[fiction] aubergines.
365 Gay Sharks
Day 325, Word Count: 1702
Theme: November; Write Until You Drop
This post is part of the 365 Gay Sharks project. If you would like to learn more about this project, click here to read more about it. :D
"You came up," Taylor shrugs, "just not by name until a couple days ago. It was always 'Aidan's boyfriend' or something."
Avery smiles at that, real and bright, and Chris wonders how Taylor's slotted himself into their dynamic so easily already. It's freaky. Except for it's what she's always wanted, and she's glad to have it now. While she's pondering, Avery finishes cooking and plates the food. Chris slides off the stool she's been sitting on and sits at the fairly small dining room table just behind it. Taylor sits next to her. It's weirdly formal to be sitting at a proper dining room table, but there's only three stools at the counter and four bodies this time.
Chris could get used to that, though, she thinks. She could get used to a lot of things if it meant that Taylor would stay in her life. Instead of voicing that opinion, though, Chris just smiles to herself and picks up her chopsticks. She mumbles a thank you before eating. It's good food, and Chris glances over at Taylor to see how he's faring to find him tentatively trying everything before devouring it all.
"You should tell us more about you," Aidan says, in his charming voice that Chris hates, "Chris' descriptions are woefully unhelpful."
"I'm going to hurt you," Chris mumbles, "and you're going to like it."
"That's why it's not a punishment," Aidan smiles sweetly, "You know I love when you turn on your inner dominatrix."
Avery leans forward, stage-whispering a secret to Taylor, "They're always like this. Chris is really sexy when she tops Aidan."
"I think she's pretty sexy all the time," Taylor says as he dips a piece of shrimp into the sauce, "but I think I'd have to agree."
"Fuck you all," Chris rolls her eyes, "You're all working against me, that's not /fair/."
"All's fair in love and war," Avery grins at her, "Besides, you love it. Don't even lie."
"Assholes, the lot of you."
Sulking quietly, Chris returns to eating her dinner as Taylor starts telling Aidan about himself, answering his questions when he has them. Chris half-listens, and smiles to herself because it's going okay. What was she ever worried about? Of course Taylor fits into their life. There aren't a lot of things that Chris likes to speculate on, but she's willing to say that Taylor's probably not going to get scared off. She doesn't even protest when Aidan starts babbling about kink and telling Taylor embarrassing stories about Chris' "wild" college years.
"They were only wild," Chris sighs, "because you had a tendency to get us into trouble. Also I hate you."
"You always say that," Aidan laughs, "but you never seem to mean it. It's almost like it's your way of saying 'I love you' sometimes."
"You're right," Chris shrugs, "if I really hated you, I'd make you watch The Notebook and break out the tequila."
"That's not even punishment," Avery snorts, "I came home to the two of you passed out and the menu screen to The Notebook looping."
"True," Chris grins, "but I could always start singing songs from The Little Mermaid Broadway. /That/ would be a punishment."
Aidan gives her a horrified look, and Avery glances between them before demanding to know the story behind that look. Chris just laughs. There's some loud opposition from Aidan, but when Chris has calmed down enough, she tells the story of staying awake during their finals. Aidan shoots her dirty looks the entire time, but Chris can't even bring herself to care because this story is amazing and better shared.
It's totally for the benefit of Taylor, because Avery is interrupting her and Aidan is interrupting her, but Taylor's laughing along. It's nice, actually, being able to invite someone else into their little world and share things with them. Chris really needs more friends. Friends she talks to and sees regularly, anyway. Her friends back home and infrequent communications with college friends don't count.
When they're all done with dinner, Avery produces cupcakes from somewhere (Chris honestly thinks he's magic) and serves them as dessert. Taylor watches as she licks all the frosting off her cupcake in this weird, shocked state. Chris blinks and tilts her head in inquiry.
"That," Taylor says finally, "is totally disgusting."
"She does it /all the time/," Avery sighs, "It's her worst fault by far."
"I will eat cupcakes however I want," Chris unwraps the cake part, "and none of you can stop me."
Avery makes a disapproving noise and starts rambling to Taylor about the proper ways to eat things, who seems genuinely interested in it. Chris ignores them and finishes her cupcake, because cupcakes are more important that terrible people who spread lies and slander about you.
"I can't believe you still do that," Aidan shakes his head, "the frosting on these isn't even terrible."
