[OPEN] Tried on 13 different pairs of shoes

[businessorlibation]

Who: Johnny Summer and You
When: January
Where: Hurikane, Tommy Bahama
Summary: December's aftermath settles in hard. Johnny folds himself up, tucks himself away, finds distractions.
Warnings: Alcohol, maladaptive coping strategies, mental health

1. I am dented by the skies [Hurikane]
Sometimes, you just want to slot into old familiar routine, step back into what was work and just. Wear the customer service face, letting people tell you what they want of you and delivering that to the best of your ability. Johnny's behind the bar, mixing cocktails and hoping no one notices how mask-like his smile feels to him right now. Come on over, he'll just...make a drink happen for you. It's the best he can do for anyone in this moment.


2. They keep me up at night [Tommy Bahama]
And sometimes a man's feet get restless, when the end of day comes and lying down in bed feels impossible. There's no snow-covered wilderness to wander here, and that suits Johnny Summer fine. He's an indoor cat, after all, has been ever since...

...so he's at Tommy Bahama alone, taking advantage of its endlessness to go for a nice long walk to try to get the fog out of his mind. Maybe. Or maybe he'll run into a werecougar and have a fight, always possible. He does have his scissors.


3. It’s just a lack of air supply [Wildcard]
darkersolstice or darkersolstice #9463 to plot

Comments

[businessorlibation]

Ah, there's his other favorite intoxicant. Husband kisses.

"Fits and starts. Sometimes it's quiet, but people come over to say hello, even if they're not drinking."

[lightconductor]

"Well, I can certainly understand that. I think you're wonderful company, after all."

Watson kisses him again, lingering with his hands around Johnny's middle. He is extremely in the way. "And I imagine strong drink is rarely unwanted at a time like this."

[businessorlibation]

He is intentionally extremely in the way, the cheeky devil (though is that not the very fundament of Johnny's type?).

"Not everyone gets to get drunk off your kisses. So they manage with booze instead."

[lightconductor]

"It's true, most of the ship must do without that particular intoxicant. Poor souls." He leans down to rest his chin on Johnny's shoulder. "Though I daresay I am quite satisfied with the current state of affairs."

Watson sways them playfully for a moment. "How are you, love?"

[businessorlibation]

"Well, better now." And perhaps they can linger in this moment forever, instead of him actually addressing the question asked. Right? That's a possibility?

[lightconductor]

Lingering is... tempting, at the very least.

"Better is good," Watson says. "I'm glad to hear it. Can I tempt you away from the bar to find some more comfortable seating, for a little while? Drinks optional, but welcome."

[businessorlibation]

"Careful, or I'll take that to mean you're offering your lap." He chuckles, then nods. "Pick a table, I'll make drinks. Something whiskey-based for you, or?"

[lightconductor]

"I'm not not offering my lap," Watson says, smiling. In troubling times, he really does just want to wrap himself in the company of his loved ones, and pretend for a little while that all is well. "Whiskey sounds delightful, love."

One more kiss, to Johnny's neck this time, and he does, reluctantly, let his husband go to find a table, not too far away.

[businessorlibation]

It isn't long until Johnny shows up with two glasses, and he does indeed lightly settle himself on John's lap as he hands off one of them. "I think this one may surprise you. I won't tell you what it's called until you've tasted it."

[lightconductor]

With one hand around Johnny's waist to steady them both, he takes a careful sip; his eyebrows lift.

"My God, but that's wonderful. Probably a little dangerous." He gives a little laugh, and takes a second, less cautious drink. "What do you call your latest masterpiece, then?"

[businessorlibation]

"Oh, I found this in the bartending guide I got from Sundries. It's an 'Aztec's Mark', apparently. I never considered using hot sauce in a drink before, beside a bloody mary or the like."

He relaxes as he's held, letting out a sound that is not a purr, but emulates one sufficiently to make the point.

[lightconductor]

"It gives a fascinating little bite to it. And you do, as always, have an unerring sense for what I might like. I am blessed."

