|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 6:15 pm
 |
|
|
 |
 Life had been a blur for as long as Ellis could remember now. Work, work, sleep, work, sleep. Sometimes he remembered to eat too. The days and nights blurred together so neatly that he often mixed up the date when he closed the bar and opened the coffee shop the next morning; the amount of times he had to redo order sheets was very nearly in the triple digits by now. If that was the only criticism either of his jobs had for him these days, though, he was counting himself pretty lucky.
For once, he found himself with a free afternoon and though he had been sorely tempted to head home and catch up on his sleep debt, he could feel the itch in his palms that told him he was getting close to a burn out. Sleep would only do so much to recover from that. He left the coffee shop at shift change and turned his feet to the park with a purpose. One hand held his duffel bag with his uniform haphazardly stuffed into it and the other kept his journal close to his chest, as if he might be able to absorb the ink inside the pages to cure his restless soul.
For a wonder, the sky overhead was clear and blue and the air had warmed from the biting frost they'd been experiencing this winter. It made him smile as he tilted his face up to the distant sun, drinking in the light as it splayed across the long line of his nose and lit the stray auburn curls that had flown loose of his sloppy bun.
It was a beautiful day to have his head in the clouds.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 6:55 pm
|
|
|
|
Noah's life did not consist of work, but it did consist of classes and more classes, and then when he wasn't in class, filming. Youtube was a black hole of cute cat videos, conspiracy theories about why the president was actually an alien, and "The Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Only Eat Grass," which Noah appreciated as much as the next person, but he was really much more interested in the less exciting things.
Like documentaries. Which he hadn't actually said to anyone, because the last time he had, to his ex-girlfriend, she'd looked at him like he was an idiot and asked him if he was actually a ninety year old man in a tweed smoking jacket that sat in a leather armchair.
"No, but that would be cool," Noah had replied.
Needless to say, the relationship hadn't lasted long, but that was fine. Noah wasn't about to stay with someone who didn't appreciate the finer things in life, after all (like documentaries). He just wished he had a better subject for his documentary film class.
As of right now, it was Destiny City itself, but that seemed kind of lame. It wasn't due until the end of the semester, which gave him a few more months to work on it, but if he wanted to give himself enough time to make edits, he'd need to find something and fast.
So here he was, wandering around the park, camcorder held in one hand, the strap wrapped around the back of it to keep it in place. Noah was squinting through the lens, not quite focusing on anything in particular, tilting his head around to catch the leaves and the long golden strands of light. Chilly, but not icy.
"And here we have the illustrious Destiny City Park," Noah intoned. He'd redo the voiceover later. "Home of the ever exciting Destiny City civilian, who can be found nowhere else but here. They have a certain sort of je ne sais quois, and - woah!"
His head had tilted up, camcorder pointed at the blue sky, and now it was spinning around, because Noah was spinning around, because he'd collided with something and now he was sprawling everywhere, letting out a squawk of surprise.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 7:13 pm
|
|
|
|
One moment, Ellis had been staring up at the sky, dazed and content in his daydreaming, and the next he was falling. No, not just falling, he was flying. The redhead was a whirl of clumsy limbs and tripping feet as he rebounded from a collision he never even saw coming, tripping up extra limbs that didn't belong to him in his wild descent to the ground.
The world stopped moving at last and Ellis groaned, realizing that at some point he had just shut his eyes and given his fate up to the universe. Baby blues opened upon the world around him - it was mostly just grass. Sideways grass. Even though he could taste dirt in his mouth and feel the beginning of a goose egg beneath his curls, he was glad suddenly that he hadn't fallen on the pavement. The last thing he wanted right now was a concussion. He had far, far too many shifts coming up to deal with that.
"What happened?" he mumbled to himself, so dazed and confused that he did not realize, at first, that there was an extra weight sprawled across his legs. He rolled over and dirt clung to half of his face, coating his brow and obscuring the beauty mark at the corner of his lips. His legs, however, were trapped by something-
Someone?
Panic swelled through his chest and he shook his leg, trying to rouse the stranger.
"Hey, are you okay? I'm so sorry!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 8:30 pm
|
|
|
|
Possibly he'd hit some sort of space time vortex where he was going to next feel himself falling into a place where you ate tiny cakes in order to grow big or small. At least, that was what it felt like as Noah went tumbling down the rabbit hole that was crashing into something in the middle of the Destiny City Park.
He made some sort of noise that was half a screech, half an inelegant squawk, and found himself sprawled on top of something that was moving. The camera was still in his hand, if only because Noah had clutched it like it was his child to keep it from hitting anything, and his fingers were white knuckled because of it.
