itinere | open

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The weather was much better now and that gave everyone in Itinere a lot more leeway to move about. Adam and Ronan had figured out that the snow had been cursed in some way. Although, for the both of them, it hadn't necessarily been a bad thing. There were things between them that had needed to be said. Now those words they wouldn't have spoken otherwise were out there in the open. The sun still rose and fell on the horizons. Nothing had been destroyed. Everything was fine.

Every morning Adam got out of bed and went to the garage to work. It was there that he tinkered with broken things, fixed up cars and was building a motorcycle for Ronan. Was it a good idea to build a motorcycle for Ronan? Probably not. But Adam was doing it anyway. Ronan had gotten him so many beautiful things for Christmas, more presents than Adam had ever received in his life. Adam wanted to do something for him. The garage is always open for anyone when Adam is in. The flashing light in the window sign a declaration to all: Parrish's Garage is 'OPEN'.

When Adam wasn't working at the garage, he was out and about with a specific mission in mind. It was one that he would have had a more difficult time accomplishing with the snow that wouldn't leave the ground no matter how hard you tried to push it out of the way. He had his backpack with him, full of everything he could need to find the broken bits in the ley lines that lay beneath Itinere. Sometimes Ronan was with him. Sometimes Adam was alone. The more ley lines he could repair, the more Ronan could dream. This was his second gift to Ronan.

ooc: Feel free to run into Adam at his Parrish's Garage or just out and about. There's a description of the garage HERE. He is not affected by the curse. However, if Ronan is with him, Ronan is cursed. Just let us know if you want just Adam or Ronan and Adam both.

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Ronan is just glaring at the entire world right now. He's not angry at Adam. He's angry at life and this place and clover.

Yes, on any other day Ronan would have caught the shoe with one hand and barely a glance. Today....today it hits him in the eye. Sure, he puts both hands up in an attempt to catch the shoe, in an attempt to protect his face. It just doesn't work. Instead, Ronan is left closing one eye and because his luck is shit today something sharp in the sole of the shoe cut just below his eyebrow so now there's blood welling against his skin.

"...Parrish..." it's a growl, but mostly it's just exasperated and frustrated. He's tired of this.

The shoe does exactly what Adam saw it doing moments before it happened. Yeah, he really shouldn't have done that. Adam hops down off the log and touches Ronan's cheek with his palm, his thumb gliding beneath his eye as he studies the cut. Sliding one arm out of one strap of his backpack, he pulls the bag around to his front and reaches into one of the pockets. Handkerchief retrieved, he grips Ronan's chin and presses the cloth to the cut.

"Sorry." He says softly, genuinely apologetic as he cleans the wound and blood away from the cut. On the plus side, the cut wasn't deep and the blood was already starting to quit flowing. "That was my fault. Sorry."

Ronan jerks his head away when Adam presses the cloth to the cut.

"I'm fine," he growls. "This is nothing."

In other words, don't apologize, Adam. It just makes him feel like an idiot. "Come on, let's find the leyline source." He puts his boot back on, lacing the boots up tightly so that he doesn't lose it again and starts off in the direction they were going, taking care not to fall again.

Really, it's only a matter of time before he falls down and breaks something.

Adam stands there for a moment watching after Ronan, the snap resonating in his ears. It shouldn't bother him. But it does because he had really done that and hurt Ronan. And it was something, not nothing.

He knew better than to argue with Ronan though. Especially when he was in this kind of mood.

So eventually, he stuffs the handkerchief in his back pocket of his jeans and moves off after him. Eventually, Ronan was going to have to give up the lead since Adam was the ley line sonar, not him. As it was, he started off toward the left and whistled to get Ronan to come back in this direction. "We're getting close."

He's just angry, bitter and humiliated because of this curse, because he's clumsy and he looks like an idiot. He hasn't felt this way...ever and it's hard to take.

There will be many apologies when this is over.

Ronan isn't thinking about being in the lead or even what they're doing. He's simply trying to put one foot in front of another and not fall over. When Adam whistles, Ronan looks back over his shoulder quickly, a twig scraping across his face and scratching his cheek.

"Yeah. Okay," Ronan grumbles as he walks up behind Adam, following close. Knowing that he'd snapped at him and without any way to really apologize (because what are the words 'I'm sorry') , Ronan reaches out to grab Adam's hand.

"Watch out for th-..." And there's that scratch on Ronan's cheek. Another wound Ronan probably wouldn't let him take a look at. Adam sighs and continues on his way.

