Thread: Last Night Characters: Rictor and Shatterstar Location: The dorms Timeline: January 26th, the day after this. Description: The boys talk about their FEELINGS and the kiss that wasn't. Rating: PG-13; Just awkward silence and then lots of feels. Status: Complete
Rictor hadn’t slept much the previous night. His mind was stuck on repeat playing back the the events that transpired earlier in the evening. Playing out the what ifs, attempting to make sense of it all. All it accomplished was increasing his uncertainty… and insomnia.
All through classes he was distracted, he was grateful there were no tests that day. He knew he would have to face Gaveedra sooner or later and despite having memorized everything he wanted to say, Rictor knew he would forget every single word the instant he layed eyes on the other man.
Staring at his reflection in the mirror, he ran his hand through his hair, inhaling deeply. He turned the light out in bathroom and walked out of his dorm room across the hall, balling his fist and pounding on the door. He hoped it would be Gav who answered not wanting to deal with his roommate.
It was agonizing, the waiting. He needed to know that everything was ok, that he hadn’t gone and ruin everything. He worried that Rictor’s hesitance would cause Gaveedra to run into the arms of someone more secure with themselves. Whether he admitted it or not, Ric couldn’t help feel the pangs of envy when he saw Gav interacting with other students. Finally, the door opened.
Gaveedra, of course, usually wasn't one for romance. Most people flirting with him would go over his head like a plane, but with Ric he felt a strange sense of security. He figured it mostly to be friendship, but he could not deny that his feelings for Ric ran deeper than what he set out for. Over the last few weeks, he'd found himself thinking about his smile, and how he always wanted to see it, and all the ways he could continue to make that happen. He'd had 'friends' before, but none that he felt that protective over.
So when everything blew up in his face, he uncharacteristically became very sad. He had somehow hurt Ric by admitting that maybe he had an inkling of feelings for him. This would not change his friendship with him, but he had hoped Rictor was not too estranged by it.
He was in his room, reading a book. Something about Ellis Island, a place in the city. A place he'd hoped they'd go to eventually. He still kind of hoped Rictor still wanted to venture into the city in a few weeks. He fingered through the book with an exasperated sigh and he was surprised when he heard a knock at the door. Maybe Dominikos had locked himself out? Surely it wasn't Rictor so soon?
He got up and answered the door and he couldn't help but give a faint smile when he saw the face on the other side. "Oh... um... come in." He nodded, opening the door for Ric. "You... you feeling better?"
“Worse, if that is possible.” he muttered as he entered the room. Ric crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, staring at the floor. It was difficult for him to look at Gaveedra after what had happened. “Only because I made you feel bad.”
He let his arms drop to his side, leaning forward a bit. He had wanted to speak about how he didn't know whats going. Or about how all his life he had been on his own and how Gaveedra’s arrival changed everything. That it was confusing and terrifying and, most importantly, that he felt the same. But he couldn’t remember any of that.
“I don’t want things to be complicated. All I know is that in the short time i’ve known you, you have become an important part of my life, I don’t want that to get messed up.” He shrugged, straightening up. “Let’s just forget about last night and go back to normal, okay?” Ric offered his hand, a gesture to quell the discord between them.
“Please?”
Gaveedra just gave a small half smile and shrugged at the mention of Ric making him feel bad. "It's not that bad, friend. It is my fault. Truthfully, it is because I still am learning my ways with your world's boundaries. I will try not to do that to you again." He said with a little nod as he pursed his lips.
He didn't want things to be complicated either. But he wasn't a mind reader. He had no idea of knowing that Ric felt the same for him, so when he mentioned that he wanted to forget last night ever happened, it did sting a little bit. But Gaveedra, with years of television experience, was a wonderful actor. So he just put a smile on his face and shook Ric's hand firmly, trying not to make him suspect that big, strong Shatterstar was a little heartbroken. At least he still wanted to be friends.
"I... do want that too. Let's just... move past it." He nodded, a forced smile revealing his teeth. "You are my best friend here. So let us continue to be that way."
Feeling Gaveedra’s hand grasped tightly in his, confusion surged once more within him. He pulled hard, drawing the other boy’s body close and wrapped his arm around him. Rictor rested his head against the other’s shoulder, his back still resting against the wall.
He laughed a little to himself.This wasn’t confusing at all… He felt as if he was redefining the term ‘between a rock and a hard place’. At the moment Gaveedra was his rock. Rictor felt incapable of a lot of things at the moment, supporting his own weight seemingly one of them.
After a few moments, he pulled away. Placing his hand on the side of the mutant’s face, he looked into his steely eyes, “Family.” He smiled. Pushing himself off of the wall he took a few steps into the middle of the room. He looked around having realized that this was the first time he’d been in Gav’s dorm room. Somehow he’d expected something more befitting of a warrior, but instead it looked like all the other rooms.
“I hope I didn’t interrupt anything, what were you doing anyway?”
