Welcome to Gaia! ::

Mier was not nervous per say - he was - if anything - dead tired. Exhausted beyond measure, and what it was that kept him going? Was the passion behind a promise to seek out his friend once more. To seek out the possibility of 'more' with this one. Who had been nothing, but a boon of kind strength, through text, through time apart.

Mier had learned things - things he liked - things he wanted to consider delving into with more of himself than words on screen.

Like standing on a glass walk over a long canyon - everything had suddenly fallen through. Incident with the---

Thinking about it made him snarl and hiss, made him bare his teeth at air and shake the thought free, let it go.

A rescue had come after, a coming of age for the ages, a glamorous bit of guise that had been thrust into his life and left it forever change. Stolen his time and shifted his plans beyond his own control, beyond reckoning. With the change had come a sudden surge of training, and the training had been through and the thoroughness had taken time, and that time had taken....

The day of his event had come and gone, a week had come and gone. Mier felt neglectful of his life, and vowed to make up for it at haste. Reached out to Gil ----

Let his pone ring - let it - started talking even if it hadn't picked up - even if it became a message. "Gil? This is Mier, if you're there? Obviously you would be there, this is your phone after all, and I'm calling - and I do mean to apologize. I was not ignoring you - I swear this. I simply...I would like very much to see you now? If that is still something you'd wish to see, me that is, to see me?" pinched the bridge of his nose and glanced skyward from where he sat. Perched atop the fencing of his balcony, legs swinging through the black grate as he stared out over the yards beyond.

His heart soared, kicked his feet and felt childish for doing so, but it didn't matter. Gil was there. Sleepy and answering and Mier wondered how he looked fresh awake in his home home - from his bed instead of from a night spent draped over a chair.

How he seemed with a fresh unhindered gaze.

Not like they'd been out of touch, like they hadn't exchanged pictures, and memes, and Mier especially liked learning that Gil had - apparently - more than one piercing that he'd missed. Bevy of questions for that. Minutes and hours of time spent wanting to entertain him at work while he'd been home.

All come to a screeching car wreck of a halt...

Gil wasn't done with him though. Sounded tired, freshly woken, not upset though. That was what mattered most to Mier. That Gil wouldn't renege on his promise for his own lack of being able to keep it - for 'life stuff' reasons. "Of course I remember. Though all the things before it were rather well...the morning in question was unforgettable. You are very unforgettable Gil." he'd tacked Gils address in under his name, under a face that caught and held strobe lights and smiles like a bowl held water..

"I'll be there in ten."

It felt like it took an eternity - like getting there quickly wasn't quick enough. Like ten was closer to twenty. Mier had never been nervous before - and yet there - stood outside his newfound ... outside Gil's door....fidgeted with how he felt dull in comparison to the night out. Lesser than then, when he'd had the time to be done up, when he hadn't been in a rush to 'get out'.

Thought that this moment done out of spontaneity born of need, while far less glamorous, might end up going better maybe? Wasn't like his careful planning was getting him very far lately.

At least his nails looked good - and that quirked his smile enough to have him knocking - gentle rap on Gils front door.

"Yes, I'd like that very much..." cautious and sensitive to Gils plight, unaware at how he'd woken the man from - well - whatever his morning routine might have been? He didn't know his waking schedule anymore than he' knew his sleeping habits and...

Shifted inside to close the door and spare his friend. Agreed with a solemn nod on the brightness and what a b***h of a thing it was. "Good morning Gilmore." and he thought it good - in all his zealous wisdom - to reach out and give the man a hug.

Soft greed and want for contact, because it'd been a hell of a week. Exhaustive and extensive and how he now longed for something - anything - that would separate his moments spent during and his moments spent after. A stolen hug and some coffee felt like a very good place to start.

Bloom of warmth and instant relief, because if Gil was willing to still offer him a hug? He must not have been mad at him then, must have forgiven him, if ever the man had even considered Mires unexplained absence a slight.

That and it was just godamned nice to get a hug from someone every now and then. Especially someone like Gil, who seemed to have a strong propensity for hugs of the good variety.

"Well caffeinated" teased as he followed in, nearly skipped in all his eagerness. Could smell it brewing from the door, pang of want for tar made sweet and creamy. "That is to say..well sugared..and with milk if you have any? I haven't figured out if it's the caffeine doing its work, or the sugar in it..as long as it keeps one up I suppose?" a soft giggle watching Gil duck his own ceiling, and Mier easily found a seat to slide into

"How have you been Gil?" to make idle chit chat while he waited, kicked his feet and relaxed in far more pleasant company.

Kicked his feet while he made his coffee the way he liked, mouthed a small soft thank-you. As Gil set out a delightful little assortment of things. He had to smile, barely contained giggle at the idea of cereal flavored creamer. Mier enjoyed cinnamon a great deal however, so it was more than worth it for the extraneous sweetness that often came with those types of sweet creams.

"That sounds like such a hassle. I swear. You must be a man of much patience then? To put up with all those things - ah - to be able to wait? I don't think I could do it.." Soft shake of his head as he stirred the mix in, watched the coffee lighten, and sipped it warm with a sigh. Joy for heat in his hands and down his throat.

