No Trains Here 2/?

[skeren]

Title: No Trains Here
Fandom: Original
Coauthor: aikonamika
Words: 2306
Characters: Jacob Tesing and Gabriel Balora
Note: It looks like we located a plot somewhere.

He finished off his food and got to his feet, flashing Belora a smirk. "I'll go and get the horses ready to go." He patted his shoulder as he went by. "Thanks for dinner."

Gabriel reached up and snagged the back of his shirt. "Hold up. You thought I was going to pay for you as well?"

He flashed him a smirk. "You never said you weren't." He plucked off his fingers and ruffled up his curls.

"I'm only planning on paying my half of the bill. If you're gonna just walk out, I'd be perfectly happy to tell the manager where you went so you can wash dishes for him," he said, smirking back.

"For some reason I just don't think he'll accept that as an answer." He smirked after a moment and leaned down, almost brushing their cheeks together and letting out a soft breath across his ear. "Do you?"

"Not particularly. But I stalled you long enough for our waitress to show up," he murmured back. Sitting back, he smiled up at him brightly, accepting the receipt from the waitress, who was watching them both with an arched eyebrow. "So! Your half is $10.99."

"Only because you groped me." He let out a put upon sigh. "Here." he tossed down a ten. "You can handle it." Then he disentangled himself and headed off for the door.

Since it was more than he'd expected to get from him, he accepted the ten with good grace and made up the rest of the difference, calculating the tip absently and adding it in too. Handing it over with a bright smile to the waitress, he rose and grabbed his take-out box, heading out the door as well.

He was pretty quick about getting the horses ready, more than eager to finally go home.

He stowed his leftovers in his saddlebags when he got to his horse, making sure that the scent didn't drift. No need to unnerve her, after all. Swinging up, he nodded thanks to his partner. "Ready to go, Tesing?"

"Jacob." He rolled his eyes, getting onto his horse. "And yes."

"Tesing," he said, smirking.

"Timmy."

"At least I'm grounded in some form of respect," he grumbled, then raised an eyebrow. "Gods know why."

"It's respectful. Everyone wants a Tim."

"What the hell is a Tim?"

He smirked at him. "You don't know?"

"I've said as much the last three or four times I asked you."

"Then I guess you need to look up a little Magic."

"...what the hell?" He stared at him flatly. "Why can't you just tell me?"

"Are you really sure you wanna know?"

He sighed. "Yes." He was going to regret it, but at least he'd know.

"It's a pinker."

"...a what?"

"Pinker. Pinks at the lifepoints. Usually a sort of wizard, not always though."

He stared some more. "...'pinks'?"

He made a flicking motion. "Pinks."

"I'm going to hurt you."

"I'm being serious!"

"Really badly."

"Still serious. I mean, there are Goblin Tims, red Tims, the ever famous Blue Tim..."

"With a stick."

"It's usually a pretty gradual thing unless you have an army."

"Why the hell do you call me that?!"

"Because you are so a Tim."

He snarled and spurred his horse into a run, taking the lead and proceeding to ignore his partner entirely.

He sighed, then shook his head, getting his horse to go after him.

He stared straight ahead on the ride back to the hotel they were staying at, refusing to look at Jacob again. When they got there he simply slid off his horse, leading her into the stable to get her taken care of for the last time.

He growled to himself and stalked after the other man.

He focused entirely on grooming her, then getting her tack cleaned and set away.

"Damn it Gabriel, what got your panties in a twist now?"

Spinning on his heel, he glared, practically hissing his words. "Respectful? That sort of name is supposed to be respectful?"

"Actually -yes-. It's a damn compliment you high strung pansy."

"Oh, something that just chips away uselessly at lifepoints in tiny little pinks is supposed to be a compliment?"

"Considering only one thing can block them, -yeah-."

He turned on his heel again and stalked off, growling.

He took off after him in a heartbeat. "Damn it! Stop running away!"

"No."

He picked up his speed, then tried to tackle him. "Yes!"

He grunted at the impact and staggered forward, dropping to hands and knees before he managed to catch himself.

He shifted to straddle his back and leaned down to talk in his ear. "For once I'm not trying to piss you off so what the hell! You said you wanted to know."

"I wanted to know. I found out. Get off." His voice was flat.

"No." He planted his hands on either side of his head. "You get into these damn pissy moods too often."

"You piss me off too often." He shoved against the ground, trying to push him off his back.

He shifted one hand to between his shoulder blades. "No shit, but this is a bit much, even for you."

"Just get off of me!"

"No!"

He growled. "Look, I already know that I'm god damned useless, there's no need to fucking rub it in!"

"Tims are popular cards for a reason you idiot! It's -not an insult- already!"

"Well you sure contradict yourself then, since other than that all you've ever done is insult me." He twisted enough to glare over his shoulder.

He glared right back. "Don't be a stupid ass."

"What, you bitching about me always getting in trouble, or getting in the way, or not being able to do things right is a compliment too?"

"Yeah."

"What kind of crack are you on?"

"I'm not." He pushed up off him then, scowling. "Fuck it. I'll be in the hotel room when you cool off."

He glared after him, pushing himself to his feet and stalking off in the other direction. He just needed to get away. Just to walk this off, and get away for a while.

He headed up to the room and tossed himself on the bed. God the man could be so stupid sometimes. He took compliments worse than insults!

He paced until he hit the limit of distance he could go, feeling the slight tug at his mind, then turned and kept up his quick, restless steps along the perimeter. Rubbing his chest, he winced at the still-present feel of electricity rumbling through him, looking down at his other hand to see that the tremble was still there. That...wasn't supposed to happen. Still, he didn't exactly want to head back to the hotel room just yet, not when he still wanted to throttle his partner.

