2 - our peace

"Shit, it feels good to have an off day." Spinel yawned into his palm before shooting his housemate a grin. "Want me to make breakfast? Or do you want to eat out?"

"Let's stay at home," Citrus replied. "It's too much effort going out. We can stay at home for the entire day...or week...or month..."

"We'll starve to death because we'll run out of food," the boy joked back, rummaging around in one of their cabinets for the bag of bread they'd been keeping. "I'll just make toast because we don't really have anything else. That alright with you?"

He just gave him a tired stare. "I don't mind. I'll take a quick nap until the toast is done—"

"No, you've slept enough already..." His housemate trailed off. "You'll just end up more tired when you wake up, so at least try and stay awake until breakfast is done."

Citrus let out a long sigh at that, but he didn't protest—instead, he sank against the soft cushions of the couch and crossed his arms. "So what are you going to do today? You said you would keep me company, but I don't want to go out."

"Yeah, I thought about it a little." Spinel pulled the oven door open as it beeped, and carefully slid two slices of toast onto a plate. "Eve's been pestering me about meeting up for a while now, so I'm going for lunch with her later—wanna come? I'll be at home for the entire evening, though."

He wrinkled his nose at that. "Eve's tiring. The last time we talked, she kept trying to pick a fight with me."

His friend laughed at that. "Well, you know that's how she is most of the time. Maybe you should actually try to have a battle with her? It would help you and Purrloin get some actual motivation to do something."

"Hey, are you insulting me...?" Citrus pouted. "Purrloin is perfectly content napping while I draw. Right, Purrloin?"

The feline Pokemon—it preferred to stay in dark corners most of the time, where no one could find it—meowed from her place on the floor, turning back to her bowl of food and proceeding to lose interest in the rest of their conversation.

"Either way, it's just a suggestion." Spinel took a bite of his toast, scrolling through his messages halfheartedly. "I mean, it's better than rotting at home, right...? I don't know what you're going to do for hours straight."

Citrus just huffed, sneaking a corner off the older boy's slice of bread. "Fine, I'll go with you since I'm such a nice friend. But we have to do nothing but chill for the entire evening."

That seemed to satisfy Spinel. "Thanks, thanks. You're a great friend, yeah?"

"Of course I am." He smiled to himself as he stared at his phone. "I think you should say that more often. You know, I even finished that commission of mine on time yesterday, so you should be proud of me. You're so stingy with your love."

"Hm, but isn't that supposed to be the usual practice?" The other boy blinked, finishing up the last bite of his breakfast before taking a final gulp of coffee. "It's great that you did it without me nagging you this time, though. Good job."

"Right?" Citrus downed the rest of his milk before getting up to leave it in the sink. "Anyway, when are we meeting with Eve?"

Spinel shrugged. "Probably around one? She has work before that."

"Ugh, okay. That's four hours of mental preparation." He sighed at that, collapsing onto the couch and heaving Purrloin onto his lap. "I'll meditate over here while you do whatever it is you usually do."

His housemate raised an eyebrow. "That's just an excuse to sleep," he groaned. "Well, alright—I did wake you up early today. I'll tidy the house, then."

"Wonderful."

—

"You're here!"

The girl raked a hand through her creamy hair as she spotted the two of them, waving her free arm to get their attention. "Hey, I got us seats. Come over here."

"It's been a while," Spinel greeted, sinking down into one of the restaurant's free chairs and nudging Citrus to take the other one—and he slid off his bag before speaking again. "Anyway, how are you doing? Looks like you got even more new clothes."

Eve's eyes brightened. "Elesa's acquaintance threw them out after a shoot. She said they were my size."

His friend laughed, picking up a menu and skimming its contents. "That sounds nice. What're you gonna get, by the way?"

"I'd say this steak, but Elesa wants me to come in for a shoot next week. Eh, screw Elesa." The girl grinned, settling on what she wanted before waving for a waiter to come over. "Also, damn, it's hot in here. Maybe it's because of me."

"I want the spicy Corphish pasta," Citrus informed. "Also, Eve, you're way too loud as usual."

She just scowled, tying her hair into a quick ponytail. "And you're way too snappy, lemon boy. You want to fight, punk?"

"I prefer oranges," he replied, and something crossed his mind before the girl even got a chance to speak again. "Also, Spinel, we're out of oranges. Let's stop by the supermarket on the way home...I miss oranges already."

"Yeah, yeah." The navy-haired boy nodded along, barely paying attention to his request—that was rude. Spinel was way too rude—before turning to the waiter. "Sorry for the wait. I'd like the carbonara—number nineteen."

When the waiter walked away, Eve clapped her hands together. "So, you zesty piece of lemon! Is this the day I finally get to beat you and Purrloin's ass into tomorrow?"

Citrus took a sip of water, intertwining his fingers as he leant forward. "Eh...but that's tiring, and it's no fair. Purrloin is just a loyal house pet, and you're some trainer in that gym or something. You just wanna beat us up...public violence is against the law..."

Eve glared at him. "What's that? You wanna make this private?"

"Hey, calm down," Spinel sighed, raising a hand to stop the both of them from arguing. "Seriously, can you two stop fighting every time you see each other? Stop acting like five-year-olds already."

Citrus huffed, downing half his glass of water in a gulp and ending the argument. "She started it."

"Did not—"

The blue-haired boy could not have been more relieved when their food arrived.

