Room 210, Monday Afternoon

[smilestopscars]

Ezra had been away on Coterie business for most of last week. Nothing too bad, this time. Just your general run-of-the-mill intimidation where Ava had done most of the work while Ezra and Lock had looked casually imposing in the background. From the way the island had felt when he'd left, Ezra suspected he'd been pretty lucky in that regard.

Also he'd come back with a box full of stuff. A care package from his mother. Apparently him being away at an actual school – no matter how strange and unusual a school - merited a care package. He dumped the contents on his desk to rifle through them. Snacks, mostly. A few pairs of socks, a lighter, a few random knick-knacks. Things whatever random shopkeepers had lost them wouldn't miss much.

And there was a piece of cardboard. He picked it up. It was a card, it had a fox on it, and it was from his sisters. And the way he smiled at it was not the way he smiled at the people he tried (and succeeded) to charm around Fandom or anywhere else.

It was something far more private.

[ooc: I am still a little exhausted from last week, but baby steps. Open door, open post!]

Comments

[thegreywaren.livejournal.com]

"How philosophical of you," Ronan noted, crossing his arms. He shook his head and blinked a few times. "Why do you have so many snacks anyway? Forget lunch?"

[smilestopscars]

"Someone gave them to me to bring back with me," Ezra replied with a light shrug. Someone had stolen them for him, probably, but what was the difference? "Pretty touching, really."

[thegreywaren.livejournal.com]

"What a nice parting gift," he said, sounding slightly sarcastic. Only slightly. "Sure your digestive system will be thanking that someone when you've eaten them all."

[smilestopscars]

"Are trying to cast doubt on my digestive system?" Ezra quipped, dropping the cookies back on one of the misshapen piles on his desk. "For shame, Ronan."

[thegreywaren.livejournal.com]

"How was that casting doubt?" Ronan asked, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. "It was a scientific fact. That's what your digestive system does."

Even someone who didn't go to the majority of his classes (like Ronan) knew that.

[smilestopscars]

"Thanks people for giving me food?"

This conversation had taken a turn for the confusing, at some point.

[thegreywaren.livejournal.com]

Ronan rolled his eyes again. "Metaphorically, you idiot."

[smilestopscars]

Ezra held up his hands and smirked.

"Okay, whatever you say, big guy."

[thegreywaren.livejournal.com]

"You're annoying," Ronan said right as one hand shot out and grabbed the back of Ezra's shirt, fingers tightening in the fabric. "And you should shut up."

[smilestopscars]

Ezra was startled, but that had never shut him up before, and it wouldn't start to do so now.

"If you damage the fabric, I'm going to be very displeased," he informed Ronan instead.

[thegreywaren.livejournal.com]

"You that concerned about your shirt?" he asked, sounding amused. And he sounded close too, very close.

[smilestopscars]

Ezra shrugged, without an attempt to turn.

"It's a nice shirt," he said lightly. "All my shirts are nice shirts."

[thegreywaren.livejournal.com]

"So, you don't want to take it off?" he asked conversationally, like he was asking how the weather was today.

[smilestopscars]

Ezra smirked, but kept it out of his voice. "Don't try to trick me," he said. "I never said anything about that. I just told you not to damage it."

[thegreywaren.livejournal.com]

"Why not?" he asked, giving the shirt another rough tug. It was enough to strength to make Ezra step back and into him if he hadn't been prepared.

[smilestopscars]

Which he definitely hadn't been. So he stumbled back a step but hey, at least there was something pretty firm back there to bump against.

"Because it's a nice shirt. I thought you knew the value of nice shirts."

[thegreywaren.livejournal.com]

"Mmm." He wasn't wrong. He leaned down, lips just a few slight inches away from Ezra's ear. "Then take it off."

[smilestopscars]

"You're not going to ask nicely?"

Well he couldn't very well just obey a direct order without at least one stalling question.

[thegreywaren.livejournal.com]

"Wasn't planning on it," he said, shaking his head. "Why, you want me to?"

[smilestopscars]

"I might," Ezra replied. "But I know that might involve me dying of old age while waiting for you to actually do it."

[thegreywaren.livejournal.com]

"So, don't expect it," he told Ezra, tightening his hold on his shirt and curving his body against Ezra's back for a second before letting him go.

[smilestopscars]

"Oh, I wasn't intending to."

Which was why he was unbuttoning his shirt right now. Sometimes he was easily persuaded.

... Okay, a lot of the time.

[thegreywaren.livejournal.com]

"Good, then we'll get along fine," he said, stepping back and kicking the door shut with his foot and leaning back against it to watch Ezra.

[smilestopscars]

Ezra let the shirt slide off his shoulders. His skin was as smooth and flawless as ever. No evidence of the time he'd had his skin heal over bumpy shards of wood. No evidence of any of his other injuries, either.

He draped the shirt idly over the back of the chair by his desk before turning around.

[thegreywaren.livejournal.com]

Ronan didn't move but something might have shifted the tiniest bit in his eyes. Just slightly.

"Having fun now?" he asked after a moment.