|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 3:11 pm
(Transcribed from AIM, 29 posts long in total)
Okay.
Alex had messaged him.
Something had come up and he was going to be a bit late.
That had been fine until about quarter past. He'd started thinking then, thinking and worrying. By about twenty five past he was panicking. It didn't make sense. He knew it didn't. He knew Alex was fine, and yet he didn't know it. He couldn't feel it. Logical thought shut down at half past and he curled up in a shaking heap on the floor, heart racing as if it would burst, numbeness, cold sweat breaking out on his skin. The bright lights of his quarters faded away and his ears rang and filled with screams.
Reality and some semblance of calm filtered back in gradually, and by twenty to he was on his feet and limping into the bathroom to splash his face with cold water. Gripping the sink to steady his hands Aulus regarded his reflection in the mirror and let out a long breath. He was an idiot. An illogical brainless idiot....
It was twenty to and Alex still wasn't here.
Aulus headed back into his room, changed into clothes that weren't soaked in sweat, and sat down at the table. The curry would be cold, and the drinks would be warm. Where the hell was Alex? He tried for annoyance for a few moments but it didn't work, he was stuck with a horrible gnawing worry, though at least that was better than the abject panic of a few minutes earlier.
Putting his elbows on the table Aulus watched the clock and tried very hard not to slip back into the cycle of thoughts that had turned him into such a pathetic wreck.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 3:54 pm
At ten to the door rattled and burst open, Hayes hanging off the handle. He was still in uniform, sans gloves, with a stupid grin hanging around the edges of his mouth. "Hey," he greeted a bit breathlessly. "Sorry I'm so late, I-"
Alex was not dead.
Aulus' brain registered this while his body was already getting up and striding over to the blond. On reaching him, Aulus flung his arms around his partner and held him tight, cutting him off mid sentence. He didn't notice the protest from his assorted healing injuries; Alex had finally arrived and he looked alright. "Where've you been?" He tried not to sound too frantic, but didn't do especially well.
"-hrk!" Even at half-strength Aulus could manage a bit of rib-bending. Hayes coughed and thumped him on the arm as reassuringly as he could manage. "Talking," he croaked out. "Sorry. Stuff happened."
Aulus relaxed a little at the explanation and stepped back, pushing his fingers though his hair and smiling weakly. "Good. I thought... well I've no idea what I thought but it wasn't good. Dinner's kind of cold by now... but cold curry is still good? You hungry?" Should he be pissed off that Alex was so late? Maybe, he wasn't sure, but even if he should be he was just relieved that he was as alright as logic dictated he should be. This said however he did intend to find out what topic of conversation had managed to enthrall his partner so completely that he ended up fifty minutes late.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 4:54 pm
"Ah, no no, it was good." Hayes held up his hands, regaining breath and some of that stupid grin. "Really good. Uh. Heh." He ran a hand through his hair, expression fading to something soft and dist- right, he had completely stood up his best friend and that wasn't a cool thing to do at all. Especially since it seemed like he'd been sitting, waiting, and worrying. A lot. "I didn't mean to freak you out." It was a lame excuse, sure, but there wasn't much explanation past 'I took a sudden leave of my senses.'
Aulus brows knit and his lips pursed in a thoughtful expression. Something had definitly happened to Alex. Something good. "I'm... sure you didn't." No point pretending he hadn't been freaked out, beyond freaked out. He was damn glad Alex hadn't turned up when he'd been a heap on the floor at least.
"Sit down and have some cold curry and tepid juice or beer," Aulus instructed eventually, "and in between bites maybe you can tell me what you were up to that was so interesting." It must have been important for Alex to have left him waiting for so long....
It was nice to actually feel really confident about that.
Were he less relieved he suspected he would have been annoyed, but he wouldn't have assumed that his partner had blown him off for something trivial.
Trust felt good.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:50 pm
"Yeah," Hayes agreed. Concerns which had been shoved aside an hour ago were coming 'round again, first in line being Hi, this is your stomach. You're hungry. He did as Aulus suggested and made for the table.
"Okay, so," he explained once they were both seated. "Faleen."
