there's a high king joke in here [closed]

[elfstoned]

Who: Aeron Penning and Aaron Strider, and Julien later
What: It started out a friendly visit, and coffee, but the coffee was made with that awful gigglewater and Aaron's got a clinic to run. Nothing about this will be okay.
Where: LSR clinic
When: Friday morning, before water-warnings!



The clinic wasn't open yet. Aaron was there, bright and early, taking care of all those little things that had to be done before they opened. He set a pot of coffee brewing, and didn't forget to water the athelas plant. For he knew now that it was called athelas, and that it was nothing short of a godsend.

He stopped for a moment to run a couple of its long, thin leaves through his fingers, standing in the sunlight. So much had changed over the past four months, and he had no idea what the next four would bring. What about a year? Where would they be?

No matter, there wasn't time for reflection this morning. It was just him and Julien managing things until afternoon, and he had work to do.

Comments

[espigeonage]

Julien had had a run very early, before coming in, and he'd run into a friend and hadn't recognized her at first... He was still annoyed with himself. He was mostly used to what people looked like now! It was hardly the worst thing ever, he didn't need or want to talk about it, but do better was now set in his head.

So, here he was filling his ice-loaded water bottle from the sink faucet, touching his elbow to Aaron's in passing, and going from heels to toes humming decade-old pop songs under his breath. He obviously didn't need coffee.

[edhwierfan]

The clinic wasn't open? Pish posh, that wasn't a bother to Aeron when he'd at least made semi regular trips to the clinic nowadays. Besides, it was too early to head to the university and the flat had been stiflingly quiet since Emery had gone back to Wales.

Aeron pushed the door open and wandered in until he heard Julien's familiar voice. The look he gave Julien was a disgruntled one.

"Must you do that?" he said, dropping his bag onto the nearest chair. "How on earth are you this cheerful in the morning?"

[elfstoned]

Aaron doesn't answer that, merely pouring a cup of coffee (ready now) and handing it to their visitor. "Hello, Penning. Is this a business visit, or purely social?"

[espigeonage]

...right, yes, Julien would have recognized the intruder's voice in another second and the contours of his face after that, Aaron had just jump-started the process. Apparently Aeron used a different kind of shaving cream or gel or something that Julien wasn't familiar with.

Conquering the urge to stare surreptitiously, he grinned. "I must, sorry! Morning person. Uh, I'll go leave you two to it, I can get the rest of the opening stuff done. I'll come get you when someone comes in, sir."

[edhwierfan]

Aeron shrugs, a brief flash of discomfort on his face. "Do I need a reason to stop by?" he finally answers.

He can hardly say he's feeling lonely or something just as embarrassing, now can he? Though he is here earlier than he's ever been before, and clearly caught them at a bad time. Aeron frowns. The last thing he wants to do is distract them from their work.

"Should I leave?"

[espigeonage]

[Some unspecified amount of time after the first thread started]

Ever since Julien's lungs and voice had changed he had become entirely incapable of laughing like humans did. He could imitate the sound of it perfectly and often did, but the slow smooth strokes of his breath kept to their rhythm. At most, he involuntarily exhaled a little in a particular way, and then it would be a couple of minutes before it might happen again.

Julien's not-laugh was happening more frequently this morning and he smiled often to himself, but he was still caught between chores and duties and thinking about that friend. Besides, he always smiled a lot.

There was a part of this job that was a lot like customer service in general - long periods of nothing going on could be interrupted with moments when everyone and their uncle came in needing something. There had been no one when the clinic officially opened and for some time after that. There were several people now, some of whom he recognized. Julien had welcomed them in the waiting room and said that Aaron would be with them in a minute, and went in search of his boss.

He was still talking to Aeron Penning, right? As Julien drew closer he could hear both of them laughing, and for a moment he was a little jealous - he could make Aaron laugh sometimes, but not like that, what did Aeron have that he didn't - but pushed it away. Aaron needed other friends, and if he was happier with them than with Julien, well, it wasn't surprising.

But as he got the door open and said, "Strider, they need you" the sense that actually things were very wrong mounted up.