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<br/>​</div><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">Given time, Ian would have probably discovered that Daxon Ripley was a pretty cheap date if he'd hooked up with him for their evening out. Maybe Ian would have found out that he BMX champion was an easy to please,<i> no-frills </i>kind of guy. There was a saying that Dax lived by:<i> the best things in life are free. </i>Life was filled with simple pleasures, the little satisfying effects a person could never really anticipate, but always took great pleasure in.<br/>
<br/>
They were the gifts of life that everyone subconsciously celebrated in their own unique way. Dax knew that there were so many little ways he could create happiness, but he thought there was also something to be said about enjoying the simple pleasures in life that already existed in his day. When he took the time to really relish those moments when they presented themselves, he found that the simple pleasures were what brought great happiness to his life.<br/>
<br/>
If Dax thought of simple pleasures, he thought of all the little things he enjoyed that either didn’t cost a thing or were very inexpensive. These most unassuming moments were the things he truly found taking immense pleasure in. Some simple pleasures were riding his bike on the Pacific Coast Highway. Dax would ride on a clear, sunny day when he could see the monolithic like boulders jut out of the ocean as the Pacific's blue waves crashed into them. The scenery reminded him of something he once saw in National Geographic. But there it was live, right before his eyes.<br/>
<br/>
Or when Dax went  on a people watching spree at Santa Monica Pier. Dax would sit there on a bench where he could see people coming and going in every direction. Tall people, small people, thin and plump. Blond, brunette, and redhead alike. Each of them had a different stride and a unique expression on their faces. As his blue gaze drifted from person to person he was always mesmerized by what he saw.<br/>
<br/>
Sometimes Dax would get really lucky and catch a glimpse of a buff guy wearing a Speedo on the beach. Getting a chance to see a bit more skin than he was expecting to see, he couldn’t help but to smirk on the inside. He'd pass Dax on the beach or on the pier.  He'd glance up at Dax momentarily, making direct eye contact in a way that seems to communicate a subtle curiosity.  For a split second it made him think… and then it was gone.<br/>
</span><br/><i><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">Or when he took the first sip of a beverage when thirsty, and the sheer bliss of the icy coldness sliding down a parched throat.<br/>
<br/>
Or when he and his friends went skinny dipping, and how liberating it felt being naked in the water.</span></i><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff"></span><br/><i><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">Or when Dax blazed through a yellow light at an intersection before it turned red.</span></i><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff"><br/>
<i>Or when Dax put on clothes straight from the dryer and could feel the warmth against his skin</i>.<br/>
<br/>
There were plenty of other simple pleasures that made Daxon Ripley tick, things that made him happy. How he longed for one of those moments right now. This wasn't a <i>sleeping in on a rainy day </i>moment, or the <i>warm, euphoric feeling he felt after having sex</i>. He was completely naked in Ian's bed, he reeked of something dead or dying mixed with puke and the only thirst he had just  been quenched by chomping down on seven helpless guinea pigs from Petco that were better suited to become someone's pet.<br/>
</span><br/><i><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">Not their dinner.</span></i><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff"><br/>
Dax smelled blood that wasn't his, human sweat and something else. Foreign and musky, with a heartbeat that soon matched Ian's. A tall man the amber shade of prairie grass. Dressed sharply, Milo might have been a guy that Dax would have been checking out the rear view of as he passed at Santa Monica Pier. Maybe it was the way Milo's shocked laugh escaped between his full lips while Dax consumed what was in the <i>rodent to-go boxes</i>, maybe it was the disgusted commentary that followed immediately after that.<br/>
<br/>
Dax's pretty blue eyes rolled, and he made an irritated huffing sound in his throat. "What a fucking <i>retard. </i>Nice friend, Doc. I need a shower, then I'm rolling out of here. I don't need this shit."<br/>
<br/>
His eyes locked with Milo's and whatever was in the recesses of his eyes, wasn't friendly or remotely human. In a state of denial obviously, Dax elegantly slid free of the bed that he'd spent the last few days morphing, ignoring the danger present behind Milo's gaze. Moving to Ian's en-suite bathroom, he was stopped by Ian, who placed his hand on his shoulder as he tried to offer him some reassurance.<br/>
</span><br/><i><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">“Daxon, look at me,” he started, his voice strangely soothing despite the worry in his eyes from the downward knit brows. “You were attacked a few days ago by something. But I want you to listen to me – really listen to me, kid. You’re going to be OK. How do you feel now? Hungry still?”</span></i><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff"><br/>
Daxon stared blankly at him, masking his irritation briefly as his human eyes flickered between serpentine ones. "I guess this is where you tell me that you did everything you could to stop it from attacking me, and I jump into your arms and act all thankful? I just ate fucking guinea pigs, dude. DO YOU THINK THATS OKAY? Brohem over there just called called me a fucking disgusting snake, and I don't even know him! Well who are you? Better yet, WHAT ARE YOU? Bunch of fucking weirdos."<br/>
<br/>
Wrenching himself away from Ian's touch, Dax reached the bathroom, and slammed the door in his face with a resounding bang and locked it. He wasn't going to brood over Milo's insult, but turned the shower on so he could get cleaned up and try to block out his fear of the unknown before he started freaking out, and the conversation between the two non-humans in the other room. Whatever they were, they weren't human either and Dax was sure that a locked bathroom door wouldn't stop either one of them from breaking the door down to get their point across.<br/>
<br/>
Simple pleasure number four: The tingly feeling in your skin when warm water hits it in the shower, and the familiar smell of Old Spice Body wash while scrubbing the dirty feeling away. If Ian Callaghan and his buddy Milo thought that the sheets and the bed needed fumigation, Daxon Ripley thought he needed a Brillo pad to scrape his epidermis off so he could return to his former state.<br/>
</span><br/><i><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">Which was futile now.</span></i>