FIN [PRP] Inclement Weather Possibilities [Ellian/Tanwyn]

[Indigo_Plateau]

Quote:

Prompt 1: The weatherman said it was going to be a nice day today. Perfect time to go get some of those errands taken care of. Unfortunately, while you were shopping, heavy clouds rolled in and it began pouring outside. Do you chance it and run for your car or duck inside the nearest shop until the weather clears up?

He didn’t really care to go grocery shopping, but to be fair, it seemed like most people didn’t. Ellian had indulged his boyfriend once because they’d needed to grab something to make for dinner, and the options were either ‘go to the store with Gideon’ or ‘sit alone in someone else’s apartment and wait for him to come back.’ The choice had seemed pretty clear, and the trip was a quick in-and-out after grabbing just an armload of stuff to make a fast chili.

As a bonus, there had been one small, additional nugget of useful information: Gideon liked the apricot macarons they sold at the grocery store bakery.

This had been news to Ellian, who didn’t often see the other man indulge in sweet things, and in that vein, they hadn’t actually purchased any of the macarons while they’d been there. The excuses were that even though Gideon enjoyed them, it wasn’t what they were there for, they were too expensive, and he didn’t really need them. Maybe next time. Ellian had let it drop without complaint, despite believing pretty strongly in enjoying a few indulgences every now and then.

When Ellian returned the next day after class, it was to find that, yeah they were kind of expensive. He didn’t know who was out here paying three dollars for a bite of cookie, but it was what it was. Indulgences every now and then. Not regularly. He bought six of them, and they were packed up in a little white box, sealed with a sticker, and he was sent on his way.

He’d been in the store for a few minutes, at most. It was a weekday afternoon, so there wasn’t really a crowd. Easily to get through the store, easy to get through the checkout line, easy to be on his way quickly.

It just happened that a great downpour had started in the time he’d entered the store, and the time he left.

Ellian’s lips peeled back into an uncomfortable grimace. He’d driven here, so it should be no issue to bolt across the parking lot and get into his car. …Except it had been a nice warm day, and he’d had the top down on his red Mustang convertible, so of course there was now a big ‘ole huge mess to take care of and a very wet drive home to look forward to. The longer he dawdled, the worse it’d get, but…

As he pussyfooted around the idea of darting across the pavement and struggling with the top of his vehicle, Ellian’s deep red eyes landed on a truly impossibly long white ponytail standing just off to the side, beneath the grocery store overhang, and- s**t, what was this dude’s name again? One of Nat’s and Gideon’s friends from way back. One of his Negaverse teammates now, hm- “Uh, Tanwyn?” Ellian asked, blinking at the guy as the name came to him. “How’s it going? You waiting on someone?”

Literally any excuse to delay the work ahead.

BiggerinTexas

 

[BiggerinTexas]

Not surprising at all that this was what it looked like outside the second Tanwyn stepped out of the store. He thought he’d only been a minute, but this much rain couldn’t crop up so quickly without any warning. …Or it probably could, worse and weirder things had happened in Destiny City. Tanwyn had stepped to the side just for a moment to see if the downpair would lighten up as quickly as it had come, but didn’t look like it, so far.

Instead, while he fiddled with his phone, someone said his name. “Ellian.” He didn’t have anywhere near as much trouble recognizing the younger man: one best friend’s kid brother, another best friend’s… booty call? Or something to that effect.

“No, I’m not waiting for anyone. I walked over. My apartment is just across the street, there.” He gestured across the parking lot, across the road leading into the grocery store, to a gated apartment building mostly obscured by various privacy walls and trees lining the road. Obscured, but still there. The walk was five minutes, max. “And you? Looks like you picked up some treats,” he said, nodding at the small bakery box.  

[Indigo_Plateau]

Oh, right. Tanwyn had lived with Nat and Basyl for a while, though the specifics for the reasoning were a little lost on him, but Ellian thought he had some kind of memory of someone mentioning Tanwyn moving out to live with- and keep an eye on- Calaverite. Which definitely sounded like a huge, burdensome chore that Ellian could hardly fathom having the patience for. He’d thought they were staying in some apartments that were owned (or managed or operated or whatever) by someone with the Negaverse. …Real weird to think it’d be a place just- looking all normal, out in the middle of town: a regular apartment building. “Uh, right, how’s that going? With Cala?”

