just_muse_me 27.4.2. Nothing
Reid wasn't expecting the Mustang pulling up in front of him. Caleb actually had to lean across and open the passenger seat door right across the sidewalk from him to register that, yes, it was for him. He stepped across the heavy rain, then flopped into the front seat, none too gently, getting a raised eyebrow from his friend.
"Where's Pogue? I called him."
"He got called right after you disconnected, something about what he's trying to do after school and unexpected rescheduling."
"Oh, great."
"You do want to get home, right?"
Did I say that out loud? "I guess." At least it seemed that Caleb knew whey he was stranded in the first place, which meant he didn't have to explain it to him.
"Or somewhere else?"
"Never mind. Just get me home, if I wanna go somewhere, I'll get myself there on my own." Reid almost winced at his own voice, as well as the all too familiar glare, here it was coming, just as always, never mind that there were some things said between them. He was never not going to be irritating. Caleb was never going to just let it slide. It was who they were.
The older boy took a breath... and then let it out slowly, to Reid's surprise. Then he asked, way more quietly than he probably would have, "... are you okay?"
"Fine." The word was slapped against the question before he could stop or even consider it.
Unlike so many, many times before, even that didn't get Caleb's irritation up. "What is it?"
"Nothing!"
"Not nothing."
The blond crossed his arms in front of the seatbelt.
Caleb's voice was softer yet. "Reid..."
He grit his teeth and almost spat, "fine. Elie broke up with me. By sending me an e-mail. Satisfied?"
Caleb winced. Reid supposed that it really wasn't fair, he was too... something to care, right now. "Do Tyler and Pogue know?"
"No." A small pause, and a look from the brown eyes, and he sighed. "I don't know. Maybe." Another look, the dark eyebrows up, before he had to return his attention to the road. "Okay, I haven't told either of them, I mean, we've all been around, but not too much. But Tyler's pretty good about picking up this kind of shit off me anyway. But he's..." Well. Tyler had gotten broken up with much worse, basically, and now Reid was babbling, but he couldn't stop himself. "I can't believe she did that to him, after all this time. I mean... mine's nothing," yeah, he believed it as he said it, except it didn't feel like nothing, dammit, and he should stop being such a pussy about a freaking break-up. "I mean, we dated all of, what, seventeen days, all told. Nothing."
"But you didn't want it to be over."
Shit. It still felt weird, to have Caleb actually pay that kind of attention to him. To what he felt and what he wanted. Reid sighed and tucked his chin into his chest, winching a little as it came into contact with the almost-soaked jacket. "Well. No."
The older boy gave him a thoughtful look, and the next words were so disconnected that they might've come from himself. "Come for a swim?"
Blue eyes stared, startled, at the clear profile, lit by the dashboard. "What, now?"
"Now. With me."
Reid watched him for another moment (or three), then shook his head. "Yeah, whatever. Fine."
There was basically nobody else in the swimming pool, at this time of the week at this time of the year. No other swimmers, at any rate. They undressed (heh, Reid wasn't going to ask why Caleb had a couple of extra pairs of swimming trunks in his... trunk, but he wasn't going to complain) and warmed up. Then set to it.
Twenty laps. Twenty five. As they paused, both heads bobbing for a moment or two at the deep end, Reid muttered, "that enough?"
The older boy just half-smiled. "Hush, and swim." He got a glare for that, but the blond did follow.
Caleb wasn't showing off - and he still could, Reid knew; he'd kept his shape up - they all had, and the older tow had always been better - and he could probably either outswim or exhaust him if he pleased. What he did do, instead, was set a reasonably demanding, but maintainable pace. As the laps kept on piling, it got demanding on Reid's attention. Do the strokes right, keep his breathing just so, pay attention, don't force the muscles, easy, and on, and again, until his mind cleared and there was nothing but this. Swimming. Making sure he was keeping up with the other boy. Bounce, or a pause for catching breath, then again...
Until Caleb's voice cut through to him. "I think that's good enough. Let's go shower."
As they were stepping out of the water, Reid realized it was a good call. They were not, or at least he wasn't exhausted, but he was reasonably tired, and he took a couple of moments to steady and calm down his breathing. The lifeguard on duty who'd been there because it was by the regulations, even if he knew them and knew that they'd not need him, nodded them towards the showers and disappeared. Maybe to catch a smoke or go back to his book or TV, Reid didn't know, nor was it... too interesting to know.
