Chapter Two: The Movie

[backinthsaddle]

Today was the last day of finals for Cole, and it's with a silent sigh of relief that he heads home, ready to ditch the books for the summer. Not that he'll stop studying altogether, but a break is welcome after the week long cramming session.

Liam doesn't appear to be home once he gets back to the apartment, but he's slowly been getting used to there being someone else living there, and she isn't really the going-out-and-about type, at least not right now. So he makes a little noise on his way in, so he doesn't startle her.

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[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

Victor is holed up in the workout room, hiding, the way she usually is whenever the door opens. Listening for the teeniest hint that it's Cole or Liam and not some monster coming home.

Her hair is chin-length and ridiculous, and she's in a shapeless teal sweater, shapeless jeans, so scared to let a single speck of skin show, other than her face and hands, which are fully umarked.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

He doesn't see her, so he drops his school supplies next to the couch. "It's me," he calls out.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Okay!" she calls out, voice high and reedy, and she opens the door and scurries out into the living room. "Hi. Um. Good final?"

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Are they ever?" he asks rhetorically. "I think I did all right."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I dunno, tests can be fun when you ace 'em," she says, sitting gingerly on the arm of the couch, feeling, still, all pitter-pattery from the sound of the door opening.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"I know I got at least a couple wrong. I looked up the answers as soon as I got out of the test," he admits. "But I'm pretty sure I passed." It was only his first year in college, after all. And damned if it isn't different than high school in a big way.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I used to do the same thing after a test," she says, lips splitting into a shy smile. She's moving easier nowadays, quicker to grin.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Might as well while it's fresh in your mind, right?" And tests are still about learning, otherwise no one would ever give them back all marked up.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, totally. Except when I'm really nervous about it, then I don't even check."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"In any case, that's this semester over with."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"You did great, I know it." She swings her left leg forward and back like a hinge, white sock brushing the carpet.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"I'm not sure what to do with myself now." Normally he'd sit down and do his homework like a good little student, but he doesn't have any homework.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Play a game! Or... or see a movie! Dude, you need to decompress, for serious."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"A movie sounds good about now." He almost asks if she wants to go out to a rental place, then decides there is no way in hell. "We've got a lot of DVDs. Anything catch your interest?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

She makes her way to the shelves and tilts her head at a most certainly uncomfortable angle to read the titles. "They all look good," she answers, honestly. Her face heats. "'Cept... I think Liam left a few... films here."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"...yeah. He does that. Just... try to ignore them?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. Uh, other than that, they all look pretty nice. I, um. I dunno. What do you like?" She does that, defers to other people, avoids making simple decisions.

((AIMage?))

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Pretty much everything. I've seen most of the stuff on these shelves. Minus Liam's, uh, 'stuff'." Yep, adult entertainment is a noooo. "Do you have any favorites?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I, um. I don't like girly movies, but other than that...."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

He's trying to let her pick, but it's one of those things where both people want to let the other go first, and they just go in circles. "How about..." He scans the titles, looking for something he's been wanting to rewatch, or one of the few he hasn't seen yet. "Boondock Saints?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

It's that, and it's the fact that Victor is having an excessively hard time making decisions since the J debacle. Even simple decisions like what to eat, she waits for someone else to choose and then she'll do what they do. She looks relieved. "I've never seen it! Let's go for it."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Me either," he says, slipping it off the shelf. "I've been meaning to get around to it for ages."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

Victor leans over to get a better look at the cover. "Oooh, it has Willem Dafoe in it!"

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Bet he's a bad guy," Cole predicts, letting her look at the cover while he pops the disc in the DVD player and gets the TV set up. "He plays a good villain."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I hope so!" He is not, in fact, a villain. He plays a closeted gay FBI agent. He is beyond brilliant, and is the biggest threat to the Saints, the Irish twins. Even so, he's not a villain. More of a troubled hero, trying to uphold the law against vigilantes who he thinks are doing the right thing, maybe.