So young so beautiful…. #ChaceCrawford
➹ [ALL THE VERSES! XD]
For every ➹ I get, I’ll put up my muse’s current thought about yours.
[tkau] DOES HE KNOW HE HAS PAINT ON HIS FACE? I’m not telling. This is too fun.
[tkau/twd] Is he tired? He’s tired. Did he even sleep? Oh, right. Full moon tonight. Does this ever get easier?
[wolfmond] Wonder if Nik’s free. I love Ollie but I think I need a little time with some grownups too.
[mirror!verse] Okay. He’s funny. And he’s kinda adorable, like a puppy. I can sorta see where I might have started to be friends with him.
[cured au] PLEASE GET ALONG, PLEASE GET ALONG, PLEASE GET ALONG.
[for the lost boys au pls if possible] ‘sleigh bells’
Send ‘Sleigh bells’ and I’ll generate a number.
8. Decorating cookies together
Portland, 2016
It’s so cold. Funny how for both of them that still feels like a threat, even though now they can always get away from it, turn on a heater, add extra layers of clothes, boil water for a cup of tea or even just a mug of hot water so they can wrap their hands around it. They own jackets and coats that are thick and warm and were paid for with actual money (though for the most part, still bought in Goodwill stores and church bazaars, because they conserve money more carefully than they need to). They wear gloves and knit caps and good boots that don’t get soaked through in the snow.
But the cold still feels somehow dangerous, as if they could end up sleeping in some draughty factory again any day now.
They lock the door behind them (there is something very satisfying about that, too, about the simple luxury of a lockable door) and, hands gripped tightly together, walk to Rosalee’s car, idling on the street.
“Thanks for helping,” she says, looking at them both in the back seat, readjusting scarves and gloves.
“I’m not gonna be any good at this,” Alaric says. Last thing he wants to do is ruin Christmas for a bunch of poor kids – decorating cookies? He thinks he would do better to watch Nik do it. Not that frosting is exactly Nik’s main art medium but he does have the talent Alaric lacks. In spades.
But Nik opens his mouth to argue, reminding him they’ve got a system worked out; Alaric will fill in the big patches of color, and Nik will draw the details.
Maybe it’s more fundamental than this.
It’s not so long ago that he and Nik were walking into churches and shelters and community centers, thanking volunteers who served up soup or baked beans and trying to ward off the sense of shame. It feels like their time isn’t good enough for people who need what they needed once. But Alaric says none of this.
—
And they do look good. It’s not difficult. Alaric paints green over the trees, paints the brown trunk, and a couple of minutes later they are dry enough for Nik to add piped decorations, tinsel, and a piece of candy shaped like a star for the top. They work quietly, sitting close enough to bump together from time to time while Rosalee, Juliet and two other women prepare vegetables and Monroe and Nick stuff turkeys bought cheaply after Thanksgiving.
“Beautiful job, boys,” Rosalee says, coming up behind them to rest a hand on each of their shoulders. She acts like such a mom sometimes.
Alaric loves it.
—
Later, Alaric strings Christmas lights over the foot of the bed, and he and Nik sleep soundly, warmly, wrapped in each others’ arms.
the real world || lost boys
It had been so long since anyone had told Alaric he was doing something right that he didn’t think he would even get used to the way Nik kept saying it. And the way he kept looking at him like that. He watched Nik close the bathroom door, blinking, and wondering how the hell he was going to keep him well once they were out there again.
Only a few more weeks before the weather starting warming up in earnest but then they’d have the opposite problem. Cooking half to death instead of freezing at night. They could bum around the shopping malls, that were air conditioned…
He shook his head, and looked around the room, picking up his things. He didn’t bother folding his clothes – they’d need to go to a Laundromat and wash it all anyway. Today. That would be nice. They were always warm.
When everything was packed up, he lay out on the bed, waiting for Nik.
He could, he supposed, keep doing what he’d been doing, but he didn’t want to. He didn’t want Nik to find out. He didn’t want to wake up one day and realize that being touched made his skin crawl instead of being nice. As it was he had no idea how to do the things he wanted to do – touch Nik the way he wanted to touch him – without remembering the things he’d allowed to happen in the last few days.
He closed his eyes, and yawned, listening as the shower turned off.
“I still have a bit of cash,” he said, as Nik emerged. “We should get some breakfast, since you’re up to solid food. And then do some laundry, since…” he grinned ruefully. “Well, we stink a bit.”
Not too bad, but keeping healthy meant keeping clean, too, and Alaric was determined that they would both keep healthy. He didn’t want another week like this, barely sleeping, listening to Nik’s lungs.
“You’re really feelin’ okay, right? I mean we could do a couple more days… I’d need to go and get some more cash.”
Nik stayed in the shower for as long as he could. The idea of having to leave this behind – the safety of the room, the warmth, the bed, the feeling of having some privacy and a chance to recover – it was making him feel sick. He wanted more of this, he needed this break, he needed a place like this to feel human.
