[PRP] The sinking sun [Ashton/Shun/Lily]

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun glanced back as Ashton was practically clinging to him in... was that fear?

"Hey. Hey. Relax, man. Ain't nothing gonna happen here," he said before looking to Lily, "Yeah we're cool. Dunno about you two though. Uh... let's go sit down somewhere yeah? Don't wanna keep crowding the doorway."

He nodded and started to head to one of the booths.

Amitotic

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

Whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. The noise Ashton was making could put a puppy to shame, and all the more for how embarrassed he looked to be making it; it seemed unintentional, but his nails were tight on Shun's shoulders, rough and animal-pointed.

"I -- I can --" he swallowed, sounding like he was about to cry. "I c-can leave, i-if you two want to talk, i-it's no problem -" again he bit his lip, barely drawing blood, leaving his teeth slightly pink.

Amitotic

Blade Kuroda

 

[AMItotic]

By the end of the whine, Lily's hands were up in the air and she was taking a step back, fighting the moonwalker urge to rush in and be supportive. "No, no, really, it's fine, I'm not trying to interrupt your lunch date or whatever, just wanted to say hi to Hardcore Parkour over here.

"I'll just, uhh, go back over here," she added, slowly slinking away towards her booth with a bewildered expression. "You kids have fun."

Blade Kuroda

Daekie

 

[Blade Kuroda]

"Ya sure? You can join in and all. No biggie," Shun stated. Then again, maybe that wasn't a great idea. Ashton was really... nervous of Lily? He still didn't really get that. Something must have gone down.

daekie

Amitotic

 

[Daekie]

Ashton was clinging to Shun so closely he might have been a barnacle, blood on his lips. "Y-you can join us," he whimpered, barely audible, and buried his face in Shun's jacket, tears beading in his eyes; and then he sniffled and looked up, red-eyed, face flushed. "I'm -- I'm s-sorry, Lily. I've been." He gulped. "A r-really awful friend. I'm s-sorry."

Amitotic

Blade Kuroda

 

[AMItotic]

Lily looked from Shun to Ashton, starting to feel a little cross-eyed between the two of them. Shun was normally so cold-shoulder, and Ashton was, well...not generally a mess. "I mean, that's probably kind of weird, I'd just be crashing your...dinner or whatever."

She touched the edge of her table, her gaze zeroing in on Ashton with an uncomfortable wince. "No, really, dude, it's fine, whatever happened is fine, you don't have to..." Lily sighed, pursing her lips. "Will you feel better if we hang out for a little bit? It's not like I ever have any plans."

Overdue homework, perhaps, but she wasn't planning on that any time soon.

Blade Kuroda

daekie

 

[Blade Kuroda]

"Yo Ashton, mind easing up a bit?" he asked, glancing back. The nails digging into him was a bit painful, but he was more concerned about them possibly literally digging into his flesh. He didn't want to start bleeding all over the booth or whatever.

Or maybe he did? Hm.

"Well, it's up to you, Lily. No sweat, either way. Just figured it might be good to uh... clear out whatever air's going on between the two of you, yeah?"

daekie

Amitotic

 

[Daekie]

Ashton did not, in fact, ease up; the force with which he was clinging to Shun might have bruised skin, even through the jacket. "T-there's," he sniffled, "n-nothing going on, Detective Kuroda....I'm, um...I'm just a really b-bad friend, okay? I keep ignoring what Lily wants a-and only talking to her when I need something, s-so -- I just --" he ducked his head back into Shun's shoulder.

"Wanted to apologize," the sentence finished, hoarse. "S-she can do whatever she w-wants to me, I'd deserve it..."

Amitotic

Blade Kuroda

 

[AMItotic]

"Hey dude, c'mon, it's okay," Lily responded, almost pleading in tone. She abandoned her course of backing up slowly, instead reaching for Ashton's hands in the hopes that the warmth of packtouch would help calm him down.

"There's no bad air, everything is fine," she snapped back, her voice wavering between nervous and annoyed. She turned back to Ashton, putting on her best calm face to cover up the ugly mix of feelings rolling in her gut, the confusion and the embarrassment and the low undercurrent of fear.

"Everything is fine," she repeated in her best DVD-yoga voice, trying to ease Ashton's hands out from his grasp on Shun. "It's all good, we're somewhere safe and no one is upset, just...breathe, you nerd." Her voice shuddered, almost a laugh.

Blade Kuroda

Daekie

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun's hand twitched a bit as Ashton didn't ease up on his shoulder.

"Well that's good. Why don't we all have a seat and enjoy some good food, yeah? Though uh Ashton, dude. Lily's cool, okay? Don't gotta hide away with your tail tucked between ya legs."

Daekie

amitotic

 

[Daekie]

"I h-have -- to --" Ashton was barely audible. There was clearly something very, very wrong; he'd never been anywhere close to this in all the time Lily'd known him, not this sort of raw and pure terror. For a manipulator, the behavior was off on all sorts of different levels -- which, of course, implied it wasn't an intentional behavior at all.

People were starting to stare as he burst into tears, wanting to be very small, wanting to be nothing at all.

Amitotic

Blade Kuroda

 

[AMItotic]

Lily's hands reached Ashton's, and for a moment, he would be able to feel the torrent of her mixed feelings, her confusion and her guilt and her fear and embarrassment. Each sensation fought with the others to be the primary feeling, a slow crescendo that began to suffocate Lily's ability to think. Shun was staring at her, and so were random strangers, and somehow this was all her fault, somehow she'd done something that had completely broken Ashton--

As startling as a sudden silence following a constant storm, Lily's emotions just...stopped, and her furrowed brow softened into an expression more blank. "I should probably just go," she responded flatly, removing her hands from Ashton and looking back to Shun. "We can always hang later, there's no point in making anyone uncomfortable."

Daekie

Blade Kuroda

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun blinked a few times at Lily. She had a pretty blank look on her face right now, and he really wasn't sure what that was all about.

"Uh. Yeah sure. That's no biggie really. Take care then, yeah?" he nodded.

daekie

amitotic

 

[Daekie]

Everything was wrong, everything was wrong; the feedback from Lily was too much, he could barely handle it, barely knew where it was coming from - but it shutting off didn't make anything better. It just left Ashton recoiling, physically, like he'd been slapped; tears still roiling down his cheeks.

It wasn't Lily's fault. It was his. He was at fault, it hurt, it hurt --

Ashton turned and ran. Anywhere but here, anywhere but here, anything anything anything but this.

Amitotic

Blade Kuroda

 

[AMItotic]

Lily's expression remained flat as she watched Ashton outright turn tail and leave, like he had just excused himself to take a call. "Yeah, catch you next time," she responded lowly, patting him twice on the shoulder as she passed him and moved back to her seat. She pulled out her phone and gave it a thousand yard stare, scrolling idly through her twitter.

There had to be something in the water.

daekie

blade kuroda