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WHO: Aradia and Julian
WHERE: Julian's place
WHEN: way too damn late at night
WARNINGS: none
SUMMARY: Without Dave, Aradia needs a new target to bother at three in the morning
FORMAT: whatevs

Aradia doesn't always sleep well at night, especially now that she's been spending more time in her natural body, one that's meant to be nocturnal. Under normal circumstances she'd go bother Dave, but he's not here at the moment. He's off doing important things back in their home universe; she knows how it works, and isn't worried about him in the least! In fact, it's good that he's probably going to end up on quite the personal journey. Still, though, there's been a distinct lack of boner jokes and stupid pranks lately, and even though Aradia is pretty used to doing her own thing while everyone else gets on with the plot, she has to admit that she misses him a bit.

Anyway, the point is, Kanaya wouldn't be interested in watching stupid movies late at night and Jake is a little tiring to hang out with lately, so she figures Julian is her best option. She flutters her wings to hover outside his window; she's not really sure how to break in and doesn't want to damage the window when it's not necessary, so, backlit by the streetlights, curly horns and red wings in silhouette, she hammers on the windowpane.

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Julian's a fairly light sleeper these days. He used to sleep deeply, but he's had trouble with it ever since the old days when the Institute used to get attacked by maniacs every five minutes. His life is less unpredictable here, and particularly now that Sofia's back he's started to be better about sleeping at a decent hour.

Of course, that's all about to change. There's a sudden banging at the window and he sits bolt upright, heart racing, assuming that something's wrong. In his defense, the shadow coming in from the window doesn't help. Who the hell wouldn't look at those horns and think demon?! It's totally fucking reasonable, okay, and he shouldn't have to justify that.

His powers throw open the window and he's surrounded by green energy, tensed to fight...

And then he recognizes those wings. And the shape of those horns. And the green aura dies away, leaving his furious expression in its wake.

"Aradia?!" This is the loudest, most obnoxious whisper possible. "What the hell are you doing here? What time is it? Don't you ever use the door?"

"The measurement of time is a construct! Also, it's half past three." She leans halfway in the window, apparently unfazed by his reaction. "I couldn't sleep, and I wanted to see if you were awake. And you are!"

Her grin reveals the fact that she's completely pulling his leg here.

He’s already internally groaning at the whole ‘time is a concept thing’, but she gets points for not being an undead monster. He glances at his alarm clock, sees that she’s right about the 3am thing, and stands aside from the window.

Why is this his life?

“I’m awake now, thanks for that,” he says, dead-eyeing her. “Don’t hang around the window, you look like a demon fairy. Come in already, it’s freezing outside.”

She clambers inside, flutters her wings once, then pulls them in and goes human out of respect for anything that might be sitting on shelves or desks in his house. "I forgot that you're not used to what I look like as a tr-- oh wow, when did you get your hands back? Congratulations!" She clasps her own hands in front of her, completely failing to talk quietly. It's been a little while since they've seen each other in person, after all, and quite a bit has changed.

Julian closes the window again and turns to see her horns disappearing. He's about to say something about that, but then she's distracted, and he glances at his hands.

"Yeah. Like a while ago, after Venezuela. I thought you kn-" But then he stops himself, because he remembers why she hadn't known. "You were gone! You went home after that shit went down. Rapunzel did it." He comes closer to her now, smirking a bit. "They look good, right? So much fucking better. And you're taller."

"I'm a sweep older." She grabs one of his hands and turns it over, investigating it. "This is really well done! She must have healing abilities, there isn't even a scar."

He lets her examine it, looking smug and bringing the other over to show it off too.

"Yeah, she did it with her hair." As if that's the most natural thing in the world. "It was glowing, there was a song involved, I don't know. Anyways, it brought them back. I almost didn't let her try."

"People get attached to their own misery," she says absently, before letting go of his hand and shaking her head. "Anyway, I brought a movie! Since you're already up and everything."

He frowns.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

But she's already moving away from that probable insult, so he tries to snatch the movie to see what it is.

"And I'm only awake because you woke me. Why the hell couldn't we watch a movie in the morning?!"

By morning he means, like, noon at the earliest here.

It was an observation, not an insult, but that's besides the point. She lets him take the movie without resistance. It's Wicker Man. The one with Nic Cage. Unfortunately.

"Human teenagers are supposed to stay up partying until all hours of the night, aren't they? I'm surprised you don't know that! You have a DVD player, right?"

There's maybe one small, tiny little part of him that wonders why he's going along with this. He rolls his eyes and moves out of the bedroom, turning on lights while he goes. He calls back over his shoulder:

"Yeah. It's this way." In the better light of the living room, he glances at the cover and shoots a surprised look back to Aradia. "Nic Cage, really? I didn't know you were a fan, I was expecting Indiana Jones. You really want to watch this now?"

"I'm not a fan! Actually, I heard that one was awful. But I started watching his movies thanks to John, and they're kinda... more-ish?" She flops down on the sofa, pulling her legs up and crossing them. "Like, they're mostly pretty bad, but in a really fun way!"