He felt the bit of pressure that said that a certain someone was hitting his limits, but he just yanked off his boots before rolling over and sticking his head under a pillow. He wasn't going to go chasing after the idiot a second time today.

He made a half-circuit as far out as he could go before he'd gotten rid of enough of his anger that he felt he could go back and stay calm. Well, mostly calm. As usual, he managed to trace his way back to the hotel, despite finding a few walls in the way where he hadn't expected any. Stepping inside he eyed his partner for a second before huffing and heading into the bathroom.

Hearing the other man moving around, he pressed the pillow tighter over his head.

He was perfectly willing to continue ignoring him, and stripped down as he started the shower, waiting until it was warm enough before stepping in. No need to freeze himself or anything.

He heard the shower start and sighed, tossing the pillow to the head of the bed and getting up to strip. He'd just turn in then.

He hadn't even gotten his hair completely wet before he felt the return of that electricity, making his muscles twitch without his consent. Shaking, he slowly lowered himself to his knees in the tub, flailing at the knob to turn the water off. Water conducted electricity, right? So it was bad. Or something.

He paused in the middle of taking his hair down and eyed the shower. "If you changed your mind I'm so gonna use up the hot water!"

He couldn't exactly answer, but the crackle of energy as it slid out of his skin again might have given away a hint about something.

Cursing as he heard the distinctive snap, he shoved into the room and moved over to the shower. "The Hell?"

"Dun...no." He winced, hunching over further as it redoubled.

He cursed, then moved over and crouched, reaching out to put his hand on his back, jaw locked.

He jerked and went sightless, and the energy twisted to curl around Jacob as well.

He hissed, tightening his fingers, but all he could do was wait it out.

It twisted around the both of them a few more times, before grounding back into Gabriel again. He dropped the rest of the way to the bottom of the tub, panting and twitching slightly.

He grumbled and leaned into the tub to haul him up to a sitting position. "So not the place for that buddy."

"...what the hell was that?"

He couldn't help it. "A Pink."

He glared as best he could. "No, really. What the hell was that? I thought that...energy or whatever was supposed to be taken care of."

"It's a magic thing. Like those ever do what they're supposed to." Knowing he'd regret it, he worked on hauling him out of the tub.

"No, really? I thought it was just when it grabbed my soul that it was going to be weird." And fuck, that had been worse than the first time. He tried to help but found that he apparently didn't have much strength. Yet.

It was really hard for him to do it, but he got the man hauled up out of the tub and started over so he could dump him on one of the beds, working on -not- dropping him.

About halfway there he managed to get his legs underneath him and help, pretty much rolling himself onto the bed. "...I'm sorry."

He rolled his eyes, ducking into the bathroom to fetch a towel and starting to dry him off. "Shut up."

"No, really. I was a bitch. Sorry." He did, however, grab for the towel himself.

He paused his drying to let him have it. "Whatever, it's not important."

He picked up where Jacob had left off, getting rid of the water. Fortunately, he hadn't exactly been in the shower for long. "But really, do you have any clue about why it did that?"

"Magic just might not have settled out. Reaction to other things you have going on with you? You did hit the edges today."

"I just...needed to get away." He shook his head a bit.

"Figured." He sighed and moved back to his bed to flop over on it. "Scream if you go haywire again."

"I'll try, oh Lord and Master." He couldn't wait to get back home.

He scowled and wiggled under his covers. "I'm never sure if you mean that."

"Why don't you just ask?" It was quiet.

"I'm not sure I want to know."

"Then you'll just never be sure, will you?" He rolled onto his side, and shoved his own covers down far enough that he could get under them. "Hit the lights, would you? You're closer."

He scowled, crawling out of bed. "I'll have you know I didn't intend to run all over this room like this." He got the lights and wiggled back under his covers anyway.

"Thanks, then."

"Whatever, just go to sleep you trouble magnet."

"I hear and obey, oh Lord and Master," he said, smirking. Despite that, he dropped off quickly.

He sighed, aggravated, then just shook his head and rolled over to go to sleep, damn man. He best be okay.

There weren't any repetitions of the energy storm through the night, at least. He didn't really move at all, actually.

Rolling out of bed an ungodly five hours after rolling into it, he grumbled to himself. But he wasn't shocked, just moving over to check on Gabriel.

He opened one eye, green rather than gold, and looked blearily up at him. "Issit time to go?"

"It's three thirty."

"Duzzn answer the question. I can't remember when our train leaves."

"Six.'

He blinked a few times, then frowned. "So why are you up now?"

"No idea." He scowled a little, then eyed him closely.

"...what?" He didn't think he was about to go off like he had before. It wasn't quite that sort of jittery feeling.

He turned on his heel at that point. It was cold in here and he so wasn't dressed for it. "Just go back to sleep.

He sat up then, sheets poolingaround his waist. "No really, what?"

He was headed back to his bed and flapped his hand. "It's nothing, lay back down."

"You confuse me sometimes." He dropped back down, though. "I never know what you actually mean."

"Being sarcastic doesn't suit you." He crawled back under the covers.

"I mean it."

"Then what the hell are you talking about now?"

"You run hot and cold, and you just- eh, what the hell. Nevermind. Sleeping now." He turned onto his other side, pulling the blanket up higher so only the top of his head was visible.

He pressed his lips together and rolled over so his back was facign the other man. Damn him anyway for being a light sleeper.