Salmiakki
Title: Salmiakki
Rating: PG-13 for Language and Themes
Genre: RPS Randomness
Pairing: Julian/Theon Lovex
Summary: "Hey, Juke...why are you wearing a Lovex hoodie? I mean, aren’t they sort of… not your kind of style?”
Author's Note: This idea wouldn't leave me alone. It didn't turn out anything like I wanted it to but I needed to get it out or else I'd be useless for homework tomorrow. So. Have some rather crappy story. ;)
Salmiakki
I hear you on the radio
You permeate my screen, its' unkind but
If I met you in a scissor fight
I'd cut off both your wings on principle alone
On principle alone
Julian kept his head down and his music blaring as he battled his way through the crowds in the hallway to his classroom. It was easiest like that; attract as little attention as possible, head down and music blaring and just keep walking, push everyone out of the way and just keep walking.
It always worked before. He didn’t like attracting attention. He dressed as unobtrusively as possible, kept his head down, and didn’t say much so that he couldn’t say anything that might spark anyone to talk back to him. He just didn’t like people noticing him. He didn’t want any trouble and somehow it always followed him around. These people didn’t like him and he didn’t like them, and it was easiest to avoid any situation where he might have to interact with them, if at all possible.
So, he stared at his shoelaces as he walked to homeroom that morning and slid into the chair behind the desk at the very back of his classroom. His headphones were around his neck now, and the music was off; he just crossed his arms on his desk and buried his head in them, so that all that was to be seen of Julian Drain - or Juka, Juke for short, to most people - that morning was a mound of messy, dyed black hair, two large headphones and a black hood that belonged to a hoodie several sizes too big for his slight frame.
He wished he had some coffee, that might help his mood a little. But he’d only just managed to roll out of bed that morning, there’d been no time for coffee; there wasn’t even time to find any of his own clothes, he’d been forced to borrow the hoodie, and he hadn’t even had the presence of mind to think about what kind of disturbances it might cause until his attempted nap was rudely interrupted.
“Hey, Juke, I thought you liked like, Incubus and Deftones and stuff!”
Julian looked bleary eyed up from his arms at the boy, a sort-of friend of his, sort-of only because they both had the same problem of being social outcasts that liked too much black, but Kai wore eyeliner and skinny jeans and always had his wrists covered and scratched at them like they itched and Julian didn’t really talk to him either, and frowned at him.
“I do.”
Kai looked perplexed and sat down at the desk next to him, rubbing at his left wrist with the butt of his right hand through his longsleeved shirt, and Julian wanted to reach out and just grab his hands and stop them, but he didn’t, just buried his hands deeper into the sleeves of his oversized hoodie.
“But… so then… why are you wearing a Lovex hoodie? I mean, aren’t they sort of… not your kind of style?”
Julian’s face was blank for a while, until he looked down quickly and realized just which hoodie it was that Theon had chucked at him to wear that morning, and groaned. Typical, this was typical. His cheeks were burning a little, though he wouldn’t have been able to explain why, if he’d been asked.
“Well, I um… you know…”
“I just saw their video on MTV, you know. The singer spends most of the time making out with his microphone, right, and sort of screeches? I liked them, they were sort of, you know, goth pop.”
“Lovex aren’t goth pop!” Julian exclaimed, despite himself, and blushed even deeper when he realized what he was doing. Kai raised an eyebrow at him, surprised by how much Julian seemed to care.
“Juke, man, are you kidding? Of course they are.”
“No we - I mean, they aren’t.”
More people clattered into the classroom and flung themselves behind desks. Sleep was still lodged in most of their eyes, but they somehow still found the energy to toss remarks back to where the two boys were sitting.
“Hey, look, the faggots are actually talking to each other today! Next thing you know they’re going to be fucking on the desks!”
“Aww, and look, wannabe drummer boy has some new clothes! Hey, Juke, whatcha do, turn MTV on and decide the first thing you saw was cool?”
