A Dare, and possibly a Date (me, Lani) [F!n!$43d]

Johnathan stood outside the gates of Hook Cemetery, barely visible in the glow from the city, aside from his hair. Despite the lack of immediate illumination, his hair still retained its vibrant colour. Shifting ever so slightly against the stone supports, he removed his phone from his pocket to check the time. Wincing at the suddenly, he conformed that, as it was 11:45, he still had a bit to wait till the actual dare. Figures. thought John as he shook his head in mock disbelief. Even though we live together, and Xe is the one with the car, I still somehow managed to beat Xer. Again. Putting his phone back in his pocket, he leaned backward, looked at the few stars that were visible this close to the city, and waited for Justice to arrive.

After traveling through the grounds, having parked a ways away, xe made xir way down to the gates as well, following along the fence absently. A small smile was on xir face as xe walked, eyes scanning around, arm absently rubbing the opposite where part of the sleeve was fishnet. "Hey!" Xe called, smiling just the slightest bit wider when xe saw xir roommate.

Johnathan looked down from the sky at the sound of his roommates voice, a smirk overcoming his face. "Hey there. Any longer and I would have thought you bailed. Anyway time to get started." Johnathan spoke, the fact that he was teasing obvious in his tone. He casually reached out his right hand and pushed open the gate with a slight squeak, his left motioning for xer to enter. "After you."

Justice nodded, stepping inside and pulling xir hood over xir head, looking around with xir strange, heterochromaic eyes at the cemetery. "Why did we choose this again?" Xe asked, laughing softly and kicking the dirt with xir spike combat boots. A rock caught the edge of the attack and skipped along until it struck a tomb stone, resounding a loud crack! as it settled.

"I thought it was your idea?" Johnathan said as he followed xir into the cemetery. He turned around and closed the gate with a slight crash. "Are you telling me that you are afraid of a lil' old cemetery?" He accented his words with pokes to xir arm. "The ghosts and zombies gonna get you?" There was a slight pause before his face broke into a lopsided grin, destroying any remaining seriousness in his comments.

Xir eyes narrowed back at him even as the side of xir lip twitched up. "I do know where you sleep, you know." Still, Justice readjusted xir sleeves, as though they acted as some sort of barrier, and xe looked around, suddenly not so confident in this idea any longer.

"And I, you." Johnathan responded in kind, his cocky smile not letting up for a moment. He continued to walk forward, taking the lead from xir. His eyes glanced about, taking in more detail as they continued to adjust to the lack of light. While not one to be entirely superstitious, the trees, already lacking any sign of life, set him on edge and his right hand clenched itself into a fist.

Justice stayed close behind him, having spent perhaps too much time watching basic-cable television re-runs of old horror movies. On the one hand, they were so comically fake that it offered easy, cheap amusement; on the other, xe really didn't want to be thinking of zombies and nosferatu in a cemetery at midnight.

Johnathan felt xir's presence near him as they continued through the graveyard, and, almost in spite of himself, he smiled. He had always had a decent group of friends, but he truly felt happy just being with Justice. Still, the overall creepiness of Hook cemetery was pervasive and his fingers continued to curl and uncurl in anticipation. After a few more minutes of silence, Johnathan turned over his shoulder to speak. Upon opening his mouth, he suddenly fell forward as his foot hit nothing but air. Twisting mid-fall, Johnathan was able to get both hands on the edge of the open grave, and with a resounding pop he stopped his fall.

Xe jolted in response, jumping to try to catch hold of his hand and wincing at the pop. "Infirmary after this." Justice offered a slight, albeit crooked, smile that appeared more like a grimace. "Side note: ivdont think this is what you meant by hanging out."

Johnathan groaned at the horrible pun his roommate decided to use and attempted to pull himself up out of the open hole. He managed to get a decent way out with just his right arm, but the instance he tried to use his left his groan of relief became one of pain. dropping back down into the hole, he looked back at Justice and said, "little help?" Pushing himself up again, he again got the majority of the way out, and, with Xir grabbing his torso, finally collapsed on the edge, his breath deep and slightly rapid, but otherwise normal.

Xe knelt beside him, patting him on the back and waiting for him to calm. "Need help relocating it?" Justice asked, looking at the nasty positioning of the joint with a clear level of discomfort and unease. "And while we're at it... It's creepy in here."

Johnathan sat upright as the initial pain from the climb faded, his shoulder now only giving a light throb. Running his right hand over the swollen area, his face contorted ever so slightly before returning to a more blank expression. "Unfortunately, yes." Receiving a quick pop on the shoulder from Justice, he let out a slight grunt through clenched teeth. Focusing his breath back to a normal pace, he quickly donned his grin in an effort to make light of the situation. "No reason to leave though, I've had worse."

