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 Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 3:34 pm
It was with some trepidation that a certain skinwalker made it back to the flat on 2221 Crepuscular Blvd, taking the stairs two at a time because he was quite certain that he was going to find a certain Kitsune at home.
"RHYS!"
The door to the flat slammed open and Orion Blackthorn stomped into the flat, looking thunderous, the enormous grey and white pelt swinging behind him like a furry cape.
"RHYS WHERE ARE YOU AND WHY THE JACK DIDN'T YOU ANSWER YOUR DAMN PHONE - "
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 3:44 pm
Rhys looked up from his book, a wide-eyed expression of surprise on his face. "Orion, are you okay? My phone is in the bedroom. It's charging." The kitsune pointed from the couch to the single bedroom. He sounded worried, although not because of the skinwalker's stormy mood, and quickly set the book down to give his roommate his full attention. "What happened?" On the coffee table was a plate and a fork, with sticky red still clinging to it's surface. For a long-lived species, he had a ridiculous amount of innocence about him.
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 3:49 pm
Orion just stared at him for a good long moment.
Then he proceeded to stomp into the bedroom, rustle around for a minute, and stomp back out, thrusting the skellyphone into Rhys's hand and pressing the speakerphone button.
- "I'M BEING ATTACKED WHAT - "
" - RHYS DAMMIT WHERE ARE YOU WHY DIDN'T YOU - "
" - DAMMIT THE THING IS BIGGER THAN IT WAS BEFORE - "
And on the voicemails went until it got to the last one, which was most definitely
" - and you better not have eaten my pie."
The pie, which, as Orion saw, was currently sitting, completely devoured, on their living room table, directly in front of the kitsune in question.
There was another long moment of silence.
"Rhys," said Orion slowly, as though trying to control his temper. "Rhys, is that...my pie, by chance?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 3:53 pm
Rhys' expression became more horrified as one message played out after another, until he looked like he was about to burst into apologetic tears. He really was too gentle for a Halloween citizen. "I AM SO SORRY, IF I HAD KNOWN YOU WOULD CALL ME, AND I AM SORRY I ATE YOUR PIE..." The kitsune looked up at his roommate looking like a kicked dog, and said in a tiny voice "It was just sitting there..."
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 4:07 pm
He tried not to think about the kicked puppy expression on Rhys's face and instead glowered down at his roommate, arms folded across his broad chest.
"I was stuck at the damn maul with a bunch of students and there were these black things and they just kept coming and I thought I was gonna die and you weren't picking up the phone and dammit Rhys that was my last slice of cherry."
Orion took a deep breath, opened his mouth to say more, and then promptly shut it.
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 4:20 pm
"I can get you another pie..." Rhys said in a tiny voice. He could tell Orion had just come home after a really long day, and had no idea how to console his still-relatively-new roommate. The skinwalker was grumpy, yes, and could be morose and solitary and downright unpleasant company at times, but Rhys was pretty sure all that was just a front. He stood up, putting his weight on his good leg. "Or we could both go out to the restaurant, and get a slice of pie with ice cream? My treat?" He resisted the urge to check his pockets, the kitsune was pretty broke. With any luck he had just enough for a slice of pie with ice cream for his roommate.
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 4:45 pm
Stop looking at him with that sad expression, Rhys.
Orion deflated.
"You don't have any money, last I checked," he said gruffly, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants and rocking back on his heels, the pelt swinging from side to side. "Last I checked we were both pretty broke, you idiot. Isn't that why we moved in together?"
That, and the fact that they were business partners.
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 5:33 pm
Rhys gave his roommate a sheepish smile, the kind that said I'll forgive you even when you use my leg to prop open the window. "Ah, yeah... we will probably want to save whatever change we find for, you know, a real dinner." He turned out one hidden pocket anyway, and some lint fell to the floor. And then the kitsune looked surprised to even see that much tucked away on his person. Orion had a point, except for the whole "moved in together" part. From what Rhys remembered, Orion had just barged in one day while he was despairing over his expensive living arrangements, and announced he was going to live there too.
