(no subject)

[lollipopsandwhisky]

[ It's hard to imagine that after thirty years of life, anything would or even could change. The world will keep spinning, day will turn to night, you will sleep next to a woman you married, you will blink, breathe and carry on like the world will never change. Because you know it won't.

Then it kicks you in the arse and throws a spanner in the works

Gabe had lived the same day over, and over for a good thirty years. He woke up to his wife shouting something about work, or a shirt not being ironed or some other benign bullshit. He watched her go, did his chores and headed out. Every day the same.

He went to work for a few hours, driving trains from point A to B like he always did. He said hi to his few friends, giving them a big wave as he left to go to a job he actually loved. He walked through the doors at three pm every day, helping the local shelter care for a feed some stray dogs. They were the closest thing he had to children after all.

Before he could realise it, it was half seven and he was wandering home- every day the fucking same.

But not that day. Either age was getting to him, the moon, or well a lack of variety, Gabe took it upon himself to take some time for himself. Which lead him to some stupid chain coffee shop he'd usually avoid at all costs. He wandered in, letting the smells take him over as he leant on the counter, waiting for someone to- Well, not notice him, he was the size of a house, but get the time to serve him.

Once his order was done, he was sort of excited, tapping his fingers on the side as he waited. Sure it was find of a funny sight seeing a huge man being excited about hot chocolate, but any change from the day to day rigmarole was exciting!]

Comments

[darrynmiquiztli]

[It wasn't actually that rare to find that hot chocolate was an exciting prospect to most men over six foot. Darryn had long become a literal God, but that first almost scalding hot sip of sugar, milk and chocolate was up in his top list of things like when he had been mortal.

[Besides, if he went anywhere his children wanted him to bring home treats. Which meant cakes - like he didn't make enough at home - and since he was buying those there was little point not treating himself to something.

[Then again, the fact that the minute he came near the counter the two girls behind it pretty much beamed at him and asked if he wanted to take one or two whole cakes prob-ab-ly meant he did this a little too often. Or it was hard to forget the guy who always came in dressed like it was the middle of winter, with a scar and tattoo on his face.

[Or they were really good at their job.

[They were probably really good at their job, he decided as he pushed his hair out of his face and went through his wallet, paying and then waiting for the girls to get to him. It was the end of the day, so service wasn't going to be speedy even if there was pretty much only one person before him.

[One person who pretty much dwarfed him and felt like they contained boundless puppy energy. Oddly no longer a rare thing in Darryn's life. He offered a smile - friendliest ex-assassin you'd ever meet.]

[lollipopsandwhisky]

[ Gabe rather unabashedly watched the man walk in, half gawking at him for a while before he shook his head to shake it off.

He had to chuckle to himself at the seemingly regular order. So people got stuck in ruts like that too, where most days were the same. Maybe it wasn't something to be sad about if even really fucking handsome guys got into it too.

He was more than glad of the smile, giving the guy a fairly huge grin back, buck-teeth and all before he turned back to watch them preparing everything.

He did keep peeking out the corner of his eye at the man next to him- There was something almost familiar about his face but like hell he'd ever be able to put his finger on it ]

[darrynmiquiztli]

[Generally people looked at him. It wasn't unusual to feel people's eyes on him. Hell, the girls behind the counter were doing their usual whisper-giggle-glance routine.

[It was unusual to feel ... coy about it though.

[Darryn bit his lower lip momentarily, as he decided to probably ignore that. Then proceeded to not ignore it, looking back at the other man.]

Yes? [His tone wasn't accusatory, just confused. And his accent was really not from round there.]

[lollipopsandwhisky]

[ He hadn't expected to be caught sneaking glances, but well fuck he sort of jumped when the man spoke. He looked around like the fool he was before he pointed at himself ]

Me? [ Even that one word was heavily Irish- He sort of blustered for a moment, scratching his jaw before giving the guy a smile ] Sorree lad, yer just... Yer luk nice! I didn't mean t'stare at yer!

[ He half bowed as he turned away, feeling a bit of a fool for looking at someone like he was. ]

[darrynmiquiztli]

[Darryn blinked... was that English? Parts of it had sounded like English? Maybe? Gods, why did he try and talk to people without the translators he had born and raised with him?

[He looked back over the counter, less to watch where the girls were in the order and more to try and work out what was just said to him. Trying to translate what he'd just heard into SOMETHING he could work out. Which took more than a minute.