He takes it over to the player and starts pushing buttons until the system sets up.

"This one ain't the worst. You should see Con Air, it's freaking tragic."

And it's in. He retreats to the sofa and falls into the seat beside her. She's playing this all cool, but time being relative or not, she's never dropped in on him in the middle of the night before. Something has to be up. He figures she'll tell him eventually.

"You know you don't have to stick to human form. I was mostly kidding about the demon thing."

"I liked it. It was entertaining! And wings are tough in tight quarters, that's all!" But one of the handy features of god tier is that you can hide the buggers, so the next time he looks over he'll see her in full-on troll mode, minus wings. It's only fair, in a you-show-me-yours, I'll-show-you-mine kind of way-- she got to look at his hands, and she guesses he can poke her horns or something if he feels the need?

"Man, they must've been indoctrinating you. Call me when you get to National Treasure. Actually, you might like that one, it's like a really shit form of Indiana Jones."

He gets the movie started and then leans back, turning casually to her and then noticing that she's got the troll form back. No wings, though. He's not even sure he'd seen them before today. Maybe she has them hidden somewhere...

Anyways. He prods the ring-like part of the horn nearest him, then side-eyes her as he wonders if she can feel that.

"Yeah. That's better. You can't actually like hiding these things all the time."

She can't, really; horns are like nails or hair, or like a cat's claws-- if broken off too near the base it would hurt, but there's no sensation in them.

"I'm used to it here!" She shrugs, looking at him with her now black and yellow eyes. "Don't get me wrong, it's really nice to be able to be a troll again. But I spent a really long time just being human, so it's kind of all the same to me, most of the time."

The weird thing is that she basically looks the same. The horns are different, and her skin and eyes are a different color, but she's totally recognizable to him.

"Maybe. I wouldn't love something changing me like that. You're way too understanding." Side-eyeing her now. "So are you always awake at this hour, or would that be too much of a temporal construct for you?"

"I live entirely outside the realm of such human concepts as 'time' and 'sleep'--" she breaks off there, giggling. "Just joking. Trolls are nocturnal, you know. I'm mostly used to sleeping during the night and being up during the day, especially with a human body, but some nights I just can't sleep!"

He's about to ask her if she also lives outside the realm of such human concepts as 'bullshit' and 'smells like', but she makes it unnecessary.

"You say such shit sometimes," he says instead, and leans his head back on the sofa. He could just close his eyes and be asleep again...

But she'd probably wax out his eyebrows or do something equally heinous. At that last comment, he looks at her again.

"So what's so special tonight? And why me, and not some other troll?|

At the very least, she'd draw on his face. She shrugs, fiddling with her shoelaces. (Sorry about those feet on your couch Julian but you're a teenage boy you probably don't actually care.)

"Kanaya always slept at night anyway! And I don't really know where Karkat is right now, and I don't always want to hang out with Feferi or Jake..."

Shoes on the sofa? You're giving him way too much credit, he doesn't even notice.

"So Kanaya's weird even for a troll, color me totally unsurprised. Does she still piss you off about us hanging together? Because she's been leaving me alone about it, I'm starting to think she actually got the fucking hint."

"She has bigger fish to fry now! I guess?" Just don't ask Aradia what they are; she just assumes that Kanaya's found other people to totally unnecessarily mediate. She fidgets around to kick her feet over the armrest, leaning her head on one hand. "Anyway, now that we're pretty much actual friends, this is what you're signed up for, so you might as well enjoy it!"

Julian takes a moment to pity whoever those bigger fish might be. In his mind, this all goes to show that if he’s difficult and stubborn enough with people, they will just eventually let him do whatever the hell he wanted to do in the first place, so obviously his people skills are winning.

“I am enjoying it, it’s awesome. I’m staring at Nic Cage’s pasty face at 3.30am, what guy doesn’t want to say that for themselves. I’m living the dream here.” He looks at her, an eyebrow raised. “You only said Jake, for the humans you know. As in, the kid who talks like it’s still the nineteen-freakin’-sixties. What about the other ones? I thought you knew Rose and Roxy.”

"I do! I don't think I'd bother Rose in the middle of the night, but Roxy would be up for it. I guess..." that sometimes you just want to hang out with sassy boys? No, that sounds stupid. Oh well. "I just wanted to hang out with you!"

He gazes at her for a minute, wearing an expression that says he still thinks all of this is weird.

Well, whatever. The movie's actually okay. Or to put it another way, he's talking to her so much that he's managing to avoid most of Nic Cage's scenes, so that's a plus.

"You know, there's no way I'm getting back to sleep tonight. When this is over we're going out. No excuses. You woke me up, so you get to entertain me."

What do you mean, Julian? Needing to hang out with your friends at half past bumfuck isn't weird at all. She flops fully backwards onto the sofa, looking up at him upside down.

"Fine with me! Where are we going?" The movie was mostly an excuse, anyway.

It's like she's hyperactive or something, she keeps moving. And now she's lying upside down on his couch. He gives her the most disapproving look. No one ever said he was a morning person, okay?

"I don't know. Out. Anywhere that's open."

