Triptych of the Fixer Upper: Gift for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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Dec. 27th, 2010 04:41 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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bandomstuffsitTitle: Triptych of the Fixer Upper
Author:sweetnovicane
Pairing(s): Butcher/Sisky
Rating: PG
Warnings: Off screen death of a small animal
Word count: 1,769
Summary: In The Butcher and Sisky's house, there are three paintings above the fireplace. They tell the story of the first night they spent there, believe it or not...
Above the fireplace in the antique townhouse owned by Andy Mrotek and Adam T. Siska (who were more commonly known as The Butcher and Sisky respectively), there are three paintings. One of a red umbrella covering a sofa and leaking onto it, one of a grinning dog, and one of a rabid squirrel with crazy eyes and sharp claws.
The paintings seem unrelated, but according to The Butcher, they’re actually a triptych. A series of three paintings that are all related to each other. “It actually tells a story,” The Butcher would say. “A rather strange story, but a story none the less.”
Whether prompted or not, he would tell the story anyway. The story of the first night he and Sisky spent in the house and the insanity that followed.
-------------
“I know the description said ‘fixer upper’, but geez. How did you get this house again?”
The Butcher looked around the foyer of the house. It looked like it had been a very long time since anyone had set foot inside this house. The ceiling and the floor was cracking, various parts of the house were falling apart, and everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. “Well, I guess you could call it a know people who know people situation, but it’s not legal yet. Tonight is a trial run.”
Sisky nodded and looked around with wide eyes. “Well, I’m going to go scope out the upstairs. Make sure it’s safe. We’ll reconvene in fifteen minutes and you tell me about the downstairs.”
“You make it sound like a spy mission.”
“Well... yeah.”
“Hey, I’m not protesting. See you at 0200.”
Sisky grinned and kissed The Butcher on the cheek. Slowly, he started up the stairs and Butcher went for the living room. He heard a large crack of wood, but it was quickly followed by Sisky shouting, “I’m okay! I’m okay! Just avoid step number six. Though that should be pretty obvious.”
The Butcher shook his head at his boyfriend as he walked over to the fireplace. He brushed dust off the mantle as he looked around the room. It was in as much disrepair as the foyer. There was one solitary piece of furniture in the room, which was a ratty old sofa that looked like it would either break upon sitting on it or infect the sitter with some sort of unknown couch disease. The Butcher wasn’t ready to risk either.
This house never would have come to The Butcher’s attention if it hadn’t been for Sisky. For the past few years, they had been dating on and off, but it wasn’t until this past year that they had gotten super serious about it. Now they were ready to take the next step of moving in together, but they weren’t going to be content with moving into an apartment with one bedroom or a nice little house in the suburbs. They wanted something interesting. Something that could belong to them and only them.
Or at least be awesome if things didn’t work out.
When Butcher mentioned this to his brother, he immediately said that he knew a girl who was trying to sell her Grandmother’s old house. “She says it’s a fixer upper though.”
The Butcher just shrugged and said he’d look at it. How bad could it be?
He had the same thought when he actually talked to the girl, who constantly repeated that it was a fixer upper. Really, how bad could it be?
From what he had seen so far, this house went beyond ‘fixer upper’ and into ‘borderline condemnation’.
“Uhhh... Butcher... Adam... Baby,” shouted Sisky from upstairs, worry in his voice. “Can you meet me in the kitchen?”
“I thought you were upstairs?”
“I am.”
With a sudden pang of worry in his gut, The Butcher wandered out of the living room and through the doorway that lead to the kitchen. He froze when he saw the plaster splayed out all over the kitchen floor and Sisky’s head poking out from a rather large hole in the ceiling. “The rest of me is in the master bedroom. If we want to stay the night, we may have to camp out somewhere else.”
As Sisky said that, a roll of thunder was heard off in the distance. The Butcher sighed. “And preferably somewhere not as close to the rain. If the floor is like this, the ceiling must not be much better.”
They quickly camped out in the living room as the storm started, but it didn’t help them keep dry. As the storm came down, it started to trickle down into the living room. It left the two of them cold and wet and the couch smelling worse than before. The Butcher sighed as he curled into his sleeping bag on the couch, feeling a drop of water constantly pound his head.
He then saw something red enter his vision as the water stopped trickling onto his head. Looking over, he saw Sisky holding his umbrella between them. An umbrella that had been notorious for an ever-growing hole towards the center since Sisky bought it in a gas station a year and a half ago. “Not the best, but at least it’ll keep us drier than if we didn’t have it.”
