fandomhighdorms | The Deck; Tuesday Afternoon

At some point between Sunday night and Monday morning, Jasper had mercifully (for him) changed back into his familiar, guy shaped self. He'd celebrated by getting off the island for awhile. He hadn't gone back home but the mainland had been a good place to hide for awhile. He'd kept his head low and his eyes on the ground so no one would recognize him.

Now, though, he was back and sitting out on the deck, letting the sun beat down on him. It was hot. Lobo's Nod tended to get hotter so it didn't really bother Jasper too much. He slid a pair of dark sunglasses over his eyes, kicked his feet up and leaned back.

Life of luxury, boy? Think this is a vacation?

"Shut up." It wasn't often that Jasper talked out loud to Billy Dent but sometimes it just needed to be said. He was trying to relax. He didn't need his father pushing in on those thoughts. Every other part of his soul was Billy's so Jasper just wanted one freaking moment to himself.

One moment of peace.

He breathed slowly, controlled and precise. His head filled up with images, dark and bloody, loud and quiet. Heady. Jasper closed his eyes but didn't try and push those images away. Couldn't. And...didn't want to either.

Hopefully he wouldn't fall asleep with those pictures in his head. He'd wake up with a hell of a sunburn.

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"Hey," a familiar voice called as Ringo stepped out onto the deck herself. "I don't think I've seen you since last week. Been up to anything exciting?"

"Not really." He wasn't sharing much of anything about this past weekend. "Not much to do in this place anyway. I go through the motions."

"Really?" Ringo asked, frowning. "You're bored?" She'd found things to be pretty interesting for the most part. But she also didn't like the idea of her roommate being bored.

Maybe she could help!

"I'm fine." He got by. He had things to occupy his time. Just maybe not the healthiest of things. "It's a small island. I'm used to things like this. It's not boredom. It's a routine."

"But it doesn't sound like very fun routine," Ringo pointed out. After all, she had one, too. ATs every day. Except that that was the best thing ever.

"So maybe you could shake up that routine?"

"I'm fine, really," he told her, shaking his head and looking up at the sky, the sun, the few sparse clouds. "I like a routine."

His idea of shaking it up wasn't good.

"Nothing needs to change. This is fine for me."

Easier to stay in control.

"Yeah?" Ringo considered that. "Not even a little bit of new stuff? Like, I could teach you to ride ATs or something."

It was her only significant skill, but she was good at it!

"Thank you but that's all right," he told her, shaking his head. "I'll leave that to you and everyone else who's a lot more graceful than I am."

He was plenty graceful. His grace just lay elsewhere. "Sure there's others who'll take you up on that."

Ringo didn't want to pressure Jasper. She just, well, okay, she kind of wanted to pressure him. But that was because ATs were awesome! All you had to do to discover that was to try them!

So she'd make one more attempt before letting it drop. For now.

"You sure? You don't have to be really graceful or anything, and it's fun!" Fun, Jasper! You wanted to have fun, didn't you?

"I'm sure it is but no, that's okay," he said, shaking his head and trying hard not to be firm and harsh though the urge was there. Not because of her but because of him and all that crap that lived inside him. That wanted to be Billy.

"I can find fun in other ways," he assured her with a nod. "If I change my mind, I'll let you know but I'm really fine with things right now. I get my fun in other ways when I need it."

"Well," Ringo sighed, sounding a bit disappointed, "if you say so."

"But!" she rallied slightly, "you better tell me if you need cheering up or entertaining!" She would totally help!

"You'll be the first person I come to." Jasper knew it was a lie, knew that he wouldn't ever go to anyone to entertain him. Not her, not anyone. He closed himself off for good reasons. "But really, I'm fine. I'm just relaxing right now. Getting a nice tan."

Ringo laughed, mood lightening again. "It is great weather for it." She looked up at the sky shading her eyes with one hand. "And something cool to drink." Next time she'd definitely bring something with ice in it out here.

"Well, there's plenty of places in town to get something like that." For a place this small, it had a ton of food shops. It put Lobo's Nod to utter shame there. "Seems food's everywhere on this tiny island."

"I know!" Ringo shook her head. "Sometimes I feel like there's as much variety here as there is back home." In Tokyo.

That wasn't true for him. Lobo's Nod wasn't known for its variety. It was small and it lived up to that description.

"That's a good thing," he said, trying to sound supportive since he knew that was typical in situations like this. His emotions were always going to be off. "Less likely to get homesick, I guess."

Ringo shrugged. "To be honest, I pretty much never go out to eat. Too used to cooking for myself." And they'd never really had the spare money to spend on that sort of thing.

"But it is cool that all of that's there as an option, if someone wants to take advantage."

Jasper knew he'd be taking advantage because he did not know how to cook outside a few simple meals. Take out was usually his game. Howie insisted.

"The pizza's pretty good," he recommended. "If you're ever feeling the urge. I had a slice the other day for lunch. Not bad."

"Yeah?" Ringo nodded, making a mental note. "I'll remember that." She grinned at Jasper. "Maybe we should order one sometime and," huh, she didn't know what to offer as an accompanying activity, "do, uh, something."

"Sure, yeah," he told her, nodding. "Pizza's always good to at least have for dinner. Maybe in the future at some point."

"Yay!" Ringo beamed, excited by the prospect.

The Deck; Tuesday Afternoon

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