“Fucking beautiful.” Alan commented as he shoved more succulent pink flesh into his mouth, eagerly lapping at the juices that threatened to leak past his lips. It was somehow sweet and savory at the same time… how had he ever gone so long without knowing about such pure joy?
“Yeah, it’s good, isn’t it?” John couldn’t help but boast. He had apparently gotten to enjoy this sort of thing before. Lucy just let out a not-too-quiet moan to signal her pleasure, which only made Alan even more excited to cram even more into his mouth. His tongue was practically singing with joy.
“I still can’t believe you like to go fishing and you never invited us.” He said between mouthfuls. John shrugged, cramming his mouth full of more of the flaky pink fish they were eating for a late breakfast. It was sort of like salmon, though a bit lean, it was richly flavored for fish and had a taste that was even a bit meaty. Aaron, as it turned out, was not that good at cooking the fish, though he’d been a crack at catching it with the nets while John ‘the fisherman’ had totally failed at that. Rod vs trap, he claimed. Totally different. Bah, you know fishing, you should know fish, right?
At least John could cook it like a fucking pro. He’d also crumbled some of the fatty and salty biscuits as seasoning and packed it inside the cleaned out fish. The salty and meaty fat had flavored the dish and made a totally unkosher but goddamned tasty combination.
“Would you have gone if I’d asked? Besides, fishing for me was something I did as a kid to escape. I’ve always done it alone.” Lucy glanced at John and raised an eyebrow. John didn’t respond or didn’t notice the inquiry. Rather the man looked like he was watching memories of the past. Alan suddenly felt the desire to ask him what he was remembering, but didn’t really think it was his place. Hell, Lucy didn’t look like she thought it was her place and if anyone had that right out of them, it was her. Eventually John just shook himself out of his thoughts and smiled at them again. A weak smile, but genuine. “You know, the weirdest thing about this whole thing is I’m kind of having fun now.” Aaron made a choking sound.
“What? How can you be having fun?” Aaron gestured at the meager embers, all that was left of more than half of the wood Alan and Lucy had gathered all morning. Then he looked pointedly at their hodge-podge cobbled together grass clothing and the ‘lean-to’ not far away. Their spear, gifted by the Talor, Purleo, was leaning against their meager shelter. It was… barely surviving. “We’re barely surviving. That elf might come back with friends, alone, or never come back and all of these options could see us all dead tomorrow or in a week. There are monster beavers, the grass apparently let’s people know where we are, and if they’re to be believed, other species are out there that would kill us on sight.” Everyone grimaced, the mood ruined.
“Jesus, Aaron.” John retorted, irritated. “I’m just saying it’s actually nice to be here with the people most important to me, rather than alone or with strangers. If I was offered the choice, of course I wouldn’t want us to be here, struggling.” John stood up, pointing with a fish bone as if it weren’t some tiny near-translucent thing. “That doesn’t mean I’m not happy to be with you all. If we’re going to be stuck here, wherever here is, we should try to make the best of it, yeah?” Aaron’s expression kept softening and hardening, their friend apparently unable to decide how he should feel about it. Eventually he put his face into his hands.
“Sorry.” He mumbled. Lucy looked back and forth at the two men, John still looking a little angry and Aaron looking like he was collapsing into the whole sad thing. Then she looked at Alan and gave him a ‘do something’ expression. What the hell was he supposed to do? Why did it have to be him? Damnit.
“I could do without little Aaron given such enthusiastic good mornings, but the snuggle is real.” Now everyone was just looking at him like he was crazy. Lucy was giving a ‘what the fuck?’ Then Aaron’s surprise cracked and the man started laughing a little. John eventually joined in, followed by the Lucy and Alan. It broke the mood successfully and it all flooded forth like a damn breaking.
