City Mice (part 2 of 3)
[Players: duke_devlin and serenityw.]
[Part 2 of Duke's visit with Serenity in the less-than-serene hamlet of Ash Springs, Connecticut. Part 1 can be found here, to be followed by Part 3 shortly.
The Willimantic is not a large river. It meanders its way through a couple dozen miles of the Connecticut countryside, wandering from its narrow beginnings downhill to where it joins with the Natchaug to form the Shetucket. It's a lazy stream most of the time, with just enough whitewater here and there to ruffle the current; green-tawny and full of fish, it glitters beneath the August sun as if it had been beaten out of bronze.
The fairgrounds took up nearly a mile's worth of riverbank and adjoining fields just across the Stuyvesant Bridge, an organized sprawl of tents, barns, parking and mechanized rides; as the tractor and its passengers were directed along an access road, Serenity rose up onto her knees to watch as a sign went by. "'Registration - Sheep Blocking/Horse And Pony Pulls'," she read out loud as they slowed, slightly puzzled. "What on earth's 'sheep blocking'?" In a nearby field, a line of tractors and wagons (some draped with banners or painted in eye-blinding colors) were assembling; Hank shifted, and their ride rumbled off across the furrows. "How do you block a sheep?"
“The question is, do I want to know?” Duke replied with a grin, taking in the scenery. He’d never seen so many tractors in his life, and actually wasn’t certain if he’d ever seen a tractor at all before today. Nor was he used to this much countryside, and the distinct lack of New York air and downtown traffic were also a huge difference in this new environment. “I don’t think I’ve even seen a sheep before, let alone sheep blocking.” But he was willing and open to try whatever Serenity wanted to do; even though this fair was utterly foreign to Duke, he was a little curious regardless.
“Can’t imagine living in a place like this all the time,” Duke noted, turning away from the scenery long enough to look over to Serenity again. “Maybe I’m just too used to the city.”
She was watching as a green tractor in front of them pulled off the road and parked itself in the parade lineup; Joey Wheeler's twin was thinner than she had been back in the city, freckled and a little pink from the fading remnants of sunburn. Her long red hair had been tied back in a sort of knot and skewered with things that looked remarkably like a pair of bright green chopsticks; she wore jeans and a matching green tank-top, but aside from the sun-coloring of her skin looked very much like she had a year past. "You and me both," she muttered under her breath, arms crossed on the edge of the wagon. Then she glanced sideways at her friend, smiling a little. "I didn't think I'd like it here, but-- guess it's kind of grown on me. But," and Serenity raised her voice over the rumble of diesel as they pulled to a halt, "but I still can't wait to move back--"
She was two words from the end of her sentence when the engine dropped into a lower gear; the last bit, the 'move back' part, rang out clearly in the sudden pause. Their driver turned his head. "Fixin' to leave us?" Hank shoved his hat back, faded blue eyes regarding them both. "Kind've a shame; Kai, he won't be too happy t'hear that." One shoulder shifted in a shrug before the older man turned back around and put the tractor up a gear.
Serenity looked chagrined; she also looked more than a little embarrassed, flushing beneath her sunburn. "Kai's his son," she muttered to Duke as they bumped their way across the weedy dirt of the field and took their place behind the green tractor. "He's probably here somewhere..."
“Kai?” Duke asked with innocent curiosity, trying to remember if Serenity had talked much about him in her letter or not.
Though he gave Serenity an out if she didn’t want to talk about it, and drew on a more neutral topic instead. “But, everyone’s looking forward to having you back,” Duke noted, shifting slightly from where he sat in the wagon so that he could see the scenery on the opposite side of the road easier. “Especially Joey; I know he misses you. I bet he’s counting the days. What day’re you coming back, do you know? I’ll make sure I’m free if you need any help getting settled back here.”
She pushed a straggle of hair off her forehead; the day was getting hotter, and dust from the vehicles hung in the air. A trio of highschool-age girls wandered by the lineup carrying armfuls of what looked like... bridles? Some sort of horse tackle, probably. They waved at Serenity, then paused to take in her companion and whisper excitedly to each other. She gave Duke a mischievous look tempered by gratitude, but said nothing about the girls (who were moving on, though not without backwards looks over their shoulders.) "Thanks; think I'll need the help, really. Day, uh-- early October? I think... Joey and I, we talked about it when he was down last weekend. I've got a lot of planning to do, you know?"
She paused for a second, then looked a little guilty. "And, um, Kai's-- I probably didn't say anthing much about him; there's not much to say, I don't really know him very well." Serenity pushed her hair back from her forhead again; she had always had that gesture, a nervous habit that dated back to high school and probably before. "Kai's up at Balaclava Agri College, but he comes back to visit his family now and then, and I guess we've... talked a little; he's nice." Ducking her head and glancing up at Duke in a gesture that echoed her brother's habit of looking through his bangs almost startlingly, she added with a small grin, "Nice on the eyes, too. I guess he's--" She stopped; blinked, then stared past Duke's shoulder. "--coming this way, actually--"
The young man whose boots were currently kicking up a dust-cloud trail as he made his way across the field towards them resembled his father in the width of his shoulders and strong, sturdy build; take away the grey hair and lines and replace them with thick, wavy brown and the kind of tan that comes with long hours in the sun, and then pair that with an easy, relaxed smile and the way he had focused on Serenity... Kai Warner's calm brown eyes flicked sideways to dwell on her companion for a long minute before they returned to the redhead beside Duke. "'Morning." With country manners he touched the brim of his Western-style hat. "Been a while, hasn't it?" The smile quirked up a little more to one side. "You plannin' on riding in the parade?"
Hastily Serenity began to slide out of the wagon. "Uh, no-- Duke? This is Kai, Hank Warner's son. Kai, this is my friend Duke from New York--" She spared a quick look around the field; Engines were beginning to rumble back into life, and several people with clipboards and preoccupied looks were beginning to herd the large, wheeled behemoths and their wagons into formation like so many cows. "--and I think we'd better get going."