"Habit," Chris says once she swallows, "besides, I like my cake untainted by frosting."
"The point is to eat them both together," Taylor frowns, "You can't eat one without the other, they need to be together!"
"We're keeping him," Avery says, "Maybe he can knock some sense into your head, Chris."
Chris is going to protest, but it's not worth it. She clears away the dishes and trash, leaning against the counter once she's finished. Taylor's looking a little out of place, and she knows Aidan doesn't want him to leave yet, so she racks her brain for something to do. Her choices pretty much boil down to reality television and terrible drinking games, but luckily Aidan thinks faster than her. He smiles.
"We should play Uno."
"Oh no," Avery buries his face in his hands, "No, Taylor veto it."
"I think that's a great idea," Chris grins, "I love Uno."
"I have no idea what's going on," Taylor glances between the three of them, "but I suspect I'll regret this later."
Avery moans, "They're the /worst/."
He doesn't elaborate further, because Chris produces the cards from a pencil holder on the fridge and sits back down, passing them to Aidan. Aidan shuffles them, dealing 7 cards to each of them, and then sets the deck roughly in the middle of the table and flips the first card. Avery, the youngest by a slim margin, goes first and Chris browses her hand. It's not particularly good, but it's not horrible either.
She catches Aidan's eye, and smirks. People seem to think Uno is about luck, but a fair amount of strategy is involved and Chris is good. Unfortunately, Aidan is good too. Neither of them let on to their dastardly plans, though, instead chatting as usual and playing cards. She lulls Taylor into some kind of eases, because by the time she's down to three cards he's at ten. Aidan watches her closely, smirking.
Aidan's down to a fairly low number of cards too, although Chris isn't precisely sure how many, and she's waiting for showdown between them. Avery's given up, already knowing that he was never going to win against them, and he's shaking his head fondly and muttering darkly.
"Uno," Chris says, "Take that, bitch."
"You haven't won yet," Aidan hums, "Don't get cocky, sweetheart."
But Chris does win, because Taylor must understand that this is a long-standing rivalry and he plays a reverse card. Chris plays a wildcard. She kisses Taylor afterward, a chaste kiss of thanks, and Aidan curses her and tells her that he'll win next time. Taylor just grins at her.
"You've chosen a side now," Avery says, "I hope you know that, Taylor."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"It's a terrible thing," Avery shakes his head, "You've never seen them /really/ play. They're vicious."
"It's more like we're sore losers," Chris shrugs, "and also we've perfected our two-player game."
"Too many nights playing Uno as stress relief. We've got our games down to twenty minutes or less, usually."
"You guys have really weird hobbies," Taylor says slowly, "I really don't understand you guys."
Chris is of the personal opinion that Taylor understands them perfectly, in that very Avery-like way of "I give up, it's just you guys." He doesn't seem terribly upset by the fact that he doesn't understand them, more taking it in stride and accepting that as a part of them. It's something that Chris likes, because people don't understand her and Aidan and are weirded out by what they have with each other.
Her mom doesn't even get what she has with Aidan, despite repeated assurance that he's very gay and very not going to get married to her. Aidan's mom is still perplexed by Chris too, secure in the knowledge that Aidan is as gay as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and the like. She doesn't mind Chris but told her, once, that it was like Chris and Aidan were an old married couple that was always bickering loudly.
Personally, Chris thinks that's the most accurate description anyone's ever given of her relationship to Aidan and she repeats it sometimes.
The point isn't that they're dating or they're not dating, it's that they're inseparable and Chris doesn't know how to be without him. She can't quite explain it, but it always felt wrong to not be friends with Aidan, and somewhere on the way they had become what they are. Taylor seems to understand, though, not insisting that Chris stop being so close to Aidan or spend less time with him. It's a nice change. She'd almost forgotten that not ever guy out there was a horrible douchebag with deep, deep jealousy issues and hatred for Aidan's place.
Taylor bumps his shoulder to hers as Aidan shuffling the deck again, and Chris leans over to kiss him. He kisses back, easy and slow. Aidan clears his throat once he's done and Chris breaks the kiss, surveying her new hand. It's actually awful and she curses mentally.
Whatever she can pull through. She can totally beat Aidan's ass at this stupid card game even with a really shitty hand. Avery plays a card. Chris catches Aidan's eye and gives him a bright, shit-eating grin because fuck if she's going to let on that her hand sucks. It's bad form.
