anddowntothesea | OPEN - And every love will always bring me down to the sea

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OPEN - And every love will always bring me down to the sea

He's been meaning to do it since he got back into town but, for various reasons, it's been put off. Still, it now looks like he doesn't have work this week, so he's really got no excuse. The boat herself had a fresh coat of paint not so long ago, so that'll keep, but the sign hasn't been touched since before his father died. His Ma always says that the devil finds work for idle hands.

He's set up on the deck of the Ariadne, stripped down to tank and holed jeans, hair pulled back from his face as he sketches in pencil. He's settled on letting that he likes and now it's just a case of making it fit. And if he's a little pre-occupied, and if he has to restart letters a few more times than he'd like, then he figures that he's not entirely to blame.

He sings to himself while he works, scraps of songs that his Ma used to sing to him and Gale when they were younger; she'd stopped singing by the time Connor was born. But Gabe's feeling okay today, with the sun on his shoulders and a paintbrush in his hand, on his boat, on the water. Yes, life is sometimes baffling, but there are plenty of reasons to be grateful.

ooc: find Gabe on deck of the Ariadne down in the harbor. If your pup is Siren Cove born and bred, feel free to assume a relationship - just let me know! :D

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It's a nice day out, bright and sunny without being too hot, so Davin decides to go for a run before work. He heads out in basketball shorts and a tank, taking the latter off halfway through and stuffing it in the waistband of his shorts so he doesn't tan too unevenly.

His trail takes him past the docks, sneakers thumping on the salt-crusted wood as he passes the boats. When he passes the Ariadne, Davin does a bit of a double-take and then stops, backing up a few steps and reaching up to wipe the sweat from his forehead with the inside of his wrist, pushing his hair back as he peers at the man on the deck.

"Aye, Gabe?" Davin asks with an amused laugh. "Is that you?"

There is, and he'd be the first to admit it, a brief moment of "...woah" when he sees Davin standing there, half naked, sheened in sweat. He can't help it - it's entirely visceral, a sense memory, even if the world has moved on.

He grins, smoothing one hand back over caught back hair.

"Yup. All me. Hey, Davin."

Davin spent a good chunk of his late teens making bad choices and sleeping around, so he doesn't really find it too awkward when he runs into someone he's hooked up with. But with Gabe some of the awkwardness is there because it was more than a hook up. There was the whole magical reveal, which Gabe didn't take very well, and Davin's hurt feelings.

He'd thought they were back on good terms, but then Gabe sort of just disappeared. Davin is glad to see him though, and he tugs out his ear buds before stepping carefully onto the boat and coming over to him. "Where the hell did ya run off to, man?"

He's not particularly proud of the way that he behaved but he's an adult and he figures that the least he can do is own his mistakes.

"I had to clear my head," he says, looking up at Davin with an easy smile. "My sister's in New York, so I slept on her couch for a while."

"New York, huh? That sounds fun." Davin stretches his arm over his chest, then switches to the other arm and rolls his shoulders before sitting on the edge of the boat and looking over at Gabe with an easy smile. "But it's good t'see ya back."

He looks over at what Gabe's working on, brows raised curiously. "Can I see?"

"It's okay for a little while, yeah, but I don't know how she lives there." Davin is distracting just by being there - Gabe tries very hard to focus on the task in hand. He leans back from the sign, paint brush still in hand. "Change is as good as a rest."

"Seems like it'd be a far cry from the Cove, that's for sure. I've never been. Maybe someday, aye?" When Gabe leans back, Davin leans in to get a look at the sign and then turns to Gabe with a big smile. "That looks really nice, man. It'll go great on the boat."

He gets up and wanders around curiously, feeling the slight lull of the waves under his feet. "Are ya still livin' on this thing?"

He shakes his head.

"Back at home," he says, leaning in to finish a flourish. Davin's smile is infectious and Gabe finds himself echoing it. "Felt better when I came back from New York."