[He thought he finally worked it out as a compliment.]

Thank you. [He looked back and smiled, then as if to explain why he'd just allowed a huge awkward pause he gestured back at himself.] English bad.

[And he could have left it there. Darryn KNEW he could leave it there, but he didn't want to leave this guy with the impression he was an idiot. Or he wanted to at least give him the ability to correct him that it hadn't been a compliment. So he gestured at the other man.] You English... no? [He guessed? Hoping that maybe that accent was SOMETHING he could talk in better than stupid English.]

[lollipopsandwhisky]

[ Gabe sort of watched the guy for a long time- he seemed to be having some trouble. He was used to it mind but it was kind of funny everytime.

Once the man found his words, Gabe nodded- Only to frown at the 'english bad'. It took him far to long to realise that wasn't aimed at him. He sort of chuckled as he shook his head ]

Am Irish- D'yer know any Gaelic? An bhfuil a fhios agat a bhfuil mé ag rá anois?

[ He tiled his head barely as he spoke, hoping that a sort of dead language may be better understood. Afterall Gaelic was a fucked up version of Latin ]


(Translation : Do you know what i'm saying now?)

[darrynmiquiztli]

[Darryn gave a sigh of relief and smiled, very happy to switch to Gaelic. English remained the bane of his life.] //Yes, that I understand. Thank you.//

//And to be clear, you complimented me, not insulted me a second ago, right?//

[lollipopsandwhisky]

[ Gabes face lit up like a kid on Christmas when he was spoken to in his home tongue- That was a huge rarity to him those days ] // I can't believe you know Gaelic? Do you know how rare that is these days?//

[ He sort of held his hands together under his chin, looking at the blonde like he was looking at the sun for the first time. It was mostly excitement.... mostly ] // Oh god yeah, i wasn't insulting you! I meant you look like a nice guy!//

[darrynmiquiztli]

[Darryn can't help but smile at how happy that small gesture has made this guy. Plus its nice to not have to sound like an idiot for a moment.] //Well, I like learning languages... English aside.//

//Okay, I thought you were. But if you had insulted me I probably would have had to fight you... and the girls don't like when you fight in here. I assume.// [He shrugged and then offered his hand.] //I'm Darryn, by the way.//

Second meeting

[lollipopsandwhisky]

[ A week went by, and Gabe was still floating around, almost counting down the seconds till he got to see Darryn again- He had no fucking idea why, but he hadn't been so excited before.

Even his wife noticed, going through the 'are you having an affair' motions with him, which left Gabe with quite a good little black eye after they were finished rowing.

He ended up about thirty minutes early, leaning against the wall beside the door. He kept kicking himself for getting so excited but he was, he couldn't help it! There was something about Darryn that he couldn't get out of his mind, and by the end of that week, he didn't want too.... ]

[darrynmiquiztli]

[Darryn was only around twenty minutes early arriving himself, only because he would rather wait than keep someone waiting. That was what he figured anyway.

[He'd spent his time contemplating, going through memories, trying to place Gabe's face to even a crowd he might have been through at one time. Trying to place the familiarity. Desperate to place it so it could stop poking at the back of his mind. He found exactly nothing.

[It didn't really matter now though, the meeting - not date - was here and Darryn smiled in greeting.]

//Sorry, hope you weren't waiting long.//

[He kept his hands in his pockets, pretty sure that if he acted on the urge to touch Gabe's face to gesture to the shiner it wouldn't go down well. He just nodded with his head instead.] //You okay?//

[lollipopsandwhisky]

[ To be fair, Gabe spent a lot of his time trying to find where he knew Darryn from too- He was torn between thinking he saw him as a kid, or on the train. Even just on a walk to work.

Sadly that never explained his pounding heart and burning cheeks when he saw Darryn approaching. He grinned at the man, giving him a big wave ] //Hey again sunshine!//

[ Why in the hell was he still calling him sunshine, he knew better but he still was... ]

//I'm fine? How are you? You look good!// [ he had no idea Darryn was even slightly worried about the bruise. He forgot he had it by then ]

[darrynmiquiztli]

[For a moment Darryn had that worry that he had forgotten to control the glow again. Did he really stick out enough as sunshine even without it? - Well, there were sun tattoos on him. That would probably do it.

[He had to smile with slight amusement, getting that Gabe didn't even realise why he was asking.] //Thanks. Eye aside, so do you.//

//You ready to get out of the cold?//

[lollipopsandwhisky]

[ If Darryn asked why he called him sunshine, he'd make up some bullshit about him being blonde- however what it really was, he had no idea.

