The Sage Haze- Chapter Thirty-One
In this episode: A little get-together and Shane's on a study frenzy... i'm very annoyed this has to be so short, but i didn't want to get into the next chap within this one, if that makes sense...
The Sage Haze
Chapter Thirty-One
Sheera let herself into Damien’s place to find Caleb and Jared sitting in front of the plasma. Caleb was laughing while Jared looked severely put out. They were playing Halo.
“This is shite,” Jared murmured when his player was blown up.
“You really suck at this, man.”
“Fuck off! This is nothing like real life.”
“You just need practice, dude. Can’t believe you’ve never played a video game before.” Caleb said this last bit with awe and watched the spy with pity.
Sheera laughed as she turned away from them to look around. No one else was visible. “Where’s everyone else? Damien back from the Sage yet?”
“In the bathroom,” Caleb answered distractedly as he and Jared continued on with their game. As she left towards Damien’s bedroom, Jared growled.
“This is a waste of time! I’d rather go paintballing… want to do that?”
“Hell yeah, man! Tomorrow?”
“It’s a mission.”
Sheera left those two alone and jogged up the stairs to where Damien’s personal bathroom was located. Damien was sitting in a chair, facing the mirror, while Mai stood behind, brushing in the hair color. “Black again?” she asked, leaning her hip against the counter.
“With violet streaks,” Mai murmured.
“Jared likes when I dye it black.”
Sheera smiled. “So you were going to tell me why you think Jared’s totally perfect for you…”
Mai grinned over at her.
“Yeah. We had sex when I woke up in the morning! It was great!”
“You think he’s perfect cause now you’re getting morning sex?”
“His morning breath wasn’t even that awful!”
Sheera stared blankly at him. Mai giggled. Damien sighed when he saw Sheera’s expression. “He also told me some things…”
Now Sheera smirked. “What kind of things?”
“He says I should stab my nightmares.” He left out the other things because it was personal and Damien wanted all that warmth to stay with him.
“Yeah? Well then I’m definitely never sleeping with you again.”
When Damien’s hair was finished, the three vacated the bedroom to find Caleb and Jared had gone. But there was a note on the coffee table.
“They went to get food. Good thing too. I’m starved,” Damien told the girls as he spread out on one of the couches, pulling a strand of violet hair down so that he could stare at it in contemplation. Sheera rummaged around in her bag in the kitchen for her cigarettes before moving out onto the balcony. Mai followed her.
“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong now?”
“Nothing, Mai” she answered, taking out cigarette and lighting it before tossing the pack onto the closest patio table. “Thought I was being my normal bitchy self.”
“Actually you aren’t. You’re very quiet. This means there’s something wrong. Spill.”
Sheera glanced behind Mai to the sliding patio doors before turning to lean against the railing. She heard Mai move to slide the door closed. “Jake’s been acting weird,” she finally answered.
“Weird how?”
Sheera blew out a breath of smoke. “Flirting… it’s different,” she elaborated when Mai would have pointed out they always flirted. “Like it’s real now or some shit like that. It’s starting to make me uncomfortable.”
“Sexual harassment uncomfortable?”
Sheera laughed. “No. Jake’s not a creep. He couldn’t ever make me feel that kind of weird. Maybe that’s why… cause he’s not a creep.”
“No he’s not,” Mai agreed. “And he’s also hot as hell.”
“I really wish I could disagree,” Sheera mumbled. But she couldn’t because Mai was right. Jake Strathom was gorgeous. “I don’t know, Mai. I’m just bothered. What do you think I should do?”
“Let your guard down, She. The man likes you,” she said bluntly. “It’s obvious. It’s obvious to everyone under the sun you two are attracted to each other. It’s even obvious to you and Jake, but you have stubbornly placed a wall to block him. So yes, his flirting is real.”
“He’s not what I want--”
“Damien let up a little on his control, Sheera. At your insistence. Why don’t you follow your own advice,” Mai hissed. Sheera turned to her, surprised at her best friend’s harsh tone. But Mai was looking at her with a soft expression.
She was glad when she saw the front door open and Shane and Tony appeared. Shane had a loaded backpack on him as they walked in. “Nerd,” she said fondly.
