C R E S C E N T

act v - the command center, pt.1

As they sit down in their usual spots at the dinner table; Darius in the chair closest to the door and Sameer in the chair closest to the window that faces the back yard, he can't help but wonder what's going through Darius' head right now. Hell, he's having a hard enough time figuring out what's going on in his own brain.

"I miss you, Sameer." He's unable to make eye contact. "I know that it's only been a couple days but that's way too long for me."

"I miss you too, Darius." Sameer plays with a fleck of loose skin on his lip. "But you also didn't have to bring him up."

"It just came out. I shouldn't have said that." Darius replies, sighing.

"But you're not sorry?"

Darius leans forward. "I'm not apologizing until you do. I'm not the only one that said some uncalled for shit."

It takes a lot of self control not to yell at him. "That's not... that's not the point Darius. The point is that you brought up some shit that I talked to you about in confidence." He swallows as his throat gets a little dry. "You pulled me out of a month's worth of depression after... after Melvin and I broke up, and I will always be grateful for that, but you don't get to throw that back in my face just because I said something you don't like."

"And my point is that you don't need to repay the favor. You don't have to 'save' me from Neymar, he might not be out but that doesn't inherently make him a shit person."

Sameer's response comes out right on the heels of Darius's words. "I'm your best fucking friend, that's exactly what I'm supposed to do, Darius!"

"And that's exactly what I'm talking about! Stop projecting your untrustful, judgy shit onto our relationship! It's not fair to us and definitely not fair to Neymar."

"I. DO. NOT. CARE. ABOUT. NEYMAR!" Sameer snaps. Again he tries to calm down, he would rather not have his parents trying to investigate what is going on. "I'm not that nigga's friend, I'm your friend, and I'm going to care about my friend and that's on period!" Sameer automatically starts preparing himself for Darius's inevitable outburst but then there's a knock at the door. It could be one of two people, or both. Sameer flicks his eyes toward the foyer, he can half see it from his spot at the dinner table. His eyes slide to Darius for a moment while he gets up. "That nigga isn't coming in my house with his weird ass juju, that's for damn sure."

Darius rolls his eyes. They both get up from the table to go figure out who it is. Sameer pulls open the door and thankfully it's Andre standing there. Darius's brows come together. "Who is this?" He asks as Sameer opens the door for him. Andre stands a solid four inches taller than Sameer, add an extra two inches with his brown biker boots. They match the general neutral tone of his outfit; black denim with a brown suede jacket over a vintage 'Buffy: The Vampire Slayer' t-shirt.

Sameer watches Andre's gaze gloss over Darius as he steps into the house. He switches his helmet from one self-manicured hand to the other, fresh bright red gloss covering his nails. Sameer can only assume last night's purple coat couldn't withstand the use of his fire based powers. "I'm Andre, you must be Darius."

A perceptive one, that Andre. With his words, Sameer is reminded about the conversation they were about to have about Darius before the Lunar Compass alerted them that there was trouble.

"Yeah." Darius replies, clipped, with a pointed flick of his gaze to Sameer. They had a lot to catch up on.

Sameer bucks his eyes back at Darius. Just because they were arguing doesn't mean he has to be rude to his guest. "Um, you can just head to the car, Ray. I'll be out in a minute."