Julian’s cheeks burned bright red again and he bit the inside of his lip so hard he tasted tangy metal, looking down at the desk rather than saying anything. Kai, however, was glaring at the boys, tugging the cuffs of his shirt down spasmodically. He was about to say something when Julian grabbed him by the wrist and squeezed, hard, making him gasp for breath. He knew it was a harsh thing to do, but he had to shut Kai up before he said something stupid.
“Vittu,” the boy hissed, and Julian thought he saw blood seeping through the fabric of his shirt but he wasn’t sure.
“Shut up,” he said, frowning, and burying his head back in his arms.
It was a few minutes before Kai, who had been nervously touching at his wrist, spoke again.
“So, why do you have their hoodie on if you don’t like them?”
Julian sighed, but didn’t answer. He didn’t want to have to explain; he thought it would take too long, and they didn’t have much longer until the bell, and they definitely couldn’t afford to be talking in the hallway.
“You know, I actually quite like them, I’m not going to think you’re stupid if you do too.”
Something inside snapped; it wasn’t a bad snap, it just snapped, and Julian looked Kai in the face for the first time in a very long time and, sighing, started talking.
“Look, Kai, it’s just, I was at my boyfriend’s house last night and we woke up late and I couldn’t find my clothes and this was the only thing he had clean, because the manufacturers sent us - I mean, him - a big box of them and I didn’t even realize what it was until just now, or I wouldn’t be wearing it, okay, can you drop it?”
Not only was Kai shocked by how many words had just come out of Julian’s mouth at once, or that he’d just admitted to having a boyfriend, and sleeping over at his house and not having any clothes on - which was tantamount to admitting to the fact that they were fucking all night -, but he was confused to boot.
“Wait, but… why a whole box… I mean… does he like them that much?”
“No, we all get samples of all our merchandise. Theon’s just the lead singer and he pretends he owns the band so he gets more than we do. Not that I care so much. Its just clothes and shit, right?”
Julian’s confidence was gaining slowly but surely, now he was actually talking; there was a question posed on Kai’s lips but the bell rang and Julian pushed up from his desk quickly, hurrying away from him as quickly as possible.
The only class that Kai and Julian had together that day was English, and Kai normally sat at the front of the class whilst Julian, as usual, hid at the back. That was why Julian assumed he’d be safe from questions. But Kai walked right past his normal seat and instead deposited himself in the chair next to Julian. There were still 10 minutes until class started, it was still lunch, but Julian didn’t have anywhere else to go so he came to class early every day and sat there eating the salmiakki he carried in a big bag in his pocket. Today he didn’t have any salmiakki, so he was just sitting there staring at the ceiling; or, he had been until Kai got there.
“Kai, what are you doing?”
“Sitting here, why?”
“People are going to talk.”
“So? Screw them.”
“Kai…”
“Juke, are you going to explain anything or what?”
Julian frowned, but at that moment, someone else burst into the room.
“Dammit, THERE you are! Julian, I’ve been looking for you all over this goddamned building.”
Kai stared; Julian blushed. Theon stood there with his hands on his hips in indignation.
“Theo, what are you doing here?”
Theon looked confused for a minute, he’d genuinely forgotten, until finally it clicked and a sense of dawning passed over his face.
“You forgot your salmiakki, so I brought you some.” He pulled a bag of the black candies out of his pocket and tossed it to the stunned Julian, who just barely managed to catch it. “Oh, and, I came to tell you, I’m picking you up after school because we have to go to that photoshoot, remember, and then we have practice at Vivian’s, so you better not have homework.”
“Fuck, Theon, I’ve got tons of it.”
Theon’s mouth opened to say something but Kai interrupted, tugging down his sleeves and frowning.
“Okay, look, I’m really confused, and Juke won’t tell me, and you’re that guy from Lovex I saw you on MTV, and … why are you talking to Juka?”
Theon looked at Julian, and then at Kai, and then threw his blonde head back and laughed whilst Julian’s cheeks burnt.
“Kai, sit down, Jesus. Kai, this is Theon, Theon, Kai, remember, I’ve told you about him.”
“Yeah, weird emo kid, blatant cutter, that kind of thing.”
