Ashley Christian Harper (justwithmymind) wrote in darkcarnivale, @ 2011-06-05 01:13:00 |
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Entry tags: | ashley harper, julian markum |
Who: Julian & Ashley
What: Just two friends, chilling. And Ashley having no regard for personal space.
When: After this
Rating: PG-13
Status: Complete
Ashley had pulled the cover down on his stall, closed it off for now because he needed to take a break having been on it all day. No one would want to break into a coconut shy booth, not really. It wasn’t that interesting and everything valuable had been locked away in his trailer already. He only had one idea of where he was going, he’d seen Julian walking past his booth towards the trailers earlier, looking a little worse for wear and Ashley was absolutely man enough to admit that he was going to check on his friend.
He didn’t bother knocking, just let himself in and tugged off his hat, hanging it up on the inside doorknob and gently knocking the lock on the inside to keep it shut and any unwanted peoples out.
He shrugged out of his jacket too, draping it over a nearby surface that wasn’t wet and moved towards the small bedroom style space where he knew Julian would be. He didn’t bother announcing his presence, just lay down on the bed beside his friend (above the covers), on his side and draped his arm over the - what he thought (and really really hoped) - was the waist of the lump underneath the covers.
“Hey precious,” he greeted quietly. “Bad day?”
After Aubrey had left Julian to his own devices, he’d all but stripped down to his slacks and sought the reassuring comfort that his bed had to offer. It had seen him through many an unpleasant experience and here in his trailer he was alone and able to just deal with his own unique ability that on occasion made him wish he could pull his brain out through his nostrils.
It was only when he heard footsteps and then felt the weight of an arm around his cover clad waist that he blinked his eyes open. Ashley, of course it would be Ashley, the man had no concept of privacy or… personal space for that matter. Julian was sure if Ashley had his way there would be no personal space bubbles and people would just get way too close for comfort all the time.
“Don’t call me precious,” he muttered from his huddled mass of cover. “And don’t even try darling.” He had a feeling that would be where Ashley might go next when his first default name was off the cards. Not that it stayed that way, Ashley had the weirdest turn of phrase. Julian? Put that down to him being a displaced Brit in a sea of American life.
Ashley just shrugged and nuzzled against Julian’s cover-clad back briefly before he settled comfortably behind his friend. He didn’t drop his arm away from where it was resting at Julian’s waist, though. He never did whenever Julian actually let him just enter and hover in his personal space.
“So you had a bad day,” he deduced, resisting the urge to provide more cuddle-based comfort before he just rolled onto his back, looking up at the ceiling of the trailer, his other hand resting at Julian’s hip. The other man didn’t get away that lightly with the physical contact. He wet his lower lip and cleared his throat. “So what happened?”
He didn’t tend to let Julian just mope in his trailer if he could get away with it. Ashley didn’t like anyone moping. Moping was bad.
Julian’s eyebrow lifted as he was apparently nuzzled through cover and he had a moment of wondering if Ashley was more than just a telekinetic, but he corrected himself quickly. Ashley was human, just like him, and had for a matter of fact been just as in the dark about Aubrey so… yeah, nothing more going on there.
And Julian would like to point out that what he was doing was not moping, it was resting. Very different from moping. It wasn’t as though he felt sorry for himself. More for the unfortunate victim that had met their end at the tip of that blade. The mere thought of it was enough to send a cold shiver down the length of his spine and Julian inhaled and exhaled, shifting to clamber out of the bed. Only he couldn’t clamber as much as he could… climb over Ashley who had apparently made himself very comfortable on his bed. The climbing involved planting hands on either side of Ashley’s head and lifting his long legs over him one at time, painstakingly so.
“Nothing,” he answered as he was finally on his feet, all half naked and searching a nearby counter for the cigarettes he’d discarded there earlier.
“Rawr,” Ashley said with a grin for the time that Julian was very briefly on top of him, effectively straddling him before he just lifted his shoulders and pushed himself into a seated position once Julian had moved off the bed. His legs were crossed at the ankle and he swung them so his feet were planted on the floor a few moments later, elbows resting on his knees, chin resting in his hands.
There was concern behind his eyes, though. “Nothing? It’s not nothing, Jay, if it’s get you hiding out in here and looking like you want to punch something in the face.” His hands lifted quickly, defensively, “Not me, mind. I’m not much in the mood for face punching today. There’s nothing I enjoy less, you know that.”
