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 Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 3:00 pm
Adrien grinned widely across the little patch of AstroTurf they were still standing on.
"You've gotta be amazing, come on," he protested, swinging the putter haphazardly and almost smacking a passing couple, one of which who grabbed the other and dragged them out of the way just in time, shooting Adrien, completely oblivious to the whole matter, a dirty look. "You've got the right build and all, you're like, really slender and pretty and you've got nice hands, that means you're good, right?"
Clearly it's what Adrien thought was equivalent to a good archery player. He tilted his head a little, scrutinizing Yuuri with a wide-eyed, silent expression, as though he was attempting to listen to everything that was being said to him - or what wasn't being said to him, as the case may have been. Yuuri was not a talker, Adrien had come to learn - and it didn't bother him, because Adrien didn't necessarily need words. He just liked the fact that there was someone to talk to, someone to listen to him, someone just to be a presence there. Shallow, maybe, but it was the truth.
He held out a hand automatically for the golf ball, eyebrows raised. For a moment, there was an uncharacteristic silence from Adrien, who just stared at Yuuri, and then, abruptly, he flung his arms (and the putter) around Yuuri's shoulders in a quick, brief, half strangling hug that probably was in danger of squeezing the life out of someone.
"You poor thing." Adrien clicked his tongue reprovingly, and added, "It's totally not selfish to want to do your own thing or get away from your family, okay, that's totally normal."
He let go, probably a good thing, and beamed at Yuuri, reaching out to clap a hand on his shoulder in a gesture of a good will, then snagged hold of his upper arm and dragged him to the next hole in the course.
"If you want to edit videos, I say go for it," said Adrien grandly, once they were at the tee. "You should totally stick with your gut, right?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 7:50 pm
Yuuri had no idea what to make of Adrien. The more he thought he could get used to his antics, the more he was thrown off by them. And the general observation of his build made him more flustered than he really needed to be. It wasn’t every day that anyone made comments about how he looked, especially in a positive light. If anything he was used to being invisible. He wondered if he should be offended that he was considered pretty, but from everything he was used to, it was a huge compliment.
And probably uniquely Adrien to say things like that. It was Adrien who said nice things to him on the day they’d met, and again he was saying nice things now. It was just who Adrien was, he supposed.
“Thanks,” he mumbled, shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other, trying to ignore the overwhelming embarrassed that bubbled up inside his chest. And then Adrien was silent. Yuuri lifted his eyes to look up at him, surprised that he was actually quiet for more than just a moment, catching the look on his face right before he threw his arms around him, squeezing him in a tight hug.
For a moment Yuuri thought his heart had stopped, the air gone from his lungs, and not just because of how tight he was being hugged, but because he wasn’t used to this. People didn’t just randomly show affection, even if he knew it was another uniquely Adrien thing.
He swallowed down his anxiousness, his hands slowly lifting to maybe, possibly, try to return the hug because that was the polite thing to do, right?
But Adrien had pulled away already, leaving Yuuri with his arms lifted awkwardly and staring at the man with wide eyes. The clap to his shoulder seemed incredibly distant after how tight the hug had been, but he didn’t fight when his arm was taken hold of, and he was dragged along to the next course.
The moment had passed, and that was probably for the best. Adrien was throwing him off balance and he didn’t know how to react. He just knew he couldn’t tell Adrien that his gut was that he was supposed to be following in his father’s footsteps, if only because he’d been raised to do as he was told. Guilt that he wasn’t twisted uncomfortably in his stomach, and he almost didn’t remember that it was his turn again.
Shakily he placed the ball at the top of the course, and gently tapped the ball so that it only rolled halfway.
“I don’t really want to do anything,” he admitted quietly. He would rather just sleep all day, but he knew that wasn’t a choice he had. “I’m just afraid of going back…”
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 10:05 pm
Yuuri would probably learn, far too fast, that Adrien's brand of friendship came with things.
Like hugging, for instance, because he'd had no hesitations about yanking the other forward and squashing him against his chest, trying to subconsciously ease some of the look on Yuuri's face. He couldn't say that he knew what it was like, even if he did, because that was too much, and he couldn't think about that right now - but hugs were good. Hugs were simple, a nice replacement for all the things that Adrien couldn't say.
Hugs were easy.
Adrien had linked his arm through Yuuri's as he'd pulled him to the next course, glancing down at him with a bright smile on his face. He couldn't quite read the expression on the other's face; it was a mixture of complicated emotions that weren't familiar to him (yet, he liked to think), so he looked away and let his arm slip free of Yuuri's once they were at the tee.
Everything was done so precisely. Adrien stood watching, rocking back on his heels in a gesture of eager interest as Yuuri meticulously placed the ball in place and tapped it with his putter. It didn't go very far, but Adrien wasn't focused on that, more so on what Yuuri was saying.