The hot water was good. Relaxing his muscles, washing off the feel and taste of the pool water from his body. So was, after a few moments, Caleb's touch, the older boy moving closer and helping him with the wash-up. Pleasant, even familiar, hell, they'd all be swimming...
... half their lives, now. Wow. Reid's mind wandered. This had been actually good, unexpectedly. Now he'd get back home, sit at the computer--
The memory of Elie's e-mail caught up with him, and he must have cursed or given some other sign of that, because there was the warmth of Caleb's body against him, wrapping him into a hug under the running shower.
Reid looked up into his face, startlement and confusion and hurt, after having gone away, coming back and flooding his thoughts and his mind and his body, almost overwhelmingly. He didn't have time to put up his usual defenses against people seeing or knowing what he felt, it was too... all of it was just there and he stumbled into it again, and he had a moment of 'oh shit, now I'm vulnerable and he's gonna tell me all the ways I went wrong, and--'
-- and instead, Caleb was kissing him. For a moment, Reid's mind bounced back to that evening outside, when he had kissed the older boy, and then it was just... it was still so absolutely new, really, and wow could he kiss, and Reid responded, strongly, despite all the ways in which he'd gone, no-kissing with Pogue and with Tyler, because, really, it was just them screwing around not a relationship, which was bullshit, considering it was Caleb and Caleb was in a relationship with Pogue, and he was responding, leaning into the taller body, his own body reacting to the swing between defensive and expecting a blow and getting this instead.
They stumbled out of the showers so that Caleb could get the lube out of his jeans pocket, well, okay, and so they could go ahead and do it, the locker door screeching behind Reid's back with the sharp rhythm of their motions until their voices drowned it, and, wow. They collapsed on the floor for a few moments, to catch their breaths again, and he snuggled into the darker warmth of the older boy's chest until they could walk properly again. If only to the showers once more, to clean up. Taking their time, some tension drained out of Reid almost as if as he'd spent it with spending himself.
Or maybe it was just because he had somebody to cling to, and he was. And how. Maybe catching up for all the years when Caleb just hadn't been there?
Too much bother to think. It didn't matter right now, anyway.
Caleb didn't ask; they didn't really say much, actually; didn't seem necessary even after he realized the older boy wasn't driving him to his home but to Pogue's, instead. The blond had come back, well, they'd taken a while, hadn't they? And he and Caleb telegraphed stuff.
"Went well?"
"Yeah, much ado about nothing. You?"
"Didn't think home was best for him. Breaking up, not good. Went swimming, then, well," it was probably in the way Caleb's mouth twitched, "were alone in the locker room."
"Uh-huh." Small nod, and hazel eyes fixed on the younger blond, warm and concerned.
"Thought that here'd be better."
Reid almost missed that Caleb had just let Pogue know what was going on what they'd done, and blinked, then, thought, well, duh, not like I've not screwed around with Pogue as well, after they started dating!. He followed the older two along, not really coming up with a plan for himself or anything, content to not even question them for just a bit, one's arm around his waist, not sure whose, but that was only because they alternated. Kitchen, to get some sort of snacks, crackers and nuts and candy, it seemed that was the plan, the voices rumbling around him comfortingly. Then they all went up to Pogue's bedroom, and next thing Reid knew, he was in t-shirt and boxers and curled between Pogue and Caleb on the bed, kind of squished between them, really, and tired and warm and the hurt ... didn't go away, but melted, faded, sort of, and he drowsed off, somehow, snuggled with them, the sting of a love lost softened, if for a bit, by the love he did have.
He had no idea how much later it was that he floated to something sort of like consciousness again. He realized, by degrees, that he was still curled up between the two older boys, except they weren't lying down around him, anymore, but more... sitting up. Probably backs against the headboard; he didn't open his eyes to look, but the quiet rumble of their voices seemed to come from above, and it was an explanation.
His head was in Pogue's lap; it wasn't the first time and he could recognize it. Or maybe it was because Pogue's quiet voice was coming just a bit louder to him. But the feel of the older blond's fingers running through his hair was also familiar. They weren't even talking about him, but they weren't... they weren't not there, either. Pogue wasn't not there, nor was Caleb, the pressure of the oldest boy's legs around his feet warm and steady and welcome. Yeah, the most he came to was just to be aware of that.
And that there didn't seem anything that could be wrong, when he was there, shielded by them and their love.
Then he drifted off again, easily, and with a small smile on his lips.
