Dusty "THAT DUMBASS THAT SLEPT WITH COBY" Baker (dusty_storm) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2010-01-06 01:05:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-06-28 |
Everything I Do Makes Sense
Who: Dusty and Gareth (and Cat)
When: Sunday night, around 11 or so
Where: Their trailer
Gareth's arms were full. White plastic bags marked "Huron Pet Supply" dug into the flesh of his wrists and dangled like noisy, misshapen fruit even as he struggled towards the front door. The problem was that Cat needed everything good. This pet was not going to die on him. She was cool as hell. His blue eyes shone just over the overflowing paper bags in his arms, each one stuffed with treats, dangle toys, catnip, cat-milk, stuffed toys and lord knew what else. He'd dropped a ridiculous amount of money at the store, and still needed to retrieve the three bags of Natural Balance cat food that lay in the bed of the truck, along with a cat bed and a large scratching post. Dusty was going to kill him, but the Texan wanted his kitten to have everything and more. Mostly, the pet gave him something to focus on other than Dusty. And that was nice. Grunting, the blonde was just reaching the door of the trailer when he heard Dusty shouting. The other man's voice was hoarse and terrified, a combination that started Gareth to the core. Dusty never sounded scared. The bags tumbled from Gareth's arms, spilling their contents across the pavement just before the wooden steps to the trailer. He shook the plastic bags off his wrists and in a quick leap, jumped over the pile to run up the stairs to the trailer. Practically ripping open the door, the worried man rushed inside, looking around for carnage frantically. "D! What the hell's goin' on?!"
When Gareth entered the trailer Dusty zeroed in on him immediately, his expression panick-stricken and mingled with anger. He was standing on the couch, boots and all, and looking a lot like someone who'd just been thrown out of a car. "Don't let her eat it!" he shrieked, gesturing wildly toward the kitten on the floor. The small animal was following something intently, batting at it with her tiny paws. "No!" he snapped, completely irrational at this point, "Cat, don't do that! Don't touch it! For fuck sake, Gareth, do something!" Dusty moved away from the end of the couch, as far from Cat as he could get to hide on the other end of the couch. "Get it before I knock your fuckin' head off! Get it!"
"What the fuck?" Gareth gasped, confusion settling in. Dusty was only like this when... his eyes narrowed as Cat tracked something across the floor, looking wide eyed and delighted. Shit. It was a spider. "Okay, okay D. I'm gettin' it." He moved forward, crossing their small living room in a few steps and grabbed Cat up off the floor. She let out a "waaow" of protest and he turned handing her over to Dusty. "Keep'er safe Hoss." He muttered under his breath and began searching for the spider. It seemed to have scuttled away while he was handing off their pet. The blonde hesitated, glancing up at Dusty. "I uh... can't find it D." He breathed, knowing that a fit of epic proportions was on its way.
"WHAT?!" Dusty demanded, holding Cat to his chest as though keeping her out of a toxic cloud on the floor. "What the fuck you mean you can't find it?! Fuckin' find it, Gareth! It probably went under the god damned table, just -- just get it!" Nostrils flared, hands shaking, Dusty didn't quite realize the red that began pooling around his eyes, sticking to his eyelashes as it began to leak down his cheeks. He couldn't help himself. He'd always been like this, irrationally terrified of spiders in all capacity. He wouldn't be comfortable in this place for days, even long after it had been killed and taken away from him. "If you don't find it I'm fuckin' leaving!"
Gareth was stunned as Dusty began to... leak for lack of a better word. The blonde bit his lower lip, eyes wide. "I'll find it D. Just stay where you is. It can't be too far. Shit." He dropped down to his knees, crawling forward. The last time they'd had a spider encounter had been in a hotel, about three months ago. Gareth had come in from getting ice and Dusty was locked in the bathroom, screaming like he was being eaten alive. There had been a tiny black jumping spider seated just outside the bathroom door, no bigger than a fly. Gareth had carried it to the window and thrown it out into the winter night, but Dusty had insisted on a new room, and for a refund... he hadn't slept either. Sitting up and waiting for another spider to come along. Gareth was pulled from his thoughts as he spied something moving along-side the couch. He shifted, taking off his hat, and spied the biggest, ugliest spider he had ever seen. Almost immediately it ran at him, coming across the mauve carpet and he backed up. Now it was visable to all and he cringed. It was huge. With a moment of hesitation, he reached for it, intending to lift it up, unaware that it was a brown recluse.
