The Roof; Late Tuesday Morning.

[by137.livejournal.com]

There was a nervous artist kid sitting on a roof, with a foot tapping nervously, biting his lip enough that it might start bleeding if he wasn't careful. See, he had made a decision to do something tomorrow afternoon. By 1;37 tomorrow afternoon, to be exact, so he needed to practice. It needed to be perfect. Annette told him he should just be honest and go with what he felt, but that got someone like A.J. in trouble a lot. He'd alway used the roof at Empire to think out loud to himself; on a day like this, he figured the roof at Fandom could serve the same purpose.

"Beauty," he started awkwardly, drawing in a breath and talking to an invisible other person. "I've gotta tell you something. It's about how I feel about you. I ... I, er, I really, really, really ... oh, God." He dropped his head in frustration, that pathway closed off before it even started, and tried again. Deep breath. "Uh...you know that feeling you get when you get out a hot bath and you just feel really...refreshed...and nice? Well ... you make me feel like...you make me feel like a bath? Ugh." Yeah, that one was pretty much awful. This was a lot harder than he thought it was going to be. So not any good with words. Maybe... "..You're like vanilla ice cream...French vanilla ice cream! Yeah...."

...Nooooo. He closed his eyes and grunted. Man, he was useless at this, oh God...

He might be there for a while. Or at least until shop class.


[[ swiped directly from canon, yay, 'cause I'm a neeeeerd. Roof is open, as roofs tend to be. ]]

Comments

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

He'd been trying to cut down, but some days you just needed a smoke, you know?

Having succeeded (for once) in getting the Synthetron to make him a nice creamy caramel latte with whipped cream and lots of foam which is so not as dirty as it inevitably sounds, Anders headed up to the roof to get his nasty habit in while tending to Bel's garden.

He sort of half-froze as soon as he emerged from the stairwell, because that was Troy's roommate, wasn't it?

This could quite possibly be awkward.

[by137.livejournal.com]

A.J. was in the middle of a poorly put together analogy about why you use dark blue instead of black to darken shades (somehow, in his mind, yes, this was relating to the topic at hand) when he realized that he wasn't quite alone, stopped his rambling abruptly and blinked at Anders.

And then lifted his chin in typical male fashion as if that would cancel out the whole fact that he'd been on a roof babbling. "Hey."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Hey," Anders said, with a responding chin-lift of the attempted "totally cooler than yours" variety -- not so much because he was trying to one-up A.J. as because it was better than just blurting out, "Dude, are you talking to yourself or has someone gone invisible?"

Not that he needed to say it, the way he was looking around the roof for a second person who might be hiding.

[by137.livejournal.com]

And A.J. considered fessing up to the fact that, yes, he was talking to himself, but why would he do that if he didn't have to, and could just awkwardly avoid the point. "S'up?"

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Just came up for a smoke." Anders dug a rather battered pack from his pocket and held it up out of some bizarre need to prove the statement. "Don't let me interrupt your, uh, conversation?"

[by137.livejournal.com]

A.J. snorted. Well, he'd tried. Shaking his head, he waved a dismissive hand. "Nah, you're not interrupting anything important. I think I'm done, anyway." Because it wasn't like it was doing any good...

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders lit up his cigarette and turned to check on the plants. "You rehearsing for something?"

Who knew trying to sound casual could be such hard work? Clearly he needed more caffeine.

[by137.livejournal.com]

"In...uh, kind of," A.J. shrugged. "I gotta...I told myself I'd do something by 1;37 tomorrow, so I'm just...trying to work it out, I guess. I don't know...."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders blinked. "Interesting deadline. Did you pick it at random, or does it mean something?"

[by137.livejournal.com]

A.J. shrugged. "Bringing my username into game Random," he admitted, turning a wry grin. "Seemed like a good time. As good as any, really."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Huh." Anders took a long drag off his cigarette and absently picked a bug off one of the plants. "Well, you know, if you add another 3 it'd be 1337 It sounds good, anyway. This something big and important?"

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Or military time *cough voicemail cough* Yeah," A.J. laughed lightly, an embarrassed sort of expression. "Kind of."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Well, good luck, I guess," Anders told him. "I totally get talking to yourself to psych up for the big event."

[OOC: No problem, am going to be kinda busy myself for the next few hours.]

[by137.livejournal.com]

With a light laugh, A.J's head bobbed in a nod. "Impressions of possible insanity successfully diverted, then. Awesome."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders spread his hands and shrugged. "It's Fandom. Sanity is totally relative."

[by137.livejournal.com]

A.J.'s head tilted to one side in agreement. "Point," he allowed. "But does the explanation allow me to at least seem relatively sane?"

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Completely," Anders assured him.

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Good. To. Know," A.J. said, nodding with satisfaction, looking vaguely thoughtful for a moment. And then his head tilted again and he wondered, "...Also, do I know you?" If he was someone he'd met before, it had to have been a while ago, or in one of those situations where you meet a bunch of people but don't play interact with them too soon directly afterwards, you can't remember remember them right away.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

. . . yeeeeeeeeeeah, he had a feeling he'd been getting away too easily. And also his player wasn't remembering too clearly either.

"Um." Oh frak. "Possibly? I know I've seen you around a couple times? I'm Anders?"

[by137.livejournal.com]

Blink. "Oh," A.J. said. "Right. Troy's...friend."

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

And just to make sure he had it right -- you know, just to make sure he wasn't misinterpreting that practically audible ellipsis there -- Anders asked, "And you're his . . . roommate?"

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Uh, yeah," he bit his lip a little realizing that, yeah, lately, that was pretty much the safest choice to go with. "A.J.," he offered, although Anders probably pretty much already knew that.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"I thought so." Hey, it sounded slightly less . . . confrontational, maybe, than 'I knew it.'

Anders coughed. "Yeah, uh. So. I hope my advice to him didn't totally suck?"

Nice choice of words there, Caprica boy.

[by137.livejournal.com]

"...Ad..advice?"

...Oh, right! That, my friends, would be a prompt facepalm. And a whole lot of blushing, as well as a good slice of awkwardness over the fact that it was a complete 180 from what he'd been thinking about lately, and, yeah... "Um, uh...n...no. Uh, it was....good adivce, yeah. Good. You did...good. Uh, he, um, did goo-- err..."

A.J. was just made of win, yes.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Good. Good, 'cause I was trying to -- yeah. I didn't -- I mean, that time when . . . you know, there was the whole . . . fluke . . . thing. It was a thing. I mean, it wasn't. You know."

And now the roof? It was a veritable orgy of completely un-dirty but entirely ironic made-of-win.

[by137.livejournal.com]

"Oh! Oh, no, it's cool!" A.J. said, a little wide-eyed but none the less trying to be assuring through the awkwardness. "I totally understand, really. I mean, yeah. Memory loss..."

That he still managed to avoid sleeping with anyone over, because seriously. Who the hell has sex with someone without even knowing who they really were first? The assurance dropped. Not that he was was judging, or anything! Really! Except that this made Anders right up in the alley of being just as stupid as Troy was in that situation...