Cassidy didn't time it quite right to be arriving at sunset, but he did get to watch the last colors leave the sky on the walk over, until he could see stars through the breaks in the trees, and the inviting glow of window lights in the distance.
...all right, fine. This was pretty bloody idyllic.
Finding the door unlocked as promised, he let himself in and paused just inside as he shut the door behind him. He had the blanket, wrapped up like a rucksack around a couple of pillows, and a small paper bag crumpled up in the other hand.
Matthew had left the lights on, both to help the house stand out in the dusky light, but also give Cass some light when he got in. He'd caught the man's scent on the wind and waited to light his cigarette to push up from his leather chair and meander into the empty living room.
His lips pulled into a broad grin as Cassidy stepped in, stepping into view himself a heartbeat later.
"With no furniture down here, I'm sure that could be heard all the way up in the master bedroom. Come on in, don't mind the vast open space, we're working on it." One hand lifted in welcome, gesturing towards the open room.
"Home sweet home. Or, at least, privacy, sweet privacy." Not that he was really concerned with it, but when allowed to have his privacy, he hoarded it.
Cassidy admired the entryway as he stepped farther inside. Even without furniture, there was something about having space to oneself. The more he sat with the reality, the more he liked it.
"Congratulations. The Good People must be impressed." He didn't know much about what Matt got up to when he wasn't with Airy or himself, but overall it looked as if their hosts approved.
"I suppose so - I won't look a gift horse in the mouth, I'm going to ride it until it's dead. Do you want the tour, or should I cut to the chase, and show you the best spot in the house. Well. One of. They've certainly appeased my porch fetish."
A beat passed.
"That's also where ninety percent of the furniture is. Maybe they're not that impressed, after all." But by the crooked grin he wore suggested he wasn't that offended.
"Yeah, well — I am. So you've got that." Cassidy hefted his bundled-up blanket. "Show me where t'drop this off first. Then we can take a look at all the nooks and crannies, if y'like."
Matt chuckled. "I've taken to sitting on the porch right now, but I suppose a move to the upper balcony would be best; c'mon, this way." With a grin, he turned and headed towards the stairs.
"Airy not hanging out with you tonight, or do you have a curfew I should be aware of?"
Cassidy loped along a step and a half behind with the blanket slung over his shoulder.
"Nah — I thought a boy's night." Which Matt ought to know by now he can interpret however he'd like. "Plus, it's been a long while since I shot up with a true dope fiend. This seemed like just the occasion."
Matt scoffed a sound of mock injury, one hand coming to prop itself on its chest.
"I'm injured my friend, injured." But there was no stopping the spread of his easy smile, happier to have Cassidy's company then he honestly expected of himself. 'Boys Night' brought all sorts of lewd ideas to mind and Matt knew how the Faries expected him to keep the lights on and running, but all he could really focus on was the lingering desire that the idea of falling into bed and asleep with someone brought.
It wasn't a feeling that came often and was normally solved by renting a hooker, but his coin purse was lighter then he wanted right now and it left the Elder Vampire wistful.
"Still, I'm glad, and glad to see you. It's been a while." They crested the stairs. "Quick tour, Bathroom to our left here-" he pushed in the door to their left so Cassidy could see, "-that's a rec room but I'll probably turn it into a parlor and over here-" he continued, going straight and past four built in bunk beds to open a door into a spacious Master bedroom with only a mattress on the floor. "The screened in porch feeds out over here too, and that's where I've been spending most of my time. You can set your stuff in here.. Unless you'd like to take one of the bunkbeds."
His tone was light and even but internally, Matthew was hoping that maybe, just maybe, he'd end up in a bed next to the man tonight. He wasn't the third point in their triangle for nothing - he loved Airy in his own way, but he also loved Cassidy. It was an idea he hadn't quite come around to yet.
The bunk beds struck Cassidy as an odd choice — until he thought about black-and-white photos of opium houses in the Middle East, and, no. That made perfect sense for Matt's house.
A mattress on a bare floor was more familiar to Cassidy, more immediately welcoming. So while Matt was offering the bunkbeds, Cassidy was already stepping farther into the room to drop the blanket and pillows onto the mattress.
"No — that is perfect." He dropped himself onto the mattress next, keeping his boots off the blanket, and glanced toward the window. The paper bag he'd brought got crumpled open between his hands.
Room to accommodate, and more - Matthew was accustomed to a house that had other people in it, be it his servants, companions or those in need. For the most part, his door was always open to those who traveled via couch.