Muse: Reid Garwin
Fandom: The Covenant
Word count: 1 858
A/N: After this and this, but before this. Pogue is lieutentatwitch, Caleb is theirgoldenboy, Tyler is their_babyboy. Warning: Adult content.
"Where's Pogue? I called him."
"He got called right after you disconnected, something about what he's trying to do after school and unexpected rescheduling."
"Oh, great."
"You do want to get home, right?"
Did I say that out loud? "I guess." At least it seemed that Caleb knew whey he was stranded in the first place, which meant he didn't have to explain it to him.
"Or somewhere else?"
"Never mind. Just get me home, if I wanna go somewhere, I'll get myself there on my own." Reid almost winced at his own voice, as well as the all too familiar glare, here it was coming, just as always, never mind that there were some things said between them. He was never not going to be irritating. Caleb was never going to just let it slide. It was who they were.
The older boy took a breath... and then let it out slowly, to Reid's surprise. Then he asked, way more quietly than he probably would have, "... are you okay?"
"Fine." The word was slapped against the question before he could stop or even consider it.
Unlike so many, many times before, even that didn't get Caleb's irritation up. "What is it?"
"Nothing!"
"Not nothing."
The blond crossed his arms in front of the seatbelt.
Caleb's voice was softer yet. "Reid..."
He grit his teeth and almost spat, "fine. Elie broke up with me. By sending me an e-mail. Satisfied?"
Caleb winced. Reid supposed that it really wasn't fair, he was too... something to care, right now. "Do Tyler and Pogue know?"
"No." A small pause, and a look from the brown eyes, and he sighed. "I don't know. Maybe." Another look, the dark eyebrows up, before he had to return his attention to the road. "Okay, I haven't told either of them, I mean, we've all been around, but not too much. But Tyler's pretty good about picking up this kind of shit off me anyway. But he's..." Well. Tyler had gotten broken up with much worse, basically, and now Reid was babbling, but he couldn't stop himself. "I can't believe she did that to him, after all this time. I mean... mine's nothing," yeah, he believed it as he said it, except it didn't feel like nothing, dammit, and he should stop being such a pussy about a freaking break-up. "I mean, we dated all of, what, seventeen days, all told. Nothing."
"But you didn't want it to be over."
Shit. It still felt weird, to have Caleb actually pay that kind of attention to him. To what he felt and what he wanted. Reid sighed and tucked his chin into his chest, winching a little as it came into contact with the almost-soaked jacket. "Well. No."
The older boy gave him a thoughtful look, and the next words were so disconnected that they might've come from himself. "Come for a swim?"
Blue eyes stared, startled, at the clear profile, lit by the dashboard. "What, now?"
"Now. With me."
Reid watched him for another moment (or three), then shook his head. "Yeah, whatever. Fine."
There was basically nobody else in the swimming pool, at this time of the week at this time of the year. No other swimmers, at any rate. They undressed (heh, Reid wasn't going to ask why Caleb had a couple of extra pairs of swimming trunks in his... trunk, but he wasn't going to complain) and warmed up. Then set to it.
Twenty laps. Twenty five. As they paused, both heads bobbing for a moment or two at the deep end, Reid muttered, "that enough?"
The older boy just half-smiled. "Hush, and swim." He got a glare for that, but the blond did follow.
Caleb wasn't showing off - and he still could, Reid knew; he'd kept his shape up - they all had, and the older tow had always been better - and he could probably either outswim or exhaust him if he pleased. What he did do, instead, was set a reasonably demanding, but maintainable pace. As the laps kept on piling, it got demanding on Reid's attention. Do the strokes right, keep his breathing just so, pay attention, don't force the muscles, easy, and on, and again, until his mind cleared and there was nothing but this. Swimming. Making sure he was keeping up with the other boy. Bounce, or a pause for catching breath, then again...
Until Caleb's voice cut through to him. "I think that's good enough. Let's go shower."
As they were stepping out of the water, Reid realized it was a good call. They were not, or at least he wasn't exhausted, but he was reasonably tired, and he took a couple of moments to steady and calm down his breathing. The lifeguard on duty who'd been there because it was by the regulations, even if he knew them and knew that they'd not need him, nodded them towards the showers and disappeared. Maybe to catch a smoke or go back to his book or TV, Reid didn't know, nor was it... too interesting to know.
The hot water was good. Relaxing his muscles, washing off the feel and taste of the pool water from his body. So was, after a few moments, Caleb's touch, the older boy moving closer and helping him with the wash-up. Pleasant, even familiar, hell, they'd all be swimming...