“Maybe,” The Butcher said, kissing Sisky on the lips and squeezing his free hand. “But I appreciate it anyway.”
They kissed a few more times before curling up next to each other and drifting off to sleep, the sleeping bags between them and the umbrella above them.
A little while later (a few minutes or hours, they could never tell), The Butcher was awoken by sounds of rustling coming from somewhere in the house. Quietly, he nudged Sisky awake. “Baby... baby... do you hear that?”
Sisky stirred awake and looked at his boyfriend with groggy eyes. “Wuzzat?”
“Do you hear that? It sounds like there’s something in the house.”
The Butcher silenced himself as Sisky woke himself up, waiting for the sound again. When it came back, Sisky jerked up and looked around with a very paranoid look in his eye. “Okay... now I hear it.”
“Told you.”
Sisky rolled off the couch and shimmied out of the sleeping bag. The Butcher unzipped himself out and reached over for the bag they brought with them. As quickly and silently as possible, he fished around for a flashlight. “Any idea where it’s coming from?”
Sisky paused and listened for the rustling. It was silent for a few very long seconds, but when it happened again, Sisky quickly pointed at the kitchen door. “There.”
Pulling out the flashlight and flicking it on, The Butcher got up and shined the light towards the kitchen. He took Sisky’s hand and they slowly ventured into the kitchen. They looked around for a few seconds for anything or anyone that could be the cause of it. Suddenly, they heard a rustling from the opposite corner of the room. The Butcher quickly shined the light, waiting for a burglar or a wild animal to jump out.
Instead, it was something quite different.
Picking his head out of an abandoned box, a small brown mutt with one floppy ear looked up at them. Instead of running away, he just sat down and stared up at them, his tongue lolling as he panted. In a weird way, it looked like he was smiling up at the two.
As The Butcher stood in confusion, Sisky cooed and crouched down, holding his hand out to the dog. The dog trotted over to him, sniffed his hand and licked it. Sisky smiled and petted him on the head. “Well well, how did you get in here?”
“There’s probably a hole somewhere in here that he got in through,” The Butcher said, looking around with his flashlight. Sisky seemed to be more engrossed in the dog however, but The Butcher couldn’t blame him. It was a rather cute dog.
Suddenly, the rustling happened again. This time, from the upstairs. The three of them froze and looked up at the hole in the ceiling. The Butcher shined the flashlight up at it. “Hello?”
With a very loud squeak, a rather large and rabid squirrel jumped down from the master bedroom and onto the couple! Well, at least that was what The Butcher and Sisky would tell everyone later. They didn’t actually see the squirrel as they screamed bloody murder and dropped the flashlight.
The next thing they clearly remembered, however, was the squirrel running out of the kitchen and the dog chasing after it, barking loudly. As Sisky and The Butcher scrambled for the flashlight, they heard more barking, growling and squeaking. When Sisky finally grabbed a hold of the flashlight, there was a loud screeching noise, followed by a tense silence. After what felt like forever, the mutt trotted back into the kitchen, the dead body of the squirrel between his teeth. He dropped the squirrel on the floor and looked up at the two, the smile coming back to his face. The Butcher and Sisky looked at each other and smiled. “Well, it looks like we got ourselves a little guardian here,” said Sisky.
The Butcher then crouched down and took his turn petting the dog. “Who’s a good little squirrel killer? You are!”
The dog looked up at the Butcher and licked his hand. At that moment, The Butcher knew that his days here with Sisky could only go uphill.
-------------
After the first night, things did go uphill. Sure, there were still plenty of surprises to be had in the long process it took to fix the house. Like the opossum family living in the attic or that Butch Walker somehow knows everything if that unprompted package full of tools and gift cards was any indicator.
Still, with a lot of help, a lot of love, and a little bit of protection from the mutt known as SK, the house got done. Once in complete disrepair, the two had fixed up the place to not be just a place to live, but some place their strange little family, present and future, could call home.
And the first thing The Butcher put up in their new home was the triptych he had worked on in his spare time. The triptych of their first night in the quote-unquote “fixer-upper”.
The umbrella and the sofa, the smiling dog, and the rabid squirrel.
They didn’t make sense to anyone else, but it always made The Butcher and Sisky smile to see the symbols of a home well saved.