"It - uhm - the event went not at all as it should've. It didn't really even happen, actually. I had a sudden internship opportunity come up? That's where I've been - and its been exhausting...draining really? Not that I don't enjoy the sudden opportunity, but working for free is..not as 'amazing' as so many people claim it to be..." huff that accompanied a frown, that followed a quick click of nail over ceramic, Mier drowned his disappointment with more coffee, with Gils presence.

"It was my birthday actually...the..well..it's not really worth mentioning is it, since it's passed? It's just a date after all, there will be more of them." flippant terseness in tone, and Mier would have to be accepting of that. Life would crop up, would derail his carefully laid plans, of mice and men and all such contrivances....

Mier nearly choked on a sip of sugary cinnamon delight. Soft eyes wide as he realized - ahhh he hadn’t - and he *intentionally* hadn’t. The thing it should’ve been to have discussed his actual age…

“Mmhmm, it was - Ah - closer to being the 18th one, actually? It would’ve been nice to have it, but it was all interrupted by…other events…Ehm, but that’s not really important....” covered his coy stuttering with a sip of the hot liquid.

Breathed over the burn of sipping too quickly even. Blew a breath out over his tongue for the wince of heat for it. Wince of guilt for being misleading. For wanting to apologize for that, taking his time, and staying silent for fear of losing out on all the possibilities. The potential of more experiences with someone he very much liked.

A water park sounded fun.

Everything sounded fun, but he couldn’t continue to lead Gil on, and take advantage of his kindness by letting him think he was twenty-two either…

What Gilmore was asking for - that was all entirely fair.

"No! Of course not! I-I should likely be the one who is ---" flustered little sigh as he fished it free, soft worn wallet tucked into the back of his jeans "---I wasn't trying to make trouble? Not for anyone other than myself, at least, and it was only my intention to...." flailed as he handed the thing over. State I.D flipped sideways to indicate that he was under 21, short blue hair cropped in the photo from before he'd grown it out and dyed it to his liking.

Mier bit his tongue as it poured excuses instead of apologies.

The wince for that, and he had only wanted to have fun. To have what he wanted, selfishly and without thought. Regardless of the cost to others - so long as he got what he wanted?

Which, maybe he had meant to cause trouble? Not for Gil though. Who had been a perfect gentleman. Chivalrous safeguard throughout the whole of the evening...

"I'm sorry - for - all of it, except the parts that I enjoyed, so I'm not even sure how sorry I actually am? I am graduated from school, and I have begun an internship with a place of employment...I simply...I-I wanted...nothing bad for you! I promise. I'm so sorry, Gilmore." clutched around the coffee cup, nervous click of nails.

He'd had to do this, he knew. In person, not over the phone, could've strung the poor man along, but that would've been a wrong he wouldn't have wished to reconcile his future self with.

Wanted better moments to look back on. Surely?

He was grown though..old enough to join a secret underground war, apparently? Old enough to miss birthday parties and put himself to work. To be done with high-school and treated by law and order as such...

"I won't go to the bars anymore." not as himself, and not as he was, and not to drink. Maybe to drain the ******** who did? Maybe to find that one who Gil had so perfectly put on his knees and just - as Diasporite?

Have a good time.

As himself though? What point was there to do it, to draw trouble and attention unnecessarily to himself. The upside of meeting a bevy of people who were wonderous. Good, kind, fun people, who he seemed to meet at such places.

Of course, that didn't mean he had to try every colorful rainbow liquid passed his way. Working, networking, and going to those places? They did not have to overlap the way he'd naively thought they had to have, in order to get what he wanted.

"I just - I felt like it was something I needed to try, before? No one seems to have time for anything, and I wanted to get things done before I stopped having time." excuse that ran hollow and sounded - even to his own ears - silly. Bit his lip enough to 'stop doing that', and offer up Gil the honesty he deserved.

'Which, you are allowed to be angrier? That is, it would be completely acceptable, if you were very much...that...with me..." didn't feel that the apologetic wince would leave his face anytime soon, even if he drowned it in coffee.

Even if he buried himself at the bottom of a mug of the stuff. It would stick. The sight and sound of Gils forlorn exhaustion with his antics. Sight of that happy grin he associated with the man, being the cause of it all twisted into anything other, all because of him, his antics, his need to have 'everything be his right now'.

In hindsight? It was all very impetuously impulsive...childish...thing he had been trying to escape, and yet by doing so? Had stepped all in it, quite literally.

"You're also allowed to not - I would understand if you didn't, ah, if you don't ever? Want t-to see me again. Or anymore, for any reason at all, because - well all of the obvious shittiness? You deserved me in person though - not over text - and not - I can be an adult about some things, and you're not someone I wished to ******** over. I promise." plead and he didn't know what it was for. Forgiveness or acceptance, rejection maybe? Whatever Gil offered him. Ball in his court because Mire owed him that much, because the big man with the even bigger heart deserved this piece of himself more than anyone else.

Was worthy of it.