InsaneJournal

I'm allowed to hermit
WHO: Shiloh Lark & Billy Crowley
WHAT: Catch ups & coffee
WHERE: The Jam Jar
WHEN: Monday; 28th. 2019
RATING: PG
STATUS: Complete

Billy felt the warmth of his dog-tags, chinking gently against his chest as he walked the familiar path from his apartment to The Jam Jar. The afternoon sun was against his back and as he felt it warming his skin he realised that that, at least, was never going to get old. Feeling the warmth of the sun against his skin when he’d worried that he was never going to see or feel it again? Definitely something worth savouring.

Besides, he’d been doing the graveyard shift (something he’d heard a few of the human cops calling the overnight shift for years and he loved it whilst some of his colleagues found it ‘insulting’) for the last month. Being out in the daylight was novel again.

The Jam Jar was easy to locate by the smell alone; freshly baked goods and coffee carried for at least a block, and as he got closer he could hear the melodic tone of Waverley’s voice as she greeted customers. Once the summer hit, there would be the tables outside again — and whilst he didn’t mind sitting in the cold a lot of her other patrons did.

Stepping inside and shrugging out of his coat he cast his eyes around looking for Shiloh. A quick check of his watch showed that he was on time, a few minutes early, for once, but when he didn’t see her, he ordered himself a coffee and what looked like a fresh slice of lemon cake before settling in at a table by the window so that they could people watch as they were catching up. He had no idea how long it had been, it had to have been at least a year but possibly longer. He frowned a little, trying to cast his mind back to who had been President last time he and Shiloh had properly sat down for a catch up.

---

She was running late.

Shiloh hated being late, she disliked the rushed sense it brought, trying to remember if she'd done everything before leaving her house, if she remembered everything she needed, was there an errand she had to run while she was out, someone she was mean to stop by and see? It happened from time to time, Shiloh got caught up in what she was doing, lost track of time or just forgot she was meant to be doing something else somewhere else. Until something reminded her -usually her phone chirping at her that she had 15 minutes to get ready for whatever she was meant to be doing.

Getting herself together and out the door had been a rush, she knew that she probably looked cobbled together -the scarf always looked out of place in L.A, but it was thing and more often than not it wound up holding her hair back rather than around her neck.

She was thankful that it didn't take her that long to get the the Jam Jar, meaning at the most she was just five minutes late for meeting Billy. She stumbled in the door, catching several peoples attention while she sheepishly unravelled her layers, shooting a smile and small wave at Billy while she grabbed her own drink - pot of mint ginger lemon tea and a cranberry flapjack- bumping into two people while apologising the whole time, finally reaching the table by the window to sink into the empty seat, feeling the heat on her cheeks.

"Hi." It felt like the easiest greeting given her entrance.

---

Billy spotted her the moment she walked in, catching her scent through the open door just before she'd arrived. He'd half gotten to his feet to try and help her carry her tray but she bustled her way through remarkably efficiently considering how difficult the whole thing seemed to be. He steadied the tray as she approached, hand there to help guide it down if needed but she was perfectly capable. It was always easy to forget that she had been alive nearly twice as long as he, but he supposed in terms of maturation she was still a child whereas he was an adult and probably just likely to get grumpier.

"Hello to you, too," he greeted with a smile, sipping at his drink. It was a little early in the day to ask Waverley to break out the blood stash she had in the back for the vampire clients. "Take a deep breath," he reminded her, "you're not that late. It's fine."

He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small pouch but didn't lift his hand to the table just yet, holding it in his palm and waiting for Shiloh to settle herself.

"You look lovely, as always."

---

Sitting her tea and snack down, depositing her bag to the side of her chair, Shiloh pushed her hands through her hair, tugging the strands into a tail before looping a band from her wrist around it a few times and leaving a messy bun at the base of her neck. It gave her a moment to settle, her restless energy falling into place better, especially as Billy assured her she wasn't that late -late enough in her opinion, but not that late.

"Aw, thanks. I think you're biased, but thanks." Shiloh tended to go through phases where she looked a lot like hobo-chic, and then she could clean up to look right at home in Los Angeles. "You look the same, all smart and sharp." Something likely to attribute to his excellent career.

She happened to like cultivating friendships with beings that aged in a progression similar to her, she missed out on so much when she fell out of circles with mortals. "I feel like we don't do this often enough, or leave far too long between meetings." Which happened with extended lifespans, it did. But she wanted to break that mould.

---

Billy chuckled, smiled a little and shrugged. "Old habits die hard," he admitted, scratching at his jaw and sipped at his coffee again. Once he was sure she was settled and comfortable speaking he nodded. "I think it's been a couple of years," he admitted. Having been here since the 1980s, it was easy to let the years slide with little to differentiate one from the other. "We promised last time that we'd not wait so long, looks like we didn't do so well."