Dusty screamed harder when the spider came back into view, pointing at it as the kitten in his arms panicked and began scratching at him to get down. The claws ripping up his skin went unnoticed as Dusty held onto her, keeping her tight to him as though she were his life-line. "DON'T TOUCH IT!" Dusty roared, his voice booming through the living room. "Don't fuckin' touch it, Gareth! Don't touch it! Just kill it! Get it before it fuckin' gets away! I won't sleep for years if you don't get it! FUCK!" The blood tears kept coming, dripping down his face as he scrambled to get further from the offending monster on the floor.
"Okay! Okay D. I won't touch it!" Gareth jerked his hand back, and was filled with an insane relief as he did so. The hideous spider reared up on its back legs, waving it's forefront ones in the air at him and he realized that it meant to bite him. He glanced back at Dusty's tear-streaked face, and climbed to his feet, lifting a booted foot to bring it down again. The sound was disgusting and the blonde found himself gagging, his mouth going dry as he imagined its huge body squashing out guts onto their carpet. He swallowed down the desire to vomit and slipped out of his riding boots, moving to the kitchen to grab paper towel. "I killed it D. It's dead as shit." He muttered, feeling nauseous.
"It ain't fuckin' gone yet, so don't you go gettin' snotty at me," Dusty warned, teeth grinding together between statements. "You gotta take them boots outside, wash them off. Better get alla that off the carpet too. There're probably fuckin' eggs in there or some shit, Gareth." Although the threat of being murdered by a spider was over with, its deceased smear on the floor didn't exactly fill him with relief.
"I ain't bein' snotty. I'll wash my boots." Gareth answered, and wet the paper towel before returning to the living room. He knelt, lifting his boot quickly and then began to clean up the smear, trying to keep from gagging. "Shit Dusty. That was a huge fucker," he muttered, and once the smear was gone he lifted his boots, pitching them outside. "I'll wash 'em later I guess." His eyes landed on the pile of cat toys he'd picked up for their new pet and glanced at Dusty, who seemed to still be leaking some of his blood tears. "Wanna come help me get the stuff I bought for Catkins over there?"
"No," Dusty said coldly, staring at Gareth as though he were an alien. "You didn't wash your hands." The words were grumbled miserably, and Dusty reached down to set the kitten on the couch cushions. He stayed where he was though, trying to calm down. His vision slowly returned to normal, the feeling of absolute terror dissipating over time. It was as it began to leave him that he realized the feel of moisture in his eyelashes. He could smell the blood before he touched it, but when his pulled his fingers back he gasped, stunned by the sight of it. "Fuck," he snapped, turning away from Gareth before the other man could see him. He knew in the back of his head that it was too late, but he hurried to the bathroom anyway in an effort to get rid of all evidence he'd been crying.
Gareth sighed heavily, moving to the kitchen again. He ran his hands under hot water, soaping them thoroughly, and rinsing quickly. "I promise it ain't always this weird Cat." He said to the kitten. She had jumped off the couch and was now rubbing against him, purring madly as she did so. "I'm gonna go get all yer shit, maybe D will be willin' to help me with the bigger stuff. He hurried outside, gathering up her toys and treats, stuffing them back into bags, and then hefted the load into the kitchen, tossing the bags onto the counter. "D--" he called, glancing down at the cat. "I washed my hands. But there's some heavy shit in the back of the truck I could use help with."
Dusty scrubbed the blood off of his face, angry when it smeared red across his cheek as he tried to clean it. Eventually he managed to get most of it gone, though he didn't look any more put together. "Fuck," he muttered to his reflection. "That's just fuckin' perfect." He heard Gareth calling for him and sighed, running an anxious hand over his head before opening the bathroom door again. "Yeah, I heard ya," he said, following Gareth toward the door and then outside into the night. "What the fuck you bring home with you?" he demanded. "I thought we was only spending a little bit on Cat."
