Day: March 26, 2018

raisedinthesmoke:

“Don’t really have much time for stuff like that.” he admitted quietly with a small shrug, chewing the inside of his cheek. “Kinda spend most of my time just trying to make enough money to survive, y’know? Other than that, I either just sleep or get wasted. Not much else to do around where I’m from. Nothing legal, anyways.”

“That sounds kind of lonely and boring.” He didn’t have a lot of hobbies, but even he had more free time than that. Plus, teaching Cammie how to play old video games was sort of fun if only because that little girl could bring a grown man to shame with her rage quits. 

raisedinthesmoke:

“Yeah,” Lex answered, a smile breaking through for the first time since he’d gotten there, Lex’s posture relaxing just a fraction at realising Dev felt just as awkward as he did over the unexpected social interaction.

Another moment and the silence settled back in for a moment before Lex let out a sigh and fidgeted again, hating the way not talking made his anxiety spike but not really knowing what else to talk about.

It was better with the tension cracking even a little, easier to breathe. It made Lex smell less like something to chase if he was calmer but he knew better than to say that to a human. 

“Any hobbies?” He had to fill the silence somehow and that seemed an easy enough topic to manage.

raisedinthesmoke:

Lex looked apologetic suddenly, as though it was his fault. Even though they’d gotten off to a bit of a rough start, Dev had gone out of his way to being more accommodating to Lex than he’d expected, and he sort of wished he was in a better emotional state to relax and be more talkative, but that only seemed to come easily to him when it was for the purpose of dealing with clients and getting paid for it. Beyond the persona Lex put on when he was working, he was so much more shy and fragile than he liked to admit even to himself, and it made him self conscious when he felt like it was showing in front of someone he didn’t really know.

“Sorry. Guess I’m not very good at it either.”

A short laugh escaped him at the response, but it was good natured and relaxed. It was always better to suck at something with someone than to be the only one in the room that was awful at something. Less pressure he assumed.

“At least we can suck at it together for the time being?”

raisedinthesmoke:

“I guess…”

It still didn’t sit right with him, but that could easily be attributed to Lex having gotten used to expecting being disappointed by everything in his life, and he wasn’t at all sure what exactly was expected of him if he did come back again. He knew that he had no desire to ditch his apartment, even if he did struggle to pay the rent most of the time while balancing it with everything else he had to pay for, so if things hinged on the condition of him moving in here, he wasn’t sure if he was willing to do that.

He didn’t know what to do or say at this point. Ollie was better at explaining things, better at making people feel at ease. Devereux was better at picking fights with assholes in the street for whatever reason. A guy had made a pass at Cammie once, despite her being nine and he fractured the guy’s spine in three places for it. That’s what he was good at. He was more like Jeff. 

“Sooo…I got nothing. I suck at small talk.”

raisedinthesmoke:

“Wasn’t even planning on doing more than just checking the place out for now, but then you busted me and kinda fucked that idea up.” Lex admitted, chewing his lip and fidgeting slightly.

“I don’t even really know what I’m doing here, to be honest. Guess I just… I dunno? Maybe I just thought if I came here and proved it was all talk, then I could just walk away and not give it another thought or some shit.”

“I’ve known Jeff and Ollie my entire life and even I thought it was shit when I got here. Wasn’t until I found out they were the ones paying my mom’s medical bills did I realize why she listed them as my guardians if anything happened.”

Obviously the worst had happened if he was there, but he was thankful for the two of them. “Guess now you’ve got more choices though, right?”