inbox;

[stressors]

● "Hey, it's Shiro." ●

"Sorry you missed me. Leave me one and I'll call you right back. Thanks."

☏ call. ✉ text. ⌨ video. ☄ action.

code over at pagans

Comments

[impulsors]

Yeah, so that I could see you.

[ too blunt? oh well. ]

I don't know about your bad coffee.

[stressors]

[ someone needs to tell this kid to ease up on the honesty.

. . . just. not now. even if it does make him feel oddly self-conscious for some inexplicable reason. ]

I didn't burn it again, did I?

[impulsors]

I don't know about burning it . . . but I'm pretty sure I saw your coffee machine out at the Eulogy market once.

It was in Antiques.

[stressors]

[ . . . ]

Just because my hair looks like this, doesn't make me old.

[impulsors]

[ a beat -- and the faintest quirk of a grin. ]

Huh. Never would've guessed.

[stressors]

[ . . . he likes this look better, anyway. ]

Need more sugar for your coffee, junior?

[impulsors]

. . . does the sugar make it -- better?

[stressors]

. . . no. I don't think there's really saving bad coffee.

[ it's a skewed smile of concession as he takes the mug out of keith's grip. ]

I'll warm up a cup of milk for hot chocolate instead.

[impulsors]

[ but he's clambering up with shiro's motion, hand a fleeting curve through the air where it's not quite clear whether he's reaching after the cup or a wrist.

it drops in the end, anyway. ]

You don't have to take care of me.

[ and then, scrubbing at his damp hair again - ]

. . . I need a shower anyway -- right?

[stressors]

[ he looks exactly like he did in his dream -- although maybe less damp, even if the sweat had his hair clinging to his skin in small curls. but the fact of the matter is this: keith has bright eyes and an unusually pretty face beneath the dark, messy hair.






and so it takes a second too long for him to respond, or to realize he's staring -- and he clears his throat. ]

Help yourself to the amenities.

[impulsors]

[ . . .

in a rare spark of forethought - ]

Wait -- I didn't bring extra clothes.

[stressors]

You can use some of mine while I throw yours into the wash.

[ . . . ]

I should have a pair of shorts with an adjustable waistband.

[impulsors]

[ looks at shiro's dorito-chip waist.






looks down at his own. ]

I'll just take whatever you've got.

[ as he stalks off with an uncomfortable familiarity to the shoddy bathroom. ]

[stressors]

[ . . .

well, this is.

kind of unreal. not quite uncomfortable, just -- different. it's the same sort of familiar feeling from the dream, but he's definitely awake. and there's some strange boy in his shower, who definitely broke his boarded up window not too long ago.

it really makes a man reconsider the choices he made in his life.

but there's a folded up set of clothes on the bed for keith by the time he's​ done, and shiro's nowhere to be seen. ]

[impulsors]

[ at least one of them's past the point of questioning the bewildering sequence that got them to each other. he slides into the shirt (overlarge, but at least it's something worn comfortable), tugs the drawstring of shiro's obligatory stupid dad-shorts around his hips, and goes hunting.

it isn't as if the apartment's that big anyway. ]

Shiro -- ?

[stressors]

Sorry, I just put another coin in the washer.

[ -- he says, as he wanders back through the doorway.

and sure. keith gets a Look from head to toe. ]

You fill them in better than I thought you would.

[impulsors]

Maybe you're not as big as you think you are.

[ and then, belatedly - ]

. . . thanks.

[stressors]

Don't mention it.

[ as another mug gets passed into keith's hands. ]

It's cocoa. The powdered kind, so there's less of a chance I burned it.

[impulsors]

[ he's shifting on his heels a little before he knows it -- less a matter of nerves than restlessness. when's the last time he even hung out with someone? what do you do when you're hanging out? are they even hanging out?? ]

Do you -- uh. Wanna sit?

[stressors]

[ it isn't as though he can't tell the signs.

he feels it, too -- restless and curious and maybe a little nervous because he might just be projecting his dream onto a stranger who is probably coincidentally experiencing the same side effects, the same new sickness that might be brewing out of some resistance scheme or secret company ploy.

but he's smiling to create some ease, at least, and gesturing to his

bed. Look, he doesn't have a couch. leave him alone. ]

[impulsors]

[ funny how that doesn't even occur to him -- though that must be blamed, at least in part, on the way he keeps looking back to shiro, magnetic and inexorable.

in the end, he plants himself on the mattress, ignoring the squeak, with the mug cupped warm between his hands, and shifts backwards a little. only - ]

. . . I definitely get what you meant about the draft now.

[ at least he's settled himself against the wall. sipping grimly!! ]

[stressors]

. . . cold?

[impulsors]

[ he's still bath-damp and wrapped in too-big shorts. what other answer would there be besides - ]

I'm fine.

. . . sit down already.

[stressors]

[ he is.

or rather, he's sitting on the edge of the mattress, offering keith a folded square of blankets to cover his legs. ]

Can you tell me something?

[impulsors]

[ . . . draping them over himself, with a perplexed little furrow. ): ]

Yeah -- what?