Welcome to Gaia! ::

He’d started the basics while waiting for Aelius to arrive, linens rotating in the stacked laundry set in the closet-shed out back. Wiping dust from within the cabinets, pitching any dishes that’d honestly gone too damn long sitting in the dishwasher waiting for him to come back and run them.

Ran a cleaning cycle on that….broke out a mop…a broom…a….

The place was left fabuloso watermelon scented, doused in bath n bodyworks room spray; the lavender espresso kind for its subtleness. Waru had gone in, hauled a**, n cleaned on elbow n knee until he’d lost track of the time he’d spent doing it.

He probably would’ve kept at it, if Aelius’s call hadn’t snapped him outta his magic sponge fugue state n sprung him into catching a shower of his own before the man showed up with, ********, what sounded like heaven for the hungry!

Because it’d been long enough since he’d been by on his own place, or sent in Cerbs n Haymitch, or even pinged Hestia n Ilmari to - maybe - ‘pretty please if they had time?’ Pick up on handling the kinda chores that kept a place looking lived in n squatter free. He felt it was an important thing to still do considering the state of the area, how he didn’t aim t’become one of any dozen homes with plyboard doors n tinfoil windows. With false, cardboard fronts painted to look like doors, and ‘normal’ houses that hadn’t been raided of all their pipes n awnings.

He wondered how long he’d get to keep it that way? Lived in, his, cleaned up n alive enough for him to use it as a crash-pad from time to time? He wondered because he didn’t need it for those same reasons anymore. What with the amount of time he’d been spending between his different beaus bedrooms, the nooks n crannies of his lovers lives. Then in Aelius’s place over the the months leading into the summer, and then the whore-home to bed down with Faustite for however long he had him back.

How all of that’d left him little time for his own meager plot of an almost ‘mancave’ getaway box. Especially now that Ren was asking him for – for more – leaving him an open closet to store his things in. Telling him to keep the car there (which was safer for ******** sure. Waru didn’t have a garage for something so nice, his place was a unit!!). N’then buying all his favorite food n putting it in the fridge. Waru felt nigh ******** imbecile for not having caught on that the man he’d married might, ******** actually, want to live with him!? Not just ******** for the night n kiss him goodbye in the morning, or share a cozy weekend that’d eventually end….but…

Like…..

Like…….

“No more rings, Waru. Not a single one ********’ more. D’you hear me? Twos enough man…” He told his reflection in the mirror while toweling off, and then shrugging on the sort of schlumpy softness that he wouldn’t care about getting dirty. Blacks n greens that he could fall asleep in anywhere if the night called for it. Items that were soothing for how loose they were, how ‘of himself’ they smelled. Especially since thinking of Ren made his chest tighten in funny ways, like the fear that came just before the thrill. Thinking about how he couldn’t tell what kind of permanency the man wanted, or where he fit in the world Ren lived in? All the ways he somehow wasn’t used to it.

How he didn’t know what to do when he wasn’t needed—

When he wasn’t necessary….

“Aelius—” the other man’s voice was a welcome distraction, the relief of having another person to focus on as a blessed break he could take from himself now that his brain wasn’t busily filled with tasks. His smile slow as his saunter, the way he leaned arm and bodyline along a wall and just — just watched for awhile – Aelius talkn’ to him from across a room, to himself in the kitchen.

It felt –

If he was being honest with himself? The moment felt domestic as ********, almost bizarrely so. It twanged some invisible antenna in his brain, left him staring maybe a moment too long at where Aelius rummaged before he pieced together *why* it felt that way. He’d seen the man bleed, kill, kiss. Watched him go from freshly showered, to dance-hall-worn, to war-like and fighter ready. They’d shared any number of meals. Spent any number of nights together in a bed for little more n just – the sake of sharing.

All those little human comforts, the way they stacked, the way he hadn’t wanted to ruin it all in the face of the utter heartbreak he’d witnessed. The horrors that lay behind that — How all of it could change now!! Aelius n Faustite could be the friends they’d never gotten to be.

