Into the Whirlwind [Open]

[fallingjunkyard]

Characters: Joshua and Ness, and any of the overly protective types who want to spy on them and attack Joshua
Content: A totally not!date between Joshua and Ness
Setting: Starting on the Way's deck, and moving to all over Shashta
Time: Evening-Night, backdated to before the Way left Shashta
Warnings: Incredible amounts of fail?

Comments

[fallingjunkyard]

Joshua just smiled; there was a little more to the fountain he wasn't telling Ness.

He lead Ness closer to it, close enough to see the faint gleam that came from below the water's surface. The gleam of coins, small change tossed into the fountain.

There's a restaurant near Levi's house that hasn't cleaned out the coins their fountain ever

[eighthmelody]

Coins. It was a common practice for people, especially children, to toss a coin into a fountain and make a wish on them. There were many variations on this, if it mattered what coins you used or whether or not you should stand with your back to the fountain and lob it over your shoulder and pray it didn't hit someone in the head. No matter what myths a person believed, the general premise was the same.

Make a wish, and maybe it will come true.

There were a few coins in this fountain, enough to reflect the wishes of people, but not too much to overcrowd it.

Absently, Ness dipped a hand in the water. It probably wasn't the cleanest water, but it was cool to the touch.

[fallingjunkyard]

When Ness moved forwards to touch the water, Joshua loosened his grip on Ness' hand and let go. In a way, he admired the people who could drop a coin in there and make a wish; they knew what they wanted, even if sometimes it wasn't good for them. Sometimes all you needed to do was ask and you'd receive.

But Joshua had never known what to ask for.

He wasn't one to ask for what he really wanted (whatever that was) anyway.

Grinning and taking a few steps back, well out of waterflick range, he called to Ness, "I wouldn't touch that, Ness. Some people can't contain their bladder near bodies of water."

[eighthmelody]

Even though he was standing a good distance away, Ness flicked the water anyway. For most other people, yes, this would be a futile tactic, but it helped when you had telekinesis on your side. Nobody around them seemed to notice. And if they had, so what?

"I'm a doctor. I've touched worse."

Which he had, but the idea of someone possibly relieving themselves in a fountain was gross all the same.

[fallingjunkyard]

Joshua laughed and turned his face aside against the droplets of water a split second too late. In truth, he mentally admitted he didn't know much about Ness, only the bits they had allowed each other to see.

But did it matter? Other people were impossible to understand completely.

Moving closer, but still keeping a small distance from Ness, Joshua said with a smile, "Maybe you should make a wish."

[eighthmelody]

Ness thought about this for a moment.

"Maybe I should."

He reached into a pocket and fished out a coin. Closing his eyes, he made his wish, perhaps putting more emotion and hope into it than most people did. Without opening his eyes, he tossed it into the fountain, the coin flying in a high arc before hitting the water. Only after did he hear it plonk did Ness open his eyes again.

[fallingjunkyard]

Joshua tracked the motion of Ness' coin with his eyes before he followed Ness' example and fished out a coin from his wallet. He placed it on his thumb, like he intended to flick it into the fountain, but lightly tosses and catches it instead. Slipping the coin into his pocket, he moved towards Ness and leant in close.

"I prefer to make my wishes come true," he whispered, and closes the small distance between their lips.

[eighthmelody]

It was one thing to kiss Joshua. It was an entirely different thing for Joshua to kiss him. So Ness was unresponsive for a short moment, surprised and stunned, but once that initial shock wore off, he kissed back happily.

Some wishes will never come true.

Ness was happy that at least Joshua's could.

[fallingjunkyard]

Joshua kept the kiss relatively brief, slowly pulling away the moment after Ness returned the kiss. But he didn't move away; he stayed close to Ness, forehead almost touching his.

"You don't know me," he breathed, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

[eighthmelody]

No. He did not. And that was something that bothered Ness immensely. He understood a few things about Joshua, but those were just that: a few things. He suspected that Joshua did not know much more about him, either. It did make him think. Why did he care so deeply for someone he knew so little about?

"I'm learning," he answered.

[fallingjunkyard]

"You won't be able to know me," he said in response. Maybe Joshua didn't really know himself either. Lately he just felt... uncertain. Normally the future wasn't something he really concerned himself with, but somehow, things always turned out the way he wanted them to.

But he didn't know what he wanted. He was still as directionless as he had been when he graduated from university.

Joshua closed his eyes. "And I won't be able to know you, either. People weren't made to know each other."

[eighthmelody]

Something about Joshua sounded off. Was that doubt Ness heard in his voice? But he wasn't sure. He could never be sure. Not like this.

"Even if I can't ever know you," he said. "That doesn't mean I still can't care."

[fallingjunkyard]

Joshua gave a soft chuckle before he drew back. Of course. It was one of Ness' traits that drew him in the first place. Caring.

"It's getting late." He half turned in the direction of the Way. Grinning, he teased, "Children shouldn't be kept past their bedtime."

[eighthmelody]

"I'm not a child," Ness protested. He was well aware that (at least according to other people) he often acted like one. Unfortunately, it was not helping his case that he was also doing his most childish pout along with that statment.

[fallingjunkyard]

Joshua laughed at Ness' response, slipping his hands into his coat pockets. He began to walk.

"Someone once said, 'if being a kid is about learning how to live, then being a grown-up is about learning how to die'." It was possibly the one line from that novel which had piqued his interest. "Do you still want to be a grown-up?"

[eighthmelody]

...did he? Ness liked life as it was right now. But such a life could only be sustained by being reliant on other people. Being that dependent...that was what kids did, wasn't it?

"...that sounds too pessimistic to me," he replied. Yes, it was evading the question, but Ness didn't want to answer that he didn't know. That would make him look even more like a child.