“Theon!” Julian looked horrified, Kai looked stricken… it took Theon a few moments to even realize he’d said anything bad.
“Oh, vittu, Kai, I’m sorry, I just… don’t think before I talk.”
“Theon, you don’t ever think.”
“Hey!”
“Kai?” Julian looked over at him, worried, but Kai had just tugged his sleeves down farther and shrugged, a stiff upper lip seemed to him to be the best way forwards, maybe if he acted like they were barking up the wrong tree or he didn’t know what they were talking about they’d forget about it.
“So… so… I still don’t get it,” he stammered, trying to keep the conversation going.
“Julian. You still haven’t told anyone about the band?”
“No? Who was I going to tell?”
“Well, your friends, for a start.”
“Theon. I don’t have friends in this place.”
Kai looked up at him with big eyes; Julian caught them in his peripheral vision and sighed. “Except for you, Kai, sorry.”
“No… its okay. So… so what, you’re in the band with him?”
Theon grinned and wrapped his arms around Julian’s shoulders; Julian tried to shrug him off but to no avail.
“Yes, he is. He’s my little drummer boy.”
“Get off, Theo.”
“No.”
“But… but then… you’re in Lovex? As in… the band. That just released a single. And is on MTV. You?”
Julian nodded; a huge grin spread across Kai’s face.
“Juke, that’s so cool! See, I told you Lovex were good!”
Julian blushed as Theon started cracking up, pressing kisses to his cheek.
“I like you, Kai,” he said, grinning. “Jules. Give him salmiakki, I think he deserves salmiakki.”
Julian’s face was a picture of perfect horror when Theon took the bag from his hands and tossed it to Kai, but Kai just laughed and handed it back to him.
“No, thanks, I know Julian goes into withdrawal if he doesn’t get those things.”
“Thanks, Kai,” Julian said, putting a few pieces into his mouth. The rest of the class started trickling in, and there were more than a few people staring at Theon, who was whispering things into Julian’s ear and making both Julian and Kai crack up laughing, until the teacher came in and he dashed out of the classroom, leaving with a huge smack of his lips against Julian’s, whispering to him, “it’s about time these people got to know Julian Drain, instead of Juka Aatos, don’t you think?”
Julian’s cheeks burnt bright red right the way through until the end of the day; by that time it was common knowledge throughout the school that the drummer of Lovex was actually in their school, in senior year, and was that weird quiet kid who was always listening to Incubus.
When Julian came out of the door, Theon was sitting on the wall surrounded by girls asking him for autographs; Julian had to push his way through to him, grab him by the hand and actually drag him to the car and slam the door after him to get him to leave.
“I don’t know why you don’t like the people in that school, they all seem lovely to me,” Theon remarked, teasingly, his right hand resting on Julian’s knee whilst they waited at a red light. Julian just pursed his lips and said nothing; his guise was blown, now, for good. He’d never be left alone again in his life, he could just tell, all that hard work and for nothing, just to be blown by a hoodie and an over curious emo and an annoying persistent boyfriend who didn’t remember how highschool worked anymore.
The next day, Julian wore all black - black jeans and a blank hoodie - and held his head so that his hair covered his face completely. He pulled the doors to the school open reluctantly; he was 10 minutes late for registration because Theon wanted to cuddle and he’d had to pick up salmiakki on the way to school. Everyone’s eyes were on him when he walked into the classroom, and Julian frowned - they weren’t hostile stares anymore, people were just… looking at him.
Someone was in his seat, he didn’t know who, he tried not to look and instead diverted himself to an empty chair… but to his astonishment the person in his seat got up.
“Here, Juke, sorry, have a seat.” Kai was beaming at him from the seat next to him as he slid, feeling very awkward indeed, into the chair.
“Morning, Julian,” he said. Julian started, hearing his stage-name come from someone other than his band - or his brother - and did a double take, a small smile twitching the corners of his mouth.
“Hei, Kai.” Kai offered him his hand and Julian, grinning now, gave him a high five before turning to listen to the morning announcements for the first time in years.
Maybe this whole thing wasn’t so bad after all.