He easily moves and weaves through the trees and comes across two fallen logs. These two were not as large as the one they had had to scale before where Ronan had lost his shoe. One of the logs had fallen across the other.

Adam sets his bag down in the brush and moves to one end. "Here. We need to take this off of the one beneath it. Can you grab the other end?"

Later when they're back at the apartment, he'll let Adam look at all his wounds. They're minor so far though, nothing that will hurt him unless, of course, anything becomes infected.

By contrast, Ronan is heavy footed and clumsy, tripping over (but not falling) everything from leaves to tree roots. He moves to the other end of the log and nods. "Yeah. I got it." He picks the end of the log up to help Adam move it over.

Together, they heft the fallen log up and move it off of the other beneath it. Already Adam can feel the power in the forest emanating from the ley line surge with power. They drop the log to the side and Adam moves around to one side to get on his knees and start aligning some rocks of varying sizes.

"You're gonna have so much fun next time you dream." He says.

Ronan mostly tries not to touch anything, tries not to be in the way while Adam works on the ley line. He's never really seen him with the ley lines so it's fascinating to watch. He can't help but smirk at Adam's words.

"I'd like to be able to bring you in with me."

But he doesn't know if he can do that or not. He's never tried to bring someone into his dreams that wasn't a dreamer. He doesn't even know if it's possible.

That comment is enough to make Adam stop what he's doing and look up to Ronan. Would that even be possible? Could Ronan bring him into Cabeswater with him? Could Adam take Ronan beyond the veil into the ether with him?

"Is that possible?" He asks.

"I don't know," Ronan admitted. "And I'm not willing to fucking try it until whatever the hell is wrong with me goes away, but I think...maybe?" He sighs. "These pills that Kavinsky dreamed...I think I can dream them too and I think if you do your trance thing and I do the dreaming thing, we can both be in Cabeswater at the same time."

The mention of Kavinsky forces Adam to look away and get back to it. There's no reason for him to close off, but he does anyway. He had never liked Joseph Kavinsky. He hadn't liked the attention he gave to Ronan. He hadn't liked the time Ronan had spent with him.

Adam pushes a few more rocks around and then stands and grabs his bag. "I need to scry."

Yeah, that's why Ronan had been hesitant to mention Kavinsky, but so much of what he learned dreaming, he'd learned from Kavinsky. Adam doesn't have to worry. Any and all feelings he'd had for Joseph Kavinsky had been obliterated the night he'd threatened Matthew.

"Yeah. I'll stand watch." Just in case Adam got lost in the scrying he supposed. He felt useless right now, clumsy and a hinderance, but he didn't want to leave Adam to do this on his own. He wanted to spend this time with Adam.

Adam had no idea if he even wanted to try it now. Treading paths where Joseph Kavinsky had already been. He was glad Ronan had been up front about it though. He'd rather know than not. And what a strange revelation to know that he, Adam Parrish, was jealous over where Ronan had been and what he had done. It certainly put how invested he was becoming in he and Ronan in a new light.

Sitting in the grass, Adam dug around in his backpack. His fingertips touched something velvet and he came up with the cards that Persephone had given him. He hadn't used them in awhile, not since she had died.

"I'll use these instead." He says, pouring the cards out of the bag and into his hand.

Ronan isn't certain that he wouldn't be the same way with Adam and Blue. He knows he'd been jealous of Blue back home long before Adam had even known that Ronan liked him. Ronan doesn't want Adam to be jealous (he doesn't have any reason to be) but it's good that he's invested. Ronan likes that.

He nods, recognizing the cards then sits down in the grass cross-legged in front of Adam. "You need me to do anything?"

"Sit opposite me." Polarizing, equilibrium, that was just a part of what Persephone had taught him. Not that he needed it to read the cards or to scry, he just knew that it would help. Mystical things, specifically Cabeswater, seemed to like straight lines.

"Directly opposite. Facing me." Further instruction, because he wanted to make sure Ronan got it right.

Ronan nods and shifts, cursing when he hits a rock and shaking his head at Adam. "I'm fine," he tells him, though he's likely to have a bruise on the heel of his hand where a particularly sharp rock dug into it.

Today, Ronan needs the further instruction. Normally, he's better at getting things right, but today he's all wrong, no matter what he does it seems whether it's walking or talking. Once he goes still again, he is directly opposite Adam, knees not quite touching his. Ronan's hands rest against his legs as he watches Adam and waits for anything more.

With Ronan settled, Adam shifts just a bit more to make sure they're perfectly aligned. Then he looks up at his boyfriend. (They had decided they could call each other that. Adam was still getting used to it and still felt a slight giddiness each time he thought about it.)

