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 Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 4:34 pm
Frankly he was worn out by the time he got back and checked in the car keys; it was only about ten pm but he'd had a long day full of worrying an awful lot, which was tiring at the best of times let alone when you weren't exactly on top form. Despite his weariness however he also found himself about a million miles away from being able to sleep. He couldn't believe it. He'd not only got through the evening without humiliating himself, it had actually gone well!
Aulus made his way up to his room as quickly as he could - i.e. not very - but once inside, instead of sitting down he headed through the bathroom and knocked on Hayes' door. "Hey, you in there?"
The faint, rapid tapping of keys on the other side of the door paused. "Yeah," a light tenor called; there were a couple more clicks and the sound of feet hitting the floor before the door opened and there was Hayes in a t-shirt and pajama pants, damp bangs half-plastered to his forehead. "Hey," he grinned. "How was it?"
Aulus' massive grin said just about everything, but he elaborated with; "Bloody brilliant! There were a few, uh, slightly awkward moments and I think I shoved my foot in my mouth a bit but only a bit! She really liked the outfit by the way, I didn't tell her that it was your idea let alone that they're your clothes though; not that stupid!... I feel like a right tit standing in the doorway, and a sore tit too, can we go into one room or other to talk?" Girly post date chat? Really Aulus? Really? Well, no, it wasn't like that; he'd talk about how hot she'd looked and... all the action he hadn't got? How did you go about bragging about a date when you didn't even get a proper kiss without sounding like a sappy twerp?
"Sure," the blond grinned, sunny mood dim next to such incandescence. "C'mon in."
Unlike the other night Aulus had knocked on his door, Hayes was awake and alert - something that probably had more to do with the energy drink on his desk and the headphones still playing drum 'n bass than the hour. His screen was a sparse set of windows filled with black text on white, arranged in careful brackets and lines like a love poem to logic. As he stepped aside for his friend a blue mound in his comforter uncoiled and became a Glaceon, who stretched languid limbs and huffed at the intruder.
Hayes sank into his chair and spun it around to face Aulus. "So she had a good time?" He'd gotten the sense of that, somewhere in the midst of the exultant rambling.
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 4:35 pm
Aulus spared a smile for the ice type despite its frosty reception - har har- and sank down gratefully onto the edge of Hayes' bed. "I think so," he replied, setting his crutch aside and sliding carefully out of his borrowed jacket. "I mean... she laughed quite a lot, and blushed and she said she'd had a good time. I'd have to be really paranoid to think she was lying, right? And I don't, I mean, I'm mildly paranoid that maybe she might have been but I don't think she was. Does that make sense? I don't think it does." Sense. He needed to make some. He was sounding like he was drunk or high or something and he hadn't touched a drop of anything mind altering unless you counted a small amount of sugar.
Hayes found himself reminded of his sister - a younger version, who'd come into his room when he was home from college and sit on his bed, hugging her knees while she narrated the events of his absence and, in that safe haven, revealed her hidden insecurities by degrees.
She would have punched him for comparing her to a six-foot-tall brawler with facial scars.
"Well're you going out again?" Hayes asked, barely suppressing a grin. More Eeveelutions emerged from the lumpy comforter - first a vibrant green Espeon nosed its way out and blinked owlishly before a young Umbreon surged up from under him, dislodging both adults to a startled whuff and "Speon!" as she slithered down to the floor and made a beeline for Hayes' lap.
Had he know he was being compared to his partner's sister, he would probably have had a similar reaction to Dani herself in the reverse situation. Not too hard though, because breaking the geek would be bad.
Aulus was fairly used to Hayes' menagerie by now and as the Umbreon appeared he reached out to stroke the Esepon reassuringly. "I... think so?" he said to Hayes after a short pause. "I mean yea, we are, we didn't didn't set a time or anything." They would be going out again. Second date. She thought his scar added character. He found himself grinning like a loon again. "She looked great," he went on, "really great. Not slutty, don't get me wrong, but her arse looked amazing in those jeans and her hair was curled all pretty." 'And she said she liked the scar! Only I can't say that to you because if I bring it up that implies I give a damn and I don't want to admit to that.' Still, ha!
