Ridgefield im such a sucker for the rain

fit, afternoon :)

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This is why you look at the weather before committing to busking on a street corner several blocks away from where you parked.

It'd been sunny when he left home. The rain came out of fucking nowhere, one second he was dry and happy and had about 14 dollars worth of linty pocket change sitting in his hat, the next he was being deafened by thunder. There wasn't much to pack up, he'd brought his old acoustic which didn't have a case anymore. He swung the guitar over his back, pulled his backpack on front like a baby sling, fumbled for his water bottle, and then reached for his hat. The money inside was quickly shoved into his empty ass pocket. He started to flip his hat back on his head but a good squelch of his fingers into the canvas curbed that instinct.

He started the trudge back to where he'd parked, got about a block and was stopped by an exceptionally loud crackle of thunder. Lightning pierced the skyline, daring him to keep walking with a large object strung with conductive nickel wires strapped to his back. Mmm.

Ness ducked inside the closest store with an open sign, drenched.

black Autobots T, grey jeans. jackets are for people who aren't proud of their arms

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He was doing the thing, taking the invitation. That Apparatus place was around here somewhere. Probably he shoulda let Alice know he was crashing, but kinda wanted to see how it all looked just spur of the moment, you know? If she wasn't in or wasn't available, they could do that tour deal some other time. He wanted to get a feel for the place.

Buuut also it was raining balls. Like, of water. Real big raindrops. Chidi had brought an umbrella because he was awesome at life slash had two other people constantly looking out for his wellbeing. Between the three wrestlers, someone usually managed to look stuff up.

Aaand there was this awesome, big-ass cast iron skillet in the window. He'd been kinda wanting one for a while, heard so much good stuff. A'ight, full disclosure the big selling point was how you basically didn't ever have to wash the things. They just got seasoned! Amazing!

The other big selling point was how stupid heavy it was. The manliest cookware you ever did even lift, bro!

Right about on his way back out the door, ready to snag his umbrella from where he'd left it, when a backpack comes barreling in and checks him right in the solar plexus.

"Ooogh." Long wheezy grunt, not ready for that. "Good shot." Doubled over, one hand on his knee, other elbow across his thigh, tryna get air back inside. Lifted that hand into an upward thumb. Just needed a sec.

The impact was jarring for Ness too, Chidi was a fucking unit. The shorter man stumbled back with an uff, the movement forcing all the water clinging to the tips of his hair and ends of his fingers to shower down to the tile below. Gravity graciously spared him from toppling over backwards, he managed to right himself after some flapping and leaned back in as if he had a hand to offer help with.

"I'm so sorry man," eyes wide, ready to uh. Try to be helpful somehow?

The thumb turned into a open palm wave, brushing away the apology. All good, son. This hadn't come close to dimming his spark about his new husband-beating pan. Just a couple more deep breaths and he could-

"Oh shit, Ness?" as he straightened, mouth going from that o-shaped hyperventilation deal to a broad grin. Bro was soaked. Which meant Chidi's shirt had a big wet spot in the front now too. "Why you going pregnancy backpack?"

He'd failed to notice the axe on his boy's back.

The short locs on the top of his head weren't recognizable enough, but when Chidi straightened back out and Ness matched the face to the voice his concerned expression broke into a grin.

"Chidi!" Crazy coincidence! Very exciting! He'd been meaning to reach out to the guy and Kyo for a bit now, life kept shoving vampires in the way. Ness would've dapped him up if not for his general state of wetness and encumbrance. Instead he just stood there grinning.

In response to the question he turned a dopey circle to show off his acoustic, doing a full 360 before planting himself front facing again.

Oh! Yeah, a'ight, it would be hard to wear a backpack like a backpack with that strapped on. Plus, like, way more important to get eyes on the strings.

"Oh shit," he repeated, eyes and grin wide. "You play? Or..." Wait wait wait. Chidi got a knowing little gleam in his eye, grin going a touch lopsided. "Wait, this you strat?" Which was a pun! Strategy but also... yep! "Let 'em see the guitar, draw they own conclusions. Yeah? See you're mixing it in with the rain-soaked sadboi look." Tutting, he shook his head.