"Well, that's great, man." Davin waits for him to pull the brush away before clapping a hand on his shoulder and giving him a friendly shake. "It's good t'see ya. An' I'm diggin' the man bun."

He gives said bun a flick and then goes to sit back on the edge of the boat again, tipping his head back to enjoy the sunshine.

"Well, you know I feel much better for your approval," says Gabe, rolling his eyes as he smooths one hand back over his hair. He sets his brush down and leans back on his hands to enjoy the sun for a while. "How've you been, anyway? Feels like forever since I've..." He pauses for a second, picking it over. "Seen you to talk to."

Davin's smile dims at the question, because he's been through a whole hell of a lot since he's last seen Gabe. In six months, he was attacked by some homophobes, and then had his memories erased and was forced to kill a dragon, and then he was kidnapped and tortured by a fucking psycho. It still doesn't quite seem real.

"I had a rough few months," is what Davin says after a moment, shrugging a little and looking over at him. "But kinder days are upon me, I think."

He watches the shadow come across Davin's face and almost regrets asking. He sets down the brush and gets up, coming to lean against the rail beside Davin. He doesn't put his arm around him but he bumps his shoulder against Davin's.

"I'm sorry for your troubles, man."

"Aye, I'll be alright," Davin assures him, giving him a resilient smile and knocking his shoulder in return. "What doesn't kill ya makes ya stronger, right?"

He reaches up to brush his fingers idly against the faint, silvery scar at his temple. "I'm feelin' like that's gotta be true."

"Yeah, but it's better to have not gone through it at the start," he says, scratching his jaw. When Davin draws attention to the scar, Gabe leans in, looking at without touching. "What happened?"

Derek flinches slightly at the question, because he's never had to tell anyone what happened. He doesn't go anywhere, and everyone in town knows. It was all over the news.

"Uh, well. A bunch o' stuff," Davin says with a humorless laugh, brows furrowing as he looks down at his hands. There's a phantom ache in his fingers and he remembers what they looked like, all broken and purple. "But back in May me an' a friend were kidnapped."

It sounds so weird to say out loud, that he was kidnapped. It still doesn't really feel real. He shivers, remembering the chill of that warehouse, and instinctively presses himself closer to Gabe. "It was... rough. But we made it out."

Davin presses closer and, without thinking about it, Gabe lifts his arm and drops it around the younger man's shoulders. Things might have changed between them but not so much that he can't offer a little human comfort when it's needed.

"I'm sorry, man."

"It's okay," Davin says, smiling over at Gabe when his arms go around Davin's shoulders. It's comforting, and yeah, they have a bit of a history, but they're friends. At least, Davin thinks they are. "I'm pretty tough, y'know. Takes a lot t'keep me down."

"Good," says Gabe, letting him go, hands hanging between his thighs for a second. "What else has been going on? It can't be all bad."

"No, it isn't," Davin tells him, feeling a little awkward about having been so close only after Gabe pulls away. He shakes it off easily enough and pulls his tank out of his waistband once his skin starts to feel a little sensitive from the sun and pulls it over his head. "Uh, well. I got a whole new staff at the shop. A great group o' guys that I get along with, for the most part. So that's good."

He bites his lip, cheeks going slightly pink as he ducks his head to hide a smile. "An' I'm seein' someone. It's goin' pretty well, I think."

"A whole new staff, huh? That's got to be exciting," says Gabe. When Davin mentions seeing someone, he brightens, pleased for his friend -- which he supposes is a good and healthy indication that they were never meant to be. "Tell me more."

Gabe's reaction pleases Davin, and he gives him a big smile. He knows that it isn't always easy to be friends with someone you've hooked up with. Davin has a few acquaintances that he's friendly with when he sees them, but the only person he's really been able to develop a bond with has been Coop. And maybe now, Gabe.

"Yeah, James Thornton. Do ya know him?" Davin supposes that he would have at least heard of him, growing up in Siren Cove. "We've been together since February."

Gabe has been working on building bridges since he got back into town. Naked or not naked, he always had a good time with Davin and he doesn't see why that should change. His eyebrows raise at the name, though.

