The Roof, Wednesday Evening Before Radio

[bitchprince]

Sometimes, he had to confess, coming up here had a certain charm to it. It reminded Arthur of the times he and Morgana, sometimes his father or someone else, would find themselves up high in the castle, the wind roaring past, and talking.

As always, he wasn't brooding. Or homesick. Or troubled over Merlin's future situation, should they actually return home. Or any other number of flaws that weren't his to recognise.

He crossed his arms and stared out over Fandom Town. He'd thought about bringing some of the ale, but he'd be drinking plenty with the squirrels later. Instead, he'd just exercise his right to be thoughtful.

[[ the roof is, of course, open ]]

Comments

[lovemykilt]

Priestly had had a perfectly delightful conversation with his mother, which had mostly consisted of him going "Mom. Mom. I'm not -- Mom. Stop crying. Mom. Mom. Mom" but had eventually resulted in his mother agreeing to let him stay in Fandom for the summer instead of coming home and interning in his father's office.

So, yeah, he was in a rather "roof" kind of mood. At least until he actually got up there and saw who'd beaten him to it.

"Arthur. Hey."

[bitchprince]

"Priestly," Arthur returned, swinging neither to disdain nor enthusiasm. Nor, it seemed, actually looking at him.

[thatsamilkshake]

After waking up in Chuck Bass' bed again, followed by an hour of teeth-brushing, a gallon of water, and some breakfast because God knows she wouldn't have been able to pry that bag of cookies out of Chuck's arms with a crowbar, Francine... still wanted to hide from everyone, everywhere. Why couldn't last night be as hazy as the four days she'd spent dead?

So, roof. She'd been able to hide from most people up there last time, after all.

Of course, once she stepped out onto it... "Oh. Um." Don't mention pillows don't mention pillows don't mention pillows... "Hi."

[lovemykilt]

Right, so, business as usual, then.

"'Sup?"

[bitchprince]

...Sup?

"Sup," Arthur repeated. His voice may have held a tinge of incredulousness. "Is that some kind of code?" Or was Priestly just not chewing properly?

[bitchprince]

Arthur was about to respond in a fashion as generally dismissive as he always would, when he recognized the voice.

The resulting, "Francine," hence held something like surprise, and he glanced over his shoulder.

[thatsamilkshake]

"Hi," she repeated. Pillowpillowpillowpillowpillow SHUT UP, BRAIN. "P-- Arthur. I can go? I didn't mean to disturb you."

[bitchprince]

"I'm hardly going to shackle you to the roof," he said, blinking. For one, that would make a headache blossom spectacularily, and Merlin would probably throw a fit.

Not that Arthur cared when Merlin threw a fit.

[lovemykilt]

Priestly blinked. "Dude. You've been here how long and you haven't heard 'sup' before?" He shook his head. "What's up?" he clarified. "What's happening? How's it hanging? How you doing? Basic polite greeting."

Okay, so his mother would kill him for saying that "'sup" qualified as polite, but he figured that was just his mom being all stuffy.

[bitchprince]

"None of those," Arthur said, diplomatically, "Sound particularly polite to me, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised." Whether that was a dig at Priestly or an observation on the time--

Oh, it was totally both. When it came to taking digs at people, Arthur's multitasking skills were unrivaled.

[thatsamilkshake]

"Huh?" Francine's eyes got wide and she raced back through the instant replay for anything she'd said that might imply she thought he would. "Oh! I meant-- that was an offer. I can leave if you want me to."

[bitchprince]

Well, of course she could. He hadn't assumed otherwise.

"Of course," Arthur hence said, diplomatically, and twisted his head back to look down at the town. "Do as you wish," he said, magnanimously.

[lovemykilt]

Priestly rolled his eyes. "Dude, it's like you're speaking another language. Ever hear the phrase 'when in Rome. . . .'?"

[bitchprince]

"Rome's not worth much these days," he said. He wasn't even misunderstanding it on purpose.

[thatsamilkshake]

The problem was she didn't know what she wished, now. Besides for some brain bleach and the ability to go back in time and stick a gag in her mouth sometime yesterday evening. ...Not dirty. SO NOT DIRTY.

But actually leaving now felt awkwarder than staying and being awkward, somehow, so Francine made her way carefully to the edge of the roof, peering over to see what Arthur was looking at. "We're not being invaded again, are we?"

[lovemykilt]

"It's a metaphor." Not that he'd bothered to tell both parts of the metaphor, yet. "It's all about embracing new societal norms of the culture you're surrounded by. Or at least learning them. You know, the 'polite' thing to do."

[bitchprince]

It wasn't awkward in the slightest, except for every point in which it was. He would refuse to recognise it, or even to look at her again at all. He found a fixed point on some house far in the distance to focus on.

"No," Arthur said. "Not again."

[bitchprince]

"So you would like me to start greeting you with 'sup," Arthur said, slowly, as if to test the whole idea. There was no doubt some level of you're an idiot in his inflection as well, but all things considered, he was keeping that reigned in fairly well. "Because of Rome."

[thatsamilkshake]

"This would be a good place to have a lookout to make sure we aren't, I guess," Francine observed, and God only knew where that came from other than the memory of trying to scale it when she wasn't herself. But you could see most of the town from here, when it wasn't dark.

[lovemykilt]

". . . D'ya need me to define 'metaphor' for you, too?" Yeah, some of that 'you're a jackass' tone was sneaking into Priestly's voice, too. But, hey, almost civil give and take here. They were doing well. "And yeah, if you wanna try it. Go for it."

[bitchprince]

"I believe some were up here during the zombie invasion." Arthur sounded most carefully neutral. It appeared he would be stuck in a conversation he simply couldn't wrestle his way out of, because despite his best attempts, Francine was really hard to be annoyed with. "Using-- cell phones."

[bitchprince]

"'Sup," he repeated.

Not only was it incredulous, it sounded completely ridiculous coming from someone with his accent.

"I think I know what a metaphor is," he added. Arthur wasn't an idiot.

[thatsamilkshake]

"I know. I tried to climb the building to eat M--" Or she could just wish for the gag now. "Wait, Merlin used a cell-phone?" Helloooo, inappropriate case of the giggles.

[bitchprince]

That inappropriate case of the giggles got her an inappropriately baffled look. "Of course not," he said. "Dinah arranged for some contacts."

[lovemykilt]

Priestly managed not to snicker. It was kind of hilarious listening to Arthur try out slang. "Really," he said, just a tad on the dry side. "Then why do you keep talking about the literal Rome?"