"Get that little bit of pity mixed in with the allure? Really draw 'em in. You fuckin' diabolical bastard." Huge grin. "No shade, I been there. Gotta catch eyes how you can."

Or.. Ness jumped his brows and imitated that lopsided grin, waiting for the kicker. Eyes widened and he snickered, the sound becoming more of a hiss at “diabolical bastard”.

"Struggling artist gotta play smart," he said with a shrug, flopping arms back to his sides. "I mean, you’d give me at least a ten?" Right? Cue cheesy grin.

Leaning back slightly as his grin became a full laugh, he shook his head. Money wasn't exactly the kinda prize he'd been implying Ness was angling for with this whole vibe.

"Fuck dude, I'd try n' hook you up with my sister if I had one." Little head tilt, eyes up as he considered that. "Actually Kyo might... But nah, she got that vampire chick in the wings." Just thinking out loud. He shook his head again.

"But sure bro. Ten at least."

Ness glanced down at himself, still dripping on the floor like a wet dog. His SISTER? Kyo, like Kyo from the psychic party. Kyo might what? He grinned throughout the disconnect, his two braincells rubbing against each other like cricket legs. Finally it hit, fuck, Ness laughed. You fuckin diabolical bastard man.

"OH no no, I'm just playin' for tips," he laughed, "cash tips."

"But hey I dunno, if you know somebody, aha," voice dropped to a fry, exaggerated fuckboy vibes.

Cash tips. Good clarification. Chidi nodded, but with his head turned so he could give some real solid side-eye, lips pursed in the classic "sure, bud." Breaking back into the full grin at the soft copping to what he already knew there at the end.

"Yeee-eah," was hit hard, gravelly, "muh boi! Own the thirst, Ness-tle quik. No shade. Lemme think..." Eyes went to the ceiling again as he started considering his acquaintances. Married, girlfriend, kinda tryna lock down a vampire chick. Man, it was slim pickings honestly. Seemed like the masses were already pairing off. Trio-ing off, whatev.

"We rolodexing," he assured, twirling one index finger near his temple. Clicked his tongue. "Honestly, dawg, not a lot in the pantry right now. Tell me this, where you hittin' on the chica chico spectrum?"

Ness genuinely didn't go busking to pick up chicks, but he was feelin' the bit right now. Cheeds brought it out of him, dude fucks.

"Yeeeeahh," he joined in, playfully smacking his soggy hat against the bigger man's bicep. Ness-tle quik raised his hands in surrender at no shade, he'd "been caught"! He watched Chidi think, didn't initially realize he was serious. Wingmanning him on the spot, in the entrance to this... store. Where were they? Ness glanced back towards the door as if an inverted window sign might give him a quick answer.

Then he got hit with a heavy punch, the aww shit of the century. Chicas or chicos. Chicas and chicos. Ness genuinely didn't know the answer to this question! He'd been thinking about it! Thinking too hard about it made him anxious, he'd been straight his whole life and now there was this one guy. He was so boned.

"Chicas," he lifted the hand with the hat way above his head, nodding yes and grinning. "Chicos," he brought the hand down to his chest, wobbled it, shrugged. "You get me?"

Oh shit times fuckin' three. Wasn't sure what exactly he'd expected by way of answer; Chidi'd dropped the spec-word just to cover his bases and shit. Inclusivity was tight, But the pretty specific answer he got back had him slowly raising one index finger in the air. Held right there by his face, lips pressed together as he almost shook his head, then pointed straight at Ness.

"Felt. It was so cut and dried a decade ago, man, right?" Ya boi liked pussy. And really that hadn't changed. Butchu feel that one spark with some dude one time where you're not really even thinking about their junk but then reflecting on the whole thing later it's just... huh. "The fuck happened? Wild. But a'ight."

That opened the gates a little wider. Though really there was only one bro that might slip in and he wasn't sure where that guy sat or, honestly, what kinda fit he was for relationships right now. Chidi gonna hafta go huntin'.

