[V-Day] And What About the Man on the Moon?
0
Jericho Antares
FAKKU Writer
Typewith.me's un-reliability has been too obvious, so I'm going to post this back here for the sake of easy access.
[spoil]'I'll stay here. I'll be that man on the moon. I can just look down at you until I'm nothing more than moon dust.'
A red line ran through more blue ink than Derek Teraanis cared to think about. The whole notebook in his lap had maybe eight thousand words of possible material, and this was the most productive use of the 180 back-to-back page notebooks that formed a small stack next to his chair.
"Ah, more literary PMS?" The dry tone of the voice behind Derek made his train of though derail and soured his mood instantly.
"Seems like it's well-timed though. We're synced up." He replied with an equally sarcastic tone, receiving a punch to his shoulder in response. "Yup."
Slender hips clad in loose grey sweat pants entered his view, and he looked up to the perpetually frightening smile of Kai Daerden. The harsh shadow of of the bob haircut on her face only added to the uniquely unnerving sight.
"What will get me out of this hole I've dug myself?" He asked after a second's pause.
"Dinner. A sit-down dinner." She clarified her demands with a raised eyebrow.
"I can't afford to tonight. At this rate I won't make the deadline."
Kai stamped her foot down in frustration. "You promised! You promised two weeks ago!"
"Well two weeks ago I wasn't in this rut. Shit happens." Derek tried to explain calmly. He tried to impress his regret with the statement, but he doubted he did. He never could express himself with words; and irony he acknowledged all too often.
"Do you know what day it is? No, rather, do you know what month it is?"
Derek's mouth hung open for a minute before he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and accessed his calendar.
"It's obviously February, and we're obviously going out because I'm not as forgetful as you like to think I am...obviously.
"Obviously." Kai muttered with a smile as she turned and strode from the cramped room Derek called a study. The peeling laminate floors stuck to her feet while she went down the apartment's single long hallway and into her bedroom, where she fell down onto her queen-sized tempur-pedic bed and drifted off to sleep."
"Fuck. Who will take reservations at three o'clock in the morning?" Derek mused to himself, letting the notebook slide from his lap.
"This is Denny's."
"This is Perkin's."
"This is upper class Denny's. Just because it's five dollars for a stack of pancakes doesn't mean it's fancy."
"Nope. The orange marmalade means it's fancy. See?" Derek took a bottle of marmalade from the table and spread it on his toast. Kai, who had on her usual subtle hints of make-up and sported a cocktail dress, was not as amused as he was with the delicious citrus concoction that infinitely improved his toast.
"I wish you'd take more things seriously than your goddamned writing." She spat with narrowed eyes. The small smirk that Derek had disappeared, his face blank.
"Come on, Kai."
"What?! You ditched out on your family's thanksgiving and my family's Christmas. Your parents have seen me more often than they've seen you. All that and now on Valentine's Day you pull this. It's always the notebooks, Derek. Everything else you play off."
"Alright, Kai. You wanna play hardball, I'll play. Tell me how many hours you've worked in the last month." Derek leaned forward, rolling up his blue dress shirt's sleeves. "Tell me how much you've spent in the last month."
The fire in Kai's eyes dissipated before his low, stern tone, and for the first time since they had this discussion last year she looked away from him.
"You know what I mean."
"And you know what I mean. I bust my ass and I give up the big things because I want to be able to have the liberty to enjoy the little things with you. Thanksgiving and Christmas and all that crap are worth missing as long as I can show something for it. Those notebooks are what I have to show for it, Kai. Now I don't care if you can't find a job, and I don't care if you get what you want when you want it, but I do care that after two years you're starting to doubt what I'm doing. I care a shitload that every time I fail to rise to conventional expectations we argue like we're about to break up. I hate it, Kai, I really do."
"This is the first time I've talked to you outside of your study in a week." Kai protested weakly, her full gusto starting to rebuild. Derek reached across the table and took hold of her hands.
"This thing I'm working on is big. It's really big. It's also due in a month, so I need to ask for your help on this. I need you to not only put up with me, but love me just as much as you did when you first moved in. Because come late March I'm all free, and we can enjoy ourselves. We can go to both or parents' houses and stay the weekend if you want. Just put up with this—with me for one more month."
