bad luck, kitty cat.

He’d ridden in weather like this more times than he cared to count, he’d ridden under a hail of bullets, weaved through traffic at higher speeds, sed over snow and ice. He was as skilled as they come when it came to the bike but that didn’t mean he was completely free from risk. It was perhaps cockiness that kept him sparse from replacing the two helmets that lay in a garage somewhere riddled with bullet holes.

He hadn’t had an incident in years. But with the increasingly tight grip around his waist, James became slightly distracted. Was Theo scared? Unused to riding in such ways and that was why he was clinging so tight? It wasn’t painful persay – James was muscled enough to not cave at that – but it was odd.

The road was clear, the rain whipping past too fast to settle on clothes and James was in the mood to just ride until a need for gas arose. Unfortunately that was not the case.

He had a retort all ready for Theo about the speed but he saw the rear of the deer too late and on instinct he swerved to avoid the rump of the animal. In his mind, veering off was safer that crashing right into the anima but what he hadn’t counted on was the large ditch on the right hand side of the road that he unknowingly drove right into.

In a screech of tyres seeking and failing to find grip on a rain slicked road, the bike shot off the road and the front wheel caught on a rock jutting out from the edge. It send the bike into a spiral, the rear lifting up and over the front and launching the bike into the air, riders and all and for a second James was sure he felt nothing but the wind and the rain. He tried like hell to keep a grip on the bike as gravity dragged them crashing down in a spiralling, rolling mess of metal, rock and sludge to land with various splashes in the flooded ditch.

James’ cry was cut off somewhere half way down the crashing as his head struck rock and he landed on the opposite upwards slope, chest down submerged in the flood water. The mangled carcass of the bike crashed square into the water and, the light still eerily flicking as the spinning wheels slowly came to a stop.

Clearly, his nerves hadn’t let him speak up soon enough.

The moment that deer vanished from view, Theo’s heart might as well have stopped. It also decided that then was the best time to scream, “hey, guess what? this is what happens. this is your fault. you shouldn’t have even spoken to this man. you’re getting him killed, and now you get to watch it happen.”

And then the ground was gone, and then James’ back was gone, and the bike was gone.

After that, time sped and slowed in the same instant, and the only thing he knew for sure was that suddenly he was in cold, cold water, and all senses had gone straight into overdrive.

He’d fallen into a tumble. The impact with the stone, the one that’d sent them flipping, had thrown him, yes, but his fall was what changed it up. Theo landed in grass, skidding down the incline, and the bike smashed into the water and mud not a handful of feet ahead of him.

Then he was sliding into cold, cold ditch water.

Theodoron was stunned still for many long moments, and the moment his body tried to flare into action it screamed bloody murder at him. But as he sat up and began teasing himself out of the slopping mud and back onto the slippery grass, it retreated some, then more, and then began to solidify in a few specific places.

Cuts, bruises, damages here and there earned from his landing and the fall down the harsh incline. His hand took the worst of it-- blood welled across the skin so thoroughly that he couldn’t see where it was coming from, but otherwise.. one piece.

With a groan, Theo forced his feet under him, fell back into the deep water, and then sloshed forward with sudden motion, having spotted James ahead, just beyond the nearly submerged bike.

“Shit shit shit shit--” He muttered under his breath, although his heart said, again, “see? that’s what happens.” He gave James a shake by the shoulders, called his name once, twice, and in a fit of panic, started trying to drag the other man up further into the grass and out of the chilling water.

Similarly, up close James was able to get a good look at the man he was temporarily trusting at his back. He looked exhausted, not surprising considering the situation and the feeling that the guy must have been walking for miles already if his calculations were correct. So James offered a smile because the guy seemed nice enough. And he was easy on the eyes.

A ripple of tension did move through James, probably undetected but he grit his teeth and bore down on it because there were more important things to focus on than a stranger. And if this guy turned out to be a psycho then at least it would make for a good story.

“Sorry I haven’t got any helmet’s, you’ll just have to trust me,” he called back over the wind, checking both ends of the road but seeing no headlights that indicated an oncoming vehicle and then he heard a name. Theo. Sweet. James glanced back to make sure the guy was on and settled before he nodded the best he could without blinding himself with the rain.

“James.” Much more common and easier to forget than Bucky, that was for sure. Once certain, he pulled away from the makeshift parking area and they roared off down the darkened highway, their way lighted only by the bike headlights and James’ hope that no critter decides to make a mad dash across the road in the dark.

“Y-yeah, sure.” He answered, trying not to show any discomfort at that little detail. Just another way to bust the poor man’s head open. “No problem.”

As they rode, Theo grew increasingly tense. There was truly no reason for it-- James was clearly a good driver, careful but unforgiving when it came to the hazardous, wet road. There was no traffic. Everything, other than the weather, was quiet.

That was the problem. He kept an unobtrusive grip on James’ waist for balance only, but it began to grow tighter without his realizing it as each illuminated sign flashed by.

Was the rain bad luck? Maybe. It had only started after he’d started walking those hours before. Almost getting hit? No, but close. He’d grown so used to the norm, the average, that he could almost count the number of seconds until the next accident. Give or take, sure, but in general his count was accurate.

And things had gone far too long since the last one.

“Maybe we should slow down--” He started, cutting off with a sharp gasp as the hindquarters and back legs of a deer flickered into the bike’s lights.

Meeting people meant leaving a trail the police could follow and that was not good. It didn’t matter that he’d killed a rapist, murder was murder and the cops were less likely to believe a scummy biker over anyone else. So this guy had just become a link to James and this highway and necessity told him to just rev up and carry on driving.

