Title: Downright Normal
Author: TeeJay
Genre: Gen
Characters: Aidan, Sally, Josh
Summary: Aidan gives a certain popular book a try, and doesn't quite get what the fuss is all about.
Rating: PG-13 for mild language
Warning: Rather unspecific Sally spoiler for, uhm... I don't know, maybe the first handful of episodes?
Author's Note: My very first Being Human (US) fic. I will admit that I've never watched the UK version (shame on me), and that I only gave the US version a chance because of Sam Huntington. And then I fell in love with it. Anyway...
This came to me and wouldn't leave me alone, so here it is. Hasn't been beta'ed because I don't know who to ask. But it should be fine, I'd like to think I know how to spell, even though English isn't my first language. Still, if you find any mistakes, typos, plot holes... keep them. Sorry, uhm, I meant, let me know. :o)
Disclaimer: Being Human (US), its characters and its settings belong to Toby Whithouse and SyFy. I'm not making any money from this. And I'm just borrowing, I promise.
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Crinkle.
There it was again. That sound. Aidan loved making that sound, loved making a show of it-right there, on their sofa.
He turned another page, then sighed theatrically and put the book down in his lap with an exasperated grunt.
"Seriously?" He looked at Sally.
She only gave him a non-committal shrug. "What?"
"You liked this stuff?"
"Like," she stressed, "present tense. Just because I'm dead doesn't mean I've given up my passions."
He took the paperback back up, leafing through the pages histrionically. "People actually read this? Come on, this is total bullshit.'"
"About three million people would disagree with you."
"Vampires aren't cold and hard like marble. Vampires don't have special superpowers. And vampires don't frickin' sparkle!"
Sally bestowed him with an undignified look. "Yeah, you know that, and I know that."
The rapid footsteps down the stairs announced Josh's presence before he spoke. "Know what?"
"That vampires are nothing like Edward Cullen," Sally explained.
Josh frowned and Aidan held up the book with the black cover depicting a red apple. "Have you read this?"
"This what?"
"This..." Aidan waved the book dismissively in the air, "... Twilight stuff."
"No," came Josh's prompt reply. "I generally stay away from mass-market teen lore."
Sally gave Josh a mock threatening glare. "Careful what you say, Josh."
"Or what? You'll blow a wisp of smoke at me? Oooh, I'm so scared." He made jazz hands to go with it.
"I can make the house shake..."
"You've been doing that for, what? Three weeks now? Barely a blip on my radar anymore." He vanished in the kitchen.
"Fine," she sulked.
Aidan's voice piped up again. "Josh, you should hear the part about the werewolves. I mean, even calling them that is a defamation. They don't even change with the full moon. They just go poof, and they're wolves. Whenever they want. It's insulting!"
Josh peeked his head out of the kitchen door. "And I should care why exactly?"
Aidan let out another resigned sigh. "Clearly, my lamentations are falling on deaf ears. I give up." He threw the book onto the coffee table.
Sally barely managed to hide a smile, and Aidan couldn't help but notice. Raising his eyebrows, he asked, "What?"
"Come on," she teased. "You liked it. Admit it."
"I did not."
"Yes, you did," she grinned at him. "That glint in your eyes when you got to the part where Edward confessed to Bella that the scent of her blood is too much to take."
"Did you look over my shoulder while I was reading?"
She shrugged. "Maybe."
"Sally...!" It didn't sound all that threatening and she laughed.
"Careful, Aidan. Or I'll blow a wisp of smoke at you."
In perfect imitation of Josh, he said, "Oooh, I'm so scared."
Josh came back into the living room, biting into an apple that was reminiscent of the one on the book cover. While he chewed, he mumbled, "And that guy they cast as the... the wolf dude, what's his name?"
"Jacob," Aidan and Sally said in unison.
"Right, Jacob." Josh plopped down on the sofa next to Aidan, propping his feet up on the coffee table. "I mean, pshhht, those fake abs are so ridiculous."
Sally gave him a knowing look. "Oh, so you've seen the movie, huh?"
Josh's face suddenly said caught-in-the-act, and Sally couldn't help but laugh out loud. "I room with two grown men who both dig Twilight. How lucky am I?"
Josh and Aidan looked at each other and knew they had lost the fight. Aidan lifted his arms defenselessly. "Fine. I'll admit it. It has a certain allure." Then he pointed a finger at Sally. "But the vampire stuff is still total bogus."
Josh's mouth curved into a lopsided smile. "So, when does the fourth movie come out?"
"There's going to be fourth movie?" Sally asked.
"Yeah, where have you been for the last half year or so?" Josh retorted.
"Uhm... dead?"
"Hm," he said. "Touché."
"Please tell me you have the third one on DVD. I so totally need to see it."
Aidan looked at Josh as if to say, 'Hey, you're the one who liked the movie!'
Josh went back to the caught-in-the-act expression. "Okay, okay, I'll admit it. Yes, I have the movie. But only because Ashley Green is hot."
"Whatever-don't care. Go get the movie." Sally said excitedly, and it was a small miracle she wasn't actually bobbing up and down.
Josh exchanged looks with Aidan as if to ask, 'Are we really doing this?' Aidan raised his eyebrows. 'Looks like we are.'
It didn't take Josh long to find the DVD. He gave it to Aidan and from the kitchen doorway called, "Okay, so who wants popcorn?"
He only earned blank stares from Sally and Aidan. "Okay. Just me then."
Not ten minutes later, the three of them were sharing the sofa, Josh cradling a bowl of buttered popcorn in his lap, watching a young man being chased down rainy streets at night by a bloodthirsty vampire.
Sometimes this unlikely sharehousing arrangement seemed downright normal. It was those moments that they all held on to when Sally couldn't stop making the house rattle, when Aidan was so consumed by bloodlust that he could barely walk straight and when Josh turned into an uncontrollable monster every four weeks.
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THE END.