Wheelsy AU ~ Hollywood Nights

[noteasytobepink]

The airport was crowded an d bustling with tourists, the sunlight outside pooling through the plate glass windows like honey. Starla didn't mind the wait. Security meant she could meet him off the plane, but she could stake out the baggage claim where he was suppose to come out!

She was dressed simply in a blue sundress and sandals, nothing fancy, that was for late tonight at the premier. For now she was just a country girl waiting for a country boy and hoping he hadn't managed to get himself lost in the bowels of the airport.

Comments

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"Didn't know my linens were so popular. M'glad you like 'em."

Her tone and question made him look at her and frown.

Yep, time to pour again; he topped off what was left in the cup.

"I signed away thirty years of my life on a dream."

He took his shot, which was more two big gulps, and sneered as the whiskey burned.

"More like a delusion, but whatever."

[noteasytobepink]

"A home is never a delusion, Bill. I just...never realized how rooted people were." She knew about people, in houses, raising families and such but to sign for years?! That was just...

She'd never had a house.

Home was people in her mind.

And oh...yeah...she was throwing a stick through her portal. This one didn't open another portal, no, this one impacted Bill's whiskey bottle and made the whole thing shimmer pink before disappearing. Target porting was fun?

"Anyway, back to your linens. Who made the quilt on my bed? It's awesome!"

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"Not he house, I meant-- " he frowned and shook his head. "Never mind. But it ain't like I got a bad deal. Thirty years is pretty standard, I'd have more paid on it, but I was busy payin' off my mom's house, first."

He heard the 'tink' when her stick hit his bottle, and yanked his hand back before the whiskey disappeared.

"Hey!"

[noteasytobepink]

"You were speeding up again," she answered blandly to his 'Hey!'. He'd find the bottle, safe and sound, in the drawer of the hotel dresser but that involved looking now didn't it?

"I don't get the house thing. Shouldn't you make enough as sheriff of a whole town to not have to do things for thirty years? I...money is weird."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

He shot a glare at her, but it didn't last long. Pulling his beer close, he nursed that instead.

"I'm a sheriff of a small town. Cops don't get paid as much as people assume in the first place, small town doesn't compare to city pay."

Usually. Some small towns did better than some large cities, but that was dependent on who was living there. The farmers and hicks who made up most of Wheelsy didn't have the per capita to afford an expensive force.

"Not that I'm doin' bad. I live comfortably; spent a lot of time doin' the opposite, so I can say I'm happy with what I'm gettin'."

Looking at her, he tilted his head.

"Why? What's a house cost where you're from?"

[noteasytobepink]

Beer was just a touch weaker than the whiskey so she was going to let that slide for now. Yep. As long as he wasn't chugging it like a frat boy anyway.

"That's idiotic. Protectors should be maintained, not devalued. Yes, it's a service, but a necessary one." She'd...always had some illusions about real crime fighters (as opposed to vigilantes) in real worlds. They were so very important. Why didn't people see that?

"Huh? Oh. The power to hold it or the willingness to kowtow to the strong ones willing to grant it. Needless to say the rebellion moved around a lot."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

He lifted his hand in a 'what can you do?' gesture.

"S'just the way it is."

Hearing how her world handled housing, he shook his head.

"You come from a pretty fucked up place, y'know that?"

[noteasytobepink]

"Yes, you tell me all the time," she deadpanned. Because, well, really. She knew okay? "It was run by a self styled god, it couldn't help being fucked up. I seem to have turned out okay though so I try not to knock it too hard."

Besides..."In most worlds it's not unusual for people to have some form of fealty going on with their houses. Someone owns land and allows others to live there under certain conditions right? That's just a mild version of what my world was like."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"Yeah, well I'd take a thirty year mortgage over all of that."

He definitely got the better deal.

[noteasytobepink]

"Sure sure, rub in it." She stuck her tongue out at him. "I never convince anyone to come to my old reality. I suck as a tour agent." And how!

"What happens if you want to move?"

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

He wrinkled his nose at her in return.

"Person would have t'be pretty crazy to. But y'got other worlds t'visit, right?"

Maybe one of those wouldn't be so bad.

Tilting his head at her, he gave her a genuinely confused look.

"Why would I want to?"

[noteasytobepink]

"Because a lot changes in thirty years? You're not the same person now as you were yesterday, much less waaay back when you bought the house. It might happen you know?" She shrugged.

