Kyle and Angel || A Very Cold Lake

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

Kyle is sad about Dori and lakes himself. Angel is the friend with a plan. Backdated to 12/19/15



Technically, by the time Kyle had finished texting he was fully out of the water, and shivering, but while he'd been actually pecking out the words, he was still in the lake, at least by a few inches.

It had sort of helped, at least it gave him something else to think about, even if that something else was that his balls were never, ever going to come out of hiding because jesus fuck the lake had been a bad idea when it was winter.

Donut was more than happy when Angel abandoned brushing him in favor of grabbing a backpack and shoving in a towel and grabbing some treats from the "Kyle-edible goodies" cabinet. She couldn't even begin to guess why Kyle had decided that laking himself was a good idea, but it probably required food.

Backpack secure on her shoulders she opened a window and hopped out of it, flying off for the lake. Stairs? Who needed stairs? She landed next to her sopping wet friend a few minutes later and asked, as if this was a totally normal occurrence, "What's up?" as she dug out the towel and handed it over.

Kyle started drying his hair first, so his first answer was muffled by terrycloth. His next was slightly more understandable, even if "2015 sucked and 2016's not looking a lot better." wasn't a great explanation. The towel moved on, mechanically to his neck and shoulders, and despite the chill, he stripped off his shirt to dry off better. "Dori got into UCLA's grad program."

"Shit," Angel said quietly, already knowing where this was going. "When does she leave?" Because there was no other reason why Kyle would be throwing himself in the lake.

"Basically pretty soon." Kyle's attempts to dry off were only slightly successful, since his jeans were soaked and denim didn't dry easily. "And I mean, I knew she was applying, and dammit I encouraged it, but neither of us thought she'd actually get into UCLA. And long-distance isn't really gonna work for us." Both of them were too physical.

"Damn, I'm sorry dude." More useless words there had never been, but...Christ it wasn't like anything Angel said would actually make him feel better. "What do you need?"

"A girlfriend who doesn't think long-distance is impossible?" Kyle muttered. "I dunno. I need to not have busted my hand punching a heavy bag. It's just, you know like the last thing. My mom died, half my students died, half those came back all weird, and now Dori's like, can't get over her squirrel being dead so she's gonna go to LA and I don't even know what."

Words were stupid and useless, and Angel couldn't actually give Kyle any of that and he wasn't really asking anyways. So she did what she could - she got up on her tiptoes and pulled Kyle into a tight hug.

"I was gonna get a ring." Kyle wasn't even sure if he could be heard, because his face was in Angel's hair, but he had to get it out somehow. "and then she got that stupid letter."

Angel heard. And her heart broke. Kyle was a good guy, and he didn't deserve any of this shit. She squeezed him for a long moment before pulling back and determinedly saying, "Let's burn UCLA down before she leaves." She was kidding, of course. Mostly. If she thought that was actually an option that Kyle would go for she'd probably consider it. "Or we can find something to get you so drunk you forget your own name."

Kyle laughed - a little bitterly, and with a snort. "I got six pineapples in my fridge." He said. "And I don't wanna screw up Dori's chance to get her dream career. I'm pissed she's not gonna even try long-distance, and ima be the dick ex boyfriend who won't answer any emails or texts, but I'm not gonna be the dick ex who tries to fuck up her life." He knew Angel wasn't serious, but if he kept saying he wasn't gonna be that guy, then he might not feel so bad that he'd already been ignoring Dori's texts.

"You're gonna be the dick but the capital-Dick, got it." Angel nodded seriously. "Good plan. Shall we go get the grain alcohol? Or I can go get it and you can set to work with the pineapples. Six pineapples is probably enough to at least make you question your name, right?"

"Might be hard to pretend like I'm Captain Responsible pants in the morning, but eh." Kyle shrugged. "If I can't explain lit themes or why Reagan was such a shit president with half a hangover, I outta hang up my teaching hat."

"The kids'll be fine if you're a little hung over." Not that Angel was encouraging it or anything. "Come on. Let's get drunk."

"Yeah worth thing that'll happen is X gets even more sick of my Hamilton refs." Kyle said, hauling himself up to a full standing position. "First thing though I gotta go get dry clothes. Not getting drunk in wet boxers. That's nasty."

"Good point," Angel agreed with a serious nod. "I'll go commandeer a car and meet you in the garage?"

"Screw cars, we'll get a taxi. If Ima get drunk I need a friend to match me shot for shot."