Watson leans his head against Johnny, wishing desperately that he could somehow preserve this moment, where there is at least the illusion that all is safe, and happy, and well. When he speaks, his voice is very soft, a different sort of tone entirely. "You have no idea how glad I was to learn that even if I died, you did not. I thought that my failure -- well."

[businessorlibation]

"At the risk of sounding flip about the nature of life and death here, I might have preferred that over the aftermath I did experience." His voice is very, very low, as if afraid Rich or César might somehow overhear that and make a Very Big Deal of it.

[lightconductor]

He rubs his hand in small circles on Johnny's back, for a moment squeezing his eyes shut. "I'm sorry. I want to try so hard to spare you from what I can, but it really isn't possible, is it?"

[businessorlibation]

"We don't really get that as an option, here, no." He sounds resigned to it, beaten down by everything. It's been a roller coaster few months, hasn't it?

[lightconductor]

"It seems to me, sometimes, that I am a fool who runs towards danger instead of away from it, and on this damned ship that makes things all the harder for you and César. I'm sorry for that."

This has been weighing on him. He ought to offer to try to change his ways, but he's not sure how to even begin that.

[businessorlibation]

"That wouldn't be so bad, if it weren't for danger's habit of finding you and making use of the opportunity, love. I know you can't help it, when catastrophe strikes." Can't help himself with the need to respond or can't help it when it strikes him?

Yes.

[lightconductor]

Watson is quiet for a moment. He takes another sip of his drink, holding it in his mouth for a moment to savour it before swallowing. He's a healer, and he does not know how to mend this.

"I just hope I won't give you cause to regret marrying a doctor."

[businessorlibation]

"Regret?" He lets out a sound that's a sputter or a laugh or maybe both, shaking his head. "I know who you are and I love you. I know who César is and I love him. And the time we had at the resort before things got bad was a clear reminder of why I married both of you. It's just."

He sips at his own drink as he finds words. "The wedding wasn't an endpoint. I think I forgot that, somehow. There's no 'complete this and everything becomes fine'."

[lightconductor]

"Mm. I could have lived very happily in that suite with the pair of you for quite some time."

He's grateful for the laugh, of all the reactions that could have garnered. Watson laughs a little in return, more out of relief than anything else. "It's true. Romance stories always end with the proposal, or the wedding, but they're a beginning, not an end. Actually," he adds, with a peculiar shift in tone, "do you know what the Captain said to me? He said that at that point they become different stories, which is probably the most sensible, inarguable thing I've ever heard him say."

[businessorlibation]

"There was some discussion of that at the trial. Stories and their rules. The fact that he couldn't just kill Skulduggery, he had to do what was proper by the rules. What was it Erin's friend said? The tall one..."

He closes his eyes, trying to remember. "Something about how the rules define the Captain's realms. 'Trees grow up, but they don't have rings because that's not important...At summer camp, people wear shorts. It snows at a mountain resort.' Because that's what happens in stories."

[lightconductor]

"Mm." Watson thinks this over. He might be a doctor, but he's a writer, too. "He has a very strong sense of stories and how they are meant to work, doesn't he? I can't fault him for that."

He keeps rubbing Johnny's back in small circles as he thinks. "The more I learn about him, the more I think it was easier when he was some unseen, ominous thing who never left the bridge."

[businessorlibation]

"Instead of another person with agoraphobia, learning to fall in love, scared of everything around him?"

One eyebrow raises.

[lightconductor]

"Point taken," he says, mildly. "Do you find yourself sympathetic to him as well, then? I'm not sure we ought to be, but I certainly am, despite myself."

[businessorlibation]

"I think I'd have to have a heart of stone to not sympathize a little. I understand something of his everything, John. Not all, but. I can imagine what sort of world I'd build myself to feel secure in, if I had the power to."

He shakes his head, lifting his glass. "And I think Skulduggery is good for him."