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Tweak says, "Mich Forever"

Phillip Wolfe | Phobos (inclinedfear) wrote in paxletalelogs,
@ 2011-07-09 22:34:00

Entry tags:

ares, phobos

The Advice Books Weren't Working
Who: Rylee & Samuel.
What: Rylee needs some advice
Where: Apartment 707.
When: 7pm
Warnings: None yet.

Rylee had been at Pax for a month and had met Samuel a few weeks before. The man had said if Rylee needed anything he just had to ask and Rylee, after much contemplation that lasted about a week, had gathered up the courage to accept that offering. Still, he stood outside of Samuel's door for a few minutes before he had enough courage to even consider knocking.

When he had first moved into the apartment everything had begun with a strange start. Things had been awkward when he found Charlie in the lobby of the apartment complex but they seemed to work around that strange day. Then there was the black out and Charlie's PTSD kicking in while Rylee suffered a burn that he was now not entirely sure ever existed. Then Charlie taking back her hand when Rylee tried to hold it and Charlie ultimately trying to apologize with a bottle of vodka that left Rylee with a horrible hangover the following day and only hazy memories of what had happened the night before. Things had certainly been weird and all over the place. But waking up after his night of drinking only to find Charlie sleeping on his couch... later followed by Charlie convincing him to set off fireworks on the Fourth of July... it all made him feel more positive. More confident. Maybe their relationship was heading in a better direction. They had gotten past so much in their lives and after fifteen years they were here together. Rylee hoped it was a good sign. He felt like he could try for the next step, although he wasn't entirely sure how to go about that next step without scaring Charlie off.

So, with a slight shake in his hands he knocked on Samuel's door and stood back at ease while he waited nervously to see if his neighbor was home.

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inclinedfear
2011-07-11 02:22 am UTC (link)

His cheeks grew darker as he looked at his drink and gathered courage again. He was happy that Samuel seemed so at ease and happy to offer advice. It was a comfort to know that he had a neighbor that was so welcoming and soon to be helpful. But that didn't stop the fact that this entire conversation made Rylee want to return to his apartment and take shelter in his room where he could dust off his coin collection.

"Um..." It was the last question that was making Rylee the most nervous so he answered quickly and with a jumble of words. "I don't know if you know her."

He let out a quick sigh and took another swallow of the whiskey then continued with the urge of the liquid courage. "Sometimes I think she hates me too. Not all the time... but sometimes... I don't think she has feelings for me in that way but I have to try. I don't know what to do..."

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miaiphonos
2011-07-12 12:37 am UTC (link)

Had Samuel known the bent of Rylee's thoughts, these visions of retreat and withdrawal, he would have dragged him bodily from the apartment then and there. They might have gone straight to this unnamed girl's house, perhaps, or worse, to one of many questionable establishments with which Samuel was - to varying degrees - familiar. Luckily Samuel remained ignorant of these things, lounging oblivious against the couch's thick armrest.

"Yeah you do," he said, giving a single, vigorous shake of his head. "But I can already tell you you're overthinkin' things." He took a small sip of his whiskey, the tip of his tongue flicking out to the corner of his mouth. His grin crept wider as he thought of that first heated confrontation with Lia, the visceral reaction his careless, forward nature had caused. "Sometimes you gotta just go with your first instinct. Didn't the Corps teach you that, Eckholm?" He threw the man a teasing wink, laughing as he did. "More important, her hating you is a whole other bag of tricks than her not having whatever feelings you have. Hating's harder to work with." He raised his glass, index finger pointing at his friend. "Harder, but not impossible."

His shoulders rolled, pushing him deeper into the thick nest of cushions. "So have you made a move at all, or are you waitin' on her to send you an engraved invitation?"

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inclinedfear
2011-07-12 01:28 am UTC (link)

Rylee listened to Samuel with complete attention, unblinking he waited until Samuel was finished speaking before he took another sip of his drink. He considered what Samuel said with a small frown on his lips. "I've tried to take her hand, she's taken it back. She slept on my couch after she got me really drunk... I guess that's good. She didn't run away."

He shifted on the couch and sighed, bringing the glass to his lips again and already beginning to feel the faintest quiver of alcohol coursing through his veins. He paused and lowered the glass. "Okay, wrong choice of words. She doesn't hate me. At least not anymore. I just think she seriously dislikes the idea of being in a relationship with me. She likes me otherwise"

For a moment he realized how sappy he was and that he wasn't being very clear. Letting out a laugh and rubbing at his eyes he focused on Samuel. With a shake of his head he tried to get rid of the fuzzy feeling from the whiskey. No, no more drinking. He'd start to talk too much if he did.

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miaiphonos
2011-07-13 01:38 am UTC (link)

"Wait, wait."

