@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]

[ 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 ]

[outerfringe]

[He lifts a hand just to smack at his back.]

Have we actually done anything?

[hardlydead]

[ he coughs a couple more times and puts a hand on jeff's leg to say he's good, confused by the question though. he frowns at jeff, a little more lost than maybe he would be if he wasn't currently working on raising his blood alcohol level. ]

What do you mean?

wtf

[outerfringe]

To earn pizza in bed. [Jeff's brow knits in consternation.] I'm trying to be funny or something, man. You've waited a year to see me.

[hardlydead]

Eighteen months. [ he corrects without thinking around a bite of pizza and shrugs a shoulder. ] I think going to the trouble of finding me is enough to earn it.

[outerfringe]

Year and a half, then.

[Mock exasperated around his own bite.]

And no way. Gotta convince you I'm still cool.

[hardlydead]

Jeff, c'mon--

[ he raises his eyebrows as if to say 'you had to see this coming' before he actually says it, because somebody left the door wide open. ]

I never thought you were cool.

[outerfringe]

Bullshit.

[Said with artificial bravado.]

Covered in tats. Everyone thinks I'm cool for a few minutes.

[hardlydead]

Fine. Maybe for five minutes I thought you were cool.

[outerfringe]

Shit. Normally get at least fifteen. What gave me away?

[hardlydead]

[ he turns his head and gives jeff a thoughtful squint. ]

Guess I could just tell.

[ hm ]

That or getting advice from Dwight. A cool guy would've asked Nea.

[outerfringe]

[He meets that thoughtful squint with one of his own, then seems mock offended. He also has pizza sauce in his beard.]

Dwight seemed anxious.

[hardlydead]

Mmhm.

[ david's expression softens when he sees the pizza sauce and he grabs a napkin to try and clean some of that off. not very well but he's trying. ]

He always looks like that.

[outerfringe]

Yeah. I figured that out later.

[Jeff laughs in confused surprise, trying to grab the napkin from him.]

[hardlydead]

[ oh, he wants the napkin? it's a game now and he can't have it. david starts trying to keep his hand away from jeff's in between dabs at his beard. ]

[outerfringe]

[Jeff is baffled, but he can't help the way he's laughing at it, too.] What are you-? David.

[hardlydead]

You've got sauce in your beard.

[ he grins ] I'm just trying to clean it for you.