#arkh ch4

[potential-fate]

Jorah laughed then, looked down at him, “I’m pretty sure you could pull off whatever you wanted, and no one would question it.”

“Why can’t you do the same thing then?” Nathan smiled up at Jorah, “Just gotta do it with confidence.” 

“People would make fun of me if I dressed how I wanted.” Jorah shrugged, “I mean, they kinda already do. Everyone either thinks you’re too cool, or they’re too scared of you to tease you.” 

“By now they should be too scared of me to tease you either” Nathan grumbled under his breath. When Jorah gave him a dirty look, he quickly changed the subject, “So that means you do like the cute dino bandaids.” 

“Shut up, Nate.”

---

[potential-fate]

“Yo, Jorah.” Nathan waved a hand in front of the other boy’s face, but instead of finally focusing on Nathan, he just fidgeted with the bottom of his shirt. 

Nathan frowned in annoyance. If Jorah had something to say to him, he’d better get to it, “Did I piss you off or something?” 

Jorah looked up quickly, “what?! No! I’m not mad at—”

[potential-fate]

“I– well, I…” She tried to read his expression, “that sorta depends on how you feel about it?” 

“Well, I always wanted children…” he said, “and I love you.” 

Pia looked at him hopefully, “so… you’re… okay with all this…?” 

“Sweet Pea, of course…” Thomas kissed the back of her hand, “Actually…” 

He pulled away for a moment, and Pia tried not to frown. But he was still smiling, so she forced herself to relax. He straightened his jacket slightly, looking back at her, “I was going to try to do something a bit more romantic…” 

He looked down at his lap, “but I fear if I don’t say something now, then you might think I’m doing this for the wrong reasons…”

[potential-fate]

After that, he practically climbed into Roman’s lap and pulled his face up to meet his lips. Pelle wove his hand in Roman’s hair, and for a moment, Roman got caught up in that kiss. 

“For the love of— Pelle!” Ashe exclaimed, “it’s a game night, not an orgy, jeez!” 

“Ack!---” Pelle screamed as Ashe shoved him over, quickly dissolving into giggles.

[potential-fate]

Leaning over towards Roman, he said, “don’t mind Pelle. Someone’s had too much to drink.” 

Roman let out a short laugh, as he watched Pelle kiss Adrian on the cheek. Despite this, Adrian turned an even darker shade of red. 

“Pelle, are you gonna keep daring people to kiss until you’ve gotten to everyone?” Jun asked, laughing. 

“I would never—” 

“I’ll save you the trouble.” Jun rolled his eyes playfully, “I dare you, just get it over with, why don’t you just kiss anyone you haven’t before, you brat?” 

[potential-fate]

Tonight they had a box of Cards against Humanity, several bottles of liquor, and a random episode of Gossip Guy playing in the background. Almost everyone was at least three drinks in. 

“Can we do something actually interesting?” the man across from him whined, and Roman held back an eyeroll. The boy with long hair and pretty makeup was new. Or at least he was new to Roman. When the new boy had gotten to the house, Adrian had invited him in, all while flirting in the most obvious way possible. Roman wasn’t going to say anything, but the dude could have at least pretended to enjoy himself.  

“Adrian,” The boy glanced over at Adrian, rolling his eyes. “I thought you said your friends were fun.”  

“Stefan–...” Adrian frowned awkwardly. He was clearly uncomfortable; stuck between wanting to impress this dude, and not insult his friends, “I…” 

“I think they’re fun.” Roman said, shrugging, “What’s wrong with this?” 

Adrian visibly relaxed as Stefan turned his attention to Roman, “Don’t you think Cards Against Humanity is a bit… I dunno. Lame? It’s a bit played out, don’t you think?”  “Let’s do something different then!” Maura jumped in, half slamming her drink down on the carpet, “Let’s do something more fun.”

[potential-fate]

“Good, I didn’t want to have to hit someone I’d never met.” Lucy said, quickly swinging a punch toward Abe’s shoulder. 

“Ow— what the fuck!?” Abe swore, that punch being double what a playful punch should be between siblings. 

Lucy frowned, “You deserved that and you know it.” 

“What the hell did I ever do to you?” Abe rubbed his arm, wincing slightly.

[potential-fate]

After a moment, his gaze settled on the one person who was definitely safe, “Maura, do you mind?” 

Ashe laughed again next to him. 

“You picked the one person in the room who’s actually in a relationship.” He continued laughing, “You really do have terrible ta—” 

“I don’t mind.” Maura smiled at him. She glanced to the side at Jun quickly, “Unless you do?”

“Hm?” Jun raised an eyebrow, “nah, it’s just a game, right?” 

Her smile dropped almost imperceptibly. ‘Ah. she was hoping to make him jealous.’ 

Roman didn’t really care about being a pawn in some silly scheme, as long as Jun didn’t decide to hit him for kissing his girlfriend. He scooted over quickly, and gave her a chase kiss almost as fast, glancing warily at Jun after, just in case. Luckily, Pelle moved on quickly, while Roman moved back to his original seat.

“Adrian, dare this round?” Pelle asked looking to his right, Adrian gave a distracted nod in agreement. 

“Kiss your boy then!” Pelle giggled again.