"You sure 'bout that?" A tanned hand that had seen a lot of work pushed the hat back, and Kai nodded to Duke as if he had said something after all. "You'd make the lineup look a lot better."
"Uhh--" She shot her friend a look straight out of junior high school: Help please?
After climbing down from the wagon himself, Duke listened to Serenity’s explanation, and greeted Kai with a smile and a hello when the other man came to stand near he and Serenity. The suggestion to ride in the parade though amused him, simply because this parade was nothing like the huge, vibrant, loud parades that he was used to viewing back in New York.
If it were any of his other friends, especially Jai, Duke might have agreed with Kai just to playfully ruffle feathers, but even the idea of intentionally annoying a woman was something he didn’t feel altogether comfortable doing. So he thought back to their earlier conversation and pulled from his mind the first event that he remembered in order to give Serenity a way out of the situation. His tone was perfectly convincing; having to act certain ways was usually part of his job at Nintendo, so he was used to playing parts like this. “You know, I was really hoping to get to see the sheep - we don’t have those in the city, so I’ve never seen them before. But I bet we could at least still watch some of the parade, right?” He lifted his eyebrows at Serenity, as if silently requesting her permission to go view the animals, continuing to play along with the act.
"...Sheep? Sheep! Right, the sheep--" Gratefully she siezed on the topic with all the eagerness of a starving wolf after a lamb (or possibly a sheep); it would have been funny if the situation had been different. "Can't keep the sheep waiting... We'll see you in the parade, okay, Kai?" Ducking her head, Serenity Wheeler backed off and led her friend at a quick clip towards the main fairgrounds. Behind them Kai stood for a moment in silence, hat shading his face, before he turned away to help his father with the tractor.
During the walk, Serenity was silent too; it didn't last, though. "I'm an idiot, aren't I?" she asked morosely. "He's nice. Intelligent, easy on the eyes, friendly; and it's... not like I'm not interested." She shrugged, kicking at a clod of dirt as they passed from the furrows of the field onto the roadside grass. "I just can't seem to-- ever since I moved out here, I just-- aaaagh!" The redhead chose a rock this time to vent her frustrations on, sending it bouncling along in front of their feet; she rubbed at her forehead and gave Duke a wry smile. "Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've been on a date?"
“Too long?” Duke ventured a guess, amused, as he walked alongside Serenity. He didn’t exactly know the area of the fair, and opted simply to follow rather than try to lead. “You really should give it a try; I highly recommend it.” It really was no secret that Duke was intensely happy in his own relationship, so perhaps any relationship advice he could give was rather biased, but still, he wanted to try to help if he could. Or if not, he at least wanted to offer to listen.
“So what’s the problem?” Duke asked curiously, snagging his sunglasses again and placing them on his face. “The fact that soon you’re not going to be here for long, so you don’t want to get too attached to people, or…?”
She was silent again for a few minutes; the road became more and more populated with people on foot as they approached the main building, and they turned off it to thread their way among parked cars and chattering families with kids in tow, all heading the same direction. "Part of it's that, I guess. And... it's a little awkward, kind of; I'm out of practice after all this time..." Serenity trailed off, a distracted look on her face. "The big thing, though? I worry about what he'd do, if he found out-- Stephen." The effort she had to put into saying the name was visible. "Did Joey tell you about the notes?"
A shake of Duke’s head was the response to that question; he hadn’t recalled any notes mentioned. “No, he didn’t say anything. But… hey, you can’t keep living in fear, okay? The people who do care about you won’t let anything happen to you. And I bet that’d be just the same for anyone you were dating if you’d give them a chance.”
Jai was rather protective, and had said before that he’d never let anything happen to Duke. And even though Jai couldn’t be around him at all times, Duke still felt safer regardless knowing someone else wanted to keep him safe. Perhaps that was what Serenity needed, more people that would make her feel safe? But then again, it was a bit difficult for Duke to imagine just how hard it would be to have to worry about a person like Stephen. True, Chris was rather… suspicious, and had really scared Duke the first time they’d run into each other, but he hadn’t done anything outwardly malicious since then. Only time would tell just how that situation would play out. But Chris wasn’t a worry in Duke’s mind at the moment; instead he was completely focused on Serenity.
She mulled that over as they joined the line for the main entrance; it wasn't too bad yet-- this was a small fair, after all-- and studied the program she had snagged on the way in. "I... y'know, a while back I did some kind of stupid things for... comfort, I guess? And now I don't want anybody getting hurt because he sees them as a threat," Serenity said quietly, and explained a little about the letters she had been receiving... brief, nasty pieces of hate-mail telling her to leave town; they had been arriving every few weeks for several months from an anonymous source.
It didn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to turn 'source' into 'Stephen'. "And... I guess I've gotten kind of gun-shy," added the redhead with a grimace. "I don't think he's around here, but... I don't know that for sure, either."
“How would he know that you were here, though? None of us have said anything.” Duke hadn’t even known Serenity’s address until lately; before recently he’d given his letters to Joey to mail to her. Though he knew he’d probably feel paranoid in a situation like this too, and could understand how Serenity felt about those anonymous letters. “Since we can’t exactly prove it’s him, I doubt anything can be done about those letters, unfortunately.”
But Duke knew Serenity would be careful, and while he was worried for her now, he hoped nothing bad would happen here. She’d only be there a little while longer, and honestly Duke would be relieved when Serenity would be able to return to the city to be closer to Joey and the rest of their friends. “Don’t really blame you, though; I’d be worried if I were in your place, too.” He was paying far more attention to Serenity than to the fair, especially now that he couldn’t help but be worried. “Does Joey think Steven is here?”
"--Two, please-- MY treat!" said Serenity a little indignantly to both Duke and to the booth attendant as she paid their way in. "You can buy me lunch to make up for it." Hand-stamped and with programs in hand, they followed the rest of the crowd like cattle as they stampeded down into the rows of local club exhibits, quilts, canning, flower arrangements, etc. that made up so much of a county fair. "And Joey's not sure any more than I am-- about Stephen, I mean," she added, pausing to stare in puzzlement at a display of antique farm equipment. "He thinks he's behind it, but neither of us can figure out how he found me. We might just be paranoid, but what's the saying? That it doesn't mean they aren't really out to get you? So... I'm being careful."
