Who: Finn and Riley What: Surprises! When: Saturday 20th June Where: The Water Show Tent Rating: Low Status: Complete
When word had gotten out that they would be leaving 2020 that evening and heading back to their own time there had been a bit of a flurry of activity, people buying things from this future time that they could take back with them, Finn had gotten a lift into town with one of the cars going in and walked the streets looking for one kind of store in particular. He just hoped that he had enough cash to cover the cost which he knew wasn’t going to be cheap, but at least things were a lot more hygienic here than back in the 1920’s!
After he had finished he went to a drug store to get some items that were suggested to him, again simple things to procure here than back in their own time. Some others were still doing their shopping but one car took him and a few others back to Zion to get ready for their departure.
That evening he showered, added the lotion and put one of the small patches over the area using a handy mirror near the showers before returning to the wagon he shared with Riley. Somehow it had gone unnoticed as they prepared for the ‘jump’ and then curled up and went to sleep together with the excitement to explore the new location in the morning.
Riley had been one of those many scrambling around trying to prepare. A mixture of feelings swam through him; he’d consumed enough crawfish to last an entire lifetime and learned so much about the culture, but he was excited to go back to a time more familiar. The language, the attire, the technology - all of this had been a whirlwind of shock. And while he could appreciate the way skinny jeans made his backside look, he was more than ready to get back to where they’d come from.
So, when the announcement came he was moving like the fire of the devil himself was inside of him. Things needed to be taken down, apart. Machines needed to be moved.
While he loved being a mechanic and a ride operator, he didn’t always love the mess those things made.
After quitting time (a long overdue moment) Riley stopped to shower and wipe away any residual grime or grease, before making his way to their little trailer.
“Honey!” He exclaimed as the door open, though the word was laden heavily with weariness. “I’m home.”
And then he collapsed into bed next to Finn and snoozed until the morning.
Finn knew how much tear-down day took out of Riley, how pedantic he was with the rides and other machines under his care before the jumps and how much of the first day in the new place would be filled with checking on everything. But this jump would be different as they'd be travelling through time and not just from one place to the next.
Which was why the next morning when he awoke and Riley was still asleep Finn got dressed as silently as he could, wrote a little note You looked so peaceful, didn't want to wake you up. You know where to find me. and slipped out of their wagon.
After some breakfast and discovering from others that they were in fact in 1950 and not 1920 he did what he always did, went to check on his tank, this was just a stop along the journey back home.
No matter what Finn said, Riley would never admit to being a snorer. There he was, snoozing away as the sun created the horizon and found its way further up into the sky. He was so lost in dreamland that he didn’t feel the bed shift as his near-spouse got out of it, which may have been unusual given that Riley hardly ever was out of commission for too long.
But as it was, he found himself finally rousing a bit later. Eyes would flutter open, vision blurry at first though the veil fell away and he smiled a bit at himself.
Finally he was up with as much energy as a toddler had at first light. The note was discovered. A laugh coupled with a wiggle of his eyebrows and Riley was dressing quickly.
With a burst of energy he rushed from the trailer and high-tailed it in the direction of the tank. A few stops were made - one for breakfast and another to inquire if the time. The fifties!
A bit of a stop to chat, too, with a few passerby he finally arrived at the area where Finn’s tank would be set up. A hand would brush aside the tent flaps and the tiny human would look around for the other man.
By the time that Riley had awoken and visited the mess , Finn had already done the visual once over of his tank, while he knew it would be fine and he shouldn't worry about it, there was just something inside him that relaxed once he saw it for himself.
The tank was now filling with water, he could sense that while the water wasn't as laden with as many chemicals as it was in 2020 there was still something a bit different about it. But he would go on regardless, it was just little things that he could sense about the change in his element.
He was checking his cuffs and the other binds that he used as Riley stepped into the tent. "You're awake!"
A wide grin.
A few steps would take him through the parted flaps of the tent and further into the darkness. His eyes took a moment to adjust but before long he was confidently treading the familiar path that would take him to the tank and also to the man he loved.
