Happy Birthday Haley!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
To: Haley
From: Mandy and Jackie ^_^!
You asked me recently how I would end the one-shot you sent me as a sort of conclusion to the remnants of Ash and Riley. Here is my answer. I hope you like it. <3 -Mandy
_____________________
Once Upon a Time You Picked Me
____________________
So much time had lapsed between that very second and the last time he’d seen her. He’d been married to Tawney, lost Payton, been estranged from Hayden, move to both England and Japan - he wondered momentarily if he could glean any measure of comfort from something as familiar as Riley Bennett…his first love. Part of Ash was terrified that she’d be so too different for there to be any value in their seeing each other again.
In true Ash fashion he concerned himself with his own shortcomings and whether or not he might miss the bar of kind remembrance and shoot right over to horrifically different. It inspired him to look down at his shirt. A handkerchief was tied around his neck, casual Ash garb. It was there in lieu of an ascot or narrow tie. The vest was a given and he smoothed it, out of habit at this point and partially from the need to ensure it was wrinkle free.
“Jovie was right.” He said to the ceramic cup in front of him. It had been ages since he’d been in that particular location. However, when Riley was feeling saucy they would venture to the Skylight and now, years removed from the freehold it was a fish house restaurant. He glanced across the brick street finding familiarity of the neighborhood to be comforting. He had always done better with regular routine. He didn’t fill in what he meant by those words but he knew that Riley would understand. “His name was Nao. I hear he’s with Joey now though. You remember her right? Noel’s friend, foul mouth - pooka. Hell, she used to serve coffee here, when it was still…” he trailed off and a smirk crossed his lips. It was the nearest to a smile that Ash would ever be seen with and even those were getting rarer as time wore on.
“I can still see Dex sitting in the corner over there with that smug smile and - God you really can’t go home again can you? This place feels so wrong and right all at once.” He peered up to her. Momentarily he was uncomfortable and he leaned across the table and gently removed the sunglasses, a Riley staple, from her face.
He knew Riley. She was the light of his life when he didn’t know what it meant to live outside of their small town. “I touched your feet.” He said in a soft taunt. “I helped you with your shoes…remember? When you couldn’t get them on for the dance which I asked you to because I felt sorry for me. Since then I’ve done so much - it feels like a lifetime ago. Please don’t make a superhero comment, that’s not funny.” He dipped his head down and folded in the arms of her glasses and placed them on the table, nearer to his side.
“What happened to us? How the hell did we grow up? I never thought I’d live this long and not just because salmonella lives in more than just mud and lurked there just to kill me.” He reached up and tugged on the array of perfectly gelled spikes that make up the only chaotic thing on Ash’s pristine form.
“So…I’m not going to bother with the theatrics and the words and the bullshit games. I’m done with all that. I’ve been done. Too much vanishes went we - how would you say it…? Act like pussies?” The word sounded foreign coming from Ash’s tongue and another smirk crossed his face as he arched a single eyebrow.
Ash was never one for acting out of turn or simply on a whim. He spent too much time, often times far too much, planning and considering all options before he came to a solid conclusion. He rarely threw caution to the wind, if ever and it was why things didn’t usually happen in Ash’s life, romantically or otherwise. The only quick decisions he’d ever made were in the matter of protection but never of the heart.
“You once asked me to forgive you. In fact that was just a few days ago.” A familiar pillow of pink passed his lower jaw at the implication. “I didn’t really get it then, what I was supposed to forgive you for - but…I do. I forgive you for whatever it is that you need me to forgive you for. I think - perhaps I owe you the I’m sorry. And I really know I’m going to need your forgiveness when I do this.” He held up a hand and closed his eyes. “Just, Riley please - bear with me. I’m going to do what you did to me in the lab that one day. Do you remember? Christmas time?” He didn’t reach forward and kiss her as she had him; instead he drew out a little box and placed it on the table.
He didn’t open it. “You know what’s in there. You can choose to open it or choose to ignore it. However, I meant more I’m doing to you what you did to me that time in that I’m asking you to make a choice. You picked me that day, the first and only person that ever did and I needed it - badly. You gave me confidence even if it was in ridiculous painted birdhouses and ten travel sized hand sanitizers. Because it wasn’t just about those things, it was about you…wanting me. Not a day went by that I didn’t feel wanted when you were mine, not the time I gave you the yellow rose or the time you and Amy and Tee got trapped far away or any of that. Now it’s my turn to offer you the same feeling, the same…” he paused trying to gather his thoughts. He felt much like sixteen year old Ash again, afraid of rejection and at a loss for confidence. It was likely because Riley exuded that sensation by her cool demeanor. “Need. It’s my turn to say I want you and I mean,” he leaned forward and pushed the little box in her direction, “to act on it. Pick me again Riley, please. This time…for good.”