“I don’t blame you,” Duke replied, brow furrowed slightly in worried thought. It troubled him and puzzled him all at the same time, this information about Steven. He knew Steven had been at his worst when Serenity was in college, and Duke had been distant by then, grown further apart from the rest of his friends during Serenity, Joey and Tristan’s first year of college, and his own second year. He already regretted the decision to sever the relationship with his friends back then, but this made him wish all the more that he had been there to do something, anything, to offer whatever support he could. But it also made him all the more determined to support Serenity now to his best ability, and to be there whenever she did need him.
As much as Duke really was concerned, he figured Serenity didn’t want to make this issue the main focus of their day. They’d come to the fair to have fun, so Duke tried his best to suppress any anxiousness he felt in favor of turning his attention back to the fair itself, and to the utterly bizarre farm relics nearby.
It really was all totally foreign to Duke, but it intrigued him for now, and he couldn’t help but take his phone out again to snap pictures. He didn’t bother with sending them to Jai this time; that would distract from his time with Serenity, and besides, he could show Jai all of his pictures later. However, taking pictures while talking was something that he could do to prevent his focus from being taken away from Serenity. “Why would you want to keep something like that around?” he asked with an amused smile, pointing to an old hay rake - not that he knew what it was, never having seen something like that before in his life. “Do you think there’s a big market for… rusty wheel things?”
Serenity was eyeing a showcase of really alarming antique veterinary equipment, displayed as if the horrifying things were priceless pieces of artwork. "No idea," she said in a slightly shaken voice, and pointed. "What d'you suppose this was for? Or this?" The devices in question had sharp bits and pointy bits and chains and buckles and... She shuddered. "Never mind." Hurriedly she moved along to the next display, which seemed to have something to do with horse-breeding.
This was, in retrospect, a mistake.
Moments later, as they wandered down the aisle of farm displays, Serenity looked more than a little subdued; her face burned bright red around the cheekbones. "...can't believe they actually had photos on display of... I mean, that's one bit of Nature's Wonders I could do without seeing," she muttered. "I have a lot more respect for female horses than I used to. Um-- let's look at the quilting contest, okay? I think that ought to be safe."
Tilting his head to the side slightly as he looked at those unfamiliar veterinary tools, Duke found it difficult to imagine anything like that being used on an animal. Not that he particularly wanted to imagine them used on any animals. “Yeah… quilts,” Duke replied agreeably with a nod. Though that reminded him-“Hey, didn’t you say you were interested in quilt-making? Ever make any progress on that?”
With one of her characteristic 180-degree mood changes, the redhead brightened. "Wait'll you see-- I'm making one for Joey and--" she faltered slightly, then continued; "--and it's not too shabby, or I think so anyway. He liked it when he saw it-- I've been putting the side bits on this last week, and when I'm done I'll start stitching it down to the batting and the undersheet." She grinned at him, then tilted her head a little as she surveyed Duke for a moment. "Could make you one too, if you want... or maybe one for you and Jai both? What kind of colors would you want? See," she explained as they paused beside the entrance to another section of craft displays, "if I start on one for myself, I might not finish it; but if I make them for other people, I can sort of guilt myself into doing it. It's working so far..." She glanced down the row of booths, but the redhead's attention was caught by something else, something that had been scenting the air with a pervasive, sugary aroma for several minutes. "Ooh, cotton candy! Want some, Duke? Empty calories, here I come--"
"That'd be awesome," Duke replied with a smile, answering both questions at the same time, but more so about the quilt. He wasn't used to his friends, or anyone for that matter, gifting him with things that they'd made themselves. That was something he had done, especially for Jai, so it was a treat to be on the receiving side this time. "Actually... Jai's pretty fond of purple. Bet he'd like one with that color on it." Well, it was true, from Jai's purple socks to his purple camouflaged hat and his purple cell phone, Duke had just come to associate purple with Jai over time.
"Gah, that's going to be a lot of work, though..." Duke went on, wincing a little in sympathy. But afterward, "But I think it'll be really amazing when it's done. We'll think of somehow to pay you back, I'm sure." It wasn't that he felt obligated, but he liked giving back to his friends, especially in situations like this. He knew quilt-making probably wasn't altogether easy, and he had no idea how to do it himself, so he was happy for an offer like that from Serenity. "I guess I'll start with cotton candy and go from there," he voiced with a grin, fetching his wallet so that he could pay for the sugary treat for he and Serenity.
She waved her hands, turning the whole 'lot of work' thing into a puff of smoke. "It'll be fun. Can't try out any new patterns unless I'm making a new one, can I?" The redhead's eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. "I never thought I'd want to do anything this... I dunno, crafty? And I'm not all that good at it yet; but I'm learning. So--" She pointed at a fluffy batch of cotton-candy that the vendor was winding onto old-fashioned paper rods, pale lavender and glittering with droplets of congealing sugar. "--purple, huh? Purple it is. And maybe some green, for you." Accepting the proffered treat a moment later, Serenity took a large bite and closed her eyes blissfully at the sugary taste. "....mmm... Thanks; I haven't had this stuff since the last time I went to Coney Island."
“Can’t remember the last time I went to Coney Island,” Duke mused, pondering, as he pulled off a tuft of his own cotton candy to eat. It wasn’t really too much of a secret that he liked the occasional sugary treat. “Probably… back in high school sometime. Would be fun to visit again sometime though, all those rides and everything… Though somehow I doubt Jai would be too into that. Maybe Joey and Tristan could be convinced into going, though.” Jai did play games, sure, but generally they were with only Duke, and Duke accepted that without question because he knew his companion wasn’t as comfortable out in public as he was when the two of them were alone. But still, he wasn’t sure he could convince Jai into riding roller coasters. Maybe. It’d take some work, though.
