Angelo would take the outdoors, travelling and adventures, over sitting at home any day of the week however there were times that being a couch potato was an exception to the rule. This was one of those times.

“Mhm,” he hums in agreement, mouth full of cheese and dough as he practically inhales another slice, truly feeling as if he were basking in something very near to heaven. After a week of running around on a deserted island with Skyler – as enjoyable as it had been – eating pizza, taking a hot shower and having a couch to sink into beside her, just feels that much sweeter.

Passing Skyler another beer, Angelo slips down a little lower on the couch, his feet poking out the edge of blanket from its perch on the coffee table. “I hope you didn’t have any plans to kick me out. I’m not going anywhere, even if I wanted to.” He was far too comfortable to move now, his stomach happily full and his comfort level arching towards the roof. It would be a fate worse than death if he was forced to get off his ass now.

Nursing a beer, lulled into a happy buzz, Angelo could easily ignore the ache of a bruise and a crackle of tension that tickled across his skin where they leaned against each other; heat pooling in his gut from the magnetic pull smoothed over into something manageable. Even with Skyler prodding at him in the way she knew best.

“Oh, so it’s up for debate?” He grins lazily, sinking a little lower into the cushion so his cheek pressed against her shoulder as he says something knowingly ridiculous on purpose, a little glad she can’t see his face. “How about this…? I’ll take yours if we call our first 'Angelo Junior'. A.J. Dross has a ring to it.”

skyler dross

He liked the sound of it, too. Not like he’d admit it. Skyler Vestri was also good but somehow didn’t have quite the same punch. Although, Angelo considered, that may be because he was so used to her being a Dross it felt a little out of place imagining her with anything else… He didn’t think it was something that he should start contemplating over.

“Alto Marian’s like big families,” he hums casually as Skyler presses her face into his hair, closing his eyes at the sensation before taking a swig of beer through a smile. That could be debatable, honestly. Maybe it was just his family. “Speaking of bad taste; what was your boat called again?” There’s a smirk on his lips even if she can’t see it, he actually liked her bad taste. “You’re not one to talk.”

Suddenly there’s something cold touching the skin of his leg and Angelo jolts a little at the sudden contact, his beer almost sloshing in his shock from both Skyler’s frozen hand and her question.

“Nuh-uh. Not a chance.” Angelo responds with a laugh as he gingerly pushes himself back up so he was no longer slouched, trying not to move too quickly so as to avoid wrenching his side. His free hand slips under the blanket to retrieve Skyler’s wandering fingers, his brow pinched into a frown, although the fake seriousness was dulled by a traitorous curl of his lips. “We’ll just leave the raising to the community. Let them run wild. They'd be doing that anyway with your DNA and they might pick up not to touch people with their cold-ass claws.”

He gives her chilly fingers a squeeze as they return back into the open, hold lingering for a few seconds. “Hey, can I ask you a question?” 

skyler dross

“So I either get a wildcard or a historian? Can’t say you’re making it very tempting to have this crew of children with you.” Still, Skyler always manages to pull a laughter out of him somehow, her dig at his apparent annoyances bubbling something warm in his chest. Clearly, he wasn’t bothered by the surface level insult. “That’s a weird way to say amazing.”

He goes to release her hand, as a friend probably should, only for Skyler to quickly cut in with a threat that Angelo knew all too well may very well be acted upon if he dared pull away. After a week of sharing a sleeping bag, of giving out casual touches, holding her hand was something that he was more than comfortable doing. Liked, maybe. Even if it probably wasn’t something friends often did. “Fine, I’ll take on this heavy burden,” he sighed dramatically, letting their hands fall on top of the blanket between them, taking a sip of beer to distract himself as he squeezed her cold fingers. This was safer than her trying to grab a feel of his leg.

“Okay, so let’s go back. We're in the treasure room, there's a chest filled with coins and artifacts and all kinds of gold things.” He says, deviating the topic away from theoretical children and marriage, returning to a memory which sits bitterly humorous on his tongue. It’s still so clear, from the feel of the artificial discs between his fingers to the frustration that stings sharper than any pulled muscle. “Only this time they’re real and not made out of plastic.” He adds in although Skyler probably doesn’t need reminding.