To: Haley
From: Mandy and Jackie ^_^!
You asked me recently how I would end the one-shot you sent me as a sort of conclusion to the remnants of Ash and Riley. Here is my answer. I hope you like it. <3 -Mandy
_____________________
Once Upon a Time You Picked Me
____________________
So much time had lapsed between that very second and the last time he’d seen her. He’d been married to Tawney, lost Payton, been estranged from Hayden, move to both England and Japan - he wondered momentarily if he could glean any measure of comfort from something as familiar as Riley Bennett…his first love. Part of Ash was terrified that she’d be so too different for there to be any value in their seeing each other again.
In true Ash fashion he concerned himself with his own shortcomings and whether or not he might miss the bar of kind remembrance and shoot right over to horrifically different. It inspired him to look down at his shirt. A handkerchief was tied around his neck, casual Ash garb. It was there in lieu of an ascot or narrow tie. The vest was a given and he smoothed it, out of habit at this point and partially from the need to ensure it was wrinkle free.
“Jovie was right.” He said to the ceramic cup in front of him. It had been ages since he’d been in that particular location. However, when Riley was feeling saucy they would venture to the Skylight and now, years removed from the freehold it was a fish house restaurant. He glanced across the brick street finding familiarity of the neighborhood to be comforting. He had always done better with regular routine. He didn’t fill in what he meant by those words but he knew that Riley would understand. “His name was Nao. I hear he’s with Joey now though. You remember her right? Noel’s friend, foul mouth - pooka. Hell, she used to serve coffee here, when it was still…” he trailed off and a smirk crossed his lips. It was the nearest to a smile that Ash would ever be seen with and even those were getting rarer as time wore on.
“I can still see Dex sitting in the corner over there with that smug smile and - God you really can’t go home again can you? This place feels so wrong and right all at once.” He peered up to her. Momentarily he was uncomfortable and he leaned across the table and gently removed the sunglasses, a Riley staple, from her face.
He knew Riley. She was the light of his life when he didn’t know what it meant to live outside of their small town. “I touched your feet.” He said in a soft taunt. “I helped you with your shoes…remember? When you couldn’t get them on for the dance which I asked you to because I felt sorry for me. Since then I’ve done so much - it feels like a lifetime ago. Please don’t make a superhero comment, that’s not funny.” He dipped his head down and folded in the arms of her glasses and placed them on the table, nearer to his side.
“What happened to us? How the hell did we grow up? I never thought I’d live this long and not just because salmonella lives in more than just mud and lurked there just to kill me.” He reached up and tugged on the array of perfectly gelled spikes that make up the only chaotic thing on Ash’s pristine form.
“So…I’m not going to bother with the theatrics and the words and the bullshit games. I’m done with all that. I’ve been done. Too much vanishes went we - how would you say it…? Act like pussies?” The word sounded foreign coming from Ash’s tongue and another smirk crossed his face as he arched a single eyebrow.
Ash was never one for acting out of turn or simply on a whim. He spent too much time, often times far too much, planning and considering all options before he came to a solid conclusion. He rarely threw caution to the wind, if ever and it was why things didn’t usually happen in Ash’s life, romantically or otherwise. The only quick decisions he’d ever made were in the matter of protection but never of the heart.
“You once asked me to forgive you. In fact that was just a few days ago.” A familiar pillow of pink passed his lower jaw at the implication. “I didn’t really get it then, what I was supposed to forgive you for - but…I do. I forgive you for whatever it is that you need me to forgive you for. I think - perhaps I owe you the I’m sorry. And I really know I’m going to need your forgiveness when I do this.” He held up a hand and closed his eyes. “Just, Riley please - bear with me. I’m going to do what you did to me in the lab that one day. Do you remember? Christmas time?” He didn’t reach forward and kiss her as she had him; instead he drew out a little box and placed it on the table.
He didn’t open it. “You know what’s in there. You can choose to open it or choose to ignore it. However, I meant more I’m doing to you what you did to me that time in that I’m asking you to make a choice. You picked me that day, the first and only person that ever did and I needed it - badly. You gave me confidence even if it was in ridiculous painted birdhouses and ten travel sized hand sanitizers. Because it wasn’t just about those things, it was about you…wanting me. Not a day went by that I didn’t feel wanted when you were mine, not the time I gave you the yellow rose or the time you and Amy and Tee got trapped far away or any of that. Now it’s my turn to offer you the same feeling, the same…” he paused trying to gather his thoughts. He felt much like sixteen year old Ash again, afraid of rejection and at a loss for confidence. It was likely because Riley exuded that sensation by her cool demeanor. “Need. It’s my turn to say I want you and I mean,” he leaned forward and pushed the little box in her direction, “to act on it. Pick me again Riley, please. This time…for good.”