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[closed - Spencer - BLACKOUT~]
Oct. 24th, 2014 02:03 pmThey're in the bookstore late that evening, the sign flipped over to indicate they're closed, but all the lights still burning. There's no new inventory, but Spencer had taken down a full shelf of books earlier in the day and had built himself into an unintentional fort, stacks of books piled up around him and he had insisted that they not leave until they're all sorted. Joel doesn't mind, really, it gives them both something to take their minds off everything else that's been going on, the growing force he can feel trying to take over bigger and bigger pieces of him every day.
He's not as frightened as he was, not with Nerium and Coop both willing to help him. It gets bigger with every passing day, it gets stronger, but whenever he's with Spencer, it's like he's calmed. Like the raging monster trying to take over is placated and so Joel has taken to spending as much of his free time with Spencer as possible. It's not really that different from how things were before, but he just goes out of his way to find Spencer in moments when they might otherwise be apart.
One day it isn't going to work anymore, one day not even Spencer will be able to calm the thing inside him, but on the day that happens, Joel has to believe they can fight it.
For now, though, for tonight, he's ignoring it. He makes jokes as Spencer passes him books from inside his fortress of words, placing them where he's directed, and he has to admit, the store looks more like a store and less like a cave with each passing day.
He's in the middle of trying to wiggle in between two piles of books around Spencer just so he can kiss his husband, in the middle of jokingly accusing him of making the piles just close enough together that he can't get through when the lights go off. Joel freezes, not wanting to knock over the piles of books, but then Huxley goes darting through the store and careens straight into a pile of books that narrowly miss falling on him as he huddles against Spencer's ankles and whimpers.
"Shit," Joel whispers just as he turns and knocks over another pile of books. The store is completely black, which means it's dark outside, which means it's not just the breaker. He doesn't want to move, but carefully he manages to creep toward the window and, sure enough, all the streetlights are out and all the windows in the businesses across the street are dark, too.
"It's looks like it's the whole town," he says, his voice holding the faintest bit of wonder.
He's not as frightened as he was, not with Nerium and Coop both willing to help him. It gets bigger with every passing day, it gets stronger, but whenever he's with Spencer, it's like he's calmed. Like the raging monster trying to take over is placated and so Joel has taken to spending as much of his free time with Spencer as possible. It's not really that different from how things were before, but he just goes out of his way to find Spencer in moments when they might otherwise be apart.
One day it isn't going to work anymore, one day not even Spencer will be able to calm the thing inside him, but on the day that happens, Joel has to believe they can fight it.
For now, though, for tonight, he's ignoring it. He makes jokes as Spencer passes him books from inside his fortress of words, placing them where he's directed, and he has to admit, the store looks more like a store and less like a cave with each passing day.
He's in the middle of trying to wiggle in between two piles of books around Spencer just so he can kiss his husband, in the middle of jokingly accusing him of making the piles just close enough together that he can't get through when the lights go off. Joel freezes, not wanting to knock over the piles of books, but then Huxley goes darting through the store and careens straight into a pile of books that narrowly miss falling on him as he huddles against Spencer's ankles and whimpers.
"Shit," Joel whispers just as he turns and knocks over another pile of books. The store is completely black, which means it's dark outside, which means it's not just the breaker. He doesn't want to move, but carefully he manages to creep toward the window and, sure enough, all the streetlights are out and all the windows in the businesses across the street are dark, too.
"It's looks like it's the whole town," he says, his voice holding the faintest bit of wonder.