Duke continued, “Well, I suppose it couldn’t hurt to at least try to convince Jai, too.” He did tend to be rather good at convincing Jai into going places, playing games, and so forth. If he’d tried hard enough, he knew he would have been able to get Jai to come along on this trip too, but honestly he knew it wouldn’t make Jai entirely comfortable - Jai didn’t know Serenity that well, after all - so he hadn’t tried that hard to encourage Jai into coming along.
All around them the fairgoers surged in crowds of hurrying people as they rounded a corner; noise crashed through a doorway from the midway beyond, echoing the Coney Island theme back at them again in minature. Ahead a sign read 'LIVESTOCK' over an arrow; quilts forgotten, as they turned towards the distant smell of hay and animals (and other, possibly less appealing if no less organic scents) Serenity glanced a little sideways at her companion. "It's been ages for me too; that'd be great. Do you see them much? Joey and Tristan, I mean?" She took another large bite and craned her head upwards for a moment, watching as a balloon sailed improbably past towards the beamed ceiling overhead; a screech from a nearby toddler explained where it had come from, and she made a face. "Joey always used to try to pop any balloons I got when we were kids; --okay, I'd do it right back too, so I guess I was just as much of a brat. Anyway, do you?"
After smiling in response to that balloon-popping comment, Duke admitted, "Don't see them as much as I want to." He was trying not to breathe through his nose too much; sure, New York City had a variety of smoggy scents that on occasion weren't too pleasant, but they were nothing at all like the smell of sheep and pigs, something he was altogether not used to. "They just seem... I don't know, busier or something. I want to see them more, though." He knew he wasn't completely innocent in the matter; every weekend he spent Friday evening until Sunday afternoon with Jai, so that took up a big chunk of the weekend, a time that Joey and Tristan might not be quite so busy. "Hopefully I'll get a chance to hang out with them again soon. I miss it."
"...yeah. Me too."
The livestock display consisted of, well, livestock: not just the usual 4-H chickens and rabbits, but cows, sheep, goats, horses, pigs and cattle. The noise was amazing, and the smell was... okay, not 'amazing' but definitely unusual. And strong. And... Serenity looked down (and then around with a grimace) as straw crackled beneath their feet; they had passed from the main building into a kind of attached barn, long and narrow and filled with stalls.
"...better watch where you step, Duke..."
Somehow, cotton candy just wasn't as appetizing to Duke now than it had been a few minutes prior.
Duke was more than watching where he stepped; he was staring at the ground to make sure nothing smeared onto his shoes. It was very fortunate that Duke cared about Serenity so much, or else he just wouldn't be at a place like this. He liked animals, really, though of course with a preference toward small, furry, well-groomed ones. So the animals at the fair now were a little much for his nose to handle all at once. "...ugh."
But, conversation, right. Duke gave part of his attention back over to what Serenity had said last, and attempted to offer some consolation. "But you'll be back in the city pretty soon, so you'll be able to see more of them then."
Busy making sure that nothing uninvited tagged along on her shoes as well, his companion nodded. "Want to check out the rabbits? Might be safer--"
The rabbits (mostly presented by 4-H kids and so forth) were a mixed lot, all in sizable cages: lop-ears, the regulation upright types, long coats and short, fluffy and sleek, spotted, shaded, solid-colored... "Ooooh, I wish I had a carrot or something. Do any of these look like-- what's his name, Quinn?" Inquisitive pink and white noses wriggled against cage bars, and Serenity put a finger through to stroke the silky brown pelt of an enormous, lazy-looking rabbit; it blinked at her benignly and she read off the cage's tag: "'Flemish Giant, 2 years old, 'Mister Bunn'. Cute; somebody's a For Better Or Worse fan. Does Quinn look like Bunn here?"
"Hm, not too much," Duke replied as he looked over the rabbits himself, knowing of Mister Bunn's particular breed because of all of the extensive research he'd done on rabbits from the very first day he'd brought Quinn home. "These guys get really huge; Quinn's tiny compared to these. He's a Holland Lop, and they only grow to be three or four pounds. And Quinn has lop ears, ones that flop down, you know? And these guys' ears are straight." He laughed softly, amused. "Jai says Quinn always looks pitiful because he's so tiny, and his face is sort of squished so it looks like he's frowning all the time. You'll have to meet Quinn when you come back. He's pretty tame." Well, aside from the occasional nipping of ankles. But that was to get Duke's attention as a demand for attention, or to assert dominance - but that was fairly typical of a rabbit.
Serenity stroked the rabbit's pelt again; it twitched an ear in Duke's direction and gave a very laconic stretch. "Tamer than this? He's practically catatonic." The creature flopped over sideways. "Wonder how you'd get along with Bear? Betcha he'd try and eat you." Leaving Mister Bunn alone, the redhead rose and wandered a little further down the aisle. "Oooh, guinea pigs!"
A number of fluffy cannonball-shaped rodents were duly admired in Joey Wheeler's honor; his twin shook her head. "Somehow I would've expected my brother to end up with-- I don't know, a pet rat or, or-- just not a... I mean," and she watched several of the aforementioned animals twitch nervously around their cages. "He said his has a 'meaningful relationship' with Miw-- how weird is that? Trust Joey to find the one guinea pig in the world that likes cats..." A handful of children pelted past, arguing about the merits of roller-coasters with each other; the furballs skittered to the far end of their enclosures as Serenity watched, bemused.
A few more animals (lambs, alarminly large sheep, piglets and some very arrogant roosters) were admired before Serenity turned to Duke, one eyebrow rising. "Want to check out the rides?"
Duke wasn’t altogether picky about rides, and was in fact trying to remain as open to various possibilities as he could today. The ride that visually stood out for him most though was the Ferris wheel, and while it certainly wasn’t as impressively tall as the Wonder Wheel at Coney Island, for example, Duke figured it would still give the two of them a great view of the fair and all it had to offer anyway.
“How about that one?” Duke questioned with a smile as he pointed up to that Ferris wheel, pausing long enough to see if Serenity would object to the decision. “We’d be able to see the rest of the fair from the top. What do you say?”