He lifted his other and slid the small black pouch across the table. Inside were two small pieces of rose quartz, as rough as if they were straight out of the ground. He'd found them last time he'd been in Vegas and had wandered past a magical curios shop. "I've had these on me for at least eight months."

---

It felt like time passed too quickly, but that was the way of the world, "You probably just get so busy, working like you do." As much as Shiloh enjoyed what she did with herself, money wasn't exactly something she worried about -investing was something her father taught her before he went off to teach and hoard somewhere else, and it wasn't exactly hard collecting expensive things, sort of right up her alley. "I think that's far more important than remembering tea sometimes." Although the intent was there, the follow through didn't seem as solid.

Like a switch flicking, the notion of gifts had her little grabby instincts flaring up, a smile tugging at her face as she put her tea back down to slide the pouch closer to herself. The quartz pieces were lovely, and Shiloh ran her finger carefully over the edges, almost lovingly. "You shouldn't have," not that she wouldn't accept them, trying to give them back at this point would be absolutely impossible. It was why she had two drawers on her hall table that were just filled with loose sequins, "but thank you. You know you can stop by my home any time, you don't need to wait for an invite."

---

"It does make the days go quick," Billy agreed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I had the last full moon off, didn't really know what to do with myself. I spend so much time working that when I'm not, I'm kind of at a loss."

He cleared his throat and watched her eyes light up as she slid the pouch over, hardly even pretending not to be anxious to rip into it and see what was inside. Her enthusiasm for the little things he got for her whenever he saw something he thought she'd like always made him happy, something that brought a genuine smile to his face.

"I know I don't have to but I want to. I saw them in a small shop in Vegas. Figured you'd like them. I spent about half an hour trying to find something that felt right. A lot of it was polished down into small, smooth stones. Kinda feel that takes something away from it. But, it's not really my deal."

Letting out a breath and picking up the fork, he took a piece of cake and waved it as he talked, managing to drop crumbs on the table. "I know, there's some cultural... tropes that I've not been able to shed despite my best efforts," he admitted, eating the piece of cake before continuing. "I'm quite incapable of just turning up unannounced, and whilst I can't break into hives anymore at the thought, it still gives me apoplexy."

---

"You need a hobby, something to keep you interested when you have free time." Shiloh knew that much at least -not that she'd really had many 'jobs', it was complicated to keep one and not disclose what her species was. Most people accepted vampire and werewolf at this stage of things, but the disbelief at 'dragon' might be too much for her when the questions started. "It doesn't even need to be anything fancy, just something to keep you occupied."

Shiloh kept running her fingers over the rough crystals, even as she tapped at her tea cup or broke some pieces off her flapjack. It was sweet, and she knew she had more than enough crystals, possibly similar ones at home, but it was an instinct she didn't see the sense in battling. Her nature dictated that she should collect, gather, hoard. And crystals were just that side of shiny and attractive that Shiloh enjoyed them enough to want to keep them. Not violently protective over them, but enough that she probably had more than any single person needed.

"The smooth ones are nice, but the rough ones have character, they're more authentic." And while she could wear the smooth ones if she wanted to, the less polished crystals seemed to be a little more classic looking around her home.

"I do have a phone, I don't live in the dark ages. I even have facebook, you could nudge me and count that as an announcement." If she were painfully honest, she was probably home more than she needed to be. To the world, she was a twenty-something unattached female who hoarded and probably didn't shower as often as she should. She'd heard the word 'recluse' a time or two. "After all, you're a workaholic and I'm a hermit, it'd do us both some good."

---

Billy just hummed into his coffee when Shiloh talked about hobbies. He didn't have any, really, which did mean that when he was on an off time he went to Black Velvet or the Antique for a while and then just sat at home and watched his way through Netflix. There were a series of serial killer documentaries that were fascinating. Human serial killers were always more interesting than the supernatural ones, which tended to be demonised in articles on the internet and used as villains in movies all the time which, if he were honest, got old quick.

He thought about the larger ones he'd seen, agate on a stand that had to have been stood at at least eight inches tall, polished with different colours swirling through it. He'd almost grabbed it for himself, let alone for Shiloh. But maybe next time. At least she was happy with the ones he'd brought back for her this time. There was something about her that just made him think of rose quartz, it was a weird association he knew considering until he'd met her he had no interest in crystals, but some things, he supposed.

