Miscalculations

[Ashley Yeo]

"I'm still gonna write you up later, Monroe," Ash said with narrowed eyes, even as his hand was grabbed--the one going for the... non-existent handcuffs. His other hand was holding the box of donuts, which he pushed into Monroe's chest. "Here. I ate all the rainbow sprinkle ones. There's just plain ones in there."

Which was a lie, because--ew, plain donuts. Ash's lips twitched. He couldn't help it, this was... so silly. Their first reunion would be marked by groping and a failed arrest!

But Monroe still looked like Monroe. Ash could see traces of the kid in the adult; his features had matured and--okay, okay, he looked way more handsome now but the shape of his nose and mouth, and that sparkle in his eyes, those hadn't changed. Ash lowered his head briefly and swallowed. Shit. It really had been more than ten years since they were last together; the enormous length of their separation really hit home just then, and it hit him hard.

Suddenly, inexplicably, Ash felt a little shy. This was Monroe but at the same time, he wasn't Monroe. He wasn't the boy with the crazy flyaway hair sticking to his forehead on hot days, trying to stop Aldon from taking bites out of Ash's ice cream.

He was Roe, a handsome man.

"Ahem! Lemme in, it's cold out here!" He blustered, tried to sound indignant to hide the emotion in his voice, and then sort of... without being invited, took a step forward into the apartment anyway.

[Monroe Huang]

"What? Why?"

He let go of Ash's hand, since it seemed like he wasn't going for cuffs anymore--and because he'd shoved the box he held into his chest. If he didn't let go, the box would have tipped over and dropped onto the ground. The telltale pink color of the box told him all he needed to know, even before Ash said what they were.

"Donuts!"

Although his exclamation of excitement was soon doused by the revelation that his favorites had all been devoured. His face fell.

"Oh." But then just like that, he was back, grinning. "That's okay! I think I have frosting in the cupboard!"

Why? Nobody needed to know why. Since Ash moved inside without much prompting, Roe took a step back to let him in, lest they bump into each other like awkward kids at their first dance. (Roe remembered this all too well--it had been sixth grade and it was a square dance and he'd been terrified he'd be alone so he asked the first girl nearest him. She said yes, so he didn't know what he was so worried about.)

"You're bringing the cold inside!" Roe said, quickly closing the door behind Ash so that the cool air stayed out there and didn't continue to follow Ash inside. Hugging the box against his chest, Roe walked backward and used his heel to open the kitchen door behind him so they could get out of the little foyer. Inside the kitchen, he set the pink box down on the kitchen table and then went straight to the cupboard in his quest for frosting.

"So you're actually here!" Roe said. "I was a little afraid you'd bail on me after all that... uh... stuff over the phone." Then he realized he was being rude and he turned away from the cupboard. "Oh! You want me to take your coat?"

[Ashley Yeo]

"I am not, the cold isn't even a thing you can bring anywhere!" Ash retorted disapprovingly as he stepped into the warmth of Monroe's apartment--even though he wasn't really cold to begin with. He took a swift, sneaky look around. So. This was Monroe's apartment! That was Monroe's couch. And that was Monroe's table. Those were his shoes...

Feeling a little like a creep for scoping out everything and trying to assign them to the person who stood before him, Ash dragged himself back to the present and followed Monroe into the kitchen area. That there was some feat of dexterity, walking backwards and not tripping over anything. Ash was hard-pressed to keep from smiling. What a goof. Same as ever, though.

In the kitchen, he leaned up against the counter, raising his brows. Frosting on donuts? Ash didn't know what he was supposed to think of that. On the one hand, it was... inventive (even though there were all kinds of donuts in the box, and none of them were plain). On the other hand... frosting. With donuts.

"I said I'd come! I always keep MY promises, unlike a certain somebody who still owes me 3 marbles," he said, mock-frowning at Monroe. But... yes. Ash was here. Finally here, after the non-date-thing with Alvaro, and Alvaro's mother, and the poster boy for good dental hygiene. He shook his head at the offer to take his coat, but by then it was already half-off. Laying the coat on the counter beside him, Ash pointed to the donut box.

"Open it, you big dummy." Sheesh. How mean did Monroe really think he was?!

[Monroe Huang]

"Are you still mad about that? It was just three marbles! Sheesh!"

