** young&menace !

while she listened to phoenix, she scoffed jokingly before retaliating back to him, “you’re lame !” she replied with some sass in her voice shaking her head. “how are you going to want to be a vampire, then be scared of yourself ? you make no sense.” she scolded him jokingly before shrugging her shoulders, “it be like that sometimes.” she can’t help but chuckle, “just accept it, you gotta love yourself if you end up being a vampire, can’t go through life being scared of yourself.” morgan replied with a shake of her head. “but still they’re not allowed here in california, even if you buy it elsewhere, you still can’t have it here. so thanks but that doesn’t help. grandfathered in ?”

“You know I’m not lame. I’m, like... the coolest guy your life! And yes, that’s including both Wills and my uncle!” It was a good point, though not one which would deter Phoenix from his ultimate dream as perhaps qualifying as a cryptid. He shook his head. “I won’t go into bat mode, dude!” He rolled his eyes. “No! I read you could do it! Like with a ferret! I thought about getting a ferret once, but Jolene’s fat ass would probably eat it. Grandfathered in means you did it before the law was enacted so you can’t get in trouble! The law doesn’t apply in Oregon. Hence, you get your ferret!”

“See, that’s why I’m a glass half full kinda guy! It gets me in trouble sometimes. Being too optimistic about some things makes them go wrong!” Of course, there were also many things he was overly pessimistic about. Those didn’t go well either. “You should get a Hello Kitty tattoo that’s pink! It’d meet the theme, for sure! I know a... shitty tattoo artist named Phoenix!”

It seemed like Caleb had caught him in an unwinnable situation. He shook his head. “Nah, here’s the thing! I’m not sure about anything! That’s the whole point! You can’t be sure about anything! You can’t trust anything. You’ve always got to be on your toes!” He shook his head. “I took a lot of math in college and you know what it taught me? Math is evil! Even math doesn’t know what math’s doing sometimes! So I wouldn’t trust two plus two being four! I wouldn’t.” Did he want them? Sure, but it wouldn’t sway his beliefs. “You can want something and not believe in it too! I’d assume. That’s the only thing I don’t believe in. I believe anything else could be possible!” Phoenix shrugged. He wasn’t going to argue about it with someone who clearly cared about whatever god was out there. Caleb wasn’t really arguing what Phoenix believed in. He nodded. “Yeah, I can respect that. I mean, Jesus was jacked. You think God was?” He hummed. “Unicorns are cool and you know what? They probably do still exist. Thanks for the fact!”

It was a little late in the night for Phoenix to still be sober. He had thought, for a while, about not going out tonight. He had gotten bored with the movies on tv and he had run out of weed. So he slowly shuffled into the bar, raising up a bandaged thumb when he heard Avery’s voice. It wasn’t that Phoenix tried to antagonize her. He was simply a lot sometimes, too much for some people. He wondered if it was that was for her. Leaning his elbows against the counter, he grinned. “Hey, what’s a guy gotta do to get some free drinks? Look at this face! I’m fuckin’ precious!”

Not really sure where he was going with his sentence, Juliana wondered if he even knew where it was going as she let out a laugh when he called Bodhi a shithead. She gave him a light slap on the arm for it because it really shouldn’t have made her laugh considering how much she loved Bodhi. "Yeah, don’t call him that! That’s my son and best friend you’re talking about!” Even if he wasn’t trying to, he was always amazing at lightening the mood and making her take things less seriously than she should. Maybe that was why his words caught her off guard for a moment and for a split second she didn’t know how to react.

Hearing him say he loved her the grin that spread widely across her face was instinctual. She did hear that correctly, didn’t she? The fact that this was one of his concerns, that he wouldn’t be able to say it to her made hearing it even more monumental. She bit her bottom lip, feeling her cheeks hurting from all the smiling she was doing. “I love you too, Phoenix.“ she took one of her hands and placed it on his cheek as she leaned in closer. She quickly pecked him on the lips at first before giving him another soft kiss and slowly deepening it more than the first. 

All she wanted to do was keep peppering him with kisses, letting him know how happy he just made her and not care about any potential onlookers watching them on her front porch. When she finally managed to pull herself away, she rested her forehead against his, still smiling. An airy chuckle escaped her lips before she spoke, “I kinda wish I didn’t look like I just rolled out of bed for this but…you have no idea how happy I am right now.”

There wasn’t any reason for him to feel so much joy at her returning the statement. He knew, without a doubt, she felt that way. Juliana had made it perfectly clear. He was simply stuck in the limbo, deciding if he would ever be good enough for her. And the answer was no. It would always be no. But he would let her make one bad decision, if only it was out of selfishness. “Good, I was hoping you would say that!”

As she kissed him, Phoenix almost didn’t believe this was his life. Here they were, on her front step, kissing. How many times had he thought about it? Their first kiss was meant to be here. While this wasn’t their first, he could believe it was their first kiss as a couple. Fuck, him and Juliana. A couple. Who saw that coming? (Other than everyone in town besides the two of them.) Oh. He had to ask, didn’t he?

