Who Taj & Andy Where Adrian's, then Taj's When Very early in the morning on 15th feb What Alone on Valentine's Warnings TBD
Andy had never liked Valentine's Day. Any festival that empasised love and togetherness had a tendency to inflame his depression but Valentine's especially brought with it the guilt of what he'd done to Taj, something he still blamed himself for; ruining his brother. He'd been only too happy to work through the holiday at the Love Club, spending time with Kareem on the side, and then go on to take a break from lovesick couples in the casino. He was tired from keeping the fake smile up by the time he finished, and his feet felt heavy after he'd clocked out.
Some kind of blank space took him over and he found those heavy feet wandering, left, right, left again, onwards down a path he'd rarely trod before despite his wanderings all over Boston. He kept his head down, ignorant to the couples that laughed and staggered home this late at night, and the shuffling of the cold homeless who weren't bothering anyone. He stopped at a door, at an address he'd plotted the way to but had never visited, the trailer parked outside very familiar; Adrian's house.
Andy had no idea why he'd gone there, or why that same impulse drove him to the front door. He still couldn't remember all of what they'd done that night and he knew that this alone meant he should stay away - but he couldn't.
Well, he'd never claimed to have sense.
He knocked on the door. Knocked and waited, the key he'd been offered never picked up. He kept his eye on the door, shifting nervously as he heard the sound of someone walking behind. The door opened, but it wasn't the man he'd been expecting and his heart sank in a way he hadn't been expecting either. "Uhm... is Adrian here?" he asked, voice small, eyes trained on the ground away from the person who had answered. He spied the tiger pacing around, looking up at him with eyes that reminded him of Kareem - he supposed he hadn't imagined that then.
He was told that the master was out, and he shook his head in response to anything else, stepping back and watching the door close. Well, it was something ridiculous o'clock in the morning, he couldn't expect Adrian to be there. He was surprised anyone had answered in fact. He turned to leave and only then noticed the dark birds of prey sat on top of the rV, the trees littered with the hunched cigar-shapes of crows asleep, hundreds of them, some of them watching him with the cold thousand fathom stare that birds seemed to have. He had no idea how he hadn't noticed them in the first place, but he felt uncomfortable turning his back on them as he left, something unusual for the boy who was unicorn.
It was cold with the night setting in and Andy was only wearing a thin hoody, but he didn't seem to mind the cold. Arms wrapped around himself, Andy kept walking. He could have gone to any number of places, but like the way he'd been inexplicably drawn to Adrian's where no one was waiting, this time he made is way to a place where he knew someone always was.
The familiar house appeared in the distance and as he drew closer he thought about what it would be like to go in and find Taj, curl up around him and with him and hold him and be held and love him different, the way they used to love.
Later on found him sitting in the cold on the front door step, huddled up, looking out over the drive and wondering what the hell he thought he was doing there.