Therac startled at the unfamiliar touch, then quieted down but continued to watch Aulus with lavender eyes. Binary, on the other hand, made no bones about leaping up on Hayes' chair, prompting an 'oof' from the programmer as she flopped her weight down and wriggled her heels into comfortable crannies. "Bree."
Hayes paused thoughtfully while he reviewed what he knew of Claire. It was hard to divorce his memory from his first solid image of her - furious, frustrated, too angry to be pretty - but Aulus clearly thought she was a knockout, and maybe she was. He'd been too focused on the Eevee about to destroy his pages of pseudocode.
"Then she probably had a good time," he assured, thumb finding the hollow at the base of Binary's ear and massaging it in circles. "Don't worry about it."
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 4:36 pm
"I'm not worried," Aulus insisted as he stroked the bright green psychic type. After a pause however he amended that to; "Not a lot anyway. It's kind of hard not to have a background level of paranoia when you... y'know, kind of like somebody." Wow Aulus. Wow. Really good description of massive infatuation, and really a lot of enjoying company and thinking sharp and fun and all that stuff. "So uh.... So... thanks Hayes. For finding the place, and lending me your clothes, and not pointing out to me that it's usually girls who do that stuff." He knew the issue was hanging around in the air like an accusing fart, might as well own up to it rather than try to ignore it or blame it on the Growlithe.
"Heh. Yeah, I know," Hayes agreed with a faint grin and a glance down at the hand resting on Binary's head. "S'no problem." She flicked an ear and lolled her head to the side to present her cheekbone. The programmer was quiet for a moment, then blinked and looked up, puzzled. "Girls do what stuff?"
"Oh, you know," Aulus waved a hand vaguely, "borrow each others clothes and over analyse things... least I think that's what girls do. Dunno, maybe that's just movies and stuff." Maybe guys actually did talk about this sort of thing, normal guys anyway, the guys he'd hung out with in his mid to late teens when he'd been dating a lot had been... well, on reflection a lot like him; posturing and trying to look big.
Hayes frowned as he matched up this behavior to the girls he knew, past and present. "Maybe some girls," he decided, then shrugged. "I don't remember Dani doing any of that. Maybe it's just a thing people do."
"I dunno, maybe you're right," Aulus shrugged, "I guess I... eh, nevermind. It went well and that's what matters, right? No need to worry about it."
Hayes smiled placidly. "She's going out with you again. Just relax." After a moment he grinned, "And go shopping. I don't have a whole wardrobe in there."
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 4:37 pm
"Right," Aulus nodded, "you're right, and I will just as soon as I can walk normally again.... Oh!" Sitting up straighter as something occurred to him Aulus reached into the pocket of Hayes jacket and took out the movie ticket. "I found this," he said, holding it out, "Mean anything to you?"
Hayes raised his brows as Aulus fished around in his jacket, then leaned forward to take the little stub of paper produced to the protests of Binary, which sounded like "Bbrrr.." He read over the machine-generated text with a blank expression until suddenly, comprehension dawned. "Oh yeah," the blond laughed quietly, a faint, nostalgic smile tracing along his lips as he turned the paper over in his fingers. "I forgot we saw this."
Well it didn't sound like it had been a big deal, but he couldn't help being curious about this Jules girl. "Sounds like you two parted better than I did with my last girlfriend at any rate," he observed with a hint of caution, studying Hayes' face carefully. He wasn't quite sure why he bothered with that; Hayes was the master of relaxed 'eh' to things that would bother him personally a great deal, there was seldom anything negative at all to read on his smooth countenance.
"Dunno," Hayes mused, still studying the ticket. The rueful pull of his mouth was tempered by a gentle quietness as he fingered the perforated edges. They'd been fuzzed with wear; he flicked one with his thumb and looked up. "How'd you two break off?"
