rose-colored glasses seem to be the rage

[exanimatus.livejournal.com]

Who: Cain and Zelman
What: Another silly "date", drinking edition!
When: July 3 (tomorrow).
Where: Some classy joint out in town.
Rating: PG-13, for a cornucopia of bad decisions.


He's really not sure what to think of Cain. He's as idealistic as his brother, but consistently proves to be a lot more fun. He's not really sure where the luncheon turned into a two-person drinking party (but he has a sneaking suspicious it was probably around the time they started discussing science-y things). Maybe they're just so good at politely mirroring each other that they've unwittingly locked each other into an unending cycle. Maybe it's just really good liquor.

Either way, he doesn't expect too much; his body refuses to let these sorts of things hold affect for very long. But he feels a certain sort of detached satisfaction when he thinks of how many drinks he's had and realizes, dully, that he can't seem to count past four.

He glances towards Cain over a too-long sip from his glass. What were they talking about?

Comments

[exanimatus.livejournal.com]

"No."

He says it a little too fast, that biting syllable cutting across the end of Cain's struggle for an appropriate word. This is something he sees in other people; this is something he dislikes. This is something he settled with a very, very long time ago.

"There's a reason for it. If someone I truly, truly like tells me I cannot follow them somewhere, then I would have no choice but to trust that I have a different path before me."

It's a somewhat sobering thought. He absently rotates his glass around its center point. "And if I can't trust the people I like, then they're not worth my time."

He suddenly smirks, as if something funny has occurred to him. But if he has stumbled across something self-assuring, he doesn't say it out loud.

[derpish.livejournal.com]

"Those are... very wise words."

A different path, hm? It was easier said than done, though, as they had all found out while growing up. Lilith had said that, always saying that you could choose your own path and the approval of others shouldn't matter to you as long as you knew who you were inside.

But that hadn't stopped Cain and Abel both wanting to be desperately part of a group they never could belong to, and that had just led to destruction.

"You're so smart, Zelman. So smart!"

[exanimatus.livejournal.com]

"I know, I know," he says, with that same sort of confidence that shows when he admits to being unreasonably good-looking, "It's true."

And just like that, he regards the situation with a little more light.

"I think this is around the time I cut you off...? From drinking, anyway." He laughs a little, not at all burdened, "But that's really your choice. It's now like I'm your mother."

[derpish.livejournal.com]

Psh.

He sniggered at Zelman's arrogance, reaching over to ruffle the other's hair quite fondly as a retaliation.

"You can't cut me off, you're too... little."

[exanimatus.livejournal.com]

He looks openly shocked at he does that, then wriggles away from his hand like a child who can't stand another second of his mother's well-meaning adjustments. Flattening his hair with one hand, he bunches the other up in a fist.

He looks immediately put-out. "I'm not little. You're just moronically tall."

[derpish.livejournal.com]

Snorting aloud at Zelman's protests, Cain tugged on one lock of his own hair contemplatively as he sat back and watched the other man flatten his own petulantly.

"I know, s'like we had growth hormone."

Wait.

"...probably did."

[exanimatus.livejournal.com]

That gets him to stop fiddling with his hair (which is pointless, because his hair looks pretty much the same no matter what you do to it). Something about that little statement doesn't quite match up with Zelman's super-imposed predisposition regarding Cain.

"Whaddya mean?" he asks, self-consciously going back to combing his bangs into place with his fingers.

[derpish.livejournal.com]

"About what?"

He has already forgotten anything he said that could have required further clarification, and Zelman's question took him off-guard. Not to mention that he would have been very surprised to hear the other man had pre-conceived notions about him.