Did he even promise? Roe felt like he was normally pretty good at keeping the promises he made. If he made a promise about the marbles, he was sure he would have tried his best to get them to Ash. But if he felt like he'd been wronged... Or something... Roe didn't actually remember things the same way Ash did. They probably had separate memories of their past. Roe remembered reading something like that, about how the memories a single person could hold was significantly less than the actual things that happened to them. Plus, people just remembered differently.

It seemed like Ash remembered Roe in a pretty nasty light. Roe remembered Ash in a nicer light. He thought.

Turning away from the cupboards, he curiously edged over to the donut box and then popped the top open. Inside, he was actually surprised to find donuts in an array of colors and there were some with rainbow sprinkles on them. Immediately, Roe grabbed one of those.

"You said there weren't any!"

[Ashley Yeo]

Ash didn't need marbles; it was just a talking point because... Because he didn't know what else to say! This was sorta weird. After so long, he was finally with Monroe again and he realized that he knew practically nothing about his childhood best friend. The only memories that Ash had were of them as dumb kids and, well, neither of them were dumb kids now.

"...pffft!" He stifled a laugh into his palm, shoulders shaking. It looked like Monroe was afraid he'd lose all the sprinkle ones if he didn't grab one right away--like Ash was going to snatch them all or something. "Come on, you didn't really think I was that mean did you?" Ash straightened. He was tempted to take an eclair but then he remembered Alvaro almost making a cop-donut joke and... maybe he'd eat them later, on his own time. Everybody loved donuts but cops loved them extra hard, especially with coffee--they didn't get many breaks in the day, so they had to make them count, all right?!

A little awkwardly, Ash slid up to Monroe and definitely awkwardly reached out to pat the side of his arm. Part of him was hoping he'd be the taller one between them, but... nope. Ash was still short, much to his chagrin.

Despite his teasing earlier, he didn't really want to be known as a mean guy in real life.

"It's... good to see you again, Monroe." He hesitated, then added with a little soft smile, "I missed you."

[Monroe Huang]

"Don't know. Hard to say."

It had been so long that Roe didn't know if Ash was nice or mean at this point. When they were kids, Ash was kind of a crybaby, although these days, Roe would have said he was sensitive. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, either. In his own way, Roe was sensitive too. If he weren't, he wouldn't feel as awful as he had these past few weeks. Raw--that's what it felt like. Raw wounds from desiring something, having it, and then having it ripped from him before he felt like he had a proper hold on it.

He didn't want to think about it, though. He certainly didn't want to talk about it. Or he did, just not with Ash and not right now.

Right now, he just wanted to enjoy the donut and the fact that Ash was actually standing there, in his kitchen! As he gnawed on the donut, he warily looked Ash over. Then he relaxed. Ash wasn't being mean; he was just teasing him. It was strange seeing him all grown up. Roe had hoped things would slot right back into place as they had done when they were kids but now it was just weird and awkward. Especially with that weird little pat on his arm. Polishing off the donut, Roe dusted off his hands and then almost reached out to pat Ash on the shoulder, too.

Wait. He already did that earlier and nearly ended up arrested for... groping or something.

Hard to imagine that person and the one smiling softly at him now were the same person. Despite himself, Roe smiled back.

"I missed you too. It's been forever. Honestly, I didn't think I'd ever see you again. It's like when somebody leaves Hazleton, they don't come back." For good reason, he thought sometimes, despite it being his home.

[Ashley Yeo]

He wasn't, though--mean, that was. Was he? Was he mean? Maybe Ash didn't see it that way but it was true, that two people could have wildly different perceptions of the same event.

Ash didn't think he was mean but he knew he wasn't a crybaby anymore. He didn't stop crying, though, for a long time after his family moved away. It was pretty devastating, being ripped out of the life he knew and suddenly being thrust into a whole new city. Ash didn't make a lot of friends at first. He wanted to hold on to his old friends, his best friends. He tried to write, although at that age he wasn't so... expressive. Those letters probably said some dumb things.

"I tried to write..." He scratched the side of his neck lightly, then ran the hand up and over onto the back of his neck, feeling awkward still. Letters weren't the same, though, as hopping next-door to see Monroe or Aldon. He couldn't hide behind Monroe's letters, or hold on to them when he was upset and needed somebody to comfort him--or to white knight for him, as the case may be.

"Guess life just got in the way." Ash's smile turned a little wry. "Everybody wants to live in the big cities huh? It's too... big out there, though. Too much noise and too many people. ...I like it here."

