a match into water // v.f.

You would have thought that after growing up and living in Florida for most of her life that Dean would have been used to a lot of sun and any sort of unnatural brightness it brought. You would have also thought that people wouldn't be so ignorant to the "end of the world" bullshit the Mayan Apocalypse had brought into the world*, yet we still have people parading around those dumb cardboard signs of theirs, so there's that.

Dean and the Sun did not mix well. There's was an unwritten agreement between the two of them that they would stay away from each other as much as possible in order for them both to live in peace, and yet when Dean woke up the next morning with the sun shining right into her eyes, she not only felt annoyed but betrayed. The one time she was actually able to sleep in was ruined, and as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, only one thought crossed her mind:

The Sun was a dick and should be avoided at all costs. That, and you should never make a deal with any sort of Sun no matter what; they'll just stab you in the back or burn you to a crisp or even shine their brightest ray of light right into your fucking eyes when you're trying to get your beauty sleep.

Grumbling this and many other colorful expletives, Dean begrudingly sat up from the small sofa in her living room and looked around the apartment. She quickly decided that she needed to invest in some curtains for the living room at least, and judging by the slight crick in her neck, she also needed to go buy a bed sometime in the near future. But first, before she did anything else important in the day, she needed to make herself some coffee, and lots of it. At least half a pot. Her bare feet padded across the tile floor of her apartment as she made her way towards the small kitchen provided in her apartment, which was beginning to feel like more of a loft than anything, and as she reached the box where she knew her coffee pot was stored, she quickly came to the realization that she had no coffee to put into her beloved coffee pot.

This realization woke Dean up faster than any cup of coffee would have, and if you were to take a look at her face, you would have seen the absolute horror written across her features. How could she do this to herself? Remember to pack the coffee pot but not even bother to pack the damned coffee? She didn't know who she was anymore, and the thought of not having at least one cup of coffee in the morning was enough to bring a few tears to her eyes.

Dean needed to fix this problem ASAP. No man or woman could live without coffee, she reasoned, especially this white haired, tattooed woman who barely hit the 5'3" marker. Her first thought was to just wander out of the apartment building to go find a cafe or even- god forbid -some form of a Starbucks, but that was when she also realized that even though she was living in Downtown San Diego, she had no fucking clue where anything was. She vaugely remembered passing a Starbucks on the way to her apartment, but that was near the bus stop she got off of. Going there would have required her to take a taxi, and even then, there was no way Dean was hailing a cab and paying some sort of ridiculous fee just for her to jump in and say "Take me to the nearest Starbucks- stat!"

She shook her head at the notion. Dean didn't have much dignity left, and this was a new city where only one person knew her name. There was no way she was losing all of her dignity this early, especially to a cab driver in her desperate attempt to get her morning cup of coffee. Dean was just going to have to get creative in her ways of getting her caffinated drink, and if it meant aimlessly wandering the streets of San Diego to get it, then so be it.

That was when she got an idea. A possibly horrible idea, but an idea nonetheless. Quickly double checking her phone to make sure that it wasn't some ungodly hour in the morning, she opened up her phone and called the first, and only, contact she could find in her phone.
The phone rang a couple of times on the other line before the person picked up, and even before Dean could offer up a quick 'good morning', a grumpy, tired voice cut her off with an exasperated sigh and quickly spewed off, "Mike, I love you and everything, but it is way too early for you shit-"

Dean tried her best not to laugh at her neighbor's brash greeting and decided to tease him a bit instead. "Damn Vic, I know that I have a typically gender specific name, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you call me whatever guy name you feel like. And while I'm touched that you love me-"

"Wait, Dean?" Vic asked into the phone, sounding a bit surprised and maybe a little embarrassed as he realized who was on the other side of the phone.

"The one and only. Although, while we're on the subject, I think I'm actually going to go by Mike today-"

"Oh my god I am so sorry," Vic quickly apologized, a soft rustling sound sounding on his side of the line, "my brother has been calling non-stop this morning and I didn't bother checking who it was before picking up."

This time, Dean didn't even bother to hold back her amused chuckle. "No, I get it, it's fine," she told him, "but if this is a bad time or anything,-"

"No! No, it's fine," Vic reassured Dean, a bit more rustling happening on his side of line and the conversation continued. "I gave you my number for a reason, so what's up?"