He didn’t though because he wanted to hope that anyone wandering like this guy was, wandering the way this guy was, wasn’t about to talk to any cops about any mysterious bikers they may have encountered on their travels. James didn’t deem the man much of a threat but that may have been before his gun was in easy reach should anything happen.

“A few towns huh.” A few towns was as vague as James but even taking it literally this guy had some tens of miles to trek before he hit anything resembling civilisation. And in this weather all it took was a vehicle wider than his bike to kill him. James tracked each step closer until the other had stopped a respectable distance away and provided his offer, to which he then leaned up off the handle bars and shook his head.

“You won’t pay,” he said. “Anyone would chose to walk in this and not call a cab needs to hold onto whatever few dimes he’s got left. Hop on.” Offering a free ride was perhaps his way of portraying the innocent biker who could be easily forgotten if the pigs came sniffing around.

A look of relief flickered very momentarily over the drenched man’s face, betraying just how tired he was underneath the careful expression. It was beaten back quickly enough, and he stepped forward with a nod of gratitude and a soft smile. In all honesty, the promise to pay had been an impulsive lie. He had, maybe, a few nickels in his pocket.

Up close, despite the rain and the darkness of night, he was able to make out his “rescuer”’s face. He was striking, sharp but handsome features even underneath the veil of long dark hair.

As he mounted the bike gingerly behind the other man, Theo reflected wearily over his own concerns. He, too, would prefer to avoid the attention of the cops, which is why he’d chosen to make his trek at night. The rainstorm had, at first, been welcome cover, but when it hadn’t ended three hours later, it had become too much. Now, as far as he could tell, he had had a temporary break away from his bad luck.. but would it come back with a vengeance without warning?

“I’m Theo.”

someone: are you ok

me: ...........anyway

#TAG

He resembled a drowned rat, whoever he was. Plonked right down in the mud a few feet away from the edge of the cliff, he couldn’t help but wonder if maybe he had interrupted the man’s attempt at plunging off the cliff and into a darkness below. Sadly, he understood that urge. Then again, as dejected as the stranger looked, he didn’t sound that hollow.

A buzz in his pocket alerted him to another message that was undoubtably from Steve but he would reply later. As much as cutting contact goes for the greater good, he couldn’t bring himself to ignore his best friend of many decades, regardless of safety. But it was enough to calm his own rising surge of anger.

It was like watching a child on the slip and slide as the man pulled himself to his feet and upon seeing he was uninjured, James softened the glare from the bike so he didn’t blind the other and cause him to fall to his death anyway.

“Aye, well…” James began, water starting to pool in his clothes rather than blown aside by the force of the wind while riding. “What’re you doing wandering the road like this in the middle of the night any how?”

He didn’t answer right away, instead allowing his eyes to adjust to the darker road in relative silence as he considered his options. This guy clearly wasn’t a cop, and he definitely didn’t seem any worse for wear as a result of the near accident.

Good.

He ambled a little closer, step by step, keeping his hands in view so as not to trigger any sort of aggressive from this man who, by all rights, should still be angry he almost hit an idiot on the road.

“Going a few towns over,” He answered, not having to force volume into his voice in order to be heard now that he’d closed the distance a bit. He stopped about three meters from the other man, lifting a hand to fumble at his hood to get it back over his head for its minor protection from the heavy rain.

Almost greedy eyes studied the bike the guy was riding, contemplative. He didn’t want to cause any real trouble, but.. he felt as though he was going to shiver right through his skin if he kept walking. There were no lights in that direction, which meant he had a long, long way to go before he reached even a gas station.

“Could-- could you give me a ride? I can pay you. Not a lot, but-- but I can.”

The man walking down in the pouring rain wasn’t the only one contemplating diving into the non-existent bushes is a cop car happened to come along. Not that he was strictly doing anything illegal but all it took was a random stop and search and he would surely end up on in a jail cell being harassed by the D.A to give up the rest of his gang. They’d be looking for him, he knew. The rest of the Commando’s would be looking to bring him home. He’d killed one of their own, for good reason, but too many non-gang witnesses had lead James to fleeing for the safety of the group no matter how much Steve had tried to persuade him to stay.

As long as he stayed one step ahead. Of course heavy downpours and motorbikes weren’t the best kind of mix so James nearly didn’t see the figure trudging down the road until he was nearly on top of him and that would have been one murder and one manslaughter added to his list.

“Jesus!” James swerved in time so he didn’t strike the stranger, and skidded to a stop a little ways ahead. This time of night he hadn’t expected… this. James flicked the lights on to a full glare and wiped rainwater out of his eyes. “You tryin’ t’get yourself killed?!”

The swerve came with a flash of headlight and slosh of mud and water, doing its own part to startle the man on foot.

Whether it was out of some measure of self preservation or impulse, he scrambled to get very, very clear of the skidding motorcycle, losing his footing on the muddy verge and landing square on his ass.

The cycle came to a stop a distance ahead and the light turned onto him, prompting the downed man to lift a hand to block the bright light as it flickered through the downpour. It seemed to only come down harder and it pelted Theo’s now uncovered head.

As he sat there, mud soaking into his jeans, the first feeling he allowed himself was anger. But that was quickly quashed down in a count to three, long breath, and it was more or less gone a few moments later.

He couldn’t really see the other guy, only hear his angry words just so over the rain, so he struggled to get to his feet, keeping an eye on the other man.

“Sorry.”

@hibernamilitis

The rain didn’t seem to want to stop.

Didn’t matter much. Not to him. He was used to this sort of thing, so as soon as it’d started four hours prior, he’d lifted the hood of his windbreaking jacket over his head and kept trudging on, no more than clothes and a pack on his shoulder, down the long highway. He’d lucked out so far-- being on foot here was illegal, and he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t just dive into the bushes on the steep, dangerous shoulder to avoid a cop car.