"One month?"
"Thirty-two days, to be precise."
Derek felt Kai's hands squeeze his own and he sighed, the mental exhaustion setting in.
"Thank you so much." He bowed his head, his forehead brushing against the orange marmalade toast. "Oh, shit." He quickly grabbed the linen napkin next to him and wiped off the gelatinous substance. Across the table Kai's lips turned up in a beautiful smile. A smile he hadn't seen in too long. "Now that is a great start."
[i]"I've got to do this, Ilya. We've got to suffer a bit so we can enjoy the little things in life again. It'll hurt for a while, but just remember that you can look up and see me every night, because I'll be looking down at you." Jeremy said with a sober smile, a gesture she didn't return. "I'll see you in a few years." He stood, crossed the room, kissed her, and left the dimly-lit room--and the woman that he loved--in silence.[/]i
So he has to go and monitor a mining operation on the moon?" Kai asked Derek as she flipped through a hardbound copy of "The Man on the Moon" while sitting on his lap.
"Yeah, and this was the part I couldn't get right last month."
"It looks a little familiar." She noted with a slight nudge to Derek's ribs.
"That can stay between us."
"I hope so." Kai leafed through the remainder of the book with a long sigh. "So what happened to the man on the moon?"
"Not a damned thing. Ilya changes. He's the focus of the story and he doesn't change one bit. He comes back, and the world left him behind. That's the story."
"Not my thing, sorry." She chided him, then slid off his lap, fresh soil cushioning her bare feet. The sun was perched low on the horizon and the cool breezes of early autumn licked at her as she stood at the crest of the grassy hilltop. Derek watched her silhouette against the sun—along with the occasional sparkle of the band on her ring finger—with a smile.
We have to suffer a bit, so we can enjoy the smaller things again.
The nature he loved, the woman he'd fight for, and an image that let him die happy. In the back of his mind he pitied Jeremy's luck. Unlike the unfortunate astronaut, when Derek came back down from the moon, he got to enjoy the very things he left for, the things he loved.
Derek Teraanis loved the small things. But he loved Kai Teraanis even more.[spoil]
[spoil]'I'll stay here. I'll be that man on the moon. I can just look down at you until I'm nothing more than moon dust.'
A red line ran through more blue ink than Derek Teraanis cared to think about. The whole notebook in his lap had maybe eight thousand words of possible material, and this was the most productive use of the 180 back-to-back page notebooks that formed a small stack next to his chair.
"Ah, more literary PMS?" The dry tone of the voice behind Derek made his train of though derail and soured his mood instantly.
"Seems like it's well-timed though. We're synced up." He replied with an equally sarcastic tone, receiving a punch to his shoulder in response. "Yup."
Slender hips clad in loose grey sweat pants entered his view, and he looked up to the perpetually frightening smile of Kai Daerden. The harsh shadow of of the bob haircut on her face only added to the uniquely unnerving sight.
"What will get me out of this hole I've dug myself?" He asked after a second's pause.
"Dinner. A sit-down dinner." She clarified her demands with a raised eyebrow.
"I can't afford to tonight. At this rate I won't make the deadline."
Kai stamped her foot down in frustration. "You promised! You promised two weeks ago!"
"Well two weeks ago I wasn't in this rut. Shit happens." Derek tried to explain calmly. He tried to impress his regret with the statement, but he doubted he did. He never could express himself with words; and irony he acknowledged all too often.
"Do you know what day it is? No, rather, do you know what month it is?"
Derek's mouth hung open for a minute before he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and accessed his calendar.
"It's obviously February, and we're obviously going out because I'm not as forgetful as you like to think I am...obviously.
"Obviously." Kai muttered with a smile as she turned and strode from the cramped room Derek called a study. The peeling laminate floors stuck to her feet while she went down the apartment's single long hallway and into her bedroom, where she fell down onto her queen-sized tempur-pedic bed and drifted off to sleep."
"Fuck. Who will take reservations at three o'clock in the morning?" Derek mused to himself, letting the notebook slide from his lap.
"This is Denny's."
"This is Perkin's."