Rating: PG-13 for Language and Themes
Genre: RPS Randomness
Pairing: Julian/Theon Lovex
Summary: "Hey, Juke...why are you wearing a Lovex hoodie? I mean, aren’t they sort of… not your kind of style?”
Author's Note: This idea wouldn't leave me alone. It didn't turn out anything like I wanted it to but I needed to get it out or else I'd be useless for homework tomorrow. So. Have some rather crappy story. ;)
Salmiakki
I hear you on the radio
You permeate my screen, its' unkind but
If I met you in a scissor fight
I'd cut off both your wings on principle alone
On principle alone
Julian kept his head down and his music blaring as he battled his way through the crowds in the hallway to his classroom. It was easiest like that; attract as little attention as possible, head down and music blaring and just keep walking, push everyone out of the way and just keep walking.
It always worked before. He didn’t like attracting attention. He dressed as unobtrusively as possible, kept his head down, and didn’t say much so that he couldn’t say anything that might spark anyone to talk back to him. He just didn’t like people noticing him. He didn’t want any trouble and somehow it always followed him around. These people didn’t like him and he didn’t like them, and it was easiest to avoid any situation where he might have to interact with them, if at all possible.
So, he stared at his shoelaces as he walked to homeroom that morning and slid into the chair behind the desk at the very back of his classroom. His headphones were around his neck now, and the music was off; he just crossed his arms on his desk and buried his head in them, so that all that was to be seen of Julian Drain - or Juka, Juke for short, to most people - that morning was a mound of messy, dyed black hair, two large headphones and a black hood that belonged to a hoodie several sizes too big for his slight frame.
He wished he had some coffee, that might help his mood a little. But he’d only just managed to roll out of bed that morning, there’d been no time for coffee; there wasn’t even time to find any of his own clothes, he’d been forced to borrow the hoodie, and he hadn’t even had the presence of mind to think about what kind of disturbances it might cause until his attempted nap was rudely interrupted.
“Hey, Juke, I thought you liked like, Incubus and Deftones and stuff!”
Julian looked bleary eyed up from his arms at the boy, a sort-of friend of his, sort-of only because they both had the same problem of being social outcasts that liked too much black, but Kai wore eyeliner and skinny jeans and always had his wrists covered and scratched at them like they itched and Julian didn’t really talk to him either, and frowned at him.
“I do.”
Kai looked perplexed and sat down at the desk next to him, rubbing at his left wrist with the butt of his right hand through his longsleeved shirt, and Julian wanted to reach out and just grab his hands and stop them, but he didn’t, just buried his hands deeper into the sleeves of his oversized hoodie.
“But… so then… why are you wearing a Lovex hoodie? I mean, aren’t they sort of… not your kind of style?”
Julian’s face was blank for a while, until he looked down quickly and realized just which hoodie it was that Theon had chucked at him to wear that morning, and groaned. Typical, this was typical. His cheeks were burning a little, though he wouldn’t have been able to explain why, if he’d been asked.
“Well, I um… you know…”
“I just saw their video on MTV, you know. The singer spends most of the time making out with his microphone, right, and sort of screeches? I liked them, they were sort of, you know, goth pop.”
“Lovex aren’t goth pop!” Julian exclaimed, despite himself, and blushed even deeper when he realized what he was doing. Kai raised an eyebrow at him, surprised by how much Julian seemed to care.
“Juke, man, are you kidding? Of course they are.”
“No we - I mean, they aren’t.”
More people clattered into the classroom and flung themselves behind desks. Sleep was still lodged in most of their eyes, but they somehow still found the energy to toss remarks back to where the two boys were sitting.
“Hey, look, the faggots are actually talking to each other today! Next thing you know they’re going to be fucking on the desks!”
“Aww, and look, wannabe drummer boy has some new clothes! Hey, Juke, whatcha do, turn MTV on and decide the first thing you saw was cool?”