Author:
sweetnovicanePairing(s): Butcher/Sisky
Rating: PG
Warnings: Off screen death of a small animal
Word count: 1,769
Summary: In The Butcher and Sisky's house, there are three paintings above the fireplace. They tell the story of the first night they spent there, believe it or not...
Above the fireplace in the antique townhouse owned by Andy Mrotek and Adam T. Siska (who were more commonly known as The Butcher and Sisky respectively), there are three paintings. One of a red umbrella covering a sofa and leaking onto it, one of a grinning dog, and one of a rabid squirrel with crazy eyes and sharp claws.
The paintings seem unrelated, but according to The Butcher, they’re actually a triptych. A series of three paintings that are all related to each other. “It actually tells a story,” The Butcher would say. “A rather strange story, but a story none the less.”
Whether prompted or not, he would tell the story anyway. The story of the first night he and Sisky spent in the house and the insanity that followed.
-------------
“I know the description said ‘fixer upper’, but geez. How did you get this house again?”
The Butcher looked around the foyer of the house. It looked like it had been a very long time since anyone had set foot inside this house. The ceiling and the floor was cracking, various parts of the house were falling apart, and everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. “Well, I guess you could call it a know people who know people situation, but it’s not legal yet. Tonight is a trial run.”
Sisky nodded and looked around with wide eyes. “Well, I’m going to go scope out the upstairs. Make sure it’s safe. We’ll reconvene in fifteen minutes and you tell me about the downstairs.”
“You make it sound like a spy mission.”
“Well... yeah.”
“Hey, I’m not protesting. See you at 0200.”
Sisky grinned and kissed The Butcher on the cheek. Slowly, he started up the stairs and Butcher went for the living room. He heard a large crack of wood, but it was quickly followed by Sisky shouting, “I’m okay! I’m okay! Just avoid step number six. Though that should be pretty obvious.”
The Butcher shook his head at his boyfriend as he walked over to the fireplace. He brushed dust off the mantle as he looked around the room. It was in as much disrepair as the foyer. There was one solitary piece of furniture in the room, which was a ratty old sofa that looked like it would either break upon sitting on it or infect the sitter with some sort of unknown couch disease. The Butcher wasn’t ready to risk either.
This house never would have come to The Butcher’s attention if it hadn’t been for Sisky. For the past few years, they had been dating on and off, but it wasn’t until this past year that they had gotten super serious about it. Now they were ready to take the next step of moving in together, but they weren’t going to be content with moving into an apartment with one bedroom or a nice little house in the suburbs. They wanted something interesting. Something that could belong to them and only them.
Or at least be awesome if things didn’t work out.
When Butcher mentioned this to his brother, he immediately said that he knew a girl who was trying to sell her Grandmother’s old house. “She says it’s a fixer upper though.”
The Butcher just shrugged and said he’d look at it. How bad could it be?
He had the same thought when he actually talked to the girl, who constantly repeated that it was a fixer upper. Really, how bad could it be?
From what he had seen so far, this house went beyond ‘fixer upper’ and into ‘borderline condemnation’.
“Uhhh... Butcher... Adam... Baby,” shouted Sisky from upstairs, worry in his voice. “Can you meet me in the kitchen?”
“I thought you were upstairs?”
“I am.”
With a sudden pang of worry in his gut, The Butcher wandered out of the living room and through the doorway that lead to the kitchen. He froze when he saw the plaster splayed out all over the kitchen floor and Sisky’s head poking out from a rather large hole in the ceiling. “The rest of me is in the master bedroom. If we want to stay the night, we may have to camp out somewhere else.”
As Sisky said that, a roll of thunder was heard off in the distance. The Butcher sighed. “And preferably somewhere not as close to the rain. If the floor is like this, the ceiling must not be much better.”
They quickly camped out in the living room as the storm started, but it didn’t help them keep dry. As the storm came down, it started to trickle down into the living room. It left the two of them cold and wet and the couch smelling worse than before. The Butcher sighed as he curled into his sleeping bag on the couch, feeling a drop of water constantly pound his head.
He then saw something red enter his vision as the water stopped trickling onto his head. Looking over, he saw Sisky holding his umbrella between them. An umbrella that had been notorious for an ever-growing hole towards the center since Sisky bought it in a gas station a year and a half ago. “Not the best, but at least it’ll keep us drier than if we didn’t have it.”
“Maybe,” The Butcher said, kissing Sisky on the lips and squeezing his free hand. “But I appreciate it anyway.”
