fandomtownies | Around Town, Sunday Morning (8AM on)

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Around Town, Sunday Morning (8AM on)

As promised, Anders swung by Troy's room early (still no dice on the bright part) for their agreed-upon morning run. They set out from the school after a ~~oh so handwavey~~ bout of warmup in pursuit of that oh-so-jockly goal of physical fitness.

"Just so you know," Anders told him, "it's been a while since I really did a serious run."

He so wasn't even going to address what the radio seemed to think this was, because come on now.

[OOC: For

oncourtandstage primarily, but hey, if you want to encounter the boys somewhere in town . . .]

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Troy nodded, jogging easily, not yet ready to seriously pick up the pace. "I haven't been doing too much myself," he replied. "We can work back up to that, I think, yeah?"

"Definitely," agreed Anders, who was totally good with this pace. "I want to be able to go at least three times around the island at a decent speed, eventually."

Troy laughed. "Only three?" he said. "I thought you were serious about this."

"I'm totally serious about this," Anders retorted. "Just setting reasonable goals for the near future, that's all . . . okay, I really slacked off bad the past few months, I admit it."

"Okay. You and I, by Christmas, three laps around the island without killing ourselves in the process. If not sooner."

Anders turned and glanced at him, his eyes narrowed speculatively. His old competitive instincts were stirring again, and it was really kind of nice.

"Thanksgiving break."

Troy looked at him and laughed. "Fine, Thanksgiving break. But if we're going to do that, we should step up the training a bit." He slowed for a minute as he pulled off his shirt and stuffed it into his waistband, then started to run just a little bit faster.

Oh, it was going to be like that, huh? Anders gave him a curt nod and pulled off his own shirt -- not slowing down his pace much just to be competitive,and hoping Troy didn't notice his momentary stumble. He kicked his pace up a notch, hoping to get a stride or two in front of Troy.

Troy totally noticed the stumble, but he didn't comment on it, instead focusing on keeping his breath even as he matched Anders, stride for stride. He wasn't yet trying to pull ahead. Yet.

Yet. But Anders fully expected him to try, which was why he was focusing just as hard on keeping his own breathing even and his stride steady, prepared to put a little more into it the second Troy looked like he was getting ready to show him up.

The unspoken language of jock behavior was kind of intricate, actually.

Troy cast a brief, brief sidelong glance at Anders before returning his attention to the run; he'd expected his companion to try and pull ahead. "Want to go by the beach?" he asked. "Run along there?"

"It'd be nice and cool," agreed Anders, a slightly wistful look crossing his face when he remembered how often Phoebe had liked to spend time on the beach. "Yeah . . . sure. Let's do that."

Troy nodded, angling in that direction. "So..." he started, not sure if he'd been reading things right, or even if it should be his place to say anything. "Ready for classes to start again?" he said instead, a little nervous to ask instead if everything was all right. They had only really met the day before, after all.

Anders grunted noncommittally and kept pace with Troy as they headed beachward. "I could use the distraction, I guess."

Well, if that wasn't an opening...

"Distraction from what?"

"Missing people . . . who had to leave this weekend," Anders said vaguely, and started to run just a little bit faster because damn it, he wasn't going to cry. "Not used to them not being here."

Troy picked up the pace to match, going stride for stride with Anders, letting himself match the other boy's steps exactly. "Lots of friends leave, then?" he asked. "I had a couple of friends leave, too; not anyone I knew really well, I guess, although Tori was the lead in the show I directed... I missed saying goodbye, too. Had to find out from radio."

"Tori, Stark . . ." Anders nodded and concentrated on keeping up the perfectly synchronized pace they were on. Briefly, he debated keeping the rest of the answer simple, in case it would freak Troy out, then decided the hell with it -- he didn't have anything to be ashamed of. "My boyfriend and girlfriend."

Troy nodded, saying, "Yeah, I can imagine that would be ha-"

And then he realised exactly what Anders had said, and promptly stumbled and face-planted.

"Oh, frak, dude!" Anders had gone a couple of steps ahead, and had to stop and backtrack. He held a hand out to Troy, his expression clearly embarrassed. "Are you okay? Sorry, man, I didn't mean to blindside you like that, oh, frak, tell me I didn't kill you . . ."

Troy grabbed Anders hand and used it to help himself up. "No, no, I'm fine," he said, and it was mostly true, just some minor scratches on his cheek and his arm. "I just didn't expect that. Boyfriend and girlfriend? How'd they feel about that?"

"Just fine, actually," Anders said, still looking guilty. "We were all . . . I mean . . . they were together before I, uh, joined them."