“Sheera…”
“Nope. We’re done talking about this. Jake’s not what I need,” she replied, flicking her cigarette over the balcony. “I don’t need anyone. He’s the type of man that needs to take care of someone. That’s not me. I should just quit that job.”
“Don’t do that. You love working there! And,” she went off with an impish grin, “Jake would definitely be lost without you there.”
Sheera smiled. She liked to think so. But... she was seriously thinking about dropping her two week notice. It would be the best thing to do. Mai was staring at her in worry as if she knew what Sheera was thinking. She probably did. Sheera turned to go back inside. Mai sighed and stayed where she was, staring out across the city, dropping into one of her meditative states.
“Cutie! Come over here and tell me how fantastic you think my hair looks!” Damien shouted as Sheera walked in. She looked over to find Shane had taken up the kitchen table and was pouring over text books.
“I don’t feel like stroking your ego right now, Damien,” her cousin murmured, not even lifting his eyes from the book.
Damien gasped in outrage and popped up from the couch, only to have Tony shove him back down. “Dude, fucking midterms have turned him insane. I haven’t had any since that stupid Ball,” the brunet mumbled as he sank down bedside Damien. “The game on yet?”
“Should be… I got morning sex!”
“Fucker,” Tony hissed as he leaned forward to grab the remote. “It’s Saturday. We’re off… He should stop studying and let me touch him.” Tony leaned in. “It’s worse than after he came home from the hospital.”
Damien looked towards the kitchen where Shane was hunched over his book, murmuring under his breath, pen flying across a notebook as he took notes. Damien made a comforting sound and patted Tony’s shoulder. “It won’t be forever. Just think about the fun we’re going to have on our trip.”
“Speaking of… are we going how we always go?” Sheera questioned from the sofa opposite them.
“Of course, hun. That’s half the fun,” Damien told her, talking about the five hour drive to the mountains to the north. “Unless you’d rather fly. We can do that to if everyone wants a change.”
“Driving is fine with me,” Tony said.
“I don’t have a problem with that,” Sheera put in.
Tony leaned into Damien. “We’ll have two extra with us.”
Damien grinned and whispered, “Jake’s going to meet us at the resort,” and then he said louder, “and we’ll take two vehicles this time. So no problem.”
The front door opened once again and Caleb bounded in, excited looking and holding two of four bags. “Yo! We’re so going paintballing tomorrow! Jared’s already talking trash! Can’t wait to get him!”
“Yeah, um... no way am I going paintballing with the spy,” Sheera commented as she lay on her back.
“Chicken,” Jared sneered at her. Good naturedly, of course.
“Against you? Damn straight. I’m not stupid.”
“I’m in!” Tony called.
Damien was nodding eagerly. “Me too!”
Sheera shook her head. “You’re giving him more easy targets.”
“Not me. Gotta study.”
“Shane, you fucking wimp!”
Shane raised the two finger salute to his boyfriend.
The following Friday came and Shane hadn’t let up on the studying. Midterms suck. Absolutely, positively fucking sucked! No one would get Shane to change his opinion on that. Really, he’d slipped into a coma a half hour ago and was certain everything he’d studied in the last months had completely disappeared from his brain. And since he’d been in a real coma before, Shane was sure he was in one now.
This was the funk Tony found his boyfriend in. Tony came home from work to find Shane lying on his stomach on the living room floor, his forehead dropped down onto an opened text book. “Shane?”
“Get me away from this fucking book, Tony,” the brat mumbled. The pencil in his hand suddenly snapped. Tony was willing to bet his boyfriend was about ready to snap as well. “Can’t remember a fucking thing!”
“You promised not to study all goddamned day, Shane.”
Shane pointed to something in his book. “Is this a word, Tony? Doesn’t look like a word, but it’s all over the fucking pages… think I’ve lost the ability to read!” Tony threw back his head and laughed. Shane moaned and rolled over onto his back, staring blankly up at the ceiling. “Mom’s got another date with Shrod tonight.”
Tony sobered slightly. He tossed his keys onto the couch and knelt down to hover over Shane. Smiling and running a hand into the dark blond strands. Shane was uncertain as to how he felt about his mother dating Shrod. Damien was the same way. No one thought they would continue to see each other. But they’d been on four dates already, Shane’s mom wasn’t going back to Freemon, and the dates didn’t seem to be letting up. Tony knew it had nothing to do with Shrod. Shane just wasn’t certain how he felt about his mother dating anyone. Tony could relate.