"A'ight," repeated, nodding vaguely to himself. "How you feel about older ladies?"

"Felt" was fucking relieving, Chidi got it. "Right, now i'ono man," grin still present as he gave a floppy shrug. Joking, but also! But also.

The next question made his grin broaden. "How old are we talking?" Cause Ness could get down with a milf, but a gilf? Maybe. Depends. Actually, Chidi had mentioned vampires. Does a 100 year old vamp who's forever 30 count as a gilf? A great gilf?

"Actually, yeah, we talking older like human older or twilight older?"

A small grin gave way to a larger one at the revised question. Ness was onto his game.

"In your case? Prolly both. You're what, twentyyyyy..." Drawing that out as he squinted at the musician, tryna weigh things. Twenties, he was pretty confident with. Thirty was a possibility, maybe even thirty-two, but kid still had big youthful energy. Really he'd feel pretty confident going as low as twenty-three with that babyface. The ink though. He'd gotten a good look at the party and it was pretty extensive. Took a while to fund that kinda dedication. Hmm...

"Six?"

Right decade at least, Ness waited with that soggy grin still pulling laugh lines on his cheeks. Misha had pegged him as older for some mysterious reason, Ness blamed it on vampire time perception.

Cheeds gave his guess, Ness held up his hand by his chest and pulled his index finger off the hat, "Off by one." A prompt to guess which way, while he started scrutinizing the lines on his friend's face. Just in case the question got returned.

Oh, a'ight, we were going full bore with this. The squint intensified, like he was some wuxia character tryna read his opponent's stance. But Chidi wasn't even really gathering any new intel, just weighing what he already knew on the seesaw of twenty-five or twenty-seven.

Youthful energy for sure but like, fuck, Chidi had that and he was an entire middle schooler away from being twenty-five. So... yeah. We gonna lean on the tats.

"Seven then." Delivered with more confidence than he felt, but the grand secret was saying absolutely everything with supreme confidence. Sometimes you looked like a real dumbass, but those moments hadn't bothered him much in a long time. And if you were right on something you had no business being right on? You looked so goddamn cool. Worth the risk.

Although this wasn't exactly a so goddamn cool moment. Maybe if he'd gotten it in one. But the principle remained.

"Seveeeeen," he replied with an exaggerated gravel. Ness punctuated his reply with another hat bump to the bicep. "You're good bro, you know shit."

And now it was his turn, he pointed underhandedly and blurted out his guess, "28 through 30?" Chidi was probably close to his age, had big bro vibes.

Couldn't keep in the laugh. He never could. People always undershot the fuck outta his age. Which he understood from a vibes standpoint and took as flattery physically. This was lower than most, though. Not a lot still plunked him in his twenties. Nice.

"Wisdom of age," he belatedly explained for how he knew shit. And jutted a thumb up, gesturing toward the ceiling with it to emphasize he was indicating higher, not a thumbs up for a correct guess.

"What?" he laughed, slightly disbelieving. Ness was also incredibly confident about his answer, he was just wrong. Wrong enough to warrant laughter. Gahdamn.

His grin didn't falter, his face scrunched and he bit his tongue, shifting his weight as he thought. No way this dude was over 45. Or maybe that was exactly the twist? Melanin will keep you young forever.

"Fifty," joking if he was wrong!

Big teeth, jaw open, horrified and entertained grin of what the fuck, dude? Chidi wasn't gonna answer that! Fifty! Fifty?! This fuckin' guy.

Although yeah, given the first guess, this was pretty definitely taking the piss. Still, he hefted up his new, enormous black iron pan and patted it against his open palm a couple times threateningly. Then tucked it under one arm so he could give two enthusiastic thumbs down.

JOKING JOKING! Ness laughed through his nose, ducking his head into his shoulders in response to the "threat". "Could be man I don't fucking know!"

The urge to cross his arms reminded him of his current state, the dampness of his clothes against the air conditioning in the building hitting all at once. Goosebumps prickled up his arms.