Waru could…..

“Try the other drawers, Aelius.” Waru didn’t move to help, simply crossed his arms over his center and continued to lounge. Watching Aelius with a soft expression that spoke of more than his usual voyeuristic tendencies.
.

He didn’t think he’d answered beyond some appreciative sound, some humm that counted as a ‘yes’. His mind wasn’t on the food just then, if it took Aelius the next ten years to get it ready….

Because what Waru wanted?

What he truly wanted; while watching Aelius rummage through drawer after drawer, bending and twisting to dig through them, yanking the next most-stuck one open. Was to set Aelius on his countertop, and kiss him silent. Or to have come up behind him, and *helped* Aelius search those same drawers while standing just close enough to have felt the too-human warmth of Aelius’s form, and all while without actually touching him. To have allowed the moment he could see so easily playing out just naturally become something more.

Waru shook that thought off though—

Enjoying the idea of it from a comfortable distance, from a safe enough place as to be considered polite that was one thing. To act on it…

It’d been fine before, hadn’t it? To admire Aelius like that, to acknowledge all the facets of the man that made him attractive. It’d been easier, then, with Eion as the safety-pillow between them – a buffer of sorts – when his one goal had been getting the two boys what they wanted most. Each other. How he hadn’t minded circling on the perimeter, sharklike – observing just within reach – happy just to see them happy without wanting more.

‘But just because I’m fine with things doesn’t mean other people are…or should be..or…’ Some lessons took learning the hard way. It wasn’t right of him to assume things were still as they had been in his little imagined land. Even if it was a soothing bit of distraction to pretend otherwise…

He felt the eyes before he saw them, heard Aelius ask him something direct, n twisted to realize he’d maybe been being watched as much as he’d been watching. It made him laugh — he didn’t quite remember which horror movie they’d be watching. Knew it’d been a long time since he’d last lain on this couch, curled up with Syrus, the way he’d lost yet another TV to a home-haunting. He’d had poor luck with those, especially around this time of year! “I don’t mind your cooties, Aelius.” the reawakened smile came with a shrug as Waru slid off the wall to collect the remote. Admiring with a low whistle of praise the — truly an entire buffets worth of food that’d have leftovers with it.

Not that they’d go to waste. Not when he thought of haymitch, and Magnus, and the kosopods, and Cerbs…

Heh, of Faustite….

No, he needn’t have any worry of leftovers being left over a day in his life. Only ever needed to put the word out. He’d show Aelius later, what happened when a three headed Tribis from Hell got peckish over some lo mein.

Later…

“Whatever saves dishes — I think — though I really need t’start investing in paper plates with how rarely I’ve been coming over here. Forgetting things in the dishwasher is now, like, biological warfare levels of dangerous to do….” he snickered to himself, shuffled around the man’s hard work to get settled. “Now c’mere — sit! You already did all the hard work. N’im pretty sure this tv is smarter than my last one. N’not haunted.”

“It’s been at leaaaasst twice now, Aelius –– It’s – no, okay, maybe more n’twice?” Waru only gave Aelius a briefly skeptical look before diving into what became a run-on string of related stories. Stitching together the beginnings and ends in quick succession. Because he’d owned dumb tv’s, old tv’s, haunted tvs! He was fine with cellphones because that was where he kept his pictures of the people he vibed with, and the numbers of people he wanted to call, but for much else? He’d never before been the kind of homebody who’d been home enough to bother with fancy entertainment things—

If that’d changed within the last year or so? He didn’t seem unhappy with it. Even if the homes he most put himself into weren’t anywhere near his own. The second he’d known Faustite was gonna be a regular edition in his condemned unit of a place, he’d started working on it. Never before had he bothered, no one ever minded, no one else wanted t’be in it or around save the one boy, the rare cat, a whole a** bird!

And now? He supposed he could add Aelius to the counter of ‘people who’ve been here more than once’. Which was a list that was far shorter than ‘people who’ve been here once’ and eeeeven shorter than ‘people who I’ll never dare ******** invite ever’.

