hiddenintellect (hiddenintellect) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-12-08 21:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, billy kaplan (wiccan), gareth visser |
Who: Gareth Visser & Billy Kaplan
What: Boring or not so boring grocery shopping
When: Saturday 7th December
Where: Random grocery store
Rating/Warning: G | None
Status: Log | Complete
It wasn’t the most interesting of tasks, but it had to be done, so Billy and Grizz had made their list and headed out to the grocery store with the intention of grabbing whatever they could to last them to Thanksgiving. It was impossible, he supposed, but they could try. He hated being in all of these kinds of stores, Walmart, Target, Costco... even the 7/11s were crappy places to be. Billy found them too busy, too filled with people, and, though it wasn’t the case (and he logically knew that), too filled with people that would stare at him and judge him for everything.
He tugged his hoodie tighter around himself and stuffed his hands into the pockets, chewing on the toggle and glancing at Grizz, who was pushing the cart and had leaned forward, arms resting on the handles. He, too, had the toggle of his hoodie in his mouth, chewing on it thoughtfully and glaring at a strand of his hair which had escaped the small ponytail he’d stuck the rest of it into.
“Tell me again why we couldn’t just order in?” Billy asked, pressing a little closer to Grizz to avoid getting bumped by the four people who hurried past them in the opposite direction, intent on running down anyone who dared get in their way. “‘Cause that’d have been, like, a hundred percent easier than-“ And again, his chest was pressed against Grizz’s arm for a moment, “-than this.”
Grizz unlike his roommate was the walking epitome of chill as not much bothered him save for when things were unfair or people were unjustly persecuted or bullied. “Because we are students, broke students at that,” he pointed out with a smirk aimed in Billy’s direction. “Besides, I can cook, so I figure anything I cook has to be better than anything we order in.”
Also, cheaper, so much cheaper.
It also lasted longer.
He nudged Billy’s side with his hip. “Just breathe, Billy.”
Billy huffed out a breath. “We’re not broke,” he pointed out, because his parents did give him a food allowance which wasn’t meagre by any means. “And that doesn’t answer my question,” he added, bumping Grizz right back gently with his hip. “I meant like, get the shopping delivered to the apartment rather than having to be out here surrounded by people who don’t understand what personal space is.”
He wrinkled his nose and moved to Grizz’s other side, standing between him and the shelves rather than being on the exposed side of the wide aisles. He’d seen pictures of similar stores in Europe which were a lot smaller and more claustrophobic but it did little to make him feel grateful for his current predicament.
“You say breathe like it’s easy,” he grumbled, spitting out the toggle of his hoodie and hunching his shoulders. “It- oh, hey, Lucky Charms.”
“Because it doesn’t kill us to get out of the apartment on occasion,” Grizz answered with a small knowing smile as Billy happily and readily got distracted by a box of Lucky Charms. “It’s good for you, air that isn’t recycled by an air conditioning unit, that sort of thing.”
He stepped away from the cart and reached up to latch his long fingers around a box of Lucky Charms along with a Cap’n Crunch before tossing them into the cart itself.
“Can you see any pop tarts?”
“We get out,” Billy rumbled playfully. “Classes count as out.” Even if Grizz got out more than Billy did. Going out was just… so much effort. Sometimes he just couldn’t find the energy. Sometimes getting out of bed was hard enough. Grizz was good, in that sense, gently encouraging him out of the house meant that Billy attended more classes this year than he had done the year before. That had to be a good thing, didn’t it?
He paused, glancing over the aisles and grabbing a box of chocolate pop tarts, and then the strawberry ones for good measure. Just because they weren’t ordering food in from Ubereats didn’t mean they were going to be completely healthy.
Besides, pop tarts made great late-night snacks.
“You planning on doing some…” he waved his hand, “grand cooking thing? We’d probably need slightly better quality pans and stuff if you wanna do anything fancier than pasta.”
“It had crossed my mind,” Grizz affirmed as he once again set off with the cart but not before he’d gently caught Billy’s elbow and guided the other to keep up so that he didn’t get left behind. “My mom’s shipping me some, apparently. I mean, it’s the least she can do considering I’ve basically looked after myself since I got out here.” His mom, she tried, but she wasn’t the best parent around which might explain why Grizz was so self sufficient and capable.
He guided them around the corner of the next aisle and stopped off to grab herbs and other things for actual cooking including some sauces.
“How do you feel about stir fry for dinner tonight?”
“One day you’ll have to try and teach me how to cook again,” Billy said with a little smile, picking up a small jar of the herbs that Grizz had put in the cart and reading the back of it. “I promise I’ll pay better attention this time.”
He dropped it back into the cart and chewed on his lower lip, “Hey, did I show you the new power that I got a little while back?” He’d been careful not to show off his powers in general, but especially in front of other people who were dreaming because it didn’t seem fair that he get these cool powers and some people dream about being trapped away from their families.
“I’m game if you are,” Grizz assured Billy with a smile. The other man’s attention span was pretty short, but Grizz was nothing if not patient.
He shook his head. “Nope, you have not. So… what is it?”
Grizz was interested because he might be dreaming different stuff but he still had an interest in what Billy was dreaming.
Billy snorted, “I need to know how to do more then burn pasta,” he pointed out, “since I can’t survive on take out or frozen meals forever.” After all, when they finished college, Grizz was likely to move out, especially when someone snatched him up. “Won’t have you around forever to cook for me, huh.”
