Fic: One Summer, Saiyuki AU
Apr. 22nd, 2005 02:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
louiseluxAlthough I posted the separate bits already on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
100_roadtrips, I'm putting all this here too so I can keep track of it.
Nick sprawled over his desk, bored beyond imagining. Tim was making copious notes. He looked so attentive and respectable, but Nick knew better. He nudged him and saw the corner of his mouth curl up. Justin appeared to be asleep.
After his mum and John had gone the school counsellor had warned him, in soothing tones that made him want to hit things, that he was in danger of underachieving. He didn't care. He was leaving this school and this shitty town far, far behind. This summer the three of them were going travelling.
It was going to be amazing.
David hung around every day watching the three of them, eating up each word and gesture. It wasn't normal but he didn't care. They were so... cool, although it was more than that. He couldn't put it into words or even proper thoughts. They were different from everyone else and he wanted to be close to them. The need itched inside him and it became overwhelming, alarmingly so, when he looked at Justin's narrow, unsmiling face.
They looked like nothing could ever scare them.
David moved nearer, shivering at the wonderful, terrible idea that today would be the day they noticed him.
Justin felt sick. That kid, David, was back.
'Your admirer's watching you,' Nick crooned into his ear, hooking a lanky arm round him.
'For fuck's sake. Get off.'
Justin scowled and chucked his cigarette away.
'Maybe he's a psychopath obsessed with chopping you into little pieces,' Tim said in helpful tones.
'You're a creepy bastard. Did I ever tell you that?' said Nick and then tried to wrestle him to the ground. Instead he ended up on his back, gasping. 'Owww.'
'Stop it, you wankers.' Justin stood up. 'I can't stand this. I'm going to tell him to fuck off.'
Tim sat next to Nick on the wall, knees touching, shoes scuffing together, and they watched Justin do his thing.
'Do you think we'll have to fight?'
'Whatever he's saying, it's taking ages,' Tim said.
He wanted to tell Nick about his sister, wanted to say it so much. Karen had sworn him not to tell, but it was killing him not to. Ever since they were little she had always asked too much from him.
This summer, that was when he'd say, when they escaped.
'Oh my god,' Nick said.
Justin was walking back over and so was David.
Tim got an old Land Rover cheap from one of his dad's friends.
'Let's paint it white,' said Justin, one day.
'What for?' Nick said.
'Dunno. It should be white,' he shrugged.
That was as much explanation as they ever got from Justin. He even helped paint it. So did David, always grinning, always there. He got paint everywhere and Tim sighed and smiled.
'Can't you tie your pet up, Justin?' said Nick.
'I'm not a pet.'
'You follow him round like a dog. '
They fought until Justin kicked them both, muttering, 'Is this trip really a good idea?'
Karen got pregnant.
'I'm not keeping it, Tim.'
Before that, it was a game, creeping across to her room, laughing under the covers. So familiar, yet it leaned drunkenly against the rest of his life, terrifying and addictive and now it was a nightmare. Sometimes he wished so hard that he was somewhere else, a place where nothing was familiar, not even her. This was fair punishment.
'We need money then.'
'Why?'
'To pay for the abortion. Justin can lend it us.'
Her eyes glittered with tears and then she began to cry, hard.
'Just-- don't tell your fucking precious Nick.'
Justin didn't ask, just fetched his chequebook.
'You've got money saved for the trip though, right?' Justin asked.
Tim squirmed then, red and ashamed for some reason that Justin couldn't fathom. It was better not to know. Tim looked like he might cry, so he backed away.
'Want a cup of tea?'
''Kay.'
In the large, gloomy sitting room he watched Tim notice the sleeping bag on the settee and the mess of clothes and schoolbooks that spilled all over the floor. Tim frowned.
'That's Dave's schoolbag. What's it doing here?'
'Huh. Well. He's staying. But it's only temporary.'
Justin was so cool. He lived alone in this big house and he was an orphan, which was sad but amazing too and he stayed up all night sometimes, smoking and watching TV. He nearly always gave in when David asked to stay over, which was a lot.
