It'll All Come Out In The Wash (crossposted to ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
non_plot, challenge #30)
Ross had left all of his old talismans behind when he fled the suburban dystopia of his youth. Plastic secret decoder rings and birth-year pennies didn't have quite the right mix of magic and alchemy he was looking for - necessary to embark on a clean and sanitized future run through the autoclaves of hope and distance and fudged truths. The perfect charm would find him in Boston. He was sure of it.
Actually it found him in New York, when he and Lisa had braved an early morning Amtrak train from Boston's South Station to New York Penn for Thanksgiving weekend and Macy's big Christmas parade. The first moment he stepped off the train to set foot on New York soil, he spotted something glittering under the fluorescent lights and bent to pick it up.
A subway token, worn almost flat from countless trips through the mechanized funhouse of the MTA's token machines.
Perfect. He trickled the cold metal around his fingers for a moment and then stuck it in the change pocket of his jeans.
It was a lucky token, as it turned out, or at least a get-lucky token. So the following morning he left Lisa sleeping and sated in the nest of blankets and went out searching for roses and a piece of black string, the events of the previous night being momentous enough to rate its being moved from the pocket of his jeans to a cord around his neck.
Unfortunately it kept moving back into the pocket of his jeans - when snuggling with Lisa or bending over a lab bench it tended to get in the way, lucky or not. So logically, the voice in his head concluded, it must be in a pocket somewhere.
What pocket? That was the question. Ross looked up from his frantic digging in the pile of dirty laundry as the door opened. "Have you seen my lucky subway token?"
"Yep." Ashton replied cheerfully, dropping his heavy bag full of marine biology textbooks on his bed. "Used it to buy a soda." Ashton was tall and blonde and managed to pull off the combination of 'hockey player', 'rich kid' and 'on-campus babe supermagnet' without letting any of the above get to his head, which was probably why Ross could still stand him.
"Shut up, you asstard, this is serious." He threw a balled up sweat sock at Ashton and dinged him in the head. "I need that."
Ashton made a face and threw the sweat sock back. "Ew. I thought biological warfare was illegal. Yes, I'm hoarding the damn thing for ransom. What the hell would I need with a subway token on a string?"
"I need it." Ross continued digging, tossing clothes everywhere. "Where the hell could it be? I've looked through the desk and all my dirty laundry."
"Why do you need this again?"
"To get laid."
Ashton ran his fingers through his boyish blonde hair. "So what, Lisa's coin-operated or something?"
"Shut up and help me find this."
"All right, when did you last have it?"
Ross fell back on the bed for a moment and thought. "I thought I had it today, but apparently not. Uh ... yesterday? Or maybe the day before. I had chem lab on Wednesday and took it off and I thought I put it in my pocket, but I can't find it in the dirty laundry ..."
"Didn't you do laundry yesterday?"
"Oh yeah." Ross began scrabbling through another pile of clothes.
"How can you tell dirty and clean laundry apart?"
"I can't."
"Remind me to stay upwind from you next time we go anywhere." Ashton made a disgusted face.
"It's not in here. Where the fuck is it? I need it!"
"Laundry room?"
Ross leapt to his feet. "Brilliant! Ashie, you're a genius." He fled the room, sliding on sock feet down the hall and only barely avoiding a near-certain plummet to death and destruction on the stairs.
The laundry room was lurking four flights down in the basement and was fortunately empty. He stood in the door, looking for the telltale glint of light on brass or the snakelike coil of the thin black string.
No dice. He peered intently into the washing machines.
Still nothing. Ross swallowed a surge of panic. Where the hell was it?
"What are you going to do if you can't find it?" Ashton replied dryly from the doorway.
"I'm doomed." Ross's voice echoed from inside a dryer.
"You may already be doomed. Weren't you supposed to be going somewhere with Lisa tonight?"
"She'll understand."
"You have faith in that, but none in survival after subway token. Matthews-san, you don't make sense."
With a cry of joy that turned almost immediately into a string of curses, Ross emerged from the dryer, holding up his prize and rubbing his head. "Found it!" He pressed his lips against the dryer-hot metal for a second before slipping the string around his neck. "Come to daddy, precious. Don't you run away again! You scared me. And guess what? I found my watch, too. Shit, it's late. Don't wait up for me." He dashed up the stairs.
Ashton rolled his eyes and started upstairs himself. Nice guy, that Matthews-san. Freak, but nice guy all the same.
Actually it found him in New York, when he and Lisa had braved an early morning Amtrak train from Boston's South Station to New York Penn for Thanksgiving weekend and Macy's big Christmas parade. The first moment he stepped off the train to set foot on New York soil, he spotted something glittering under the fluorescent lights and bent to pick it up.
A subway token, worn almost flat from countless trips through the mechanized funhouse of the MTA's token machines.
Perfect. He trickled the cold metal around his fingers for a moment and then stuck it in the change pocket of his jeans.
It was a lucky token, as it turned out, or at least a get-lucky token. So the following morning he left Lisa sleeping and sated in the nest of blankets and went out searching for roses and a piece of black string, the events of the previous night being momentous enough to rate its being moved from the pocket of his jeans to a cord around his neck.
Unfortunately it kept moving back into the pocket of his jeans - when snuggling with Lisa or bending over a lab bench it tended to get in the way, lucky or not. So logically, the voice in his head concluded, it must be in a pocket somewhere.
What pocket? That was the question. Ross looked up from his frantic digging in the pile of dirty laundry as the door opened. "Have you seen my lucky subway token?"
"Yep." Ashton replied cheerfully, dropping his heavy bag full of marine biology textbooks on his bed. "Used it to buy a soda." Ashton was tall and blonde and managed to pull off the combination of 'hockey player', 'rich kid' and 'on-campus babe supermagnet' without letting any of the above get to his head, which was probably why Ross could still stand him.
"Shut up, you asstard, this is serious." He threw a balled up sweat sock at Ashton and dinged him in the head. "I need that."
Ashton made a face and threw the sweat sock back. "Ew. I thought biological warfare was illegal. Yes, I'm hoarding the damn thing for ransom. What the hell would I need with a subway token on a string?"
"I need it." Ross continued digging, tossing clothes everywhere. "Where the hell could it be? I've looked through the desk and all my dirty laundry."
"Why do you need this again?"
"To get laid."
Ashton ran his fingers through his boyish blonde hair. "So what, Lisa's coin-operated or something?"
"Shut up and help me find this."
"All right, when did you last have it?"
Ross fell back on the bed for a moment and thought. "I thought I had it today, but apparently not. Uh ... yesterday? Or maybe the day before. I had chem lab on Wednesday and took it off and I thought I put it in my pocket, but I can't find it in the dirty laundry ..."
"Didn't you do laundry yesterday?"
"Oh yeah." Ross began scrabbling through another pile of clothes.
"How can you tell dirty and clean laundry apart?"
"I can't."
"Remind me to stay upwind from you next time we go anywhere." Ashton made a disgusted face.
"It's not in here. Where the fuck is it? I need it!"
"Laundry room?"
Ross leapt to his feet. "Brilliant! Ashie, you're a genius." He fled the room, sliding on sock feet down the hall and only barely avoiding a near-certain plummet to death and destruction on the stairs.
The laundry room was lurking four flights down in the basement and was fortunately empty. He stood in the door, looking for the telltale glint of light on brass or the snakelike coil of the thin black string.
No dice. He peered intently into the washing machines.
Still nothing. Ross swallowed a surge of panic. Where the hell was it?
"What are you going to do if you can't find it?" Ashton replied dryly from the doorway.
"I'm doomed." Ross's voice echoed from inside a dryer.
"You may already be doomed. Weren't you supposed to be going somewhere with Lisa tonight?"
"She'll understand."
"You have faith in that, but none in survival after subway token. Matthews-san, you don't make sense."
With a cry of joy that turned almost immediately into a string of curses, Ross emerged from the dryer, holding up his prize and rubbing his head. "Found it!" He pressed his lips against the dryer-hot metal for a second before slipping the string around his neck. "Come to daddy, precious. Don't you run away again! You scared me. And guess what? I found my watch, too. Shit, it's late. Don't wait up for me." He dashed up the stairs.
Ashton rolled his eyes and started upstairs himself. Nice guy, that Matthews-san. Freak, but nice guy all the same.
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Thank you.
Gessi
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I am intrigue'd!
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