He blinked before he sort of chuckled, touching his fingers barely against his eye ] //Yeah, my co-workers said it was very becoming of me!//

[ He nodded at the offer, moving to hold the door open for Darryn ]//Not a fan of the cold i'm guessing?//

[darrynmiquiztli]

//Well, some people suit a black eye, I guess. I know a tom-boy who definitely does.//

[As he walked past Gabe, he almost felt something like a static shock. It was like when they had shaken hands. That kind of spark. God but he didn't want a spark. He told Charon often enough that 'sparks' didn't happen. Besides which he was really happy with his husband. He did not have a crush. He was flirting.

[Darryn smiled his thanks, brushing away that feeling and those thoughts, removing his gloves.] //Not a fan; did the fifteen layers of coats and scarves tip you off?//

[lollipopsandwhisky]

[ Gabe felt it too, this almost uncontrollable urge to reach out and touch Darryn's face, trace his fingers across his cheekbones, down the side of his nose and to his lips. The urge to run his thumb over the man's lips, taking in how soft they were before shovin-...

He shook his head rather violently, getting the mental image out his head before he had to smile at Darryn, acting like he was listening and caring about his words ] //It was the fact that you called it cold! It's barely mild yet!!//

[darrynmiquiztli]

//Oh, trust me. It's cold. If you felt me, you'd understand.// [Could he not? Could he really NOT be that flirty? Darryn took off his hat and just utterly changed the subject before that could be reflected upon by himself.] //Did you want a cake, or sandwich with your hot chocolate?//

Third Meeting

[darrynmiquiztli]

[It was fair to say that Darryn had avoided coming back. There was no sense in chancing seeing Gabe again, no sense in putting that strained risk on his marriage and life. Avoidance wasn't generally something he liked to do in his life, but sometimes it was what was needed.

[The problem was that coffee shop was one of the ones his children really loved. Where they liked to meet. Where they liked to make Darryn talk English and giggle at him. Where Cole's girlfriend worked. He could only avoid it so many times and although those times might span weeks or months in Earth time - they weren't about to span a lifetime.

[So eventually Darryn had to tell himself that it wasn't worth avoiding. That it wouldn't happen again. That it was a chance meeting and one arranged meeting, and the chances of him ever seeing Gabe again were slim to nil. It had been a fluke, an extremely minor lapse in his otherwise good judgement. It wouldn't happen again.

[To prove it to himself, he returned to the coffee shop. Drank a mocha, smiled at the girls behind the counter and said no to his usual cake order. There was no Gabe.

[But to further prove it, to further let himself know that is was so small a chance that had passed by, he left the cafe and walked down the route he had taken with Gabe that first time. Not seeing him the entire way, proving his point. It had been a once in a lifetime meeting. He was in no danger of seeing Gabe again.

[He got to the street where he had said goodbye to Gabe that first time, made that second meeting arrangement. People moved around anyway. Who was to even say Gabe still lived on this street? No. Darryn was sure it was over and done with. A closed chapter. Badly closed, but still finished.]

Third Meeting

[lollipopsandwhisky]

[ Avoidance was something Gabe didn't favour either, so he did something a little different- He went to the coffee shop at a different time, hanging around during the day to still be there, but not when Darryn would be.

He slowly but surely spaced out the times he went there. First, only a few times a week, then once a week. Till it was once a month. Eventually, he realised it really was a once in a life time moment he had...

In the end, he gave up on the idea of ever having that spark with anyone again. He shut his heart back down, moving back to his old life.

Little did he know everything would change again.

He sighed as he stood by the gate of his little cottage home, watching his wife pack up the car to leave. He'd already said his goodbye, but had to stay and wait for her to be gone. As she drove down the road he waved, something catching his attention in the corner of his eye.

Darryn-

Fuck, fuck what. He stayed still as if that would stop the man from seeing him there. He felt as if, if he didn't move, Darryn would be unable to see him. Sadly this left him stood there with his hand up, frozen mid-wave ]

[darrynmiquiztli]

[The moment Darryn had arrived on the street though, his eyes had gone almost instantly and automatically to Gabe's house, seen him first. It was like some cruel trick from something even higher than him; that his eyes had just gone there, that Gabe had happened to be there.

