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There's the squeak of sneakers on the shiny floor of the half court and the steady thud thud thud of the ball hitting the ground as Daire practices. In highschool he played a little bit, not on a team, but with friends, and he hadn't played in a long time. He practices taking a shot and it just hits the rim, hovering for a moment like it might go in, then falling over the other side. Retrieving the ball, he tosses it from hand to hand and then starts another slow dribble.
Josh wanders in, wearing a pair of shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt: both are dark gray, which has an odd effect of making his golden skin pop a bit. Or not so odd. Still, upon seeing Daire he grins and wanders over towards him, "Hey, you." he agrees, "What are you up to?" Pause, "Besides the obvious? Want to play horse?"
Daire's got on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, the shorts blue and grey, the t-shirt white. He grins when he sees Josh and says, "Just messing around. I thought about going for a run but then decided to stay inside. See if I could still hit the basket." He pauses a moment and then handwobbles. "Results marginal." He grins then and bounces the ball a few times before passing it over to Josh, "Sure. You first."
|ROLL| Josh +rolls 1d20 for: 10
Scooting back to thet three point line, Josh takes up a position, holds the ball with some skill, and takes aim— and shoots. The ball slides through the air, hits the rim and just barely bounces off, "Aaand your turn." He hmphs, but then grins and nods, "I run sometimes… sometimes. But, really, I don't have any particular need to exercise."
|ROLL| Daire +rolls 1d20 for: 4
Daire picks up the ball from him and moves over to take his own shot. He lines up in the same spot, but when he throws, "I just like to run sometimes, more for meditation than for exercise.. I mean, I still need exercise, but .." the ball doesn't even bump up against the rim, just clips the back board and then falls and he smirks, "Oh god, that was bad." He laughs and retrieves the ball, passing it back to Josh.
|ROLL| Josh +rolls 1d20 for: 9
Jogging over to get up the ball and dribble back to the three-point line, he flashes Daire a grin,… and then runs up and leaps to try to slam dunk… The ball bounces off the rim and he grunts, shaking his head and then laughing, "Okay, clearly I'm out of practice. Let us never tell anyone of this again. This will be our pact, a bond between men."
|ROLL| Daire +rolls 1d20 for: 3
Daire can't help but laugh when Josh goes for that dunk and the ball bounces off the rim, "Okay well, I don't feel quite so bad now, that's all I've gotta say." He runs over and takes his turn with the ball, giving Josh a pat on the shoulder on the way by and a grin, "We will never speak of this." He puts hand to heart and then he runs up to try the slam dunk, and the results are downright calamitous. The ball not only goes bouncing off the rim but Daire actually falls flat on his ass, and then starts laughing. He starts laughing so hard tears come to his eyes and he doubles over.
"Technically you don't have to try to mimic my shot unless I make it— what's sad is with all of these misses, none of us have an H yet." Josh laughs and shakes his head, but he shares a golden grin with Daire when he makes his oath… and then he laughs even more, heading over to plop down next to Dai, grin, and pat Dai's back, patpat. Poor guy. "That was a heroic…effort. Let's say."
"That's true," Daire says, "Though it's kind of more fun to try." He chuckles, wiping at his eyes a bit, shoulders still shaking with mirth. "Fuck, that's so bad." He bumps his shoulder against Josh's when he sits down next to him. "Maybe we should try checkers?" He starts laughing again, shaking his head.
Laughing even more, Josh nods and grins, "That, or strip poker." he offers with a teasing grin, nudging Daire's shoulder in return, "But hey, it could have been worse. You coulda broken the ball, the backboard, something."
Daire laughs, and then tilts his head, considering, and waggles his eyebrows a bit. "Now that one sounds like a win, win." He pulls himself slowly back up to his feet then and offers Josh a hand up, holding it out. "If I was strong enough to do that, I'd also have wings and could just fly the damn ball up there." He then says, "Want to give it another try? Or do we slink out of here and pretend like we dunked every one of those?"
|ROLL| Josh +rolls 1d20 for: 6
"Don't tempt me." Billy grins, and then he rises, and goes over to grab the basketball, "If we just give up now it'll be like like the evil ball wins. No one else will know but *we* will know." So he runs up to try for another slam dunk, and just… throws it off over the ring, and it goes, and goes, and hits the wall over there, "Right." He nods grimly, "So the evil ball wins."
|ROLL| Daire +rolls 1d20 for: 16
Daire watches the ball go, and go, and eventually hit the wall and begin to roll back. His shoulders shake a little bit and he says, "Alright I have to give it one more go, too. If it goes in.. checkers.. if it does not go in.. strip poker." He gives Josh a little wink and then jogs off to go rescue the ball from where it rolled. Returning, he takes a few steps back and then he lifts the ball and tosses it toward the basket, and through the air it soars, and… goes in. Daire laughs out loud then and says, "Well. Now I'm convinced the ball is possessed."
Laughing softly, Josh shakes his head and crosses his arms over his chest, "That or there's a ball-mutant in this place who is having fun with us." He eyes the ball for a long moment, "Either is possible. Possession, ball-mutant."
Standing there, the two of them, staring at the basketball wot has done them wrong; it makes a funny sight. "Okay, I vote we leave before it tries to possess us or decides that dodge ball is a more appropriate sport for the day," Daire says with a bit of a laugh, and another side-eye at the ball. Did it move?
"Hey, I dodge gud." Josh reflects that word badly, but he grins, and heads to the door. In case it moved. Once in the hall, "Hmm. I don't know where or even if they do have a checkerboard here." he admits.