"She needed all the best shit!" Gareth answered, feeling defensive. "She's a champion kitten! I had to get her nice things!" He led the way to the truck, where a cat scratching post as tall as Dusty and the three bags of food sat. "And I didn't want her to never go hungry or nothin, so I got a lot of food. The guys at the pet store said it were the best for kittens." There were three twenty-pound bags next to the cat tree. "Look, it really ain't that much. Cat is cool as shit, ain't she? And currently the only lady in our lives. So we gotta treat her well." He reached into the truck, glancing at Dusty only momentarily. He was working on keeping his attention away from the red-rimmed eyes, the strained and teary look. Dusty had never handled spiders well -- had once even punched a teacher in a blind panic while trying to flee, when he got between Dusty and the front door. "Dontcha agree?"
"Yeah, I guess, but..." Dusty looked over the stuff in the bed of the truck, not quite in the mood to fight with Gareth right now. The blond had just rescued him from a vicious near-death experience. Dusty sighed and jumped up into the back of the truck, reaching to grab the cat post. "This thing is huge," he said, though he picked it up with one hand and held it up over his left shoulder. It weighed a good hundred pounds or so -- not that it mattered to him anymore. He reached down for a bag of food as well and then took both toward the house. "I guess we owe it to her to give her a good childhood."
"Damn right. She's just a little guy. 'sides, it ain't like we're hurtin' for money D. That last hunt we did for pay landed us near half a million, remember? We ain't even really put a dent in our savin's yet." He smiled and grabbed the other two bags of food. "Hey, look. If you want I can put some bug traps down later... or we could bug bomb the house. You know... cuz of the spider." He knew how difficult it was for his friend, how horrible the fear could be. Biting at his lower lip as he thought, the blonde led the way into their trailer, smiling as he watched Cat up on the counter, nudging the bags with her head. "She already knows it's all fer her. Lookit that."
"I don't know," Dusty said, not sure he wanted to bug bomb the place. "Some traps or somethin' might not be bad, I guess." He shrugged, heaving the cat tree down onto the floor. He set it next to the television and the window there, recalling that cats liked to watch the outdoors. "How 'bout here?" he asked, though he'd already settled on it without Gareth's input. Dusty brought the cat food into the kitchen and dropped it in the middle of the floor, not really considering it his job to take care of it. "She's smart," he commented, nodding to Cat. "She knows we're total bitches when it comes to pussy." He burst out laughing, elbowing Gareth hard in the stomach.
Gareth was smiling at Cat, his blue eyes pleased, and at Dusty's joke those serene eyes widened, a laugh barking out of him. The laugh became more and he keeled over, giggling hard, unable to stop himself. "Looks--looks like Catkins knows us well." He managed between laughs and then leaned on Dusty for a long moment, smiling up at him. When he finally pulled away it was to move to the kitten, brushing her away from the bags to reach inside, pulling out every kind of treat he could find in the store. "I got her a shit ton of toys, cuz, I mean, she might get lonely or bored with no brothers or sisters or nothin', you know?" He exhaled softly, and then glanced at Dusty. "I think we're gonna spoil her."
"Yeah, I guess..." Dusty looked over all the shit piling up on the counter, his expression deeply puzzled. He couldn't imagine spending that much on a cat, even if she was the best thing he'd brought home since their lovely decorative wooden rooster. He glanced to it briefly, as though to make sure it was still where he'd seen it last. "She don't need all this shit though, Gare. I mean... what if we trip over it in the middle of the night or some shit? I'll be pretty pissed off and everythin' if I end up on my damn back 'cause of this... catnip mouse thing. Ain't that like drugs anyway? You gonna give our kitten drugs?" In the back of his mind Dusty was going over the violent encounter they'd had in the parking lot the night before, the slaughter they'd committed and then the act that came immediately afterward. He blinked, chasing the thoughts away when they traveled that far, glancing down to his boots in an anxious manner. He didn't want to acknowledge it, those feelings, those urges -- but it was becoming consistently more difficult every day that passed, with every slip he made around the other man. Dusty took a step away from Gareth, glancing over the room as though he were simply trying to figure something out, the position of the cat tree if he were asked. Maybe if they spent less time together, these feelings would dissipate... maybe if he saw a woman, it would clear his head out.
