Ves stomped over and wound up to punch him, and then

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life kinda got away from me and i plumb forgot to update on schedule, and this is the first moment i’ve had to catch up since– yes it was posted before 6am but yes i’m getting it done anyway. i’m sticking this in the queue so it posts at some human hour today.

chapter 3 https://archiveofourown.org/works/48424666/chapters/123231139, in which small town life is fictionalized but less than you’d think.

Also, Ves, because she’s too good a character not to use.

Ves stomped over and wound up to punch him, and then paused, and ruined the moment trying to remember which was his bad shoulder. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me where you were,” she said, fist still cocked, but the way her face was twisted, he couldn’t rag on her. “Ves,” he said, looking down at his hands. “No,” she said, and instead of punching him she wrapped her arms around him, which he hadn’t expected. “No, Roche. I care about you as a person and I don’t care what you’re doing with yourself or where you are, I will always come through for you. Fuck.” “I don’t,” he started to say, but she was squishing him and he was getting weirdly choked-up about it, so he gave up. She held him for a moment until he stopped resisting, and then she let go, stepped back and wiped her face. “Fuck,” she said again. “Okay enough gay shit let’s go build that fence.” He followed her out the door. “Ves,” he said, “how is you hugging me gay?” “It just is,” she said. “Having feelings and shit. Totally gay.” “Is that a bad thing or a good thing?” he wondered. He was using the cane today. She’d seen worse, she’d seen him when he still had the fucking. The rollator thing. He’d hated that fucking thing. With a basket and a grabby thing in the basket because he couldn’t fucking bend over to get anything. “It’s just a thing,” she said. It wasn’t like she didn’t know his proclivities. She’d known about him and– She’d known. “Ves,” he said, finally working through it in his mind, “you’re gay.” She didn’t tend to date seriously, but he knew she’d had… liaisons… with people of… an assortment of genders, now that he considered it. “Yeah,” she said, “and so are you.” “You,” he said, but gave up. “What.” “Don’t think so hard, old man,” she said. (Your picture was not posted)