It was nice to be back. There were a lot of changes but there was also a lot of familiar places, like the old diner, or the park, or that one creepy house they swore was haunted. (It probably was, too.) Ash felt like he was finally home, the first time he drove into town and all of those familiar landmarks greeted him like old friends.

"What about you? Would you leave, if you had the chance?" He leaned against the counter, resting his hip against the side of it, and studied Monroe curiously. He, too, had hoped that they could fall right back into their old friendship but that was probably impossible at this point. They were different now, they had grown up.

[Monroe Huang]

"Oh."

He tried to write? Roe wrinkled his nose slightly as he tried to think about why he didn't or what happened. Did somebody... stop him? Did he just not know what to write? There could be a thousand and one reasons why he might not have written. It could have been just as simple as not knowing where to send it. They were kids back then anyway. It was kind of a miracle that Ash remembered him enough to be here now.

Oh. Life got in the way. Roe nibbled at another donut, no longer as keen to gobble them all down. It was mostly because he wondered if there were a bunch of half written letters that had never been sent somewhere. Ash could have tossed them but maybe he kept them. (And if he did, would Roe want to read them?) They probably had a lot of stuff in them about those damn marbles. That made him half smile.

"Most people do," he agreed. Half the people he knew from his younger years had talked about leaving by the time they were teenagers or adults. Some made good on that--people Roe wasn't all that close to, anyway. But the wolves... they stuck around. Where else could they go? Roe thought it over, pressing his finger to a sprinkle and idly toying with it.

"I don't know. I don't think so? I like the woods and all the space here. But it's nice to go to Portland sometimes... just to visit and stuff."

[Ashley Yeo]

"Well..." Ash's smile was a little teasing. "Once you get your hot dog stand, you won't be able to leave."

Probably because he'd have to keep watch over it, and make sure Ash "the mean guy" cop didn't ticket all of his customers. (Did they really bicker over fictional hot dog stands? Yes, yes they did. Did one of them get genuinely heated during the exchange? ...maybe.)

He finally relented and reached for a donut, breaking it in half and nibbling on it. Even if Ash could just fly off anywhere he wanted to--and he really could, being a bird shifter--he wouldn't want to. It was time to put down roots somewhere. Time to settle into a place he could call home, even if it seemed like half the population was up in arms lately about the growing divide between humans and supernaturals.

"Sooo... you live here alone?" The place seemed too big for just one person to live in it, and Ash didn't remember Monroe being a millionaire. He probably had a roommate. There were too many pairs of shoes by the door for just one person. "Is your room still as messy as it was when you were a kid? Remember the time you thought you lost me in there, and I was just hiding behind a pile of stuff?" Ah... good times.

[Monroe Huang]

"Nuh-uh! That's the beauty of a stand! I can move it around."

His hot dog cart would be a world traveler! It would be an amazing one with all kinds of new types of hot dogs that he would invent! Like... the banana split dog! And... and the taco dog! (Okay those sounded like gut wrenchers but he'd figure out a cool menu if he really wanted to go through with it.) Mostly, it was kind of a joke that went way, way too far over the phone. Just remembering the argument, he could feel his face and neck flush with heat and color. To avoid talking about it, he stuffed his mouth with the rest of the donut he had been toying with.

Then he tried to swallow as quickly as possible in order to reply to Ash. Waving his hands around to indicate that Ash should wait, he went for the fridge and immediately pulled out the milk to pour into a glass so he could chug down half the glass. Then he turned toward Ash and waved the carton at him in askance while answering, "Nah, well, now I do. But I had a roommate. He's moving out now next week though. And no, to answer your other question. My room's not as bad as it was when I was kid."

But it was still kinda cluttered and it certainly was no designer room.

[Ashley Yeo]

Good point... But man, Monroe put way too much thought into that hot dog stand. So much so that Ash was starting to feel bad about teasing him about it. Like, what if Monroe's dream was really to have one, and push it around, selling hot dogs to people out on the street? And here was Ash, casually making fun of him, casually (possibly) trampling all over his life's ambition.

What did that say about him?

...what did that say about Monroe, if that was his life's ambition?!

He blinked at the flailing, then blinked as Monroe poured himself a glass of milk and guzzled half of it in one go. Slowly, almost warily, Ash picked off another small tidbit of donut and pecked at it like a proverbial bird. O...kay... At least he knew the Heimlich maneuver and CPR...