Julian’s cheeks burned bright red again and he bit the inside of his lip so hard he tasted tangy metal, looking down at the desk rather than saying anything. Kai, however, was glaring at the boys, tugging the cuffs of his shirt down spasmodically. He was about to say something when Julian grabbed him by the wrist and squeezed, hard, making him gasp for breath. He knew it was a harsh thing to do, but he had to shut Kai up before he said something stupid.
“Vittu,” the boy hissed, and Julian thought he saw blood seeping through the fabric of his shirt but he wasn’t sure.
“Shut up,” he said, frowning, and burying his head back in his arms.
It was a few minutes before Kai, who had been nervously touching at his wrist, spoke again.
“So, why do you have their hoodie on if you don’t like them?”
Julian sighed, but didn’t answer. He didn’t want to have to explain; he thought it would take too long, and they didn’t have much longer until the bell, and they definitely couldn’t afford to be talking in the hallway.
“You know, I actually quite like them, I’m not going to think you’re stupid if you do too.”
Something inside snapped; it wasn’t a bad snap, it just snapped, and Julian looked Kai in the face for the first time in a very long time and, sighing, started talking.
“Look, Kai, it’s just, I was at my boyfriend’s house last night and we woke up late and I couldn’t find my clothes and this was the only thing he had clean, because the manufacturers sent us - I mean, him - a big box of them and I didn’t even realize what it was until just now, or I wouldn’t be wearing it, okay, can you drop it?”
Not only was Kai shocked by how many words had just come out of Julian’s mouth at once, or that he’d just admitted to having a boyfriend, and sleeping over at his house and not having any clothes on - which was tantamount to admitting to the fact that they were fucking all night -, but he was confused to boot.
“Wait, but… why a whole box… I mean… does he like them that much?”
“No, we all get samples of all our merchandise. Theon’s just the lead singer and he pretends he owns the band so he gets more than we do. Not that I care so much. Its just clothes and shit, right?”
Julian’s confidence was gaining slowly but surely, now he was actually talking; there was a question posed on Kai’s lips but the bell rang and Julian pushed up from his desk quickly, hurrying away from him as quickly as possible.
The only class that Kai and Julian had together that day was English, and Kai normally sat at the front of the class whilst Julian, as usual, hid at the back. That was why Julian assumed he’d be safe from questions. But Kai walked right past his normal seat and instead deposited himself in the chair next to Julian. There were still 10 minutes until class started, it was still lunch, but Julian didn’t have anywhere else to go so he came to class early every day and sat there eating the salmiakki he carried in a big bag in his pocket. Today he didn’t have any salmiakki, so he was just sitting there staring at the ceiling; or, he had been until Kai got there.
“Kai, what are you doing?”
“Sitting here, why?”
“People are going to talk.”
“So? Screw them.”
“Kai…”
“Juke, are you going to explain anything or what?”
Julian frowned, but at that moment, someone else burst into the room.
“Dammit, THERE you are! Julian, I’ve been looking for you all over this goddamned building.”
Kai stared; Julian blushed. Theon stood there with his hands on his hips in indignation.
“Theo, what are you doing here?”
Theon looked confused for a minute, he’d genuinely forgotten, until finally it clicked and a sense of dawning passed over his face.
“You forgot your salmiakki, so I brought you some.” He pulled a bag of the black candies out of his pocket and tossed it to the stunned Julian, who just barely managed to catch it. “Oh, and, I came to tell you, I’m picking you up after school because we have to go to that photoshoot, remember, and then we have practice at Vivian’s, so you better not have homework.”
“Fuck, Theon, I’ve got tons of it.”
Theon’s mouth opened to say something but Kai interrupted, tugging down his sleeves and frowning.
“Okay, look, I’m really confused, and Juke won’t tell me, and you’re that guy from Lovex I saw you on MTV, and … why are you talking to Juka?”
Theon looked at Julian, and then at Kai, and then threw his blonde head back and laughed whilst Julian’s cheeks burnt.
“Kai, sit down, Jesus. Kai, this is Theon, Theon, Kai, remember, I’ve told you about him.”
“Yeah, weird emo kid, blatant cutter, that kind of thing.”