“Goddamnit John, you’re right. We can’t change it and I wouldn’t want to be here with anyone else but you guys. I love you all like my own hypothetical siblings.” Aaron was legit tearing up. “I’m just so scared that I’ll lose one of you. Hell, I’m not gonna lie, suddenly finding myself not even as rich as dirt poor after building up a portfolio worth millions hurt bad… but I’d have given it all up just to save any of you, you know?” Alan felt that wrenching inside as Aaron’s heartfelt statement really called to him. John beat him to the punch though, sweeping Aaron up into a big muscular man hug. Aaron wheezed as the air was squeezed from him, but managed to pat John on the back.
“I love you too buddy!” Alan suddenly was swept up in another John hug, this time though the popping sound of his vertebrae accompanied the crushing embrace. Alan would bet that his face was turning purple from the blood being squeezed into it. “You too, Alan!”
“John, I think that’s too m-ohmm!” John whipped around and didn’t quite hug Lucy so much as he grabbed her and swept her into a deep kiss. Aaron’s eyebrows shot sky high. It was an awkwardly long time before they separated and Lucy looked dazed by the experience.
“And I love you too Lucy, more than I ever thought I could actually love any woman.”
“Well, shit John. I suppose this is a good time to bring up the threesome option…?” John stared blankly at Alan for a moment. Brain go brrrr, as it whir. Were. You get it. Lucy managed to face palm herself. Realization clicked.
“Lucy.”
“I was just teasing! He already figured us out!” Alan snorted. Like they’d really kept it a secret.
“You guys are… holy shit, how long?” Aaron pulled on the skin of his face, exposing the whites on the bottoms of his eyes. “And Alan noticed, but I didn’t.”
“Aaron.” Aaron’s eyes flicked over to him. Ok, at first the weird face was funny but now it was just creepy. Let go of your damned skin, man! “Tell me serial like. You really didn’t notice it?” Aaron shook his head. “Shit man. I got nuthin then.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“How long though?” Lucy started counting on her fingers, but John interrupted.
“Ninety-two days after we met at your birthday party man, when you turned nineteen.” Lucy froze.
“You… how do you figure that?” She asked.
“Uh, duh, I asked you out. We went out for coffee? You agreed to go out with me again? You wanted to keep it on the down low though, for some reason.” She looked a little flustered.
“I can’t believe he remembers our first date anniversary. I don’t remember when it was.” Lucy was muttering more things to herself but John just waived dismissively.
“I’m the people person. You’re the rules person. Of course I remember these kinds of things.” He boasted. “Plus I kept it all in a notebook so I could impress you with how I remembered all the important dates.” She frowned. “Why else do you think I always make sure we go get a coffee together on March 17th?” Now Lucy threw her hands up into the air.
“I just thought you wanted coffee!”
“You mean you don’t remember the day we started dating? Shit. Shit Lu, you know what this means.” John grabbed her by the shoulders and stared at her really closely.
“N-no?”
“It means he’s the stereotypical woman in the relationship!” Aaron nodded in agreement with Alan’s statement.
“What? No that’s not true…”
“Lucy, do you remember the dates for any of your special occasions? First time you held hands? First time you kissed? First time you uh… you know?”
“First time we held hands? Who would remember that!”
“Third date, April 5th, in the park near Trader Joe’s. I made a picnic lunch for us.” She paled. “We kissed on the next date six days later. The first time we… nobody else needs to know that. I’m sure you remember though… damnit Lucy! These are significant events!”
“…sorry.” She managed. Alan and Aaron slapped her on the back and John threw up his hands in disgust, complaining about being the only one invested in it. Which just riled up Lucy because well. She had good reason to be upset. “What the literal fuck John. How many woman have you dated since we supposedly started going out? How many have you slept with?” John had the presence of mind to look guilty.
“You kept saying we didn’t work.”
“How many though, John?”
“I dated nineteen other women.”
“And how many did you fuck!” He muttered something in response. “I can’t hear you!”
“One.” She got really quiet.
“…really? Just one?” He shrugged.
“It was awful. I felt awful after. Almost all of them were really pushy about it and I gave in the once. I regret it.” Everyone was really quiet at that point. To say that it totally upended their image of John and his rapid-fire girlfriend rotation was putting it lightly.
