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It was eleven in the morning on a Tuesday and even the lady selling the tickets somehow seemed out of place. Perhaps because of how obvious it was, even more so than usual, that she'd rather be anywhere else. The weather finally got on with the program of summer starting over a month ago and the only reason anyone would even consider going to the cinema instead of the beach or a park was to enjoy the cooling magic of the air conditioning.
Or to avoid their annoying roommate, who insisted on the rent being paid on time.
In general a sound principal, but the last job John had was unbearable and the new one hadn't paid him yet, so his finances were a bit too stranded at the moment to meet Billy's high standards. Avoiding the problem was probably not the most mature thing he could have done, but then again, he expected the paycheck within few days and then the problem would go away on its own, so was there really a point in making it harder on himself?
Especially since with him working nights and Billy starting in the early afternoon this week, there were just few hours in a day during which they could confront each other. Just enough time to catch up on some new movie premiers and finally use a gift card John got from Max on his last birthday and almost completely forgot about.
It was quite an ingenius plan, if John could say so himself. He had a small suspicion the faith in his genius was brought by sleep deprivation, but he dismissed it easily enough. It was his third night shift in a row and he felt it far more severly than he expected. Luckily enough he could also feel that he finally entered the blissful stage of sleeplessness in which everything was absolutely brilliant and quite hilarious.
John smiled brightly at the guy checking his ticket, who seemed to be in his mind half-way down the beach already. John on the other hand walked slowly towards the room number eight to enjoy another two hours of his freedom. With a company of captain Kirk as a bonus.
He wondered if Kirk got properly shirtless in this movie. Spoilers he read online didn't tell him anything definitive.
The cinema had an eery quality to it. Corridors almost empty, only some bored-looking teen couple on one of the couches, clearly waiting for a show of some movie they were early for. An older woman sweeping the floor in the clear form of "there's no need to do this right now, but as long as I'm doing it, they won't find me something else to do, so I will be doing it very slowly". John was very familiar with it. Bosses were always eager to find something stupid to do if one did not act busy enough.
He smiled brightly at the sweeping lady as he walked into the room and she smirked in greeting.
For a moment he thought he was actually going to have the whole room to himself. The movie premiered awhile ago and between the weather and the hour it was no shock it wouldn't be too popular, he just hoped they will show it anyway.
He sat in one of the last rows to avoid the stairs he didn't need to take, and stretched his leg, enjoying the peace and quiet for a moment. It was bizarre to be in a public place like this absolutely alone, he thought briefly, before finally noticing his sole companion.
Few rows down, in a probably fifth or sixth row, sat another man – or at least John assumed it was a man from the shape of his head and shoulders, which was all he could see. Broad armed ginger guy looked probably even more out of place than John did.
As the lights were still on and the adverts hadn't started yet, John ate some of his popcorn, wondering. If he thought it was odd to be alone in the cinema, it was even weirder to be there with just one person and a stranger on top of that. He could imagine it'd be quite fun to have the cinema room for themselves if he was with a friend or a date. It'd be like a perfect mix between catching a movie alone in the apartment and having a huge cinema screen. With stranger he almost felt like he was under constant supervision. If his phone would start ringing now, no amount of looking back and pretending he is also surprised to hear it, would help him ditch the acusation. There were literaly no other suspects.
The thought made him cringe and he made sure to put his phone on mute.
Most of the adverts were behind them, with lights dimmed, but not fully turned off, when John ripped open a package of M&M's he smuggled in - he liked his M&M's but only mad and rich pay for sweets at the cinemas - and he could swear the other man sighed at the sound and moved in his chair in annoyance.
Perhaps John was reading too much into the set of the man's shoulders, but the feeling he was right would not leave him. And if he was in fact right and the ginger stranger was actually annoyed with just a bit of a noise than their long-distance cinema date was bound to crash and burn very quickly, because John was never quiet. In general and while watching the movies. He eventually got his friends used to this fact, but it was a slow process. (Especially with Billy who still kept throwing things and snacks at him if he spoke up at the wrong moment, not to mention the classic "you have wronged this puppy" look he aimed like a weapon.)
Quite frankly, John was far too sleepy to be quiet. He entered the joyous phase of sleepiness and he was either going to laugh and talk to himself or fall asleep and snore like a monster. He kind of really wanted to wait with sleeping until he got to a bed, because taking a nap right now might as well kill him. Or, well, make him even more tired and he might bite the head of the poor person who will be forced to wake him up. Not to mention if the guy he was trapped with was a serious Trek fan he might take it as an insult and gut him out in the dark.
They tell you Trekkies are peaceful, but John in his misguided youth was once at the comic con and he knew better.
(He still had scars.
Well, one tiny one, on his knee, but it counted. He was quite probably fed up with Trekkies for life.
He was only watching the movie for potentialy-half-naked-Kirk and to spite Billy "I'm not a Star Wars fan, this Leia doll was a gift" Bones, he is hiding from.)
In the end he decided he would rather face death at the hand of a trekkie, while wide awake. Maybe then he can talk him out of it. Somehow this turned into a plan of talking to the man directly, instead of himself.
Perhaps sleepiness also made him friendlier. Or killed his survival instincts, it was hard to tell.
He grabbed his popcorn, put the M&M's back in his pocket and slowly made his way few rows down.
Barely lit stairs in the semi-darkness. Covered with uneven and worn out carpet. Just what every person with a leg prothesis loved the most.
He managed to avoid even stumbling much, but the man was watching him wearily as he slowly got closer.
John smiled at him blindly.