It took him a few moments to realize that the thing he'd landed on was not just moving, but also talking.
Also that it was apparently a person. And said person's legs.
"Uh - " He had a mouthful of grass. Noah spat it out, coughing, wriggled to get himself in a more presentable position, and ended up flopping over onto his back beside his makeshift pillow landing. The sun was bright in his eyes, half obscuring his vision, but he caught a glimpse of what he thought was red hair.
"I'm okay," Noah wheezed, slightly out of breath. "Uh - my bad - did I land on you - well s**t - "
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 3:42 pm
|
|
|
|
As the stranger rolled over onto his back and released Ellis from the prison of tangled limbs, he drew his legs in and used the leverage to roll onto his side. His head shifted angles and, immediately, something poked him square in the temple. He grimaced and jerked his head up.
"Good, no, it's okay - I wasn't watching where I was going and I'm kind of clumsy so-"
He was mumbling and distracted as he pushed himself up with one arm, reaching with the other to touch gingerly at whatever he had managed to get tangled in his hair. A stick? Or an acorn? He tried to trace the feel of the object with his hand but couldn't figure out what in the world it was. It seemed like a short, pointy stump. Where did even come from? Knowing his luck, it could have been anything. He tugged at it for a moment, even tried pulling individual curls out of the nest he had created, but as it refused to dislodge he threw his hands down into his lap with a huff. He was sure all he managed to do so far was get it wrapped more deeply in his unruly locks. Frustrated and annoyed, he cast a desperate glance at the guy sprawled next to him.
"I don't, uh, usually ask strangers to play with my hair and all but do you think.. you could maybe help me?" He must have looked a riot, half covered in dirt with some natural parasite tangled in his hair. He was desperate.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 6:27 pm
|
|
|
|
Noah wasn't clumsy, per se, but sometimes he didn't actually take his surroundings into account. And sometimes he got a little lost in his own thoughts and the camera and forgot to actually look and see what was right in front of him and not stuck in the lens.
It meant he was both exceptionally observant and stupidly careless all at once, which was how he had ended up in this situation in the first place. Noah could hear a slightly muffled muttering as the other person shifted, and he saw, eyes still half squinted against the sunlight, an arm move, and then an effort to get some sort of blobby thing out of a tangle of reddish hair.
Blobby because Noah was still blinded by the sunlight. He sat up quickly, grass sticking to his sweater vest, and brushed at the dirt that was on the hem of it. There was probably dirt elsewhere too, but Noah was less concerned about that, and more concerned about the dude he'd collided with.
And it was a dude, now that he wasn't staring into the solar vortex. A dude with shoulder length red hair that fell in gentle waves over his slim shoulders, though, from what Noah could see, had a tangle of something stuck through it at odd angles. They'd crashed into each other beside one of the large oaks that stood in clusters at intervals, before forming a darker, shadier part of the park, and the ground was littered in small branches.
"Nice hair," he blurted, before his mouth could catch up with the rest of his brain. He meant it literally, stick or stump or whatever it was or not, and after a second, the question that had been asked, finally filtered through his thoughts.
"Oh, yeah, of course!"
Setting the camera down gingerly, as though it was a precious thing, Noah scooted over on his knees beside the other, heedless of the dirt and grass stains that were going to be a nightmare to get out of his khakis. Reaching up, he began working at the clustered mass, frowning as he attempted to free a curl that was stubbornly resisting all attempts at pulling it free.
"How the hell did you even do this - "
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 7:08 pm
|
|
|
|
"Uh, thanks?"
Honestly, Ellis hadn't been sure if the compliment was actually a compliment or just a joke about how wild his curls must have looked after taking such a tumble. So, instead of dwelling on it, he turned his head to let the stranger get a better view of the situation - and hid the faint blush across his cheek bones with the drape of his bright curls and a little bit of convenient timing.
"I don't knoooow," the exacerbated words were a mix of defeat and hopelessness. They were also mostly just for show. Ellis was nothing if not outgoing and dramatic and after a graceless tumble through the grass with a complete stranger, he was definitely using that unnecessary flair as a defense mechanism.
He pouted, letting his wild hair hide the pursed lips, and began examining the grass around where they had finally landed. At first all he saw was the battlefield of crushed grass and scuffed dirt where one or the other of them had landed but then his eyes fell on his journal, open and bared for the world to see. Loose pages were dancing lightly in the breeze and threatening to float way, a thought that filled him with intense and immediate dread. Forgetting, somehow, that there was a stranger knuckle-deep in his hair, he jerked forward and tried to grab it -
"Ow, s**t, ow," he winced as he caused the other man to pull his hair and immediately slumped back to release the tension. "I'm sorry, that was dumb."
