➟ SNAP OUT OF IT! ✧

for the record, no, he hadn’t been eavesdropping. the other just happened to be talking within his earshot, and it’s never been like him to ignore an opportunity to strike up a conversation with a stranger.

he hadn’t even realized that someone had come in, so focused on the paper in front of him. there was soft music playing in the background as usual — giving the place a rather scary feel. especially since it was so quiet to begin with. 

“not all of it. i have a section, i like to keep them separated from  everything else. sometimes they get moody and — well, i don’t need customers accidentally taking something that they don’t want.” 

he gives the guy a smile, studying the look on his face. definitely a little creeped out. 

“the haunted stuff is in the corner over there, the items you shouldn’t touch are behind glass. everything else is fine.”

“no shit?”

naturally he turns his gaze to the corner, and then to the items behind the aforementioned glass. instead of walking towards them, though, he stays put, tapping his fists. 

“did you collect all this stuff yourself?”

he squints and turns his gaze back to face counter-man again, head tilted curiously. 

i like ur dog

he’s gotten a lil bigger since then tho

“You don’t know, I could probably pull it off.”

he just smiles as Jesse finally meets his gaze, leaning in to peck a kiss to his grumpy lips, chuckling softly at his suggestion.

“sure, that way we can shop around and I can have a goal to work towards. Or maybe just put inside a Wooly Willy toy, drag the magnet around and have some real fun.”

“i mean... yeah, i guess playing with your willy  toy has proven to be pretty fun in the past.”

his lips finally split into a grin (over his own joke nonetheless      don, he realizes, is influencing him more than he’ll ever admit), and he moves to stretch out across don’s lap and the couch, staring up at the ceiling.

“Persecuting? Please, use a stronger word.”

Rolling her eyes, Callisto shakes her head.  “And while you’re at it, why don’t you enlighten me on what exactly a ‘person like me’ is? Someone just trying to get where they’re going & picked a shitty time of day to do it?”

And if they were being honest, it wasn’t high school kids at all that were the problem - any sort of crowd would have drawn her ire.

He has a point.

“I’m twenty, actually.” She retorts, and even to her own ears it sounds childish and like the worst comeback uttered on planet Earth to this day.

“are you     “

he pauses, feeling the smile grow on his face because you are. amazing.

“you’re serious. you’re what, like, two years  older than the oldest kids in that crowd?”

which is already dissipating, he notices (unintentionally).

Well.

Callisto lets him finish his tirade, quietly noting which things made him angry - and what she might be able to use against him, if it came to it. When he’s finished, she gives him a lazy once over, quietly taking in all his features.

“For starters, I doubt you have enough dick for your elders to suck. Two, I doubt anyone respects you if thats the kind of shit you say to a stranger. Fucking hell.”

Insulting a kid. Classy.

After a moment, she shakes her head, sidestepping his question entirely.

“You’ve got some fucking baggage, kid.”

...a dick joke? for real? 

“Is that all?”

He smiles softly, knowing there’s so much more to it then that but not all pressuring him to talk. He’d tell him in his own time, in his own way. Something he learned to accept over time.

“How big we talking about? Just stubble? Lumberjack? Or full on ZZ Top status?”

“zz top is so fucking ugly, shut up.”

he has to bite back a smile, though. after a pause, he lifts his head up to look don in the face, trying to come off as grumpy but knowing (not quite accepting, but knowing), that’s probably not what he’s relaying. whatever.