Just, so many lists….

“The first time might’ve been some really bad party drugs. It was some trippy s**t – bleeding walls – girls outta the tv screen levels of ********. I can’t remember if I got ‘em off of Faustites desk, or from that warehouse rave in the construction district? The place they demo’d n rebuilt that banking tower, like, three or four years ago now?” He shrugged as he followed suit, set the little paper sleeve aside, and made a pile of the numerous fortune cookies for later. Had to have a fortune cookie pile ready and available to trade if needed! They were like the palate cleansers of chinese food! Necessary, sweet little waifer things. “Whatever that particular paralysis demon was? Cause there was no ********’ escaping the couch….But the tv went out in the trash the next ********’ day…” and then he arranged the napkins as he spoke, stared the food over hungrily, indecisive so long as he was talking.

Happy to watch Aelius eat, truly.

“The time it was talking when nothing was on – like static, n whispers, n voices in the middle of no electricity. Threw that one straight out the door….after I put the remote through it…uhmmm…” and finally he partook, speared a rib more than delicately grabbed it, put his hand over his mouth as he talked around chewing in a mild attempt not to actually talk with his mouthful.

“The singing ghost animals…” muffled, and the look he gave Aelius, as if daring the man ever so playfully to question if what he was saying was real, or hadn’t happened, or had happened but wasn’t possible and so also somehow hadn’t happened!! He remembered spending the night at Hina n Harus during that fiasco. “The demon-ball of massive spiders….which...that wasn’t the tv’s fault? But much like with the ‘invasion of the carol singers’; a lotta s**t got thrown out cause they’d gotten into it! Including the tv!” Waru exaggerated a shudder, a spooked expression, before breaking into a grin and spearing two more ribs to shove into his hole.

“Nawht that the spider-night went too bad? It was Halloween and I got to be the Big Bad Wolf to Emmy’s Cruella Devil, leash n all.” A snicker that came with an arched brow, the noise slightly muffled as he suddenly considered….

How he’d never asked Aelius if there was s**t he wanted to hear and s**t he didn’t? Had never considered being polite with the man like that – kept — bringing things up based on whether he felt comfortable with sharing ‘em or not and just…

He’d never….

Emmy had made herself clear, and Adam, and Faustite, and hell even Trey!? The people he saw more n once, even just as friends, even just as part time window shopping buddies. ******** he knew *Lovely’s* preference over the matters of his love life and what he talked about concerning who the ******** he did anything with more n Aelius’s!! It randomly struck Waru as wrong, the story that should’ve been creepy, funny, a little racy at the end, the way he wasn’t sure if Aelius was even comfortable hearing those parts that way.

How he didn’t pull this kind of s**t on the others….

‘The ******** am I so inconsiderate with Aelius? Do I do this to him all the time?!’

“I’ll watch anything you choose tho, yeah? M’superstitious and easily spooked by most fake-a** horror shows so I don’t really watch..uhm..anything? I know how that sounds! But–ah– are you–” he made sure to swallow, “Do you mind when I talk about – just – me n other people? I don’t…I don’t think I’ve ever asked? I just kind of…thrust that s**t on you sometimes. So…” and if he took one single more rib bite to chew on while sucking the sauce off his sticks to keep his mind n mouth busy. He tried his best not to draw attention to it.

Making Aelius laugh til he cried? The ********’ equivalent to singing angles, or smiling babies, or some super cute s**t! Waru was pleased, nodding eagerly along to the suggestion, because he’d actually heard of that one! The suggestion sounded like a more than good enough safe middle ground in his mind!

“Oooh, horror comedy?! Hell yeah! That sounds right up my alley.” tossed from where he’d slowly begun to settle back into the cushions, he let the words follow Aelius as he listened for the man's response, as he waited and tried not to fidget with the utensils he kept switching grips on while trying time n again to get what felt like the exactly right one. His heart leapt when Aelius finally answered, and he told himself to stay, kept himself back because he wasn’t about to stalk the man into his kitchen like a hopeful stray dog hoping for treats!