Gaveedra felt the boy pull him in close with surprising strength and envelope him in a tight hug. Gav couldn't help but smile as he held Ric close, stroking his hair and his back, taking in his pleasant scent. It felt right, he knew Ric felt it too, which is why he wasn't surprised when Ric pulled away once more.
When Ric pulled away and took in the room, Gav shrugged and stuffed his hands into his pockets with a smile. "Uh... nothing much. Just reading." He nodded, reaching down and holding the book up off the bed. "Learning more about our fair city. I wanted to know more about it for when... or if we ever do go into the city."
He sat down on the bed and fingered through the book once more, stopping on the picture of Times Square. The colors were bright, there were large tv screens everywhere... it kind of reminded him of home. Only without the screaming and death. "It's... beautiful."
“What do you mean if? Have you changed your mind?” Rictor scowled playfully. He walked up to the bed and sat down beside his friend. He leaned in to look at the page of the book before looking up at Gav. “Yeah…beautiful.” He looked back down almost instantly. “Time Square is almost overwhelming the first time, it’s sort of intense. So many people, so many lights and it feels like you are at the center of it all.”
He realized that he had gone off on one of his absentminded rants and smiled. “Three weeks. We’ll take the train down and see all the sights, maybe catch a show and some food. You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten food from a shady cart on the street.” Truth was he’d only been once himself, during a school trip. He was looking forward to experiencing new things too.
“What else do you want to check out while we are there? You know we’ll probably have to be there super early in order to experience as much as we possible can.” Ric leaned back on the bed propping himself up on his elbows, letting his weight fall to one side. His shoulder gently making contact with Gaveedra.
The closeness brought an inexplicable comfort to Rictor. His need for it, was the source of all of his inner turmoil. Never having known love or affection, it was difficult for him to discern what these feelings were like. It was even more difficult to accept that he could feel this way about another man.
Gaveedra looked up at him when he said 'beautiful' and smiled when he looked back down. Rictor always seemed so easy to make look the other way, as if every little thing he did embarassed himself. It was endearing, at least to Gav.
"Early I can do. Truth be told, I'm not that big on sleep." He nodded with a little half smirk and laid back next to the other boy, their shoulders touching. Fine with him. Any little contact, no matter how innocent, was cherished. He looked over into Ric's eyes for a moment before responding with what else he wanted to do. Really he didn't care. He wanted to have fun with his friend. "I want to do everything I can with you. And if we run out of time, I want to do it again, see more..." He smiled a bit as he nodded.
He laid and continued looking into Ric's eyes for a moment, just studying them. His eyes were always so sad, so full of thought and confusion. Gav's own eyes might have mimiced them a little, only maybe a little less sullen, being that he was just naturally cheerful and being around Ric brought out the best in him. He only wished he could know what the other boy was thinking so he could soothe his problems and try to make him feel a little better.
"It is going to be... the happiest day for me. " He gave another genuine smile, still not breaking eye contact with his friend.
Rictor couldn’t help feel self conscious seeing the icy grey eyes staring at him. It was like he was under a spotlight, one that burned as bright as a thousand suns. He averted his gaze, but it wasn’t long before they drew his attention once again. Try as he may, he was unable to look away. The red on his face was nothing more than the burn.
“You can’t know that for sure, Gav. Tomorrow could be the happiest day for you…” Rictor didn’t mean to be difficult, it just happened. A lot. In any case, Ric had already lived the happiest day of his life, at least he thought so. It was meeting Gaveedra, the day the spark was ignited and for the first time Rictor found a reason to be alive.
Sitting up he, ran both hands through his hair. Eventually he felt that flame would be extinguished, so any moment after that one only brought him closer to that inevitable end. He shook his head trying to expel the negative thoughts from his mind. Turning to face his companion he couldn’t help but smile.
Rictor laid down next to Gav, facing him. His chest pressed against the other boy’s shoulder. Without giving it any thought Ric buried his face into the crook of the young man’s neck.
Gaveedra listened to Rictor try to dispel why it would not be the happiest day, then just shook his head with lips pursed. "Why do you do that? Because yeah, tomorrow may be the happiest day of my life... up until that point. Until the day I spend with you in the city. I say this because I know this. Just as I know that someday, if there is an even happier day, I want you to be there."
He spoke in all seriousness, still looking over the other mutant with his dark blue eyes. He wanted him to understand that everything he said was always in the utmost sincerity. But in response, the boy just stared at him, a serene but almost blank expression on his face. Then he felt his nose press into his neck and a small surprised smile crept across Gav's lips. He wrapped an arm around Rictor and ran his fingers through his thick, dark hair. It was a very similar position to the one they were in when Rictor became upset. Gaveedra would try his best not to provoke any unwanted reactions. He just wanted to lay there in peace with this young man he was developing feelings for.
"Well you at least seem a little more relaxed. For that I am grateful, my friend."
“I don’t know why I do it…” He shrugged, his voice muffled against Gav’s neck. He was too tired to resist the urge to be close. He let his arm snake it’s way up Gaveedra’s body, resting his hand on the young man’s chest. Rictor sighed, “I’m not going anywhere.”