With one bent elbow Samuel pushed off from the armrest, whiskey sloshing in his glass as he moved. Above his incredulous expression his brows sharply arched, not an ounce of his apparent surprise feigned. He studied Rylee's face, searching it for signs that this might be some kind of joke, a way to pull one over on Samuel as he (for once) earnestly tried to help - but it was immediately, abundantly clear the story was precisely as Rylee told it. Samuel leaned up toward him, elbows resting on his knees, glass dangling in one lax hand.

"So your big move," he said, "was trying to hold her hand. And she got you drunk and you slept on the couch? God damn, kid, your mama left Lifetime on too much when you were little." He chuckled at his own joke, quelling his sharp grin with another sip of whiskey. There seemed a great deal of work to be done on this particular neighbor, and for the moment Samuel had not the first idea where to begin. He tried, then, to find a starting point, some familiar ground upon which they could build.

"All right. Maybe this'd be easier if I knew more about the girl you're after. Hell, all I know, maybe she likes that kind of sentimental shit." An impish grin tugged at his lips. "Is it someone here?" He made a great show of pondering, the rough pad of his index finger tapping at the corner of his mouth. "Viola?"

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inclinedfear
2011-07-13 02:18 am UTC (link)

Rylee slumped down and pouted for a brief moment as he swished the whiskey back and forth in his glass. If it had been anyone else, he would have probably felt embarrassed that Samuel laughed, but he was too busy trying to understand what Samuel had meant by the Lifetime reference. His mother liked watching the Travel Channel, would that have influenced him? He considered this while he drank more whiskey, forgetting that he was going to stop drinking because he was slowly getting drunk, if the mental rambling about tv shows was anything to go by.

Swallowing the whiskey Rylee scrunched his brow as he considered Samuel's guess. "No, no I don't even know a Viola. Sounds like a flower." Ah yes, he was surpassing tipsy. Rylee didn't take another sip of the whiskey. The fact that Samuel was beginning to try and guess who it was that Rylee liked went completely over his head. "Don't really know that many people here."

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miaiphonos
2011-07-14 11:37 pm UTC (link)

"Your loss there," Samuel said. He smiled at the thought of his friend, suddenly curious as to what she in her infinite logic and relative calm might make of this uniquely timid-seeming Marine. He resolved to ask her the next time he saw her, as much to have another chance at teasing her as to actually try his hand at playing a puckish sort of matchmaker. But soon enough his thoughts ambled away from this vein, returning to the guessing game he had initiated unbeknownst to its other participant.

"I'd guess Lia," he said, a wicked grin curving his lips. "But I already know she's taken. Enthusiastically and often." He laughed aloud, pleased with his own joke. He trailed off as mental snapshots of the other women in the building came to mind; a few he could weed out of this selection process, certain some among them were quite unlikely candidates.

And then a thought occurred to him, at once so ludicrous and so poetic it could only be right. His devious smile grew only more so. His glass came to rest on his knee, its contents dwindling significantly in the wake of such pleasant conversation.

"It isn't Charlie, is it?"

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inclinedfear
2011-07-14 11:52 pm UTC (link)

"I'm slowly startin' to meet people. I'm just not very comfortable with talkin' to people I don't know," Rylee mumbled as the liquor drew out his accent. Samuel was one of the few people he had ever grown to be comfortable with in so short a period of time. He swished the whiskey around in his glass for a moment, listening to Sam bring up the other woman, Lia, and gave a short nod.

Then he heard Charlie's name and his eyes snapped up to lock with Samuel's. He felt the color drain from his face slightly and he licked his lips as he pulled his gaze away and glanced around the apartment. "Uh... Charlie... Charlie's my friend... I've known her for years..." His eyes were dancing around the apartment and briefly met with Samuel's again until he remembered the whiskey in is glass and downed the rest of the contents. The burning of the liquor down his throat nearly choked him but it was an immediate release of the anxiety he was quickly feeling build.

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miaiphonos
2011-07-15 11:26 pm UTC (link)

That reaction, Samuel thought, was worth well more than a mere thousand words. He laughed aloud, reaching for Rylee's glass, distantly hoping it would fall to the floor and shatter just for the sheer comic effect. Instead it merely moved into his hand, pulled from Rylee's grip with miraculous ease. "Why don't I get you another one of those," Samuel said, chuckling all the while.

His trip to the kitchen was brief, hastened by his having brought the bottle as well as the glass. He filled it as he moved back to the couch, unwilling to leave his wildly entertaining guest a moment longer than was necessary. This time he showed a merciful bit of restraint, filling the glass just under the halfway mark.

"So." He handed Rylee the fresh glass, the whiskey still chill from its cozy place in the freezer. "That's the problem. You two've had this one kind of relationship for so long you think you'll fuck it up if you try something more direct. And not only that, but you're afraid of taking a risk and finding out you don't even have the friend zone to return to." He smiled against his glass, his breath casting tendrils of fog along its thick rim. "That's fair. But you can't be a pussy just cos it might go bad." He laughed, glancing briefly down into the amber depths of the highball.

