Work Text:
Shallow liked codes and computers. They were made of parts that hardly changed; they were (mostly) precise and extremely easy to understand. It was consistent.
“Hey there, pretty boy, could see you from a mile away with this hair. How're you doing?”
People weren't.
Usually it would take around two minutes for people to leave him alone if he fully ignored them. So he just sipped the smoking tea and went back to typing. The previous programmer was very messy, but there was some kind of chaotic pattern in there.
He just needed to find it.
“That color is sick, where did you dye it?”
Just one minute and thirty seconds, he could live with that.
“I'm thinking about making my own neon.” The girl sat in front of him.
There was a probability that it was a flirt, but he wasn't sure.
“I'm not interested in any type of hook ups today, you can leave.”
“That sure makes the job easier. But they are the ones who don't get the tip.”
He frowned and looked over his shoulder, there were a couple of men staring at them.
Annoying.
“Well, are you going to tell me who's the hair master that did your colors?”
He went back to work. “I did.”
A tally mark to wrong decisions, that made the girl talk non-stop, it didn't help that the place was getting more crowded and people were talking louder because of the music.
The letters on the screen were getting hard to read.
He picked the noise-cancelling earphones and put them on, he'd never be able to thank Sailor enough for the present. All the causes for headaches were gone in a second and Shallow was finally able to focus 100% in fixing the mess.
When he was done, the girl was still in front of him, tears in her eyes and saying things he couldn't hear. He wondered if she noticed the earphones, and if she did, why didn't she move away? His disinterest was crystal clear.
He called one of the bartenders, raising his hand and waiting for one of them to approach. The girl was clearly too immersed in her own story to pay attention to what he was doing. Until the waiter was next to him.
“A big portion of French fries, bacon and cheese aside.” He saw the waiter nodding, before leaving. “Go on.” He said to the woman, she perked up and gave a small smile, continuing to talk.
She looked better after eating most of the fries and having a couple of drinks, also a couple of people that she seemed to know arrived not long after. He took his chance and left.
Shallow approached the subway station and frowned, it was always extremely bright at night time. He opened one of the pockets and picked the sunglasses. There were colorful posters for the upcoming movies and musicals. He had still a minute, so he took a quick picture and sent it to Arachne.
S.H:
[Picture]
23:54 ✔✔
Mu5ic4l 4U
23:54 ✔✔
br4t:
It's Wicked
23:55 ✔✔
It could be gayer
23:55 ✔✔
S.H:
1f u s4y s0
23:55 ✔✔
The seats were too uncomfortable, stiff and pointy. He leaned onto the pole, grasping at it with one hand. Dirty as it was, touching it the least was always better.
Shallow counted seventeen people entering and leaving the car between departure and arrival. He left and despite the empty space, a person managed to bump into him. They mouthed something, he probably thought it was an apology, so just nodded and continued his way out.
He just wanted to arrive home, but he had to walk five blocks to arrive. He wondered when scientists would come with the answer to teleportation, it would facilitate a lot. Being able to travel across space would lead to a lot less unwanted encounters.
Shallow picked the keys and opened the door, there was light flickering in the living room, mom and Sai were probably watching a movie. He went directly upstairs to shower and put on clean pajamas, after everything was organized he went back downstairs carrying a blanket around his body.
Sailor waved the moment she saw he was there, he nodded and sat by her side. The documentary was talking about the first rover on Mars, he smiled and took off his earphones for the first time in hours. The sound was very low, just enough to listen and the subtitles were on anyway.
His sister gently tapped on his knee, he glanced at her.
[Popcorn?] She signed, he arched an eyebrow. [Please?]
He stared at her. [Seriously?] She gave a smile and blinked a lot, Shallow huffed and got up. [Salty or sweet?]
[You know the answer]
[I do, ant] He signed and went to make her favorite.
What wouldn't he do for her after all?
Hum…
Flirt.
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