Snorting, Billy ate another bit of his cake and shook his head. "I don't live in the dark ages either, so how about this, I'll text you next time I'm bored and you can let me know if you're in and we can meet up." His eyebrow did arch upwards. "Though, if you're calling yourself a hermit maybe you should get out a bit more often. At least I leave the office, don't you work from your place?"

---

Shiloh learned so very many years ago, when time was passing and she was starting to worry about filling time, hobbies kept her from going a little bit too eccentric to really fit into life -she didn't want to turn into a crazy hoarder, with news papers and boxes and 20 cats, because she couldn't keep herself occupied.

"Maybe you could craft, or jigsaw. You should come over when you had free time, I have so many jigsaws, and they're really relaxing." If all Billy needed to do to feel comfortable was text her first, she wouldn't mind. She worked from home, went out rarely and had plenty of free time. Blogging wasn't exactly a lucrative job, but it was enough to bring in enough money that she wasn't having to sell off any of her collections, or dip into her savings often.

"I'm allowed to hermit," sometimes, "I still get out to see people, and I have hobbies, and I talk to people through the computer on my blog. I'm social from a distance." Which wasn't exactly human interaction, but it was enough to tide her over for a while.

---

Billy wrinkled his nose. "I'm really not good at crafts, but I could probably be persuaded to do a jigsaw or two," he told her with a little smile. "Maybe they'll be more relaxing if I've got company. Otherwise it's likely I'd just give up and walk away to go and watch Netflix or something. I swear, it's such a great invention for convenience but at the same time it's truly dreadful. I wonder how much productivity has been lost to the 'binge watching' that's encouraged by Neflix?"

He chuckled and finished off his cake relatively quickly; it tasted good and the slice was small but very well made. Enough to compliment his drink but not too much that he struggled. Whilst he liked sweet things, he struggled if they were too large. Something about, maybe, the fact that it wasn't his primary food source.

"You are," he agreed, "but not all the time." He tapped the table and glanced out the window. "How about we make promse we don't leave it so long between our next meeting? And I'll make the effort to come over for dinner - I'll cook - and jigsaws?"

---

Normally, Shiloh would point out that no one was terribly good at crafts, it wasn't exactly something people were all that great at, really. Most of hers were hit and miss still on the first few tries, but she doubted Billy would be swayed and one day she'd just need to convince him to join in a little with her. The Netflix and binge watching thing, she'd never managed to get into, "It doesn't seem to hold my attention all that well. People talk about all these shows, and I'm too busy wondering why they're watching them all day every day instead of doing something." She would agree that jigsaws and puzzles were better with company, for people who weren't largely introverted like her at least.

Breaking off more food to nibble, Shiloh reasoned out Billy's proposal, "Don't we make these promises every time. But you're right, we should do something like that, we shouldn't have to recount the last time we saw each other based on how many birthdays have passed." Because more and more often it was higher than two, and she thought that was a shame.

Given how fickle life was, even extended ones like theirs, she didn't want to miss important milestones in her friends lives.

---

"Sometimes I just need to shut my brain off after a long shift," Billy admitted. "I wouldn't ordinarily sit and do nothing while staring at the TV but it's very good at helping me unwind."

He tilted his head and then laughed in agreement. "Yeah, you're right, we do. Every time. I mean, I think I count how much time has passed in presidents nowadays, I stopped counting birthdays. It's not the same for me, but I won't miss your next one, I promise." He did hate how quickly time passed, and how easy it was for people with long lives to let time lapse between visits as it felt immemorial. "But as you said, there's social media which is pretty prominent now. So we can use that."

---

Given that Shiloh didn't have a particularly stressful job, certainly not one as important as Billy did, she could see why he might need to turn off his brain in a way that Shiloh didn't. Add in the fact that she was staring at a screen most days already, it was unlikely she'd look for entertainment watching a screen again. "I hear they have some educational programs at least." She'd moved beyond hearing about 'idiot boxes' and 'rotting the brain', since it was mostly just old-timers shaking their sticks at something, but she still worried for what the graphical stimulation might do all the same.

"Birthdays seem more important when you have a sent number of years. Poor humans and their century at best, it seems unfair." Although she knew mortality was the great divider between a lot of the species, being a dragon she was harder to kill, not impossible, her mother had stressed that from an early age, but harder. Humans were just so delicate, bumps and bruises from the smallest of things and some of them she just wanted to wrap up and keep safe.

"Yes, I'll just have to poke you more on Facebook."

---

"To be fair," Billy remarked, "there are some decent documentaries. Maybe we can have one on in the background while we're doing puzzles."

He chuckled again and nodded. "You do that," he told her, feeling desperately out of touch. He'd need to get his password reset on the Facebook. At least he had a reason too, now.

"I look forward to it."