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Day 325, Word Count: 1702
Theme: November; Write Until You Drop
This post is part of the 365 Gay Sharks project. If you would like to learn more about this project, click here to read more about it. :D
"You came up," Taylor shrugs, "just not by name until a couple days ago. It was always 'Aidan's boyfriend' or something."
Avery smiles at that, real and bright, and Chris wonders how Taylor's slotted himself into their dynamic so easily already. It's freaky. Except for it's what she's always wanted, and she's glad to have it now. While she's pondering, Avery finishes cooking and plates the food. Chris slides off the stool she's been sitting on and sits at the fairly small dining room table just behind it. Taylor sits next to her. It's weirdly formal to be sitting at a proper dining room table, but there's only three stools at the counter and four bodies this time.
Chris could get used to that, though, she thinks. She could get used to a lot of things if it meant that Taylor would stay in her life. Instead of voicing that opinion, though, Chris just smiles to herself and picks up her chopsticks. She mumbles a thank you before eating. It's good food, and Chris glances over at Taylor to see how he's faring to find him tentatively trying everything before devouring it all.
"You should tell us more about you," Aidan says, in his charming voice that Chris hates, "Chris' descriptions are woefully unhelpful."
"I'm going to hurt you," Chris mumbles, "and you're going to like it."
"That's why it's not a punishment," Aidan smiles sweetly, "You know I love when you turn on your inner dominatrix."
Avery leans forward, stage-whispering a secret to Taylor, "They're always like this. Chris is really sexy when she tops Aidan."
"I think she's pretty sexy all the time," Taylor says as he dips a piece of shrimp into the sauce, "but I think I'd have to agree."
"Fuck you all," Chris rolls her eyes, "You're all working against me, that's not /fair/."
"All's fair in love and war," Avery grins at her, "Besides, you love it. Don't even lie."
"Assholes, the lot of you."
Sulking quietly, Chris returns to eating her dinner as Taylor starts telling Aidan about himself, answering his questions when he has them. Chris half-listens, and smiles to herself because it's going okay. What was she ever worried about? Of course Taylor fits into their life. There aren't a lot of things that Chris likes to speculate on, but she's willing to say that Taylor's probably not going to get scared off. She doesn't even protest when Aidan starts babbling about kink and telling Taylor embarrassing stories about Chris' "wild" college years.
"They were only wild," Chris sighs, "because you had a tendency to get us into trouble. Also I hate you."
"You always say that," Aidan laughs, "but you never seem to mean it. It's almost like it's your way of saying 'I love you' sometimes."
"You're right," Chris shrugs, "if I really hated you, I'd make you watch The Notebook and break out the tequila."
"That's not even punishment," Avery snorts, "I came home to the two of you passed out and the menu screen to The Notebook looping."
"True," Chris grins, "but I could always start singing songs from The Little Mermaid Broadway. /That/ would be a punishment."
Aidan gives her a horrified look, and Avery glances between them before demanding to know the story behind that look. Chris just laughs. There's some loud opposition from Aidan, but when Chris has calmed down enough, she tells the story of staying awake during their finals. Aidan shoots her dirty looks the entire time, but Chris can't even bring herself to care because this story is amazing and better shared.
It's totally for the benefit of Taylor, because Avery is interrupting her and Aidan is interrupting her, but Taylor's laughing along. It's nice, actually, being able to invite someone else into their little world and share things with them. Chris really needs more friends. Friends she talks to and sees regularly, anyway. Her friends back home and infrequent communications with college friends don't count.
When they're all done with dinner, Avery produces cupcakes from somewhere (Chris honestly thinks he's magic) and serves them as dessert. Taylor watches as she licks all the frosting off her cupcake in this weird, shocked state. Chris blinks and tilts her head in inquiry.
"That," Taylor says finally, "is totally disgusting."
"She does it /all the time/," Avery sighs, "It's her worst fault by far."
"I will eat cupcakes however I want," Chris unwraps the cake part, "and none of you can stop me."
Avery makes a disapproving noise and starts rambling to Taylor about the proper ways to eat things, who seems genuinely interested in it. Chris ignores them and finishes her cupcake, because cupcakes are more important that terrible people who spread lies and slander about you.
"I can't believe you still do that," Aidan shakes his head, "the frosting on these isn't even terrible."