"What's it like? Being in Cabeswater with more than ghosts and voices?" He asks. He wants to know what it was like with Kavinsky.... in a very morbid but curious way.

While Adam got giddy, Ronan got smug. Even now when he's saying and doing everything wrong, thinking of Adam as his boyfriend makes him feel smug.

Ronan hesitates then shakes his head. "A pain in the ass. It was always a competition. He was always stealing more than he needed, demanding and taking and being a pain in the ass. It was never any fun with Kavinsky. Just..." he hesitates again, trying to find the right words. "A fight, but a fight I couldn't win. Like sitting in the passenger seat of the camaro when Kavinsky pulls up wanting to race. Frustrating. Infuriating."

That would surprise Adam to know. He never thought highly enough of himself that someone would be smug to have him in that boyfriend status. There had been times when he felt smug about how Ronan looked at him, but he could recognize that for the random bout of vanity that it was. It was more about Ronan than him anyway.

Even now, he enjoys Ronan's explanation more than he should. Knowing that it hadn't been a good thing with Kavinsky took some of the pressure off. It wouldn't be frustrating with him and Ronan. Adam didn't need to take anything. He only went there to ask Cabeswater how to make it stronger.

After a moment, he looks away from Ronan, off to the side. There's a ghost of a grin on his lips. Cocky just for a second before it slips away. "I would have picked you in a fight over him any day." He says. "Win or lose."

But Ronan doesn't care if anyone else thinks Adam is a catch. He thinks Adam is a catch. That's all that counts as far as he's concerned. He also didn't care whether it was vanity or not.

That had been the point in being honest with Adam even if he hadn't verbalized it very well. He knows that Adam wouldn't need to take anything, that he could just be there with Adam at Cabeswater.

Ronan smirks at that, lifting his chin slightly. "Yeah, well, you're smarter than the average guy."

It's so strange to Adam every time he gets any kind of a compliment from anyone. They'd been so rare in his life that he never has any idea how to react to them. But from Ronan, the boy he put on a pedestal so high, they somehow meant even more. It was hard not to let himself swell with pride anytime Ronan said something nice about him.

He dipped his head and shuffled the cards once, twice, three times. Then he took a deep breath and tried to get his mind out of pleasing Ronan and into the job at hand.

"You're so distracting sometimes." He says with a light shake of his head. It's a compliment, really. Especially with the way he said it, like he was actually trying to flirt with Ronan.

Adam could stand to pad his ego a little and Ronan didn't mind bolstering that ego a bit.

Ronan watched him with that particular sort of intensity, trying to make sure he stayed still. It didn't seem like he could be a klutz as long as he was still.

And Ronan will take that as a compliment. The corner of his mouth quirks up in a grin. He tilts his chin up a little in a gesture that's cocky. He liked being a distraction to Adam and he'd readily admit that.

"Someone's gotta distract you. You'd be serious and shit all the time."

Someone's ego doesn't need bolstering.

"I think you like me 'serious and shit'." Adam says, sounding a little more sure of that than he actually was. His evolution into Ronan Lynch's boyfriend was slow. But he did have moments where he was better at accepting that he got to be this with Ronan than others.

His eyes shine with an impression of a smile as he glances up to Ronan and then away again. "I think you like being distracting too."

There's barely a moment's pause before he adds: "Maybe I like being distracted." Boy he was really doing this. He was flirting with Ronan Lynch. At least he thought he was. Maybe he was making a complete ass of himself and only thought he was flirting.

Ronan smirks at that, chin tilting up a little more, cocky smirk slipping across his lips. Yes he likes Adam all serious and shit. He likes Adam flirting with him as well, because he's definitely flirting with him. Ronan has no idea how this whole thing goes, how it's supposed to go. He's got no expectations about Adam, but he likes the way that things are evolving so far.

"Fuck yes." On both counts, He tilted his head a little, exposing the length of his neck , shoulders squaring a little. He was totally peacocking right now for Adam. PS: he had no idea how to flirt like a normal person and Adam wasn't making an ass of himself by any means and that was probably evident the way Ronan reacted.

"Hell, I hope so otherwise I'm doing this shit all wrong."

Wait? They'd come here for a purpose that wasn't flirting? No way.

The way Ronan responds makes something tilt left and right inside Adam's chest. Emotions swinging like a pendulum inside of him to make themselves known. 'I am here', they say. 'I am mighty. Feel me.'