Poorly was surely the only answer Ellian could imagine. Diesel and Calaverite had patrolled a few times together or hung out in Negaspace on one or two occasions, but Ellian was pretty aware that Cala was… different in a way that made it difficult for him to act right with other people.

He was kind of violent, kind of untameable, really difficult to reason with. Young, impetuous, kind of stupid, had a blatant disregard for anyone else.

It’d been alright when Cala was mostly confined to Negaspace, needing someone else to teleport him in and out… But, yeah, he was a super senshi, now. It made sense that if he could come and go on his own, it was best to have someone watch him. Calaverite was barely suited to living any normal civilian life. Ellian could hardly imagine it. Tanwyn must have it rough, way more than Ellian would ever try and bite off, for sure.

He was much happier to talk about the great and considerate thing he’d just done. A broad smile split his face. “Yeah,” he agreed, rattling the box. “Gid said he liked the macaroons from the little bakery in here, but they’re kind of an expensive treat, not really anything he’d buy for himself. Thought it’d be nice to pick some up for us. And I deserve a treat, too, I think,” Ellian added with a shrug. “Got the grades back for my spring finals, and to literally no one’s surprise, aced ‘em. College is easy.”

BiggerinTexas

 

[BiggerinTexas]

“Ivory is his name,” Tanwyn corrected. Better to use that when talking about civilian stuff. “And living together isn’t as bad as you’d think.” He shrugged. Ivory was a grown man, who could care for himself when left alone and did know what sort of things were and were not acceptable behaviors. Mostly just had to give him incentives to do appropriate things, not so hard. Tanwyn’s own son had had developmental difficulties that made him a struggle to handle occasionally, but he’d been so young that he really didn’t know better. Ivory wasn’t any worse than that. “We have ups and downs. I don’t really like to do the shopping with him, though. More trouble than it’s worth.”

Not really Ellian’s business or concern, though, outside of Ivory loosely being one of his friends. Tanwyn was happy to leave it at that.

Because he and Ivory weren’t the only two that had essentially moved in together.

Gideon had invited Nataniel’s little brother into his home for some amount of time. Weird partnership that Tanwyn hadn’t imagined ever happening, but Gideon seemed chill with it, and it was nice to hear that Ellian was doing something sweet for him. Tanwyn had been under the impression that Ellian didn’t really do anything sweet for anyone. He was selfish. Self-absorbed. Wanted people around only so long as they made him feel good.

Mostly secondhand info from Nataniel, but. Tanwyn believed him.

And as the oldest of their friend group, Tanwyn did feel a certain responsibility for making sure Gideon, the youngest, was safe. Physically and emotionally. The redhead had had enough struggles for an entire lifetime. “You spend a lot of time with him, now that you’re on break?”  

[Indigo_Plateau]

He guessed it was good that Cala- Ivory (was that really his civilian name? What a bizarre choice someone had consciously made)- didn’t trouble Tanwyn much. Or at least not enough that the older guy would complain to Ellian about it. Probably was a face-saving lie, since Cala could only ever be trouble for anyone, but it wasn’t much Ellie’s place to judge. Or care. Not like it was his problem.

And he was all too happy to talk about himself and Gideon, anyway! That was going, like, pretty well? Better than he might have expected, since Gid was supposed to be ‘Nat’s friend’ more than his. And, yeah, there was a nagging in the back of his mind, warning him to be careful about how much he wanted to trust and invest in the redhead’s companionship, but it just didn’t… seem like anything bad was going to come of it? Nothing had, yet. And it had been several months now. Ellian was sure it was fine. It had to be.

He gave a noncommittal shrug, mannerisms more blasé than his grin gave away. “Y’know he’s got a regular work schedule, and I’m only on break ‘til summer classes start, so not as much time as I’d like, but we hang out most weekends. I spend a couple days a week over at his place. Might be a bit more for the time being.”

He was supposed to be living on campus during regular semesters, and that had been fine and dandy for, uh-

Not very long.