He liked it best when Nick and Tim where here and they all spent hours on the Playstation. Tim always won and Nick always got too drunk but he could tell it made Justin happy. He liked being teased by them. They were his friends.
He never wanted to leave.
The last night, Nick went over to Tim's house. Justin was already there, sprawled on the bed. Tim was packing. Nick sat on the floor and watched him struggle to fit many things into a large backpack.
'Quiet here tonight,' he said, watching Tim's face. 'No Karen?'
'She's gone on holiday this week.'
Something nudged him discreetly but firmly in the back. Justin's knee.
'Can't wait till tomorrow,' he said.
Tim smiled at him. 'Me neither.'
'So, is our favourite monkey-boy coming too?'
'Yeah,' Justin said, then, 'Hey. Why d'you start calling him that?'
'Monkey? Dunno. It just seems right.'
Tim laughed more than he had for months and drove and drove. Nick got off with girls, leaving them behind with a grin. Justin was cautiously enjoying himself, turning brown in the sun. And then there was David.
David was inexplicable. The way he worshipped Justin, the aggression that displayed itself more often now, the way he'd moved into Justin's life and Justin had just let him.
Justin worried. He only really knew one thing about David, a secret confided one night: his parents had locked him up for a long time.
Now, he was sure David had run away.
Tim blinked, dazzled by the white noon light. He'd phoned home last night, the first time for weeks. Today everything seemed brittle and about to shatter.
'It's the wrong side of the road!' Nick yelled from the back, kicking his seat.
'I'm sorry, sorry,' he gasped, then groaned at the sight of blue flashing lights in the back window.
In terrible Italian, Tim tried to explain, but the policeman's gaze kept moving to David.
'What?' David said to the man, rude, squaring up. 'What's your problem?'
'Shut the fuck up,' hissed Nick.
David's face fell and it made Tim shiver.
'He's freaking me out and he's going to get us in trouble,' Nick said. 'He's not normal.'
David shouted at people, tried to get into fights. Hyperactive and intense and needy; even a smile from Justin made his day.
'Justin-- do something.'
'Why me?'
'Because-- ' he belongs to you-- 'he listens to you. He's just not normal.'
'None of us is normal, especially not you,' Tim said, savagely, 'so shut up.'
Nick stared, his face flaming.
'Sorry,' Tim mumbled and he turned away.
Nick went off into town that night and took David with him. He didn't speak to Tim.
They drove along and the blue horizon, joining sea and sky, stretched on forever. To David it looked like heaven. So much space.
But he knew something was wrong, like always. They were looking at him and not talking.
'Look, David,' Justin began, 'you've got to stop being such a shithead-- '
'What Justin means is, we know you've run away,' Tim said.
He looked wildly at Justin for help but was surprised by an arm round his neck, tight and warm and safe, then Nick spoke:
'We could get into real trouble over this. You'd better tell us.'
' ...Okay.'
He could only stutter out little fragments of his life, in the end. It hurt too much.
His parents had no idea where he was.
'We've got to tell them,' said Tim.
'No way. You heard what they're like,' Nick said, glaring at him.
'Leaving aside the lovers' tiff, I say we just make sure he gets home safely. What else can we do?' Justin lit a cigarette and looked bored.
'I don't want to got back.'
'You have to. They'll be really worried,' said Tim.
'But the rest of the trip…'
'Who said we're cutting it short?' said Justin.
They were alone, lying in the long grass with just the gulls for company. Nick's skin was brown and dusted with salt from the sea.
'I'm sorry,' Tim said into the silence.
'It's all right.'
'I'm really sorry.'
'It's really all right. It was true; I'm a weirdo.'
Tim couldn't keep the words in after that.
'I've been sleeping with Karen. She got pregnant.'
He could feel the stillness next to him and flinched, but Nick just came closer.
'Tim.'
'She hates me.' His throat ached. 'What am I going to do?'
'It's okay.'
Nick's arm curled around his shoulders.
'Want a ride, stranger?'
They'd pulled up in front of Nick, who stood clutching shopping bags to his chest in the dusty little street.