No, he was a grown man, and he could wait—

“Yes please!! I’ll take anything – uhm – whatever you're having just t’make things easy? There should be things in the fridge n’less you brought some in that massive haul of yours!” He couldn’t quite remember what, but? He knew he had shelf-stable basics, canned things, liquors in glass bottles. Tea? The dried kind at least! “And…honestly, Aelius? It doesn’t matter what we ‘aren't’...you’re…you’re a person, yeah? N’I’m considerate with most people—or I try to be; friends, lovers, the whole nine’n’a’half yards. So I absolutely should’ve asked you this a long time ago….” Waru huffed at himself, squirming in the couch like he wished it’d swallow him and all his ill aimed timing, every careless word, the winces he aimed at the ceiling like there would suddenly be something interesting up there other than plain-old-popcorned whitewash.

“Cause I’m not trying to be an inconsiderate a*****e, kay. Just an accidental one,” he realized the second time his gaze had drifted down to where Aelius stood that he could be doing something other than playing with his food and praying for space to eat him. He could find the movie! Had the apps – all the classics were on most of the streaming platforms – he could damn well multitask his work! Talk and search and — “But not about s**t like this, not when I can help it.” His voice softened a degree, as he paused in his scrolling over the tv’screen and stared at the glimpse of a busy Aelius once more.

“You don’t need to be fine with the same s**t that I am, you just need t’tell me so when it happens. I’m try’n–I wanna be better at listening to things like that from the people I care for. So! From now on? That. I’ll leave out the details…you’ll keep queuing me in when I inevitably cross that line, kay?” A warm smile full of fondness that sat warmly on his face, that sat there naturally as the rising sun, and shifted only when he finally found the movie and clicked on it, watching the intro que up and hitting pause while Aelius came with the drinks.

“When those friends are okay with it? I mean, sure, but since you’re not…” a reflexive shrug of his own, a mirror to the image of the boy he saw shifting just enough that he could imagine the movement. The flex of Aelius’s form and it didn’t help that he’d seen the man dance before; the after, the during, and the change out between tights and sweats.

In his kitchen—

In Aelius’s home which might as well have been his second home by now!! <********, ********, nope…’

“Heh–you’re welcome, Aelius.” The words sighed out swiftly after he swallowed around the kind of heat he’d blame on a stray birds eye chili that’d gotten tangled in the lo-mein, tilting his head while listening, hoping with all of himself that Aelius would keep up his end of the bargain from this point on and – if he could’ve pleaded with the man to tell him anything? That he’d do better this time – from now on. That he’d try. And so when Aelius did finally agree to things!? ******** – forgave him and handed out fresh new promises all in one go! Waru was beaming, just, absolutely beaming in a way he couldn’tve hid if he’d tried to.

The smile stayed as he hummed some encouraging note of reassurance in Aelius' direction, made his own silent promises to help the man through his own trials — and accepted the tea; cool to the touch and perfect to wash down the warmth in his body that had nothing to do with the food.

“It’s weird, I don’t care for ‘fake spooky’? I think it’s cause I’ve seen real spooky. But the s**t in the Rift doesn’t scare me…It’s people things that’re weird….and I do like the parties that come around that time of year! But– uhm – their always the dancing, sexy costume contest kind of parties? Not the ‘haunted house’ kind. Though me n’ Faustite did crash one once! This tower of horror, and it was the funniest s**t to see him give the workers something real to be afraid of…” he found himself getting comfortable again as he rambled, shifting into the slight dip nearer to Aelius weight, his own half downed glass joining the other mans. He eyed the rice, eyed the chicken, snickered as he copied the man beside him and grabbed out of the same container once again.

