Chapter 5 – Those Things We Do.
The others were clearing the last of their dinner dishes off the table by the time Chris finally made it back home. It had taken him around an hour and a half to make his way home once he had finally worked out exactly where he was, and though he could have made a detour and tried catching a bus, the were irregular and spaced out at this time of the night in those areas, so he didn’t think he would have made it home any earlier. He was exhausted again, and feeling a bit out of it.
“We’re rolling up a new set of characters. Want to do yours now?” Bruce asked from one of the sofas as he passed. Peter was with him with a lite beer on the coffee table. Paul and Damian were making noises from the kitchen, having just dumped the dishes in there. Probably grabbing some beers out of the fridge, though it wasn’t really the night for them. Hopefully they actually washed the dishes first.
Chris shook his head. “Not right now. I’m exhausted,” he murmured, continuing towards his room.
That must mean though that they entire party got wiped out by the Abomination. It made him feel a little better, but he also had a sneaking suspicion that if he made another female character she’d have a very brief life.
He also stunk. He desperately needed another shower.
He made his way up to his room, unlocking the door, turned on the light, and then placed his key and wallet on table before he collapsing onto the bed. He picked up his phone, and looked at it. One missed call, from Rachael, about an hour ago. No left message. She must have heard it ringing through the wall and have gathered that he’d left it behind. He rolled over and placed his phone on the table, looking up at the shelf above it. There sat Pyre, smiling at him.
What the!
He sat up in shock, staring at the figurine. He could have sworn that she flew out of his pocket back in Old Town. He was sure of it. He’d seen her quite clearly. Wait a minute, no he hadn’t. The light was too dim for that. But he’d definitely been left with the certainty that she had indeed flown in amongst the rubble. He picked Pyre up, holding her carefully, turning her over, before placing her back on the shelf. This definitely was the real figurine here. So what had he lost back then? He still had his wallet and key, and that had been all that he’d taken. He shook his head, confused. Perhaps there was some truth to the superstitions around Old Town. Chris sighed and stood up. He’d left a marker, perhaps he would still go back and investigate another day, but right now he needed that shower.
Finding that no one was using the bathroom at the moment, he closed the door behind him and started to strip, tidily laying his clothes one by one on the chair in the room. He wasn’t sure why he bothered, he didn’t like them much, out of habit he guessed. Something that he’d always done. Naked, he finally realized that he was still wearing the ruby necklace. He had never taken it off when he had stripped of the rest of his feminine clothes yesterday, and he’d clean forgotten about it, its presence so natural to him. He actually quite liked it, and he could wear it under his clothes without anyone noticing. Taking if off, he carefully placed it on top of his clothes, and stepped into the shower, the warm water as soothing as always.
Chris soaked in the water for a good twenty minutes, just enjoying the warmth and feel of the water, soothing him, and calming him down, before he decided that he really need to actually wash before the water ran out. He grabbed his bodywash, stared at it, and then put it back. He just couldn’t bring himself to open it. There was no way he was going to use that stuff again. He looked at the others, and grabbed Rachael’s again, blushing heavily at the same time as images of her raced through his mind. He shook his head, trying to ignore the images, and poured some of her bodywash into his cloth. He’d buy her some more of it tomorrow, to replace what he’d use. He lathered himself with it, enjoying the smell and the feel, and it was another full twenty minutes before he finally turned off the water and hoped out of the shower, proceeding to dry himself down. He didn’t think he’d ever spent that much time bathing before, but he did feel the better for it.
The sound of Rachael’s car returning to the house startled him, reminding him that he really needed to finish up in there. The bathroom smelt feminine, and no one could miss that. He hurriedly finished getting dry, wrapped the towel around his waist, and then clasped the chain around his neck. He was momentarily distracted by a wolf-whistle from the lounge, which was entirely out of place in this house. He then grabbed all of his clothes, as there was no way he was going to put the dirty clothes back on, double checked to make sure that he had indeed grabbed them all, and dashed out of the bathroom towards his room.
Almost bowling straight into Rachael.
“Oh there you are,” Rachael said, looking relieved. He wasn’t sure where she’d been, not that he ever kept tabs on anyone, but she was still in the same clothes as earlier.