He was resisting the urge to move the cigarettes off the counter. Smoking was a dirty habit, but he wasn’t that cruel. Instead, his eyes fell on the packet and he used his powers to push them across the countertop until the cardboard box hit the edge of Julian’s hand.
“Might wanna put a shirt on. It’s cold in here.” There were goosebumps along Julian’s skin. It wasn’t that cold, but Ashley was getting the idea that maybe Julian really didn’t want to talk about it. Did that mean it had something to do with Aubrey?
There were some definite benefits to being friends with a telekinetic and the movement of the packet was one of the many. “Thanks,” he remarked over his shoulder as he rummaged out one of his infamous cancer sticks. He eased it between his lips and turned to rest the curve of his back against the counter, cupping his hands around the newly produced flame from the lighter recovered from the back pocket of his slacks. Dirty habit it might be, but it was his habit and that in itself was reassuring and comforting.
“You weren’t complaining about my shirtless state when I was climbing over you,” Julian remarked through a mouthful of smoke that took to curling around the corners of his mouth. “And trust me, Ash, you really don’t wanna know.” He’d only shared with Aubrey because she’d caught him at a time of emotional and physical vulnerability and he hadn’t been able to trap his words behind a nice solid wall of ‘no’.
He rescued his ashtray and tapped loose grey flecks into the bottom of it. “And don’t worry I won’t punch you, that happens to you enough when you’re hitting on the biggest guy’s girl.”
Ashley grinned. “They always try to punch me. Something always stops them though…” he wet his lower lip and watched Julian for a moment. He couldn’t help the way that he made the ash tray slide away from Julian about eight inches. It was childish, but it amused him somewhat. “And it’s not my fault if the biggest guys have the cutest girls. Or cutest guys…” he looked pensive for a moment before he snapped out of it, eyes lifting to look at Julian again.
He paused again and then added, “I definitely wouldn’t complain if a hot guy was half-naked and on top of me. You can come back if you’d rather I not complain…” He winked in a way that could have been salacious before he rubbed the back of his neck, looking at his feet before he glanced up to his friend. “Am always ‘round if you want to talk about anything, you know that right? That’s what mates are for.”
Julian’s eyes cut toward the ashtray and he glanced back at Ashley with an expression that said ‘seriously?’ before he recovered the ashtray and held it in his hands. “Move it again? And you’ll be wearing it.”
The thing about Ashley was you could never take anything he said too seriously, especially the flirting. He flirted with… everyone and not always to his benefit given the amount of very angry men at his booth. “You’re fucking incorrigible, you know that?” The cigarette was clasped between index and middle finger and it was bought to his mouth for another drag, smoke being held and then pushed out in rings.
“And yeah I know, but I’m alright.” He clasped the counter in one hand and crossed his Converse clad feet at the ankle. “My head doesn’t hurt anymore and I no longer have the urge to throw up so upon reflection that’s a vast improvement.”
“Definitely an improvement. I wouldn’t clean up your puke if you threw up on the floor. Up chucking is not something I’m very good at dealing with.” Ashley scratched at his temple and resisted the urge to move the ashtray again because Julian would throw it at him and over him. He scratched his eyebrow and pushed himself to his feet. “Because sick is gross.”
He chuckled to himself, having just used three different words to describe vomiting. Oh, haha, there was another one.
Okay, yeah, he’d had a long day. He cleared his throat and moved to lean on the counter opposite to Julian, gently manipulating the smoke that was circling around Julian’s head, pushing it towards the window that was open a tiny crack. Not much, but enough to make the smoke disappear. And moving smoke was hard, since smoke wasn’t something one could grab.
“Incorrigible?” he asked, “Me? Darling, why ever would you say something so hurtful?” Ashley’s hand covered his chest, resting over his heart as if he was actually wounded by Julian’s words, but the grin that was quirking at the corner of his lips and the mischievous sparkle in his eye showed he wasn’t really upset. He was incorrigible. It was one of his character flaws, or something. But it made him fun.
Julian watched as Ashley apparently disintegrated into the giggles and determined that he wasn’t the only one who had experienced a long day at the booths today.
When Ashley called him darling all Julian could do was retaliate in a relatively safe manner considering he’d touched the item in question before and it wasn’t that old so it wasn’t like its history could drag him under the tide of its memories: Julian stole the hat and plunked it atop of his head.
“Sorry, what? Did you just call me darling?” He backed up, cigarette between his lips and hat still firmly in place on his head, it had even been tipped to better slant over his face.