When she pulled away, he couldn’t help chasing her lips to give her a quick peck. As their foreheads touched, he held onto her. He would have to let go of her at some point. That point was not now. He didn’t think it was going to be any time soon. “So we’re gonna try? You wanna try?” He half wanted to wait for her confirmation before asking the question, knowing he might overwhelm her with too much at once. “So you wanna be my girlfriend?”

She gave a small laugh. “Well I had originally meant the latter, but honestly, it’s impressive how much you fall too.” She gave her head a quick satisfactory nod. “It is a win. Congrats. If you were one of my students I’d give you a sticker.” That was lie. She was a high school teacher so stickers were pretty much non-existent now, but it sounded better saying that than saying that she’d give him an A+, which didn’t really make much sense if he was just ‘winning’ something.

Ahhh, the dreaded question. She couldn’t blame him. She was a naturally curious person and if it was the other way around, she’d be wondering the exact same thing. She gave a small shrug, taking a few seconds to ponder over what she could tell him, or how much she could tell him. She had wanted to leave the past in the past, and she hadn’t really properly opened up about it to anyone since moving to Sunnymead. She wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible. So, she settled on the reply of: “All you need to know is that I was not having a good time, that I can tell you for sure.”

Staring down at his tattooed arm again, she genuinely considered it for a moment. “Maybe if you show me that I can trust you to do it.,” she said with a small grin. She threw her head back slightly, laughing. “I also need to know if I can trust you with these tips. I don’t just give them to anyone.” She folded her arms across her chest. “Tell you what, if you ever give me a tattoo, then maybe I can give you the tips while you’re doing it.”

Lifting up his phone to reveal the star sticker Diego had given him, he laughed. “You know what? I would gladly accept that sticker. And, as I told the last guy who told me I’d earned a sticker, I expect you to hold up that promise!” He pointed to the sticker. “I forget why he gave me this, but we were talking about aliens so I’m gonna consider it a win.” Then, when did Phoenix refrain from bringing up aliens?

He smiled. “You’re not going to tell me anything, no matter how hard I pry, are you?” Phoenix asked with a little bit of a laugh. It was fine. He could get over it. Or, he’d pry at a later date... Probably the latter. He hummed. “Well, I’m just saying! It’s an offer and it doesn’t have to be now! My tattoos remain an option! All my friends have one! That’s a lie. One of them made me go get professional tattoos with him so it would be sanitary!” Stupid medical school.

“I mean, it’s millennial culture and who gives a fuck about what people think? Do I look like I care about what people think about me?” He gestured towards himself. “I mean, I’m kind of a mess! I’ve heard that... God, I don’t know how many times.” He let out a laugh before shaking his head. “Rose colored glasses. Problem is, they make you miss all the red flags in life.”

He fell into step with Zander and shrugged. “So you could tell me what you know,” he tried before laughing. “Sorry about the interrogation when we met the first time. Thing is, I’m a little into conspiracy theories.” To say the least. He had binders about certain subjects. “Though, I’m still never forgiving the government for what they’re covering up regarding aliens. And you can’t tell me they’re not!”

“Nah, I was throwin’ out there!” He laughed, getting a good look at the man before speaking up again. “Aw, now you’re making me not want to age, asshole! I know I’m gonna and you’ve made it seem terrible!”

“And you’re an annoying asshole, but here I am!” Phoenix waved his hands and did spirit fingers. Then he rolled his eyes. “Don’t pretend you don’t know. Everyone’s been thinking we were together since high school, even back when I was with Gage.” He laughed softly. “I have, personally, been rejected with that reasoning more than once. Plus fucked up relationship opportunities because I cancelled dates to hang with Juliana. That apparently adds more fuel to the rumors.”

“Yeah, but usually that’s if they’re led off by a stranger,” she scoffed. “You need to relax.” She hung back to fall into step with him. “And you need to trust me,” she gave a small pat on his shoulder. If she was going to murder anyone, not that she would, but if she had to take her pick Phoenix would be one of the last people she would choose. Not just because she actually sort of enjoyed the guy’s company and felt that he was somewhat of a friend, but also because she knew Bodhi would be distraught. And that thought hurt her heart than any other.

She stopped when they came across a liquor store. “So we can continue to drown out sorrows.” She went in and came back out with a bottle of vodka, slipping it into her bag. “Come on. We’re almost there.” She gestured with her head for Phoenix to follow her again.

After another five minute walk they arrived at their destination: the lake. But this wasn’t just any normal part of the lake: this was a secret crook that couldn’t be seen by the usual lake-goers and was only known to those who had stumbled on it by accident. Roxy hadn’t actually came across it herself, but her grandfather had told her about it when she was young. He said that if she went looking, she would find it. And so after he told her about it, she went looking and low and behold, it didn’t take her long to find. It was almost like a small island that was still attatched to the mainland. It was only big enough to fit maybe four people on comfortably, and you were dangerously close to the water at that. She sat down on grass and pulled out the vodka bottle. She cracked it open, took a swig and handed it to Phoenix. 