“Theon!” Julian looked horrified, Kai looked stricken… it took Theon a few moments to even realize he’d said anything bad.
“Oh, vittu, Kai, I’m sorry, I just… don’t think before I talk.”
“Theon, you don’t ever think.”
“Hey!”
“Kai?” Julian looked over at him, worried, but Kai had just tugged his sleeves down farther and shrugged, a stiff upper lip seemed to him to be the best way forwards, maybe if he acted like they were barking up the wrong tree or he didn’t know what they were talking about they’d forget about it.
“So… so… I still don’t get it,” he stammered, trying to keep the conversation going.
“Julian. You still haven’t told anyone about the band?”
“No? Who was I going to tell?”
“Well, your friends, for a start.”
“Theon. I don’t have friends in this place.”
Kai looked up at him with big eyes; Julian caught them in his peripheral vision and sighed. “Except for you, Kai, sorry.”
“No… its okay. So… so what, you’re in the band with him?”
Theon grinned and wrapped his arms around Julian’s shoulders; Julian tried to shrug him off but to no avail.
“Yes, he is. He’s my little drummer boy.”
“Get off, Theo.”
“No.”
“But… but then… you’re in Lovex? As in… the band. That just released a single. And is on MTV. You?”
Julian nodded; a huge grin spread across Kai’s face.
“Juke, that’s so cool! See, I told you Lovex were good!”
Julian blushed as Theon started cracking up, pressing kisses to his cheek.
“I like you, Kai,” he said, grinning. “Jules. Give him salmiakki, I think he deserves salmiakki.”
Julian’s face was a picture of perfect horror when Theon took the bag from his hands and tossed it to Kai, but Kai just laughed and handed it back to him.
“No, thanks, I know Julian goes into withdrawal if he doesn’t get those things.”
“Thanks, Kai,” Julian said, putting a few pieces into his mouth. The rest of the class started trickling in, and there were more than a few people staring at Theon, who was whispering things into Julian’s ear and making both Julian and Kai crack up laughing, until the teacher came in and he dashed out of the classroom, leaving with a huge smack of his lips against Julian’s, whispering to him, “it’s about time these people got to know Julian Drain, instead of Juka Aatos, don’t you think?”
Julian’s cheeks burnt bright red right the way through until the end of the day; by that time it was common knowledge throughout the school that the drummer of Lovex was actually in their school, in senior year, and was that weird quiet kid who was always listening to Incubus.
When Julian came out of the door, Theon was sitting on the wall surrounded by girls asking him for autographs; Julian had to push his way through to him, grab him by the hand and actually drag him to the car and slam the door after him to get him to leave.
“I don’t know why you don’t like the people in that school, they all seem lovely to me,” Theon remarked, teasingly, his right hand resting on Julian’s knee whilst they waited at a red light. Julian just pursed his lips and said nothing; his guise was blown, now, for good. He’d never be left alone again in his life, he could just tell, all that hard work and for nothing, just to be blown by a hoodie and an over curious emo and an annoying persistent boyfriend who didn’t remember how highschool worked anymore.
The next day, Julian wore all black - black jeans and a blank hoodie - and held his head so that his hair covered his face completely. He pulled the doors to the school open reluctantly; he was 10 minutes late for registration because Theon wanted to cuddle and he’d had to pick up salmiakki on the way to school. Everyone’s eyes were on him when he walked into the classroom, and Julian frowned - they weren’t hostile stares anymore, people were just… looking at him.
Someone was in his seat, he didn’t know who, he tried not to look and instead diverted himself to an empty chair… but to his astonishment the person in his seat got up.
“Here, Juke, sorry, have a seat.” Kai was beaming at him from the seat next to him as he slid, feeling very awkward indeed, into the chair.
“Morning, Julian,” he said. Julian started, hearing his stage-name come from someone other than his band - or his brother - and did a double take, a small smile twitching the corners of his mouth.
“Hei, Kai.” Kai offered him his hand and Julian, grinning now, gave him a high five before turning to listen to the morning announcements for the first time in years.
Maybe this whole thing wasn’t so bad after all.