Work Text:
Their eyes met on a train ride which shouldn't have happened.
Not to them, at least.
The trans-European rail journey was from Budapest to Paris, where they were supposed to disembark. He was taking a flight back home; she was staying - she lived there.
But their eyes met and something just… happened.
“If I ask you to get down this train with me, and spend the day walking through the streets of this unknown city, would you join me?”
“Who said it is an unknown city?”
“It is to me.”
“It is to me as well” and he flashed the brightest smile she’d ever seen in her entire life. “I just don’t like people jumping to conclusions about me”.
“I didn’t jump to conclusions”, he argued. “I was merely taking a guess”. An eyebrow raised slightly. “Acorrect guess, if I dare say so”.
She leaned back on her seat, across from him at the table they were sharing at the restaurant car, and turned her head to look at the scenery, contemplating his request. She was hardly this bold – in reality she never talked to strangers, usually pretending she had a hearing disability or simply burying herself in a book.
But this time, she can’t quite explain. This other couple, sitting two of three rows from her was arguing loudly. She couldn’t understand because they were fighting in German, and she doesn’t speak a word of it, but the angriness, the sharpness was there. She could recognize it in any language: they were the same coming out of her when she broke up with her long-time boyfriend not so long ago.
She wanted to kill him, if she was being honest. But she simply turned away and closed the door, never looking back.
And right now she was damn glad she didn’t do it, or else she would’ve been in jail instead of catching sight of this handsome stranger staring at her staring at the quarreling couple. Her eyes narrowed at him, and he just shrugged, hands motioning if she understood what that was all about.
She shrugged back and he snorted, looking down at his feet. She took the hint and went back to her reading, the woman and the man still spewing things at each other every now and then. She was too absorbed to notice her surroundings when all of a sudden, she heard a throat being cleared.
“Sorry if this seems too forward, but I felt like you and I shared a little connection a while back, so I came here to ask if you’d like to grab a little coffee with me and then we could try to decipher whatever it was that those two were talking about”.
She closed the book with a loud thump. “It is too forward”. He inhaled sharply, hints of regret sprouting across his features.
“Lucky for you, it is time for my afternoon caffeine fix”.
His smirk would have her tripping on her feet, if she wasn’t still sitting.
Two cups of coffee between casual chat – he told her his name was Hans, she took his hand in hers, shook and said she was called Elsa. She also found out Hans was apparently going through the same heartbreak she was – he traveled to see his girlfriend but when he got there, she had already met someone new, apologized and said she wished only the best for him. “Wow, that’s tough”, and he shrugged yet again, just a small lift of shoulders (which she would notice that it was a nervous, adorable tick), and replied that no, that was life, and remained silent for some time. Her hands were already fidgeting on her lap when he asked her to hop off the train with him. And even though she took her time to answer, tearing her gaze away from his, her mind was already made.
A few moments later, they were standing on the doorway waiting for the train to stop.
Ten o’clock, bus ride, bus stop, storming inside old records store, listening to Tom Waits and Joan Mitchell, leaving the store, walking across a square – no trees, no benches, too many pigeons, she told him and he agreed – more pavements, so many people, street food, finding a pub, sharing some beers and thoughts and stories and so much more.
Elsa knew, Hans knew.
No one dared to say it out loud.
Night fell. More food, more walking, more drinking – wine this time, red wine, she told him she always thought white wine tasted like piss, to which he wondered if she had ever tasted piss.
“Have you?” was her reply, as he chuckled and told her it was okay, he wasn’t going to pressure her into admitting it now. When she lifted a quizzical eyebrow he stated he already knew the answer, and Elsa smacked him on the arm, hard.
Hans never laughed so much in what it seemed like months. Maybe it was the wine, the city, the talk.
Maybe it was simply her.
Their eyes met again, lying on the deep green grass of the park swaying like waves on a peaceful ocean, the wind blowing a sweet soothing song, the sky so dark and the stars so bright and sparkling, and their hands entwined, lips curved into a smile.
“I knew I wanted to sleep with you the moment I got off that train”, Elsa whispered.
“Really?” Hans’ voice cracked just slightly.
“But now we’ve talked so much I’m not sure I want to do it anymore”, and they burst into laughter, a single damn escaping him.
“Do you think it is wise?” she asked, turning to her side to face him, fingers brushing his thick sideburn.
His hand was resting on her waist, and he scooped an inch closer. “The question is: do you want to?”
Not trusting her own voice, Elsa just nodded. And then, their lips met for the first time.
They stayed like that all through the night, savoring each other, memorizing every curve, taking in every gasp, cherishing every moan. Hans tasted her, took her. Elsa enraptured him, clasped him.
They claimed each other over and over again.
Sleep didn’t come, but the hours ran. Soon it was morning again, and the spell should be broken.
It was time to break apart.
They got up; fixing themselves hastily, silence burdening. The station wasn’t very far.
“This is it”.
“This is it”.
“This is a goodbye, then”.
“Do you want it to be a goodbye?”
“No”.
“Neither do I”.
The voice in the speaker urged the passengers into the train, the heavy trots of hurried forms all around them.
Their eyes met like they were always supposed to.
“You are going to miss your plane”.
“You are going to miss your train”.