Chester x Parker - Dangerous Tendencies (Life Of Luxury)

1 - Danger

Beads of sweat fell from his face as he struggled to keep his breath manually altered, rhythmic and tranquil, holding himself from the flickering flame beneath his own skin. He could feel the wick he'd shown to the world slowly begin to spark; a lighter was being held up against his heart and he was letting it happen.
He'd always found himself to be the skeptical type - never stopping to listen to something out of his own field of view. Even the most stubborn were aware of their own stubborn tendencies. But now, in this light, when things were dim, he'd become open to possibility. Whether crawling too close to the moonlit fire was dangerous was up for interpretation.

"Parker.."

His own name rolled off the tongue of the man beneath him. The darkness struggled to highlight the smaller's features, but even now he could pinpoint the rigid jawline and angular facial characteristics of his best friend. What had led them to be so close, lips moments away from connecting, was beyond him - one booze after another fogs the brain. His breaths were labored, and smelt like alcohol. He knew it was only the chemicals in his brain that were making him act like this; and even so, it felt right. The crisp lines of light from the half-open blinds shining illumination onto the other man's features told him so. In the harshness - helplessness of the moment, he couldn't help but say his friend's name back.

"Chester."

...

"Hey, dude, come have a look at this."
Parker's eyelids fluttered at his best friend's voice. He stood in the corner of the room the two of them always found themselves in; Parker's kitchen, where they'd edit content for money and split the pay at the end. He'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy making videos to put on youtube, despite its cons - having corporate business owners ask him, 'What do you do for a living?' was a problem, but he knew he had it well enough.

Parker responded to Chester's words with a frenzied smile - he knew the drowsiness of the half-open blinds revealing nothing but black and strips of illumination were getting to him. Sleepless nights of editing footage did numbers on the man's strength to stay awake. His ambition to work normally coincided with his desire to create - his stubborn tendencies, maybe. He'd been told in his early childhood something along the lines of 'When you start things, you see it through to its completion'. Parker supposed that was productive in all the ways it could be; but in terms of his mental health, that's where things plummeted.

Without a worded response, Chester's eyes darted to the figure making his way over, and he cocked his head to the side and crossed his arms, leaning back on the wooden chair he comfortably sat at. 

"Bro, can't you turn on the lights or something?" He stifled back a chuckle at Parker's drowsy state. "I know you're nocturnal, but the lights from the blinds are..." 

He had to take a second to think, like he wanted his words to zing.

"...Making your forehead look shinier than your career."

"Our career," Parker retaliated with a playful undertone. Their banter was always something he savoured with a gentle delicacy - it was something only they could have, and it was personal. 

"Did you learn that one from a comeback website?" He asked, his grin showing the rhetoric. 

Their mixing personalities intertwining together to make whatever their lives were brought a special touch to Parker's daily struggle. It was the lighter of an unlit hole - the fire in a dark, dark cave. Something he held onto with a passion - a stubborn, arrogant passion.

Chester smiled with sincerity, rolling his eyes.

 "Anyway, here." His hands gestured to a laptop screen with its brightness at the lowest setting - requested by Parker, obviously - displaying an email inbox they'd come back to every couple of weeks. The same old same old, but he savoured it. He savoured everything when it came to Chester.