"This is upper class Denny's. Just because it's five dollars for a stack of pancakes doesn't mean it's fancy."
"Nope. The orange marmalade means it's fancy. See?" Derek took a bottle of marmalade from the table and spread it on his toast. Kai, who had on her usual subtle hints of make-up and sported a cocktail dress, was not as amused as he was with the delicious citrus concoction that infinitely improved his toast.
"I wish you'd take more things seriously than your goddamned writing." She spat with narrowed eyes. The small smirk that Derek had disappeared, his face blank.
"Come on, Kai."
"What?! You ditched out on your family's thanksgiving and my family's Christmas. Your parents have seen me more often than they've seen you. All that and now on Valentine's Day you pull this. It's always the notebooks, Derek. Everything else you play off."
"Alright, Kai. You wanna play hardball, I'll play. Tell me how many hours you've worked in the last month." Derek leaned forward, rolling up his blue dress shirt's sleeves. "Tell me how much you've spent in the last month."
The fire in Kai's eyes dissipated before his low, stern tone, and for the first time since they had this discussion last year she looked away from him.
"You know what I mean."
"And you know what I mean. I bust my ass and I give up the big things because I want to be able to have the liberty to enjoy the little things with you. Thanksgiving and Christmas and all that crap are worth missing as long as I can show something for it. Those notebooks are what I have to show for it, Kai. Now I don't care if you can't find a job, and I don't care if you get what you want when you want it, but I do care that after two years you're starting to doubt what I'm doing. I care a shitload that every time I fail to rise to conventional expectations we argue like we're about to break up. I hate it, Kai, I really do."
"This is the first time I've talked to you outside of your study in a week." Kai protested weakly, her full gusto starting to rebuild. Derek reached across the table and took hold of her hands.
"This thing I'm working on is big. It's really big. It's also due in a month, so I need to ask for your help on this. I need you to not only put up with me, but love me just as much as you did when you first moved in. Because come late March I'm all free, and we can enjoy ourselves. We can go to both or parents' houses and stay the weekend if you want. Just put up with this—with me for one more month."
"One month?"
"Thirty-two days, to be precise."
Derek felt Kai's hands squeeze his own and he sighed, the mental exhaustion setting in.
"Thank you so much." He bowed his head, his forehead brushing against the orange marmalade toast. "Oh, shit." He quickly grabbed the linen napkin next to him and wiped off the gelatinous substance. Across the table Kai's lips turned up in a beautiful smile. A smile he hadn't seen in too long. "Now that is a great start."
[i]"I've got to do this, Ilya. We've got to suffer a bit so we can enjoy the little things in life again. It'll hurt for a while, but just remember that you can look up and see me every night, because I'll be looking down at you." Jeremy said with a sober smile, a gesture she didn't return. "I'll see you in a few years." He stood, crossed the room, kissed her, and left the dimly-lit room--and the woman that he loved--in silence.[/]i
So he has to go and monitor a mining operation on the moon?" Kai asked Derek as she flipped through a hardbound copy of "The Man on the Moon" while sitting on his lap.
"Yeah, and this was the part I couldn't get right last month."
"It looks a little familiar." She noted with a slight nudge to Derek's ribs.
"That can stay between us."
"I hope so." Kai leafed through the remainder of the book with a long sigh. "So what happened to the man on the moon?"
"Not a damned thing. Ilya changes. He's the focus of the story and he doesn't change one bit. He comes back, and the world left him behind. That's the story."
"Not my thing, sorry." She chided him, then slid off his lap, fresh soil cushioning her bare feet. The sun was perched low on the horizon and the cool breezes of early autumn licked at her as she stood at the crest of the grassy hilltop. Derek watched her silhouette against the sun—along with the occasional sparkle of the band on her ring finger—with a smile.
We have to suffer a bit, so we can enjoy the smaller things again.
The nature he loved, the woman he'd fight for, and an image that let him die happy. In the back of his mind he pitied Jeremy's luck. Unlike the unfortunate astronaut, when Derek came back down from the moon, he got to enjoy the very things he left for, the things he loved.
Derek Teraanis loved the small things. But he loved Kai Teraanis even more.[spoil]