"Well, I think catnip is okay, I mean, if it were a bad drug, like uh... kitty heroin or smack or something, they wouldn't sell it. 'Sides, she'll be a real goof-ball while it's around, but it should be like, a special occasion kind of thing. I only got her two'a them. And I mean... we can keep it tidy, we won't give her all the toys at once or nothing. We can put 'em away an' give her new ones once the old ones are all worn out and shit." He glanced back at Dusty, taking in the sight of his violently blue eyes, the set jaw and slightly concerned expression. Dusty was looking away from him and it gave Gareth a moment to appreciate the older man fully, to admire his skin, the smooth slope of his muscles and the way he stood, his weight shifted onto one foot. The blonde man smiled to himself, turning back to Cat's plethora of toys and treats. "But I did get her some uh, some kitten milk stuff that we should feed her. She looks skinny as shit, an' after she threw up that tuna last night I bet she needs special nourishment or whatever." He pushed the rest of the toys and cat supplies away on the counter, clearing a space, and pulled a small bowl out of the cupboard. The cat milk came in a small blue paper container, sealed with a small piece of foil. Gareth's large fingers grasped the aluminum and he tugged. Without meaning to, the Texan put too much effort into his grip and when the foil peeled away, the cat milk exploded outward, splashing over his shirt and face, staining the pale blue material. "Shit!" He exclaimed, and immediately began to peel the fabric off his body, pulling the button up over his head. The shirt was tossed carelessly onto the floor, revealing his pale chest and stomach. "Fuck man. I made a huge mess. Sorry."
Dusty turned back to Gareth, watching the other man as he thought about what he'd said. He supposed the catnip was probably okay... really he was just giving Gareth a hard time because that's how they functioned. About to say something, Dusty paused completely when his friend suddenly tore his shirt over his head and threw it down. "Good job," he said, his tone bordering on forced spite. "Way to spill the uhh... spill the milk all over." Dusty's eyes traveled Gareth's body without his approval, taking note of his form, the toned muscles in his stomach... "Hold on, I'll get a towel." Dusty turned away from Gareth to grab a towel off of the back of the couch, needing to do something to distract himself. Something very much like anger welled in his chest, making it difficult to function and he hesitated, clinging to the used towel as though he were afraid to turn back around. "You shouldn't be so damn clumsy." The words were snapped out, sharp, and he threw the towel at Gareth before leaving the kitchen. "Gonna lay down."
Gareth's eyes widened with hurt and surprise. "Huh?" He turned, watching as Dusty turned away to grab a towel. "Hey. Sorry. I... I have more in the bag D." The blonde was baffled at Dusty's sudden change of mood and as Cat rubbed against his legs he shook his head. "I didn't mean to..." He looked down at the kitten, his blue eyes distant for a moment before he knelt, picking her up. "Hey, Cat, try some of this milk." He murmured, watching as she leaped from his arms and onto the counter, licking up the milk frantically. "Well Shit. You like it don't you?" He murmured, and stroked her back as she went to town. His mind turned to Dusty's anger. It was confusing-- how quickly the older man could switch moods, how angry he got for no apparent reason. Sighing softly, Gareth moved to open another package of milk. "We're gonna take good care'a you Cat."
Dusty headed to the bedroom, his mouth set in a thin line as though to keep his thoughts to himself, to keep Gareth away from him. He closed the door behind him and closed out the light, leaving the room in a state of near blackness as he backed away. He watched to be sure Gareth hadn't followed him, moving to sit down on the bed. Dusty hid his face in his hands and sighed, feeling confused and frustrated, not sure what to think about himself or the recent events that had brought them to this point. None of it made sense, and he was having a hard time accepting it all as a reality. He wasn't like that... like Gareth.
But as Dusty continued to sit by himself, alone with his thoughts, he wasn't so sure anymore.