Ashley’s eyes widened a little in the corners when he saw his hat being plucked up and put on top of Julian’s head. His fingers twitched as he folded his arms over his chest, though he recovered quickly. “I can’t believe you’d go so low as to take a man’s hat.”
“You know I could just take that back, right, babe?” He lifted one hand, splayed his fingers outwards towards Julian. It wouldn’t take much, he could do that without straining himself, but then again, his hat looked kind of good resting on Julian’s head. He looked at the man for a moment, in a fashion that could have been considered thoughtful. “Though, in all honesty, if you walked around in nothing but what you’re wearing right now… I could stand to lose that hat. Only if you were gonna wear it all the time.” He winked again, shameless in his flirting. He used his power to create the sensation of fingers gently tugging on a free and visible stand of Julian’s hair.
“Well, you do insist on calling me by insipid pet names,” Julian drawled as he ran his fingers along the brim to better emphasise his point. He quirked an eyebrow at the mock threat from Ashley and merely held his hands out as if to say ‘try it’ before snorting quietly. “You really are shameless.”
Ashley was and would always be a flirt, it had landed him in more trouble than Julian cared to say out loud, but it certainly hadn’t deterred him any. Go figure.
He touched the brim of the hat and felt a brief ripple go through his fingertips, but immediately clamped down on it because he’d already seen enough as far as the hat was involved. Including one particular kinky girl who had insisted Ashley keep it on during sex because it made her hot. Some things a man did not need to know about his nearest and dearest.
Ashley just- just didn’t know what was good for him, clearly. He enjoyed a good flirt every now and then for no reason, but it was also a way of him showing that he cared. Ashley didn’t flirt with everyone in the same way. Strangers, sure, but he talked to Aubrey and Julian differently, his flirtations were always… more honest, he supposed. It was a good thing neither of them ever took him seriously.
“Why should I have shame in it? It’s fun.” He winked and knocked his foot out gently to touch Julian’s ankle with the toes of his converse sneakers. “Besides, I’m just showing how much I care, pet. I don’t really have nicknames for anyone else, Jay.” He chuckled and was about to say something else when he saw a slight shift in Julian’s features and frowned a touch. “…What’d you see?” It was probably only minute, seconds or something - Ashley didn’t quite understand how the power worked - but still. Curiosity killed the cat and all. And it was his hat, Ashley dreaded to think what sex-related secrets or past history that hat might carry and share with someone.
Julian lifted a shoulder into a small shrug. “Just some chick demanding you keep your hat on during sex.” He gave a slanted smile and took the hat off, working it over in his fingers and flipping it over on itself to present it brim side up to Ashley. “One kinky lady you had a couple years back.”
He returned to smoking his cigarette as he’d pretty much ignored it and now all there was, was about an inch or so left of white paper and another centimetre or so of filter.
“So, how many people did you con outta their money today?”
Ashley’s cheeks coloured briefly, like he’d been caught out with some secret he’d never wanted to share. In all honesty, the woman with the hat fetish had been… weird, to put it bluntly. And he definitely did not want to repeat that experience any time soon. “Well, what can I say? Sometimes the ladies like… well.” He accepted the hat and rolled it back onto his head in a move that was pure showman.
“Today? Not as many as usual. Yourself?” He tipped his head, “Apart from the- apart from whatever you saw that did this, you get anything good?”
“Clearly,” Julian drawled as he took his last puff and let the smoke linger for as long as his lungs could carry before he simply pushed it out in perfect circular displays.
He shrugged and rubbed at the back of his neck. “A couple, but it was pretty slow today. Hopefully it’ll start picking up again.” At the mention of getting anything good he pursed his lips and feigned a thoughtful expression.
“Well… there was this fork, woman claimed it was used by Abe Lincoln or something. Total load of crock, but… it is pure silver and believe it or not actually killed a were a couple centuries back.”
“So you bought it off her anyway?” Ashley asked, “Could be a handy weapon should any of the weres ever decide to go mad and attack us during the full moon.” He scratched his temple and adjusted how his hat was sitting on his head. “Neat.”
He leaned back against the counter a little more, ankles crossing. Quietly, he surveyed Julian for a moment before he spoke again, “You sure you’re okay?”
“I like an object with history,” Julian remarked with a shrug. He sought out a t-shirt and pulled it on, reaching up to smooth down what could only be t-shirt ruffled hair.
He stilled for what was only a moment but felt like a lifetime. “Yeah, I’m sure.” Only he wasn’t because he still had a slight chill hanging around him like a bad cold and it was hard to ignore. “It’s not the first time I’ve had a nasty experience with an object. Thankfully it wasn’t too old so easy enough to forget.”