'Perfect' felt like high praise and Matt's smile pulled broad as he opened the door to the porch and stepped out. "It does, but that's the beauty of it. Honestly, it reminds me of home." Dark eyes turned to find Cassidy. "Before industry made things so noisy, you could both find and lose yourself in the silence of the country." His eye drifted back to the darkening trees. "It's only been a few nights but I love it out here. The tranquility of nature, the only thing more powerful then us, hm?"
The porch was at least a little less barren, holding a love-seat, a chair from the library that Matt had kept in his room and a low coffee table. Everyone one needed to exist on a porch.
He was doing a quick check to make sure he'd brought everything he'd meant to: fresh syringes, cotton balls, spoon, burner, rubber cord... and the drug itself. That done, Cassidy plopped the bag onto the mattress next to him and set about removing his boots.
The silence was the first thing Matt had mentioned that made it sound less than ideal. Oh, he'd made it sound terribly poetic, but there was something oppressive about it, Cassidy imagined, for a person who didn't have those same associations.
"Sounds a lot different from the silence of a truck stop motel." He rifled through his memories for the closest thing he had, something that wouldn't make it seem so alien. "I did pass a handful of years in upstate New York after Woodstock. Gettin' back to nature and shite. Even there, we had the occasional airplane passin' overhead."
"Not even at home, in your native land?" The question was asked with a long look at his lanky friend through the open doors, lips tugging slightly as he watched Cassidy join him in a true comfort level. When Matthew felt at home, trousers, suspenders and an undershirt was all he needed. His father had never allowed bare feet, so it was something he relished as a man.
"I know you've said you're Irish and you've the accent to prove it but.." Matt ambled back to the doorframe and leaned his shoulder against it. "You never talk about it."
"The misadventures from those days don't make the best stories at parties."
That was... part of the reason. Significant enough to be a reasonable excuse. It was true that Cassidy's life had become much more interesting once he'd crossed the ocean.
It was also true that he simply wasn't often eager to reminisce about those days. The question of why was one Cassidy had put a lot of energy into not asking himself. That didn't mean he never talked about it... and, he thought, if Matt wanted to know a bit more about it, he couldn't think of a reason not to.
He pulled off his second boot, and set it on the floor with the other one.
"And tenement housin' in Dublin, turn of the century? That was no sort of quiet livin'. Families piled on top of each other. Somebody was always shoutin', cryin'... shaggin'. People weren't shy about it. And I didn't know enough at the time to realize how bloody miserable it was, but I can tell ya it wasn't quiet."
That meant they weren't pretty stories and fair enough. Most any story from that era wasn't pretty for one reason or another, point in fact - the reason that Matthew doesn't talk about his past in detail either. Areas were fine; France, Germany, Russia, Georgia, but he always skipped the details of who and why.
The Poor. No matter what era, the poor always had it the worst. Matthew had avoided Irland for.. unflattering reasons, but people stacked on top of people was not unique to the Emerald Isle.
"So true country is new to you... How long were you there?" He knew that Cass caught a ship, probably landed in New York and restarted his vampiric life there, but it was all guess work.
His jacket came off next, and got dropped behind himself on the mattress: a little extra something to lie back on later.
"I lived in tenements the whole time I was there. Was with me mum and dad up until the age of eighteen — then I moved in with me brother and his mates. Who it so happened were the Republican Brotherhood. They'd go out to the wetlands for trainin'. I tagged along, a coupla times."
It'd been quiet out there. He'd found it a bit unsettling then, too. Cassidy reached for the paper bag again to start laying out its contents.
"It wasn't another five years after that I was boardin' a ship across the Atlantic. Away from a dyin' country, to a place where anyone was supposed t'be able to make somethin' of himself."
He knew that much to be a myth, by now, but he didn't sound bitter. More nostalgic, for a time when he was still capable of believing in something as pure as that.
Matt watched his friend silently, taking in the tone of silence and the way Cassidy left the words and the way he busied his hands with his task. His heart went out to the man; it was a hard time for a lot of people.
"The Americas have had a hard go of things, the child nation that it is.." But they were still people, just as cruel, just as greedy. "I've lived the last couple of decades there, but it's only out of necessity. The old world is better now..
"I haven't run out of America yet." God help him, he'd actually liked the place, even after seeing the rotten truth behind its promise. Cassidy tossed off a shrug.
"Thought about it a few times. But you know what it's like when you've got all the time in the world."
Things got put off. Distractions got welcomed without a second thought. Excuses were so easily made.
"What about you? I don't hear ya goin' on about the fields of France all the time."