“I am! As bright as the sun and just as annoying,” Riley laughed, looking at the taller man. “It’ll hold,” he murmured about the cuffs and bindings. They always did - it was part of the show and an important piece to the illusion - because he was careful when taking anything apart to clean it or when putting it back where it was supposed to go.
As familiar as Finn was with everything around him he knew to never let his guard down when he was performing, although staying underwater would take much longer to kill him than normal people, he was aware how dangerous this whole thing really was. That was why he double, even triple or quadruple checked everything before each show.
Now that he had company - well someone there to supervise at least Finn was comfortable getting into the filling tank to check it from the inside. Walking to Riley he unbuttoned his own shirt and lifted it over his head. "Look after this for me?" He was also toeing off his shoes at the same time. "And don't think I don’t know what you're thinking, there's plenty of time for that later." He said with a wink, turning around which showed off the white patch on his shoulder blade.
“Well you kno—“ Riley began, pausing mid sentence before he said anything too saucy when his eyes landed on a little patch of gauze high up on his lovers shoulder. His gaze would squint; he knew he needed glasses, probably...maybe, but he also knew every curve and swath of skin on Finn’s frame and that patch was new.
“— what in tarnation is that?” Curious, never accusatory.
The shirt he was holding went over a shoulder and was left to drape before he forgot he was holding it and it was allowed to tumble.
His smile crept into mischievous territory but he waited for the full story to make up his mind completely.
"I'll show you once I get out of here." He threw a wink over his shoulder as he tapped the side of the tank and climbed the stairs at the back. His trousers were thrown over the railing before he pin dropped into the water wearing a pair of his swimming trunks.
It only took him a minute or two to check everywhere inside for any sign of wear, finding it was all fine he surfaced again, flicking his head so spray from his hair went everywhere. Finn pulled himself out of the tank and grabbed the towel that was kept on the platform that was normally out of sight by curtains.
Drying himself off a bit he returned to Riley, turning his right shoulder towards his lover. "Go on, you can take the patch off." It was mainly to keep the water from the tank off it.
Riley laughed at the reply.
He’d been expecting it, that sass. It only made him want to know that much more and the wait nearly unbearable. But he did wait as patiently as he could and once Finn emerged from the tank he would scramble toward the other man.
“Finally!” He would laugh again, fingers deftly maneuvering the bandage and gauze away from the area. Riley wasn’t stupid - if this was what he thought he would inquire, but he hoped (prayed) it wasn’t an injury of any type.
And then finally the square was peeled away and a soft gasp of awe and delight would come from Riley’s lips.
Riley's fingers were much more gentle than his own when removing the bandage, but it was in an awkward area to try and get by yourself. Finn worried his bottom lip between his teeth for a moment until the bandage was completely removed.
Looking over his shoulder he raised an eyebrow. "So..?"
“What’s it mean?” He clamoured to know, eager and earnest. Not all tattoos had meaning, he knew that, but he also knew that Finn never did anything that wasn’t worth something in some context.
Gently, very gently his fingers would touch at the painted canvas of flesh winding across the black lines. He traced the outlines, drinking in the magnificence of the creation itself.
Finn's skin prickled a bit as Riley's fingers traced the lines of the tattoo and he might have bitten back a soft moan. "What do you think it means?" He asked back, hoping that Riley would get the meaning behind it without Finn actually having to say anything.
The tattoo itself wasn't overly large on Finn's shoulder and depicted the pale shape of a coin with a butterfly in a wisp of smoke above it, as if someone had taken a photograph of the moment a coin turned into a butterfly.
Eyes would trace the colors, the outline, again and again. The meaning had been lost on him upon first glance but with every sweep of his gaze it began to become clearer and clearer. From his stature it took a bit of squinting to really get the full effect - damn Finn for being so tall and beautiful - but finally his expression took on a different form as if an invisible lightbulb went off over that thick nest of dark curls.
“Well I’ll be..” he breathed, continuing that gentle sweep of delicate touch across the inked skin.
He didn’t know quite what to make of the gesture, nobody had ever tattooed anything on their skin for him or with any purpose other than something meaningful. He felt touched, oddly proud.