... half their lives, now. Wow. Reid's mind wandered. This had been actually good, unexpectedly. Now he'd get back home, sit at the computer--
The memory of Elie's e-mail caught up with him, and he must have cursed or given some other sign of that, because there was the warmth of Caleb's body against him, wrapping him into a hug under the running shower.
Reid looked up into his face, startlement and confusion and hurt, after having gone away, coming back and flooding his thoughts and his mind and his body, almost overwhelmingly. He didn't have time to put up his usual defenses against people seeing or knowing what he felt, it was too... all of it was just there and he stumbled into it again, and he had a moment of 'oh shit, now I'm vulnerable and he's gonna tell me all the ways I went wrong, and--'
-- and instead, Caleb was kissing him. For a moment, Reid's mind bounced back to that evening outside, when he had kissed the older boy, and then it was just... it was still so absolutely new, really, and wow could he kiss, and Reid responded, strongly, despite all the ways in which he'd gone, no-kissing with Pogue and with Tyler, because, really, it was just them screwing around not a relationship, which was bullshit, considering it was Caleb and Caleb was in a relationship with Pogue, and he was responding, leaning into the taller body, his own body reacting to the swing between defensive and expecting a blow and getting this instead.
They stumbled out of the showers so that Caleb could get the lube out of his jeans pocket, well, okay, and so they could go ahead and do it, the locker door screeching behind Reid's back with the sharp rhythm of their motions until their voices drowned it, and, wow. They collapsed on the floor for a few moments, to catch their breaths again, and he snuggled into the darker warmth of the older boy's chest until they could walk properly again. If only to the showers once more, to clean up. Taking their time, some tension drained out of Reid almost as if as he'd spent it with spending himself.
Or maybe it was just because he had somebody to cling to, and he was. And how. Maybe catching up for all the years when Caleb just hadn't been there?
Too much bother to think. It didn't matter right now, anyway.
Caleb didn't ask; they didn't really say much, actually; didn't seem necessary even after he realized the older boy wasn't driving him to his home but to Pogue's, instead. The blond had come back, well, they'd taken a while, hadn't they? And he and Caleb telegraphed stuff.
"Went well?"
"Yeah, much ado about nothing. You?"
"Didn't think home was best for him. Breaking up, not good. Went swimming, then, well," it was probably in the way Caleb's mouth twitched, "were alone in the locker room."
"Uh-huh." Small nod, and hazel eyes fixed on the younger blond, warm and concerned.
"Thought that here'd be better."
Reid almost missed that Caleb had just let Pogue know what was going on what they'd done, and blinked, then, thought, well, duh, not like I've not screwed around with Pogue as well, after they started dating!. He followed the older two along, not really coming up with a plan for himself or anything, content to not even question them for just a bit, one's arm around his waist, not sure whose, but that was only because they alternated. Kitchen, to get some sort of snacks, crackers and nuts and candy, it seemed that was the plan, the voices rumbling around him comfortingly. Then they all went up to Pogue's bedroom, and next thing Reid knew, he was in t-shirt and boxers and curled between Pogue and Caleb on the bed, kind of squished between them, really, and tired and warm and the hurt ... didn't go away, but melted, faded, sort of, and he drowsed off, somehow, snuggled with them, the sting of a love lost softened, if for a bit, by the love he did have.
He had no idea how much later it was that he floated to something sort of like consciousness again. He realized, by degrees, that he was still curled up between the two older boys, except they weren't lying down around him, anymore, but more... sitting up. Probably backs against the headboard; he didn't open his eyes to look, but the quiet rumble of their voices seemed to come from above, and it was an explanation.
His head was in Pogue's lap; it wasn't the first time and he could recognize it. Or maybe it was because Pogue's quiet voice was coming just a bit louder to him. But the feel of the older blond's fingers running through his hair was also familiar. They weren't even talking about him, but they weren't... they weren't not there, either. Pogue wasn't not there, nor was Caleb, the pressure of the oldest boy's legs around his feet warm and steady and welcome. Yeah, the most he came to was just to be aware of that.
And that there didn't seem anything that could be wrong, when he was there, shielded by them and their love.
Then he drifted off again, easily, and with a small smile on his lips.
Muse: Reid Garwin
Fandom: The Covenant
Word count: 1 858
A/N: After this and this, but before this. Pogue is lieutentatwitch, Caleb is theirgoldenboy, Tyler is their_babyboy. Warning: Adult content.