[right][sup]Timestamp: Flashback, March 2018, After [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5401433]Great Expectations[/url]
FT: [color=28e0af]Gavriel Shomer[/color] & [color=DC143C]Decky Boaz[/color][/sup][/right]
[center][color=28e0af]____________________________________________________________________[/color]

[img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/c0fd2ae6-1910-4636-9657-4a35a7b56e76.png[/img]

[img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/2ff7a2c6-a092-4ab6-9171-2b748417b22b.jpg[/img]
[color=DC143C]____________________________________________________________________[/color][/center]
[color=lightgray][indent][indent][color=DC143C]“Thanks for lookin’ after her,”[/color] Were the first words out of Decky’s mouth when Rye opened up the door of his and his mother’s apartment nearing the midnight hour. Rye shook his head to dismiss the comment and stepped out into the hallway before closing the door behind him so as not to wake the two slumbering insomniacs inside. Decky was sweating and breathing heavily, so that ten minute estimate must have been based on him booking it from wherever he was before this. [color=DC143C]“Ya said she was sad?”[/color]

[color=28e0af]“Yeah,”[/color] Rye answered blankly as he watched Decky’s chest rise and fall rapidly. [color=28e0af]“You shouldn’t be running with two fractured ribs you moron, she wasn’t going anywhere.”[/color]

Decky shrugged carelessly- which made him wince in pain, [i]dumbass[/i]- and worked on regaining his breath while Rye sighed and resigned himself to cleaning and bandaging the reckless snake up twice in a twenty four hour period. With one headphone in his ear and one dangling, and nothing but Decky’s labored breathing and the harsh buzzing of the hall’s fluorescent lighting, the song from Rye’s headphones easily seeped into the quiet space between them.

[indent][indent][i]Had a little spot where you been going through a lot
Wanna shove it to the bottom but a trouble gonna bubble to the top
Then the bubble gonna pop and the hustle never ever gonna stop
Cause you get up in the morning get ahead then get to bed and then you do it all again until the moment that you drop
You need a plot, what you wanna witness with this life you got
You kicked and fought tryin’a get up in your skin and pick this lock
That ticking clock lets you know that bitch you got these situations witchu
Issues someone fit to quick should sit you should down to talk[/i][/indent][/indent]


[color=28e0af]“Where’s Danny?”[/color]

[color=DC143C]“Passed out with Creed and Jokes in the dorms,”[/color] Decky answered easily now that his breathing had returned to normal. He ran his hand through his hair to get it all out of his sweaty face. [color=DC143C]“I had work.”[/color]

[color=28e0af]“As you said,”[/color] Rye replied, gaining a confused tilt of the head from Decky as the other Jew caught on to his tone. [color=28e0af]“You know that adults struggle really hard with a work-life balance every day, right?”[/color]

[color=DC143C]“Uhh, yes?”[/color] The Serpent replied with a surprised blink. Where the hell was Rye going with that line of thought? [color=DC143C]“What’s that-”[/color]

[color=28e0af]“So like I totally get that you’re busy and you got Danny to look after too. That’s a lot for one guy, especially with school and you working on your emancipation stuff, so I get that you’ve got a lot to do-”[/color]

[color=DC143C]“Rye?”[/color]

[color=28e0af]“And that with all that on your plate shit’s bound to slip through the cracks, and I’m like totally here just imposing on your guys’ friendship business and that’s kind of rude since I’m not a part of it-”[/color]

[color=DC143C]“Rye-”[/color] Decky tried again with a small sigh as he saw the boy’s anxiety begin to rev him up, only for the smaller boy to continue bulldozing through his words as he tried to get out what he wanted to say.

[color=28e0af]“Or even really talked to Poppy without you around before today. Jesus what the fuck am I even doing?”[/color] The curly haired boy’s eyes were tracking the flickering fluorescents all the way down the hall instead of meeting the gaze of the person in front of him. How stupid was he being, trying to be mister fix-it for these two people that have probably known each other since kindergarten. Was he really trying to look Decky in the eye and tell him he had to step up as a friend to the person on the Shomer’s couch when Rye couldn’t even stop his own from trying to leave this ever turning earth? [color=28e0af]“Fuck it, forget I said anything-”[/color]

[color=DC143C]“Gavrie-”[/color] Decky tried for a final time, using his thumb and forefinger to apply pressure to his brow and stave off the ramble-induced headache.

[color=28e0af]“I’m just being stupid and feeling all emotional from the movie, I shouldn’t have said anything and I shouldn’t hav- [i]mmph![/i]”[/color] The other boy pushed him back against his apartment door, finally stopping the self-deprecation falling from Rye’s lips by sealing them with his own and stealing the breath needed to say such things out loud. So starts Decky’s ritual of calming the anxious boy down before he rambles his way into an anxiety attack. The other boy’s eyes widened and then fell shut as his mind caught up with what was happening, the hands that had been flailing around pre-shove had found purchase on Decky’s chest as he felt the damp fabric that covered the taller boy’s overheated skin. Decky repositioned one of them to settle over his heart, and Rye felt himself leveling out as he felt a calm heartbeat and was led through his breathing by sharing another’s. He tried to follow the other boy’s lips as he retreated but Decky kept his own hand planted firmly over Rye’s rapidly beating chest, holding the boy against the door and keeping him grounded.

[color=DC143C]“Ya talk too much, Shomer,”[/color] The captain of the Carlisle crew finally said, removing his hand once he felt the other’s heartbeat finally level out.

