[PRP] This is a Trope (Elliot & Horace)

[The Semblance of Unity]

He'd been a little afraid Elliot would pull away, that he was saying too much too soon, but it... seemed fine. Their fingers still poked at each other and, instead of finding it anxiety-inducing, the small movements were somehow stabilizing.

"Cruel," he repeated. His ex had never thought himself cruel. "You'd think that after... after so many years, movingin on would just happen. But it sticks. I'm glad I can.. touch you, like this, now, and it doesn't make me feel... sick or horribly-" He lost the words. Horace might be glad in the moment, but another movement could set off a cold sweat rolling across his body. It was just the way of things.

He listened to Eli, giving those fingers a soft squeeze. "But if I forgot, I'm not sure I'd be me anymore, you know? I don't know, but it sounds appealing. I hope your parents have at least ******** off out of your life," he said, sort of fiercely.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

"I'm glad you can, too," Eli admitted. If Horace could touch him without immediately going south, then that meant he was making progress. The steps might be small, but they were something, they were real. He knew how minuscule his own steps up to this point had been, so he understood. "You don't have to say anymore than that. It's alright."

Except there was an unspoken 'unless you want to.' Eli hoped he was properly broadcasting his willingness to keep listening.

"I cut ties with my parents a few years ago," he said, and that was the easiest part of the story to tell. "It was hard at first because, well..." this part was a little harder to admit, "I relied on them. Heavily. For a lot of things. I don't know that I was even completely ready when I finally cut myself off. I'd like to forget them completely, too, but I suppose for people like you and I we're shaped by our pasts and that's just how it is. We'll have to turn it into something good. Eventually."

Then Eli laughed and it was actually sheepish. It had been a while since he'd spoken so honestly about himself to this extent.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"You seem really independent now, Eli... I haven't known you that long, but I dunno... I think you've done a pretty good job." He squeezed Elliot's fingers before disentangling them a bit. "I think it's harder to forget when there's always reminders, too." Horace wiggled his ring finger a bit, the scar on the base of it wide and shiny. There was a cruel irony in the scar's placement and he would never forget how much it had hurt. How, even with surgical precision and sterile environments, it had become infected. He shuddered a little.

Then he sighed, fingers pulling at Eli's waist a bit. "We're doing good, right? We have to be."

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

Though his hand was free, it didn't stray far. Instead it lingered near Horace's, tapping light, baseless rhythms against his palm moments after he revealed what Eli was genuinely surprised to have missed before. Having a scar was not that unusual, sure, but having one banded around your finger like a ring, in light of awful exes, was pretty damn suspicious. Pretty damn disgusting, too, on the part of anyone who thought doing something like this was okay.

While his expression didn't change much—Eli was always good at managing his emotions—the thrumming did stop. His fingers settled as a comfortable weight instead and he leaned closer.

"We're doing good," he assured. Even if sometimes he doubted the validity of that for himself, it was situations like this that reminded him it was real. These sorts of moments were rare, of course, but that didn't make them any less important. "So good, in fact, that I think we owe ourselves something good. Pizza? Ice cream?" Eli laughed. "Sorry, that's not very serious of me."

Still, he meant it.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace took a deep breath, leaning into Eli. It was okay to talk about this sort of stuff here because it all kind of felt unreal. The rain still came down around them, heavy and soothing - like a weighted blanket.

"Maybe we've had enough serious for today." Horace snorted. "If you want to brave the rain, I, uh... I can see ways out of here. We can go for ice cream - after we find your car."

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

Eli sighed, the sigh of a man defeated not by serious life business, but by the fact that he'd 'lost his car' like some kind of B-rated road trip movie. If nothing else, he knew where to look. "Nothing changes in Ashdown while we're over here, does it? I mean, nothing aside from the obvious. Life goes on and all that, but my car should still be at the gas station."

It might be a bit of a walk.

"Ice cream sounds fantastic, though. We're not getting any dryer sitting here-" not really, anyway, "-so we might as well make a run for it."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Not as far as I know. It's fine; we'll find our way." Horace stood, disentangling himself from Eli. He stretched, cracked his neck, then grinned.

"Let's make a break for it." He was already running through ice cream places in his head: Haagendazs, Ben & Jerry's, Scoop deVille....

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

"Good. I guess that's what, then. Let me mentally prepare to be soggy and frozen." At that, Eli stood up with his eyes closed as if meditating on the situation. He breathed in a large breath, puffed it back out, opened his eyes, and looked only slightly more ready to go.

It was like ripping off a bandaid, though. They just had to do it.

"Okay, go!" Eli called and look off into the rain.

The Semblance of Unity

fin!!