(to be continued in Part 3)
[Part 2 of Duke's visit with Serenity in the less-than-serene hamlet of Ash Springs, Connecticut. Part 1 can be found here, to be followed by Part 3 shortly.
The Willimantic is not a large river. It meanders its way through a couple dozen miles of the Connecticut countryside, wandering from its narrow beginnings downhill to where it joins with the Natchaug to form the Shetucket. It's a lazy stream most of the time, with just enough whitewater here and there to ruffle the current; green-tawny and full of fish, it glitters beneath the August sun as if it had been beaten out of bronze.
The fairgrounds took up nearly a mile's worth of riverbank and adjoining fields just across the Stuyvesant Bridge, an organized sprawl of tents, barns, parking and mechanized rides; as the tractor and its passengers were directed along an access road, Serenity rose up onto her knees to watch as a sign went by. "'Registration - Sheep Blocking/Horse And Pony Pulls'," she read out loud as they slowed, slightly puzzled. "What on earth's 'sheep blocking'?" In a nearby field, a line of tractors and wagons (some draped with banners or painted in eye-blinding colors) were assembling; Hank shifted, and their ride rumbled off across the furrows. "How do you block a sheep?"
“The question is, do I want to know?” Duke replied with a grin, taking in the scenery. He’d never seen so many tractors in his life, and actually wasn’t certain if he’d ever seen a tractor at all before today. Nor was he used to this much countryside, and the distinct lack of New York air and downtown traffic were also a huge difference in this new environment. “I don’t think I’ve even seen a sheep before, let alone sheep blocking.” But he was willing and open to try whatever Serenity wanted to do; even though this fair was utterly foreign to Duke, he was a little curious regardless.
“Can’t imagine living in a place like this all the time,” Duke noted, turning away from the scenery long enough to look over to Serenity again. “Maybe I’m just too used to the city.”
She was watching as a green tractor in front of them pulled off the road and parked itself in the parade lineup; Joey Wheeler's twin was thinner than she had been back in the city, freckled and a little pink from the fading remnants of sunburn. Her long red hair had been tied back in a sort of knot and skewered with things that looked remarkably like a pair of bright green chopsticks; she wore jeans and a matching green tank-top, but aside from the sun-coloring of her skin looked very much like she had a year past. "You and me both," she muttered under her breath, arms crossed on the edge of the wagon. Then she glanced sideways at her friend, smiling a little. "I didn't think I'd like it here, but-- guess it's kind of grown on me. But," and Serenity raised her voice over the rumble of diesel as they pulled to a halt, "but I still can't wait to move back--"
She was two words from the end of her sentence when the engine dropped into a lower gear; the last bit, the 'move back' part, rang out clearly in the sudden pause. Their driver turned his head. "Fixin' to leave us?" Hank shoved his hat back, faded blue eyes regarding them both. "Kind've a shame; Kai, he won't be too happy t'hear that." One shoulder shifted in a shrug before the older man turned back around and put the tractor up a gear.
Serenity looked chagrined; she also looked more than a little embarrassed, flushing beneath her sunburn. "Kai's his son," she muttered to Duke as they bumped their way across the weedy dirt of the field and took their place behind the green tractor. "He's probably here somewhere..."
“Kai?” Duke asked with innocent curiosity, trying to remember if Serenity had talked much about him in her letter or not.
Though he gave Serenity an out if she didn’t want to talk about it, and drew on a more neutral topic instead. “But, everyone’s looking forward to having you back,” Duke noted, shifting slightly from where he sat in the wagon so that he could see the scenery on the opposite side of the road easier. “Especially Joey; I know he misses you. I bet he’s counting the days. What day’re you coming back, do you know? I’ll make sure I’m free if you need any help getting settled back here.”
She pushed a straggle of hair off her forehead; the day was getting hotter, and dust from the vehicles hung in the air. A trio of highschool-age girls wandered by the lineup carrying armfuls of what looked like... bridles? Some sort of horse tackle, probably. They waved at Serenity, then paused to take in her companion and whisper excitedly to each other. She gave Duke a mischievous look tempered by gratitude, but said nothing about the girls (who were moving on, though not without backwards looks over their shoulders.) "Thanks; think I'll need the help, really. Day, uh-- early October? I think... Joey and I, we talked about it when he was down last weekend. I've got a lot of planning to do, you know?"
She paused for a second, then looked a little guilty. "And, um, Kai's-- I probably didn't say anthing much about him; there's not much to say, I don't really know him very well." Serenity pushed her hair back from her forhead again; she had always had that gesture, a nervous habit that dated back to high school and probably before. "Kai's up at Balaclava Agri College, but he comes back to visit his family now and then, and I guess we've... talked a little; he's nice." Ducking her head and glancing up at Duke in a gesture that echoed her brother's habit of looking through his bangs almost startlingly, she added with a small grin, "Nice on the eyes, too. I guess he's--" She stopped; blinked, then stared past Duke's shoulder. "--coming this way, actually--"
The young man whose boots were currently kicking up a dust-cloud trail as he made his way across the field towards them resembled his father in the width of his shoulders and strong, sturdy build; take away the grey hair and lines and replace them with thick, wavy brown and the kind of tan that comes with long hours in the sun, and then pair that with an easy, relaxed smile and the way he had focused on Serenity... Kai Warner's calm brown eyes flicked sideways to dwell on her companion for a long minute before they returned to the redhead beside Duke. "'Morning." With country manners he touched the brim of his Western-style hat. "Been a while, hasn't it?" The smile quirked up a little more to one side. "You plannin' on riding in the parade?"
Hastily Serenity began to slide out of the wagon. "Uh, no-- Duke? This is Kai, Hank Warner's son. Kai, this is my friend Duke from New York--" She spared a quick look around the field; Engines were beginning to rumble back into life, and several people with clipboards and preoccupied looks were beginning to herd the large, wheeled behemoths and their wagons into formation like so many cows. "--and I think we'd better get going."