He was conveniently glossing over all the messy stuff in the middle, because he thought he'd already broken poor Troy's brain enough.

"Oh, that's... wow. That's kinda cool. And it's all working out? You're still all, like, together, even with them gone?" Troy grinned. "That's really awesome!"

"Yeah." Anders did smile at that. "Still together, and it's worked out a lot better than anyone expected."

Troy nodded, as he started jogging again, at a slightly more sedate pace. (But only slightly.) "Seriously, that's awesome. I'm... still kinda figuring out some things right now."

"Thanks, yeah . . . I like to think it is. Some people think we're nuts." Which was more understandable, for anyone who knew the whole twisted history of possessions and bad judgment that had gone on before. Anders tilted his head curiously. "Not a bad thing, I'm assuming, the figuring things out . . . you know nobody here's gonna judge you, right? Or at least, they shouldn't."

"Well, yeah, you're nuts," Troy said, grinning. "But so's everyone else here, so it's not like they should be pointing fingers."

He blushed a little, now, thinking of A.J. "Yeah, it's a good thing. There's... well, a guy. That's one of the big things; I've never really thought about guys that way before." It felt nice to be able to say this stuff to someone; it helped even more that it was someone like Anders: an athlete, a jock, but someone who seemed to be similar in more ways that just that; someone who understood.

"Neither did I before I came here," Anders assured him. "I think a lot of guys can say the same, and that's even without the help of the glitter. Seriously, I know the feeling. It's cool. Just . . . I strongly recommend not starting things out with drunken Fleetwood Mac karaoke at Caritas."

"... I am not going to ask," Troy said. And paused, though his running continued apace. "I'm morely likely to go for showtunes, anyway."

Unfortunately, the showtunes implications were lost on the boy from another world. "Wel, hey, whatever floats your boat, y'know," he said with a shrug. "Probably safer than Fleetwood Mac, anyway."

Troy shook his head. "Then I really, really don't want to know."

The ground beneath them gave way to sand as they reached the beach.

Anders laughed slightly, relieved by the lessened shock of his feet against the sand. "Just," he said, thinking of Conner, "if you decide it's not for you, don't be a jerk about it to this guy afterward?"

Troy blushed a bit. "I'm a little more worried about him deciding that it's not for him..." He shrugged. "It's new, but this feels pretty right, y'know?"

Anders, proving that being with Bel had rubbed off on him, gave Troy a slightly crooked smile. "If he does, I'll kick his ass if he's a jerk about it . . . and yeah, I know exactly what you mean."

Troy blushed a ~~lot~~ little more at that; he had to admit, Anders was kinda hot when he did that. "Thanks, but... you don't have to do that. I mean, I hope you don't have to! But even if he did, I wouldn't want..." He trailed off a bit, now a little worried, but mostly just confident that things with A.J. would work out. Somehow.

"Yeah, I hope I don't have to either," Anders assured him. Time to push the pace a little, he thought, and started to put a little more into his strides -- which was, of course, a little tougher on the sand. Good for the leg muscles that way. "Be cool if things'd work out for you. I'll keep my fingers crossed, but I'm kinda lousy at advice."

"Oh, hey, I wasn't fishing for advice!" Except for how he totally was. "Just kinda... Well, you understand. You get, y'know? It's nice to say things and have you... be all, 'Yeah, that's it! I get that.'"

"Hey, man, it's cool if you were," Anders said, holding a placating hand up. "I'm just . . . I have a tendency to mess up my way into situations, so I can't exactly tell anybody the right way to do things. But understanding? Any time you need that, I can totally do that."

. . . yeah, maybe Phoebe had been rubbing off on him too.

Troy nodded and turned his attention back to the running, picking up the pace, feeling the familiar burn starting in his legs. "Thanks," he said. "That means a lot."

The burn was good, and Anders upped the pace just a hair further. "I mean it, too. Any time, you got that?"

Troy matched him still, step for step, stride for stride. "Thanks, really. And if you ever need to talk, about anything? You know where I live."

"I'll probably be taking you up on that," Anders told him, picking up the pace yet a little more. "And I apologize in advance if I go all emo on you, or something."

Troy laughed. "Not a problem," he said, matching the pace again, and this time pushing it a little more himself.

"I'm serious, dude, it could get bad," Anders cautioned him. He'd see Troy's pace, and raise it a little bit more, all right. Old competitive instincts were hard to forget completely, and that was nice to realize.

"My best friend back home is a basketball player who refuses to admit that he has any drama in his life, yet comes to me over every little thing. I can deal with emo."

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Around Town, Sunday Morning (8AM on)

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