Chris blushed, feeling uneasy. Now he was here standing half naked in front of her, and he knew she probably staring at the necklace. There was no way she was going to miss the smell of her bodywash either.
Rachael hesitated, as if she was unsure of what to say.
“Paul is going to start the new campaign tonight. Are you going to join us?” she finally asked.
Chris shook his head, looking down. “Sorry. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
Rachael reached out to touch him, pulling back when Chris suddenly looked startled.
“I haven’t told anyone,” she said quietly.
“Thanks...” Chris murmured. He looked up at her. She had a soft, caring expression on her face, but she also still looked tired, and perhaps a little on edge. He blushed again. He knew he was staring.
“Sorry,” he muttered again. He took a step towards his room, then stopped. “What was that whistle before about?” he queried.
“I’m not sure...” Rachael replied, looking thoughtful. “Actually I think I’m going to go to bed now too. I’m tired.”
She then reached out to him, touching him gently on the arm, her hand soft and warm. Comforting.
“Talk to me when you’re ready... Please... Don’t shut yourself off again.”
Chris nodded, and then watched as she went into her room, audibly locking the door behind her. Not want to be caught out by anyone else, he hurried to his room, also locking the door behind him.
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He wasn’t even sure why she cared, nor had he actually seen her so concerned. Yes, they were good friends, in that they had known each other for many years and got along well, in fact she was the one that he got on with the best with out of all of those who lived here, but he wasn’t sure if he’d call her a close friend or anything. There was a lot that neither knew about the other (though he guessed there was a little less of that now on his side), and they sort of just existed in the vicinity of each other, their shared hobby the focal point of it. Not that he’d ever had close friends as it was. He just found that he didn’t relate to people people well, especially the guys. He sighed. It must be nice to have a close friend or a girlfriend, but he doubted he’d ever know what that was like.
Throwing on a clean loose top, Chris lay down on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He could hear the sounds of the others talking loudly amongst themselves about their new characters, what roles they’d play, and what their backstories were. He couldn’t quite make out all of the particulars, but they sounded excited. They were all experienced role-players, and though Rachael had said that they’d be starting the campaign tonight, he doubted they’d get that far. Once they all got started on the history and motivations for their characters, they would get involved in it for hours, a story worthy of a novel coming out of it well before the actual campaign started. By the time they’d finished with that, it’d be the early hours of the morning. He always really enjoyed that part of it. There were also two players missing. While they might start without him, he doubted they start without Rachael.
He heard someone come up the stairs, and then a knock on Rachael’s door, the quiet voice of Millie asking why she hadn’t come back down. Rachael mumbled something about a headache and not having the energy for it, which seemed to satisfy Millie, and she went back down stairs to the other. There was a little bit of grumbled conversation that followed, before the energetic chatter and laughter of character creation resumed.
He was pleased that Rachael hadn’t told anyone, if what she had said was true. Mind you, even in his paranoid state, he didn’t have any reason to disbelieve her. He’d known her the longest of them all after all, having met her during his first year at university, at the university’s role-playing society. He’d dabbled a bit in it when he was at high school, but it wasn’t until he started studying that he actually got into it properly. One of his classmates had mentioned that the society was holding a convention, and so curious, he’d gone along, and really enjoyed himself. There were a bunch of one off games, all run by different people, and the players cycled around in groups between a selection of them. Rachael had been in his group, stunning even back then, and he had wondered why someone like her was involved in what was essentially a nerdy hobby. He had been quite nervous around all of the new people, but she had made a point of talking to him, welcoming him to the game and the society (even though was wasn’t involved in the running of it at all), and they had talked on and off for the entire day. Perhaps she was part of the reason he’d found it so enjoyable. Given that they studied different things, him the sciences, Rachael the arts (though currently she was doing a few maths, history, and a singular P.E. paper along with her arts masters), he didn’t see her for a while after that.