Julian scratched at the back of his neck and turned to offer Ashley an easy enough smile.
Ashley used his abilities to move the ashtray away from Julian on the counter and crossed over, pulling Julian into a hug. They were roughly the same height, it wasn’t difficult to cuddle him. Ashley wasn’t a big fan of physical contact, not usually, but in all honesty? He liked it whenever he was feeling a little crappy and Julian looked like he might need a hug.
As much as he might not want one.
He pressed a kiss to Julian’s temple and then leaned back a little bit, taking the hat off his head and putting it on Julian’s.
“Definitely looks good on you. You should try this look more often.” He tapped Julian’s nose gently.
The hug was unexpected, especially as Julian hadn’t been hugged in a long while and this was Ashley. He was still for a moment before he did the awkward back pat that most men did when suddenly comforted out of the blue and taken by surprise.
And then the kiss to the temple, Julian blinked like some sort of animal trapped in headlights. Presumably what Yuriko might look like if faced by a car. Somebody should really do something about getting her to stop doing that because it was possibly the worst thing to do when confronted by a vehicle.
With hat now back in place on his head, Julian lifted his fingers and tipped the hat. “Guess I might need my own hat unless you wanna trade.” His eyebrows lifted and his lips pulled into a teasing smile.
“There’s only one thing I’ll be trading that hat for and I don’t think it’s something you’d be willing to give,” Ashley chuckled and leaned back again, gentle removing himself from being quite so demanding of Julian’s personal space bubble. “But you can borrow it until I have to leave your trailer.”
His hair was a mess, it always was. It was one of the reasons Ashley always had his head hidden underneath the hat. It was unruly and uncontrollable and Ashley was pretty sure it would make babies cry if they saw it.
“I don’t believe you, but I’m not gonna push for secrets.” Not now, not here. It wasn’t his place.
Curiosity pique, but not satisfied. Maybe later. “I’ll keep the hat then.” He smirked and then made himself comfortable on the edge of the bed, looking all at ease and comfortable in the hat that wasn’t his.
He took this particular moment of nonhattedness to take a closer look at the infamous hair that would not be seen. It wasn’t as bad as Ashley thought and he was sure he’d never had any complaints from people in the past, even if the weird hat lady had different ideas.
“Secrets?” Julian feigned innocence. “No idea what you’re talking about.”
“Only for now,” Ashley reminded him, nervously putting his fingers through his hair. He obviously was self-conscious without the hat taming the epic locks of his hair. His other hand went through it a second later, trying to smooth it down. “Because you can’t have it. And you can’t buy it.”
He wet his lower lip and rolled his eyes, “Sure you don’t, Jay,” he smiled and wrinkled his nose. “I don’t believe you there either.” His eyes slid to the pillow that sat at the head of the bed, pupils contracting and expanding in a miniature spasm. The pillow lifted and gently knocked Julian in the back of the head.
“We’ll see,” Julian remarked confidently enough. He observed his thumbnail for a moment before catching the edge of it, worrying it ever so slightly. Julian caught himself a moment later and stopped, dropping his hand to rest lightly on his cotton clad thigh.
He narrowed his eyes at Ashley when a pillow hit him in the back of the head from out of nowhere. “That’s cheating,” he pointed out as he recovered the used and abused pillow. He folded the pillow in half and threw it with a surprisingly precise aim at Ashley’s face and low and behold it hit. “That’s really how you hit somebody with a pillow.”
Julian shifted to his feet, feeling like he had some sort of energy to work off. Maybe he’d brave the outside world again, stretch his legs and just shift the weight of his earlier encounter.
Ashley laughed and caught the pillow once it had hit him in the face and threw it back towards the bed, not trying to hit Julian this time. They were probably too old, and too male, for pillow fights. “It’s not cheating, it’s using my abilities for good. I could fight crime.”
He grinned and lifted his hand, wiggling his fingers for the return of his hat. “C’mon, I need a drink, I don’t know about you?”
“Read my fucking mind,” Julian muttered with a smirk. He lifted his fingers and pulled the hat off his head, wiggling it a little before finally releasing it from his captivity and back into the hands of its rightful owner.
He grabbed a hooded sweatshirt and pulled that on over his t-shirt before he headed out of his trailer, feeling dizzy for a brief moment at the sudden cool oxygenated air, but he rolled his neck and breathed.
“First round is on you,” he hollered over his shoulder.