A slight pout, though agitated, took its place on xir face and his roommate sighed. "Why did I agree to this, again?" Xe asked, though the agender already knew; what had started out as an arrangement of convenience was quickly developing into a rather powerful and sturdy friendship. Countless nights had been spent --- burned through, more of --- wreaking havoc in the virtual reality of their games, learning each other's fighting styles and tactics and saving each other's asses, if only imaginably. It was how Justice knew to bond, these games that allowed for easy disassociation and anonymity, but they'd also taken to training together on more than one occasion, an occurrence that baffled xir as xe had not expected him to be so adept at so many martial arts. Justice was flexible, yes, could hold xir own, but most of what xe knew was defensive --- a weakness that he seemed bound to shake.

Still, Justice hadn't really had a decent enough argument to disagree to this excursion with; fear, as it required the dropping of one's pride, was not an optional excuse. Nay, it was actually something to fight against, and so, here they were, with John having dislocated his shoulder and Justice desperately hoping that Sid was the only zombie on campus. Lord have mercy if he wasn't; xe very well might render at least xir roommate deaf from screaming. Xe'd never admit it, willingly or otherwise, but that was xir clearest weakness, both in and out of reality --- zombies. Not a single one of xir games had anything to do with them, and any that had any sort of zombie, or really undead in general --- though xe didn't so much mind vampires --- were modded out completely.

Johnathan continued to sit next to his roommate, rotating and flexing his left arm. When his arm reached horizontal, he winced as pain shot through his shoulder. The pain wasn't overbearing. In fact, it was far from it. To John, this pain was merely an annoyance. Looking away from his shoulder and back at Justice, he flashed xir a grin between his grimaces knowing full well that xir was concerned for him. "Its cause you and i are both waayyyyyy too competitive to have let this slide."

Justice laughed in response, though there was still obvious concern in xir strange eyes. "Perhaps that's true." Xe said, smirking just slightly. "But either way, I'm not exactly keen on the location." Stooping down, xe took his arm gently in hand and set about rubbing at the muscles of his upper arm, easing xir way up slowly.

Johnathan closed his eyes partway as his roommate ran xir hands along his arm, the tension in his muscles leaving under xirs touch. "I agree with you there. That open grave shouldn't be here, and I think that this was where Sid was buried." He paused when xir got to his shoulders, sending another bout of pain, though this was not nearly as bad as before. Some ice and not using it should be all he needs. "I never knew you knew how to massage. When did you learn that?"

"A lot of hyper-extension training," xe stated, having down xir best to mask the shivers that his words insighted. "Either way, can we... recap the terms, please? I want to get out of here as soon as possible." Beside him, Justice's eyes lit up suddenly and a wide, almost childish grin appeared, the mark of xir familiarity, "Can we get oriental food after this? Some of those are twenty-four hours, right?!" Xir weakness for the cheap, quick cuisine was uncovered fairly soon after he had moved in; aside from the hint of xir mild obsession displaying itself in the cute little takeout boxes that were scattered in the meister's cabinets, it seemed that xe ordered the food at least once, sometimes twice or three times, a week.

Johnathan heard the worry in his roommates voice before it became consumed by Xir desire for Chinese, and he wasn't going to be the friend that kept xir here. Besides, if he did, he really couldn't be called xir friend anyway. And xe had a fair point. They had been here for almost an hour, and he could feel hunger starting to set in. "That's fine with me. Been almost an hour anyway." He stood and made his way toward the entrance of the cemetery, matching pace with Justice.

Justice curled xir lips into xir mouth to keep from releasing a sigh of relief, smiling slightly immediately afterwards. Even with the knowledge that they were leaving, xe was still unsettled and far from wanting to stay in the area any longer. "Where do you want to go?" Xe asked, looking around, hand on the panic button of xir car keys in xir pocket.

Johnathan rubbed his left shoulder with his right hand as they walked. The pain was pretty much just a thing in the past, which means he had to focus on the new problem at hand. "Uh..... restaurants....." John racked his brain trying to remember the one he passed on the way here, because he clearly remembered a glowing 24-hr sign in the window. "Uh.... Cham, no Chun Lee's! That was on the way here. Does that work?"

The smile that broke across xir face was almost childish, and xe took xir keys out to show him. "Car, remember? You can, you know, hitch a ride on occasion." Xe laughed weakly, readjusting xir sleeves as xe looked around. It seemed almost to have gotten darker --- was the moon hiding?

Johnathan went ahead and playfully punched xir on the shoulder, his own grin as childish as xirs. "I know that. I abuse that right almost everyday to get to school." He laughed along with xir, noticing but not entirely registering xir nerves. "Besides, not everything has to be a contest. Food is food, and I'm hungry."

Xe looked over at him with a raised brow, "If we got sushi, we could have seen how long it took for someone to need a drink after downing as much wasabi as possible." A laugh followed, and xe shook xir head, clicking the unlock button on the car keys to see if they were close enough for the beep to follow; they were, and xe quickly hit the lock button in response.

Johnathan almost lost it at that suggestion, he was laughing so hard. He finally had control enough to talk as the two of them approached xir car, though he was still laughing in between parts. "You and I both know, hehe, that we'd both, hahh, be running for water, eheh, after one bite." He headed towards the passenger door, waiting for Justice to unlock the car before getting in. "I call Shotgun!"