That truth was still there, somewhere, but Matthew, being the creature that he was with his long standing views, wasn't the one to argue America's possibilities. Those kind of idyllic notions were too youthful for his years.
Nodding his understanding, Matt left the door to amble within reach and lower himself smoothly to a cross-legged position on the floor in front of Cassidy. It wasn't his way of living, but he understood.
"France holds some.. less than pleasant memories. I've avoided its countryside for a century, moving through cities instead. Places that have room to hide me, to entertain me. Once I became a man, once I died.. The place where I lived was.. not to be sullied by my newly pained view." And he rarely ever talked about himself when he was alive, which made it all the more easier. "I've seen more of the rest of Europe's countryside then my own, but to be fair, she's a turbulent nation that was very dangerous to move through for many many years."
It was a weak excuse, he knew, but one he clung to.
"I shudder to think how the first Chateau De Vigny has survived the ages... Or if its even still standing.." It was. "My sister haunts me even now, I blame her, by and large.."
Cassidy's hands kept working, now in the midst of a ritual they could conduct almost without looking. The burner was on the floor between the two of them. The needles, still inside their sterile plastic containers, sat on the blanket next to Cassidy, ready to be deployed.
"Mm. Families, eh?" Cassidy couldn't a hundred percent relate — his family life had been fine, all things considered — but he could empathize, and keep listening if Matt had more to say on the topic.
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Happy Housewarming. Tonight?
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Yes. Steal another chair from the library for me, will you?
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I'm bringing heroin and a blanket. & some pillows.
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Its the only house out here, you can't miss it. Door's unlocked.
-> Log
...all right, fine. This was pretty bloody idyllic.
Finding the door unlocked as promised, he let himself in and paused just inside as he shut the door behind him. He had the blanket, wrapped up like a rucksack around a couple of pillows, and a small paper bag crumpled up in the other hand.
"Hello-ooh?"
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His lips pulled into a broad grin as Cassidy stepped in, stepping into view himself a heartbeat later.
"With no furniture down here, I'm sure that could be heard all the way up in the master bedroom. Come on in, don't mind the vast open space, we're working on it." One hand lifted in welcome, gesturing towards the open room.
"Home sweet home. Or, at least, privacy, sweet privacy." Not that he was really concerned with it, but when allowed to have his privacy, he hoarded it.
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Cassidy admired the entryway as he stepped farther inside. Even without furniture, there was something about having space to oneself. The more he sat with the reality, the more he liked it.
"Congratulations. The Good People must be impressed." He didn't know much about what Matt got up to when he wasn't with Airy or himself, but overall it looked as if their hosts approved.
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A beat passed.
"That's also where ninety percent of the furniture is. Maybe they're not that impressed, after all." But by the crooked grin he wore suggested he wasn't that offended.
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"Airy not hanging out with you tonight, or do you have a curfew I should be aware of?"
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"Nah — I thought a boy's night." Which Matt ought to know by now he can interpret however he'd like. "Plus, it's been a long while since I shot up with a true dope fiend. This seemed like just the occasion."
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"I'm injured my friend, injured." But there was no stopping the spread of his easy smile, happier to have Cassidy's company then he honestly expected of himself. 'Boys Night' brought all sorts of lewd ideas to mind and Matt knew how the Faries expected him to keep the lights on and running, but all he could really focus on was the lingering desire that the idea of falling into bed and asleep with someone brought.
It wasn't a feeling that came often and was normally solved by renting a hooker, but his coin purse was lighter then he wanted right now and it left the Elder Vampire wistful.
"Still, I'm glad, and glad to see you. It's been a while." They crested the stairs. "Quick tour, Bathroom to our left here-" he pushed in the door to their left so Cassidy could see, "-that's a rec room but I'll probably turn it into a parlor and over here-" he continued, going straight and past four built in bunk beds to open a door into a spacious Master bedroom with only a mattress on the floor. "The screened in porch feeds out over here too, and that's where I've been spending most of my time. You can set your stuff in here.. Unless you'd like to take one of the bunkbeds."
His tone was light and even but internally, Matthew was hoping that maybe, just maybe, he'd end up in a bed next to the man tonight. He wasn't the third point in their triangle for nothing - he loved Airy in his own way, but he also loved Cassidy. It was an idea he hadn't quite come around to yet.
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A mattress on a bare floor was more familiar to Cassidy, more immediately welcoming. So while Matt was offering the bunkbeds, Cassidy was already stepping farther into the room to drop the blanket and pillows onto the mattress.
"No — that is perfect." He dropped himself onto the mattress next, keeping his boots off the blanket, and glanced toward the window. The paper bag he'd brought got crumpled open between his hands.
