king of the clouds

Emma waved the thanks off with the paddle in her hands, she had hoped he knew that Emma would try to help him at any time. “Just in case you forgot, you know I don’t let people win, right?” Emma spoke after setting herself up at the other side of the table, hitting and returning the ball to his side suddenly silent as she focused on the ping pong ball. 

⛺️- our muses pitch a tent

“Have you ever done this with James before?” Nathaniel asked after a moment, a slight smirk on his lips as he recalled how it had gone when they were children. “I can’t remember the last time I did this for fun…”

@marcusstcne​

“Can’t say I have,” he admitted with a light laugh. “Every time I’ve tried to suggest it he doesn’t seem to express much interest,” Marcus added. He pulled out a few more pieces from the bag. “Well let’s hope we can still set this up right.”

“I was, until you told me that. Are you serious? You must be joking.” Charlotte said, staring at him as she waited for the ‘gotcha.’ “Did you see what else they brought?” 

“I’ve just been uh, thinking,” Jay replied. “I could be asking you the same thing.”

“Thinking about what?” he asked. “I just came over to you. I wasn’t sitting alone.”

“I know you want nothing more than to kill me right now but trust me– this’ll be worth it,” he insisted to the other, handing him a warmer jacket after waking him up so early.

“Hey bud,” Marcus smiled as he came to sit next to the other. “What are you doing sitting here on your own, huh?”

“Family friendly?” She repeated, not quite realising what he had meant until she followed his eyes to the other players on the table near them. Quickly, she had realised that the both of them needed a distraction, and this would be a pretty good one. “You’re on.” Emma answered, moving to pick up the other paddle and walking to the other side of the table. 

marcus & emma

can be found here

marcus & charlotte

“You enjoying yourself?” Marcus asked, making smalltalk with the other with a light smile. “Not to ruin your mood already but I also hear they run out of marshmallows in the first half of the party– bummer I missed them.”

Marcus eyed the others playing beer pong and he sighed. While he did a good job in his day to day life to avoid temptation, it was the worst at parties. “So– what do you say to a family friendly version of ping pong?” he turned to Emma, picking up a free paddle at one of the empty table tennis tables and giving it a twirl.

“And are those better than being friends with people just because they make you feel young?” Emma asked with a pointed look. “Do you want me to get you some extra rope or anything? You know, to help your old bones.” 

An eyebrow cocked as if he wasn’t completely convinced but at least he wasn’t writing it off. “Right…. So exactly how do you want to clear the air? Passing and smoking of the peace pipe?” Okay, so maybe he was being a little sarcastic but that was his nature. “Why don’t you start up.”

Rolling his eyes, Marcus already regretted trying to make an effort. Was there any point to this? “Well for starters– why did you decide not to like me? I’ve never done James wrong, ever. I don’t understand.”

“No, one of the worst times I’ve spent with you is when we went to visit my parents and my brother was there. The tension-” He whistled, “You could cut it with a knife.” James listened as the other explained what was going to happen, “How come you know all the technical terms for this, to me the person who’s the Belayer is the person I trust not to get distracted and drop me.” James laughed at the other words and shrugged, “What can I say, I have the body to wipe the floor with every Olympic Medalist out there, come for me athletes.” He bragged before looking to the other, “I do have to ask an important question though- does this sport mean you have to take your shirt off, because I might like it even more if that’s the case.”

Marcus let out a rather heavy sigh at that memory, “They all hate me... don’t they?” He sounded defeated. “I mean I wasn’t kidding when you ask where I was and I say I was here rock climbing. I would hope after a couple sessions I’d pick up the terminology,” he couldn’t help but chuckle softly. As James continued to play off of the Olympic bit Marcus grinned, “Of course, babe. I’m sure you could catch them off guard too.” Marcus could almost sense what the question was before James asked it. This triggered a roll of Marcus’ eyes, “I don’t have to take my shirt off in any sport besides I dunno... swimming? And just because I could, doesn’t mean I should or will. There are children here, James,” he seemed to scold but with clear amusement.

Emma rarely stumbled over her words, but his comment about James did catch her; Emma still wasn’t sure how she felt about him. “It’s surprising that you haven’t gotten the hint yet. I mean if both of us are on the same page about it… You have to think.” Emma teased. “Are you sure you’ll remember? Your memory isn’t really what it used to be.” 

Nathaniel gave a scoff at that. “Get over yourself.” He stated bluntly as he stood up once more so that they were at the same level. “I think it’s agreed that we aren’t one anothers favorite people and for good reason on both sides.” Because Nathaniel at least could accept his faults. “And I’ll do my best to put up with you for J’s sake but if you think that it means I’ll just ignore your attitude, you have another thing coming.”

“I’m all for getting along for James’ sake but– perhaps we should try and clear the air between us in the first place. I mean what better time than a time when we literally can’t walk away from one another until help arrives?”

“Do we? Because I’ve never had that mentality, if I want pizza I simply just get pizza.” James told the other, noting the smile on the others lips and yet not being able to tell if the other was teasing him or not. “I don’t totally hate it, in fact it does look like it’ll be fun. If I don’t end up falling on my face that is.” James told the other, “So how do I do this? Attach some sort of rope to me, put chalk on my hands? Pretend I’m an Olympic athlete?”

“I know you do,” he chuckled with a shake of his head. “Oh? Well I’m glad to hear you don’t see this as being the worst time,” Marcus admitted when James said it looked like it could be fun. “Yes we’re going to get you a harness and it’ll be attached to the rope which will be held by the belayer. Normally I’d belay for you but I’ll be climbing alongside you so we’ll get someone from the center to help out,” he explained as he guided him over to where the materials were. “Yes, you get to chalk your hands and pretend you’re an Olympic athlete too,” Marcus couldn’t help but chuckle once more. “Something tells me you’re going to enjoy that part way more than you should.”