“Why did you date so many then?” He sat down and hugged his legs, taking a deep breath and letting it out long and slow.
“When I was a teenager, I was, well, I was really unhealthy. Really heavy, no exercise, bad diet. I smelled bad, sweated a lot, didn’t have much energy. I was smart I guess, but it was hard. Hard to think clearly, hard to be motivated to do homework. There was…” He took a shuddering breath. Lucy crouched near him and reached out as if to touch him on the shoulder, but hesitated at the last moment. She was still clearly struggling to process the revelations and was still angry he’d dated so many women after they had initially made a connection.
“…there was a group of girls. I liked one of them. Heck, I would have been super pumped if any of them gave me the time of day. They noticed me looking one day and made me their personal target. They tormented me. Embarrassed me. Right in the middle of class even. Teachers wouldn’t do anything, the other kids wouldn’t say anything about it. The school councilor told me I was taking things the wrong way. My parents told me it was just pitiful and it was my own fault for being so fat and gross.” Tears ran down John’s chiseled jaw, scruffy with a couple of day’s beard growth.
“I barely made it through school. I didn’t make it, I had to take the GED the summer after I didn’t graduate, just to be able to get into college. I barely got in as it was and only because they had record low applications that year.” Alan grunted. They hadn’t gone to the greatest school, a state school. It was fine, but definitely oriented towards access for lower performers or the less driven. Practical. Inexpensive. A four year school rather than a community college, but still on the bottom of the rung.
“All of those women I dated, they reminded me of those girls. When we met, I had just gotten down to a healthy weight. Alan over there was all bean-pole guy and I was just shy of ‘chunky’. You remember. I didn’t get really fit for another year, then girls really started to notice me. At first I didn’t realize what it was, except we started dating. When you broke it off the first time, I realized all these ‘hot chicks’ were flirting with me, so I started getting more confident. When they mostly responded positively, it made me feel powerful. Like I was taking back the power those first girls had taken from me.”
“Damn, you sound like you’ve really worked on things.” Alan noted. He knew what it was like, he’d been seeing a therapist on and off as needed since his family died in the plane crash.
“Therapy man. No shame in it. I’ve actually told a lot of people this story, partially, in private. For HR stuff, you know? Part of why my career was doing so well is that I really got the back of the employees and that made them better at their jobs, yanno? It’s tough, but I liked making a difference in their lives. Making your employer happy is fine and all, but why not make both sides happier?” Lucy hesitated only a moment longer before gently wrapping her arms around John and pulling his head against her own, petting his hair.
“I’m sorry John. I was thinking about how much you hurt me, how much it hurt me to see you with all of these other girls. I didn’t realize.”
“Nah, Lu, I was mad you kept breaking it off, but a part of me knew that I was being a real dick. Even after all that therapy, I’m still a dick a lot of the time. I have real issues with women and I don’t know when or if I’ll ever really get past it. Things like the… uh… suggestion you mentioned, that wasn’t really authentic. I’m still really scared to be honest and sensitive around people, especially women, yanno?” He looked at each of them with teary eyes, leaning back away from Lucy a little to do it. “You guys though, I don’t feel scared to share around. That’s kind of scary on it’s own, but I don’t have anyone else that I trust.
“My parents can burn in hell for all I care, bastards never even checked in on me once I went off to school. They didn’t even pay their part of the costs, I had to work to pay tuition not covered by financial aid, until I could get estranged. You have to be in therapy for two goddamned years to get estranged.” Lucy nodded and Alan could see sudden understanding in her face.
“That’s why you always knew so much about that stuff when I was in law school. I was just so focused on classes I didn’t really think about why you would know that kind of stuff.”
“It’s ok. No really, it wasn’t your burden and the therapy turned out to be a really good thing. It’s not a cure, but it’s a damned big help.” Alan and Aaron were both nodding and Alan gave Aaron a raised eyebrow. Aaron had always seemed the most grounded, though he was an only child like John was, he regularly saw his parents and had a good relationship with them. There was more depth to Aaron than Alan had realized. More to all of his friends.