(Untitled)

[one__song]

For once, numbness wasn't setting in on its own. Two joints and a swig from a jug of moonshine long-ago commandeered from someplace or another, Roger was still feeling the guilt, the misery, the deep hurt. Fights with April had been either inconsequential or incoherent (especially the latter, toward the end), fights with Mark were... explosive,

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[red_ponytail]

He'd stuck his head into the Hub looking for someone else and had found Roger instead. Bill frowned slightly, noticing that Roger looked less than okay. So he did what any good mate would - he pointed it out. "You look like shit, mate," he commented as he walked in, but his expression was one of concern.

[one__song]

Ah, Bill. Bill Weasley was becoming more and more important to Roger as time went on. Somehow, his gentle strength in pushing Roger in the direction of off his ass when he was bedridden with angst after Mimi's death had promoted him to a higher level of friendship, and Roger valued him. Desperately.

"That's sweet," Roger said flatly, but he offered a sidelong look that suggested no hostility toward the man at all.

[red_ponytail]

Clearly something was eating at Roger, and Bill didn't have any idea what. "Something happen?" he asked, wondering if there'd been yet another sodding disappearance. At least this time, whatever the problem, Roger wasn't unshowered, unfed, and laying about in bed.

[one__song]

Lots of people were going to have to work hard to get the story of out Roger, and even then, he was unlikely to budge, but when he looked at Bill, he saw a man that he trusted, a man he feared would one day get tired of trying and give up. Above all, he saw a friend who knew better than to offer idle words under the guise of comfort. He trusted Bill, and he'd rather Bill heard it from him than someone else.

"I was cheating on Prior," he admitted, the words aloud tasting like poison. "For a long time. Months. And I finally told him."

[red_ponytail]

Bill was admittedly a bit surprised when Roger just came out with it, without any pushing on his part. He hadn't expected to get it out of him that easily.

"I see," he said as he pulled up a stool. Bill had never cheated, but then, he'd never given any girl the impression that they were the only one. "You're not saying you'dve rather carried on with the lying, are you?" There was no judgement in his tone, only a simple question, straightforward as he always was.

[one__song]

"No, nothing like that," Roger said softly, curling his fist loosely so he could stop wishing there was a drink to put in it. "I just... I hoped I wouldn't have to. That I could just... be a coward and then." Oh, good. This was absolutely the part he wanted to admit. "And then Mark found out. Visually." OK, that was kind of funny, but instead of laughing Roger shifted up on the stool and met Bill's eyes. That just made him want to laugh a bit more, so he went back to staring at his imaginary drink. "And it was tell him or have him be told."

[red_ponytail]

"Oh. OH," Bill said, cottoning on, and the ensuing visual struck him as funny but he managed to keep a straight face. "Yeah, I guess you'd want to be telling him yourself in that case."

[one__song]

It could have been the look on Bill's face. It could have been an impossible build of tension that just... snapped inside of him, and it also could have been the alcohol he'd consumed before stumbling into the Hub, but Roger was laughing. It started off a low rumble, barely kept at bay, and then rose to almost shriek-like proportions until Roger was clutching at his stomach, tears streaming down his face.

"Oh... Oh, God ow," he breathed, still barely holding it together enough to talk.

[red_ponytail]

Bill hadn't been aware that what he'd said was funny until Roger started laughing, and then it only took a moment before he realised how it must have sounded and was laughing right along with his friend. He leaned against the bar to keep himself from falling off the stool, finally managing to contain his hysterical laughter enough to take a breath.

[one__song]

"Good fucking Christ, Bill, you should have seen your face," Roger declared, hand slapping hard down onto the bar. "Ohh, God." He made one last pass at his eyes and then put his head down on the bar, still smiling, though it was fading fast.

"I think I might've needed that."

[red_ponytail]

"I reckon so," Bill managed, his laughter finally fading away with a couple final chuckles. It was odd how sometimes laughter was just what a person needed in a time like this. You wouldn't think so, but sometimes it was really perfect. But you always came back around to what you'd been hurting over in the first place. Bill counted Roger as one of his closest mates on the island, and he'd be there for the good and the bad.

[one__song]

The smile returned, and it was small, though not at all insincere. Truthfully, Roger had a hard time being in too foul a mood when Bill was around. Their friendship was easy, and probably because there was no chance of any bodily fluids ever passing between them. Except maybe saliva in a spit-shake.

His hand fell on Bill's shoulder, and Roger clasped it there tightly for a beat before it fell back to the bar.

"His name's Brian," Roger said, scratching at his brow in a fantastic display of restlessness.

[red_ponytail]

"Brian...as in Brian Kinney?" Bill asked, a memory of dinosaurs rampaging and argumentative rescuing surfaced. "Yeah, I know him. Horatio Hornblower and I got him back to the clinic after he'd been attacked by a dinosaur, a while back when the fence failed."

Then he remembered something else, something more recent, and started chuckling again. "He tried to hit on me once. A few months back."

[one__song]

Oh, God. Of course Bill knew Brian Kinney. Bill was a very attractive man and Brian was... well, Brian. Most guys probably couldn't tell you what color Brian's eyes were, but they could surely tell you just how many inches Brian was under his Armani slacks. So comforting, that. Eventually he'd have to get over it, but it wasn't like he was that bothered. It was Bill, who redefined 'straight' on a daily basis. He was so straight sometimes Roger was impressed.

"I don't doubt it," Roger said, a sort of rugged fondness spiking in his voice.

[red_ponytail]

"I wasn't sure whether I ought to have been flattered or feeling like a piece of meat," he said, grinning broadly. "How's that going?"