He reached out, holding his hand above the cart and his brows furrowed in concentration, lower lip disappearing between his teeth. The oregano container, small and glass, flew up from where it was in the cart to Billy’s outstretched hand where he curled his fingers around it.
“Tada?”
“Woah,” Grizz said around a huge clearly impressed grin which encompassed most of his lower half of his face. “That is so cool.” And it was. “How long have you been able to do that?”
He reached out and took a hold of the oregano container, fingers brushing against Billy’s as he did, a brief assessment being made of its weight. Not heavy, but not exactly paper light.
“And have you figured what your limit is in terms of weight yet?”
“Flipped a bus in my dreams,” Billy said, ignoring the way his whole body tingled a little when Grizz’s fingers brushed over his skin. He felt his whole body react to such a tiny touch and had to make sure he looked away so he didn’t get caught shooting moon eyes at his friend.
He rubbed behind his ear, like touching something else would dispel the tingles. “Here? I’m not- I haven’t really tested it too much. It’s no fun trying to do it on your own.” He’d done that for a while in the dreams before he’d been found, before the Young Avengers had been drawn together. He hated that he yearned for people that didn’t exist, or that weren’t here. Even if they were, they might not know him.
“I could probably lift the cart? But I’m not sure, I’d need to like, y’know, properly test it.”
“You do have that place where you can experiment, right?” Grizz checked a few more items off the list on his phone and moved them along to the next aisle. “But I get that it’s probably not as much fun doing it by yourself. If I could go with you I would and just sort of sit on the sidelines.”
He meant that as well.
Billy glanced up, surprise across his features. “You’d do that?” he asked, looking boyishly pleased. “I mean, you’d come hang out with me while I practised my powers? Won’t you get bored?”
He chewed his lower lip, humming a little. “Are you sure?”
Grizz shot Billy a soft reassuring smile before nodding. “Yeah, man. Of course. Wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t.” He was a fairly straightforward kind of person after all, no bullshit or fake shit with Grizz.
“If it’ll help I’m there.”
“I don’t know if it’d help,” Billy said honestly, with a little smile - Grizz tended to be distracting in the best of ways, he was like a video game character with an idle animation that always just drew Billy’s attention, “but it’d be good to have you there. You can be kinda distracting.”
Grizz’s teeth slipped out to catch his lower lip, the same lower lip that joined his top one in a slow almost bashful smile. “Yeah?” He asked, a hand lifting to rub at the back of his neck. “Is that in a good way or a bad way?”
Legitimate question, it was kind of important.
Billy’s eyes dropped to Grizz’s mouth where his teeth caught his lip and then to where his shirt rode up slightly, and then lifted to that shy smile.
“Depends on if I’m hovering ten feet in the air or not,” he pointed out with a tilt of his head. His hair fell across his eyes and he pushed it back carefully, fingers threading through his bangs to push them back. “But it’s mostly a good thing, as long as I won’t end up hurting myself with my powers.”
Grizz let out a warm laugh at that admission from Billy and he watched the movement of the other’s fingers through his hair. “Mm, that’s a good point. I’ll try not to be too distracting when you’re hovering ten feet in the air.”
He nudged Billy playfully with his hip and grinned.
“No promises though.”
“Just don’t… smile or play with your hair or do anything that involves lifting your arms and we’ll be fine,” Billy replied, bumping Grizz back and then grabbing a packet of candy flying saucers to put in the cart. “Maybe.”
“Daaamn,” Grizz hissed out playfully. “Guess that means a wife-beater is outta the question.” He chuckled a moment later and began them in their continuing pursuit of groceries.
Of course Billy hadn’t said anything about his jeans so that was clearly still on the table.
“And,” Billy added, as though he’d read Grizz’s mind. “You’re not allowed to turn around where I can see you.”
Of course, his brain caught up with his mouth a moment later and his cheeks coloured. He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck, muttering something under his breath in Yiddish and moving away because fuck he needed a moment after making a colossal idiot of himself here.
God, Kaplan, what were you thinking?
Grizz paused mid step and slowed the cart to a stop before he turned to watch the flush that crept up Billy’s neck and flooded his checks.
“You know you’re even cuter when you’re flustered,” he shared sincerely and with a smile that reached across his lips and dipped into his cheeks.
Billy groaned a little, “Cute is never a word a guy wants to be associated with,” he complained, missing completely the part where Grizz was calling him cute in a way that was probably almost maybe kind of flirty.
He rubbed the back of his neck again and looked over at Grizz, feeling his chest swoop at the smile. “I didn’t- sorry for the- uh-”
Grizz rolled his eyes and reached over to give Billy a playful shove. “Seriously, don’t. I wasn’t complaining, was I?” He arched his eyebrows awaiting an affirmative response from Billy because he had definitely not been complaining.
If anything he’d been quite happy to go along with it, flirting right back.
“Well, no, I- uh- I guess not,” Billy conceded, wrinkling his nose a little, the flush still not disappearing from his cheeks. “I mean- I just-”
He let out a little laugh and nudged Grizz with his shoulder. “C’mon, let’s get outta here before I make more of an ass of myself today.”
Grizz let out a warm laugh and acquiesced to Billy’s request. “Alright, alright.” And with that and a warm smile in Billy’s direction the taller man focused on what remained of their shopping and getting the hell out of dodge before Billy in his words “made even more of an ass out of himself”.