Why was he apologizing for hurting himself? Uggh, his mental dialogue was already buzzing with self criticism.
"How bad is it?" Distractions. He could get his journal in just a minute, maybe. Hopefully.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 7:57 pm
|
|
|
|
To Noah's credit, it actually had been intended as a real compliment, but the timing was a little off, especially considering that the other guy had something akin to a small tree tangled in his hair and Noah himself looked as though he'd just gone crawling through a ditch.
"Well, this is tangled up pretty goo - woah!"
Noah felt himself abruptly jerked sideways, because the guy had lunged abruptly forward. The end result was that he almost got his finger stuck in a twig and there was possibly a few less strands of red hair on this guy's head now; a fact he seemed very aware of, judging by the expression on his face.
"You all good?" Noah asked, eyebrows raised. His gaze flickered towards the papers and books strewn in front; it was windy, after all. Maybe he thought the book would fly away or something. Or maybe it was just something important.
"One sec - " Noah let go of his hair and stretched out a hand to pluck at the book. It had a bunch of writing in it, and the less tactful part of him wanted to peer at it more closely, but he figured that would have been rude, so instead he just nudged it closer to the poor guy.
He knelt back up to get his hands in the red curls again. Besides the fact that they were tangled, his hair really was quite soft. "Uh...it's not, you know...great," Noah hedged, squinting at it. "I'm not sure how you did this, I htink a branch broke in your hair and it just twisted all around. It might hurt a bit to get some of the strands out, but I don't think it's a total loss."
He flashed a grin down at the other. "So besides the fact that we just reenacted a scene from 101 Dalmations minus the dogs, what's your name? I've got my hands in your hair, so I mean, I think it's about that time we exchanged identities."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 6:17 pm
|
|
|
|
Whatever the notebook was, it was clearly important to the guy, because he seemed to let out a breath that had been held for several long minutes. Noah felt a certain amount of satisfaction in himself that he'd been able to judge pushing it towards him as a good thing to do and was frankly feeling quite pleased with himself about it all.
"You're welcome," he said, and then gave a snort, carefully unwinding a long strand of red from a particularly troublesome piece of wood. "I mean, you're not wrong though, you do have some pretty perfect curls here. The branches aren't that pretty though, sorry - but if it makes you feel any better, it does kinda make you look like a wood nymph or something."
He probably needed to stop while he was ahead. Noah glanced down at the guy - Ellis, he'd said his name was - and found that he was looking up at him; except he couldn't turn his head fully, not with Noah in the middle of trying to keep him from becoming an ent, so all he caught was a glimpse of a rueful expression and a faint smile.
"No pun is stupid, they're all great," Noah declared. "And I'm Noah, by the way. I wouldn't say that we didn't meet cute, though, this is kinda like the start of every chick flick, isn't it? You stumble into a cute guy, you fall over each other, and then you spend the rest of the night trying to get branches out of your hair and the movie ends just like that."
It was clear from the tone of his voice that he was just amusing himself now. Noah made a noise of triumph as one of the twigs finally came free, and he pulled it out with an aha sound.
"There we go, one down, two to go," he said, dropping the twig beside Ellis' leg. "Now we just gotta get the rest."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 4:20 pm
|
|
|
|
It was amazing just how easily hair could get tangled in things. Noah carefully worked another red curl free, gently loosening it from the branch while trying very hard not to accidentally yank too hard. Sensitive heads and all that. And besides, he was at least partially responsible for the collision, since he'd crashed into him while not totally paying attention to what he was doing.
A flick of Noah's eyes downwards caught a brief glimpse of Ellis curling his fingers into the book, though the best Noah could catch from this angle was just a sliver of Ellis' face and that was it. A grin slowly spread across Noah's face, and then he let out a laugh, maneuvering one of the twigs around another so that it loosened a small section of hair, curls falling free.
"You're right, I haven't seen enough good ones," said Noah. "But I'll tell you right now, I can't dance at all, so we're gonna have to skip the whole choreographed dance party thing. Maybe we can throw in a stereotypical dramatic conversation in the rain instead, but that might get cold."
The question made his grin widen. "Clearly me," Noah said blithely, as though this was obvious, but there was a teasing note in his voice. "Definitely me."
