the smell of polluted pleasure

[thedreamthief]

He's sore all over, bleeding from his bottom lip as well as from a re-opened gash across his chest. His sides and lower back ache, doubtlessly covered in not-yet-visible bruises, and his right cheek is already sore to the touch. Ronan hasn't taken a look at a mirror at all yet, has no real idea how roughed up he looks, but he can feel it.

And he feels like he's flying, utterly high with it, adrenaline still pumping through his veins as he heads for Adam's. He can't go back to woods like this, can't let Gansey's disapproving eye bring him down right away.

He's at least smart enough to text him, a short and sweet 'at Adam's' to keep him from worrying. Because the only thing worse than Gansey in lecture mode is a Gansey in mother hen panic mode.

Ronan doesn't have a key to Adam's place, doesn't have the access that St. Agnes provided. Though that hardly deters him.

Even bruised and sore, Ronan has little difficulty using well-placed windowsills and ivy trellises to climb his way up to Adam's second-story balcony. Grinning wide, he bangs on the glass door, then cups his hand to try to squint inside. It's late and it's dark and there's a good chance Adam's asleep already, but it's fucking Friday, Parrish, open the goddamn door.

Comments

(frozen)

[thedreamthief]

Adam's tone is completely neutral, not so much as even an eyeroll evident in the familiar lilt of his quiet accent. Ronan focuses entirely on propping the emptied ziploc on the counter so it can dry (he knows better than to throw it out) before finishing what remains of the water glass he'd left behind earlier.

The anger under his skin still simmers, still bright enough that Ronan knows he should just leave, take it out on a bottle or a defenseless tree.

Instead, his eyes flash when he looks up again, lips curled to bear teeth. He almost says something, something he couldn't take back, a shadow of Kavinsky's influence still buzzing inside him.

Instead, he says, "I've given Gansey enough reason to worry."

He finishes his water, plopping the glass in the sink before heading back toward the window he'd crawled through. "I'll see myself out, Parrish."

(frozen)

[incognoscibilis]

Watching Ronan go out the window gave Adam the sense that he'd just seen a door slammed in his face. They hadn't fought, not the way that he'd lashed out at Gansey at his parents' house or how he'd hated Blue for the span of a day. It was quiet and unceremonious, with a sense of defeat.

He stood there until Ronan was on the ground floor and gone around the corner. Only then did he go back into his kitchen to wash the glass in his otherwise empty sink.