“My grandad told me about this place.” She looked out onto the lake. It was a clear night and the moonlight was reflecting off of the water, making it glisten. It was beautiful. “He told me that he had just come back from the war, and was planning on asking my gran to marry him.” She picked up a small pebble that was laying in the grass and began turning it over in her hands, turning her gaze from the lake down to its smooth surface. “Seeing all of that torture, all that injury and death… he realised life was short and he had been in love with her for years. But do you know what?” Roxy turned to look at Phoenix. “He never did anything about it.” She paused for a moment, licking her lips. “Until he had had that brush with death and decided that he couldn’t live the rest of his life, knowing that he could potentially die at any moment, and not confess how he felt. He showed her this place. It was probably round about the same time it is now they went, and he told her how he felt and just straight-out asked her to marry him. No asking her out on a date, no asking her to be his girlfriend, just straight out asked her to be his wife.” She gave a small laugh at the idea. “Pretty stupid if you ask me but I think it was more common back then, especially after the war.” She gave her shoulders a small shrug. “Do you know what my gran said to him?”

He snorted at her comment that it might be a phase. Did phases last this long? No, they were things you outgrew. Crossing the threshold from his early teen years to nearly his mid-twenties with the same feelings didn’t seem like much of a phase to him. “Yeah, sounds like wishful thinking to me. I gave it up yea -- ages ago.” There was no way Roxy missed it. He chose to ignore that fact.

They were walking in near silence, save for her to pop in the liquor store to buy a bottle of vodka. “Perfect!” he announced because he wasn’t completely wasted and it was much better to be blackout drunk if you were going to talk about feelings. If you asked him, anyway. 

When they reached a small alcove near the lake, he sat next to her. The breeze coming off the water felt nice on his liquor warmed skin. Accepting the bottle from her, he didn’t waste time taking a large gulp from it before passing it back. A small smile spread across his face. It reminded him a bit of the romance movies he’d find while flicking through channels after he smoked. It was the only time he’d watch them. “I actually really like the story so far.” He paused for a moment to think about it. “Apparently, it was yes because you’re here?” he suggested before shaking his head. “What I think she should have done was ask him if he’d lost his damn mind.”

“ah, calm down.” lysander swats at the air, most likely playing down the severity of his crime. he was only a child, that fateful night felt like almost a lifetime away. “i was seventeen” lysander begins, eye’s drifting towards a certain building in the distance of the main road, “a few buddies and i were lighting fires in the bushes outside the city hall. the wind changed, and the entire west wing of the hall set on fire. the people inside eventually got out, a staff member had minor burns on his arm but that was it. my friends got sent to juvie and i got sent to military school thanks to my grandfather.” he takes a moment for the memory to settle, “didn’t matter where i went, as long as i was very far away from their pristine town where they can keep ignoring what was really going on here.”

His brow quirked as he listened to the story. It was one he hadn’t heard before, though it made sense. It was before he had arrived. When Phoenix found himself in Sunnymead, the town hall had blended in with the perfect little town they were going for. It could have had something to do with the fact they would have apparently had to renovate. “Wow, that’s kind of badass!” he replied, clearly full of excitement for what he thought had been a break in the monotony. “Except for the guy who got hurt. Sucks for him. Unless he deserved it.” He let out a laugh and shook his head. “Military school seems like it’d be better than juvie. All I did there was learn how to fight better. Got my ass absolutely destroyed a couple times. And do a whole lot of school work.” He shrugged. “I was decidedly less badass. I broke into a place to hide from the rain when my foster parents kicked me out.”

DARCY: Sooooooooooooooo

DARCY: How'd the talk go?

morgan scoffed at his words, “rats are gross, so i’m knocking rats & i don’t like them. they’re just no, i cannot.” she shakes her head not wanting to even think about having a rat as a pet. “no yeah see, that right there, i would not want to have my pet rat know how to get out on its own after teaching it. that’s the mistake i would not make right there is teaching them how to get out of their cage.” she shudders at the thought of rats & looked over at him, “what ? you don’t want to get turned into a vampire ? because i think that’d be pretty cool.” she adds before gasping softly, “wait, ferrets or a hedgehog would make great pets too, oh my gosh, now i want a ferret.”

Phoenix rolled his eyes. “Rats are awesome and you’re lame!” He would leave it at that though. He considered that for a moment. “Actually, I kinda would want to be a vampire. But then I’d also be a bat and afraid of myself... you’ve given me quite the conundrum, Morgan!” He put a hand on his chin, dramatically pretending to think, before he nodded. “I have better news. See, I was looking for loopholes in laws, for no reason in particular, and I figured this one out. Buy it in Nevada and drive back here! If you have it from another place, you’re -- like -- grandfathered in!”