A second twig loosened and finally slid free, and now there was just one more. Noah shifted on his knees, feeling the grass and dirt probably making stains as he spoke, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He added, in a would-be casual sort of voice, "But I mean - porque no los dos? It doesn't have to be one or the other, it could definitely be both of us, I'd say."
Possibly he was being a little too much, but, well, Noah wasn't Noah without being too much of something.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 4:47 pm
|
|
|
|
Ellis was laughing at the idea of the pair of them standing in the rain on some cold, Destiny City winter day; it would have been drab and awkward but most definitely worthy of a silly chick flick. What it was that they would be dramatic about was beyond him but in truth, he couldn't dance either, so the rewrite was definitely alright with him in his head.
Of course, then Noah kept talking and he feigned offense for effect.
"I can't believe you would say that," his voice was a mockery of every scorned girlfriend in a plethora of high school dramas, but the smile on his face was evident in the tone of his voice even if Noah couldn't see it from where he was sitting. It was corny but this stranger digging a forest out of his hair was just the right amount of cheese that it made the situation okay; he hadn't expected to spend his afternoon like this but who could complain? At least the company was nice. And handsome - Noah wasn't wrong, conceited maybe, but not wrong.
Another twig fell next to his leg and he let out a small hum of approval as he considered what Noah had said. Not the English words, of course (although it did reinforce the blush that was nearly permanent by now) but the ones in a language he didn't recognize as anything other than a branch of the Romance ilk.
"What language is that?" he was curious now, abandoning his play at teenage dramas, "are you bilingual?"
Maybe it was forward (and nosy) but Ellis was a curious cat.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 5:26 pm
|
|
|
|
Noah was also imagining this scene, but with the addition of some deliberately sappy music and some wind blowing, because that was what happened in movies - there was always wind blowing somewhere, even if it was in Arizona in dead summer.
"Listen, I grew up with a lot of cousins who love chick flicks, I had to get used to watching them," said Noah. "But don't worry, I'll come up with something else witty to say soon enough, and that'll be the most dramatic thing of all in what's already a blossoming new thing under the rising sun."
He paused in his movements to hold out his hand melodramatically, as though recreating the sunrise with a sweep of his fingers. Then he went back to fiddling with the last bit of brush still stuck in poor Ellis' hair. "Don't worry, you can play the plucky romantic interest who's also a forest nymph, because we've gotta have some sort of magic, magic's all the rage in movies now, even chick flicks."
The grin on his face widened a little more. "I'm studying Spanish at DCU," said Noah, "though I, uh, got a little help with that particular phrase from a commercial, but shhh - " He put a conspiratorial finger to his lips, leaning just enough so that Ellis would be able to see the wink he gave him. "Don't tell anyone. I gotta pass my Spanish Lit class somehow."
He gave a little shrug, resuming his unwinding of a red curl. "I'm minoring in Spanish, though; I grew up learning it because we had a - uh - family friend - who spoke it."
He had almost said our cook was Spanish but somehow that sounded offensive even in his own head. And besides, he didn't want to talk about the money thing, not if he could help it, especially not when Ellis seemed like a perfectly nice, perfectly normal, sweet guy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 5:47 pm
|
|
|
|
Noah's easy rambling was entertaining and as Ellis pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, he found it comforting even if it was energetic and ridiculous. It had been a long, long time since he had been able to just enjoy someone's company; at work it was always work and at home he was usually alone, just him and his bunny. If he was ever home at the same time as K it was usually because one or the other of them was asleep. He missed what it was like to just sit and talk about nonsense with someone.
And boy, was Noah full of all sorts of nonsense.
The sight of his tanned fingers stretched out dramatically made him laugh under his breath.
"A plucky romantic forest nymph? This is some story you're writing for us," he laughed, leaning his temple on the tops of his kneecaps once he was sure it wouldn't tug on what the boy was doing. "I have to admit that I'm a very evasive and secluded creature so I hope you're ready for a manhunt. Your main character is going to have the worst time."
It was a bizarre topic but he was smiling lazily as he stared out at the forest - only to suddenly have Noah fill his vision with a grin that was unfairly charming and sudden. Crinkles formed at the corner of his blue eyes and his smile brightened at the secret; he didn't want to admit that he had no idea what commercial the boy was on about. Ellis had never had a TV growing up and even as an adult his was an old plasma that weighed nearly as much as he did; he didn't even have his own Netflix account, he just "shared".
"I won't tell a soul," he laughed and held up the three fingers of his left hand, tucking his pinky beneath his thumb, "Scout's honor."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