"And I get to visit other worlds, true, but I don't get to stay, and my powers don't work to hop me between dimensions without the Tallus."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

He thought about that and gave a slight shrug.

"I dunno... I guess I could sell it."

It's not something he's ever considered doing.

"Does it make me sad that I've never even seriously considered leavin' my small town?"

[noteasytobepink]

"You can sell things you've contracted years to?" NEW BY HER! Just how did one do that? Someone else stepped in to offer years instead?

"No Bill, it doesn't. It means you love your home and prefer to limit your concerns of the world to one area. That isn't sad, but it is uncommon."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

He studied her a moment, and realized maybe he wasn't explaining things right.

"Y'know I don't mean actual years, right? 30 years is just how long I've got t'make payments t'pay off the loan I got. In uh, money."

Maybe that would make more sense.

"I'm startin' to find out there's a lot I do that isn't usual."

Staying when everyone else thought it better to go, working a job that probably doesn't pay him as much as he deserved, loving a woman who never once had feelings for him.

"I reckon that's part of what the doc was referrin' to when he said it ain't really a surprise I'm still single." Or a surprise that made sense, same difference.

[noteasytobepink]

"...no, I didn't." Years made as much sense as money really! "So, you got someone to lend you money, and they give you thirty years to pay them back? That's generous." Maybe, who knew?

"Do they break your knees if you don't pay?" She was familiar with far less savory sorts of money lenders.

"And you're just an unusual guy, Bill. That's not a bad thing really. I prefer unusual to the rank and file...and the rank and file don't tend to be any happier anyway." She grinned at him then, chuckling. "I think the doc meant you're bad at noticing when girls like you."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"Yeah, the bank gave me a loan. An' they're not all that generous, they make plenty on interest." Which is quite a bit over thirty years.

"They did give me a decent interest rate, though, since I'm a cop." Which should some people at least appreciated a man in uniform.

"If I don't pay I lose my house. Get booted out on the street an' push around a shoppin' cart, talk t'buildings, whatever else homeless folks do."

He can joke about it now, but growing up it was a real fear.

"Unusual guy, huh? Well, at least I know there's one person out there who don't mind the way I am." He gave her a faint smile, and shook his head about the doc.

"I'm sure the doc meant a lot of things. Man knows more'n I give him credit for, I guess."

[noteasytobepink]

"Ah, so it's a gouging kind of loan then?" She could see that. It was kinda evil really, ergo, right up her alley in that 'must fight it' kind of way. "And we could get a tent in the woods if you lost the house." Because she would still be his roommate right? AS long as she was in his reality.

"And no, I don't mind. I think you're awesome, Bill." She stuck her tongue out at him then laughed. "As for Doc, well, he is a doctor. That makes him inherently smarter than all of us."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"We could, but I don't plan on it. I like ownin' my own place, havin' my name on the mailbox an' all. I aim t'keep it."

His 'we' was a yes to them still being roommates.

"I'm sure it does, an' he knows it, but you won't ever hear me admit it when he's around."

[noteasytobepink]

"That's fair, I know people don't like to give up their things." Clarice chuckled, amused at the idea of trying to get Bill to part with his house. "I will be extra, extra careful when cooking so nothing catches on fire."

Bets she could do!

"Awww, but what if he'd stop teasing you if you just fessed up?"

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"I appreciate it." He really did. Having his house burn to the ground isn't something he'd like to see happen.

"He might stop the teasin', but then I'd have t'put up with how smug he'll be instead."

Teasing was probably the lesser of two evils.

[noteasytobepink]

"He teases because he cares, Bill." Clarice had to point it out really! "He worries about you young single boys...and he warned me to take cover when your ma finds out I"m living with you."

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

He snorted half a laugh.

"Yeah, that'll be fun."

He planned on taking cover, too.

"It won't really be that bad, once I explain it to her."

[noteasytobepink]

"Frankly I'm a little worried about that. You haven't told her right?" Else Clarice would have heard of it by now! "Which means the gossips probably will tell her soon. Should I sleep at the station for a while...she could ambush us!"

[no_andy_taylor.insanejournal.com]

"Geez, you're makin' it sound like we're doin' somethin' or somethin'," He said. "It ain't a big deal."

The way she was talking about it did make him a bit nervous, though.

"If there's one thing about my mom, it's that she don't listen to the gossips. She'll give me a chance t'explain before she goes crazy or somethin'."