"Honestly," he said, once again meeting Rylee's gaze, "I'd imagine a hellraiser like Charlie would appreciate a little honesty. You think backin' down at the first sign of uncertainty is somethin' that'll appeal to her?"

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inclinedfear
2011-07-16 12:47 am UTC (link)

Rylee sat glumly while Samuel was away but perked up upon his return, accepting the glass and tossing away all ideas of not getting tipsy or drunk. The color had returned to Rylee's face, coloring it red and making his blond hair appear almost more vibrant against it. He clutched the glass in his hand, appreciating it's cool feeling, and listened to Samuel as he gave forth good advice.

The oddity of having this important moment shared with a man Rylee barely knew was missed but surely when he was of a sober mind he would think of this moment and wonder how the two men had so quickly grown to be close enough to share such information with each other. For now, he only listened to Samuel with sad blue eyes and slight nods of the head.

He considered what Samuel said for a moment as he brought the glass to his lips, tapping it gently against his bottom lip before taking a small sip. "What I fear," Rylee began with his voice deep from the liquor and his southern drawl slipping out. "Is that she doesn't have the same feelin's for me. I love her, I've always loved her, and she seems like a scared bird. I try to get close and she jumps away. I want to be with her. I've wanted to be with her for years but now is the first time I've really tried to make that happen. I just don't know how to make it happen when she's so skittish. I don't want to make her be uncomfortable."

He frowned and looked at Samuel, considering what he had just admitted to this man, then something else dawned on him. "Wait, you know Charlie?"

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miaiphonos
2011-07-17 05:56 pm UTC (link)

Samuel smiled a bit at his neighbor's heightened accent; it felt like a small piece of something akin to home, a welcome surprise turned up in this most unlikely of states. Assuming its resurgence was tied to Rylee's consumption of alcohol, Samuel resolved - only half in jest - to get him drunk far more often.

"Yeah, I know her," Samuel said. "And I think if you're making any kind of advances and she's not Maced you, Tased you, or kicked you in the balls, you're doin' alright." He thought for a moment, sipping at his whiskey as he mulled over what his new friend had said. "I'll tell you one thing, Eckholm," he said, stretching back against the cushions. Somewhere low in his back, his spine sounded a loud, satisfying crack. "Don't throw out that fuckin' L-word too soon. That's just the kind of thing to send somebody like that running for cover." A smile quirked at his lips, looking for a moment almost vulnerable in its sincerity. "And if you two know each other half as well as I think, she probably already knows, anyway. So just keep tryin'..." He raised his glass, gesturing in midair. "Guiding her in the right direction. Little bread crumb trails for your little bird. But for God's sake don't let another man step in and start anything with her while you're standing around holding your dick, doing next to nothing."

It was an amusing thought, the prickly, defensive Charlie having multiple suitors vying for her attention; in his private thoughts Samuel considered Rylee's chances good, the potential for competition in this particular game quite slim. But for once he held his tongue, wisely considering this to be unnecessary feedback, not least because it might encourage the boy to be even less forward with her than he already was. To Samuel's mind, that was not a risk worth taking.

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inclinedfear
2011-07-17 07:58 pm UTC (link)

"She punched me the night of the blackout, but she didn't realize it was me," Rylee mentioned absentmindedly. "Otherwise she hasn't caused no physical harm. Hasn't even had her dog attack me." Rylee's eyes grew wide from Samuel's warning and he quickly bent forward, pointing at Samuel with his glass, the whiskey sloshing around inside.

"Don't worry, I'm not tellin' her I love her. Well, not now or anything. The moment anyone is warm and squishy around her she gets this look like she's considering jumpin' from the window. I know that would destroy my chances. Not yet, no way." But a new shock quickly replaced Rylee's panic of making such a mistake as mentioning the L-word. The very thought that maybe Charlie already knew his feelings was so surprising that Rylee froze, listening to Samuel with complete attention before he collapsed back against the seat.

"You think? I mean, I guess it's not the hardest thing to consider. She probably does know, even if she isn't allowing herself to realize it. She's really good at avoiding stuff." He considered what he said for a moment, the way Charlie would become so nervous when he would try to make a small move. Yeah, she probably did know on some level, but Samuel was right- she hadn't tasered him or anything. That had to be a good sign.

With a flash in his blue eyes Rylee focused on his friend. "I won't let another man step in. It won't happen." The very idea of another man being with Charlie had always bothered Rylee but he had been lucky enough to not have been around to witness it. If a man flirted with Charlie, tried to approach her, anything like that in front of Rylee... the feeling that appeared from deep within Rylee wasn't a good one and his face flushed with a heat much different than embarrassment. He tossed back more of the whiskey and gave Samuel a nod. "It's all good advice. Thank you. She could use more friends and I'm glad you know her..."

He didn't feel threatened by Samuel for knowing his best friend, maybe it would give Charlie another person to confide in, and that set off a warning sound in Rylee's mind. What if Samuel told Charlie about Rylee's feelings? "... I think."

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