Elijah (allintheblood) wrote in worldsapart_ic, @ 2019-10-03 15:27:00 |
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Entry tags: | elijah ridley-jones, james byrne |
Who: Elijah Ridley-Jones & James Byrne
What: Stock take and talk of one active and one very non active near extinct love life
When: 2nd Oct
Where: The White Rabbit
Rating: G
Warnings: n/a
Elijah was so over whatever this thing was that was making him tired, sore, ill, and generally out of sorts. He’d been to see his doctor and they’d run tests but with all things of that nature results took time and patience had never been his strong suit.
Thankfully he had things to keep him busy and by things he meant the annual purge of out of date stock and whatever else they weren’t selling enough of. Boring, sure, but a very necessary evil, and one that didn’t take a lot of thought and sometimes monotonous was the best way to take your mind off things.
“Jesus,” Elijah grumbled as he plucked out what was a broken vial of glass from the back of a nearby shelf, grimacing faintly as yep fairy dust everywhere. That stuff was impossible to get rid of it, it really was.
Fairy dust, really? No wonder they hadn’t sold much of that. It was only good in small doses, otherwise - well, James didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if you used too much of the stuff. Using it as a spell ingredient in the wrong amount, or mixing an extra tablespoon in your tea (that second one was ill-advised).
“Like glitter, it’s the herpes of magical supplies,” James spoke up, entering the back room with a smock tied around his waist (he didn’t want to mess up this jumper, after all) and a clipboard in hand. Inventory was always a tedious task and usually he’d complete it with Kitty but she was elsewhere. Perhaps with that werewolf she finally didn’t have to pine over anymore. “Never fear, mate, I’m here to help.”
And find out what in gods name was wrong with Eli, since he’d been pregnant for months now - or it was close to the same symptoms anyway, so if it wasn’t that it was something similar.
“If only it wasn’t as powerful as it was,” Elijah echoed with a shake of his head. Still, Elijah was practical when it came to his shop so he didn’t mind getting his hands dirty, save of course if there were spiders involved because then all bets were off.
Ugh, spiders.
The broken glass went in the bin and the remnants of the dust were as cleaned up as they were ever going to be. “Definitely going to need more of that.”
James had a useful cloth here somewhere - aha! It was a bit of specialised silk meant for mopping up messes of the magical variety, and he pulled it out from the depths of his apron pocket. Just call him Cinderfella.
There, the remnants of the dust was sopped up all nice and neat. “Well, want me to start on the other end of the stockroom?” he asked. “I’ll get through everything quick. You can still tell me how you’re doing. How was your trip to see the family, and so forth?”
“Yeah, might stand a better chance of getting this done before the turn of the next century,” Elijah agreed as he moved onto the next shelf, making a couple notes before moving on. Thank God for technology as in the past his dad had used notebooks upon notebooks for this but nowadays Elijah had things like iPads and the Cloud so everything was so much easier.
He was tired, though, but then that was nothing new.
Permanent state of being and all these days.
“Trip went well, my sister is doing really well and loves San Francisco. So much so that she doesn’t understand how I still live in LA, but you know each to their own. Still no boyfriend or girlfriend on the horizon, she says she’s too busy studying to worry about things like that so I suppose I should be grateful for that.”
James whipped it out (his work iPad, not...anything else), beginning to efficiently scan barcodes and make counts, adding and subtracting. He could talk and do his job at the same time though, so a bit of multitasking was in order.
"I'm sure she'll meet someone fantastic when she least expects it," he chuckled. "Giving you cause to worry and become the protective brother."
He always thought that sort of familial connection was nice, but being that he had literally no family to speak of it was more wishful thinking than anything else. "And what about you, mate? You're feeling...?"
James trailed off, letting Eli fill in the blanks. Because he certainly could see how the fellow looked and, well.
Elijah shot James a playful withering look. “I know I look like shit, no need to go rubbing it in.” Shit was something of an understatement but it was too early for dramatisation, far too early. “I’m waiting for the results of some tests and hopefully I’ll know what the fuck is going on because, this? I am so over this.”
And he was.
He didn’t do sick, he didn’t do poorly, he was the life and soul of any party and he couldn’t wait to get back to that.
James feigned innocence in response. It was all coming from a place of love, mate, really. “You could never look like shit,” he replied honestly, and he meant that. Perhaps a little under the weather, but otherwise? No. Eli was much too bright-eyed and charismatic to ever lose that which made him appealing.
“I’m just worried about you, is all,” he confessed, over the next beep from the iPad. “Depending on what those test results say, I’m not about to just let it go without offering to concoct whatever healing potion you may need. If there’s a spell out there, I can learn it. Or piece one together.”
He’d need to know what he was dealing with, but he wanted to be able to help. Hopefully he could.
Okay so maybe he was a little on the tetchy side, but lack of sleep and a myriad of other complaints would do that to a guy. “Sorry,” he said after a moment. “I didn’t mean to snap, I just-” Elijah blew out a breath and ran his darkly painted nails through his hair before clasping the back of his neck, tightly and firmly. “I just need to know what the fuck is going on and then I’ll feel better.”
Or worse, but Elijah held back that particular thought.
He scanned a few more items and scrunched up his nose when it appeared they were in fact swimming in nettles. Elijah very promptly cancelled the recurring order because nobody needed that many nettles.
“As soon as I know, you’ll know, promise.”