"Habit," Chris says once she swallows, "besides, I like my cake untainted by frosting."
"The point is to eat them both together," Taylor frowns, "You can't eat one without the other, they need to be together!"
"We're keeping him," Avery says, "Maybe he can knock some sense into your head, Chris."
Chris is going to protest, but it's not worth it. She clears away the dishes and trash, leaning against the counter once she's finished. Taylor's looking a little out of place, and she knows Aidan doesn't want him to leave yet, so she racks her brain for something to do. Her choices pretty much boil down to reality television and terrible drinking games, but luckily Aidan thinks faster than her. He smiles.
"We should play Uno."
"Oh no," Avery buries his face in his hands, "No, Taylor veto it."
"I think that's a great idea," Chris grins, "I love Uno."
"I have no idea what's going on," Taylor glances between the three of them, "but I suspect I'll regret this later."
Avery moans, "They're the /worst/."
He doesn't elaborate further, because Chris produces the cards from a pencil holder on the fridge and sits back down, passing them to Aidan. Aidan shuffles them, dealing 7 cards to each of them, and then sets the deck roughly in the middle of the table and flips the first card. Avery, the youngest by a slim margin, goes first and Chris browses her hand. It's not particularly good, but it's not horrible either.
She catches Aidan's eye, and smirks. People seem to think Uno is about luck, but a fair amount of strategy is involved and Chris is good. Unfortunately, Aidan is good too. Neither of them let on to their dastardly plans, though, instead chatting as usual and playing cards. She lulls Taylor into some kind of eases, because by the time she's down to three cards he's at ten. Aidan watches her closely, smirking.
Aidan's down to a fairly low number of cards too, although Chris isn't precisely sure how many, and she's waiting for showdown between them. Avery's given up, already knowing that he was never going to win against them, and he's shaking his head fondly and muttering darkly.
"Uno," Chris says, "Take that, bitch."
"You haven't won yet," Aidan hums, "Don't get cocky, sweetheart."
But Chris does win, because Taylor must understand that this is a long-standing rivalry and he plays a reverse card. Chris plays a wildcard. She kisses Taylor afterward, a chaste kiss of thanks, and Aidan curses her and tells her that he'll win next time. Taylor just grins at her.
"You've chosen a side now," Avery says, "I hope you know that, Taylor."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"It's a terrible thing," Avery shakes his head, "You've never seen them /really/ play. They're vicious."
"It's more like we're sore losers," Chris shrugs, "and also we've perfected our two-player game."
"Too many nights playing Uno as stress relief. We've got our games down to twenty minutes or less, usually."
"You guys have really weird hobbies," Taylor says slowly, "I really don't understand you guys."
Chris is of the personal opinion that Taylor understands them perfectly, in that very Avery-like way of "I give up, it's just you guys." He doesn't seem terribly upset by the fact that he doesn't understand them, more taking it in stride and accepting that as a part of them. It's something that Chris likes, because people don't understand her and Aidan and are weirded out by what they have with each other.
Her mom doesn't even get what she has with Aidan, despite repeated assurance that he's very gay and very not going to get married to her. Aidan's mom is still perplexed by Chris too, secure in the knowledge that Aidan is as gay as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and the like. She doesn't mind Chris but told her, once, that it was like Chris and Aidan were an old married couple that was always bickering loudly.
Personally, Chris thinks that's the most accurate description anyone's ever given of her relationship to Aidan and she repeats it sometimes.
The point isn't that they're dating or they're not dating, it's that they're inseparable and Chris doesn't know how to be without him. She can't quite explain it, but it always felt wrong to not be friends with Aidan, and somewhere on the way they had become what they are. Taylor seems to understand, though, not insisting that Chris stop being so close to Aidan or spend less time with him. It's a nice change. She'd almost forgotten that not ever guy out there was a horrible douchebag with deep, deep jealousy issues and hatred for Aidan's place.
Taylor bumps his shoulder to hers as Aidan shuffling the deck again, and Chris leans over to kiss him. He kisses back, easy and slow. Aidan clears his throat once he's done and Chris breaks the kiss, surveying her new hand. It's actually awful and she curses mentally.
Whatever she can pull through. She can totally beat Aidan's ass at this stupid card game even with a really shitty hand. Avery plays a card. Chris catches Aidan's eye and gives him a bright, shit-eating grin because fuck if she's going to let on that her hand sucks. It's bad form.
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