“When Mom started dating Jerry, I freaked out,” he stated, catching Shane’s undivided attention. “Jerry’s not a bad guy. You know him. I knew that at the time too, but I still freaked out. There was no way I was going to let Mom go out with another guy and get trampled all over again…” Tony pulled his eyes away from Shane and looked off before shrugging. “But I learned it wasn’t about what I wanted. It was about what she wanted. I had to trust she knew what she was doing.”
“K, I hear what you’re saying, but if Shrod was any kind of serious about her, then why didn’t he take her to that ball thing? It’s like… he didn’t want his snobby associates to see her with him or something, man. That’s fucked up, you know.”
Tony leaned down till their noses were touching. “Don’t jump to conclusions, brat. Sure there’s a reasonable explanation for that… Shrod’s not that big of a snob. If that’s the way he felt, he never would have asked your mom out.”
Shane frowned, his forehead creasing in worry. Tony lifted a hand, letting it run through Shane’s hair. He noticed it was damp. “Take a shower recently?”
“Yeah, went running earlier… so I haven’t actually been studying all day.”
“Don’t know why you study so much anyway. You’re one of those guys I hate. Nerds who don’t even need to study and get perfect scores.”
“I’m not a nerd!”
Tony grinned, dropping his hand to Shane’s back and then letting his slide down to his ass and squeezed. “You’re a sexy nerd.” Shane blushed. But he also shifted closer, his hips bumping into Tony’s. “Can I touch my sexy nerd now?”
Shane pulled back, shaking his head. “Actually I’ve got a couple more chapters--”
Tony jumped to his feet. “To hell with that you fucking tease!” he grinned when Shane’s eyes widened. Tony bent down, picked the brat up and threw him over his shoulder. “A good fuck will do both of us good, dude. Watch.”
Shane was blessedly quiet and complacent as he was hauled down the hall and into the bedroom. One thing was for sure, Tony couldn’t wait until Wednesday; the end of classes and the end of Shane’s studying streak.
If someone knows if it's possible to post longer entries, please tell me!
The Sage Haze
Chapter Thirty-One
Sheera let herself into Damien’s place to find Caleb and Jared sitting in front of the plasma. Caleb was laughing while Jared looked severely put out. They were playing Halo.
“This is shite,” Jared murmured when his player was blown up.
“You really suck at this, man.”
“Fuck off! This is nothing like real life.”
“You just need practice, dude. Can’t believe you’ve never played a video game before.” Caleb said this last bit with awe and watched the spy with pity.
Sheera laughed as she turned away from them to look around. No one else was visible. “Where’s everyone else? Damien back from the Sage yet?”
“In the bathroom,” Caleb answered distractedly as he and Jared continued on with their game. As she left towards Damien’s bedroom, Jared growled.
“This is a waste of time! I’d rather go paintballing… want to do that?”
“Hell yeah, man! Tomorrow?”
“It’s a mission.”
Sheera left those two alone and jogged up the stairs to where Damien’s personal bathroom was located. Damien was sitting in a chair, facing the mirror, while Mai stood behind, brushing in the hair color. “Black again?” she asked, leaning her hip against the counter.
“With violet streaks,” Mai murmured.
“Jared likes when I dye it black.”
Sheera smiled. “So you were going to tell me why you think Jared’s totally perfect for you…”
Mai grinned over at her.
“Yeah. We had sex when I woke up in the morning! It was great!”
“You think he’s perfect cause now you’re getting morning sex?”
“His morning breath wasn’t even that awful!”
Sheera stared blankly at him. Mai giggled. Damien sighed when he saw Sheera’s expression. “He also told me some things…”
Now Sheera smirked. “What kind of things?”
“He says I should stab my nightmares.” He left out the other things because it was personal and Damien wanted all that warmth to stay with him.
“Yeah? Well then I’m definitely never sleeping with you again.”
When Damien’s hair was finished, the three vacated the bedroom to find Caleb and Jared had gone. But there was a note on the coffee table.