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 7:17 pm
It was totally beside the point that Orion had been the one to suggest living together in the first place (and by suggest it was obvious that Orion had just stomped in one day with all his things and promptly dumped everything in the only bedroom declaring that this was, in fact, his new place of residence). They were now flatmates, and flatmates should respect one another's boundaries.
Like not eating their roommate's pie. Orion pulled a cigarette from his pocket and tucked it between his teeth.
"Maybe once we get everything up and running again, we'll have time to go to a real dinner," he said, flicking the lighter so that a tiny orange flame lit the end. He pushed the lighter back into his pocket and blew smoke in the air, sighing.
Then he grumbled, attempting to sound completely nonchalant, "Sorryabouttheyelling."
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 7:30 pm
"Ew, Orion, go smoke that out the window," Rhys said, wrinkling his nose and giving him a shove. But he also had a slight smile on his face. That I forgive you for yelling smile. "Maybe once we get everything running we'll have money to get real pie with ice cream!" He added as Orion was being pushed. He was probably the only person in the whole of Halloween who would dare push around the grumpy skinwalker so casually, but they were roommates after all, and Orion hadn't done anything really bad, like beat him up or anything or smother him in his sleep, so that made them friends. Even if Orion was a grump forever they could still be friends.
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 7:35 pm
Orion scowled. "But I don't want to," he said, in a plaintive tone of voice, even as Rhys was shoving him towards their living room window. He made a disgruntled noise in the back of his throat rather like a growl.
But he went to the window anyway and cracked it open enough for him to lean against, dragging a chair over so that he wouldn't have to stoop awkwardly.
"Yes, well," he said, blowing out another gust of smoke, this time outside. "Maybe we should, I dunno, have some sort of carnival or something. You know, to get people familiar with our business."
A pause.
"Do people still do that sorta thing?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 7:47 pm
"I dunno," Rhys replied. "It was always too cold where I came from, nobody wanted to be outside playing games most of the year..." He sat back down on the couch with a heavy sigh, and rubbed his bad leg. It had become a bit of a habit for the kitsune, even if the prosthetic wasn't chafing his skin at the moment he was still inclined to rub at where it was strapped on. "Maybe we can have a barbecue."
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 7:52 pm
"There is no such thing," said Orion delicately. "as too cold."
As if to prove this, a gust of chilly wind swept through the loft through the open window, almost putting out Orion's cigarette. He flapped a hand, crossing one leg over the other, and took another drag, and leaned on his hand to look at Rhys, sighing.
"A barbecue sounds good," he grunted. His eyes flickered towards Rhys's lap.
"Your leg hurt?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 8:26 pm
Rhys thought otherwise, but he kept his arguments to himself. Summertime was okay for the most part, but the bitter chill spared them only about a month out of twelve. And being less fit and mobile than most of his peers, Rhys often wondered about the possibility of losing his remaining leg to frostbite as he grew up. He glanced down at his leg when Orion mentioned it and seemed almost surprised, like he hadn't realized he was rubbing it. "Oh, ah, no. It's fine!" He offered a big smile. This leg was his favourite possession, and well worth every penny he had put into it. It was beautifully sculpted, with metal joints to resist wear and tear, and it even had mechanisms that responded to his motion and made for a more natural walking gait. Compared to the awful wooden crutch he grew up with... "Ah, what should we barbecue then?" He offered, almost more to get his own mind off the subject of cold winters and uncomfortable crutches. "If it weren't so expensive, we could do bacon burgers."
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 8:31 pm
He didn't quite believe Rhys's answer about his leg, but he let it go (for now, at least). The cold evening air was both familiar and refreshing to the arctic skinwalker, and he closed his eyes briefly, breathing it in.
His gaze flicked back to his roommate.
"Bacon burgers are good," he said, hissing smoke through his teeth. "Everybody likes bacon. Maybe we could do some hot dogs as well. Those are always pretty cheap to get."
Orion rolled his shoulders, trying to relieve some of the tension from earlier. He felt sore and unpleasant and probably needed a shower, but it was late and he was too tired. "So should we take donations, or something? Try and do something to fundraise?"
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