He has to think about that one. He's not taking Aradia to any sleazy bar, even if there was one likely to let them in which there probably isn't.

"Somewhere that serves food at stupid o'clock. Denny's?"

"Oh! I like Denny's. I think Dave took me there once." Don't blame a girl for trying to get comfortable, Julian. She glances back at the screen, but she's totally lost the plot for now. Not that she was missing much.

Dave. Julian hadn't often talked to the kid, but he knows of him. Mostly because of Aradia. He shoots a little smirk at her.

"Oh yeah, your boyfriend Dave. It's been a while since you talked about him. You never told me how that worked out. Did that book I got you ever help out?"

She pauses just a moment too long before answering with lighthearted cheer. "He went home, actually. He has some pretty important stuff to do there!" She wiggles around until she can sit up like a normal person again. "It's all very exciting."

She doesn't even dignify the boyfriend comment with an answer; she knows Julian is just trying to rile her up, and she's not going to fall for it.

That's because it's totally true, obviously. But he looks kind of sharply at her, surprised by both that hesitation and the change in tone. She's always been predictably hilarious about Dave, which of course is why he's so prone to poking fun every time the kid's name comes up.

Now he eyes her.

"He's gone," he says, and lifts an eyebrow at her. "And you're okay with that, are you? You don't, like, miss his stupid wearing-sunglasses-indoors face or whatever."

"I... do." She's a little surprised by the fact he actually seems a little concerned, and that gets the truth out of her. If he thinks a little more, he might arrive at who else she might bother in the middle of the night to watch stupid movies. "But there's nothing to be done about it, is there? People come and go."

Honestly? He knows what it's like. He couldn't really deal with it when Sofia left. He'd moved out of their apartment, shifted all over the place and distracted himself with any number of other things and people.

"Yeah, they do. Sometimes they come back. You did." He leans forward. "When did he go?"

"More than a month ago." She sighs. "I'll see him if I go home, or he might come back. I'm not worried, really I'm not! I just... kind of miss hanging out. He's pretty much my best friend here." The home comment has her thinking, too. Even back in the world, she does her own thing, separate from mostly everyone else. Oh, she crosses paths with them, but...

Julian doesn't know exactly how alone she is at home. To him, Aradia has always been surrounded by friends. She seems popular to him. It had been weird to him to even hear about how depressive she used to be. He can't associate loneliness or depression with her.

He has no idea how different it is for her away from the City.

"I always thought Kanaya was your best friend. Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

"I guess it's not really my style." She hasn't brought it up with anyone except-- "Dirk and I did fill his locker with penis drawings."

At that he just laughs and leans his head back again. That's what he loves about Aradia: the maturity.

"I still say that ain't the way to get his attention. What about that kid who looks like him? The sprite guy. Glows orange, wears the same glasses. I know I've seen him around."

"Well, he sure drew enough of them for me." She leans back on the couch herself and grins. "Davesprite is Dave, but he's also not Dave. I think he's got a lot of issues that need working out!"

"So he ain't your friend, that's what you're saying." He smirks back at her. "I'm not gonna pretend to understand that shit. Your world confuses the hell out of me so that's not even surprising." He pauses for a second, and then shrugs. "You know it took like five months for Sofia to come back. He could still."

"I wouldn't have filled up his locker if there wasn't a chance he could see it." She eyeballs the movie for a second, and then looks back at him. "Okay, I've completely lost the plot! Wanna just go get food now?"

He'd barely even been paying attention in the first place, so he smirks at her.

"Yeah, sounds good to me." His powers go all green and glowy while they start taking the DVD out. He'd gotten kind of used to not doing that stuff by hand.

As it floats over to them, he turns to her again.

"You didn't come here for this, did you. It's cause of him, cause you missed him."

She snatches the DVD out of the air, opens her mouth, then closes it. She settles for saying "Shut up!" and hitting him on the arm.

"I knew it."

She might be hitting him, but he's just giving her a kind of knowing smile.

"You should've just said so. It's not like I would've made fun of you, come on. I don't blame you for missing your boyfriend. That's totally normal."

"You know, I can't tell any more whether you know he's not my boyfriend or not." She pops the DVD back in its case and tosses it back in her bag. "Are we flying or walking?"

"I know it drives you crazy, and that's all that matters." Besides, he might be trying to just get her mind off missing the kid now. Being irritated with him would definitely qualify as a distraction. He goes to the door and opens it, then sends a little smirk back at her as he rises into the air, surrounded by green energy.

"I have a personal rule. Never walk anywhere that you can fly. I'd give you a lift, but now that I know you have demon fairy wings..."

You're such a good friend, Julian. She crouches down and her wings unfurl, then springs into action, zooming past him out the door. "Damn right I have demon fairy wings!"

See now that? That just seems like a challenge.

He pulls the door shut behind him, lets her get a little distance...

And then a glowing orb of green energy will come zooming out to meet her like a meteor. Here's hoping no one's watching this from the ground, because it'll probably scare the shit out of them.

"So," he says, catching up to her and looking smug. "Exactly how fast can demon fairy wings fly? Out of interest."

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