caught the fire but the body escaped {casper}

[PERRY BUCHANON]

Perry returned to Winchester as quietly as he had left, telling no one, stopping by his dorm only long enough to drop his duffel bag onto his stripped plastic covered mattress before he slipped back out again. He had absolutely no desire to talk to anyone at the moment, and he certainly didn't have the patience to deal with all the pity and insincerity that most of the people he knew around campus would exhibit at his reappearance. He'd already heard it all anyway:
"You're really so brave..."
"Congratulations on the sobriety, man, that's totally rad that you were able to do that..."
"I heard what happened, I can't even imagine..."

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was all petty bullshit from petty mouths on the faces of petty people - Perry didn't feel like dealing with it yet. He'd make his appearance in class tomorrow and leer and make snide unpleasant remarks in response to everyone's fake concern and he'd make damn sure that people understood he was still a crazy fucking bastard even if he was clean... for the most part.

He'd kicked the heroin addiction, anyway, spending nights of agony screaming in a white-walled ward, clawing at his bedsheets, spitting up vomit, hallucinating through fierce gripping seizures as doctors and nurses pumped his veins full of one medication or another to try and help with the withdrawal symptoms. The first week was the worst; he didn't really get sick anymore, or wake up screaming or rip up his forearms with his nails. The cravings remained, so he smoked weed and cigarettes and since he'd been checked out of the inpatient program upstate he'd even started slipping back into his old habits of fucking and fighting to help fill the gaping hole that the heroine addiction had left behind.

He strolled lazily through the park, eventually taking a seat on a vacant bench and lighting himself a cigarette. He looked world's better than he had when he'd disappeared seemingly off the face of the planet a few months before; his skin had regained its healthy luster, he'd gained weight - filled out his previously skeletal frame and it felt good to be strong again, to feel power and heft over his bones - and his eyes were bright, focused, grounded. He wasn't a new man, but hell if he wasn't improved - he looked good, handsome even like he used to before the drug had sucked him dry.

He sprawled out on the bench lying on his back, his favorite pair of dark tinted aviator's shielding his eyes from the brightness of the morning and for the moment banished all worries and cravings from his mind to simply bask in the sun. He'd worry about appearances later, if at all.

[CASPER GRESHAM]

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Casper sat alone in his dorm room. He had no idea where Henry had gone, the boy tended to vanish a lot and Casper had grown used to it. He wasn't worried. In fact he was sat cross-legged on his bed, bible in his lap, enjoying a cup of hot juice to wake him up. He had spent the last hour in silence, just reading and praying. It had been wonderful and completely relaxing. Casper had found himself in the frame of mind that he could move mountains.

Suddenly he concentration was broken by the thundering feet down the corridor of the dorms. He looked up and sighed, uncrossing his legs and sliding off his bed, blinking at the sunlight that was pouring in his window. It seemed a shame to stay in side on such a lovely day. Biting his lip he pulled a bag out from under his bed and stuffed a jumper, some money and his ipod in it. He would go for a walk in the park. Get some fresh air.

As he was leaving his dorm room his spotted the packet of cigarettes Perry had given him on the top of his dresser. He reach for them, taking a few moments to deliberate whether it was a good idea to even be touching them. Be he figured if he spotted Perry he could just return them like he had never seen them. It wasn't like he had smoked any of them, they were still all in the same place. Without another glance he shoved them into his bag, walking out of his dorm with a sun hat perched on his head.

Part of him hoped he would bump into someone he knew, just so he could spend less time on his own. But he wasn't going to hold his breath. On a day like this he expected everyone to have already gone out. Heading over to the park he tucked his thumbs around the straps of his backpack and scuffed his feet along the gravely path. He would just settle himself down on a bench and sunbathe, or something equally as entertaining.

It was then he spotted someone laying on the bench he didn't expect to see. But he couldn't help feeling completely relieved to see Perry out in the sunshine. He looked good. Looked well. Alive. Casper smiled slightly to himself and pushed his glasses a little way up his nose. He wasn't sure if he should even be seen in public with Perry - the other seemed to have a reputation to keep up, but Casper pushed that thought to the back of his mind and went over anyway. If only to return the cigarettes he had kept safe.

Hey, mind if I sit down? he asked, not bothering to wait for an answer as he moved Perry's legs out of the way. Sitting down on the bench he moved the other's legs onto his own lap so Perry wasn't too burdened by Casper's arrival. He looked over at the other and grinned, reaching into his bag and pulling out the packet of cigarettes. Waving them in front of Perry for a moment he threw them back and shook his head, Figured you might be missing these, he chuckled, leaning back on the bench and tilting his head back, soaking up the sun.

How are you feeling? he asked, genuinely concerned for Perry's health. Though he was surprised to hear the words coming out of his own mouth.

TAGGED: pez
OUTFIT: here
NOTES: lolidek

[PERRY BUCHANON]

Perry was in a dreamy state of semi-consciousness by the time Casper found him; his eyes were closed, his cigarette a crooked precarious pillar of ash twitching out of the corner of his mouth, his hands cradling the back of his head. He grunted in sleepy surprise at the interruption, feeling a sharp sudden wave of irritation that he'd been bothered even after he'd left campus to avoid having to see anyone.

He spat his dying cigarette out to the side dismissively, propping himself up on his elbows and eying the bright eyed freshman cradling his feet in his lap. He scoffed lightly, catching the pack of cigarettes and withdrawing one to light with a few impatient flicks of his lighter. "Oh," he said boredly, muttering around the cig and dropping his head back down onto the bench. "It's you."

He rolled his eyes; Casper, like most everybody Perry knew, was predictable in his kindness. "Feeling dandy, how bout you," he drawled, crossing his feet in the other boy's lap at the ankle and taking a long drag from his cigarette. "Shouldn't you be at church or something praying for my immortal soul?" he added, upper lip curling slightly.