Tim hung out of the window, his eyes startlingly green against his tanned skin. Justin thought he looked happier than he had done for ages. He almost glowed.
Tim was probably as pretty as you could get without actually being a girl and from Nick's dazzled expression, as he mumbled yeah, he thought that Nick was beginning to notice.
If not, he was even more of an idiot than usual, but then that was nothing new.
One day, amazingly, Justin decided to drive.
David bounced into the front seat. Tim slumped warm against Nick in the back and they laughed at stupid things and sort of by accident, when it got dark, he put a shivery hand on Tim's waist and let his fingers graze smooth, sun warmed flesh where his t-shirt rode up.
Silent and breathless, they sat side by side until, very lightly but unmistakably, Tim settled against him. Nick hardly dared breathe, but sneaked his arm round a bit more and was grateful for the dark. They didn't move for a long time.
There were nightingales in the forest. Tim noticed them on the day it started raining.
They all sat together and listened to raindrops pattering onto the roof of the Land Rover and then Tim said the thing they'd been avoiding: 'It's time we went back.'
David sighed. 'I suppose.'
'Thing's'll be okay,' Justin said. 'Anyway, you know where I live,' he added, softly.
That made David grin.
'Going back's fine by me,' Nick said. 'We can't stay away for ever, can we.'
It sounded wistful.
'I suppose not,' Tim said, then caught his eye and smiled.
So they went home.
*
Here's an extra snippet: Nick/Tim, R. Late at night, before they go home.
100_roadtrips, I'm putting all this here too so I can keep track of it. Nick sprawled over his desk, bored beyond imagining. Tim was making copious notes. He looked so attentive and respectable, but Nick knew better. He nudged him and saw the corner of his mouth curl up. Justin appeared to be asleep.
After his mum and John had gone the school counsellor had warned him, in soothing tones that made him want to hit things, that he was in danger of underachieving. He didn't care. He was leaving this school and this shitty town far, far behind. This summer the three of them were going travelling.
It was going to be amazing.
*
David hung around every day watching the three of them, eating up each word and gesture. It wasn't normal but he didn't care. They were so... cool, although it was more than that. He couldn't put it into words or even proper thoughts. They were different from everyone else and he wanted to be close to them. The need itched inside him and it became overwhelming, alarmingly so, when he looked at Justin's narrow, unsmiling face.
They looked like nothing could ever scare them.
David moved nearer, shivering at the wonderful, terrible idea that today would be the day they noticed him.
*
Justin felt sick. That kid, David, was back.
'Your admirer's watching you,' Nick crooned into his ear, hooking a lanky arm round him.
'For fuck's sake. Get off.'
Justin scowled and chucked his cigarette away.
'Maybe he's a psychopath obsessed with chopping you into little pieces,' Tim said in helpful tones.
'You're a creepy bastard. Did I ever tell you that?' said Nick and then tried to wrestle him to the ground. Instead he ended up on his back, gasping. 'Owww.'
'Stop it, you wankers.' Justin stood up. 'I can't stand this. I'm going to tell him to fuck off.'
*
Tim sat next to Nick on the wall, knees touching, shoes scuffing together, and they watched Justin do his thing.
'Do you think we'll have to fight?'
'Whatever he's saying, it's taking ages,' Tim said.
He wanted to tell Nick about his sister, wanted to say it so much. Karen had sworn him not to tell, but it was killing him not to. Ever since they were little she had always asked too much from him.
This summer, that was when he'd say, when they escaped.
'Oh my god,' Nick said.
Justin was walking back over and so was David.
*
Tim got an old Land Rover cheap from one of his dad's friends.
'Let's paint it white,' said Justin, one day.
'What for?' Nick said.
'Dunno. It should be white,' he shrugged.
That was as much explanation as they ever got from Justin. He even helped paint it. So did David, always grinning, always there. He got paint everywhere and Tim sighed and smiled.
'Can't you tie your pet up, Justin?' said Nick.
'I'm not a pet.'
'You follow him round like a dog. '
They fought until Justin kicked them both, muttering, 'Is this trip really a good idea?'