“They went to get food. Good thing too. I’m starved,” Damien told the girls as he spread out on one of the couches, pulling a strand of violet hair down so that he could stare at it in contemplation. Sheera rummaged around in her bag in the kitchen for her cigarettes before moving out onto the balcony. Mai followed her.
“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong now?”
“Nothing, Mai” she answered, taking out cigarette and lighting it before tossing the pack onto the closest patio table. “Thought I was being my normal bitchy self.”
“Actually you aren’t. You’re very quiet. This means there’s something wrong. Spill.”
Sheera glanced behind Mai to the sliding patio doors before turning to lean against the railing. She heard Mai move to slide the door closed. “Jake’s been acting weird,” she finally answered.
“Weird how?”
Sheera blew out a breath of smoke. “Flirting… it’s different,” she elaborated when Mai would have pointed out they always flirted. “Like it’s real now or some shit like that. It’s starting to make me uncomfortable.”
“Sexual harassment uncomfortable?”
Sheera laughed. “No. Jake’s not a creep. He couldn’t ever make me feel that kind of weird. Maybe that’s why… cause he’s not a creep.”
“No he’s not,” Mai agreed. “And he’s also hot as hell.”
“I really wish I could disagree,” Sheera mumbled. But she couldn’t because Mai was right. Jake Strathom was gorgeous. “I don’t know, Mai. I’m just bothered. What do you think I should do?”
“Let your guard down, She. The man likes you,” she said bluntly. “It’s obvious. It’s obvious to everyone under the sun you two are attracted to each other. It’s even obvious to you and Jake, but you have stubbornly placed a wall to block him. So yes, his flirting is real.”
“He’s not what I want--”
“Damien let up a little on his control, Sheera. At your insistence. Why don’t you follow your own advice,” Mai hissed. Sheera turned to her, surprised at her best friend’s harsh tone. But Mai was looking at her with a soft expression.
She was glad when she saw the front door open and Shane and Tony appeared. Shane had a loaded backpack on him as they walked in. “Nerd,” she said fondly.
“Sheera…”
“Nope. We’re done talking about this. Jake’s not what I need,” she replied, flicking her cigarette over the balcony. “I don’t need anyone. He’s the type of man that needs to take care of someone. That’s not me. I should just quit that job.”
“Don’t do that. You love working there! And,” she went off with an impish grin, “Jake would definitely be lost without you there.”
Sheera smiled. She liked to think so. But... she was seriously thinking about dropping her two week notice. It would be the best thing to do. Mai was staring at her in worry as if she knew what Sheera was thinking. She probably did. Sheera turned to go back inside. Mai sighed and stayed where she was, staring out across the city, dropping into one of her meditative states.
“Cutie! Come over here and tell me how fantastic you think my hair looks!” Damien shouted as Sheera walked in. She looked over to find Shane had taken up the kitchen table and was pouring over text books.
“I don’t feel like stroking your ego right now, Damien,” her cousin murmured, not even lifting his eyes from the book.
Damien gasped in outrage and popped up from the couch, only to have Tony shove him back down. “Dude, fucking midterms have turned him insane. I haven’t had any since that stupid Ball,” the brunet mumbled as he sank down bedside Damien. “The game on yet?”
“Should be… I got morning sex!”
“Fucker,” Tony hissed as he leaned forward to grab the remote. “It’s Saturday. We’re off… He should stop studying and let me touch him.” Tony leaned in. “It’s worse than after he came home from the hospital.”
Damien looked towards the kitchen where Shane was hunched over his book, murmuring under his breath, pen flying across a notebook as he took notes. Damien made a comforting sound and patted Tony’s shoulder. “It won’t be forever. Just think about the fun we’re going to have on our trip.”
“Speaking of… are we going how we always go?” Sheera questioned from the sofa opposite them.
“Of course, hun. That’s half the fun,” Damien told her, talking about the five hour drive to the mountains to the north. “Unless you’d rather fly. We can do that to if everyone wants a change.”
“Driving is fine with me,” Tony said.
“I don’t have a problem with that,” Sheera put in.
Tony leaned into Damien. “We’ll have two extra with us.”
Damien grinned and whispered, “Jake’s going to meet us at the resort,” and then he said louder, “and we’ll take two vehicles this time. So no problem.”
