[ holding onto us for worse or better ]
fandom: prosa; modernverse
characters: kavacam & dranto
tw: alcohol
sidenote: something i had to get of my chest, but a horrible mess. hijacked me and my friend's mmorpg characters for this.
In this very moment, there are a couple of things Kavacam is sure of: It's way past midnight and he's supposed to sleep, he has one hell of a hangover and his best friend is trying to tear his window down with the romeo-and-juliet act of throwing rocks against it. Except the rocks are a little too many and a little to big for this purpose. If Dranto would care less about alcohol and attempted stealing, he maybe would've found the time to watch a couple of romantic movies to figure out how exactly this whole 'romantic prince wakes up his long lost secret love by softly throwing rocks against the window of her bedroom' was supposed to work.
This way, Kav stays in bed staring at the ceiling for another couple of rocks, until the noise starts to annoy him and he starts to feel afraid and a little sorry for his window - and the plants on his window-sill, for the most important part. He carefully avoids the flowerpots on his way to the window, which is easier said than done for anyone except him - he grew up here, after all, in this house, this very room with the low ceilings and tiny corners, and he loves it.
He throws open the window with a little too much force - sometimes they are both equally at measuring force, apparently - and for a second he's afraid Dranto will just continue throwing rocks at him, because there are moments when he thinks that's exactly his kind of humour. Luckily, right now Dranto doesn't seem to think it's funny giving his best friend another black eye. Kav can see him standing there, in the dim light of the one street lamp they put up in their street out of compassion, because hardly anyone lives here anymore - that's why Kav has zero hesitation to lean out of the window and shout “What do you think you're doing, idiot?” at him.
Of course Dranto laughs. “Trying to get your attention”, he yells back, and Kav has hardly even been so glad that his parents and his brother are out on vacation, except for the maybe five other times when he and Dranto did things his parents definitely wouldn't have approved of. But his parents consider Dranto to be a 'good influence on Kav', because they don't know his best friend is a wannabe-thief who sips whiskey like other people's coffee and whose manners are all as fake as his hair colour.
“We live in the twenty-first century, you could've just fucking texted me! Or called me! My window has nothing to do with this, it did nothing wrong!” “But that's boring!” “You are boring”, is the best counter Kav can come up with, and he's pretty sure Dranto is laughing at him this time. “You coming or what?” Kav shrugs, before noticing that Dranto probably can't make out the shrugging of a dark figure standing behind flower pots in a window. Instead he settles on “I might, just let me grab some clothes first.”
Of course Dranto's only comment is “Why, you naked or what?” and Kav wants to hit him with one of these damn stones he was throwing at his window. “Dude, I was fucking sleeping, it's four in the morning”, and continues to silently curse at the window while changing into jeans and a jacket, grabbing his keys and reaching out to close the window.
“Do you mind if I use the front door instead of jumping out of the window like they would do in the movies?”
He doesn't wait for Dranto's answer, because it's most likely some snarky comment that's hilarious to Dranto only.
Five minutes later he's at the place he loves most in the entire world - Dranto's worn-out, bright-red car, passenger seat, windows down, music turned up, the only car where it's an unwritten law that he gets shotgun, no matter who's coming - even above Dranto's weird ex-girlfriend, above his parents, above his sister, above anyone else. He knows it well enough to not criticize the half-eaten burger in front of the window and flips through Dranto's horrible maths test instead.
Kav could ask about it, ask Dranto how he's planning on passing this year, what he will do afterwards, when they get out of this town for real, but instead he reaches for the radio and turns the music even louder.
“Want vodka? Want to dance?”, for a moment Kav imagines moonlight catching in the bottle Dranto is offering him, but there is no moon tonight, only street lamps and the clouds and the transparent liquid behind the glass. A part of him craves it, and another one knows better than this, because this isn't where he should follow Dranto, because every friendship, every love has it's limits, and maybe this is theirs. But how can a limit be a moonless night wider than anything he's ever seen, a bottle of vodka and his best friend, asking him to dance, even if it's madness? Kavacam doesn't know that much about life, but this feels like freedom instead of an end.
He shrugs. “I don't dance, but I'll take the vodka. Even with my hangover.”
Dranto laughs, a clear, honest laugh and takes a sip of the bottle before handing it to Kav. The vodka sets his throat ablaze and shakes the fear out of his bones and he cracks a smile before even thinking about it, leaning back on the hood of the scar, fingers trailing across the worn metal. “I love this car almost as much as you.”
“As much as I love this car or as much as you love me?”, Dranto smirks and Kav figures he's really glad it's dark and he's a little drunk, because if this were their high school yard he would've died on the spot. But it's dark and he's a little drunk, so he rolls his eyes and says “You know exactly what I meant, idiot”, and Dranto says “Yeah” in a voice that's almost dangerously flirty.
But they are just friends, right?
Kavacam sits up again, propped up on his elbows. “So, where are we going? It's Friday night, we have nothing do, we have until Monday and nobody will care anyway.” Dranto takes the bottle from him again and Kav doesn't really mind, because his throat feels like it's on fire and there's warmth radiating through his whole body. He gestures with the bottle towards the horizon, still dark.
“Where do you want to go?” Kav shrugs. “Anything is fine”, and gets a glare from Dranto for it. “Don't always be so god damn indecisive, it's not getting us anywhere”, but there is no real anger in this voice.
“Let's go somewhere where it's stormy”, Kav looks up towards the sky and the clouds and for a moment everything is silent. Then Dranto shrugs. “Sure, whatever you like. Even it that's weird and we're probably going to get lost.”
Kav smiles.
“We always get lost. That's the whole point.”