This Lonely Road • •

[caius jason keaulana]

Caius’ best friend was a nightmare to make plans with sometimes. Nora was always busy scheduling new stand up slots or she had shifts to make up for at Hal’s. It made planning a bit of a nuisance. And then there was this new guy she kept texting and going out with. Caius was happy that she had met someone, but he still teased her about standing him up for someone else. When she suggested that they all hang out together on Saturday night, he had jumped at the chance. He enjoyed meeting the guys who flirted with Nora. Some of them ran away at the site of him, not sticking around long enough to see that he was a complete teddy bear. He also thought it was a good chance to spend more time with Shay; NYU campus was not ideal for socialising when there were students and meetings, and people who always seemed to want his attention the moment he started talking to someone.

He also had to admit to wanting Shay to meet Nora. Nothing more than some light flirting had happened between himself and the personal trainer, but there had been women in the past who disliked how affectionate he was with the petite comedienne. It didn’t matter how many times he tried to soothe their envy by saying nothing romantic had ever occurred between the two of them. Nora had simply made him laugh until his sides hurt one afternoon when she was serving him at Hal’s and the rest was pretty much history. She was a sister to him, one he greeted with bear hugs and typically she responded in kind by squealing and jumping on him. He knew not everyone was lucky enough to have a friendship like that, but he liked the time they spent together. Plus, as Nora always said, he was perfect when it came to finding material for her open mic performances. There was always something that happened when they were together that she could flip into a stand up piece. Ultimately, tonight would be the night when they got to see if these budding relationships would go further. Caius knew Nora had no patience for jealousy, and he was pretty much the same. They were the best of friends, nothing more. Nora even once joked that if they were the last two people on planet earth, she might announce her love for the fairer sex. Caius had responded to that by saying he’d make an exceptionally fine woman.

He was the first of the four to arrive at O’Malley’s. He snagged them a booth not too far from the bar, ordering himself a beer when the blonde English girl came his way with menus, asking if they’d want some food. He hadn’t thought much of it, or talked to anyone else about whether or not they were eating here. He took the menus anyway and cracked one open, glancing over what they had on offer. Caius had a hearty appetite and typically the sharing platters he bought with Nora ended up being mostly his. Since it was only polite to wait, he figured he’d hold off ordering until the other three joined him. He was hoping Shay or Nora would show up next, since he had no clue what this Alec looked like; Nora had been suspiciously tight lipped about him.

• • •

TAGGED! Shay Clarissa Mycroft & nora camille compton & Alec Ryerson Kelley
WORDS! 563!
LYRICS! These Punk Rock Songs - - - Patent Pending
NOTES! <3

[Shay Clarissa Mycroft]

Shay liked to keep her weekends free from work-related things in case something interesting came up at the last minute and she wanted to go. She'd found herself at concerts, Drag shows and everything in between after last-minute calls because people were slow to learn of these things; or remember that Shay was pretty open to just about anything. It was looking like that might not be the case for a while, the Rangers were courting her pretty heavily to become part of the medical team but she was holding out so far. It meant a lot of travel and less time to spend with her friends. The off-season for her wouldn't exist unless it was a couple of weeks here and there. Sure, she would have her days off like any other job but they would be weird and almost never two together until the off-season. Still, it was a thought. She missed being in the rink all the time, gearing up to skate some laps and she missed being around her brothers so often. They had their dinners once a week but it really wasn't enough when they'd always been so close. There were always pros and cons to any situation and this one was no different. Though she hadn't yet figured out if the pros outweighed the cons.

It also meant that nights like this would be few and far between, though she would be able to offer up seats to home games, which might have been a perk except her brothers all played for the league and she could get good tickets to any game she wanted just by calling one of them up; not to mention her father was in the hockey hall of fame. It occurred to Shay as she was thinking all of this that she was actually nervous about this meet-the-friends date she was going on with Caius. They'd done nothing more than share flirty remarks whenever they ran into each other on campus but even those stolen moments didn't last very long before someone was seeking out the hot professor's attention. She believed education was important so she always politely excused herself and went on about whatever business she was on campus for. Her clients meant the world to her and she wanted the best for them so she routinely worked around their schedules, aside from weekends, and made sure to meet them at places that were close for them or at least reasonable. The school campus had excellent facilities and they didn't mind if a student, or staff, hired a personal trainer to come in and help them out. Hell, she was there so often, she should probably look into a pass of some sort!