“What then? I’m curious what the Dross Diving Co would do next with their findings.” Something tells him it doesn’t go to a museum.

skyler dross

Ocean blue finds moonlit silver and his lips pull into a grin, feeding off her mischievous energy and putting in a quick comment of his own before she answers him in proper. “I knew I picked right in befriending you.”

Drawn into her response, Angelo sits quietly and listens as Skyler begins to talk all about her ideas for when striking her theoretical fortune. All the playfulness melts away, replaced instead by considered answers and wishes that seemed to stem from the heart, innocently honest and without qualms, as if all of these things were just waiting for her to reach out and take them. He absentmindedly sipped at his beer, her voice echoing its sweet tune within his hollow chest.

It must be nice, he thinks to himself as he quickly finds himself at the bottom of the can, to have so many things to dream of that could take shape and be tangible. Hell, he could see Skyler with a fricking submarine if she decided she really wanted it. He couldn’t remember the last time that he had held onto a definitive string of wants; his yearning heart just wanting to cling on to his wanting rather than letting them slip through his fingers like sand.

He swirls the can, looking down into nothingness as the last dribble at the bottom sloshes against the edges, unsure whether he should have asked now that he aches hungrily but then, even though it’s a bittersweet feeling, he wouldn’t have seen Skyler look quite so pleased to share in her fantasies…

“What kind of house gives out free massages?” He asks first, eyebrow raised, as he places the empty can on the coffee table and stretches out a hand in search of another. “And if they exist where can I get one?” It’s easier to break through his deeper, darker considerations with a choice bit of humour.

“Nothing as interesting as you. I’d send some back home to my family,” more like the majority of it, they needed it more than he did, five other kids deserved a better future. He popped open his next beer, sucking up the froth that bubbled out. “Then I’d quit my job and go travelling, properly. I’ve always wanted to check out Alola. Apparently the Minior showers there are one of those things you have to see at least once... Maybe you can pick me up in your fancy submarine.” None of them, ironically, cost much money if any at all, although Angelo wasn’t sure if Skyler would figure out that he could just do all this, technically, whenever he wanted…

“Oh and I need a new light for my bike. I’ve been tying my torch onto the handlebars for months.” It’s then he turns back to look at Skyler, smiling behind the can with a hint of mischief left over from his last comment, hoping his ambivalence wasn’t showing. “I think you win. Your plans got mine beat.”

skyler dross

“Hang on-“ Angelo's laughter is immediately cut off before he can press on, his protest falling silent as Skyler continues to try and prove her point, her fierce look of challenge to chase him to the ends of the earth met with an amused, fond smile. Words remained lingering on his tongue though, ready to strike out when the opportunity presented itself.

He’s again drawn into her passionate speech, listening and laughing as she mentions the massages, giving her a poorly attempted innocent smile and a shrug. “I’d never think of such things,” she was right, of course. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”

They both want the same thing, huh? There was a hunger in two sets of eyes, Angelo recognises, both of them craving for the taste of adventure and freedom with a palpable intensity that could drive men insane. Yet he could only see one of them catching stardust in outstretched hands.

His lips twist into something strained, both at the memory of their island adventure reaching its anticlimactic, frustrating finale and the confident, unfounded surety in Skyler’s voice. Later, her voice rings in his ears, the rest comes later… She sounded so certain that he longed to believe it, too; but that was just another want he couldn’t keep hold of.

“True.. and you've got a point,” he puts a smile back on his face, his thumb of their intertwined hands absentmindedly brushing against her skin, as if the motion is an unregistered comfort to himself. “We’re both losers. But I don’t know, as far as shitty keychains go, I think mine’s the best.” His lips quirk at the memory of the picture safely stored in his bag; a whirlwind of gold as Skyler’s screaming assault on a ghost immortalised in photographic form.

“Anyway, what the hell do you mean ‘giving you a share of the money’?” Lips curling into a grin, Angelo turns a little more towards her, leaning forward with a look of challenge of his own, sparkling like sunshine on a water’s surface. He hadn't forgotten his earlier thought. “If we find the treasure and you give me half, then it’s already split evenly. So why are you demanding another cut of my share?” It was all theoretics and what-ifs, not something that really mattered, but he couldn’t drop the opportunity to tease Skyler when it fell into his lap. “You trying to rob me, sunshine?” He lifts the cold surface of his can to touch against her neck with a devilish smirk.

skyler dross

Despite all the negative thoughts bubbling within his heart, it’s the brand-new nickname that Skyler has given him that turns Angelo’s expression sour, his skin prickling in distaste. It was even worse that his reckless behaviour had been caught on camera for Skyler to see, forever giving her the ammunition to reference it now it was destined for prime location on her keys. “I should have left you to the ghost,” he tells her with a grim smile, although both probably knew that he never would.