Daire laughs and says, "I'll remember that next time I feel the urge to throw something at you." He's clearly teasing, though as they head out the door and into the hall. "Maybe there's one at the community center. We can play later between patients and while I wait for the truck to come in to load the pantry." He grins, "So that means.. we need to find some other way to entertain ourselves for now."
"Well there's kids here, so there has to be board games." wonders Josh as he looks around, and wanders towards the library, "Then again maybe not: I'm not quite sure about the administration, so we'll have to look around. Anyways. So. Checkers is going to be a rain check, and since I think poker cards are in the same limbo, so is strip poker."
"So have you explored this whole place?" Daire asks as they walk along in the general direction of the library because it doesn't hurt to check. "We can always see what's in the library." He grins and continues in that direction anyway. "I never really did, not when I was here. I spent a lot of time being broody and sullen." He grins over at Josh, "And on the roof."
"I haven't, but I feel weird. It feels like a house more then a school. Poking around someone's house is impolite." Josh laughs, "But I've seen the library. Its good. Not enough current medical texts for my taste, but I read Gray's Anatomy as something of a hobby. Oh, lets look at the vascular system today, yay!" He wrinkles his nose, "Broody doesn't suit you."
"It totally suits me. You should see my gargoyle impression. I can curl my fist and rest my chin on it and stare out over the grounds in the rain like nobody's business," Daire says with a flash of a grin that is the exact opposite of brooding. "It's very self-loathing and tragic," he says. "Fortunately I got over it." He grins and says, "Well sure I mean it's a house but it's also a school, but don't you kinda live here? Sometimes? So it's your house too, right? Why not explore it? I'm not saying raid anyone's bedroom or anything."
"Yeah but its new." counters Josh, "It doesn't feel like a school yet. I hear its only been one a few years? I haven't gotten a clear number. Before it was a mansion. A family mansion for however many generations? That makes the bones of the place soak up a thing. It makes it home… you canf eel home. But not… anyone home. It was a private home."
Daire's expression is thoughtful as they wander along through the halls and he considers that for a while and says, "I never really had a place that felt like a home. I'm not sure.. what that's supposed to feel like. Places are just.. places, to me, I guess. But I'll take your word for it," he smiles.
Wisfully, Josh nods his head, "I can't tell if that's a thing that should be pitied or envied, but it seems like it should one or the other. For me, I had a home. I know I come off as the spoiled rich kid, but we were a pretty solid middl-class family, my mom just liked to say she had taste and if she could teach her children any one skill its knowing value when presented before you. What's the difference between that and snobbery? I don't quite know. But so she built a home that was… home. And then she closed the door and I was never welcomed back. Yet, you never had a home, and oddly I'd rather you have feelt that even if you can't feel it anymore. I think. or maybe I think you're lucky never having felt the loss. I can't decide."
Daire turns around and stops and says, "I don't know if this is what home feels like, but the first place where I've felt safe, and comfortable, and looked forward to going back to, and wanted to stay, a place where I could close my eyes and sleep without worrying.. about things, and where I could wake up and feel like.. I didn't want to be anywhere else? That was when you let me stay on your couch. Even alone there, I felt.. good. And now, the new place.. even moreso because I get to help.. contribute to it, and it feels like mine, too. I don't know if that's exactly what you're talking about.. but I didn't feel like that at my folks' house, and I certainly haven't felt it anywhere else since, except there. So maybe that's home?"
Stepping closer, Johs slips his arms around Daire's waist, "I'm glad you feel that way about our apartment. I feel better now that you have a room— I don't care about the contribution except that it makes you feel better. Your feelings matter, so that matters. I just don't keep a ledger." He nods his head, "But if that makes you feel like its yours, I understand and respect that. It *is* yours. And if its your first home,… so be it." He flashes a grin.
Daire lets his arms slip around Josh's shoulders and says, "Our apartment," with a grin that can't help but spread across his features right on up to his eyes. "I like that. And I know you don't.. but it makes me feel good, to feel like I'm contributing something, and sharing everything. And it is my first.. real home. And I'm glad that you feel better that I have a room," he chuckles. "I'll admit that I do kind of like it. It's novel."
Even if Josh still finds him asleep on the couch sometimes.
"See, you having a room… makes me think of knocking at your door and asking if I can come in." Josh grins a it sheepishly, "If you're on my couch, there's no space that you have.. authority over. Permission over. No space where you can say: no, go away, this is mine. If you're on the couch, well if I gotta pee?" He laughs softly, "You can't say no! Begone from my living room. Because my I gotta go to the bathroom overrides."
Daire can't help but laugh a little bit and says, "Okay, fair point. I don't think I've ever really had the luxury of being able to say no. I'm not sure I'd ever want to. But the ability to be asked is, admittedly, appealing. I shared a room with my brother growing up. There was no privacy, no such thing as the option to say no. We only had enough bedrooms for two for the kids and my sister got the other one. If I wanted "privacy" I had to go sleep on the couch. So now it's kind of opposite. I have a room and don't have to sleep on the couch. Still getting used to that."
"I can understand that." Agrees Josh softly, nodding his head, and for a moment, just resting against the other man's chest and shoulder. "Yeah, I had a very different life. I grew up always having my own room: from the youngest, even with my siblings. I closed the door and my parents tentatively knocked to request access. So I find it odd to think of this idea you have, that privacy isn't just *assumed*."
Daire likes the way that Josh leans against him, and he remains there contentedly for a while, "I didn't have it as bad as this one kid I knew did. His parents took the doors off the kids' bedrooms so they couldn't have any privacy at all. I mean, our door even had a lock on it. We could close it. But all it took was a cake tester in the hole on the other side to spring the lock. It was more an illusion of privacy than anything else."
Daire goes home.