A Fine Dose of Existential Crises // OxO // closed

Keke stood, slightly fazed by the whole situation, eyes practically searching the crowd themselves for any sign of the man Ev was talking to. So many people went up to her afterward, it could really be anyone. And that just made him more anxious, as he became more and more awake with more and more alcohol in his system. He wasn’t drunk, but a few of those glasses left him slightly looser than before.
“Ev…?” he said softly, holding his helmet close to his chest as she walked for the door. Her words grazed right over him, his mind clearly elsewhere. But he snapped out of it, and before she could reply, he continued, “Ah— never mind. American Horror Story it is!”
Menek waved a last goodbye to the bartender, jogging to meet Evelyn outside the door.

_{(my mans was getting there lmao)}

“Totally not deal, but I’ll let you believe you won this conversation,” he said teasingly, shaking her hand while he tugged on his own helmet. With that, he hopped on the bike, leaning up against Ev’s back exasperatedly.
“And I’m tired, too. Even though it’s, like, morning for me,” he muttered. “How late are you staying up tonight? It’s my week for dishes so I was wondering how loud I can be. But if you’re too tuckered from being absolutely badass on stage, I can save it for tomorrow.”

Menek strode into the apartment groggily, taking his helmet off and setting it on the counter. While Ev showered, he changed into a super baggy t-shirt of what looked to be from sometime in the 70’s, and a pair of sweats. If Ev was comfy, he decided he would be, too.
He sat on one of the kitchen stools when she walked back out, then migrated beside her when she began microwaving the tea.
“Every time you call me Shadow I just keep thinking of Sonic,” he mumbled, voice barely audible as he kicked his feet back and forth. He paused for a moment, voice broken by a short laugh. “—But that’s not what’s on my mind. I was just thinking, well, I guess it’s out of curiosity, but… who were you talking to? At the show tonight?”
He flicked his eyes over to watch her, unable to meet her gaze. “I mean, I didn’t know you’ve been talking to another guy since that last asshat. Who… Who’s the lucky man that you’ll supposedly never date?”

It took Menek much too long to run that through his head, and even so, he did it a couple times. He could nearly see his heart causing his chest to twitch as it pounded, and he stayed as still as he could. Which was, to say, insanely still.
“I— Y— Wh—,” he began, but every word was cut off by a loss of what to say. It took him a good few moments to finally get his thoughts in order enough to give out an actual reply.
“Okay, so I know you. I know you play weird jokes. But I know this would not be one of them because I feel like you care about me too much to break my heart,” he replied— and this time, he was able to meet her eyes. “But on the flip side, if you are telling the truth, I’m so goddamn mad because I’m also in love with this one girl I’ve known forever. Who is currently wearing a very familiar sweatshirt. And unless she wants to kill me good when she goes out, or stay with an absolute hobo for eternity, nothing can happen.”

Menek, mind clearly running just too slow, stayed standing there— utterly stunned. Every single voice was screaming inside his head. Every single person he had ever loved and yet lost, but Ev’s words seemed to shatter each one.
Even so, he couldn’t say he hated the way she was so casual. It left only one part of this awkward— aka, Menek himself. And even though his heart was beating like a malfunctioning jackhammer, and he felt so much colder than normal, he walked over and sat right down next to her.
“I do so not understand,” he replied, raising an eyebrow as he looked over to Ev. “You’re actually insane. I’m not turning you into a vampire. You’re not killing me. What’s the deal with this? I scream at you almost every day about how much this life sucks and I can’t love someone…. but good god I want to, and we’re both idiots.”

Menek was about to hold up a finger, but quieted when she continued talking. The way his heart made his shirt twitch with each beat kept him sort of tethered within his own jail of a mind, always internally questioning the what if..’s and but this..’s.
But something about the song lyrics kept pushing back out of the bars. Something about the way she talked so sure of herself and matter-of-factly. It made him want so bad to be impulsive and to just live in the moment, not worry about anything in the long run.
So he simply nodded, unable to hide the bright red tint to his face. “Okay, all good points, all good points. I mean, I didn’t need convincing on that part, really. I’ll … I’ll take it.”
He sighed, smile creeping slowly onto his face as he shook his head.
“You’re such a stupid charmer and I loathe it,” he said, voice seeped in sarcasm. “So… what does this mean? I’ve never really done this whole ‘together’ thing.”

“Alright, sounds doable,” he replied, getting situated with his head resting on her shoulder. He looked almost like a puppy, just trying his best to curl up next to her.
“I never understand how warm you are,” he mumbled, voice muffled by his own shirt. “But now that the invitation’s open, I am absolutely going to leech off of you for warmth. Not that I didn’t do that before but now I know it’s more on the table. In that case, thank you kindly.”

