sliceitwithwind | Vice AU

"Yeah, I am." he called back, "Just enough to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pot, it's already got it's stuff in. You don't mind that I'm in there, right? I'm a little big for the couch."

"Okay, no sticking, got it!" Deep, scrapey kind of stirring to make sure nothing was on the bottom! "Huh...it's a little weird. She does have a big bed though, which is also weird cause she's short." His life was full of weird.

"She trusts you though right? So it's okay."

"Yup." This is Dilan, deciding not to mention that they've been sleeping in the same bed for since early December (minus when he was sick). "If she didn't, she wouldn't have loaned me her key."

Yeah...that little fact would make Ben stare at him. Granted, Aya was a little touchy, mitochondrials apparently were but...people didn't sleep in Aya's bed. She stole pillows, she nested, but she only slept with people when they fell asleep on the couch together.

"Yeah, that's true. And she wouldn't have told the front door guy you could come in." Secure building meant secure here really, no matter his initial impression. "...so that's me, Chief Baker, and you! We're the people who have been here! Cool huh?" Aya liked to call her little apartment her sanctuary.

She wasn't really kidding. It was a quiet, safe place.

"Yeah, that is." he agreed, "That's...really kind of an awesome feeling." It was! Aya liked him! (He liked her a lot, but wasn't exactly telling her that).

"I know right?" Cool huh! And Ben HAD HIS OWN ROOM! Speaking of..."Do you play video games? I have to finish my homework first but then if you want we can totally play games!" After food anyway.

Everything right now came after food.

"Or, you know, you can relax and I can play games in my room." Loft. Whatever. Semi-private and away from the guest who needed to relax!

"Some. Braig is better at them than I am, but I think they're fun. I'd be happy to play with you after you're done with your homework...what time do you have to be in bed?"

"Huh, I hope he gets to come here some time so he cna play." Ben liked good players! And fun players! "I go to bed at nine, 'cause I gotta get up early to get to my school. It's not very close to here." Aya kept trying to talk his mom into the school near the apartment, it had a better reputation, but Lorraine...didn't like Aya.

"Hopefully at some point." Dilan said, nodding. Then, after a pause, "So that he doesn't startle you if he's here some day, I should warn you. Braig is kind of short, although not as short as you are, and he's missing an eye. He looks pretty rough around the edges, but he's a great guy."

"Okay! Does he wear an eyepatch like a pirate? Chief Baker has a scar on his face, he got it a few years ago, before Aya hit detective!" Because that just...happened. Cops got hurt. They got better or they didn't, and they just moved on. "Short though...he's not katzu?" Most katzu were tall!

"Yeah, he wears an eyepatch...but don't make pirate jokes around him. He got a lot of those when it first happened and they annoy him. He's got a facial scar, too. He's Olia, pure Olia believe it or not," there were lots of half-breeds after all, "and only five-two."

"Okay, I won't make pirate jokes!" Ben was a good kid and he never set out to deliberately hurt people. Came of growing up around cops! "He's...only eight inches taller than me! I can totally beat that!" Maybe! He hoped!

"My dad was tall. Aya says when I get taller than her she'll take me out to any movie I want."

"Probably." Dilan agreed, "Braig is pretty dang short." it was easy enough to keep from cussing, he didn't do it much under any circumstances that didn't involve Braig bleeding all over him. Then he cussed like a sailor. "Sounds like a good deal to me! Aya isn't that tall either. Me, I'm a behemoth. If you were trying for taller than me you'd never get to pick a film."

Kaaatzuuuuu.

Genetics were against him! Curses! "Yeah...hey, Aya and Braig are the same height aren't they? Her mark is on the doorframe there, and it says five-two right?" Hey, maybe if he got to meet Braig and made friends with him he could get TWO movies out of a good growth spurt!

"Bet I can reach your chin."

"That you might do." Dilan agreed, smiling, "We'll see. If you do manage we can find something else to do, assuming I'm still in your lives. I hope I am, Aya is awesome and I like being her friend." But shit happened. He didn't make promises he couldn't keep. "They're the same height, yeah. I feel like a moving monolith around them." He faux lumbered the rest of the way to the kitchen, then started putting things on the table for proper eating.

Sometimes Dilan was like that.

"Oh no! It's Dilan-zilla!" Ben waved his hands above his head in 'panic' and hopped off his stool, abandoning his duty in the favor of survival. "And you seem pretty cool, so I hope you're here too. And hey, you might be awesome yourself, which means you should hang out with awesome people!"

"I try for awesome." Dilan agreed, "Can't say that I always get there, but I try. Braig, now, he'd tell you that of course I'm awesome...he loves me after all. Braig has a bit of an ego."

"Hey, people get points for trying too right? Which makes you still awesome if you're trying!" IT MADE SENSE GO WITH IT! "And people who love people always say stuff like that. My dad used to say my mom was a wonderful person even though she's not always. Sometimes they're wrong but that's part of love I think..." Since he'd passed over control of the stove to Dilan, Ben set about getting the rest of the table set and drinks for each of them.

Dilan checked the rice, then dumped it into a serving bowl and stuck the pan in the sink to soak, "Pretty much. You can get kind of silly about people you love. For instance, I know that Braig can be a total jerk, but I tend to find it amusing instead of annoying just because it's him."

"He's not a jerk to you right?" Yes, that was a touch of worry because, well, worry! "I guess if he's not mean to you and only mean to people who deserve it can be a little funny?" Dilan had his choice of apple juice, water, milk, and cranberry juice?

Ben was having the first!

Dilan had milk, juice being like soda for him, and said, "When he's a jerk to me, I call him on it. We get along well."

"Oh, okay. So it's like a bad habit?" Being a jerk was totally in the 'bad' as far as habits went right? "Didn't he get in trouble when he was a kid, teachers and stuff don't like jerks."

"Pretty much. And...yeah, but it didn't really make a dent. He really is smarter than most people, you see."

"Oh. Huh." Hmm. Ben served himself and passed dishes as necessary while thinking that one over. "Is he nice to Aya?" Next important question on determining if Ben really did want to meet him now.

"Yup!" Dilan said, "And if he were a jerk to her, he'd get his ass handed to him."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject