Title: Orange Crush in Glass Bottles
Rating: M
Summary: Lucas and Warren first met each other in college when they were assigned as roommates. They became best friends quickly. After graduating they went their separate ways but years later when Lucas shows up on Warren's doorstep, things change fast.
Warnings: LuciWar; Warcifer; Lucifer/War; some Samifer; slash; language; Mature Situations involving sex, alcohol, and the indirect use of drugs
Notes: AU!Domestic Fic; I changed the characters' names because it's a non-Supernatural-Apocalypse verse
o-o-o-o-o
~Ten Years Prior to the Present…
When Lucas Shurley finally stumbled up to the door of his dorm room, he was so far gone that he was afraid he would never be able to come back. The party he had been at could only be described as out of control. Too much alcohol, too many drugs, too many people fucking each other, just too much of everything. He was honestly surprised that no one had died, at least while he had been there. The party was still going strong when he finally tore himself away and slowly made his way home. It had been one of those parties that got started by a few people and then they invited people who invited more people and so on and so forth. He had been one of the first invited but he hadn't asked very many people to come. He wasn't a fan of friends for the most part.
He managed to get the door open and get inside without too much trouble. When the light clicked on, however, throwing brightness into his swollen eyeballs, he reeled back, a hand going to his sweaty forehead.
"Jesus…" He cursed, barely cracking one eye open. Leaning against the hallway wall with his arms crossed over his chest was his roommate and best friend, Warren Foresman, dressed in a black tank top and red lounge pants.
"Did you have a good time?" Warren asked with false enthusiasm, a smile slapped on his face. There was no sympathy in his water blue eyes. Lucas glared at him for a moment before rubbing his eyes. His head was pounding and his stomach felt like it was full of bubbles. He had asked Warren to come with him earlier but Warren had shrugged him off, saying he didn't feel like it. Lucas knew it was because Warren didn't like it when he got wasted because then he got stuck dragging Lucas home.
"As a matter of fact I did." Lucas's voice sounded like he had been gargling gravel, a side effect from all the singing and screaming he had been doing the past 7 hours. He swayed on his feet and sought support in the shape of the door behind him, slumping against it. Warren rolled his eyes and strode forward, hooked Lucas's arm around his neck, and dragged his blonde friend down the hall into their bedroom, letting him slump down onto his bed.
"You have any idea what time it is, Luke?" Warren grumbled. Lucas lay on his back, in a daze and breathing heavily as Warren yanked his shoes off and slipped his belt from the loops, tossing them at the end of his bed.
"It's three-fucking-thirty in the morning. Three thirty. And some of us have class tomorrow. Including you." Warren said, his voice hard. He stood up and glared down at his incapacitated friend. Lucas couldn't seem to focus on him, his eyelids fluttering. Warren frowned.
"What the hell are you on?" He asked, moderately concerned. Lucas tended to be overly trusting at parties. He'd take anything that was given to him if he was drunk enough. Lucas took a second before he shrugged, his brow furrowing.
"I don't know. All I had was drinks. Someone probably slipped me something while I wasn't looking…" He sounded breathless and a second later, he sat up, hand on his mouth. Warren grabbed him and dragged him to the bathroom in time for him to empty his stomach into the toilet. He had one hand on Lucas's chest to hold him upright and the other on his forehead, holding his head up. He didn't even flinch anymore. He was used to it and so was Lucas. That wasn't a good thing really but they got along fine.
Lucas groaned but he had stopped vomiting so Warren grabbed a towel to wipe his mouth, handed him a cup for him to wash his mouth out, and then led him back to his bed.
"I swear Luke, you'd be dead in a ditch somewhere if it weren't for me." Warren said as Lucas fell limp on his bed and rolled onto his side. His eyes slid closed and he heaved a deep sigh, tucking an arm under his head.
"I know, Warren. You don't know how bad I need you…" His voice trailed off as he fell asleep. Warren went and sat on his bed opposite of Lucas's, resting his chin on his knuckles and his elbows on his knees. He sat for a few moments just watching his friend's deep breathing before turning off the lights and going to sleep himself. Just another Friday night…
o-o-o-o-o
~Eight Years Prior to the Present…
Warren threw the last of his clothes into the cardboard box, taping it up and writing his name on it. Sitting up, he wiped his brow with the back of his hand and sighed. He couldn't believe it was time for graduation. All the seniors were packing up their dorms and getting ready to move out. Graduation was that night so everyone was finishing up last minute packing. Lucas had left to find more boxes for their video games and movies as well as drinks. Sodas, not alcohol as Warren had said explicitly. He didn't want Lucas making a fool of himself the day before graduation. Sometimes he swore he was Luke's mother and not his roommate. Well, former roommate.
The black-haired man sighed again. He would be lying if he said he wasn't going to miss college. There was a certain kind of joy that came with being on campus. Freedom was nothing compared to the overwhelming feeling of family you got from the place. Being the second to youngest child of four brothers, sometimes he just didn't feel like he fit. Lucas was very much the same. He came from a foster home and had a lot of brothers and at least one sister if Warren wasn't mistaken, and Lucas didn't get along with most of them. Especially Michael. Michael was his biological brother. When Luke got angry enough (or drunk enough), he'd go off about how much he hated his family and how his dad needed to quit drinking and that Michael was the sole reason he hated the world. Warren had never met any of Luke's family but he could only assume they were all dicks.
The dorm door clicked open and Lucas came in totting two extra boxes and a six-pack of Orange Crush in glass bottles. Orange Crush was Warren's favorite drink over everything else. Give him an Orange Crush and you'd become his best friend. He and Lucas had actually had their first conversation because of it. Warren had walked into his dorm room for the first time resolving not to speak to his roommate until he spotted the blonde man drinking a can of Orange Crush.
"You drink Orange Crush out of a can?" Warren remarked, drawing the blonde's attention. The man's ice blue eyes looked bored but he perked up slightly when Warren spoke.
"Doesn't everyone?" He asked back. Warren laughed.
"No way, man. I drink mine out of a glass bottle." He put his stuff down on the bed that the blonde wasn't sitting on. He could feel the icy eyes trailing him so he turned back around and sat down.
"Didn't people drink out of glass bottles in like the 1700s?" The blonde said, a smirk on his face. Warren chuckled.
"Try 1894. Coca Cola first started putting soda in glass bottles in 1894."
The blonde looked impressed. He grabbed an extra can from one of his boxes and held it out to Warren, who took it and popped it open.
"The name's Warren. Warren Foresman." He said as he took a drink. The blonde finally smiled at him.
"Lucas Shurley. You can call me Luke."
Warren chuckled, shaking his head and taking a bottle from the pack.
"What are you laughing at?" Lucas asked, starting to separate their movies and games into piles of 'Luke' and 'Warren'. Warren chuckled again and sat on his striped-bare bed.
"I still can't believe you thought people drank from glass bottles in the 1700s."
Lucas threw him the finger over his shoulder.
"I was joking. I knew it was really 1884."
"1894. See, you don't know."
"Whatever."
Warren continued to laugh even as his copy of Constantine was thrown at him.
"Why don't you pack your own damn movies?" Lucas grumbled, sealing the box. Warren was still chuckling.
"Because you've already done it and I've basically been taking care of you for 4 years. You doing something for me isn't going to kill you." He smirked when Lucas gave him a sarcastic smile. Both of their smiles faded quickly however as Lucas sealed the last box and set it on the floor, sitting down next to Warren and taking a soda as well. The silence in the room stretched for a minute or so before one of them decided to speak.
"So. Are you ready for this? Ready to get out into the world? Start your life?" Warren asked. Lucas shook his head.
"No." He glanced at Warren. "You?"
Warren shook his head as well.
"No."
Unconsciously they both took a drink, enjoying the bubbles that tickled their throats. Warren heaved a deep breath.
"It's gonna be weird not waking up in this room every morning."
"No more movie marathons." Lucas said.
"No more late night video games." Warren replied.
"No more loud neighbors."
"No more figuring out whose clothes is who's on laundry day."
"No more parties."
Warren snorted a laugh.
"No more taking care of you when you're plastered or dealing with you being a bitch when you're hung over."
Lucas nodded. More silence stretched as they mentally tried to avoid the goodbye that they both knew was coming. Warren put down his drink and stood up.
"Instead of risking our masculinity in front of everyone, let's just do this now alright?" He smiled half-heartedly. After a second's hesitation, Lucas set down his bottle and stood up as well, grabbing the shorter man into a tight hug.
"I'm gonna miss you, man." Warren said, his voice slightly muffled since his face was in Luke's shoulder. Lucas patted his back.
"Yea me too."
They stood like that for a while, clinging to the last shred of belonging that they had before breaking apart with a cough, eyes a little glassy. Lucas's hand remained on Warren's shoulder in a grip and he laughed and scrubbed away a tear that managed to escape.
"Look at us, crying like girls."
Warren laughed and sniffled a little bit. They weren't crying because they were graduating. They weren't even crying because they wouldn't see each other, because they would, or at least they would try. No, the sadness came from knowing that they would both be going back to being outcasts without many friends, going about their days as solitary black dots on the pristine white paper of the world.
They had already discussed moving into an apartment together, (since they couldn't seem to tolerate anyone else but each other), but Warren was moving to Boston to try and get a job with the FBI and Lucas was going back home to Pike Creek, Delaware. Sure Massachusetts was right up the coast from Delaware but it definitely wasn't an hour and a half drive. It would be a day's trip on a train or a plane ride. Lucas had no qualms about moving to Boston but his dad wanted him to come back home after graduation and Dad's word was law. Insert dramatic eye roll here.
They stood looking at each other for a moment longer before Lucas pulled Warren back in for another hug. He didn't care how weird he probably looked. This man had been his saving grace. When Lucas had first walked onto that college campus in Lawrence, he had been so full of hate and rage that he was sure he would drown in it. His drunk dad who always seemed to be hidden away in his office, Michael who was the bane of his existence, the rest of his foster siblings who called him names like 'freak' and 'black sheep'. He had just wanted to pour gasoline on the planet, light a match, and watch the world crumble into smoldering ashes.
Then he met Warren. Warren was the kind of guy who just naturally preferred to stay away from others. He had a fair number of siblings as well (three brothers, two older, one younger) and while he was actually related to them, he understood what it was like to be the odd man out in his family. He was suave, sharp witted, and knew how to make some damn good spaghetti with chicken marinara sauce. He did well in his classes and knew how to get along with pretty much anyone even if he didn't like them. Above all of that, he got Lucas. He understood him. Warren understood Luke, Luke understood Warren. A long-lasting friendship was inevitable. Lucas had never been more grateful to meet a person as he was since he met Warren.
When they broke apart again, they were both still glassy eyed and hardly ready to bring their stuff out to their cars but graduation started in a couple hours and, let's be honest, no one wanted to get stuck bringing their belongings outside in the post-grad mayhem. It would take hours just to get down the hallway to the damn stairs.
There were no words needed at the moment so they quietly picked up a box or two and made their way outside to their cars that were parked in the senior lot. Warren drove a cherry red 1965 Ford Mustang Fastback. It had been his present on his sixteenth birthday and he kept it in just-out-of-the-showroom condition. Lucas drove a sleek silver 2010 Dodge Avenger SXT. It was a gift from his dad when he started college. How his dad had managed to afford it with his drinking habits and failed attempts at publishing his books, Luke didn't know and he wasn't sure he wanted to know. As long as it got him from point A to point B, right?
Getting their boxes downstairs took a few trips and the pair remained silent. Again, there were no words needed at the moment. Even if there were, neither of the men wanted to be the one to actually say those two words.
When the last box containing the TV was loaded into the back of Warren's Mustang and both cars were locked, the soon-to-be graduates headed back to their dorm room to change into their caps and gowns.
Two hours later, they were handed their diplomas.
College was over with. They were free. At graduation, everyone is a friend. Lucas managed to stay mostly cheerful and Warren was the perfect chameleon as always. They were of course invited to the after party and most of the graduates expected at least Lucas to come along, but to the surprise of all, both men declined with a smile.
The silence between them followed them out to their cars. The sounds of the party could still be heard in the cool evening air, the music thumping across the campus, drawing somewhat jealous glances from the underclassmen. Both men removed their caps as they reached their cars and threw them in the back seat, taking off their robes as well, leaving them in their casual clothes. Warren was wearing a red shirt with some black text on it and black jeans while Lucas wore a black shirt with white designs and regular blue jeans.
The robes were tossed in the back seats as well and then the men found themselves facing each other once again. They were alone in the parking lot so one last tight hug was shared, ending with what was more of a firm gripping of hands than an actual handshake.
This was goodbye, and man did it hurt like hell.
"Well, be seeing you." Warren said, hearing the tightness of his throat in his voice. Dammit he was gonna cry again. He was losing some serious masculine points. Of course, Lucas was no better. His lips were pulled into a thin line and he nodded jerkily.
"Yea, keep in touch alright?" He said, a telling shake in his voice. Warren swallowed hard and nodded. Lucas let go of his hand and Warren climbed into his car, finding some small shred of comfort in the rumble of the engine. With one last wave out the window, Warren drove out of the lot and out of the front gates, roaring down the road towards the highway that would take him to Boston.
Lucas was left alone, waving to the road that took away his only friend. He slumped against his car and for the first time in a long time, he shed some tears.
Real life was a bitch and he was going to meet her soon.
o-o-o-o-o
A/N: And that's part one. :D Hope you liked it!
The origin of the names I used is obvious. I was torn between 'Lucas' and 'Luke' for Lucifer. I was going to name him Luke but I figured I could use Lucas and have Luke be a nickname. :3 Part two will come soon! Stay tuned!