[But then, as he stood there, unable to move on or look away, Darryn saw things play out. The packing into the car, the woman - Gabe's wife, assumedly - getting in alone and her driving away. Maybe it wasn't a cruel trick after all. Maybe the glass was half full if you looked at it another way.

[That wasn't how he was supposed to be looking at things though. Darryn knew he should leave, but the world wasn't going to let him. It shifted, making him walk down the street instead of away. The closer he got the more it rushed over him, that need and want that had been there the last time he had seen him. Gabe was magnetic North and there was no where else Darryn could go right then.

[Once he got to the gate, he meant to say something but there was nothing TO say. All he could do was lean over the gate, press his palm against Gabe's frozen wave and curling his fingers between Gabe's to lock them together as he pressed his mouth against his, sighing against Gabe's lips with how utterly right it felt.]

[lollipopsandwhisky]

[ Gabe wasn't sure how to react to Darryn approaching him- That was the last thing he wanted, that insane need and raw emotion pulling him to Darryn. He didn't need to feel that undiluted lust bubbling at the pit of his stomach when he saw darryn's face.

He needed to walk back into the house and hide from everything.

But he couldn't...

He wanted to talk when Darryn got close enough, but instead he ended up reaching out with his other hand, clinging to the clothing draped around Darryn's body to pull the man against him. He used the grip to pull himself and Darryn closer, trying to press his body against the other mans- even with a gate in the way.

The kiss pushed him over the edge though, his hand clinging to Darryn's as he very audibly moaned against Darryn's lips. He wasted no time kissing him back, like he hadn't been gone for months, like he hadn't even left the alley way.

The little bubble world he got lost in with Darryn was back and now he knew how much he needed that man, he was damned sure he wasn't going to let him go ]

[darrynmiquiztli]

[With a sigh, Darryn melted into the kiss, fell entirely into that moment. Just the feel of Gabe against him, the way everything about him was taking over and rolling over him, sensations and scents.

[Darryn worked his free hand against the collar of Gabe's shirt, seeking any skin he could get towards, moaning at the feel of his warmth. Desperate for more. He ran his tongue across Gabe's lower lip before pressing in for a deeper kiss, not sure if he wanted to devour or be devoured more.

[All he wanted was more. Everything was in the way of more, clothes, the outside world, the gate - but it was hard to take a moment to remove those elements when all he wanted to do was drown in Gabe's mouth.]

[lollipopsandwhisky]

[ That moment took over everything then, there was nothing in the world anymore but him and the Sun- The one thing that usually made him cry for the moon became all he wanted. He wanted to bathe in his light all day.

He groaned as he finally freed his hand from Darryn's, using his two arms to wrap around Darryn's waist. He barely smiled against the man's mouth as he made a little 'oop' noise, picking Darryn up and moving him over the gate.

He half chuckled as he put the man back down- He knew it had to look funny, him picking him up and over a gate but he needed that space between them to be gone. Now it was he could kiss Darryn like he wanted, pressing his body against the blonde's as he ran his tongue over Darryn's bottom lip. He needed more- ] I missed yer Sol...

[darrynmiquiztli]

[Darryn was able to shift his weight as he was lifted - not that he really thought Gabe needed the help lifting him over the gate - wrapping both his arms around Gabe's neck, keeping close as he could until he got back on the ground and could be closer again still.

[He stroked his nose against Gabe's, letting his lips gently slide against the other man's mouth in the same motion.] I having English bad. [He reminded him, switching to Gaelic, breathing against his lips.] //I need you.//

[And that need was very apparent in his tone. That was all he was focusing on, even if the ring on his finger was weighing heavily on his hand, the need for his hands to press against Gabe was stronger.]

[lollipopsandwhisky]

[ For a moment Gabe had forgotten all about the world, his hands tracing up Darryn's back- Until one of his neighbours took it upon themselves to cough at the men, muttering something under their breath.

Gabe jumped at the noise, giving the annoying family a little bow before he grabbed Darryn's arm, pulling him along and into the house- He thought it might be safer in there.

Given it was the house he had with his wife, it was decorated as you would expect from Gabe. Bare woods, soft floors, warm reds and lights everywhere. In a word, Rustic.

He wrapped his arms around Darryn as soon as he had to door closed, returning to his position against Darryn.] //Don't say you need me, god i won't be able to hold back if you do//

[ He barely hummed, just barely touching his lips to Darryn's as he spoke again ]//I need you, I don't think you could understand how much i've been longing for you//