Title: Caspian Dukes and His Best Friend’s Husband
Author: Harper Kingsley
World: Heroes & Villains
Frame set: Allies & Enemies, “Good Times”
Characters: Caspian Dukes, Vereint Georges, Warrick Tobias, Melissa Kim
Pairings: Vereint Georges/Warrick Tobias
Genre: friendship, superhero, meta
Summary: Vereint and Caspian go see a movie together.
Vereint was fun to hang out with. Caspian would definitely be open to the idea of doing it again.
“What do you think about this?” Vereint held up a brightly garish tee shirt with what might have been a purple unicorn-pony on the front. “You think I could get Warrick to wear this?”
“I will give you my complete Dragon Ball Z collection if you do,” Caspian said.
“I was not aware that you were a DBZ fan, but I’d be happy to take your collection.” Vereint tossed the shirt into the small shopping cart he was pushing. “Help me find something for Hank and then we can get out of here.”
“What are you looking for?” Caspian asked.
Vereint shrugged. “A mogwai would be cool, but other than that I don’t have a clue. He’s always the hardest one to shop for.”
“I see.” Caspian looked around, his eyes scanning the shelves overloaded with a mishmash of plushies, novelty toys, and bootleg DVDs. “Where do you want to start looking?”
“How about over there?” Vereint pointed toward a display of off-brand electronics. “He could use a new rice cooker.”
Caspian cocked his head. “You’re going to buy him a rice cooker from this place?”
“Why not?” Vereint asked.
“Uh.” Caspian wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say. Vereint had a ridiculous amount of money at his disposal, yet he was eying a $30 rice cooker like it was the Holy Grail of kitchen appliances. “It looks nice?”
“I think he’ll really like it.” Vereint opened and closed the lid on the test model, peering inside curiously, then grabbed one of the unopened boxes and put it in the cart. “He and Caroline have just moved into a new place and I never got around to getting them a housewarming gift. A rice cooker is the perfect thing, something that anyone can use.”
“Ah,” Caspian said intelligently. He looked at his watch. “What time does the movie start? And what do you plan on doing with all this stuff?”
“I’ll rent a storage locker near the theater,” Vereint said. “It’s no big deal. Let me pay and we can head on over there.” Caspian crossed his arms and waited near the door. Vereint said something that made the cashier laugh as she bagged his purchases. It brought a small smile to Caspian’s lips.
Vereint was a godsend. Before Warrick had met Vereint, he had seemingly been on a downward spiral. There had been a creeping sense of misanthropy as Warrick spoke of the people they were dedicated to saving, a barely restrained sneer of disgust.
Caspian had been worried about Warrick, but Vereint had cleared away those fears. He’d breathed new life and new hope into Warrick’s life, and as a result Blue Ice had become a better hero. It was a good thing.
I’m not gay, but I can see that he’s beautiful, Caspian thought.
That was the thing about Vereint: he didn’t flaunt his good things–they were simply a part of his face–but no one could resist him for long. Even when he did nothing overt, on entering a room Vereint drew every eye. He had a presence about him, one that could quickly become overpowering when all of that attention was focused directly on a person.
Vereint paid the cashier with his credit card, then pushed the shopping cart ahead of him out of line. Caspian was amused to see that the plastic shopping bags were opaque green with lurid red Asian writing printed on them. The letters spelled out SOUP.
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Vereint said, pushing the cart past Caspian. “I don’t want to be late to the movie. If I don’t have time to get popcorn and snacks I’m going to scream.”
Caspian rolled his eyes with a grin. “Good to know.”
“A vague disclaimer is nobody’s friend,” Vereint said.
TBC…
* * *
Check out “Allies & Enemies” at: All Romance Ebooks, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BookStrand, Goodreads, iTunes, Kobo, Less Than Three Press, Smashwords. — superhero, urban fantasy, mm, drama. Darkstar x Blue Ice.
Hey, thanks for the next chapter 🙂 I like seeing an outside perspective on Varient, and Caspian’s an interesting character himself. Although I do wonder, why did it take so long for them to start hanging out? They’ve known each other through Warrick for what, around a decade?
“didn’t flaunt his good things, they were simply a part of his face” – did you mean “good looks”?
Anyways, nice update! Thanks!
..unlimited money and he shops at discount stores… 🙂
Haha, good things. Sometimes my brain works faster than my fingers can follow and strange things come out.