"You sure 'bout that?" A tanned hand that had seen a lot of work pushed the hat back, and Kai nodded to Duke as if he had said something after all. "You'd make the lineup look a lot better."
"Uhh--" She shot her friend a look straight out of junior high school: Help please?
After climbing down from the wagon himself, Duke listened to Serenity’s explanation, and greeted Kai with a smile and a hello when the other man came to stand near he and Serenity. The suggestion to ride in the parade though amused him, simply because this parade was nothing like the huge, vibrant, loud parades that he was used to viewing back in New York.
If it were any of his other friends, especially Jai, Duke might have agreed with Kai just to playfully ruffle feathers, but even the idea of intentionally annoying a woman was something he didn’t feel altogether comfortable doing. So he thought back to their earlier conversation and pulled from his mind the first event that he remembered in order to give Serenity a way out of the situation. His tone was perfectly convincing; having to act certain ways was usually part of his job at Nintendo, so he was used to playing parts like this. “You know, I was really hoping to get to see the sheep - we don’t have those in the city, so I’ve never seen them before. But I bet we could at least still watch some of the parade, right?” He lifted his eyebrows at Serenity, as if silently requesting her permission to go view the animals, continuing to play along with the act.
"...Sheep? Sheep! Right, the sheep--" Gratefully she siezed on the topic with all the eagerness of a starving wolf after a lamb (or possibly a sheep); it would have been funny if the situation had been different. "Can't keep the sheep waiting... We'll see you in the parade, okay, Kai?" Ducking her head, Serenity Wheeler backed off and led her friend at a quick clip towards the main fairgrounds. Behind them Kai stood for a moment in silence, hat shading his face, before he turned away to help his father with the tractor.
During the walk, Serenity was silent too; it didn't last, though. "I'm an idiot, aren't I?" she asked morosely. "He's nice. Intelligent, easy on the eyes, friendly; and it's... not like I'm not interested." She shrugged, kicking at a clod of dirt as they passed from the furrows of the field onto the roadside grass. "I just can't seem to-- ever since I moved out here, I just-- aaaagh!" The redhead chose a rock this time to vent her frustrations on, sending it bouncling along in front of their feet; she rubbed at her forehead and gave Duke a wry smile. "Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've been on a date?"
“Too long?” Duke ventured a guess, amused, as he walked alongside Serenity. He didn’t exactly know the area of the fair, and opted simply to follow rather than try to lead. “You really should give it a try; I highly recommend it.” It really was no secret that Duke was intensely happy in his own relationship, so perhaps any relationship advice he could give was rather biased, but still, he wanted to try to help if he could. Or if not, he at least wanted to offer to listen.
“So what’s the problem?” Duke asked curiously, snagging his sunglasses again and placing them on his face. “The fact that soon you’re not going to be here for long, so you don’t want to get too attached to people, or…?”
She was silent again for a few minutes; the road became more and more populated with people on foot as they approached the main building, and they turned off it to thread their way among parked cars and chattering families with kids in tow, all heading the same direction. "Part of it's that, I guess. And... it's a little awkward, kind of; I'm out of practice after all this time..." Serenity trailed off, a distracted look on her face. "The big thing, though? I worry about what he'd do, if he found out-- Stephen." The effort she had to put into saying the name was visible. "Did Joey tell you about the notes?"
A shake of Duke’s head was the response to that question; he hadn’t recalled any notes mentioned. “No, he didn’t say anything. But… hey, you can’t keep living in fear, okay? The people who do care about you won’t let anything happen to you. And I bet that’d be just the same for anyone you were dating if you’d give them a chance.”
Jai was rather protective, and had said before that he’d never let anything happen to Duke. And even though Jai couldn’t be around him at all times, Duke still felt safer regardless knowing someone else wanted to keep him safe. Perhaps that was what Serenity needed, more people that would make her feel safe? But then again, it was a bit difficult for Duke to imagine just how hard it would be to have to worry about a person like Stephen. True, Chris was rather… suspicious, and had really scared Duke the first time they’d run into each other, but he hadn’t done anything outwardly malicious since then. Only time would tell just how that situation would play out. But Chris wasn’t a worry in Duke’s mind at the moment; instead he was completely focused on Serenity.
She mulled that over as they joined the line for the main entrance; it wasn't too bad yet-- this was a small fair, after all-- and studied the program she had snagged on the way in. "I... y'know, a while back I did some kind of stupid things for... comfort, I guess? And now I don't want anybody getting hurt because he sees them as a threat," Serenity said quietly, and explained a little about the letters she had been receiving... brief, nasty pieces of hate-mail telling her to leave town; they had been arriving every few weeks for several months from an anonymous source.
It didn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to turn 'source' into 'Stephen'. "And... I guess I've gotten kind of gun-shy," added the redhead with a grimace. "I don't think he's around here, but... I don't know that for sure, either."
“How would he know that you were here, though? None of us have said anything.” Duke hadn’t even known Serenity’s address until lately; before recently he’d given his letters to Joey to mail to her. Though he knew he’d probably feel paranoid in a situation like this too, and could understand how Serenity felt about those anonymous letters. “Since we can’t exactly prove it’s him, I doubt anything can be done about those letters, unfortunately.”
But Duke knew Serenity would be careful, and while he was worried for her now, he hoped nothing bad would happen here. She’d only be there a little while longer, and honestly Duke would be relieved when Serenity would be able to return to the city to be closer to Joey and the rest of their friends. “Don’t really blame you, though; I’d be worried if I were in your place, too.” He was paying far more attention to Serenity than to the fair, especially now that he couldn’t help but be worried. “Does Joey think Steven is here?”
"--Two, please-- MY treat!" said Serenity a little indignantly to both Duke and to the booth attendant as she paid their way in. "You can buy me lunch to make up for it." Hand-stamped and with programs in hand, they followed the rest of the crowd like cattle as they stampeded down into the rows of local club exhibits, quilts, canning, flower arrangements, etc. that made up so much of a county fair. "And Joey's not sure any more than I am-- about Stephen, I mean," she added, pausing to stare in puzzlement at a display of antique farm equipment. "He thinks he's behind it, but neither of us can figure out how he found me. We might just be paranoid, but what's the saying? That it doesn't mean they aren't really out to get you? So... I'm being careful."