Therac bumped quietly against Aulus elbow with a polite request.
"Humm? Oh. That." Aulus scowled and reached around to start stroking Therac. How could he put this? "I walked in on her ******** somebody else, who apparently was her 'real' boyfriend all along. I was useful for lunches, dinners, presents, and a home base." Well that was more or less the shape of it. He was impressed with how bland he'd managed to sound.
His partner winced in sympathy. "Ouch. Okay, well," he then laughed out of surprise, rather than malice, "Definitely better than that. We just.. didn't work out."
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 4:39 pm
"Well that's something at any rate." Exes really were a downer. He didn't want to still miss her sometimes, to wonder if he'd done something different if she might have chosen him after all. He hated her even then though, even sort of wanting her back. He'd never exactly been of a sunny disposition but she had compounded his cynicism and made the next several years of his life pretty miserable. It was indirectly thanks to her that he looked like a cheap action movie villain too. It was also thanks to her that he had a weakened leg that always seemed to give out at the worst possible moment, as evidenced by the latest mission when it had buckled when they actual ceiling was actually falling on them. It was only thanks to Char's timely evolution that he was alive at all....
"So when are you going to ask Faleen out?" Much better.
Hayes fumbled the ticket; it fluttered down to Binary's haunch. "Whoa, what," he blinked, laughed, blinked again. "What?"
"Oh come on," Aulus grinned broadly, "I've asked Claire now, you have to ask Faleen sometime soon! It's only fair, right?"
"No, I-" Another blink; Hayes exhaled with a 'pff' and raised his eyes again. Smiled, good humor in his voice. "It's not like that. We just work together."
"Oh?" Aulus raised his eyebrows and smirked a bit. "Is it not? Is that all it is? Well, my bad then, forget I spoke." He was sure it was more than that but if Hayes wasn't going to tell him, fine, he wasn't going to push... just in case he was wrong and looked like an idiot.
"Yeah," Hayes repeated. He looked at Binary and reached down to thumb her blue-ringed ears, expression careful. "That's all it is."
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 4:40 pm
"Well," Aulus turned slightly so that he could stroke Therac more easily, "I'm sure you wouldn't lie to me, so that's that then!" He really wasn't sure Hayes was telling the truth... but why would he lie? "You do trust me, don't you?" Yaaay, well done Aulus, turning things around so they're all about you again. Selfish sodding b*****d. "Forget it. I know you trust me. Stupid question." He still wasn't sure but he didn't want to come off as any more pathetic and needy than he already had tonight and over the last days, weeks, months. He really had lost that tough spiky exterior around Hayes and he was starting to wonder if that had been a mistake, not because he thought the blond would hurt him but because he was starting to find himself just a little bit... well... yea. Pathetic.
Therac leaned into Aulus' hand like a sunbeam, eyes slitting and ears shifting back. "Speon," he murmured, then jerked as Nemerle shifted and, with rather more force, shoved her head under the scarred man's other arm. Hey.
"Huh?" Hayes looked up with a quizzical frown that wondered why his partner would even ask that question. "Well.. yeah, man, what's the point of lying about this? I mean," he clarified, "I work with her, we get along great, we're into the same stuff and she's smart and thoughtful and.. awesome, but it's not-" He gestured, grasping for a description, "-like.. you and Claire." A faint shade of uncertainty hovered over his face. "Y'know?"
"Oh," Aulus glanced around and flashed a brief smile, "Well if you're sure, yea, I get it." With this said he turned back to the pair of pokemon and started fussing over them again, his expression warming as always when he got to play with pokemon. So Hayes was telling the truth... or he thought he was, after all he himself had taken bloody ages to realise he liked Claire. There had been a hint of uncertainty in his friend's voice... but no, he wasn't going to push it anymore, not tonight at any rate.
