Excerpt: Another Memory

Kay had always thought that maybe being out in the work force would be more interesting than being stuck in a classroom, but he found that it was more paperwork than actually getting to hands-on draw and animate things at first. After doing so much work without access to his sketchbook, Kay's hands itched to draw something. It was kind of stupid, honestly, because it was an animation studio! He should have been bored with drawing by now, but he'd barely touched anything drawing-wise and it was driving him insane.

Each worker had his or her own cubicle, and Kay didn't know why, but when he reached his own little space, the first thing he did was grab for his sketchbook, flipping the old, ratty thing open and going to one of the last pages. It was a half-finished drawing of a man standing on a mountaintop, the wind a bunch of rough curlicues behind him, the mountain itself simple and shaded. His body was angular as was his face. his eyes were dark, almost black, and the sharp lines of his cheekbones were stark compared to the rest of the picture. The man's body was average, nothing impressive really, the clothing ripped and torn to shreds.

"Whoa, that looks so cool!"

Kay didn't recognize the voice, and that forced him to look up. The first thing he saw were sapphire blue eyes glimmering with curiosity, rimmed in black eyeliner. His vision panned out to see a round but angled face with full lips in a small smile. One look up and down told Kay that the guy he was looking at was a little bit taller than him but not by much, and he was dressed in black slacks and a half unbuttoned black shirt revealing a chest tattoo.

The guy laughed a little as he ran a hand through his reddish blonde hair and Kay looked back up, cocking an eyebrow at him in question. "Sorry, I tend to speak before I think," he explained with a grin, and Kay just shook his head with a small, tight-lipped smile.

"No problem," he said. "I'm Kay." He rose his eyebrows, both of them this time, as he held a hand out to this stranger.

"Alexander Sullivan, but you can just call me Alex," the young man said with a nod, grasping Kay's hand firmly with a grin. The grip didn't surprise Kay. but it pleased him.

"Well, if we're talking full name's, I'm Kaleb Xander, but that's my dad's name so to speak, so I go by Kay X. Well, that's the name I sign when I draw stuff. Nromally, it's just Kay," he explained, having completely dropped all pretense of calling Kaleb anything but his father because that was always easier to explain.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Kay X," Alex said, grin widening as they released each other's hands. Kay laughed a little and brushed his hair out of his face.

"Likewise, Alex," he replied before shaking his head, laughing for a whole new reason as realization dawned on him. "Sorry, I just realized that my last name is your first in a manner."

Alex grinned broadly. "Hey, if we got married or somethin', I'd be Alexander Xander!" the other man offered, and Kay grinned broadly himself before cracking up, shaking his head. He really liked this guy already.

"True, you would be," Kay finally said after a few moments of laughter.

"It would be epic," Alex decided with a definitive nod that made Kay start laughing again. He stopped abruptly when he heard the call from their boss telling them to shut the fuck up, and Kay pressed his lips together to stop himself from continuing to laugh, a broad smile struggling so hard to escape fully onto his face.