When he thought about it (which was a couple bites later) it occurred to him that wasn't much of an explanation and the stupid grin had somehow remanifested itself. He blinked at the green thing on the end of his fork - was that a pea? Was curry supposed to have peas? - and tried to look serious. "Uh. We talked." See what kind of reaction that got before saying more.
The reaction he got was an abrupt tightening of Aulus' hand on his fork, and a tightening of his jaw. Faleen. Wait though, Alex was smiling, so... it had been good? His brain was having real trouble with that. Aulus poked at a bit of aubergine. "Uh... so... what did you talk about?" Did Alex know he'd shouted at her? He'd probably be angry about that, so maybe he should try to avoid letting him find out if he didn't already know. He didn't like the idea of Alex being angry with him in the least.
"Stuff," came the automatic response, and then the blond grinned down at his plate. "Uh-" A half-laugh escaped him; it hadn't been a very eloquent talk, but for every spoken word ten more had been conveyed. Even in the protected environment of his his best friend's room, Hayes found himself reluctant to share any of the awkward, stumbling mess it'd been. "It was good." He was smiling too fondly at his curry for it to be bad. "We figured it out."
"She said you talked to her?" The blond looked up questioningly.
Oh. Great. Aulus poked the aubergine again and looked down. "Well I... I may have... I... aired some opinions at her. I... sorry," he glanced back up, "I just... I jumped to the conclusion she'd done it on purpose, or at least just didn't care so... I was a bit annoyed and... yea. Aired views.... Uh... what did she tell you I said?" He couldn't actually remember what he'd said; the conversation was a bit of a blur, especially towards the end. He knew he hadn't actually tried to hit her or anything though which was a small mercy he supposed, still in the frying pan rather than in the blast furnace.
Kurt's hesitant reply drew a crease in Hayes' brow. "She didn't say anything." He paused. "Just that you, uh.. explained what happened?" He didn't sound entirely at ease with that. "She didn't seem mad about it," the blond continued, while trying to decide whether or not he should be.
The aubergine was subjected to further poking and Aulus looked down again. "I... kind of shouted at her. Quite a lot. I don't remember exactly what I said; stuff like... like she shouldn't have treated you like that mainly." There was no point lying about it, Alex would find out in the end probably and be about a hundred times angrier than if he'd had the truth to start with. "Eventually I ran out of things to shout about I guess," he went on quietly, still looking at his food, "I just turned around and left."
Finally looking back up he met Alex's eyes uncertainly. "But... everything's cool now?" He really really did not want Alex to be angry with him. He’d done what he’d thought was right, he’d stood up for his friend. Maybe he shouldn’t have after all. s**t he was an idiot.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 1:17 pm
His friend's brow had been furrowed with thought; it eased up when Aulus looked at him. "Yeah," he decided, putting on a reflexive smile. "Yeah, we're cool. And thanks. Not for yelling at her, I mean, but." In lieu of an end to that sentence, he shrugged and speared something with his fork. "What is this? S'like some tofu meatball kind of thing."
He felt like somebody had been keeping a fist closed around his heart, and abruptly released him. He worried too much, he worried way too much, but knowing that didn't fix the problem. He didn't want to worry about it for now though.
"It's quorn not-meatball," he explained, spearing on on his own plate, "tastes a bit like pidgey, but in this case probably mostly tastes like curry. It has a much more meaty texture than most meat substitutes though, and has lots of protein which is always good."
"Huh." Hayes turned the thing over a few times, ate it, and made some unintelligible sound of gastronomic approval.
"How's Claire?" he asked, while his mind was still on girls. One girl. A wonderful girl. He'd been wrapped up in his own stuff enough not to really check in the past week or so.
Aulus smiled and looked down at his food again, this time looking happy but awkward rather than worried. "She's uh... great. She's been wonderful, y'know, no matter how long she's worked in a day she always makes time for me and...." He looked back up and jabbed his fork at Alex. "Claire's awesome, we know this, let's talk about Faleen. What happened with you two then, to make everything suddenly epic enough to make you smile like that?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 3:00 pm
Prod!
Hayes' eyes widened slightly and he jerked back a fraction before he caught himself, turned the hitch in his breath into a short laugh. The blond leaned forward again with a sheepish grin at Aulus - silly me, yeah? - and took a pull from his beer. Temperature aside, it was good, and the tingle of weak alcohol calmed his nerves.