"Besides." Hayes' quiet voice broke the silence. "She always pulls away."
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 4:41 pm
Oh. He didn't know what to say to that. Turning around Aulus studied his partner carefully, trying to decide what to say. "You know, I spent ages telling myself Claire wouldn't be interested... but it's up to you. I'll drop it, but... you know you can talk to me about anything if you want to, right?" Uuuugh, sappy. He was really bad at this, he felt so damn awkward but he didn't want to let being an emotionally constipated twit stop him from being a decent friend.
The blond was looking down, studying Binary's coarse fur as it moved through his fingers. His bangs shaded his eyes, but the shape of his mouth was solemnn - the sort of neutral curve it formed when he was lost in the structure of some complex algorithm and Aulus had to bang on the door to get his attention.
"Yeah," he said absently. "I know."
But these carefully oblique answers and half-truths weren't very fair to his friend.
"Okay." Hayes raised his head, met the other agent's eyes. "I think there's something. But sometimes we'll be talking or whatever - having fun - and all of a sudden she just.. stops. Like she doesn't want to go any farther." He held up his free hand like a wall, turned it into a empty upturned palm, dropped it back to his Umbreon's flank. His gaze was steady hazel, but the crooked smile he wore flickered at the edges until it he morphed it into a self-aware grin. "Anyway, she turned me down before I ever asked her out."
Owch. "Oh." Owch! Rejected without even asking, preemptive 'I think we're better as friends'?... Hu, but what had prompted her to do that? "Well... people do change their minds sometimes." That sounded kind of weak and lame. "And anyway, plenty more fish in the sea." Also lame and not at all comforting. "But.... Well. Yeah. Least she likes you, even if it's not quite what you'd like... or quite what you think you might like. Bugger it, don't ask me, I'm crap at this sort of thing. Well, you can ask me, so long as you don't mind just getting more useless drivel like this." At least he'd tried to help, and it was the thought that counted right? Well, no, not really at least not always. It counted for something though, and it was really all he could think of to say or do.
"Heh." Hayes dropped his gaze away, his grin becoming something more reflective and inward-turned. "Don't worry about it," he assured, and scratched just behind Binary's ear with a finger until her back leg started kicking. "I'm not dying here or anything. She's still great to hang out with."
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 4:43 pm
"Oh... well... okay. I'll drop it." For now. "And I'm glad you're not dying," Aulus went on in brighter tones, "because I'm expecting to do some portal co-op with you tomorrow night, so long as you haven't had another deadline come up to bite you in the arse?" Maybe just changing the subject - again - was the best idea. He seemed to be doing really well at bringing up not too joyous topics tonight.
"Not a deadline," Hayes assured him, "but I was kind of going to go watch Transformon." The hand not currently attending to Binary shuffled through his hair, fluffing it out in back.
"Oh?" Aulus raised his eyebrows slightly and shrugged. "Well that's fine too... wait... unless...." Was he planning to watch it with somebody else? Aulus grinned. "Unless you already had plans to share the popcorn bowl with somebody else?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 4:44 pm
In lieu of saying anything, his partner cleared his throat.
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 4:45 pm
Aulus grin widened to Cheshire Meowth proportions. "Ooooooh, well, maybe actually I could do with an early night tomorrow? I'm still not really that well, after all."
"Shut up," Hayes retorted good-naturedly; if Binary hadn't been on his lap he would have given Aulus a punch to the shoulder. "We'll be in the lounge."
"Still!" he really could not stop grinning, "I won't be!... In all seriousness I probably could do with the rest anyway, sooner I'm fit again the happier I'll be. Bloody weird not being able to exercise every day. I feel all..." he waved his hands around vaguely and added the eloquent descriptor of; "Blarg."
"Well, do what you want, man," he shrugged, the picture of indifference, then looked up with a half-smile. "Hope you feel better, though."
Aulus' grin remained but became softer and far less cheesy. "Thanks," he nodded, "I'm sure I will."
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