"No worries," he said cheerfully, "I'm fine."
The lights went out completely.
"Fuck," said John with a feeling, but stumbled and fell into the seat next to the stranger.
The man watched him carefully as if John was sneaking up on him with an axe.
Ha.
Perhaps they both thought the other was a crazy trekkie.
"What the fuck are you doing?"
It was quite possible John would've been more taken aback by this reaction if his hilarious phase of sleepiness wasn't in a full swing by now.
"Watching Star Trek, you?" he asked merrily.
The man frowned, which only raised John's giggliness.
"Are you high?"
John chuckled, but shook his head.
"No, no, don't worry. Just a bit tired after a long shift. I worried you will slit my throat if I fall asleep and start snoring, so I came to keep you company."
The man just stared at him, incredulous.
"It seemed weird to be the only two people in the whole room, you know?"
"Have it occured to you that I've picked this time to see a movie specifically because of how empty it would be?"
John did not reply, since it really didn't and that was just another proof his brain was slowly dying on lack of sleep. He decided to attempt defusing te situation by offering the man some of his popcorn instead.
The man rolled his eyes, but eventually reached out and took some, so John counted it as a win.
"John Silver, by the way."
"Flint," the man replied and John wondered if it was a fake name he always gave to crazy people who bothered him. If so, it was pretty shitty, but John offered him some of his M&M's as an encouregment for showing common sense.
Maybe they could both survive this movie after all.
"You will not talk during the movie," Flint said as the trailers ended and the last pre-movie warnings started to roll.
"I didn't say anything!"
Flint just glared at him and John pointedly looked away, watching the movie.
"Oooh, nice shot," he said a moment later, because it was, in fact, an incredibely nice shot.
Flint closed his eyes and sighed deeply. John grinned, but for Flint's sake decided to at least try and stay quiet.
He lasted as long as his stash of snacks did. It was far easier, he found, to stay quiet if he could just occupy himself with eating, even when Kirk actually did show up shirtless few minutes into the movie. John appreciated the scene in silence.
Flint actually ate at least a third of the popcorn, so he was partially to blame for the end of John's silence. John was simply too kind to mention it, since the man grudgingly shared his coke with him.
"That's so gay," John said happily as Spock and McCoy bickered like an old married couple.
He couldn't be sure in the dark, but he thought Flint rolled his eyes at him. Again.
"It's Star Trek," he replied as if that was a proper reply and an explenation.
In a way, John thought, it was. So he shrugged amicably.
He rather appreciated that the explosions were given a rest for a moment at least, though his eyes were getting heavier and heavier as the plot progressed. He lowered himself in the armchair a bit and watched Spock carefully in, hoping to get to see him shirtless as well. Two for one. That would certainly be worth his money. It didn't seem they were going this way, but it was not yet the end of the movie and John was a very patient man.
When he woke up the lights were on and the arm underneath his head moved impatiently, though less brutally than he would've expected.
He blinked at the screen and then at the man next to him.
"Was there an after-credit scene?" he asked.
"You slept through most of the movie and you care about an after-credit scene?"
John shrugged.
"I'm always curious. And Max refused to tell me."
Flint rolled his eyes at him again and moved to get up. John wisely remained seated and moved his legs instead, trying to get the feel back into them, so he wouldn't fall flat on his face as he attempted to get up.
He looked up when he noticed Flint wasn't going away. The man for some reason got him curious. Like a grumpy cat you just have to pet to prove to it that it likes being petted. It was probably a horrible metaphor that should not be used with people, but John just took an unplanned nap and felt like an unfresh zombie and he still had to made his way through half of the city on a leg that hurt as hell, before he could get some decent sleep at least until Billy cam from work and woke him up.
If Flint would ask him if he was okay, he might be forced to throw the almost empty popcorn bucket at him. It was still greasy and filled with unpopped corn and exactly what such question deserved.
"There's another show in about two hours," Flint said instead and just shrugged when John looked at him questioningly. "You've missed most of the movie."
And so, a crazy Trekkie strikes again. John should probably be glad the man didn't kill him, was just fixated on forcing him to watch the movie. Vague vision of Flint shauting "it opens its eyes and it watches Star Trek, dammit" flew threw his mind and he shook it off. Lack of sleep was deadly.
"I'm afraid I will either nap on any flat surface or eat my own leg, if I don't get home soon. And I haven't yet decided if it would be my plastic or meet leg, but either way it will be quite unfortunate."
He might be going crazy and he most certainly was rambling like only a sleepy person can, but Flint's mouth was actually twiching and that was probably worth a bit of painful humiliation. John smiled at him absentmindedly.
"I could buy you lunch, I guess," Flint offered and something in John's fuzzy, sleepy brain finally clicked as he realized this was actually not a crazy trekkie conversation he thought they were having.
The look of realization must have shown on his face, because Flint looked away uncomfortably and then glared at the cleaning lady who dared to walk in on them, probably to check if they managed to wreck the room all by themselves. John looked at the floor, where he spilled some of the popcorn's leftovers, when he fell asleep and he stood up as quickly as he could.
"That actually sounds like a brilliant plan, captain, lead on."
Flint rolled his eyes again at him. "Did you even want to watch that movie?"
John shrugged. "I'm mostly avoiding my roommate," he admitted and Flint looked at him long-sufferingly as if he could not deal with what he got himself into here.
Still, he carried all of their trash outside like a decent person and kept his step casualy slow so John could keep up despite his leg acting up. Perhaps trekkies weren't so bad after all and worth losing some sleep over.