[color=28e0af]“Sor-”[/color] The apology was cut off by a second kiss, more aggressive as Decky grasped the back of his neck and squeezed a bit in warning before pulling back again, keeping his hand on Rye’s neck.

[color=DC143C]“Apologize too much, too,”[/color] Decky rumbled lowly at the other boy, smirking as he saw the anxiety finally begin to cede in the curly haired boy’s dark brown eyes. They were only a few shades off from Decky’s, more of a warm oak than his own deep mahogany, but when Decky talked to him like this they practically darkened until it was like looking into a mirror. A funhouse mirror, but a mirror nonetheless.

[color=28e0af]“Don’t act like you like coming here for all my [abbr=Yiddish: Craziness, senselessness]mishegaas[/abbr],”[/color] Rye whispered with a roll of his eyes, tilting his head back against the door to stare up at Decky. [color=28e0af]“I never even got to the point.”[/color]

[color=DC143C]“Then [i]get[/i] ta it,”[/color] Decky replied, going to shrug before Rye’s glare and hand on his shoulder stopped him, reminding him of his injured ribs. [color=DC143C]“I’m fine, I’m on so many pain killers right now I can’t even really feel ‘em.”[/color]

[color=28e0af]“That doesn’t exactly sound safe, Decky,”[/color] Rye responded with a frown, the worry deepening when he realized the hand Decky had against his apartment’s door frame was also there to keep him propped up. 

[color=DC143C]“Oy fuckin’ [i]vey[/i] Rye,”[/color] Decky groaned, dropping his head down onto the shorter boy’s shoulder and slump against him. Instead of buckling under the weight, Rye held him up steadily and began fumbling one hand back for the doorknob, only to pause at his next words. [color=DC143C]“Stop stallin’ and get ta what ya wanted ta talk ta me about so I can get Poppy home and get back ta work.”[/color]

[color=28e0af]“You [i]need[/i] to fucking sleep,”[/color] Rye grumbled with a hint of irritation in his tone. [color=28e0af]“And fine, but after this you have to come in and let me check your bandages, deal?”[/color]

[color=DC143C]“Deal.”[/color]

[color=28e0af]“You need to pay more attention to your friends, or at the very least Poppy,”[/color] Rye said over Decky’s shoulder, the other still not having moved from his lean against his anxiety-ridden friend. He could feel the injured boy’s brow furrowing against his shoulder and soldiered on to his reasoning. [color=28e0af]“She thinks you guys are all moving on from here. You, Jade, Charlie, she said the first time you guys had all hung out together in a while was on Max’s anniversary,”[/color] He felt the serpent tense but now he was on the roll he needed to be on, and Decky could feel comfortable expressing his emotions safely into Rye’s shoulder as he processed them. [color=28e0af]“I get that people get busy, and that finding Max was traumatic for all of you, but you have to realize she needs you more than just the day of her anniversary, right? Like she will never have her sister to turn to again and now in her mind all of her friends are also falling from her grasp, only paying attention to her when it’s required. And that fucking sucks. No one wants to feel like that, dude.”[/color]

[color=DC143C]“She’s-”[/color]

[color=28e0af]“Terrified that the three of you are going to die like her sister did, and obviously none of you have done enough to assuage that-”[/color]

[color=DC143C]“‘Assuage’, huh, pullin’ out the big-”[/color]

[color=28e0af]“[i]To assuage that[/i] worry,”[/color] Rye continued dutifully. [color=28e0af]“I’m just saying you need to carve like twenty minutes out of your schedule to watch an episode of something with her, show her that you’re [i]always[/i] thinking about her even when she’s not around. Pass out on [i]her[/i] bed every once in a while. Send a fucking text to check up on her eveery day, I don’t know man. You don’t have to change all at once Decks, just- something’s gotta change [i]soon[/i] before her worries end up a reality.”[/color]

[color=DC143C]“...I hear ya, Rye,”[/color] Decky replied after a solid thirty seconds of nothing but their breathing between them. [color=DC143C]“Thanks.”[/color]

[color=28e0af]“That wasn’t exactly the well thought out response I wanted from you.”[/color]

[color=DC143C]“Sorry,”[/color] the other replied, his weight suddenly increasing on the smaller boy who wisely doubled his effort to get his door open. [color=DC143C]“Tired.”[/color]

[color=28e0af]“Jesus Christ you were supposed to be picking her up,”[/color] Rye huffed, finally succeeding in getting his door open and dragging the darker haired boy in after him. With little option left as he got heavier and heavier in Rye’s arms, the boy that was meant to be the comic relief took him to the couch and every so softly led the both of them down into the cushion Rye had vacated fifteen minutes before. With Decky now in Rye’s previous position already passed out against Poppy and his arm still wrapped around Rye’s shoulder, the final teen in the apartment was forced to join in on the rest and pass out on Decky’s shoulder. His last yawned words to fall on deaf ears were, [color=28e0af]“I’m still changin’ your band’ges b’fore you leave…”[/color]

And thus, the true first meeting of the Baggy Eyed Bed Heads club took place, with each of its members completely passed out with no chance of waking aunty time soon.

When Avigail arrived home from her shift at Sinclair Health at one in the morning, the last thing she expected was the group all asleep and cuddling on her couch. With a warm smile on her face, she set her purse and keys down before heading over to the closet, grabbing pillows and blankets from the hall closet and gently situating each teen into the most comfortable position with pillows beneath them and blankets laid across them as fully as possible. She kissed her son’s forehead, running her hand over his curls before heading to her bedroom with her phone, pulling up Hector’s contact.

She had some calls to make so no one worried about their children.[/indent][/indent][/color]