—

Eve took a large bite of her food as she looked at her friends. "So, Spinel, any interesting things lately? Your life seems pretty boring. No offence."

"That's a harsh way of putting it," Spinel argued back. "Not everyone's life can be as flashy as yours. Besides, I don't have much time to do anything interesting between working and studying..."

"I've told you already, quit some of your damn jobs." The girl stopped mid-bite to speak. "If you just work all the time, you'll just become a loser like the lemon over there and I'll have to stop speaking with you."

Citrus bobbed his head to the conversation, more than content to just listen in while eating. The spicy taste of the pasta's sauce was a pleasant feeling in his mouth—albeit he still preferred his store-bought tabasco sauce—and the sound of idle chatter was relaxing.

"Anyway, what about your job?" Spinel changed the subject with a grin—both of them knew Eve loved her work. "Any interesting trainers at Nimbasa Gym?"

"Hell, I wish there were more." Eve responded with a disappointed shake of her head. "It's so easy to knock them around, y'know? Like, more than half of these guys just catch a Sandile and waltz in here, and when the first Emolga gets sent out—" she made a slicing motion across her neck, "—boom, they're dead. So useless."

The blue-hired boy just raised an eyebrow. "Seems like you've got a lot of pent-up anger from not being able to fight anyone strong. I feel bad for your friends in your university."

"What's that?" Eve sneered. "I thought you were a pretty cool person, Spinel, but maybe I was wrong—maybe I should call you 'spineless' instead?"

"That was a terrible joke," he quipped back, and an amused expression flitted across his face. "Either way, how's uh...that other goal of yours...how's it going?"

The girl paused to think for a few moments. "Oh, that? To be honest, I've kind of forgotten about it. Sucks a little, but it's not my main gig now, so I'll just enjoy life until something pops up."

Spinel cracked a smile at that. "That seems like something you would say."

Citrus watched from his seat, a frown appearing on his face as he realised he'd finished the last of his pasta. His housemate would mention that particular issue sometimes when the three of them were out together, and they never touched on it much, but it wasn't his place to ask about it. After all, Spinel had known Eve for longer than he'd known him.

He wasn't that bad of a friend.

"Hello? Earth to Citrus?" Spinel waved a hand in front of his face, tilting his head and pressing his lips together in worry. "Are you alright? Not feeling well? Sorry we haven't been including you in the conversation."

He shook his head. "You worry too much, I'm just sad I ran out of pasta. Though, if you wanna make it up to me, what about another bottle of tabasco sauce later?"

The shorter boy stared at him for a good few seconds, as if considering the economic complications this would bring his wallet, but he shrugged in the end. "You know what, sure. I was the one who asked you to come in the first place."

Citrus clapped at that. "Yay...so you still love me after all."

Both Eve and Spinel chuckled at that, and they turned back to their conversation.

He continued to watch, daydreaming of all sorts of ideas for his art for when he got back, and let the direction of whatever topics they talked about guide the premise for his next masterpiece.

Going out wasn't so bad once in a while.

—

He dangled halfway off the bed, clutching on to a pillow as he checked for updates on his social media accounts.

The woman that had commissioned a wedding portrait—or something like that, he couldn't really remember anymore— had seemed pretty happy with the final result, and that was a relief, because he didn't any more blows to his already-shady reputation.

Citrus smiled to himself. It was fine to celebrate small achievements like that, wasn't it?

Spinel was already asleep in his own bedroom. He'd tried to stay up with him throughout the evening, but he'd admitted that he wanted to sleep a little longer before going back to work and had retreated to his room before he passed out on the couch.

How rude of him to leave me alone—would be what he usually thought, but it had been a long day. Spinel needed his beauty sleep.

He was snapped out of his idle thoughts by a small ping sound and he almost cursed, remembering that he had forgotten to set his phone to silent.

Swiping open the message, he scanned the text as fast as he could before rereading it a little more slowly. A commission?

The request seemed pretty large-scale—whoever had messaged him was asking him to draw seven illustrations for their website, and they were willing to pay him much more than his usual prices in return.

The lazy part of him told him to just reject it, but the money was tempting—maybe it would be enough for Spinel to quit one of his jobs so he could spend more time with him? That wasn't how jobs worked, but he could still hope.

Yawning, he tapped out his reply, saying he was interested and that he'd like to no more—standard things that Spinel had taught him to say.

The response came mere moments after.

Citrus lost interest after we'll send you more details by tomorrow. It wasn't worth waiting staying up for that, so he just sent back a short alright, looking forward to it and switched his phone off.

Wait a moment.

For a moment, he lay on his bed, listening to the whirring of his fan and the sound of the night breeze. The ceiling faced him—everything was still.

In a moment of hesitation, he grabbed his phone again and reread the account's username.

He blinked, and everything was normal again. The strange atmosphere was gone.

What was that...?

His room didn't feel stifling anymore. The fan was still whirring, and the breeze was still the same, but the feeling he had had disappeared right after he had noticed it.

Citrus let out a breath. Maybe he was imagining things.

It was late, after all. Maybe he just missed Spinel already.

He set his phone on the table beside him, and curled up under his blanket.

Whatever that feeling had been, it was gone, and to him, that was all that mattered.

--

//eyes emoji

well it has been a long time hasn't it hello

is eve alright? no, she just wants to kick ass and she's so valid

anyways thanks so much for everyone that commented and voted!! it makes me very happy yep yep~