"Then don't, darling," he said meaningfully, and poked his putter at Yuuri's chest, other hand on his hip. "This is your life, isn't it? Your life to live, not theirs. Not your father's. You don't owe him aaaaaanything, sweet cheeks, you owe him nothing."
He bent down, placed his own ball in place, and thwacked it a little too hard, opposite of Yuuri's gentle tap. The ball bounced haphazardly down the course, hit the wall, and rolled back a few feet from the end and almost in a potted plant that was next to it.
Adrien swung his putter again, sashaying forward.
"My favorite movie is Ever After," he said, as though continuing an entirely different conversation. "Well, just fairy tales in general, really."
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Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2017 12:17 am
There was a small squeak of surprise that escaped when the putter was poked at his chest, Yuuri’s eyes snapping up to Adrien’s face as he told him that he needed to live his own life, that he didn’t owe anyone anything. His lips pressed together as he looked at Adrien, trying not to look as hopeless as he felt, knowing that Adrien was doing his best to try and walk him through all the negative things he’d already said about himself.
And yet, he couldn’t quite bring himself to believe that his whole life wasn’t about owing one person after another. His father, for one, and then the wolf General. He was only alive now because he was allowed to live. He was only there in Destiny City because his father had given into his whims to study a pointless degree in the States. A waste, he could distinctly remember being told when he announced his acceptance into DCU. The degree or the college or himself as a person wasn’t specified on what was a waste.
Yuuri watched as Adrien hit the ball down the green, watching as he walked down to the end, wondering how anyone could feel so completely confident in themselves like Adrien seemed to feel.
Ever after.
There was the strangest sort of twitch to the corner of Yuuri’s lip, but it was gone before even he had time to realize it happened. Somehow it fit. Of all the movies that Adrien could have mentioned, of course it would be a fairy tale. Or maybe it was because Yuuri was surprised there were more things they had in common than he originally realized.
“Hook,” he said as he carefully stepped his way down the course to where his ball was, gently hitting it again, and somehow, miraculously, making it into the hole on the second try. “Oh wow,” he mumbled to himself, not having expected that, but then again they were only starting out.
“And….” he continued awkwardly, not really ever mentioning what he considered a guilty pleasure to other people, but Adrien seemed as though he wouldn’t judge him for it. “Ella Enchanted,” he admitted sheepishly with a small shrug, his face still red, although his eyes were on the bright pink ball that Adrien still needed to hit. “I like the music.” Among other reasons.
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Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2017 12:34 pm
Adrien wasn't entirely stupid, even he was a little stupid. He could see the way that Yuuri was looking at him, like he couldn't believe that anyone was dumb enough to think that life was so easy to change. But Adrien was of the very staunch opinion that it could, regardless of what anyone said, so he was sticking with that.
"Hook is a great movie," said Adrien fervently, slinging a friendly arm around Yuuri's shoulders. "I love Rufio. Oh, and also I mean, Robin Williams was great, and so was Captain Hook, but Rufio was totally my first childhood crush or something, all that flippy hair and those piercings."
He gave a theatrical sigh and let his arm drop, letting out a cheer as Yuuri managed to sink the ball on the second try. Adrien's attempt took much longer - it was his sixth or seventh that finally managed to get it in, and he was scooping it out within a second, scooting towards the next one.
A loud gasp escaped him, Adrien stopping in his tracks to whirl around and stare at Yuuri.
"Music!" he said brightly, excitement in his eyes. "Yes - yes okay, tell me what music you like, all of it."
Golf was temporarily forgotten.
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Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2017 7:45 pm
He should have expected the arm around his shoulders, what after being dragged around and Adrien’s already rather boisterous personality, but he still jumped a little, peering up at the slightly taller man with wide eyes, his shoulders tense and a flush heating his cheeks.
By now he should have been used to Adrien, he thought. But his friendliness was beyond what he was capable of understanding, Yuuri decided. Not only that, but he was also somewhat pleased that Adrien obviously liked the same movies he did, or at least the one.
Okay, a lot pleased, but it wasn’t as though he could really show that, so he just stared and listened as Adrien rambled on about why he liked the movie as well.
He followed after Adrien, his orange ball and the silver putter in hand, but he was perfectly okay listening to him instead of focusing on the game that he really didn’t think he was all that great at. He wished that Adrien would have just continued talking about himself, because that was much more interesting than anything he could say.
“Oh, um,” he mumbled, his eyes still wide as he tried to think about how to respond, thinking of music that was relevant to Adrien. “Just. I mean, the normal stuff. Queen, Elton John, Celine Dion, I, uh, musicals. Andrew Lloyd Webber. Movie and, uh, video game soundtracks. Depending on my mood, I like classical music. There are some French and Russian artists I like,” he said, figuring it was probably already obvious that he wasn’t from the States, or at least English wasn’t his first language. Although he happened to think he was pretty well adapted at this point. He had hardly any accent.
“What… what about you?”