*
Karen got pregnant.
'I'm not keeping it, Tim.'
Before that, it was a game, creeping across to her room, laughing under the covers. So familiar, yet it leaned drunkenly against the rest of his life, terrifying and addictive and now it was a nightmare. Sometimes he wished so hard that he was somewhere else, a place where nothing was familiar, not even her. This was fair punishment.
'We need money then.'
'Why?'
'To pay for the abortion. Justin can lend it us.'
Her eyes glittered with tears and then she began to cry, hard.
'Just-- don't tell your fucking precious Nick.'
*
Justin didn't ask, just fetched his chequebook.
'You've got money saved for the trip though, right?' Justin asked.
Tim squirmed then, red and ashamed for some reason that Justin couldn't fathom. It was better not to know. Tim looked like he might cry, so he backed away.
'Want a cup of tea?'
''Kay.'
In the large, gloomy sitting room he watched Tim notice the sleeping bag on the settee and the mess of clothes and schoolbooks that spilled all over the floor. Tim frowned.
'That's Dave's schoolbag. What's it doing here?'
'Huh. Well. He's staying. But it's only temporary.'
*
Justin was so cool. He lived alone in this big house and he was an orphan, which was sad but amazing too and he stayed up all night sometimes, smoking and watching TV. He nearly always gave in when David asked to stay over, which was a lot.
He liked it best when Nick and Tim where here and they all spent hours on the Playstation. Tim always won and Nick always got too drunk but he could tell it made Justin happy. He liked being teased by them. They were his friends.
He never wanted to leave.
*
The last night, Nick went over to Tim's house. Justin was already there, sprawled on the bed. Tim was packing. Nick sat on the floor and watched him struggle to fit many things into a large backpack.
'Quiet here tonight,' he said, watching Tim's face. 'No Karen?'
'She's gone on holiday this week.'
Something nudged him discreetly but firmly in the back. Justin's knee.
'Can't wait till tomorrow,' he said.
Tim smiled at him. 'Me neither.'
'So, is our favourite monkey-boy coming too?'
'Yeah,' Justin said, then, 'Hey. Why d'you start calling him that?'
'Monkey? Dunno. It just seems right.'
*
Tim laughed more than he had for months and drove and drove. Nick got off with girls, leaving them behind with a grin. Justin was cautiously enjoying himself, turning brown in the sun. And then there was David.
David was inexplicable. The way he worshipped Justin, the aggression that displayed itself more often now, the way he'd moved into Justin's life and Justin had just let him.
Justin worried. He only really knew one thing about David, a secret confided one night: his parents had locked him up for a long time.
Now, he was sure David had run away.
*
Tim blinked, dazzled by the white noon light. He'd phoned home last night, the first time for weeks. Today everything seemed brittle and about to shatter.
'It's the wrong side of the road!' Nick yelled from the back, kicking his seat.
'I'm sorry, sorry,' he gasped, then groaned at the sight of blue flashing lights in the back window.
In terrible Italian, Tim tried to explain, but the policeman's gaze kept moving to David.
'What?' David said to the man, rude, squaring up. 'What's your problem?'
'Shut the fuck up,' hissed Nick.
David's face fell and it made Tim shiver.
*
'He's freaking me out and he's going to get us in trouble,' Nick said. 'He's not normal.'
David shouted at people, tried to get into fights. Hyperactive and intense and needy; even a smile from Justin made his day.
'Justin-- do something.'
'Why me?'
'Because-- ' he belongs to you-- 'he listens to you. He's just not normal.'
'None of us is normal, especially not you,' Tim said, savagely, 'so shut up.'
Nick stared, his face flaming.
'Sorry,' Tim mumbled and he turned away.
Nick went off into town that night and took David with him. He didn't speak to Tim.
*
They drove along and the blue horizon, joining sea and sky, stretched on forever. To David it looked like heaven. So much space.
But he knew something was wrong, like always. They were looking at him and not talking.
'Look, David,' Justin began, 'you've got to stop being such a shithead-- '
'What Justin means is, we know you've run away,' Tim said.