"I need to know where a few things are around town," Dean admitted, leaning up against the kitchen counter, "specifically, a coffee shop-" Dean also realized that it wouldn't hurt to go buy actual coffee to put in her machine along with getting a few groceries to put in her fridge so she wouldn't starve to death. "-and a grocery store would be nice, too."

A brief moment of silence came from Vic's end of the line, along with a few muffled noises, before he finally answered her. "Well, I can show you all of those things and more," he offered. "In fact, if you're up for it, I can take you on that grand tour around town that I promised you. You know, show you where all the important things are and even show you some of the sites if you want to get a little tourist-y."

A bit of a smile found it's way across Dean's face at the offer, and she found herself shrugging at his words before finally remembering that he wasn't actually there and couldn't see her. "Um, yeah, that actually sounds kind of nice," she said, "but isn't it a bit late to do the tourist-y stuff? I mean, I'm assuming tourist season is over for you guys-"

"Yeah, but this is the best time of year to be a tourist!" he exclaimed. "I mean, yeah it's too cold to go to the beach, but there's so many other places around town that are going to be a lot more fun to go to now that they aren't infested with every sort of Hawaiian t-shirt known to man."

Dean laughed at that comment, easily imagining the stereotypical tourist dressed in their Hawaiian t-shirt and khaki shorts wandering the streets of San Diego and just generally being a nuisance to the locals, something she was sure she was going to experience in a good six months or so.

"Well," Dean began, a mock sigh falling from her lips, "if you really insist that this is the best time to go sightseeing, then I guess I'll just trust you to be a good tour guide-"

"Excuse you, but I'll have you know I am an excellent tour guide," Vic sassed, causing the white haired girl to chuckle in surrender and quickly reassure her neighbor that she was sure he really as good as he said he was, to which Vic huffed and mumbled "You're damn right I am."

"Yeah yeah." Although he couldn't see her, Dean still rolled her eyes a little and waved off his words. "So when are you available today to take me around town?"

More shuffling happened in the background of the other line before a reply came. "Um, how about right now?" Vic suggested. "I don't have anything going on right now, although I might have something later on tonight, but we can worry about that when we get to it."

Dean shrugged. "Alright, sounds good to me." That was when she finally remembered all she had on was her night clothes, and she assumed baggy sweats and a Pikachu tank top was not appropriate for the outing planned for today. "Actually, do you think you could give me a few minutes? I still need to change out of my pajamas and find my wallet."

"Yeah, of course," Vic replied. "There's no rush Dean."

"Awesome, I'll be over in less than 30 minutes," Dean reassured, the two neighbors exchanging a brief farewell before hanging up. Dean immediately scrambled back to the her new bedroom and tore open the suitcase she hadn't bothered to unpack, searching through her many articles of clothing for something appropriate for sightseeing.

A brief thought in the back of her mind wondered why she was so nervous about picking out a decent, well thought outfit, and momentarily, she didn't know either, but that still didn't stop her from deciding which flannel looked good with which shirt.

Ten minutes later, she had ditched the flannels and decided on a grey hoodie instead. Dean also grabbed the first pair of skinny jeans she could find, shimmied into those, and then slipped on her beat-up Vans before going on a frantic search for her wallet. It took her an extra five minutes to find her precious wallet, which Dean thought was ridiculous considering she hadn't even unpacked all her stuff yet, and happened to stumble across a random beanie that she decided would work more in her favor than attempting to put proper effort into hair. With one last look in mirror to check over her appearance, she grabbed her phone and keys and headed out the door. Of course, it barely took thirty seconds to cross over to Vic's apartment, and once she was there to announce her arrival, it didn't take long for the newly familiar face to appear in the doorway.

"Dean, hey!" A bright grin adorned Vic's face as he greeted her, opening the door a bit more and stepping behind it for a moment. "Just give me a moment to grab my keys and then we'll get going."

Dean nodded her response, and within a matter of seconds, the two neighbors were walking down the hall towards the exit. "Thanks again for doing this Vic," she spoke once they were both in the confines of the elevator. "I don't know what I'd be doing without you, honestly."

"I'm happy to help," Vic responded, giving her a polite smile. "Besides, I know what it's like to go to a new place and not know where anything is, so I really don't mind showing you at least the basics."

Dean nodded, silent for a moment before asking, "So I take it you've moved around a lot, then?"
Vic shook his head. "No, I've lived in San Diego all my life actually, but my job requires me to travel around a lot, and sometimes I stay in one place for months at a time, so there's that."