James merely smirked, a fond expression that tipped his lip up into his cheek a bit. “You don’t need to be sorry, mate. I get it.” Elijah was anxious, and maybe even a little scared - the unknown, especially when it came to one’s own health, could be a terrifying thing. He had to know his friends were there for him, that they cared about him and would still be there no matter what happened.
Yes, funnily enough, there was Eye of Newt as a spell ingredient in this shop - in jars, lots of them. It sounded like something from Macbeth, James always thought, but he was rather used to it by now. And there that went onto the scanner too.
“And good. I’ll hold you to that. I’m not going anywhere, you’ve got one co-worker and friend who will be up your bum about it,” he added cheerfully. That too was out of love.
“Well, I appreciate it, even if it doesn’t seem like I do,” Elijah assured James as he pushed a few more jars out of the way and made a note of what they were running low on. “It’s just the unknown that’s getting to me right now. Much easier to handle something if you know what it is. Really fucking difficult when you don’t.”
His dad had been edgy as well when Elijah had mentioned his health issues to him, like he was keeping a secret, and that worried Elijah. A lot, in fact. It was never good when his dad kept secrets, especially as he was closed off and guarded to begin with so to add secrets into that? Oy vey, you stood a better chance of breaking into Buckingham Palace during the Queen’s speech than getting anything out of him.
“Thankfully we have delights such as inventory to keep my mind busy.”
Sarcasm? Elijah? Never.
“Aye, the unknown is bad for anyone,” James agreed. No matter what you were, who you were - no one could see the future, could pin it down. That was because the future wasn’t meant to be held by any one person - it wasn’t meant to be understood, before it actually happened.
But whatever happened with Elijah, well, they’d find out. And deal with it once they had the information and means to do so.
The sarcasm made him chuckle though, and he stealthily maneuvered around boxes and in between shelves to reach Eli, giving him a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. “At least Kitty finally stopped pining over that werewolf.” Thank the gods.
Elijah turned his head at the squeeze of his shoulder before he snorted and lifted his eyebrows in a rather dramatic fashion. “God, right?” He was honestly happy for Kitty though that things had worked out well for her and she had the werewolf that she had clearly been in love with for so many years.
“I mean, I’m happy for her, I am, but I will not miss when he’d sleep with somebody and she’d come storming in here like she was her very own stormcloud.”
Those were the days when he sent her on a lot of errands.
“Took him long enough to get his shit together,” James huffed a laugh. Though he also had to admit he found it amusing when Kitty got her knickers in a twist over the fellow’s wandering dick - personally, James hoped it was worth it. She’d really put herself through the ringer for that one.
Though she also got rather good at pole-dancing on his suggestion, in an effort to channel the feelings into something else besides being consumed with the fellow, so. That was a silver lining.
“How about you, mate? Pining over anyone recently?” he asked casually, continuing on down the row.
“Jesse is a lot of things,” Elijah shared with a smirk. “But not the smartest when it comes to women, but I can’t exactly talk. I have never ever had any experience with women so…” He trailed off and chuckled softly, shaking his head.
He scanned a few more items into the iPad and shook his head.
“No such luck,” he muttered. “I am still pretty much living on a desert island as far as an interesting lovelife goes.” He playfully nudged James in the side. “We aren’t all like you, having an exotic foray into the world of vampires.”
Oh yes. An exotic foray. Made it sound like he had traveled to the jungle and picked up an anaconda. "It's new for me," James admitted. He meant that in a few ways. "Not just the vampire thing - but I've never...felt that way about anyone before."
Love, it was so confusing. Maybe more so for Daniel. James saw that he just really didn't know what to do with any actual feelings; he was passionate about his work, and order, and precision but a love shared equally was different because he couldn't take it apart and reconstruct it like a weapon, or a trap, or anything mechanical. He was a brilliant businessman but not very emotionally intelligent.
It was obvious, out of the two, who was better with feelings and emotions - and the fact that it was James really said something; not like he was exactly an expert either.
Elijah gave James a soft genuine smile. “I’m happy for you, James.” And he meant that. He might not have anybody in his life but he was always thrilled when the people he cared about had something or rather somebody special in their lives. First, Waverley with Drew, then James and his mysterious Daniel, and now Kitty with Jesse. Love was definitely all around.
“Maybe I can borrow your black book if you’ve no longer any need for it,” he teased with a bright grin that did wonders for the dark circles under his eyes.
James let out a laugh, something that rumbled and was quite pleased. “Will do, mate,” he promised. It was true - he had little use for his black book now, all the names and phone numbers he’d stored long since forgotten and gathering dust. “Though if you want me to play matchmaker, all you had to do was ask.”
He knew people who knew people, and so forth. So whatever Eli was looking for, well, surely his old pal from Northern Ireland could set something up?
“I think you and Waverley would make one hell of a team.” Elijah knew his best friend was all for him just finding somebody to blow off steam with but for a while now he’d been looking for something a little more… long lasting, a relationship even.
Of course he wouldn’t say no to tall drink of water for one night only.
“She keeps saying I should just let off steam, but she can’t talk. She’s in a relationship, happily so I might add.”
“You do what you want to do,” James shrugged, setting down the iPad. It was now chock-full of information about inventory, and his head was spinning a little. Eyeballs swirling in their sockets, that kind of thing. “Blowing off steam is nice but I understand wanting something that’ll go somewhere.”
He’d see what he could find for Eli. Keep his eye out for a nice fellow who perhaps had the same goals in mind too. “I’ll run to the coffee shoppe though, get us caffeine? There may be a handsome barista working today too...”
Hey, you never knew.