Before she was ready, Shay was standing outside the doors of the restaurant they were meeting at. She hoped that food was in the cards for the night because she was starving and needed the food to get her through the next couple of hours. Straightening her back and steeling her nerves, because she had nothing to be nervous about, she took a deep breath and opened the door, quickly scanning the area for the face she recognised in the crowd. She had no idea who the other pair were that they were meeting up with, only that one of them was Caius's best friend and her date. She wasn't the jealous type, had no reason to be. She was quite confident in herself and secure in her self-esteem to be able to share and support. It was pointless anyway and Caius had made sure to point out that they were just friends and that nothing more than shared jokes had happened between them. She had no reason to believe he would lie about it and was actually looking forward to meeting this friend. A smile lit up her face when she spotted the man shew as there for and weaved her way through the small crowd to reach him just as he was taking a sip from his beer. "Hey there, professor, mind if I steal this spot?" She asked with a wink, sliding into the very spot she was talking about.

♦ ♦ ♦

TAG; caius jason keaulana, nora camille compton, Alec Ryerson Kelley
WORDS; 698
LYRICS; 50 Shades of Crazy --Chace Rice
NOTES; <3

[nora camille compton]

Nora didn’t quite remember how she had ended up with Caius in her life. It had been a comedy night, and several drinks at a bar, but at no point during that night had she ever entertained the idea of being anything more than friends with him. He wasn’t her type, since she didn’t go for the rippling muscles or the intimidating bodyguard type. He did however make great material for her stand up, and it was even better when he showed up for her shows. Caius was Nora’s rock on 3am shifts at Hal’s, on the days when she genuinely doubted herself and her talents, and for the moments when bad dates could only be remedied by bar crawls that lasted until sun up. He was her best friend, and she had made that very clear to Alec by their third date. She hadn’t wanted to waste any more time building that relationship if he wasn’t going to be able to handle her close friendship with another man. For that reason, she was just a teeny, tiny bit nervous about tonight.

It was going well with Alec, and she wanted it to keep going well. However, she needed him to see how she was with Caius, to see that he was a teddy bear and as cuddly as one sometimes. Nora couldn’t stay in this budding relationship if he was going to be the jealous type – especially not when she had said that nothing had ever happened, nor would it ever happen with Caius. He was her best friend, her brother from another mother, and the guy who made her girl friends look inferior with the number of times he had picked her up when she was down. Nora just needed Alec to see that, to understand that, and the sooner they got this introduction and evening over with, the sooner she would know if there was any future at all with the man who had been slowly creeping into her heart ever since she had almost slapped him in the museum.

Nora was also curious about the woman Caius was “taking it slow” with. She knew he had plenty of curious looks when they were out, and she would admit he was attractive as hell; he just wasn’t her type. She also knew he wasn’t the guy who took home the hottie at the bar who did try to slip him her number, so hearing that he was interested was definitely something that had Nora ready to put down the comedy lines and put on the protective cap for a few hours. She had no intention of interrogating his date, but she was curious and planned on scoping out this woman to make sure she didn’t set off any kind of spidey sense that would have Nora trying to lift Caius onto her tiny shoulders and carry the much larger man out of there.

Sending Alec a playful text to say she had beaten him to O’Malley’s and therefore he would be doing shots when he finally arrived, Nora glanced around to see if she had actually beaten anyone else there. Caius was always easy to find in a crowd. She had used him as an anchor in many a show when she had stumbled. She spotted the blonde woman beside him, and smirked, holding back a second just to watch the couple discreetly before she was spotted. Since her cover wasn’t blown, she bounded over, grinning as she slid into the booth opposite them, placing both of her hands onto the table. “Hello, darlings, I hope you’re ready to rock and roll because Alec, the charming, hopeless man that he is, has landed you both with tequila shots for not beating me here.” She leaned over the booth to hug Caius and then proffered her hand towards the blonde. “Shay, right? I don’t know if you’re a hugger, but I hate people getting in my space when I’ve just met them and acting like they’ve been my best friend since we were five. I lived in Kent when I was five. I can promise you 'Lauryn with a y' from Queens that we weren’t friends then.” Nora slid back into her seat, still smiling. “He told you I’m a talker, right? Occupational hazard.” Caius was just smirking, beer to his lips. Nora was the type who made a lasting first impression and he wasn’t going to ruin that experience for Shay.

• • •

TAGGED! Shay Clarissa Mycroft & caius jason keaulana & Alec Ryerson Kelley
WORDS! 750!
LYRICS! Distant Sky - - - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
NOTES! <3