They kissed a few more times before curling up next to each other and drifting off to sleep, the sleeping bags between them and the umbrella above them.
A little while later (a few minutes or hours, they could never tell), The Butcher was awoken by sounds of rustling coming from somewhere in the house. Quietly, he nudged Sisky awake. “Baby... baby... do you hear that?”
Sisky stirred awake and looked at his boyfriend with groggy eyes. “Wuzzat?”
“Do you hear that? It sounds like there’s something in the house.”
The Butcher silenced himself as Sisky woke himself up, waiting for the sound again. When it came back, Sisky jerked up and looked around with a very paranoid look in his eye. “Okay... now I hear it.”
“Told you.”
Sisky rolled off the couch and shimmied out of the sleeping bag. The Butcher unzipped himself out and reached over for the bag they brought with them. As quickly and silently as possible, he fished around for a flashlight. “Any idea where it’s coming from?”
Sisky paused and listened for the rustling. It was silent for a few very long seconds, but when it happened again, Sisky quickly pointed at the kitchen door. “There.”
Pulling out the flashlight and flicking it on, The Butcher got up and shined the light towards the kitchen. He took Sisky’s hand and they slowly ventured into the kitchen. They looked around for a few seconds for anything or anyone that could be the cause of it. Suddenly, they heard a rustling from the opposite corner of the room. The Butcher quickly shined the light, waiting for a burglar or a wild animal to jump out.
Instead, it was something quite different.
Picking his head out of an abandoned box, a small brown mutt with one floppy ear looked up at them. Instead of running away, he just sat down and stared up at them, his tongue lolling as he panted. In a weird way, it looked like he was smiling up at the two.
As The Butcher stood in confusion, Sisky cooed and crouched down, holding his hand out to the dog. The dog trotted over to him, sniffed his hand and licked it. Sisky smiled and petted him on the head. “Well well, how did you get in here?”
“There’s probably a hole somewhere in here that he got in through,” The Butcher said, looking around with his flashlight. Sisky seemed to be more engrossed in the dog however, but The Butcher couldn’t blame him. It was a rather cute dog.
Suddenly, the rustling happened again. This time, from the upstairs. The three of them froze and looked up at the hole in the ceiling. The Butcher shined the flashlight up at it. “Hello?”
With a very loud squeak, a rather large and rabid squirrel jumped down from the master bedroom and onto the couple! Well, at least that was what The Butcher and Sisky would tell everyone later. They didn’t actually see the squirrel as they screamed bloody murder and dropped the flashlight.
The next thing they clearly remembered, however, was the squirrel running out of the kitchen and the dog chasing after it, barking loudly. As Sisky and The Butcher scrambled for the flashlight, they heard more barking, growling and squeaking. When Sisky finally grabbed a hold of the flashlight, there was a loud screeching noise, followed by a tense silence. After what felt like forever, the mutt trotted back into the kitchen, the dead body of the squirrel between his teeth. He dropped the squirrel on the floor and looked up at the two, the smile coming back to his face. The Butcher and Sisky looked at each other and smiled. “Well, it looks like we got ourselves a little guardian here,” said Sisky.
The Butcher then crouched down and took his turn petting the dog. “Who’s a good little squirrel killer? You are!”
The dog looked up at the Butcher and licked his hand. At that moment, The Butcher knew that his days here with Sisky could only go uphill.
-------------
After the first night, things did go uphill. Sure, there were still plenty of surprises to be had in the long process it took to fix the house. Like the opossum family living in the attic or that Butch Walker somehow knows everything if that unprompted package full of tools and gift cards was any indicator.
Still, with a lot of help, a lot of love, and a little bit of protection from the mutt known as SK, the house got done. Once in complete disrepair, the two had fixed up the place to not be just a place to live, but some place their strange little family, present and future, could call home.
And the first thing The Butcher put up in their new home was the triptych he had worked on in his spare time. The triptych of their first night in the quote-unquote “fixer-upper”.
The umbrella and the sofa, the smiling dog, and the rabid squirrel.
They didn’t make sense to anyone else, but it always made The Butcher and Sisky smile to see the symbols of a home well saved.
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no subject
Date: 2010-12-27 11:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-28 12:35 am (UTC)Sisky and Butcher are two of my faves!
♥
He totally would paint pictures of their first time at home to decorate their home, too. So presh, so presh.
Thanks a ton~!
♥ ♥ ♥
no subject
Date: 2010-12-28 06:38 am (UTC)