“You kidding?” Menek muttered, letting out a faint laugh as he tucked his other hand into a fold of the blanket. “A metal grate in a snowstorm has a higher temperature than me. Honestly, you feel like an oven at any given time.”
His eyes flickered back up to the TV, but it was clear his true attention was elsewhere. His own heart beat fast normally, to the point where he could feel it, and he always knew human hearts were different. Even so, now that he could feel Ev’s heart following suit, it was somewhat comforting to see the symmetry. He was never alone in his existential struggle, and Ev just solidified that fact.

_{((Dude same— the banter is phenomenal))}

Even though the night was cold, with the late winter breeze blowing shamelessly through a cracked-open window, Menek was as content as ever. Even with his shirt tossed off to the side, the pale light from the TV making him look about as tan as a piece of paper.
His skin wasn’t like that of a human. It not only looked different but felt that way, too. It wasn’t cold like ice was cold— it was cold like a wall in an abandoned house. And, while he joked about himself feeling like a corpse, it was far from that. It was almost like someone had put him in the fridge for just a little too long. Honestly, that was the best Menek could describe it.
So he spent generally the most amount of time worrying about it he was comfortable enough, but every time Ev kissed him it felt like nothing could ever be wrong with the world. He had never understood when people described that in movies, but for now, it felt oddly real.
And then, his attention was snagged on her little morse-code-like tapping. After a few moments of memorization, he moved his free hand to tap on her side, trying his best to follow the beat she set up. Because, why not?

_{(that’s totally cheese but i’m here for it)}

“My.. heartbeat?” he asked, head tilting slightly to the side. His voice was softer than normal— quieter, for sure, but with a rasp of contentedness he very rarely had.
Menek was one of those people that, if he focused, he could actually feel and/or see his heart causing his chest to twitch. And, although it had calmed down from that previous hammering, he could still tell.
Although, perhaps that was just his mind being all sappy, and the fact that he thought that was romantic. After all, Evelyn was a musician, so tapping to his heart like a bpm was adorable in his eyes.

“You’re such a cheese ball,” he said, unable to keep from smiling. It was calmer though, quite the equanimous grin that suited his melodic voice well. As Ev talked, he could feel her words reverberating throughout her chest, and it brought that odd sense of comfort.
“Also, hell yeah. I’ve seen a sunrise once before,” he continued, laughing softly. “Like… a few hundred years ago. I had scars for days. But who cares? Might as well try it again.”

“Why, thank you,” he said, feeling goosebumps along the lengths of his back as she nuzzled into his neck. “That’s truly appreciated. And I would totally make you coffee but I know you hate it. Which is kinda lame, ‘cuz coffee is half of what keeps me sane. You’re the other half.”
Menek wrapped his arms around her again, still having that relatively dopey grin across his face. It took a lot to get him to a point like this— all soft words and goofy smiles— but Evelyn seemed to have no trouble with it.
“But hey, if you wanna sleep, go ahead. I can carry you to the roof and die while you’re unconscious,” he continued, squinting at his words as he heard them out of context.

“I hate energy drinks, so I guess we’re even,” he replied, wrinkling his nose. “Bang is like drinking straight creatine infused with caffeine.”
He bobbed his head lightly, soon having his cheek rest atop Ev’s head. “But okay, okay, I’ll wake you up. And you’re staying on this couch if you fall asleep. I’d carry you to your bed but there’s no way I could watch AHS by myself again. Just ‘cuz I am a stereotypical monster doesn’t mean I’m not scared of other ones.”

“You’re high if you think I can sleep right now,” he cooed quietly. “It’s like… noon for me. And I can never take naps, you know that. Or else I can’t chill with you in the daytime. But— alright. If you insist.”
He very carefully reached for the remote, watching as the TV flickered off and all light that was left was the moon through the window. Keke wrapped Ev up in all the blankets, trying his best to walk steadily to her room and set her cautiously on her bed.
He shuffled to his own room for just a moment, picking up his favorite book he had been reading for the fourth time, and heading back over to crawl onto Ev’s bed with her. Luckily, he could read pretty well in the dark, so he just laid there, reading, enjoying the company.

“Eeeeeeeeeeevvvv,” Menek hummed, glancing from the clock back to the sleeping lump of blankets. “Hey, Sunny. Time to go get burnt to a crisp, wanna join?”
He set his book down on the bedside table, smiling sweetly to himself as his eyes danced over Ev’s face. He held up a hand tentatively, resting it on her shoulder and rocking her lightly. “Wake up. You promised me a sunrise, you gorgeous dipshit.”
He could see his heart making his chest do those little twitches again, as he felt the urge to give her one of those little kisses she always gave him. Instead he thought better of it, slipping off the bed to go grab his shirt from the couch again. He walked back in, glancing up to her speaker system.
“Heeey,” he sang, tugging his shirt back on. “If you don’t wake up, I’m blasting you outta bed with your own punk playlist.~”