Six Word Stories

[snakesocks]

SIX WORD STORIES
Just like back in the LJ days.

• Write a story in six words.
  
• Based off the sixwordstories/smuttysixwordstories comms that were created based on this story from wired in which they asked authors of all genres to write six word stories.
  
• Each comment should be in it's entirety, exactly six words.
  
• Your comment can contain more than one story. Just number or letter them like tfln.

Comments

[corvidly]

Morgan anticipates a couple of things when he introduces someone to his familiar: confusion, alarm, even suspicion. Those first two are quite prevalent in Jimmy when he approaches him, but for a person he expects comes without any experience in the supernatural, it's no news to him.

Until Jimmy is stammering just a little more urgently than would be expected, and follows that up with 'it was in my head'. It's enough to give Morgan a significant pause, eyes narrowing inquisitively at the other man. "You mean you heard it communicating with me?"

It's the assumption, since it had no direct contact with Jimmy during the discussion. Jimmy has demonstrated that the strangest thing about him aside from the accidental time travel is his hands... But only those who have been touched by an agent of the otherworldly can hear the Raven. Morgan's brows are about to knit together in suspicion until he realizes that it must make perfect sense. Jimmy was touched, even in some inadvertent way, by some entity: whatever it was that sent him sixty years in the future.

And Morgan's face immediately spreads into calmly neutral. "Good, then I don't have t' get you caught up." He then eyes the mostly-rated hamburger in Jimmy's hands and can't resist a smile that leaks across his face.

"So, you're gonna have t' stick 'round me for your safety. For all I know, someone's got some weird hit on you, but more likely, you're just an innocent bystander that got caught up in somethin' you had no business in."

Morgan scratches at the back of his neck with dull fingertips, considering, even though the true solution is very clear to him. "Since you ain't got a place, you can crash on my couch 'til we get this shit sorted out. I can't promise how long that'll take, but if it really bums you out, I can throw a couple more'a those burgers into the offer." His smile is a little firmer, and even a bit warmer.

[jimmydarling]

Morgan looks almost as spooked about Jimmy hearing the bird as Jimmy feels about having heard it, which is unexpected. Jimmy's eyebrows lower and meet, unfiltered confusion on his face. "What, 'sit supposed to be private?" Did he accidentally eavesdrop? Jimmy's no psychic, though. He's pretty sure he'd have noticed by now if he had a gift. Did the raven want him to hear it, then?

But Morgan's going even further than just looking comfortable again - he's actually perking up a bit. Smiling at him. Jimmy feels at a loss, but unspeakably relieved to not feel like he has to play along and stay in the dark about it. He doesn't feel unwelcome even if he feels like an outsider, and that's appreciated. "Yeah, I heard it say to keep an eye on me. Makes me feel like a kid." Jimmy's lips part, then purse consideringly, and he can't help but ask, "How old is that thing, anyway? Is it a spirit?"

Morgan then levels him with the warmest expression he's had so far, and an offer that Jimmy can hardly believe. There's a flash of what should be rightful suspicion - there's a lot of bad reasons someone might want to invite a stranger to their house - but Morgan has done so much in the way of helping him already that Jimmy's more wondering at the fact that Morgan trusts him enough to invite him over. "You-- you want me. To stay in your home. For free." Jimmy's hands have found his hips, and his entire form is tilting forward, as if this new piece of information is the end of where his disbelief can be suspended to, and he's starting to crumble under the weight of all these impossibilities. Jimmy scoffs, but his face keeps tugging unevenly up into a baffled smile.

"Shit, man. Usually I'd be questioning it, if a normal person was askin' someone like me to follow 'em someplace alone, but I'm just..." Jimmy looks at the space between them, shrugging, clearly at a loss. He laughs, a scattered few syllables of not understanding what's happening. His mouth is still getting pulled up into an involuntary smile, made even wider with his surprise. He feels...oddly warm. People like Morgan don't do this for people like him.

Unless, because of his gifts, Morgan is part of people like him, just the kind that carry their weird inside instead of outside. "I'm-- touched. There's no other word for it." Jimmy's not one to waver from eye contact when it's due, but he looks a little uncomfortable with his own sincerity, like he thinks Morgan deserves to see it but he isn't sure the best way to express it. "'Course I'd love a place to stay. And someone who might know something about time travel lookin' out for me. I'll pay you back any way I can. I mean it."

[corvidly]

Yeah, Morgan gets how an offer like this might come across as suspicious under most circumstances... He's pretty sure he would think the same thing. Luckily it's not so questionable that Jimmy is inspired to turn Morgan down; he laughs softly and his head hangs loosely down off his neck, grinning at the pavement. "Look, promise I'm not up to some elaborate scheme to kidnap you. Which...is exactly what I would be saying if I were, I s'ppose, so that doesn't help any." Oops, maybe he shouldn't have said that...

But Jimmy seems on board, and while this is way more than what Morgan would have expected to bring home with him tonight, any potential anxiety that comes with last minute surprises such as housing a stranger is curbed by the knowledge that Morgan has just secured someone at least halfway important right now. This is Morgan's jurisdiction, so getting ahead of the curve on a supernatural mystery involving the delicate fabric of reality and fate is kind of a bonus. The movement begins with some hesitation, but when Morgan's hand claps onto Jimmy's shoulder, it's with a friendly confidence. "You don't need t' worry about stuff like that right now, we just gotta get you situated first. I'm offerin'."

It's not even a question with Morgan. His mother raised him with integrity, and he himself has had to live off of favors from others in a pinch. It's the ebb and flow of the universe, but Morgan isn't tallying what he owes. This comes completely naturally.

Morgan jerks his head in the direction of the street, and doesn't wait for Jimmy to start moving; the oracle turns and begins an all-too comfortable march up to the end of the block. "Don't worry 'bout this preternatural shit tonight. I'll start fillin' you in tomorrow. If we're unlucky -- and knowing Lady Luck, we will be -- then we'll have plenty of time to get you acquainted."