“I think it still might be Christmas? The snow is a b***h-a** novelty of nastiness – gimme summer anyday. But the holiday itself! All the little traditions that come around it. I call my mom n the girls, there's some almost-anniversaries? The worlds just kind of nice n fluffy that time of year.…and I like that about it.” Stalling out on starting the actual show to follow up and ask the obvious, his chopsticks briefly dipping into a box of what he thought was spicy beef n broccoli – that tasted svelte and juicy – he pointed his chopsticks at Aelius briefly.

“What about you? Favorite holiday, give it up!”

Waru preened a bit, took the compliment for what it was and in all of its truths. Taking up the cup of lo-mein up once more, into his lap so as not to get it over Aelius, and enjoying the easy as breathing closeness while he dipped back into the feast. The way greasy noodles would always be his favorite comfort food here—

Waru could see how new years made sense, a shiny holiday for a shining star of a person. All sorts of new resolutions and sparkling parties! Aelius reminded him enough of champagne — “No way, is it? Huh, I’m a November baby myself!” And if Waru choked on a noodle when Aelius asked about his family, then it was fine! He’d always wanted this, right? Twenty questions and for Aelius to be the one asking him them!

Maybe if he just put the noodles back closer to Aelius' side of the table before he drowned in them….

“Naw, it’s fine, I’ll always like talking about my mom n the girls. Honestly? Can’t believe I never told you till now.” He committed to taboo and stabbed his chopsticks back into that spicy beef, watched them stand safely upright while he got into things. “So— my dads from the states — naturalized immigrant parents, but he was born here, right? So he’s got that dual-citizenship leisure pass. The worlds his oyster —- heh — there’s such thing as good n bad passports, yanno?” He smirked as though he didn’t find it funny, the way he knew he could go places others couldn’t by luck of the draw. By arbitrary lines on a map and in no small part also in thanks to his mothers dedication to seeing him happy.

“And my moms in Kribi, Cameroon — she’s technically Sudanese? But there was a tiny little war and she had this great-auntie — anyways! She’s back home with my sisters. He’s—”and waru shrugged, waved the location of the man off like a passing thought he didn’t care to chase down, that he didn’t care to know of. Not even now. “Somewhere, right? Whatever! It’s all different dads division; wedlock, fun night, b*****d style. Not visa-having wedding style. My moms a bit of a rebel, and so are my three little sisters! Who’re not so little anymore, actually; s’Miracle, Maven, n Feli.”

Oh, and talking about them made him miss them, something fierce and fond! All in a good way, a way that made his eyes look distant with longing, full with brief, but pleasant memories. He was able to meet Aelius own, to stare into those curious golden orbs with soft auburn ones and answer him on the fly, sounding only a little winsome for it.

“I didn’t hit that infinite money glitch till they started handing out the nega-bucks. Mmh—Faustite even asked me once why I didn’t just network t’fly back sometime? Get the agency to coordinate a trip. And— I didn’t want to have to explain to my family what I couldn’t easily explain to anyone else either. I’m not good at lying— but omission? Not telling my family the whole truth while staying here was way easier than inventing a living ex-sugar daddy or a job I could never actually hold.” He laughed at himself, trying to imagine a world where he’d made enough cash back then. He knew he could go now, as an adult, that time had passed and it could make sense that he’d saved the kind of money it’d take to travel!

That he could use one of his husbands as a factor; ‘this is mine and that combined income let’s me come home to you!’ Something believable, something true enough, something…And he did finally wince over realizing he had to explain why it was only him. As if he hadn’t quite reconciled that within himself, or his own mind, even years later and existing happily in the here and now.

“But why it’s me here instead of them is — it’s all that father having business — and being the only boy t’raise and — I think she believed in him? Or she wanted me to have a better life than — like — diving for sand in coke bottle kayaks for pennies — but I’ve been here since I was eight, and I stopped living with *him* when I was sixteen in the: ‘under the same roof’ sense, but mentally?” Waru tsk’d, shaking his head and trading the noodles for the spicy beef he’d stabbed earlier. Leaning into Aelius as he morosely fed himself a mouthful.