"Sounds nice," Dean remarked, the elevator finally reaching the bottom floor and letting the two passengers step out into the lobby. "Your job, I mean."

"Yeah, it is pretty cool," he admits, a bit of a smile on his face as he thought about his so-called job. "Even though it can be tiring at times, I get to do what I love for a living, so it never really feels like a job, you know?"

Dean wished she knew that feeling, but she still gave a polite nod in response. The two continued their journey out to wherever Vic had parked his car, and after a moment or so, Dean finally asked the question her brain kept bugging her with. "If you don't mind me asking," she began, "what do you do for a living?"

Vic was beginning to wonder when she would ask about his job, and even though he was a little hesitant to delve into the specifics of it, he figured she would find out eventually, so he might as well as tell her all of it now. "I'm a musician," he told her, absentmindedly twirling his car keys around his index finger. "To be more specific, I play guitar and sing in a band."

Stunned wasn't exactly the word Dean would use to describe how she felt, but she definitely was impressed. Being in a band was no easy feat, and if Vic was traveling as much as he implied, then his band definitely had at some decent traction. "Dude, that's awesome!" she enthused. "I definitely want to check you guys out now- what's the name of the band?"

"Pierce The Veil," Vic replied, and he would've had to have been blind to see Dean's jaw all of the sudden drop to the floor.

If Dean was impressed before, now she was flabbergasted. A wild grin spread across her face as the sudden excitement bubbled up inside of her. "No shit!" she exclaimed. "Dude, I used to listen to you guys back in '07! A Flair For The Dramatic was my jam back in the day- God that album was great."

Dean rambled on a bit more about how much she loved that first PTV album, and Vic couldn't help but smile at her words. Not only was it great to see people rave about him and his bandmates' hardwork, but it was entertaining to watch how his neighbor's face lit up as she went on about music. He came to the conclusion that music meant as much to her as it did to him, and as she went on to talk about the use of the different peddles and other effects used, he started to wonder if she wasn't a musician as well.

Dean was about to dive into the story about how she loved Wonderless so much she learned and made her own part for it on piano when she realized that she was probably starting to come off as some sort of crazed fangirl to her new neighbor. Well, that and they were at said neighbor's car, but mainly she started to shut up so she wouldn't drive away the closest thing she had to a friend in this place. "And yeah, that album was pretty cool..." An awkward chuckle came out of the small, white haired girl in front of Vic, and if it weren't for the blue beanie adorning the top of her head, she would have raked a nervous hand through her unruly hair. Vic saw how quickly his neighbor was beginning to shut down, and he immediately launched into his own string of words to save the conversation between them.

"Actually it's kind of nice to hear how much you love the album," Vic admitted, offering Dean a soft, reassuring smile. "That being said, it kind of hurts that you only used to like the band." Dean rolled her eyes a little at the teasing tone "What happened? Did we suck that much with Selfish Machines?"

Dean shook her head, shyly looking back up from the ground and saying, "I don't know, my life just sort of blew up and things got...well, they got busy." Dean wanted to scowl at the memories of the past few years, but decided to cover that up with a light joke instead. "I did, however, listen to the second album a couple of times and it was alright-"

Vic placed a dramatic hand over his heart. "Just 'alright'?" He sighed and shook his head in misery. "Dean, you're killing me over here."

Dean let out a soft chuckle and lightly pat Vic's arm in comfort. "Don't worry, I'll listen to it again and let you know what I think about it now."

"Thank you," he replied, faking a sniffle and wiping a false tear from his eye. "Oh, and while you're at it, I want to hear your thoughts on our third album too-"

"THERE'S A THIRD ONE?!"

Vic chuckled at the girl's outburst and returned the comforting pat given to him just moments ago. "Yep, it got released in October." Dean didn't reply right away and Vic took that as his cue to finally get them going for the day. "C'Mon, I'll explain the rest in the car. We've got a lot to catch you up on, and we have all the time in the world to do it."

Notes

Hello again! So just in case you couldn't tell, this story is set circa late 2012/leading into 2013, just a little while after Collide With The Sky came out. I had almost thought about switching eras but I had already put my heart and soul into this era with my first draft of this story that I decided I just couldn't switch it up like that. So yeah, I have lots of cool ideas with this storyline/timeline so stayed tuned for the next chapter!