eternitycoder | [musebox post]

Go forth, I will bravely start the fire. [He smirks and crouches down, holding the lighter under the corner of one of the school newspapers he picked up. Soon, the paper has caught fire and is spreading.]

There. [He shrugs out of his jacket.]

[Rikku stops to watch for a second. Artemis is so pretty, so not Rikku's physical type, but...well, he really likes him. He hasn't even brought anyone back from the club or wherever else in a while.

And then he snaps out of it and starts building the fort]

[Artemis smiles, unaware of Rikku watching, and moves to help him. Shifting chairs, spreading a blanket here and there, and then crawls in to enjoy the fire.]

[Rikku grabs the pillows and spare blankets and joins him]

I still can't believe you hadn't done this before we moved in together.

Well... [Artemis shrugs weakly while making room for Rikku.] It comes with being the son of someone important. ...you don't do a lot of things.

But, all of that is changing. My parents will be shocked when I go home. [He smiles and rests his head in his arms.]

Yeah. Next step: figure out which club I need to take you to, The Abbey or Ricky's.

[The gay bar or the generic one he went on the weeks he didn't go to the gay bar]

[Artemis snorts and rolls over a little so he can see Rikku.] You know I'd be absolutely awkward at a club. It would be the worst experience of my life, going to a social place when I'm so very... unsocial.

Liar. I've seen you socialize at parties!

Those were receptions! After concerts! I'm allowed, and encouraged, to sound full of myself there. [He smirked and pushed one of the smaller throw pillows at Rikku.]

[He takes it and hugs it]

D'you I've got people at both places asking when I'm bringing you? The guys I've brought home talk about you and I talk about you and people are starting to think you're not real!

[He laughs]

Then it's more important I don't show up. Otherwise they would see I'm actually a horrible conversationalist and somewhat condescending at all times. Then you would become 'the guy with the asshole roommate'.

And I'm sure the men you bring home only talk about me because I'm mysterious and quiet. They should talk about you though, you're fun and interesting. Backwards world we live in.

Nah, everyone knows me. Or most of me. I'm the fun chem major and sometimes ditzy Cali boy who, if you get enough Screwdrivers in me and happen to be a hot guy, can sometimes be talked into making out on the dance floor.

[Of course, Rikku's more than that, but that's what everyone else knows]

You see? Much more interesting than the self-proclaimed Renaissance Man with three majors from Ireland who does nothing in his spare time. People admire people who are smarter than they are, but they never like them.

[He looks slightly put out by something.] I wouldn't last five minutes in a place where people make out while dancing.

[In European Spanish, very softly:] I like you.

[In English:] Well, that's only at the Abbey. Ricky's got no dancefloor.

[Artemis blinks. Yes, he does speak that. Artemis had his foreign language requirement done before he'd even arrived.]

What?

[Rikku's family was from Spain, but he was born in America, so. He's just unused to people understanding him when he speaks it, since the accent is different from Calinish (his term for California Spanish)]

I said Ricky's dance floor is crap.

Right... [Not what he meant, but if Rikku wasn't going to own up to it...]

Well, I like you as well. [Artemis was going to make him.] Which is fortunate, given we live together.

...Crap, you're European.

[He laughs a little, shaking his head at his stupidity before biting his lip and looking in Arty's direction. Might as well.]

I...kinda meant it a little differently than just that...

[He's tense and waiting, just a little. Some straight guys can't stand living with a guy who has a crush on them.]

Yes...? [In fact, Artemis' first second language was French. Spanish followed closely after, then Japanese, Russian, German...]

Differently. [Artemis is clearly lost here. And really, given the boy doesn't have many friends, it's not hard to figure out why.] Differently as in, you have romantic feelings towards me?

Hey, I forget! And, um, maybe? Yes? Probably?

[He looks away]

Oh... [Artemis looks like he doesn't know what to do with that. This is the first time someone's said something to him like this. Did he say, 'Okay'? Or 'Why?' Or... seriously, what was he supposed to say?]

What about all of those ah, men you make out with on dance floors? [It isn't accusatory--Artemis just genuinely thought that Rikku liked other people. It wasn't as though all gay men liked every man they saw.]

I haven't danced with anyone for a few months now. I've been going for the drinks and to play wingman for my English professor's old TA since she's been flirting with the bartender for forever.

[Arty doesn't like him, he knew it, he's probably going to have to move out and back in with Yuna and Tidus and dammit why did he say anything]

Besides, I gotta be drunk for that. I'm pretty shy normally.

[Part of him wants to point out how ridiculous it is that a woman is going to hit on a bartender at a gay bar, but there are other issues at hand right now.]

Really? [Artemis tilts his head slightly.] Are you always drunk? You seem fairly outgoing when you're at home. Or... is that for me?

[The bartender's female too, otherwise Rikku would've stopped it long ago]

No, I mean with like...kissing and stuff. I flirt and tease and dance but unless I'm drunk I don't actually kiss anyone on the dance floor. I'm fun, but I'm not easy.

No, I wasn't implying you were easy! [He looks at the fire briefly, looking nervous. He really wasn't doing very well with this. He hadn't even addressed what Rikku had confessed.]

I'm... very bad at this. [He frowns and sighs sadly.] I don't know what I am Rikku. You're so comfortable in your sexuality and I just... I feel like I'm stumbling around in a dark room. I don't know what it feels like to have romantic feelings towards someone. It's still hard to know when I feel like being someone's friend. It's frustrating sometimes.

But I've never kissed anyone, never held hands, never hugged. I haven't even masturbated once. [Which Artemis would die before telling anyone else, but Rikku hadn't kept secrets from Artemis about his life. Artemis figures he shouldn't keep secrets either.] I'm jealous.

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