The front door opened once again and Caleb bounded in, excited looking and holding two of four bags. “Yo! We’re so going paintballing tomorrow! Jared’s already talking trash! Can’t wait to get him!”
“Yeah, um... no way am I going paintballing with the spy,” Sheera commented as she lay on her back.
“Chicken,” Jared sneered at her. Good naturedly, of course.
“Against you? Damn straight. I’m not stupid.”
“I’m in!” Tony called.
Damien was nodding eagerly. “Me too!”
Sheera shook her head. “You’re giving him more easy targets.”
“Not me. Gotta study.”
“Shane, you fucking wimp!”
Shane raised the two finger salute to his boyfriend.
The following Friday came and Shane hadn’t let up on the studying. Midterms suck. Absolutely, positively fucking sucked! No one would get Shane to change his opinion on that. Really, he’d slipped into a coma a half hour ago and was certain everything he’d studied in the last months had completely disappeared from his brain. And since he’d been in a real coma before, Shane was sure he was in one now.
This was the funk Tony found his boyfriend in. Tony came home from work to find Shane lying on his stomach on the living room floor, his forehead dropped down onto an opened text book. “Shane?”
“Get me away from this fucking book, Tony,” the brat mumbled. The pencil in his hand suddenly snapped. Tony was willing to bet his boyfriend was about ready to snap as well. “Can’t remember a fucking thing!”
“You promised not to study all goddamned day, Shane.”
Shane pointed to something in his book. “Is this a word, Tony? Doesn’t look like a word, but it’s all over the fucking pages… think I’ve lost the ability to read!” Tony threw back his head and laughed. Shane moaned and rolled over onto his back, staring blankly up at the ceiling. “Mom’s got another date with Shrod tonight.”
Tony sobered slightly. He tossed his keys onto the couch and knelt down to hover over Shane. Smiling and running a hand into the dark blond strands. Shane was uncertain as to how he felt about his mother dating Shrod. Damien was the same way. No one thought they would continue to see each other. But they’d been on four dates already, Shane’s mom wasn’t going back to Freemon, and the dates didn’t seem to be letting up. Tony knew it had nothing to do with Shrod. Shane just wasn’t certain how he felt about his mother dating anyone. Tony could relate.
“When Mom started dating Jerry, I freaked out,” he stated, catching Shane’s undivided attention. “Jerry’s not a bad guy. You know him. I knew that at the time too, but I still freaked out. There was no way I was going to let Mom go out with another guy and get trampled all over again…” Tony pulled his eyes away from Shane and looked off before shrugging. “But I learned it wasn’t about what I wanted. It was about what she wanted. I had to trust she knew what she was doing.”
“K, I hear what you’re saying, but if Shrod was any kind of serious about her, then why didn’t he take her to that ball thing? It’s like… he didn’t want his snobby associates to see her with him or something, man. That’s fucked up, you know.”
Tony leaned down till their noses were touching. “Don’t jump to conclusions, brat. Sure there’s a reasonable explanation for that… Shrod’s not that big of a snob. If that’s the way he felt, he never would have asked your mom out.”
Shane frowned, his forehead creasing in worry. Tony lifted a hand, letting it run through Shane’s hair. He noticed it was damp. “Take a shower recently?”
“Yeah, went running earlier… so I haven’t actually been studying all day.”
“Don’t know why you study so much anyway. You’re one of those guys I hate. Nerds who don’t even need to study and get perfect scores.”
“I’m not a nerd!”
Tony grinned, dropping his hand to Shane’s back and then letting his slide down to his ass and squeezed. “You’re a sexy nerd.” Shane blushed. But he also shifted closer, his hips bumping into Tony’s. “Can I touch my sexy nerd now?”
Shane pulled back, shaking his head. “Actually I’ve got a couple more chapters--”
Tony jumped to his feet. “To hell with that you fucking tease!” he grinned when Shane’s eyes widened. Tony bent down, picked the brat up and threw him over his shoulder. “A good fuck will do both of us good, dude. Watch.”
Shane was blessedly quiet and complacent as he was hauled down the hall and into the bedroom. One thing was for sure, Tony couldn’t wait until Wednesday; the end of classes and the end of Shane’s studying streak.
If someone knows if it's possible to post longer entries, please tell me!