, she was a woman - a skeptic turned supernatural hunter. Was life imitating art? He hoped not. "Do you actually even read them?" Algie chuckled.
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 6:35 am
"Maybe I keep hoping I'm not a woman," Jeremiah snorted, a hand coming up and prodding Algie in the side a bit. That spot that always made him twist away but he only prodded once. Perhaps he hadn't quite figured it out in the first couple of books but after that? Not so much. The similarities had added up and then there had been this one time that the detective knew for a fact was something he had said to Algie at one point. "I read every single one and you know that." Jeremiah yawned, head turned and hand covering his mouth. "Just didn't think we'd find ourselves in one of your novels."
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 6:51 am
Algie grunted getting prodded in his tickle spot, twisting before giving Jeremiah a retaliatory shove. A punch was in poor taste when the man was plagued with nightmares. Algie slouched a bit more against the sofa, head resting back against the cushion as he caught the contagious yawn, "Art imitates life.. or vice versa. Whichever. Inspiration comes from everywhere." He then just put his hand over Jeremiah's face a moment, "Go to sleep now." He chuckled, knowing it wouldn't work, but the effort was made.
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 7:35 am
Jeremiah chuckled at the shove, went with it, and then settled back down with his head in Algie's lap. "Mm. You do know that no one knows I talk to you, right? Not their business." He tilted his face towards the other's body, another yawn escaping. "Especially considering the way you have me in the thank you bit ..." Algie had him in there but it was something only the other called him. Blue-green eyes blinked, head turning and trying to focus properly on the hand. His glanced from it and back to Algie's hand and then back once more. Lips were pressed together thinly, the detective not so sure he wanted to sleep but there was work tomorrow and ... The nightmare was still there, the empty streets of Ashdown as well, in his thoughts. "I'll see what I can manage," he said quietly.
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 8:08 am
Algie's hand settled on Jeremiah's head, his own head tilted back now and eyes closed. The heater kept the room warm and lit just enough and even if his back would kill tomorrow he'd rather be right here if anything happened than dragged from bed again. His fingers found there way into Jeremiah's hair and he tugged lightly a moment and teased, "Should you begin thrashing, I'll just tie you down. No worries. Gag you with a sock or something.."
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 8:57 am
Something eased when Algie's hand settled into his hair, more so when fingers tugged. Jeremiah let out a huff of breath. "There you go, threatening to tie me up again ..." His eyes were already shut, some part of him deliberately trying to even out his breathing already. "You forget I'm the one with the handcuffs, Alg." Face tilted, his nose was brushing against Algie's stomach. He was half-tilted to make some other comment, something that would get him shoved but he was already lured to sleep by the warmth of the heater and Algie's presence. The dreams were empty streets and dark corners but at least they were not boats crashed to shore and bloody water.
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