He watches Skyler carefully as he challenges her on her inability to share, greedily absorbing the way moonlit eyes find his and drawn in by the way she slowly gulps at the beer, impatience settling into his alcohol buzzed senses. There’s the fire of competitiveness in the air, he can taste it crackling between them like it was made tangible and like a fool Angelo feeds it, knows that he prods and encourages the embers, giving willingly to feel the rush of its addictive warmth.

Only there’s something in him that’s not quite ready for this retaliation. She leans close, like she has done so many times before. Yet this time his focus becomes wrapped around her and he wasn’t sure what exactly it was in her words that snared him but all he could hear, whispering in his ears, is her voice saying ‘want more’.

Then her wrist finds his and from the snatching knock, a splash of beer is spilled out of his can and onto the back of the couch. Angelo blinks, spell broken. His breath finds him and his tongue swiftly follows, jolted back to life with a threat that brings memories with it; his arm prickles with electricity where her teeth marks had once been imprinted.

“If you want me to get it away from you, then you’re going to have to let me go, genius.” He could wrench his arm away easily enough but it would probably end up with the rest of the beer being splashed, probably over themselves. “Do you threaten to bite all your friends or is it just me?” That probably wasn't the smartest thing to say, he realised only after the fact, resolving himself to not distance himself or let his teasing grin waver. 

skyler dross

His resolve wavered. After a few gulps of his beer to fill the tense air with something, Angelo finds his position on the couch shifting ever so slightly, his arm moving to rest along the back behind Skyler with his body facing towards her, drawn into the magnetic pull of sparkling, mischievous eyes. There’s no more teasing smile on his lips, instead replaced with something a little more subtle yet holding a fire, matching the darkening hue of blue as he leans ever so slightly towards his friend.

That brief break after his question, where they had stewed in the electricity and filled the silence with thirsty sips, had been but a short gulp of air before Angelo was once again dragged back down into the ocean depths. He knows that he should fight to try and break through the surface again but the water is just so warm and inviting… It’s too easy to let his attraction for her submerge him; gradually weakening his will to resist.

Skyler’s words bring a soft laugh from him and a spark jolts, another piece of sanity crumbling from her increasingly obvious flirtations and clumsy pronunciation of a language from across the sea. “And I'm supposed to be flattered by that, guaio?” He hums back on quiet, teasing tones, unable to resist the counter as it and a new nickname on an Alto Marian tongue slips easily into the thick air between them. “Did you like fighting me that much?”

Her fingers graze across the skin of his arm in a burning dance and he reacts in kind, the hand that had been holding hers moving to gently wind around her wrist, brushing circles along the inside where her pulse flutters beneath.

“Maybe... Just with the especially annoying friends, though…” Only she wasn’t talking about friends in a platonic sort of way anymore and neither was he. Angelo couldn’t find an excuse for her flirtations any longer; even if he wanted to look. His fingertips brush up towards her elbow. And he wants nothing more in that moment than to lean down, to close the distance between them with a kiss. To leave teeth marks of his own on sun kissed skin.

But he doesn’t. His hold on her slipping through his fingertips, Angelo physically leaning away, feeling like a cold splash of water had been dumped on him, leaving his blue gaze alert again. Maybe it was seeing his own reflection in Skyler’s big, moonlit eyes but he’s suddenly struck with the realisation that if he let himself get any closer, if he took the opportunity… He didn’t think he’d be able to stop.

So instead, feeling like a jackass, Angelo says; “do you want the last slice?” Gesturing to the remains of their pizza with a quick glance. Back of his neck burning, gut simultaneously twisting as it got heavy, he puts on a small practiced smile and slips off the couch, forcibly removing himself from the situation with an excuse. “Back in a sec. Bathroom. You better not drink the rest of my can while I'm gone.”

At least it was a believable excuse after drinking a couple of beers... Didn't stop Angelo from wanting to fucking die inside as he left the room, though.

skyler dross