Luke King (notanecromancer) wrote in summerview, @ 2019-01-19 17:17:00 |
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It was early, too early, but Roman had been woken from his sleep by a very demanding set of paws on his face accompanied by a loud impatient barking which after cracking his eye open informed he that his animals or at least the four-legged ones had run out of food.
"Hmph," he grumbled especially as it became evident that he wasn't about to be allowed to go back to sleep. "Fiiiine you win, I'm up." The dragon tossed aside his covers to finally get out of bed before he just popped his neck and rummaged out some clothes because whilst he would have no problem with wandering to the store naked he knew from experience that people tended to frown on that. He was in the process of yanking on his jacket when he stopped short, eyes narrowing and head tilting as he thought he spied a certain familiar face that he had not seen around Summerview in a while. Not long for a dragon, but long enough that you could forget certain details. Not that he'd ever admit that aloud. Nope, his memory? Solid. Of course he did make a big show out of squinting and looking very confused. "I'm sorry, do I know you?" Luke hadn't quite just opened the door and wandered into Roman's place but he had been pretty darned close considering he'd knocked on the door and there hadn't been an answer and it was well past ten thirty. He'd lifted his hand to knock on the door again when Roman pulled it open, squinting at the sunlight and jacket being pulled onto his ridiculously huge and broad form. The hand - with lovely, freshly painted nails - that had been curled to knock was pulled back and he lifted it to wave cheerfully at the dragon. "Hey, Roman," he greeted, ignoring the exaggerated confusion on the other man's face. "I was about to send in a search party." "That's rich," Roman threw back with a pointed look. "Considering you're the one who upped sticks and left Summerview behind." Was he mad? Not really. More confused and as unreasonable and crazy as it sounded hurt because he was close to Luke and Luke had just left. Dragons? Felt things quite strongly or Roman did and well he didn't let things go easy. That said he couldn't help himself as he wrapped the smaller human up in his arms and bundled him into a bear hug. "It's good to see you, kid." Luke's expression softened and he looked genuinely apologetic. "I- Roman, I'm sorry. I did tell you I'd be coming back." Though any anxiety he might have felt about Roman's reaction to seeing him again melted away as he was tugged into a firm hug, firm enough that he was pretty sure he felt a couple of bones in his spine popping in protest at being squeezed. "It's good to be back," he admitted though his words were somewhat muffled against Roman's chest. Leaning back as he was released, Luke scratched his hand through his hair and grinned up at the dragon. "How're you? You good?" A squawk from inside drew his attention and he looked past Roman. "You still got that African Grey?" He might have been released but Roman did still have a grip on Luke's shoulders and he gave him a thorough pat on both before he stole a look over his shoulder in the direction of his home. "Yeah even though he's one hell of a loud sonofabitch." Roman shook his head and he figured that Luke could accompany him to the store, four hands were better than two. Much better. He stepped in to sling his arm around Luke's shoulders and pulled him along with him. "Me? I'm good, man. Really good. What about you?" "It's good to be back," Luke admitted, tilting his head up to look at Roman as he was manhandled into walking alongside the other, the warmth of Roman's arm being achingly familiar in the best way. Being away for a year had been good though badly timed since he'd literally just come back from college and then left again, though this second departure had been needed. "Looks like I missed a lot." He was tall himself but Roman was so much taller and Luke had to walk faster to keep up with his long strides. "Did I miss anything with you?" He waved off the question about himself. "I'm fine, yeah." Roman didn't think there were many good reasons for leaving Summerview and he tended to stick pretty close to home except for the odd occasion when he ventured into Atlantic city to help "rescue" animals in need. "Funny how that happens," he murmured with an affectionate look in Luke's direction. The kid had definitely grown a couple inches since the last time Roman had seen him which wasn't a bad thing. "Got a couple more animals," he offered with a shrug. "Lost Gilly which sucked but she was old, it was better for her." Luke leaned against Roman a little, lifting his hand to squeeze the one resting against his shoulder in sympathy. "She was what, twenty-three? She had a good life with you." As they left Roman's property, Luke couldn't resist a look backwards, seeing various four-legged creatures at the window watching them leave. "Tell me about your new animals?" he asked, because even though it had only been a year that could have meant one or two or ten more animals added to Roman's ever-growing collection. He did wonder why he collected so many and- was that a horse trailer? "Did you get a horse?" Roman shot Luke an appreciative look at the offering of sympathy as even though he knew it was better for her and she'd had a good life he still missed her and her silly dance she would do whenever he came home from work. "Yeah, I know. It's just hard." "Horse?" He asked, purposefully playing the part of an innocent I have no idea what you're talking about perfectly as his expression was genuinely perplexed. "I saw a horse trailer," Luke said, stopping and starting to walk back a little as if he was going to point it out to Roman that he had a horse trailer on his property. Like he didn't already know that. "Roman, when did you get a horse?!" He looked quite excited, though, because he did love animals. Roman, actually, had a huge part in fostering that love. It was hard not to appreciate animals when you saw how loving they were towards people who cared for them. Even Roman's cats treated him like he was important and cats - Luke knew - hated everyone. "Fiiiiine," Roman pushed out of his chest as he rolled his eyes. "I maybe got a horse or... two. I mean I couldn't exactly leave them all abandoned out in that field now could I? It was all kinds of crappy weather, Luke, and honestly, it was just awful." Thankfully Luke seemed quite excited at the prospect of there being horses and Roman's eyebrows arched. "You wanna meet them?" Luke snorted, "You stole two horses from someone's field because they were outside and it was raining?" He rubbed his hand over his face in despair before pinching the bridge of his nose and putting his hands in his pockets. "I'd love to, but I get the feeling we were meant to be going somewhere?" After all, Roman had a jacket on and if Luke's memory served him correctly he only did that when he needed to remember things that he had to take out of the house with him like keys or, most importantly, his wallet. "Do you wanna introduce me to them now or when we get back?" Because he didn't have anything to do with his day now and he wanted to hang out with Roman some. After all, Roman was one of his favourite people in the world. "It's not stealing if people can't be bothered to take care of what's theirs," Roman pointed out with all the petulance of a much younger dragon. Oh, right, he was supposed to be going to the store. For food. "Right!" He said with a snap of his fingers. "I gotta pick up some food for the animals otherwise I'm pretty certain they're going to start trying to eat me." He rubbed a hand through his hair. "So I'll introduce you to Bambi and Thumper later." "Your monthly pet food bills must be insane," Luke drawled with a laugh, falling into step with Roman again as they resumed their walk. "Pretty sure you'd be at least a week's worth of food for them, though, so if they got desperate..." He nudged Roman gently with a little grin. He was beginning to feel more settled again, like he was returning home rather than to a place that felt alien. "Bambi and Thumper, huh? They sound nice. Let's get to the shops quickly so I can meet the new additions." "So insane," Roman enthused with a nod of his head. "But they're totally worth it." He also tended to bring back food from the diner that hadn't been eaten and was just going to go in the bin. Stuff that wasn't bad for them of course, he wasn't about poisoning his animals. He squeezed Luke's shoulder again. "Yeah, sounds like a plan. I think you're gonna like them. I should warn you though Thumper's got a habit of trying to eat hair." "That's okay, I think mine could do with a cut anyway," Luke laughed as they headed away from the house. Yeah, he thought, as the cool air whipped around them but it was mostly kept away by Roman's large form, this was what it felt like to come home. |