"Okay, you got me." The stupid grin was coming back; if he didn't let it he'd never get the story out. "She stopped by my office while I was finishing up. Wanted to talk. And it-" His brow furrowed. What had happened, exactly? The exact sequence of events was fading, blurring into 'at first it wasn't okay but then everything was.' "I thought she was going to tell me to.. ******** off or something, I dunno." His gaze dropped, rebounded the next second. "But she didn't. She.. said she meant it. When she hugged me." A quiet smile was replacing the stupid grin.
Aulus sipped at his beer while Alex talked, drinking in the details as much as the alcohol. So things were good with Alex and Faleen now. They were more than good. He set his beer down and grinned. "Told you to ask her out, didn't I? Didn't I tell you?... Well, maybe it wouldn't have worked out if you'd said or done anything before but still, didn't I say?" He wasn't in trouble, and Alex wasn't glum anymore; he felt a bit of cheery gentle teasing was appropriate under the circumstances!
Hayes lifted his beer in a toast. "You were right," he grinned back; with all the .. with everything, and with how heated Kurt had gotten about the subject before, his friend was due a little basking. "I owe you one- what did you want again? Known free world or something?"
Aulus grinned and clanked his bottle against Alex's. "That'll do for a start; we can move onto the galaxy and my own tardis after dinner." All in all everything had gone much better than he'd expected whilst sitting staring at the clock, better even than he'd expected when Alex had started talking about Faleen.
Ah, important question. Aulus sipped at his beer again. "So, are you two offical then, or is it hush hush for now?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 3:54 pm
"Whoa, hey," he laughed. "Known free world, sure, but equal stakes on the police box." The blond pointed the neck of his bottle at Aulus. "You don't get to go roaming the galaxy without me."
That.. was a good question. Hayes blinked, having a sip of his beer while he thought. "Officially something," he decided, "but she wants to take it slow. Which is good; I don't want to go rushing into things. But probably under the table because I'm.. technically her boss?" That sheepish look again. Oops.
"You know, though," Hayes added with a casual shrug, as if it went without saying.
Aulus nearly shot beer out of his nose. Very, very nearly. Coughing and spluttering he set the bottle down and wheezed; "Point Team Hayes!" Beer! Sinuses! Not good! Wiping his eyes he coughed again and then gave a short laugh. "Sorry, forgot you were her boss, and then it came back to me in a flash of terrible dirty jokes. I won't spread it around though, promise." He wouldn't have anyway, unless bragging on Alex's behalf, but he'd be sure not even to do that or to smirk at an inopportune moment or anything.
"Anyway," he risked sipping his beer again, "you know I wouldn't go off tardising without you! The universe is probably bloody boring without somebody to travel with."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 3:56 pm
"Pff--" It was contagious. A mouthful of liquid threatened to take a wrong turn; Hayes spent a few seconds negotiating it away from his lungs before looking over with an "Alright?" for coughing, spluttering Kurt.
Another grin. "No worries," Hayes continued, followed by, "Course not. Who's gonna recalibrate your systems and look at all your nebula photos otherwise?"
"And where would you be without somebody to do the heavy lifting?" Aulus replied easily, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table because leaning back in a chair was still uncomfortable. Everything now, right now at this moment in time, was right. All the pain and problems and fears and paranoia were distant, like they were somebody else's to deal with for now.
"Glad I've got a good geek to gallivant the cosmos with."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 4:14 pm
"Crushed under a wookie," Hayes shot back with a relaxed grin, elbows on either side of his plate. The warm, comfortable atmopshere right now had nothing to do with the beer he'd just had, and everything to do with the man across the table. His eyes narrowed to fond crescents behind his glasses.
"Glad I've got you, galaxy or not."
"Uh." Aulus glanced down, trying to work out how to reply. He was really s**t at all this, even when he did feel as comfortable as he did with Alex. After a moment he decided it didn't matter too much if he wasn't eloquent, Alex wouldn't care.
He looked back up.
He smiled.
"You too. In a contest between you and my own tardis, you'd win every time."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 23, 2012 4:30 pm
What did you say to that?
"Wow."
"So - Han and Luke next Halloween?"
Aulus' scarred face softened, warmed with a smile that said everything. "Sounds good to me, partner."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