“It’s for me, ain’t it?”
He knew that sometimes it took a bit for things to come together in Riley's brain, the other man was in no way stupid, he just had a different way of looking at things. Well that was what Finn reckoned anyway.
When Riley finally asked if it was for him Finn chuckled softly and nodded, turning back around so they were facing each other again. "Yeah, it is. Do you like it?" Finn loved it of course, but Riley would be the one seeing it the most as it was in a spot Finn could only see with a mirror.
He was stupid. Stupid in love. At least that was the kind of stupid he wanted to be, and not like the kind that his Pops always said he was. But Finn wasn’t wrong, his perspective was different than most others so while he seemed soft in the head, he was actually busy analyzing every little detail of the circumstance.
There was moisture in those eyes long before Finn turned to look at him. He was touched by the gesture, and his heart had swollen until he felt as if it might burst.
“Nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me,” he managed in a sniffle, smiling as his fingers brushed at his eyes to keep them from streaming. He knew he looked like a sissy but he didn’t care. He didn’t care at all.
“I love it. And you.”
Getting a tattoo for Riley had been something that Finn had been thinking about for a while but could never figure out what to get, that was until Riley started taking an interest in illusions and magic. Seeing the standard of twenty first century tattoos in their few months in New Orleans he had finally decided it was the time and was lucky to be able to get it before they left.
Finn had seen Riley bawling like a baby more than once so the tears didn't bother him, he just closed the gap between them and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, pressing a kiss to the top of those dark curls. "I love you too."
Arms wound around Finn.
Riley sniffled and buried his face into the other man’s skin, comforted by the warmth and the scent of his lover. It took a few moments of shaking before he finally got a hold of himself - thank you baby Jesus for that - and he would finally lift his head.
“You’re too good to me, you know that? I got no idea what sorta thing I did to get you but I’m glad I did.” Nobody else could ever make him this happy, no matter what.
“Don’t let me keep ya from the tank. I know you don’t need the practice but I do love seein’ you get all soaked.”
Finn remembered when Riley had shown up with his own tattoo what seemed like forever ago, there might have been a few tears back then as well. He was so thankful for meeting Riley who helped pull him out of a melancholy spiral. Though it was a while before he realised his feelings towards the Texan.
"Lady luck was shining down on us both, showing us what we had been missing." A smile spread across his lips.
When Riley mentioned about his enjoyment of seeing Finn all wet, he laughed. "Going to pull up a chair and watch me swimming around?" Not that much swimming could actually be done because of the size.
“Can’t argue with that,” he laughed, lifting his head up to do so. It was a musical sound that came from deep in his belly that caused him to shake again. But when it was done the shimmer in his eyes remained.
“Tempting,” he would giggle. “But I got an engine to repair or the crew are gonna be walkin’ to town for supplies.” As much as he wanted to stay, he had work to do and Lily couldn’t fix everything. Well, she probably could but he wanted to help.
He loved the sound of Riley's laughter, always such a deep belly laugh that made him smile every single time. He could never be in a bad mood if Riley was laughing.
A hand reached up and fingers curled through those locks for a moment. "Well after you finish the engine and get something to eat, you know where I'll be waiting."
A sly smile crept across his face. “Reckon you wanna relax after a long day, so why not?” He knew that they both knew what that meant. Sometimes he felt bad for their neighbors, but the rest of the time he was too busy playing Rodeo to care.
“Won’t take long,” he promised. “I got some good help. But I’ll be back after supper an’ before sundown.” A Kip never broke a promise. At least this Kip didn’t.
They were like a honeymooning couple, unable to keep their hands off each other but they always kept it to their wagon. "Moving day is always tough."
A quick kiss to Riley's lips. "See you then, love."
A grin. It was foolish and lovesick but proud all the same. The kiss was returned, chaste but adoring, and he was making himself step backward out of the security of those arms. “I’ll see ya soon.”
With a turn coupled with a shake of his hips in those tight jeans, he exited the tent and headed off to work.