"Oh! Really?" Ash perked up. "Do you need another roommate?" He was living out of a hostel for now, since he'd just gotten into town and hadn't had a chance to apartment-hunt. Not... that there were many choices. It was either the commercial townhouses, the apartments or somebody's dank basement suite.

[Monroe Huang]

Since Ash didn't seem to understand his gestures, Roe brought out a glass and set it down in front of Ash along with the carton of milk. If they were going to sit there gorging on donuts, they might as well have some milk to help them go down properly. Roe sat down again, pulling out another donut and contemplating it for a long moment. If he ate too many, he was going to end up severely regretting it. At the same time, they acted as perfect distractions from the weirdness he felt between himself and Ash. Was it just him? He snuck a glance at Ash. He was pretty sure it was just him. Probably.

What he didn't expect was the way Ash perked up at the news of his roommate. Breaking off a piece of donut, he chewed thoughtfully as he regarded Ash for a long moment. Did he need another roommate? Well... Truthfully, if he didn't find one, he'd be up the creek without a paddle. There was an ad up on the craigslist listing for Portland--Hazleton was too small to have one of their own--but so far, the only hits he'd gotten skeeved him out. Which, sadly, was to be expected when putting up an ad on craigslist.

"Actually," he finally said, "I could. Why? Are you offering to move in?"

[Ashley Yeo]

Oh, a glass for him, too. Ash could get behind that, although he thought the milk was just so that Monroe would stop dying. He fiddled with the glass, staunchly avoiding Monroe's gaze as the silence dragged on for a little while. Part of Ash was indignant; if Monroe didn't want a roommate, he should've said so right away! The fact that he needed to think so hard about it sorta took the wind out of Ash's sails.

At the same time...

He could see why Monroe might balk at having him for a roommate, when he showed up out of the blue. Ash must've seemed like a total stranger to him, so it was no different than if he'd taken a man off the street to be his new roommate. In that light, the pause wasn't so outrageous (or offensive). They did have to live together, after all, and it was a big decision.

"I guess?" He sipped on the milk, also because he didn't quite know what to do with his hands or feet. Both were jittery. "I haven't had a chance to go apartment-hunting yet and your roommate's moving out, so..." Ash shrugged lightly. His smile was a touch wry, though not forced or unpleasant. "But if you don't want to, I'm not going to force you."

[Monroe Huang]

"What?"

The word shot out of his mouth like a missile. He even stood up, as if his very cells expected Ash to simply walk out on him and he had to stop him. What an overreaction! Quickly, he dropped back into his seat.

"You wouldn't be forcing me to do anything! So okay..." He rubbed his arm. "This is going to sound dumb but I actually could really use the roommate... I put an ad up on my social media stuff and I even tried craigslist but there were all these... um. Weirdos? I don't know, I don't know how to put it nicely because they were just weird. Or I got weird vibes off them? They just didn't sound like people I'd want to live with. But you! I know you!"

Did that seem like he was saying Ash was better than creepy trash? Ahh! Hastily, he reached out to touch Ash's wrist.

"I mean, I'm not saying I'll take what I can get! I'd be glad to room with you, is what I'm saying. Maybe you'll even get your marbles back." That... okay, that sounded weird and unnecessary. He couldn't help feeling that he must have sounded just like those weirdos from craigslist.

[Ashley Yeo]

"What?"

Startled, Ash half-slid off his seat. It looked like somebody lit a fire underneath Monroe's butt, that made him leap up so abruptly. Then he clarified--maybe a little sheepishly--and Ash relaxed back into his seat. His smile was partly bemused, partly amused, and all of it was fond. Somehow, it was hard to dislike Monroe. Even knowing very little about who he was in the present day, he was still kinda... likable. Dare Ash think it? Lovable too? (In a jumpy and unpredictable way.)

"You sayin' I lost all my marbles?" Ash laughed, turning his hand so that he could graze Monroe's wrist with his fingertips, to reassure him that Ash wasn't seriously annoyed. "Kidding! Just kidding! I'm probably better than some rando you find on the internet, plus I have a steady job!" Ash wouldn't flake out on him at the end of the month, that was for sure, or try to get away with only paying part of the rent. He was responsible! He was a cop!

"You don't need references, do you? Cause right now my only references are you and that guy who asked me out earlier."