Alaric chewed at his lip, half sprawled out over Gabriel's counter top, head tilted slightly to watch his friend, "It's just...weird. I don't get it. People normally don't even like to touch me Gabe." Being 'multi-gendered' made most people rather uncomfortable. Even the ones not hostile to him tended to avoid contact with him, "And now, all of a sudden, T'liika is asking me out to dinner and that weird candidate, the snake one, she grabbed my butt!" Alaric had never been so stunned in his life. He had made a total ass of himself in how he responded to that. Way to set an example.
His strange eyes narrowed, "I bet this is your fault someone. Weirdos always hit on you. Not me. You gave it too me."
"Hey, hey, hey! My fault? How's this my fault? I didn't give you anything except awesome!" Gabriel said, throwing up his hands defensively. "Maybe it's just some weird...alien...phe romone thingamabobber? Though I dunno, the T'liika thing, man..." He wrinkled his nose and edged away slowly, putting the counter between he and his friend.
"I've had weird people hit on me, sure, but never snake ladies and scruffy old dudes. It's probably 'cause you're exotic," he said, waggling his eyebrows up and down. "And blue. Like a berry."
Alaric huffed, "Way to make me feel better. And when did I go from being gross to exotic? No. This is your fault." Alaric sat up, pointing an accusatory finger at his friend, "You gave me your creep magnet! Now they are hitting on me!"
Gabriel gave a little jolt and stepped backwards. "Well, if I gave it to you, you can keep it! I've gotten enough use out of it so it's your turn!"
Standing up quickly, Alaric almost knocked the chair out from under him, "Oh no! You take it back!" He then lunged around the counter and toward Gabe.
"NO WAY! Finders keepers!" Gabriel yelped, dodging out of the way and bolting for the door. He wrenched it open and didn't even bother to close it behind him, not wanting to waste precious time since Alaric was the one with the longer legs, and raced out into the hall. "Consider it a gift!"
"Get back here!" Alaric stumbled, skidding a little on Gabe's floor before tearing out the door after his friend, "You take it back!" His long legs ate up the distance, but Gabe wasn't slow and he had gotten a bit of a head start.
Crap! The elevator loomed ahead, his one ticket to escape, and the doors were, of course, shut. Hopefully it wasn't already occupied! Putting on an extra burst of speed, quite aware of Alaric hot on his trail, Gabriel raced to the elevator, skidded to a stop before he could slam into the doors, and pounded on the 'down' button. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! Open!"
The doors slowly slid open, but not soon enough for Gabe. Alaric slammed into his much shorter friend, rubbing up against him, "No! Take it back!" Once he felt the germs were back where he belonged, Alaric released Gabe and bolted towards the stairs. The elevator was only a doom trap now! Hopefully he could out run Gabe on the stairs!
"Agh!" Alaric slamming into him knocked the wind right out of Gabriel, and for a few moments he was helpless to do anything but wheeze for air as his taller friend rubbed all over him, crushed between he and the wall. Even after Alaric released him, he was momentarily dazed--but then it sank in. He was escaping! And he'd given it back!
With another yelp. Gabriel shoved off the wall and tore after Alaric, since the elevator would do no good now and saw Alaric booking it for the stairs. "Wait up!" he called, "I have something I needa give ya!"
"Nooo! It's yours! You get it!" Alaric was more leaping down the stairs then he was running, not wanting to let Gabe give it back. But he could hear his friend catching up.
One thing led to another and with their desperate and failed attempts to avoid catching "it" again, Alaric found himself once again the hunter, tearing after Gabriel, too absorbed in the chase to notice the weird looks the pair was receiving. Two full grown Pilots racing down the halls of the ATC wasn't an everyday occurrence. Alaric wasn't really sure how they had ended up there, but they had.
Laughing, Gabriel sprinted full speed down the halls as he tried to lose Alaric, glad that even though it had been a couple of years since candidacy, he still had the place memorized. So far, he'd been doing a good job of staying in the clear, but it was only a matter of time and he was not taking 'it' back!
Taking a corner hard and nearly slipping and falling on his ass, Gabriel caught himself and bolted forward--and straight into another person. He yelped, she squealed, and they both went down in a tangle of limbs and a shower of papers as whatever she'd been holding got knocked out of her hands. Books clattered around them and slid across the tile and in the end, Gabriel found himself sprawled out across someone on the floor, panting with a nice layer of sweat glistening on his dark skin.
"Ow! You idiot, what're you doing? Get off me! Get off!" Gabriel blinked several times and raised up onto his hands--and then his breath seized in his throat and he scrambled off the girl in horror, falling back onto his bottom. "Ack, Rach! Sor--" he started...right before another thought clicked.
Alaric was coming.
Lunging to his feet as she sputtered in confusion, Gabriel hopped over her and started down the hall. "Sorry sis, gotta run!"
"Coward! Get back here!" Alaric's shoes slid across the floor of the ATC as he came around the corner and he almost flattened against the wall. Just in time to see Gabriel scrambling off someone and taking off again. Alaric started to chase after him when he realized who it was. Rachel! He was saved! The huge alien reached down, picked Rachel up, smooshed against her and set her back down, "Ha! Now you have it!"
Not wanting to give her a chance to tag back, Alaric tore off down the hallway, following Gabe's flight path.
"What're you--HEY!" Rachel cried out when Alaric scooped her up and smooshed himself to her, and then just like that, she was back on the ground and Alaric was tearing away. Confused as all hell, Rachel rubbed her eyes, blinked several times, and then looked around her. "Wha? It? What do I have? Hey! Alaric!" Scrambling around for her scattered belongings, she grabbed what she could and then took off running after the two. "Guysss! What did you do?! What did you give me? Did you put gum on me or something or dirt or--come back!"
But with her hands full and her brother and his friend faster than she was, they were long gone and she couldn't catch up. Breathing heavily, she cast a panicked look around herself, saw another candidate, and then pursed her lips. Well. Whatever it was, it seemed you could get rid of it on contact, and she did not want whatever her stupid brother and his stupid friend had--which was probably a case of The Stupid. It was probably nothing and just them being dumbasses, buuut...
Picking up her pace, she bumped shoulders with the other candidate and then took off down a hall. "There! Now you have it!"