“I’m just a stubborn momma's boy at heart I guess. There was never gonna be a world where we got along. Not me n him. So..there’s that…” there was no great tragedy, everybody was alive, there only existed choices. His own. And he felt he had no right to be sad for living with them.

“Mmph—should we run the movie now?” hopeful tone, and he snapped his chopsticks at Aelius gently, playfully, pointing them towards the remote.

Do you really think so? And the way Aelius sounded so ******** genuine about it all, like he really meant it! N’so Waru kept his soft little thought to himself, lest he speak it into existence and make himself cry in ways that he couldn’t blame on any spice level known to man. He’d always kind of hoped, endlessly, in every way – that he was more her than him – that she’d done enough that he was worth something. In his own meager little way, that he hadn’t ******** despoiled her gift of a better life even if he, for the longest damn time, was so sure he would’ve been happiest without one….

So he kept his mouth shut, took the half hug, said a mental ‘********’ and leaned into it even after the arm was pulled away.

This was nice, a pleasant thrumm of movie serving as background noise, something he could pretend to watch even if he wasn’t listening to s**t at all. The kind of thing he’d done before Faustite, on a lazy night, when he couldn’t sleep and found all that static soothing t’listen to. The kind of whisper-soft people sounds that he could just crash out over while not feeling oddly alone in his own place. Always wanting a crowd, a crowded room, someone else's atmosphere to linger in n sheets to fall into for any n every evening. How his house hadn’t been a home before, not quite like this.

“Mmph—” he shifted to give the man more of his weight, to curl more comfortably on the couch, eyes ahead but his mouth on his mind and his mind on Aelius’s question. “Kribi– which’s waaaaay over a continent or several that-a-way, n’then to the East Coast, Southern Cali – like the baja areas? ********’ s’probably why I love the ocean so much....yanno? R’just–swimming in general? Diving n s**t, there’s so much in the outdoors…” he caught a glimpse of classic scooby gang horror trope, snickered for it, re-caught his thoughts. “We traveled more when I was younger – always getting around for his work, I think? Which’s why he was in West-Central Africa t’begin with. Like, some real fancy company trip, business shenanigans, beach days, etc. My home is the sand industry as much as it is the people n’ tourist one. Y’get more workers from there then y’think…” If he scrunched down enough that he could just rest his head on Aelius shoulder, the way it felt comfortable as it did indulgent to do so, a rare bit of peace he wasn’t about to give up for the world. ********, the sort he was planning on taking advantage of, probably, even if it was only an advantage simple as this.

A comphy Aelius-styled pillow! The sort he was gonna make so much use of—

“Think— we finally settled in DC — when I was twelve? Thirteen? I was – less n ******** thrilled over it – it was novel at first, just for the snow. Like – the idea of a Christmas with an actual winter again? But I’d liked traveling, I missed the warmer coasts. Hell, I missed even some of the colder ones! Like Washington for half a year, or Cali for two, ******** for a whole summer for some reason? Georgia for another short minute – the ********’ islands they’ve got there though! Uhmn–anywhere with water really?” Waru huffed, finally daring to reach out and pick at something of his own once more out of the ruinous mass of options. He spied something that looked like it had peanuts in it, a mockery of a pad thai, but delicious none-theless! Waru was back on his noodle loving business again.

“And then we’re here – and we’re ‘settling cause it’s for the best’; cause I must’ve seemed ********’ unmanageable levels of feral by then! Which didn’t matter t’me so much as the fact that I just always wanted to go back. Everything that wasn’t ‘home’ was just a distraction, an adventure, and – heh – can you imagine the kind of hell I raised when the hook up to that distraction stopped cold turkey?” to say he’d never stopped was an understatement, one more mention left un-mouthed from his mind. He kept those sounds to himself and crunched on, slurped on, shrugged against Aelius warmth.

“D’nthink he lives here anymore—th’last straw was the last straw, I put it there myself. Havn’t kept in touch since.” He spared a chance glance at the screen just one more time, watched men working behind the scenes to get the kids – sacrificed? Were those bets being placed?