But then again, even if they lost all of this today, even if they had to go back to living as they had before, there was one thing he would not lose and that was his best friend. His boyfriend. He was allowed to call him that, now. Right? He and Ric, they were together, now, closer than before. They’d kissed, more than once, they’d slept in each other’s arms – that was what it meant, right?
Right.
And he wanted to look good for him, he’d had enough of feeling unclean and sweaty and sick.
He’d have to find a way to stop blushing. He wasn’t used to it, there had never been anyone to make him feel like this – and he liked it – but he also didn’t know what to do about it. Was he allowed to touch him now? Hold his hand in public? Stand closer to him than before when they were waiting for the soup kitchen to open?
Kiss him again without asking if it was okay to do so?
The truth was, he was lost, he had no idea what the next appropriate step would be, there was no one to ask.
Nik turned off the shower and stepped out of it. He would figure it out. He would watch Ric, learn from him, find out what he liked, what he wanted. What he needed. Like Alaric had done for him. He would do anything he could to make Ric feel as good as he was feeling.
He opened the door and walked out, glancing at his clothes in search of something that didn’t look like he had slept in it.
“I’m okay,” he said and turned to smile at Ric. “I don’t – I want to stay, here, but I know we can’t afford it and I’m good. I’m really good. And I want breakfast. And I want to help with the money, I want to do something. Work for it. I could help you with what you were doing. You could teach me, I swear I’m a fast learner. I want to help.”
It all came out in a rush and then he was blushing again, why he couldn’t say. So he turned around instead and started dressing, then gathered his stuff, trying hard not to think about what they were leaving behind. At some point he had to walk past Alaric to get his shoes and he stopped briefly to reach out, slowly, and put his hand on Ric’s shoulder to squeeze it.
And then make a face at him.
“We really need to do the laundry, Ric. Both of us.”
✵
Send me ✵ to catch my muse under the mistletoe!
Their Christmas dinner had continued for hours, the cookies that Ric slaved over for hours and hours in preparation for this were dwindling to dangerously low levels but Ally was content, she had a few handfuls stashed in her purse. Taking a sip of her drink, she played with Leia who was sitting comfortably on her lap at the table before she looked towards Nik sitting on the couch.
Someone had taken down the mistletoe after she’d kissed Ric – probably Nik, to make sure no one else smooched his boo – and she grabbed it off the table, placing her cup down and gently nudging Leia back onto the floor.
Quick as the wind, she run forward, jumped over the back of the couch and flopped down beside Nik before she dangled the mistletoe over his head. And then the attack of kisses started. On his cheek, on his forehead, she giggled as she assaulted him with quick smoochies before she pulled away, poking him gently on the top of his nose with her finger.
“Merry Christmas, Nik.”
Of Those Lost and Found || Alice & Nik
He was so very kind. Kinder than anyone she’s spoken with in such a very long time. And she was frightening him. Acting like she had no sense. Still leaning, Alice exhaled slowly, then pushed away to pour more water into the cup Nik had used.
“I’m…” Alice began, spilling a little water with her shaking hands. “I’m… not. I apologize.” She offered him the cup and a wan smile, hip resting against the table. “I don’t even know how long it’s been since I had a conversation with a real person.”
Looking down at her feet, the shewolf tucked a loose lock of wavy hair behind her ear. ”I don’t know how long… and the last time I spoke to someone real, it was… I was trying to…”
Alice closed her eyes, swallowing thickly, and waved a hand in front of her. ”I’m so sorry. I’m not… I don’t remember how to… to do this. To talk. I feel like I’m making a mess of it, asking too many questions, being rude, failing as a hostess…”
“I…” She glanced at Nik, sighing. “You’re very kind… and a very good conversationalist… and I… I’m sorry. I’m trying my best but… I really don’t remember how.”
Nik chuckled softly, but it was a sad sound.
“I know what you mean. I mean, I don’t like talking much. I always feel like I say the wrong thing. Especially when I’m talking to strangers. I never know what makes them tick and I don’t want to upset them. So I keep to myself and to the people I know. And that doesn’t really help me get better at it, but I guess it’s for the best.”
She was different, though, it was easy to talk to her. Maybe because she felt so familiar. And he wasn’t worried that she would ask him about things that would make him feel uncomfortable.
“You’re not asking too much, okay? I mean, you need to find out about all this, you need to know what is safe and what not. And I don’t mind telling you, at all. I wouldn’t know what I would do if I was in your place, so, whatever it is you need to know, just ask.”
And, again, because she still looked a bit too pale for his liking:
“You should sit down, all of this is a lot to take in. I’ll just stay over here if that makes it easier for you, I know I don’t like strangers who get too close, makes me nervous.”
✆
SEND ME A ✆ TO KNOW YOUR NAME/RINGTONE/PICTURE IN MY CHARACTER’S MOBILE.
Name: Little Nik
Ringtone: Daniel In The Den- Bastille
Photo:
A Ravenclaw uses Alohomora
A Slytherin uses a lockpick
A Gryffindor charges to ram the door down
A Hufflepuff tries the doorknob and finds it wasn’t locked in the first place.
Finds
saltzatore 