Ellian couldn’t ever remember not having his own room and literally every amenity easily accessible. As a general rule, he despised being alone, and having a constant set of people his age around had been pretty great! But he didn’t really like sharing, didn’t really like that he couldn’t control what his dormmates did (sometimes being loud when he wasn’t in the mood or snapping at him if he got in the way and wanted attention), wasn’t thrilled about the regulations of his dorm- it was difficult to have Gremlin around. Thankfully, Diesel could travel to Gideon’s apartment complex or his parents’ house without much difficulty, but Ellian could definitely understand a certain feeling of confinement, if he didn’t have teleportation on his side.

But dorms were closed during the summer. If he wanted to, he could spend most nights at Gideon’s place, if the redhead would let him.

“But I guess we’ll just see. I don’t wanna get on his nerves, or anything.”  

[BiggerinTexas]

God, Ellian was young. A teenager, still, and he looked it. Compared to Tanwyn, Gideon was still young too, but man, he just hadn’t imagined them together-together. Even if he was a bit biased against the teen, it was only because as the oldest of the friend group, Tanwyn was responsible for making sure no one came in and emotionally ******** with Gideon or Nataniel. Ellian was just a good candidate for ‘able to hurt Gideon.’ Red wouldn’t ever admit it, though, wouldn’t acknowledge it was even possible for him to be hurt.

“It’s nice of you to think about him and do sweet things for him,” Tanwyn said. “He’s been through a lot, and deals with it pretty quietly. I just hope you don’t add more to the list of hurts.”  

[Indigo_Plateau]

The rain droned against the cement as Ellain stared at Tanwyn. Here they’d ******** been, having a perfectly nice and normal conversation, just for this guy to drop the insinuation that he expected- or at least thought it probable- that Ellain would do something to hurt Gideon, when, after pretty much an entire year, they’d really only had smooth sailing. Maybe a disagreeable hiccup here and there (they were still people with different opinions and priorities), but nothing they couldn’t get past pretty easily.

It absolutely should not surprise him at all to hear that Tanwyn, both Nat’s and Gideon’s best friend, wouldn’t trust him to not trample all over his own boyfriend’s feelings.

A spike of heat jumped up his throat. It took conscious effort not to snarl a response. “I’m not too sure I know what you’re getting at,” Ellian grumbled, daring Tanwyn to say something more explicitly incriminating. It wouldn’t shock Ellian at all to hear, ’I don’t like you. I don’t trust you. I don’t want you near my friend.’ Oh, but if anything even close to those words came out, he’d do everything in his power to spite Tanwyn- and probably Weissite too. And he absolutely would not keep it to himself (and wasn't planning on keeping this interaction to himself, either).

Gideon would hear of it. Ellian was... somewhat reasonably confident that his boyfriend would back him up... probably...

BiggerinTexas

 

[BiggerinTexas]

Indigo_Plateau

Coulda been nearly anyone and Weissite woulda said the same. The powers that be had cursed Gideon to have pretty bad luck with people, not his fault or theirs, just how it was. And Ellian…

Ellian was a risk factor anyway Tanwyn could slice it. Reckless enough to get hurt or killed for the Negaverse, like Gideon’s parents. Selfish enough to get bored and dip out, big flight risk. But fun and flamboyant, hard to blame Red for getting pulled into his orbit. “Just be careful with him.”  

[Indigo_Plateau]

Ellian swallowed, desperately grasping for a sense of impartial neutrality toward his boyfriend’s ‘closest friend’ but coming up completely empty on that front. He wasn’t surprised- it was literally no shock at all that anyone with any sort of ties to his brother would be biased against him. He’d dealt with that before and only sometimes found it unfairly annoying.

…But Gideon had that exact same link, and it felt like he should have just as much influence over Tanwyn’s perception of Ellian as Nat did. If Gid and Tanwyn talked at all about their love lives and relationship status, shouldn’t Tanwyn mostly be hearing positive things about him…?

Was Gideon saying shitty things to his friends when Ellian wasn’t around?

Stop that.

