(Untitled)

[will_you_see]

Though usually quite patient with it, Alcuin was in no mood to indulge the rec room bookshelf's sense of irony today.

Every book he picked up. The Tempest. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Hamlet. A Comedy of Errors. Othello. King Lear. Taming of the Shrew. And it went on and on. Even textbooks - The Annotated Works of William Shakespeare.

Comments

[captainjack]

Jack had stepped out of the rec room to enjoy a cup of coffee and the relative silence of the kitchen for a while before coming back in. Great, another song about being a...

"Oh, such a pretty mouth," he quipped when he heard Alcuin's rough language.

[will_you_see]

Alcuin looked up and saw Jack, and blushed a little. "I... find myself rather unimpressed by the rec room's sense of humor today."

[captainjack]

"You too, huh? Maybe it's in a mood," Jack replied as he crossed to where Alcuin was. "It was playing me some choice music earlier."

[will_you_see]

"Yeah," Alcuin said, "something like that." He sighed. "Do me a favor and see if the bookshelf will give you something not written by Will Shakespeare?"

[captainjack]

Jack nodded and crossed to the shelf, faced with many of the same choices as earlier. Self help. Coping with loss. Same old shit. "You and Will...I take it the date didn't go so well?"

[will_you_see]

Alcuin's voice was quiet. "No, to the contrary, it went very well. And a few more, which went even better... and then I spent the night with him."

He paused. "And woke up alone."

[captainjack]

He looked over his shoulder and sighed softly. This fucking place. Shaking his head as he turned, Jack moved to Alcuin's side and held his shoulders gently. "I hadn't heard. I'm sorry."

[will_you_see]

"You warned me," Alcuin murmured, dropping his head. "You were worried I'd get hurt again, remember?"

[captainjack]

"Yeah, but sometimes I hate being right," he replied, even softer. "And all the warnings in the world don't prepare you. Shit, going through it more than once doesn't help."

[will_you_see]

"Yeah," Alcuin said. He twisted to face Jack, their bodies still close together. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? It's not as if I would rather have never met him, but now it's just so hard..."

[captainjack]

"I know," he said softly. He'd gone through it so many times, and been with people...just like now...that he knew there wasn't any really good thing to say. It hurt. They were gone. And there was always a lingering fear they might come back and not have any memory of you.

"I know," he repeated, brushing Alcuin's hair back and kissing his forehead. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

[will_you_see]

Alcuin hesitated, then wrapped his arms around Jack, pressing himself close against him and burying his head against his shoulder. He didn't say anything, just let himself soak up the comfort for a moment. For Alcuin, it was actually kind of refreshing to have someone not tell him that everything would be all right.

[captainjack]

Jack wrapped his arms around Alcuin in return and rested his cheek against Alcuin's hair. The song on the jukebox skipped and stuttered...then began playing the song he'd heard earlier.

I want you to want me
I need you to need me
I'd love you to love me
I'm beggin' you to beg me...

"Jesus, let's get the hell out of this room. It's being awful today," he said, pulling Alcuin along as he started for the door.

[will_you_see]

Alcuin blinked a little, surprised by Jack's reaction to the song, but simply nodded and followed behind him. "Are you all right?" he asked gently as they walked away from the rec room.

[captainjack]

"Always," he purred reassuringly. "It's just a shitty beat that I can't dance to. You want some tea? Or we could just get out of here. Go for a walk."

[will_you_see]

Alcuin glanced back at the door to the rec room. "Let's get out of here," he said. "I think I could use some fresh air."