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Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 7:30 am
It was so easy to feel comfortable around Yuuri. Adrien felt comfortable around a lot of people, that was to be sure; he was a people person at heart, and having someone else to talk to was important. But even with Yuuri's continued soft spoken, shy answers, he felt comfortable; and, in fact, he found the awkward uncertainty kind of endearing.
And by now, Adrien was determined to make Yuuri smile. Or at least sort of smile.
He bent now and placed his obnoxiously pink ball onto the course, Adrien readying the putter and wiggling himself into the proper position, though his eyes had lifted to look at his companion instead. "Musicals are the best," he said, expression brightening. "But I love Queen, and of course Celine. Have you ever heard of Asking Alexandria? They're fantastic, oh, and Bullet For My Valentine!"
He could have reeled off a lot more, but Adrien had leaned over and tapped his putter against his ball at this point. It bounced merrily across the course, sailed over a constructed alligator that opened its wooden jaws to try and eat it, and then reverberated off of the wall and rolled to a stop quite a ways away from the end hole.
Adrien swung his putter up to rest across his shoulders, holding onto the ends of it as he turned to smile merrily at Yuuri.
"Have you ever been to a concert or anything?"
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Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 12:44 pm
He tried not to stare at Adrien, so instead he kept his eyes down and away, knowing that if he looked at his face he would start feeling somewhat flustered. Surely because it was ridiculous that anyone could be as cheerful as Adrien and not any other reason, Yuuri kept telling himself. The fact that Adrien was wasting a perfectly good afternoon playing mini golf with Yuuri of all people was, well, almost unbelievable. He certainly had nothing to offer Adrien, and maybe once Adrien realized that, then he would just never talk to him again.
Yuuri was prepared for that, at least. He hated that it always seemed as though he was feeling sorry for himself, because that was annoying, but he couldn’t get past the belief that he wasn’t good enough.
He watched the pink ball bounce along the course, preferring to look at anything except Adrien, and then moved to place his own ball down and tap it to follow. At this point he wasn’t really paying much attention to where the ball went, but instead listening to everything Adrien was saying. Yuuri decided that he liked his voice, even if it continued on and on sometimes. It wasn’t an annoying voice, at least, although Yuuri had to wonder if his enthusiasm was making his voice slightly higher pitched than his normal talking voice. Not that it was high pitched, nor deep, but comfortably in the middle.
It took Yuuri a few moments to realize he was asked a question, and only because Adrien had stopped talking for that time. He made the mistake of looking up at Adrien’s face in confusion, before taking a great deal of interest in the birdhouse hanging in the tree behind him.
“Oh. No, I haven’t been to any concerts,” he mumbled, wondering if that was a bad thing. He paused to wring his hands around the handle of the putter and then added, “I’m not very good around a lot of people.” Which was why he tended to avoid social anything.
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Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 6:28 pm
While Yuuri was trying very hard not to watch Adrien, Adrien was watching Yuuri with more than enough attention, his eyes bright with interest as he took in Yuuri carefully placing his ball down and getting ready to hit it again, his own putter still resting across his shoulders. Adrien rocked back onto his heels, beaming probably brighter than any person had any right to be.
"No concerts? Sweetheart, we've got to change that," he said enthusiastically. Adrien swung the putter down away from himself, almost whacking a passing young man in the shoulder as he did so and once again completely not noticing any of this happening. "Concerts - really good concerts - are the best, you just get so wrapped up into the music."
It wasn't entirely a surprise to hear that Yuuri wasn't good with people. Adrien's expression flickered, momentarily becoming, for an instant, something a little more serious, a little quieter, a little - something.
But then he was back to his usual cheerful self. Adrien slung an arm around Yuuri's shoulders again.
"Don't worry, you don't have to be good around people, just me! I'll keep you safe."
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Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 5:50 pm
Yuuri tried not to make a face at the thought of going to a concert, not because he didn’t like the idea of being able to hear live music, but because he didn’t think he’d be able to handle the anxiety of being pushed and shoved and way too crowded. He supposed if he was distracted enough by just the music it would be fine, but he doubted that would be easy to accomplish.
Although he noticed Adrien swinging his club haphazardly around, Yuuri didn’t make any comment about it. After all, it wasn’t like it was bothering him, so he didn’t really care if it inconvenienced others. If they had a problem, they should say something instead of just making faces at Adrien.
The fact that Adrien was seemingly oblivious of the fact that people were potentially upset about his antics was… well, he wouldn’t say it was amusing. Not exactly. And he felt weird thinking it was kind of endearing for some reason. In the end, Yuuri just chalked it up to Adrien being Adrien.
Yuuri jumped a little when Adrien suddenly had his arm around his shoulders again, and he stared up at the man with disbelief at how he was so bright all the time. Being good around Adrien seemed a little less overwhelming than a whole crowd of people, but he was sure that eventually, probably sooner than later, Adrien would grow bored of him.
But he didn’t want to upset him, so he simply nodded his head, his eyes lowered back to the putter in his hands.
“Okay… Just you…”
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