Who: Ashley and Riley What: Riley's coming to check on Ashley When: Evening, some time after Riley's meeting/chill session with Alec. Where: Ashley's motel room Rating: Low-ish (edited if necessary) Status: In Progress
Ashley had been doing his best not to wallow in self pity. It was a very undesirable trait for someone and both Alec and Diana had been really great in making sure he didn’t horrendously self destruct any more than he already had. He hated that he was such a slow healer, though, because the bruises under his eye and across his jaw and, of course, the mottled black across his chest hurt now and whilst he- God, he still didn’t even know how he felt or what he was going to do now. He didn’t want to go back onto the grounds yet, he couldn’t watch them being happy. He wasn’t that much of a big person and perhaps that was envious of him, but he was only human at the end of it all.
And what did that fucki- what did Adrian know anyway? Nothing, he didn’t know Ashley and his message had been presumptuous, ridiculous and aggressive and Ashley had felt so angry and hurt after that he’d broken a lot of the things in the motel room with his mind. He was slowly cleaning up, but getting into the mindset of cleaning things with his hands and not stretching his apparently stronger-that-he’d-considered powers was hard. Ashley felt so apathetic.
Man, he was being lame. He needed to man up and just deal with it. If Julian was going to be happy with someone else, he had to deal with that. He wanted to stay friends with Julian no matter what and he’d promised the guy that. Ashley had never broken a promise to Julian before, he wasn’t about to start now, especially not over this.
The door was pretty much impossible to just walk through, but that was only because Ashley’s subconscious was still reacting as if he’d been attacked, protecting him as best it could. It meant that Ashley had to make a conscious choice to let someone into his motel room and he had to fight with his own mind for even that to happen. Not everyone used doors, but he supposed with the lingering threat - as he’d seen it - that Adrian might come and find him, the door being protected was one thing that he could do to keep himself safe. Even if having a demon out for his blood for hurting Julian was-
Ugh.
Ashley pushed his fingers through his hair, feeling a sting across his knuckles when the strands of his hair slid over the broken skin. Fingertips gingerly touched the cut that was buried in the lengths of his hair and when he looked at them, they came away clean. Good. No more blood. Maybe he could wash his hair again then. He’d stood in the shower for like, two hours once Alec had left that first night, until the water ran cold and clear and Ashley was shivering against the wall.
Yeah, he was officially lame.
He pushed himself up off the bed from where he’d been watching bad TV in an attempt to stop himself from obsessively checking the boards he’d told himself he wouldn’t be to see if Julian had replied to him yet, to start manually cleaning. The effort of moving was laborious in itself, frustration bubbling up because trying to move with a few broken ribs was hard enough, let alone making with the bending and stuff.
A shadow moved past the window and Ashley froze, a pice of broken glass he’d fished out from under the bed in his hand. He went still, used his power to mute the TV and flick off the light, though if someone was outside they’d already seen the illumination and probably already heard the TV. He was kind of hoping that it was someone going to the room next door. He wasn’t expecting visitors anyway. Alec and Diana were back at the Carnival and Ashley was okay with that, he really was. Being alone was good, long as he didn’t have anything to drink. He didn’t want to become his mother.
Riley had been in his own trailer for most of the night, brooding in a way that didn't come naturally to him to say the least. He wasn't one for melancholy or lingering on bad thoughts, and yet here he was full of angst and sadness both of his own and absorbing that of those he cared for. He'd always liked Ashley, Ashley of the quirky hats and interesting accent, who seemed cheeky and fun even if they weren't terribly close. And of course Julian, the prodigal son, always so serious and solemn with the tiniest hint of a wry smirk if Riley said something particularly amusing. The two had always seemed a great couple to Riley, who knew a little something about such things, and he'd had a dislike of Adrian almost from day one. He didn't trust demons, though he considered himself something of a chaotic neutral alignment in the grand scheme of things; he could tolerate their trickery, but he didn't like their malice. Seeing Adrian come between Julian and Ashley, their boring, normal, everyday, comfortable-as-old-sneakers love had made him see red, particularly when one of his favorite performers in the freak tent, the lovely Izabela, was mooning around recently over her new demon boytoy who was lavishing her with gifts and attention. No, Riley had gone into full-swing papa bear mode, and that was why he'd been unable to sleep and had gone to Alec. He and Alec had talked for awhile after the performance ended, and he had managed to convince the Phoenix to give him Ashley's location. A cab ride later and Riley was pacing the sidewalk in front of the hotel, faded designer jeans and a t-shirt that cost almost a hundred bucks but he still didn't blend into the neighborhood, and he raised a hand to knock.
Ashley didn’t unfreeze from his position for a few long moments, internally rationalising whether or not a demon who had come to rip his soul out or get a bird to peck out his eyes would bother knocking. Probably not, he told himself, so there’s no need to worry. Briefly, his heart hammered at the thought it might be Julian on the other side of the door and he moved over to it quickly, but then- no, Julian was with Adrian and he didn’t want to expect Julian to just turn up. He shouldn’t expect that of anyone, especially not Julian. The guy did everything in his own time, after all.
He curled his fingers around the chain and door handle respectively, pulling on it once he’d undone the locks but it didn’t open straight away.
“Oh, come on,” he grumbled to himself, more at his own mind than anything else because- seriously? Now his mind was trying to stop him leaving? “Subconsciouses bloody suck, we should have evolved past them.”
He tugged on the door again, feeling the sharp pain across his ribs before the mental hold he had on the door acquiesced to his will and he opened it, very surprised to see the Puck on the other side of the wood. His confusion probably registered on his face and he wet his lower lip nervously.
“Riley,” he greeted, a little awkwardly because what was the Puck doing outside his motel room? How had Puck even found him? He took in a breath, tried to find his easy smile. “What brings you out here?"
"Oh, you know, I was visiting a prostitute and she mentioned that a cute boy with a nice hat was staying here," he said gamely, arching his brows and sliding his hand through the opened doorjamb. "Come on, let me in, it's a thousand degrees out here. I feel like I'm back in Egypt." He shifted weight in his shoes, looked Ashley dead in the eye. There was something a bit more reserved about him tonight, not the hapless guileless puck he so often maintained.
“Classy,” Ashley said with a soft shake of his head. He stepped aside and pulled the door open a little further before he just indicated with one hand that Riley let himself in. “If I’d known you’d be swinging in post booty call, I’d have cleaned up a bit.” He was still holding the glass in his hand and he glanced at it, before subtly dropping it in the wastebin, knocking the door shut behind Riley with a flick of his fingers in the door’s general direction.
He wet his lip again and curled his arms around his waist, feeling off guard and caught unawares. Riley seemed different, but Ashley couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He didn’t know why, but then maybe it was just because he wasn’t fully on form himself. “My hat’s a bit dirty at the moment.” It had spent some time on the floor. Ashley would get it cleaned when he next did a bout of laundry. “You alright?”He asked because it was a strange occurrence, Puck turning up out of the blue. Ashley didn’t know why Puck would be here unless he’d found out about the break up, and that made Ashley feel a little sick just in remembrance.