@hardlydead

[outerfringe]

[One day David simply stops appearing by the fire with the rest of them, and Jeff does his very best to be relieved for him. There are only two real possible reasons for that, right? Either he'd actually died for real, or he'd managed to find a way back home- and either way, it meant that he was out of this place. Jeff tries to be happy for him, and for the most part, he is.

He doesn't think about David at all the first day after he wakes up on the cold floor of the Ormond resort, back stiff and jacket crusted with frost. Instead he's too busy finding his way back to town, organizing arrangements to make it home. His apartment key no longer works, he recognizes none of his neighbors, but his bank account was still somehow in alright standing.

Jeff finds a new place. He does not find a new dog.

He feels weird about creating a Facebook account just to check for David, but he does it anyway. When that comes up fruitless, he thinks a lot about the conversations the two of them had while tucked close together in the dark. Wonders if David would even want to be found by someone like him, to be faced with a reminder of the time they'd spent doing everything they could to simply survive.

Jeff tries to paint but can't seem to pull himself out of severe blacks and reds. Tries to catch up on the music he'd missed from the bands he'd loved but it fails to soothe him the way it had before. He considers a therapist, and then decides that he'd be locked away the second he was candid enough for someone to actually help him.

So he packs some things, books a flight. Finds himself at his fifth seedy pub in three days without much hope - except this time when he says he's looking for David King, the big guy by the bar makes a point of sizing him up. Jeff sets his shoulders, frowns and promises that he's an old friend, but it doesn't seem to affect much the scowl on the guy's face. He says something (that Jeff completely misses, he can barely understand a goddamn thing when people here are drunk and loud), but seems to indicate for him to wait.

Which he does. He parks on a stool with a drink, assumes his most unapproachable aura, and waits. He doesn't know who he's expecting to appear, but it's not David.

There's not a chance it would actually be that simple.]

Comments

[hardlydead]

[ yeah, that makes sense. david frowns, giving it a little thought. ]

Guess there's no harm in looking. Dunno how you even would though.

[outerfringe]

Could you imagine? Showing back up to your family so many years later.

Fuck.

unrelated but pls tell me this dumb convo is funny to you too https://i.imgur.com/zuQhcdZ.png

[hardlydead]

Depends on your family I guess.

[ his own parents lost their fucking minds when he turned up, but they didn't seem so worried about him rather than the image. only good change david's made since getting back is he hasn't spoken to them since. ]

[ but it makes david wonder, if it sent them back would it be now or would it be back in the fucking nineties? the idea of just turning up, not aged a day after what's gotta be near twenty years makes him shudder. ]

LOL that's great. even if lore retconned their meeting for some reason

[outerfringe]

You got family?

[It's a topic he hasn't really ever broached before, but one he's curious about. The liquid courage helps here.]

me & my minor gripes about the way they've retconned legion things: an essay

[hardlydead]

Just my parents.

[ definitely nothing worth talking about there. ]

You?

[outerfringe]

My mom's around, but we don't really talk. [Jeff had basically gone low contact with her when he'd first moved out.] Uh- I was in Ormond because of my dad's funeral. Don't say sorry, it is what it is.

[hardlydead]

Fair enough.

[ he's quiet for a few seconds, and then he almost suddenly says: ]

I don't talk to my parents either.

[outerfringe]

Yeah?

[He leans a little pressure back.] Any specific reason?

[hardlydead]

[ he nods ] A few, yeah.

[ and he wraps his arms a little tighter around jeff too, sighing softly. ]

Don't really wanna get into it right now, but, y'know. I get it, I guess.

[outerfringe]

[He lifts his hand from David's leg to press against his wrist, sliding his fingers fondly up his forearm.]

Yeah. But if you ever want to, y'know?

[hardlydead]

I know.

[ and he appreciates that. jeff's not the only person who's reached out a hand to david, but he's the only one who's ever felt safe. it means more than he has words for. ]

Same goes for you.

[outerfringe]

Nothing that serious. I mean- it was when I was a kid. Fighting and screaming shit, nonstop? But they split when I was seventeen.

[It had been... stressful.]

Things got quiet after that.

[hardlydead]

[ he makes a quiet noise of understanding — less so of the parents, god he wished it was ever a fight with them — but it adds some context to jeff. a little background that makes a lot of sense, actually. ]

Sounds like a mess.

[outerfringe]

Yeah. Mostly just started listening to loud music. Doing stuff out of the house.

[But speaking of family-]

Nobody waiting on you at home?

[Sure, David had invited him back, but that was before they'd initiated any sort of real physical touch.]

[hardlydead]

Nah.

[ he shakes his head and kisses jeff's neck, making a bit of a point on that note. he wouldn't have invited him back if there was. ]

[outerfringe]

[Jeff is only human; selfishly, he's glad, but he's still drunk enough for his filter to have been knocked slightly askew. He says something that he'd usually only think, which is-] I'm sorry. Has to be fucking lonely.

[hardlydead]

[ oh. that makes david stop for a second, but just a second. it is, but he's not going to admit it. ]

It's fine.

[outerfringe]

[Jeff hums, a quiet noise of acknowledgment, and will lapse into silence. Half paying attention to the movie, half just basking in the warmth and pressure of another human body by his.]

[hardlydead]

[ david does the same, resting his head on jeff's shoulder, occasionally lifting it to kiss his neck or his cheek. honestly he's forgotten entirely that they ordered food so when that shows up it's going to be a surprise. ]

[outerfringe]

[Jeff is close to dozing by the time dinner arrives. He's not exceptionally tired, just boneless, deeply comfortable. He startles at the knock, momentarily hyper-vigilant, before he groans and moves to roll from the bed.]

Pizza, yes, right.

[hardlydead]

[ he's comfortably wrapped around jeff, head resting against his, and when jeff startles it makes him jump. complaining when he moves, but they do need to eat. ]

[ while jeff deals with that, david moves up further up the bed to recline against the headboard. pizza time. ]

[outerfringe]

[Jeff hesitates for a moment, as if trying to decide if they're going to eat on the bed, before he seems to decide fuck it. He grabs a few bottles of beer out of the little hotel mini-fridge, settling back onto the bed next to him.]

[hardlydead]

[ who cares about the bed man it's pizza time. david smiles his thanks at the beer and pulls up the pizza box so it's resting on their thighs (he doesn't want to move away enough to put it between them) and he looks way more happy than anyone should be about beer and pizza. this is just really, really nice. ]

[outerfringe]

[Jeff silently doles out slices of pizza, motions carefully deliberate in a way that definitely belies his level of inebriation. He'll stare down at the food in his lap for a moment, shaking his head.]

We're extremely boring. Damn.

[hardlydead]

[ david's own drunkenness manifests in the way that slice of pizza is gone approximately two seconds after david picks it up, and when jeff speaks he ends up laughing and choking on the food in his mouth. ]

We've earned it.

[ cough cough cough ]