He joined a gaming group that had had an open spot, and while it was alright, the space and sci-fi theme wasn’t really his thing. He ran into her a month later. He was between classes, actually they all were, the horde of students trapeing across the university grounds, all heading to their next destination. He’d spotted her taking a brief respite from the wind against one of the buildings, and had started walking towards her before hesitating. She’d spotted him and smiled, and walked over. Apparently some of their regular gaming group were looking at doing a one off game, and were looking for another player, and she asked if he’d joined. He hadn’t wanted to intrude on someone else's group of friends, but he found himself accepting anyways. She’d seemed happy and they’d exchanged numbers.
That was how he met Millie, Rachael’s best friend, who she’d known since she was a child. They’d come from the same town, deciding to go to the same university, and spent a lot of their time together. Flatting together of course, one of the perks of going to study with your best friend. It was a group of five people all up for the game. Millie running the game, himself and Rachael, and another guy and a girl. He seemed to recall that the guy, whose name he could no longer remember, was dating Rachael at the time, but he never saw him again after that. While Millie was quite defined in her tastes in a partner, hence the reason why he’d never known her to actually date anyone, Rachael had churned through a whole lot. Her boyfriends, and the one off girlfriend that he didn’t think anyone else actually knew about, never lasted long, a few months at max, before she would be single again for a while. Her ‘relationship’ with Peter might actually be the longest running one that she had had. All of her partners would get involved in the role-playing sessions, and then leave once they had parted ways. It made for some interesting campaigns. Chris also wasn’t sure how many of them she had actually slept with. He was pretty certain that she wasn’t that easy to bed, and some had probably left her because she hadn’t given them what they were actually after.
That session was a tale of fairies, all the characters and back stories pre-created for the session, and it had been a total blast. While he had been given a female character, he’d fallen in love with it, and had managed to bring it over into the following campaign, when Rachael had invited him to play with them a couple of weeks later. She’d said that one of the players had left the group (probably an ex), and Millie was starting a new campaign. He’d made enough of an impression on Millie that the two girls had decided that they’d like him to participate on a more permanent basis. He’d eagerly agreed, and had been part of their gaming group since. Millie was always very involved in her worlds, and she spent a great deal of time and energy creating them, enough so that she ended up studying part time so that she’d have enough time to devote to that passion.
Bruce had joined a year later. Chris had met him a couple of times at the regular gaming conventions that the society had run, and then they had ended up sharing a class. When one of Rachael’s ex’s had stormed off, Chris had surprised himself and mentioned Bruce as a possible candidate, certain that his play style would mesh with the group, and Rachael had agreed. Bruce had been happy to come along, and even with his characters odd tendencies and decisions, he’d stuck with the group.
Peter was a friend of one of Rachael’s ex’s, and he’d come into it a year and a half after Bruce. He’d done a few classes with Millie, and she’d been the one to invite him back after he’d come along once with his friend. Paul was a friend of his, and initially had only been involved in the odd session, though as he interest in role playing grew, so did his involvement, though it still remained sporadic. At that point they now had a fairly sizeable and stable group, tagging on Rachael’s flings, and Millie’s worlds had grown to epic proportions. Then of course, a year ago they all decided to flat together.
Even through all of her relationships, he’d always gotten on well with Rachael, as much as one with his disposition did. Chris rolled over, and buried his face into his pillow. He wondered what it would be like to have Rachael as a girlfriend, sorry a girlfriend like Rachael. But much longer term. While the thought was nice, he didn’t dare go there, not after yesterday, not with the pain so raw, even if his thoughts wanted to wander there on their own. She’d have seen how his body had reacted, how he’d reacted. He wouldn’t be surprised if she though less of him now. That he was just like all the other guys. Tears welled up unbidden. But even so, she was important to him he realized. He’d talk to her as she’d asked, once he felt brave enough to do so. He guessed he owed her that much.
He looked up and picked up his phone, staring at it for a little bit, before he opened the messaging app, and sent a message to Rachael. There wasn’t a lot of messages logged here, there had never been the need.
[[Chris: I’ll talk to you about yesterday once I’ve recovered a bit more. It’s still too raw. In a couple of days I promise. Thanks for keeping it to yourself.]]
The reply came back quickly.
[[Rachael: Thanks. :) I’ll wait.]]
He wasn’t sure why she was thanking him, but he was feeling a little better.
Doing his best to block out the chatter of those downstairs, he clambered under the blankets, and fell asleep.