"We don't exactly move in the same social circles," he says. "But, yeah, I know the name."

"Neither did we," Davin says with a laugh, because that's for certain. "We met while he was workin' on a case, an' he was kind of an ass at first. Well, he's still kind of an sometimes, but he won me over."

Davin's tone is obviously fond, and he bites his bottom lip to keep from grinning as he looks over at Gabe with a shrug. "I wasn't expectin' it, but he asked me out. Goin' on six months now an' I haven't messed up yet, so that's good."

"Man, that's awesome," says Gabe, clapping a hand between Davin's shoulderblades. God only knows when he'll be ready to feel like something could last long term again, but he's so pleased for Davin. "I've been...seeing a lot of people."

Davin laughs at that, cutting Gabe a look and knocking their shoulders together. "I know how that goes. But I'm still the best ya ever had, right?"

He's teasing, and he gives Gabe a wink. "C'mon, it's okay. Ya can admit it."

Brigid didn't come down to the harbour often, but the day was so beautiful and she'd been feeling homesick lately, so she'd headed down to look at the boats and those working on them. She whispered to the wind as she did so, asking for fair winds to follow the sailors wherever they went just as she had so many times back home.

She heard the faint wounds of a song and headed that direction, smiling at the familiar face. "Ye look t'be makin fine progress there."

He looks up and it takes him a few minutes to remember her name but when it comes back, he smiles broadly.

"Brigid," he says, tipping her a lazy salute. "Havin' a good day?"

"Aye, I am," Brigid called back. "S'beautiful out t'day, innit? Too much so t'spend hours inside without th'fresh air and sting of th'salt air, ye know?" She giggled a little and shook her head. "Then again, as yer on a boat now, I don't have t'be tellin ye about how good salt air feels."

"Aye, I do know that," he says, a little of his Ma's accent creeping in when he talks to her. He gets up, wiping his hands on his jeans as he walks over to the gangplank.

"Want to come aboard for a while?" he asks, offering her his hand.

Brigid took his hand and stepped aboard. "Don't mind if I do. S'been a while and a bit since I was on a boat." She smiled at the familiar motion of the vessel beneath her feet. "Didn't realize til just now how much I missed it."

"I love her," he says, completely and utterly unembarrassed. "I always have, since I was a kid and my dad would take me out. New York's fine and all, but I don't know how much sister lasts in the city."

"This is as close t'any city I want t'be in. I spent a bit of time in Dublin and have no desire t'go back t'anythin like that. I reckon that'd be why I settled s'well here in Siren Cove. It's not that much different from m'home town. Fewer pubs and less fishin, and way more Yanks, but there's not much else different," she teased, laughing with it.

"Hey," he says, grinning. "Less of the Yank, alright? I take after my Ma, I swear."

He picks up the brush again, idly starting to paint as they chat. "Can I get you anything, sweetheart?"

"Thanks, no, I'm fine," Brigid smiled in return. "Did yer mum teach ye any Irish?" Brigid asked, curious because she'd only met one other who could speak their language away from Ireland itself.

He shakes his head and has the good grace to look ashamed of himself.

"She tried to, but almost none of it stuck, I'm afraid. I'm far from fluent. Gale's a lot better. She could probably hold a whole conversation."

Brigid can't help but laugh. "Not t'worry. Yer far from th'only one I've met has a tin ear fer Irish. 'Bout half m'village could speak it, and only half o'them with any fluency. Made fer interestin nights down the pub when that quarter started talkin and a few o'the more paranoid started thinkin they were bein talked about. Some o'th'fights were nothin short of epic."

She giggled even harder at the memory of a tangle of drunk Irish folk brawling each other just outside the pub.

"You should call in on my Ma," he says, shaking his head and then having to twist back hair that slips into his face. "That sounds exactly like one of her stories from home. Sure, you'd get on like a house on fire."

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OPEN - And every love will always bring me down to the sea

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