“I don’t blame you,” Duke replied, brow furrowed slightly in worried thought. It troubled him and puzzled him all at the same time, this information about Steven. He knew Steven had been at his worst when Serenity was in college, and Duke had been distant by then, grown further apart from the rest of his friends during Serenity, Joey and Tristan’s first year of college, and his own second year. He already regretted the decision to sever the relationship with his friends back then, but this made him wish all the more that he had been there to do something, anything, to offer whatever support he could. But it also made him all the more determined to support Serenity now to his best ability, and to be there whenever she did need him.
As much as Duke really was concerned, he figured Serenity didn’t want to make this issue the main focus of their day. They’d come to the fair to have fun, so Duke tried his best to suppress any anxiousness he felt in favor of turning his attention back to the fair itself, and to the utterly bizarre farm relics nearby.
It really was all totally foreign to Duke, but it intrigued him for now, and he couldn’t help but take his phone out again to snap pictures. He didn’t bother with sending them to Jai this time; that would distract from his time with Serenity, and besides, he could show Jai all of his pictures later. However, taking pictures while talking was something that he could do to prevent his focus from being taken away from Serenity. “Why would you want to keep something like that around?” he asked with an amused smile, pointing to an old hay rake - not that he knew what it was, never having seen something like that before in his life. “Do you think there’s a big market for… rusty wheel things?”
Serenity was eyeing a showcase of really alarming antique veterinary equipment, displayed as if the horrifying things were priceless pieces of artwork. "No idea," she said in a slightly shaken voice, and pointed. "What d'you suppose this was for? Or this?" The devices in question had sharp bits and pointy bits and chains and buckles and... She shuddered. "Never mind." Hurriedly she moved along to the next display, which seemed to have something to do with horse-breeding.
This was, in retrospect, a mistake.
Moments later, as they wandered down the aisle of farm displays, Serenity looked more than a little subdued; her face burned bright red around the cheekbones. "...can't believe they actually had photos on display of... I mean, that's one bit of Nature's Wonders I could do without seeing," she muttered. "I have a lot more respect for female horses than I used to. Um-- let's look at the quilting contest, okay? I think that ought to be safe."
Tilting his head to the side slightly as he looked at those unfamiliar veterinary tools, Duke found it difficult to imagine anything like that being used on an animal. Not that he particularly wanted to imagine them used on any animals. “Yeah… quilts,” Duke replied agreeably with a nod. Though that reminded him-“Hey, didn’t you say you were interested in quilt-making? Ever make any progress on that?”
With one of her characteristic 180-degree mood changes, the redhead brightened. "Wait'll you see-- I'm making one for Joey and--" she faltered slightly, then continued; "--and it's not too shabby, or I think so anyway. He liked it when he saw it-- I've been putting the side bits on this last week, and when I'm done I'll start stitching it down to the batting and the undersheet." She grinned at him, then tilted her head a little as she surveyed Duke for a moment. "Could make you one too, if you want... or maybe one for you and Jai both? What kind of colors would you want? See," she explained as they paused beside the entrance to another section of craft displays, "if I start on one for myself, I might not finish it; but if I make them for other people, I can sort of guilt myself into doing it. It's working so far..." She glanced down the row of booths, but the redhead's attention was caught by something else, something that had been scenting the air with a pervasive, sugary aroma for several minutes. "Ooh, cotton candy! Want some, Duke? Empty calories, here I come--"
"That'd be awesome," Duke replied with a smile, answering both questions at the same time, but more so about the quilt. He wasn't used to his friends, or anyone for that matter, gifting him with things that they'd made themselves. That was something he had done, especially for Jai, so it was a treat to be on the receiving side this time. "Actually... Jai's pretty fond of purple. Bet he'd like one with that color on it." Well, it was true, from Jai's purple socks to his purple camouflaged hat and his purple cell phone, Duke had just come to associate purple with Jai over time.
"Gah, that's going to be a lot of work, though..." Duke went on, wincing a little in sympathy. But afterward, "But I think it'll be really amazing when it's done. We'll think of somehow to pay you back, I'm sure." It wasn't that he felt obligated, but he liked giving back to his friends, especially in situations like this. He knew quilt-making probably wasn't altogether easy, and he had no idea how to do it himself, so he was happy for an offer like that from Serenity. "I guess I'll start with cotton candy and go from there," he voiced with a grin, fetching his wallet so that he could pay for the sugary treat for he and Serenity.
She waved her hands, turning the whole 'lot of work' thing into a puff of smoke. "It'll be fun. Can't try out any new patterns unless I'm making a new one, can I?" The redhead's eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. "I never thought I'd want to do anything this... I dunno, crafty? And I'm not all that good at it yet; but I'm learning. So--" She pointed at a fluffy batch of cotton-candy that the vendor was winding onto old-fashioned paper rods, pale lavender and glittering with droplets of congealing sugar. "--purple, huh? Purple it is. And maybe some green, for you." Accepting the proffered treat a moment later, Serenity took a large bite and closed her eyes blissfully at the sugary taste. "....mmm... Thanks; I haven't had this stuff since the last time I went to Coney Island."
“Can’t remember the last time I went to Coney Island,” Duke mused, pondering, as he pulled off a tuft of his own cotton candy to eat. It wasn’t really too much of a secret that he liked the occasional sugary treat. “Probably… back in high school sometime. Would be fun to visit again sometime though, all those rides and everything… Though somehow I doubt Jai would be too into that. Maybe Joey and Tristan could be convinced into going, though.” Jai did play games, sure, but generally they were with only Duke, and Duke accepted that without question because he knew his companion wasn’t as comfortable out in public as he was when the two of them were alone. But still, he wasn’t sure he could convince Jai into riding roller coasters. Maybe. It’d take some work, though.