“And if you keep doing that to my hair, I will be more than relaxed.” He opened one eye and decided to clarify, “Meaning, I will fall asleep and drool on you again.” He chuckled. Ric’s fingers gently traced a line on Gav’s chest. “Jesus Christ, Gav…are you made out of rock.” He poked lightly, at first, the other’s pecs.
“That’s just not natural.” He laughed. “You need to lay off the roids man.” Feeling playful he jabbed his finger into the boy’s ribs, curious to see if he was ticklish at all. Determined to get some sort of reaction he began poking his companion’s torso randomly.
When Gaveedra twitched, Rictor pulled his head away revealing a mischievous grin. “What’s this? Could it possibly be that you, sir, are ticklish?” He placed his hand just below Gav’s chest, walking his hand over the area like a spider.
Gav chuckled lightly when Rictor said he would fall asleep on him and drool again, and it just made him caress the other's hair even more. "I've told you before, I don't mind. It would actually be quite nice." He smirked down at the slightly shorter mutant. And as he did so, he felt the other's fingers start to explore a little bit. He'd be lying if it didn't make his senses shudder a little bit, but he tried to keep a straight face.
"If I were made of rock, then I would be completely helpless in your hands, wouldn't I?" He joked, knowing that in Ric's hands he would probably be all kinds of putty anyway, because that's just how he felt about him.
"Roids?" He cocked his head to the side in confusion. Another one of those words that he'd not heard before. He could infer that it probably had to do with unnatural muscle mass from the way the boy used it, but at this point Ric's fingers were poking and jabbing at him and he couldn't care less about a word.
"What are you doing?" He asked with a slight giggle as he prodded around his torso. That was until he reached the small patch of skin right below his chest at the tip of his abdomen, when he shuddered and laughed a little louder. It was a weird feeling. It felt... good but at the same time strange and irritating. What was that?
"W-what are you heh...w-what is th-that?" He chuckled, pushing his hand away but not using any force because he didn't really mind if the hand found it's way back up.
“That, my friend, is called your achilles heel. A weakness I plan on exploiting any chance I get!” He said triumphantly. Feeling satisfied, Rictor let his hand rest once again on Gaveedra’s chest. Rictor wasn’t ticklish, unless you squeezed both sides of the area above his knees. Of course no one knew about this, and if they tried he was pretty sure he’d punch them involuntarily. That is how much he hates it.
Rictor sat up abruptly having a heard a noise out in the hall. He looked from the door back to Gav, “You’re roommate will probably be back anytime…I should probably get out of here before he does.” His hand still firmly planted on the other man’s chest. Rictor didn’t want to risk an encounter, especially since it was his fault that Dom was in detention.
“Besides I should go clean up my room…I need to take the rest of the fort down before John gets back tomorrow.” He looked down feeling a little self-conscious once again. “If you want… you could sleep over?” He shrugged attempting to make the invitation seem unimportant.
“We could watch another movie?”
Gaveedra scrunched his nose and smirked at the mention of Achilles. He'd read it in the book of mythology around the same time he'd read the story of the Minotaur, so he at least had an idea of what Ric meant. He placed his hand briefly over Ric's that occupied his chest and caressed it, looking into his eyes with a smile. "Then I won't fight it. You are the only one that will be able to bring me to my knees."
Ric shot up abruptly and ran over and locked the door, causing Gaveedra to scrunch his eyebrows as he looked him over. Then he crawled back into the bed and laid his hand back on his chest. And then he asked if he would spend the night, but in a nonchalant voice that Gav had grown to know betrayed Ric's true feelings. He smiled and then cupped the sides of Ric's face with both hands and leaned in, almost touching lips but not quite. Then at the last second he pulled up and kissed the tip of his nose.
"I will be happy to." He smiled a bit and sat up. "Do you have Pirates of the Carribbean? Everyone says I have to watch it since I liked that other movie so much..." He smirked, sliding off the bed and nodding his head to the door as if to say 'Come on' without words.
Ric froze, his breath caught in his throat as the other man brought his face dangerously close to his. His eyes fluttered closed and he braced himself for what was to come next. When he felt the kiss on his nose he opened one eye, oddly disappointed and relieved at the same time.
“Freak.” He smiled, running his hand through his hair. Rictor let his hand creep to the space between Gav’s chest and abdomen and gave it a swift poke in retaliation. “I can probably find it online.” He responded to his friends inquiry about the movie.
Rictor stood and led the way across the hall and into his room. He opened the door and stared and the mess. It looked like a rock band’s hotel room. Building the fort seemed like such a good idea and yet such a simple idea caused so much trouble for Rictor over the past two days. “Next time I have a brilliant idea, tell me to lay down until it goes away.”
He went to his desk and opened his laptop. After a few minutes he found a site which had the movie available and streamed it to the television. Rictor couldn’t be bothered with cleaning the mess at that moment in time and instead plopped down on the mattress, which was still on the floor. When the other boy joined him he resumed the same position as before. It wasn’t long before the sound of dueling swords faded, as he snuggled closer drifting effortlessly into a dream.