Even if his boyfriend had complaints (everyone had complaints), Ellian couldn’t be mad that Gideon confided in his friends- because that’s what Tanwyn was: Gideon’s friend. Not Ellian’s. It should make him happy that Gideon had a circle of comrades that he trusted. …It should. But something bitter still lodged at the back of his throat at the thought of his boyfriend hanging out with people who were constantly dunking on Ellian. It was definitely possible. Maybe a certain serious conversation with the redhead was in order… Just to make sure they were all on the same page.

Anyway. He cleared his throat because the current matter at hand was actually Tanwyn’s thinly veiled mistrust of him and not the things that might be said while Ellian wasn’t around. “Gideon’s not some breakable doll, y’know. He’s a person choosing me as much as I’m choosing him. So you can back off with that ’oh, be careful with him’ attitude. He can handle himself.”

BiggerinTexas

 

[BiggerinTexas]

Tanwyn wasn’t one to hold onto these old teenage biases. Most of what he knew about Ellian was from a decade ago and something all of them should’ve grown out of. Gideon must’ve realized that too, or those two wouldn’t be together. “I know he’s not.” Spoken in a grumble.

Why did Ellian trigger such mistrust if Tanwyn wasn’t clinging to how he’d been when he was like ten? Hoped it wasn’t something against Ellie; just a general fear for Gideon. “Just, you…” No ending he could come up with to that sentence wasn’t blatantly offensive. Tanwyn’s tongue passed across his lips. He cleared his throat. “If something happened, I think it would hurt you less than it would hurt him.” Something Tanwyn completely believed. Gideon wouldn’t admit it.

“I’m sorry. It’s not a shot at you. I’m just worried about him. He hides things, sometimes. I know how that ends up. That’s all.”

Right now Ellian had a lot of power where it pertained to someone else. It could be so easy to misuse it.  

[Indigo_Plateau]

’That’s all,’ as if Ellian needed someone to remind him that other people had feelings or experiences he should be aware of. As if Tanwyn didn’t trust him to be looking out for Gideon’s- his boyfriend’s- well being. Ellian knew the history, and admittedly, there were probably some details of it that Gideon didn’t quite trust him with, yet- that was fine. But Ellian still knew a significant part of it, and knew how personal and intimate it was to be let in like that… He wasn’t going to just squander it! He wasn’t a complete idiot!

And Gideon had as much say in their partnership as he did.

Neither of them were clueless children, and whatever Gideon chose to hide from him… Well, he had to respect that, didn’t he? Prying was just another form that a breach of trust could take.

He wouldn’t tell Tanwyn not to worry; there wasn’t any reason to waste his breath. And he wasn’t going to say ‘nothing will happen’ because he wasn’t a fortune teller and the world was unpredictable and scary. Instead, he shot off a bitter-sounding, “There are worse things that could happen to him than me.” Some had already happened to his unfortunate red-headed lover, and Ellian found that he kind of enjoyed being a warm balm against all the otherwise dreadful things that happened.

Because that was kind of what he was, he knew… Something of a distraction to Gideon’s hurts. Maybe he didn’t fix anything, but he could soothe the ache for a while, cover it up… He was pretty sure that was all Gideon wanted…

And it wasn’t really Tanwyn’s business.

“It’s whatever,” Ellian decided after a moment, flapping a hand dismissively in Tanwyn’s direction as he started again out into the parking lot, into the downpour still occurring. “We’re happy. That’s all that matters to us for now.” For now. He wished he hadn’t said that, but it was already out in the wind, and Ellian kept moving.

He had his whole ******** car to clean up from this stupid rain, and honestly, he did want to go back to Gideon’s place and b***h about Tanwyn’s ******** interference. He should mind his own life.

Whatever he had with Gideon… whether it was temporary or permanent maybe didn’t even matter.

BiggerinTexas

 

[BiggerinTexas]

“Sorry.” Just a mutter because it didn’t seem like Ellian wanted to be bothered with anything Tanwyn said at the moment. He could live with that. Clouds still hung heavy and oppressive overhead, dropping a downpour on everything in sight. Seemed there wasn’t much reason to keep hoping and waiting for it to stop. “Have a good afternoon, Ellian,” Tanwyn muttered as the younger strode briskly and purposefully away from him. May as well start walking home too. It’d be a shock if he didn’t get a text later from Gideon with some comment about this interaction he’d just had. Hopefully he’d understand where Tanwyn was coming from…