Duke continued, “Well, I suppose it couldn’t hurt to at least try to convince Jai, too.” He did tend to be rather good at convincing Jai into going places, playing games, and so forth. If he’d tried hard enough, he knew he would have been able to get Jai to come along on this trip too, but honestly he knew it wouldn’t make Jai entirely comfortable - Jai didn’t know Serenity that well, after all - so he hadn’t tried that hard to encourage Jai into coming along.
All around them the fairgoers surged in crowds of hurrying people as they rounded a corner; noise crashed through a doorway from the midway beyond, echoing the Coney Island theme back at them again in minature. Ahead a sign read 'LIVESTOCK' over an arrow; quilts forgotten, as they turned towards the distant smell of hay and animals (and other, possibly less appealing if no less organic scents) Serenity glanced a little sideways at her companion. "It's been ages for me too; that'd be great. Do you see them much? Joey and Tristan, I mean?" She took another large bite and craned her head upwards for a moment, watching as a balloon sailed improbably past towards the beamed ceiling overhead; a screech from a nearby toddler explained where it had come from, and she made a face. "Joey always used to try to pop any balloons I got when we were kids; --okay, I'd do it right back too, so I guess I was just as much of a brat. Anyway, do you?"
After smiling in response to that balloon-popping comment, Duke admitted, "Don't see them as much as I want to." He was trying not to breathe through his nose too much; sure, New York City had a variety of smoggy scents that on occasion weren't too pleasant, but they were nothing at all like the smell of sheep and pigs, something he was altogether not used to. "They just seem... I don't know, busier or something. I want to see them more, though." He knew he wasn't completely innocent in the matter; every weekend he spent Friday evening until Sunday afternoon with Jai, so that took up a big chunk of the weekend, a time that Joey and Tristan might not be quite so busy. "Hopefully I'll get a chance to hang out with them again soon. I miss it."
"...yeah. Me too."
The livestock display consisted of, well, livestock: not just the usual 4-H chickens and rabbits, but cows, sheep, goats, horses, pigs and cattle. The noise was amazing, and the smell was... okay, not 'amazing' but definitely unusual. And strong. And... Serenity looked down (and then around with a grimace) as straw crackled beneath their feet; they had passed from the main building into a kind of attached barn, long and narrow and filled with stalls.
"...better watch where you step, Duke..."
Somehow, cotton candy just wasn't as appetizing to Duke now than it had been a few minutes prior.
Duke was more than watching where he stepped; he was staring at the ground to make sure nothing smeared onto his shoes. It was very fortunate that Duke cared about Serenity so much, or else he just wouldn't be at a place like this. He liked animals, really, though of course with a preference toward small, furry, well-groomed ones. So the animals at the fair now were a little much for his nose to handle all at once. "...ugh."
But, conversation, right. Duke gave part of his attention back over to what Serenity had said last, and attempted to offer some consolation. "But you'll be back in the city pretty soon, so you'll be able to see more of them then."
Busy making sure that nothing uninvited tagged along on her shoes as well, his companion nodded. "Want to check out the rabbits? Might be safer--"
The rabbits (mostly presented by 4-H kids and so forth) were a mixed lot, all in sizable cages: lop-ears, the regulation upright types, long coats and short, fluffy and sleek, spotted, shaded, solid-colored... "Ooooh, I wish I had a carrot or something. Do any of these look like-- what's his name, Quinn?" Inquisitive pink and white noses wriggled against cage bars, and Serenity put a finger through to stroke the silky brown pelt of an enormous, lazy-looking rabbit; it blinked at her benignly and she read off the cage's tag: "'Flemish Giant, 2 years old, 'Mister Bunn'. Cute; somebody's a For Better Or Worse fan. Does Quinn look like Bunn here?"
"Hm, not too much," Duke replied as he looked over the rabbits himself, knowing of Mister Bunn's particular breed because of all of the extensive research he'd done on rabbits from the very first day he'd brought Quinn home. "These guys get really huge; Quinn's tiny compared to these. He's a Holland Lop, and they only grow to be three or four pounds. And Quinn has lop ears, ones that flop down, you know? And these guys' ears are straight." He laughed softly, amused. "Jai says Quinn always looks pitiful because he's so tiny, and his face is sort of squished so it looks like he's frowning all the time. You'll have to meet Quinn when you come back. He's pretty tame." Well, aside from the occasional nipping of ankles. But that was to get Duke's attention as a demand for attention, or to assert dominance - but that was fairly typical of a rabbit.
Serenity stroked the rabbit's pelt again; it twitched an ear in Duke's direction and gave a very laconic stretch. "Tamer than this? He's practically catatonic." The creature flopped over sideways. "Wonder how you'd get along with Bear? Betcha he'd try and eat you." Leaving Mister Bunn alone, the redhead rose and wandered a little further down the aisle. "Oooh, guinea pigs!"
A number of fluffy cannonball-shaped rodents were duly admired in Joey Wheeler's honor; his twin shook her head. "Somehow I would've expected my brother to end up with-- I don't know, a pet rat or, or-- just not a... I mean," and she watched several of the aforementioned animals twitch nervously around their cages. "He said his has a 'meaningful relationship' with Miw-- how weird is that? Trust Joey to find the one guinea pig in the world that likes cats..." A handful of children pelted past, arguing about the merits of roller-coasters with each other; the furballs skittered to the far end of their enclosures as Serenity watched, bemused.
A few more animals (lambs, alarminly large sheep, piglets and some very arrogant roosters) were admired before Serenity turned to Duke, one eyebrow rising. "Want to check out the rides?"
Duke wasn’t altogether picky about rides, and was in fact trying to remain as open to various possibilities as he could today. The ride that visually stood out for him most though was the Ferris wheel, and while it certainly wasn’t as impressively tall as the Wonder Wheel at Coney Island, for example, Duke figured it would still give the two of them a great view of the fair and all it had to offer anyway.
“How about that one?” Duke questioned with a smile as he pointed up to that Ferris wheel, pausing long enough to see if Serenity would object to the decision. “We’d be able to see the rest of the fair from the top. What do you say?”
(to be continued in Part 3)