Welcome to Gaia! ::

“Duckfoot! That’s even worse! You definitely owe me at least one nickname for that,” he groaned. He squirmed away from Ian’s finger poking at his side, grabbing the shirt lobbed back at him and rolling over. Shiloh scooted farther onto the bed, wiggling his feet at Ian.

“Do they look webbed to you?”

This was easy. At least, it was easier, definitely, the light banter that didn’t really accomplish anything except the kindling of an unspoken camaraderie. It was his own defense mechanism, but so far, he’d yet to hurt anyone with happiness. Ian seemed more at ease too, and Shiloh felt better. He hadn’t intended to cause Ian so much grief over what he’d said the other day, and admittedly it wasn’t very fair of him to ask the Mist hunter to own up to his feelings, when Shiloh wasn’t at all ready to face his own.

Pleasant chitchat was definitely easier.

“’E’, huh? Izzie… Naw, I think I still like Ian better. I guess you can keep your name, for now- hey!”

He yelped as the shirt caught his toes, then laughed, pulling his foot up and away from Ian. The other hunter made him groan again as he rattled off even more nicknames, and Shiloh’s foot didn’t stay away for long, and he playfully shoving Ian with it.

“Well, see how you like them now,” he smirked, nudging Ian until he ceased with the names. Then he let up, staring at him curiously as Ian posed his next question. It was so strange to him, to not know what friends did. It seemed second nature to Shiloh, being around other people.

“Robbing a bank is the first friendship initiation rite, didn’t you know? But there aren’t exactly any banks around so we’ll have to settle for hangouts and mayhem. Why, did you have anything in mind?”

“Friends can do that!” Shiloh exclaimed, grinning as he sat up. “But oh, yeah… That’s right.”

There was definitely a lack of extracurricular activities on the island that didn’t involve work, and Shiloh was entirely certain that alcohol wasn’t readily available. At least he hadn’t thought to bring any, and in terms of food and drink and all social activities related, he relied on the cafeteria. It wasn’t a promising place.

He held onto his feet, pulling his legs closer to himself while he thought. Shiloh came from a place where the only bars were the ones that had the sports channels on constant replay. Clubs were for the big city dwellers, and he curiously snuck a glance at Ian, wondering if that was where he’d grown up. Then he blew out a little sigh, because being the one who grew up in the middle of nowhere, he should be able to come up with at least a few ideas. But it was so hot, and farming or training wasn’t exactly what he thought of as a way to unwind with friends. And then again, it’s not like he’d done anything particularly interesting at home either.

They could go hang out in the lounge, he pondered, but that involved moving and then once they were there, the same problem presented itself.

“Friends can do anything,” he reasoned out, more to himself than anything else, but he answered Ian’s qualms as well. “There really doesn’t have to be special things, it’s just doing everyday stuff or anything really, with people you care about.”

He looked up at Ian, smiling. He felt a little childish with his answers, but he continued anyway.

“It’s like, well, I guess there isn’t a whole lot to do here, but if we had actually gotten to training together the other day, I guess friends would do that. Or if there was something mundane you wanted to do, but you were bored and wanted someone to do it with, you could ask a friend. Or anything! What did you do when you weren’t bar hopping?”

Shiloh’s face lit up, going to a club would be fun. Lots of people and dancing, it would definitely be a nice break from the seemingly alternate reality that was Deus. The island was so different from home, and as Ian had pointed out, its boundaries were limiting.

Still in some ways, boundaries were entirely lifted. Ian spoke about reading, and then in the next sentence he made a comment about his ex-boyfriend as if it were nothing, like it was normal, typical, the sort of thing that happened everyday. The word caught in Shiloh’s ears, and he did his best to hide his wide-eyed expression, wriggling around to retrieve the manual he’d been trying to read earlier.

“I guess its good we have a cafeteria here then,” he said while searching. “Dorm rooms, cafeteria… Is it like being at college again?”

The book had fallen between the bed and the wall, and Shiloh, after taking a moment to compose himself, pulled it out with a grin, shoving it towards Ian.

“Here. It’s not solo if you read it to me,” he beamed. The manual, “Introduction to Laboratory Equipment’, was simple enough, but unlike Ian, Shiloh had never been much of a reader. It wasn’t that he couldn’t read. He just found it particularly difficult to sit still long enough to get any reading done. It wasn’t likely that having someone read it to him was going to make any difference, but at least it was something.

It seemed like very quickly the tables had turned, and now Shiloh was the one finding Ian very curious.

“If you have something better, I’m all for it,” he said, watching Ian as he flipped through the pages. He was now thinking that there was an abundance of stories Ian could share with him, from a world that he’d never experienced except in the form of terse words and intentional ignorance. But curious though he was, it wasn’t exactly a subject easily broached, and as usual, Shiloh wasn’t sure he was ready to breach it. Ignorance was easy, denying himself was easy, and pretending to be happy was very easy. Exploring new things was easy too, as long as those things didn't poke beyond the scope of his happy façade. Dealing with everything else, easy. Figuring himself out, immeasurably difficult.

“That’s for work,” he added. “I didn’t go to college, and high school wasn’t exactly recent. There are a lot of basics I should brush up on… But I would rather learn by doing. I just picked it up because I thought it might be something to pass the time but considering it ended up behind the bed, I am sure you can guess how well that was going.”

Shiloh nodded.

“Yeah, it’s always way easier when you can get your hands around something tangible. Theory is okay but practice is much better. More fun, too, right?”

While the heat had turned Shiloh into a lounging sloth, he typically wasn’t hard to motivate, always eager to dive head first into things. Well, most things. Being pushed face first into something was entirely different from diving into something. He couldn’t help but smile a little, even if it hadn’t ended particularly well, Ian certainly had already demonstrated his preference for a hands-on approach. Idly thinking about it, he subtly mirrored Ian and touched a hand to his own hair, still slightly crimped in places from leaving the braids in for so long.

Then Ian was speaking again, and Shiloh whined loudly at the sentence the Mist hunter read from the book, covering his ears with a laugh.

“Yes, please, anything but that!”

Shiloh stared past Ian, watching the book land with a thud on the floor. He wondered if he should retrieve it, and set it on the desk, but thinking of the probability of him ever opening it again, the floor was probably as good a place as any. He nodded, and smiled broadly at Ian’s answer, not aware of any implications their conversation about practicing might have.

Instead, blissfully unaware, he settled in to listen to Ian’s story, watching the other hunter with interest. He tried to picture Ian as a little kid, and he laughed along with Ian at the thought of him doing something so silly. Shiloh wondered the Ian sitting in front of him now would do such a thing. The Mist hunter had been down on himself a lot, but there had been light-heartedness too, after all, not anyone just sat in the middle of a training field and braided another man’s hair. Shiloh smiled, and decided to make not to let Ian in possession of any permanent markers.

“I’m not sure about your reasoning, smiley faces, really?” he grinned. “But it seems like it worked, even if just a bit, eh? Siblings can be such pains.”