king of the clouds

“They really shouldn’t be allowed to do that”, Declan said. He had given his hand for the dogs to sniff but that was about it. He had four of his own at home, he probably smelled like dogs. His dogs were trained not to budge from his side, mostly for their own safety than anything else. His husky was a dumb and curious child, he could get into anything. “You should probably invest in a harness.”

“i think it’s fine. it’s not like they are going to chew someone's foot off.” he let out and shrugged a little bit. his dogs were friendly because that’s how they were raised. but running up to random strangers was a bit dangerous for them, that was true. “i tried the harness. they didn’t really like it on them.”

devon only shrugged at his comment on her smoking. she’d tried to quit a few times but had never really been able to kick the habit for good, the nicotine addiction-forming over a decade earlier. she’d resigned herself to only having one or two while she was drunk when they were together, or after sex, but it seemed the moment they had parted the habit had come back full force. nobody was surprised. “as always, right?” she mused with a knowing smile, remembering that trying to pry him away from work may have been their exact downfall, as she crouched down to pet the dogs (formerly half hers) properly. “salut, chiots” she murmured. “i’m just getting takeout.” she added rather unnecessarily. as if he’d be worried. she had decided long ago that acting as awkward as she felt would get her nowhere. “yes, alex.” she cracked a soft, airy smile over her lips as she peered up at him from her crouched position. “i definitely know that.”

alex truly couldn’t really say anything about the smoking, his music room would usually smell of nothing but weed when they were living together. it helped him work and chill out most of the time. his hand came up to run through his hair before he rubbed the scruff on his chin and chuckled a little bit. “you know how sam gets when i take too long to answer PR’s emails” he let out softly and shrugged. being a workaholic had probably been one of the reasons why they parted. most of the time when he thought about it, he regretted it. he should have made time when they were home for her. he knew that all too well. “what kind of food you getting?” he asked, not that it really mattered. making small talk with her was always something he tried to do. he didn’t want them to be truly avoiding each other. their past wasn’t something they could just forget. “you know- if you ever want a day with them, all you gotta do is ask.” he let out. it wasn’t like the dogs weren’t hers as well.

warmth caressed her cheeks as the sun rays enveloped the neighborhood while ej walked down the boulevard. leash entwined fingers with her four legged friend trotting beside, she silently thanked mother nature for a good day; that was until the slightest wind chill picked up momentarily, causing her to bury herself deeper in her jacket. her facial features inevitably lit up at the sight of her brother, prompting ej to cross the street, brown strands swaying as she turned to look out for vehicles before loosening the tight grip on the leash, allowing her pup to run over to the others. “hi babies,” cooing at the other dogs who were more interested in their friend, “don’t apologize, you know i love them too,” taking the seat across the table, “what are you doing out here, aren’t you cold?”

the second his sister came into sight, he smiled. it was always a good time when he saw her. he let the dogs greet her animal as he chuckled and let them be before he walked back over and took his seat in front of her and shrugged a little bit. “i’m freezing, but i needed to get some work done and there is street working being done my place so the noise makes it hard to get anything done.” he answered her and shrugged. “i could ask you the same thing. aren’t you cold?”

“Just because they’re used to it doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck,” she snorted, letting her bag slide down her arm to the floor. “You wouldn’t understand. You’ve never worked in retail a day in your life.” Her eyes flicked between his face and his phone, her eyebrows arched with disapproval. “You gonna look up from that?” 

a small laugh fell from his lips as he pressed send on a text as jennifer’s words. she was right. he never truly had a real job until college. and it wasn’t even in customer service. his career was basically something he did work for, though. “i mean- having money growing up did have it’s perks, yeah.” he answered her as he looked up from his phone finally and turned around to look at her. “you work in retail before?”

London was on break when she spotted the person walking over to her, she was in a fairly public area just outside her shop where she almost sat every time for Lunch. Pulling out her earbuds she started a conversation with the person that now sat beside her; “Catfishes are so weird-… like why make a person but then when the lie gets too big you just kill them off. It’s just so weird and some of the people on this show are so naive. I feel so bad for them” referencing to the show she had open on her mobile she had been watching; “Have you ever been in a situation like that before?” { @loganstarters​ }

alex hadn’t really been looking to start a conversation with anyone. he had just been looking for a place to sit and relax as he answered a couple emails from PR and management. everything was full, but he did see one seat next to someone so he just decided to go over there and sit seeing as they were into their phone. as he sat down, he heard the woman talk and he looked up at her as he set his laptop on the table and he chuckled a little bit. “nah, me personally i haven’t been in that situation, but in college one of my bandmates had ran into a catfish situation. it was pretty funny, but fucked up at the same time.”

she had her rose coloured sunglasses on as she made her way down the street, cigarette poised between her index and middle finger while it waited for her to take another drag. she’d just finished a weekend group pottery session and was feeling pleased with herself. naturally, that correlated to grabbing takeout from one of her favourite restaurants. humming under her breath, she turned the corner on the city block as she adjusted her deep green trench coat that her small frame was practically swimming in only to see two familiar dogs running towards her. a knowing smile fluttered across her lips as she lifted her sunglasses up to hold her blonde locks back. “you say that like i don’t already know,” she cooed as she bent enough to pet the tops of the dogs head. seeing alex was always, and might always be, awkward. it brought out a side of her that she didn’t normally possess. “i see you had the same idea as me,” she motioned to his work on the patio table as she dropped the cigarette to the floor to step on it. he used to hate it when she smoked. “though your companions are cuter.”

when he saw who the dogs were running to greet, he understood why they were so eager to run up. they were wagging their tails and barking slightly before he made them sit down in front of him as he looked at the woman in front of him. it was always just awkward seeing her out in public. half because of their past and half because he really expected her to move back to california when they broke up. he took a step back as she dropped the stick and he chuckled a little bit. “see you still got that nasty habit, yeah?” he let out and shrugged before he looked at the table he was at. “just gotta get something in my stomach as i drown myself in my work.” he sometimes forgot to eat when he worked a lot. just a mental habit of his when he was deep in something. he chuckled slightly and looked back down at the two dogs. “they truly know how to be the cutest, but you know that.” he answered her before letting out another small laugh. the dogs truly loved her and he wouldn’t keep them away from her. he wasn’t that much of an ass.

Going to the grocery store today was a mistake. A huge mistake, by the looks of it. Not only was it a Sunday but the forecast was predicting some snow and everyone and their mother seemed to be at Trader Joe’s stocking up. The lines were halfway down the food aisles, crowding them so much that the people pushing carts could barely navigate through. It had taken her forever just to grab the fruit she needed for her morning smoothies. “God, I feel so bad for the people working today,” she mumbled to the person in line in front of her. “This is brutal.” @loganstarters​

alex never really went grocery shopping. he was usually so bad about making sure he had things to cook and eat in his place. it was truly a miracle he could even provide for himself even at his age. he decided to just go to the store when he had an open window between meetings on his laptop and then he would head back home in a quick sec. though, he was wrong. it was busy and people were cranky. he was standing in line with just a few things to make tonight. chicken and other such things. he huffed and scrolled down his email before he heard someone speak up. he cleared his throat and glanced back to see jennifer. “i’m sure they are used to the amount of people coming and going through the line.”

[ tom maden, twenty-nine, cismale, he/him ] ━ hey, I just spotted [ alexander james ] in logan square. they’ve been here for [ three years ], and you can catch them working as a [ musician ]. They remind me of [ empty bottles of whiskey, leather jacket, raindrops falling from the window ], and maybe that’s why they’re known to be [ charming ] as well as [ deceptive ]