Normally Adam would over think these things. He would analyze them and twist them this way and that. Ronan hadn't been himself today. He had been clumsy and lost and angry. But right now, looking at him, Ronan was happy and proud. Ronan was cocky. And yes, Ronan was sexy. Adam knew he had a part in making him that.

So it was then, hidden in the woods where they were alone on their quest to repair the ley lines so that Ronan could keep dreaming, that Adam set his tarot deck aside and crawled forward on his knees to lean in and kiss Ronan.

He felt as mighty as his emotions for that moment. His hands holding him up as the pressed into Ronan's thighs. Adam Parrish was here. Adam Parrish was mighty. The kiss begged Ronan to feel these emotions with him. Feel me, he asks silently.

That's the way Ronan always wants to make Adam feel. For as gruff and rough as Ronan is on the outside, he's kind of romantic when it comes to the core of love.

For at least a little while Ronan isn't clumsy or lost or angry. He's enjoying this moment. He feels more like himself than he has all day.

Ronan watches Adam skeptically, uncertain what he's doing until his lips are against his and his hands press into his thighs. Ronan is stunned for a moment then he reaches up, grabbing a fistful of Adam's shirt to keep him close, to pull him closer. He returns the kiss with a desperation that's unusual for Ronan. He wants this reassurance that whatever is going on with him today hasn't changed Adam's mind about him. His other hand slides up into Adam's hair, keeping his boyfriend close and locked into this kiss. He definitely feels him and everything that Adam is feeling in this moment.

Initially, Adam hadn't realized how dominant and controlling the position he took was. All he knew was that he wanted to kiss Ronan. Immediately. And as he kissed him, as Ronan responded to him, he let himself respond in kind and bury himself deep enough to drown in it for about thirty seconds. One kiss turned into five, or maybe it was all one never ending kiss that would last into oblivion as long as his thoughts didn't interrupt.

Only he was Adam Parrish. He was the boy who could never quit thinking. And so he was interrupted.

His hands were pressed into the sides of Ronan's thighs where the other sat crossed legged, effectively pinning the other in place. Should he be doing that? No. So he moved one hand to the grass at his side and then tried to move the other but didn't know what to do with it.

It was a whole new kind of awkward. Not a forced, unnatural awkwardness like whatever was happening to Ronan. This one was all Adam. He could no longer reach Ronan's lips and so he settled for kissing the side of his neck before starting to pull back with a murmured apology.

It was interesting. Ronan was the one that everyone would think was dominant and he usually did like to be in control of things in general, but with Adam, particularly in intimate situations he preferred when Adam took control of things. Part of it was because he knew that Adam was still figuring out their relationship and how he felt about it. While this was as new to Ronan as it was to Adam, Ronan knew what he wanted. He didn't have any doubts about that. In Ronan's opinion, Adam needed to decide that he wanted to kiss him immediately more often.

Adam broke the kiss and there was a moment of undisguised disappointment that quickly flees when Adam kissed his neck. Confusion swept over him when Adam murmured his apology.

"Parrish...I told you you could do anything you wanted to me anytime. Pretty sure this qualifies," he told him. He still had a fistful of Adam's shirt. It was stretched out a bit between them. He tugged on his shirt, leaning forward to try and capture his lips in another kiss.

They were definitely here for makeouts, weren't they?

That slight tug of his shirt brought Adam back in to meet the kiss halfway. How he hadn't completely embarrassed himself with Ronan right then, he had no idea. Sometimes Adam Parrish was his own worst critic. He was hardest on himself than he was on anyone else... except maybe Gansey when his friend tried to give him handouts he hadn't earned.

But now he was crawling forward on his knees while he kissed Ronan. Closer. Knees touching Ronan's knees. Hands lifting up to gently cup either side of his face as if Ronan were a delicate thing that he could break or that might shatter and disappear if his rough, calloused hands were too rough with him. It was like how Ronan was gentle with Chainsaw. So Adam was gentle with Ronan.

Makeouts were definitely why they had come out here.

It wasn't as easy to embarrass himself with Ronan as Adam might think. They lived together. Ronan was pretty sure that night he'd dreamed the glass shower in their bathroom he'd embarrassed himself with Adam beyond the telling of it. After that night, Ronan was pretty sure there was little that Adam could do to embarrass himself equally in Ronan's eyes. Kissing him out of the blue certain didn't qualify.

It always took Ronan by surprise when Adam touched him this way, like he was fragile and delicate. No one touched Ronan like that simply because Ronan didn't project fragility. It's something that ronan is slowly learning from Adam. His fingers curl around Adam's wrist, tightening a little, pulling him a bit closer.

Best reason to walk through the woods ever.

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