#coconutlimeverbena

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Ash is staring.

Eiji can feel the weight of that piercing gaze on his back, never once leaving him as he samples the buffet-style lunch they set up just an hour ago. He accidentally bumps a cupcake and gets frosting on his knuckles; no one calls him out on it, but Ash’s gaze sharpens as Eiji surreptitiously licks his hand clean, he knows he’s been caught.

Anyone else might find Ash’s unwavering attention unnerving, but Eiji basks in it, bathed in the glow of his own personal sunrise. So as their friends mill about, dancing in the living room and cheering as they take turns playing video games, Eiji sidles on over to the wall where Ash leans, indolently surveying the room.

“Hey, birthday boy,” Ash greets as he approaches. There’s something undeniably warm in his smile, something sweet and adoring that whispers love love love until Eiji’s cheeks flush pleasantly. “Enjoying the party?”

“You tell me.” Eiji offers him a cracker and some hummus; Ash leans down and lets him feed it to him. “You have been watching me this whole time, after all. I am sure you picked up on some cues about my mood.”

Ash laughs, voice warm and low. “Yeah? Well, it’s not my fault you’re so cute when you’re having fun. Can’t take my eyes off you, Birdie.”

“So suave,” Eiji mutters, rolling his eyes even as he blushes harder. “What a flirt. I am wearing a dumb cardboard crown from Burger King right now, Ash. Not exactly ‘impossible to look away from’ material.”

One of Ash’s pale eyebrows rises, and then he grins, folding his arms over his chest. “Nah, trust me. You make it work. I bet you could even pair it with some lingerie, y’know? Make it real sexy, go the whole nine yards—"

Laughing, Eiji bats him on the shoulder to shut him up. “You are incorrigible!”

“Yeah, but that’s how you like me.” Ash catches his hand, then presses a quick kiss to the base of his thumb. Even now, after they’ve been together for years, that still makes something in Eiji’s heart flutter.

“I never should have admitted to liking that about you,” Eiji sighs, mock-ruefully. “Maybe if I had told you that I like polite boys, you would have changed.”

“Mm, too bad you told me that you love me just the way I am.” Ash’s eyes soften, and he lets go of Eiji’s hand to touch his cheek. “Didn’t you, bluebird?”

Eiji leans into his touch, smiling. He really does feel beautiful, when Ash looks at him like this. “I did,” he agrees, and rests his hand on top of Ash’s, pressing it to his cheek. “I do.”

Ash kisses him, warm and sweet. It’s a chaste kiss, over quickly—Ash never likes much PDA—but it still leaves Eiji smiling.

“Damn. You don’t taste like frosting,” Ash muses. “Go eat a whole cupcake and then come back over here.”

Eiji laughs at him. “You could just eat one yourself.”

Some background: if you’re single with no kids, and you need food stamps or cash assistance, you’re made to sign up with a B2W (Back to Work) vendor, and you’re given a WEP (Work Experience Program) assignment. The B2W program consists of 3 days a week, 6 hours a day sitting in stupid, pointless workshops where you’re taught job skills by people who barely have skills themselves. You’re told to “just apply for whatever and see what happens”. The job leads they give you are usually call center jobs or maintenance jobs. It’s disheartening, and I had to deal with that shit from December 2014 to April 2016 (I was still stuck on benefits until May 2017, though, when I finally got hired for a 9-5).

Anyhoo. I was fortunate enough to get clerical WEP assignments. Many people were unfortunate enough to get crummy maintenance ones where they were forced to work in city agencies, emptying garbage bins and cleaning bathrooms. Those kinds of jobs are fine, if you are getting a paycheck, but when you’re getting $91.50 EVERY 2 WEEKS, it’s degrading and awful. Not to mention, the people you work with, treat you like trash because they know that you’re a WEP worker.

I was sent to the Housing Preservation Dept, which wasn’t too  bad. Mostly filing, sorting mail, whatever. Then, I got sent to a shitty senior center, in November 2015. It was a center that provided activities and free lunch for seniors. The food was Meals on Wheels provided, so the quality was lousy. My job was to stuff envelopes, and help sign people in for the day. But here’s where it got dreadful.

1) The Smell. The center smelled like straight up piss and a dusty boiler room. It practically made me gag.

2) The music. They played oldies, but not even good oldies like Curtis Mayfield or anything. They were playing shit from the 1930s. WTF. 

3) They kept getting my name wrong and not caring. I was called Zindi, Zindel, all kinds of shit, and once told “Look, I’m never going to remember your name”. 

4) The food. They served the seniors first, then the staff, THEN the WEP workers got whatever was left. Half the time there was barely anything but rice or vegetables. If you wanted to bring outside food, they made a fuss, claiming that only “kosher food was allowed at the center”. If I wanted to use the microwave, it was an issue. 

I dealt with this from November 2015 to one sunny day in April, when I overheard my supervisor complaining bitterly about me because I refused to help serve food and clean tables. “She thinks she’s too good to help” was part of what I heard before I gathered up my things and walked out two hours early. I couldn’t take it anymore. 

And Eiji probably would've comforted him if he wasn't passed out

One of the most tragic parts of that whole thing is that, because he was unconscious, Eiji will never know how far Shorter was willing to go to protect him. He did go along with the plan for his sister's sake, but he wasn't willing to give Eiji up completely, and Eiji will never know that😞

i honestly am of a few minds about that tbh, because as tragic as it was that that was how desperate shorter felt, i think that that threat was more borne out of guilt than an actual attempt at protecting eiji, if that makes sense. like, shorter’s not stupid. the second two people come at him, he’s done for--if one person restrains his knife arm, he can’t kill eiji. and in a fight, it’d only take a few seconds for him to lose his advantage. there’s only one of him, and there’s a shitton of them.

and he’s smart, and he’s street-smart. he’s been in plenty of knife fights before. he has to know that. he was never going to actually get the chance to mercy kill eiji after he showed his hand (by threatening to do it without following through); torturing eiji to death in front of ash was too important to dino for the guards and goons to let eiji die quickly.

I would like two cakes😔 Prof Ash is one of those concepts that 10 different people could write and it wouldn't get boring because there's so many different directions it could go into.

HELL YEAH FKJSBDJFKS i think canon blanca couldve used some character development instead of just fucking off right back where he came from, unchanged. so i took matters into my own hands. B)