"It must get quiet out here at night."
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'Perfect' felt like high praise and Matt's smile pulled broad as he opened the door to the porch and stepped out. "It does, but that's the beauty of it. Honestly, it reminds me of home." Dark eyes turned to find Cassidy. "Before industry made things so noisy, you could both find and lose yourself in the silence of the country." His eye drifted back to the darkening trees. "It's only been a few nights but I love it out here. The tranquility of nature, the only thing more powerful then us, hm?"
The porch was at least a little less barren, holding a love-seat, a chair from the library that Matt had kept in his room and a low coffee table. Everyone one needed to exist on a porch.
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The silence was the first thing Matt had mentioned that made it sound less than ideal. Oh, he'd made it sound terribly poetic, but there was something oppressive about it, Cassidy imagined, for a person who didn't have those same associations.
"Sounds a lot different from the silence of a truck stop motel." He rifled through his memories for the closest thing he had, something that wouldn't make it seem so alien. "I did pass a handful of years in upstate New York after Woodstock. Gettin' back to nature and shite. Even there, we had the occasional airplane passin' overhead."
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"I know you've said you're Irish and you've the accent to prove it but.." Matt ambled back to the doorframe and leaned his shoulder against it. "You never talk about it."
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That was... part of the reason. Significant enough to be a reasonable excuse. It was true that Cassidy's life had become much more interesting once he'd crossed the ocean.
It was also true that he simply wasn't often eager to reminisce about those days. The question of why was one Cassidy had put a lot of energy into not asking himself. That didn't mean he never talked about it... and, he thought, if Matt wanted to know a bit more about it, he couldn't think of a reason not to.
He pulled off his second boot, and set it on the floor with the other one.
"And tenement housin' in Dublin, turn of the century? That was no sort of quiet livin'. Families piled on top of each other. Somebody was always shoutin', cryin'... shaggin'. People weren't shy about it. And I didn't know enough at the time to realize how bloody miserable it was, but I can tell ya it wasn't quiet."
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The Poor. No matter what era, the poor always had it the worst. Matthew had avoided Irland for.. unflattering reasons, but people stacked on top of people was not unique to the Emerald Isle.
"So true country is new to you... How long were you there?" He knew that Cass caught a ship, probably landed in New York and restarted his vampiric life there, but it was all guess work.
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"I lived in tenements the whole time I was there. Was with me mum and dad up until the age of eighteen — then I moved in with me brother and his mates. Who it so happened were the Republican Brotherhood. They'd go out to the wetlands for trainin'. I tagged along, a coupla times."
It'd been quiet out there. He'd found it a bit unsettling then, too. Cassidy reached for the paper bag again to start laying out its contents.
"It wasn't another five years after that I was boardin' a ship across the Atlantic. Away from a dyin' country, to a place where anyone was supposed t'be able to make somethin' of himself."
He knew that much to be a myth, by now, but he didn't sound bitter. More nostalgic, for a time when he was still capable of believing in something as pure as that.
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"The Americas have had a hard go of things, the child nation that it is.." But they were still people, just as cruel, just as greedy. "I've lived the last couple of decades there, but it's only out of necessity. The old world is better now..
Have you ever gone back?"
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"Thought about it a few times. But you know what it's like when you've got all the time in the world."
Things got put off. Distractions got welcomed without a second thought. Excuses were so easily made.
"What about you? I don't hear ya goin' on about the fields of France all the time."
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Nodding his understanding, Matt left the door to amble within reach and lower himself smoothly to a cross-legged position on the floor in front of Cassidy. It wasn't his way of living, but he understood.
"France holds some.. less than pleasant memories. I've avoided its countryside for a century, moving through cities instead. Places that have room to hide me, to entertain me. Once I became a man, once I died.. The place where I lived was.. not to be sullied by my newly pained view." And he rarely ever talked about himself when he was alive, which made it all the more easier. "I've seen more of the rest of Europe's countryside then my own, but to be fair, she's a turbulent nation that was very dangerous to move through for many many years."
It was a weak excuse, he knew, but one he clung to.
"I shudder to think how the first Chateau De Vigny has survived the ages... Or if its even still standing.." It was. "My sister haunts me even now, I blame her, by and large.."
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"Mm. Families, eh?" Cassidy couldn't a hundred percent relate — his family life had been fine, all things considered — but he could empathize, and keep listening if Matt had more to say on the topic.
His fingers teased open the bag of heroin.
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*sleepy sort of /murmur/, omg autocorrect
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