He looked wildly at Justin for help but was surprised by an arm round his neck, tight and warm and safe, then Nick spoke:
'We could get into real trouble over this. You'd better tell us.'
' ...Okay.'
*
He could only stutter out little fragments of his life, in the end. It hurt too much.
His parents had no idea where he was.
'We've got to tell them,' said Tim.
'No way. You heard what they're like,' Nick said, glaring at him.
'Leaving aside the lovers' tiff, I say we just make sure he gets home safely. What else can we do?' Justin lit a cigarette and looked bored.
'I don't want to got back.'
'You have to. They'll be really worried,' said Tim.
'But the rest of the trip…'
'Who said we're cutting it short?' said Justin.
*
They were alone, lying in the long grass with just the gulls for company. Nick's skin was brown and dusted with salt from the sea.
'I'm sorry,' Tim said into the silence.
'It's all right.'
'I'm really sorry.'
'It's really all right. It was true; I'm a weirdo.'
Tim couldn't keep the words in after that.
'I've been sleeping with Karen. She got pregnant.'
He could feel the stillness next to him and flinched, but Nick just came closer.
'Tim.'
'She hates me.' His throat ached. 'What am I going to do?'
'It's okay.'
Nick's arm curled around his shoulders.
*
'Want a ride, stranger?'
They'd pulled up in front of Nick, who stood clutching shopping bags to his chest in the dusty little street.
Tim hung out of the window, his eyes startlingly green against his tanned skin. Justin thought he looked happier than he had done for ages. He almost glowed.
Tim was probably as pretty as you could get without actually being a girl and from Nick's dazzled expression, as he mumbled yeah, he thought that Nick was beginning to notice.
If not, he was even more of an idiot than usual, but then that was nothing new.
*
One day, amazingly, Justin decided to drive.
David bounced into the front seat. Tim slumped warm against Nick in the back and they laughed at stupid things and sort of by accident, when it got dark, he put a shivery hand on Tim's waist and let his fingers graze smooth, sun warmed flesh where his t-shirt rode up.
Silent and breathless, they sat side by side until, very lightly but unmistakably, Tim settled against him. Nick hardly dared breathe, but sneaked his arm round a bit more and was grateful for the dark. They didn't move for a long time.
*
There were nightingales in the forest. Tim noticed them on the day it started raining.
They all sat together and listened to raindrops pattering onto the roof of the Land Rover and then Tim said the thing they'd been avoiding: 'It's time we went back.'
David sighed. 'I suppose.'
'Thing's'll be okay,' Justin said. 'Anyway, you know where I live,' he added, softly.
That made David grin.
'Going back's fine by me,' Nick said. 'We can't stay away for ever, can we.'
It sounded wistful.
'I suppose not,' Tim said, then caught his eye and smiled.
So they went home.
Here's an extra snippet: Nick/Tim, R. Late at night, before they go home.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-04-22 05:19 pm (UTC)And, yes. Also ouch for Karen and yay for David and this is so much fun to read!
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Date: 2005-04-24 09:33 pm (UTC)I'm really glad you like them:D
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Date: 2005-04-22 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-23 03:35 am (UTC)because we still have other drabble comms to catch up to.no subject
Date: 2005-04-23 03:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-23 02:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-24 09:32 pm (UTC)I see mistressrenet talked you into joining the comm-- yay!
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Date: 2005-04-22 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-24 09:29 pm (UTC)Thank you!
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Date: 2005-04-22 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-24 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-24 12:04 am (UTC)Lovely!
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Date: 2005-04-24 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-24 07:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-24 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-25 05:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-26 10:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-27 04:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-26 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-26 10:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-29 12:23 am (UTC)And the mini-story - mmm. Delicious.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-29 03:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-01 04:20 am (UTC)I love.
I love more than anything like woah. Write more. Neeeeed more. Yes. Well, no. No pressure. ^^; Just. So much love.
Sidenote: What exactly would be abnormal about Nick? Or is this left to the imagination? ^_^
...Guh. Dead now. Love with all my heart. Thank you. ♥
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Date: 2006-08-07 12:45 am (UTC)