"Thirty five," final answer, felt like a good middle ground. And probably his most accurate guess now that he really thought about it.

Not that it'd ever gone away, but Chidi's grin pulsed anew for the fresh guess. It was good enough.

"Close enough. Folk usually guess from that to thirty-two. But I'ma be thirty-eight here in like a month and a half." Catching up to Kyo, yoooo! "The secret is to stay reeeal fuckin' immature. Throws errbody off."

But a'ight, a'ight a'ight, they were getting distracted. Whole reason he'd asked was...

"But cool, so yeah. Older than you both in actual time and... sure, twilight time. Know this vampire lady runs a... like an old-timey, alternative medicine pharmacy in my town. Valencia. I dunno about all that noise, but she's awesome. Healer, real warm. Kind. Kinda mom energy if you're into that. Not sure what she's into."

Thirty eight still felt too high, joke guess aside. "Damn, ya look great tío." A light tease :D

Ok, locked back in. Chidi had somebody lined up for him, an option at least. Older physically and vampire-ly, mom energy, real kind. She was probably great, Ness was so down with older women. It was the vampire part that held him back. He couldn't be someone else's blood bag. He'd come to the conclusion that he'd lucked out with Misha, that vampires who saw psychics and humans as people were rare. Not that he thought vampires were bad, he liked Misha.

He liked her too.

But he had a feeling that the less of them he became entrenched with, the better.

He scratched the back of his neck, itchy from where the wet tag of his shirt kept rubbing. "She just your friend or are you tryna..." You know, cause Ness didn't wanna get in the way of Chidi's game.

Again, little grin pulse for the compliment. Never gonna be mad about thems! Even—maybe especially—when paired with some friendly shit-giving. The rest got him kinda doing the head tilty shrug dance.

"Tee bee dee," he decided after a second. "I know her about as well as I do you, yeah? She's chill as fuck, for sure gonna hang out more, but way too early to tell if there's more potential." That didn't really feel like it captured it well enough. Like, the fact that it wasn't a straight "nah" felt like it was gonna dissuade.

"So," he continued, tryna give better context, "Didn't super come out at the psychic shindig, but I'm flirty as fuck." Free hand came up, making something like the OK hand sign as he emphasized, voice momentarily deeper and half swallowed, "As fuck. Sometimes we get crazy whirlwind one-night stand nonsense outta it. Usually it just simmers down into good laughs. Hard to complain about either." Maybe overdoing it, Cheeds. Now you just sound like you're bragging. Bring it home.

"Point is, don't worry about me. Ya boy casts a wide net. If you got interest here, I am de-fuckin'-lighted to look into how I can help."

"Mm," a commiserating grunt as he nodded his head. Didn't know her that well, some potential, and then some context. Ness's face scrunched in amusement, as fuck. "Yeah, yeah," he agreed, active listening and what not. Dude it, wasn't hard to believe at all. He had the looks to back it up, Cheeds was a player. In a good way probably, also seemed mature enough to not be out breaking hearts. Probs.

He circled back around to the point, that he was wingmanning it and not to worry bout him. Ness snickered again, slightly bashful? So much attention, so damp!

"'preciate you man," a grinning nod, "Yeah I..." He glanced around. They'd been standing here shootin the shit and dripping all over the floor for a minute now. He'd be happy to do more yappin, just somewhere less middle-of-a-store. "Do you wanna actually find somewhere to chill? I don't know if you got time but I'd be down to fuck around for a bit? Feel kinda bad about this." He gestured down at himself.

"Oh, yeah!" He nodded quickly to the suggestion. Dude got so easily caught up in people'ing that he forgot about, like, the pragmatics or whatever. Technically he had somewhere to be, but no one knew he was coming. Not like he was on a schedule or anything. So definitely.

"For sure, lead the way. Oh." Kinda sidestepping past, he grabbed that umbrella he'd been going for when this whole thing started. "Here, take this. Gen Z, I fuckin' swear." Big shit-eating grin.