Work Text:
Eli was finding it hard to concentrate at work. Winter had crawled its way across Merit and everyone seemed overcome with a frozen stupor. He had to spend an extra 30 minutes getting his car to start this morning since the engine was too cold. His boss had even been kind enough to shove two additional fresh stacks of paperwork onto his desk just before his shift was due to end. Filing medical records was beginning to get dull, and he couldn’t help but wonder how long it would take for him to get a promotion. If only he had funding for his private research papers, he could be rid of this mindless desk job. Eli’s thoughts wander as he starts to methodically work through the new sets of data, dwelling on the past month, how he still hasn’t worked up the courage to actually ring Victor up and ask for that dinner. He’d seen little of his neighbor since the ill-fated soup incident, although he noticed his bushes had suddenly started remaining a lot better trimmed. Victor's job must have required him to wake up earlier, since Eli never saw him leave the house, simply watched as he slunk home under cover of darkness, dressed rather unfashionably in a white lab coat (he thought black suited him much better.) Eli supposed Victor would make a rather good mad scientist, he certainly had the aura for it. He’d had half a mind to go and knock on the man's door for weeks, but hardly ever made it near enough to try. He was hindered both by life, and his irrational nerves. Maybe it was the fact Victor was rich (and good looking), or maybe it was just his icy stare.
He was supposed to have a half shift since it’s Friday, but by the time Eli manages to get through all his work, it is long past noon. The clock on the wall helpfully reads 14:30, reminding him of his wasted day. He practically dashes to the elevator, feeling relief wash over him as the sounds of the office fade further and further away.
The drive home is peaceful, although it seems to have snowed a lot since morning. White flakes drift down through the air, accompanying the biting chill of a winter's afternoon. Eli slides down the roads, watching steam curl from the engine of his car as the pale landscape flies by. It’s only when he reaches his street that he stops the car. Piles of snow have mounted outside the houses, trapping many unlucky residents inside. Snowflakes whirl around, taunting those who are stuck watching the outside world from behind their frosted glass.
Eli swears under his breath. “Shit.”
When did I forget to take out the grit? He curses himself for not predicting the inevitability of his driveway freezing over. With the current weather, it looks like the only way to clear all the snow and ice is through the good old fashioned method of shoveling. Eli parks his car on the curb and grabs the snow shovel he left in the lockbox by the garage. Time to get to work.
—
Victor watches as Eli methodically shovels snow from the front of his house. He enjoys observing people, like a cat watching a mouse. He’d heard the sound of a struggling car engine earlier that afternoon and wanted to see what all the fuss was about. The last thing he expected was to see his neighbor, in nothing but jeans, a dress shirt and a sweater vest, shoveling snow determinedly from his driveway. He was impressed the guy even managed to make it to work that morning- Victor's car doors had iced over so he thought it best to just stay home. He supposed that was just one of the luxuries he could afford in life; Eli probably relied on his job, Victor simply liked the feeling of accomplishment, a minor freedom away from his parents. As far as he knew, Eli had no relatives or a family supporting him. All alone inside his lavish house, Victor often wondered what it would have been like if things with his parents were different, if they had been less, well, difficult. Of course, Victor had been paying for hedge trimmers to come weekly for almost a month now to stave off their wrath, but Eli didn’t need to know about that. Besides, he seemed to have scared him off, since they had barely spoken since. The other residents on their street regarded him with a strange curiosity, but also fear, so he’d stayed mostly to himself these past weeks. This didn’t bother Victor, he was never much of a people person after all.
Light flakes of snow dust Eli’s hair as he works, clearing his driveway. Victor watches through the window until his fingertips grow cold on the windowsill and he turns back to the warm interior of his kitchen. He runs a hand through his hair, sighing as he rummages through cupboards for the kettle. He should really stop focusing on a man he’d talked to for less than an hour, on one single occasion. It’s not as if they were friends, or anything really. He didn’t dabble with religious sorts anyway. Even if he is interested in medicine and has peculiar opinions. And he seems like he’s hiding something, Victor thinks. He switches on the tap and puts the kettle on boil.
He’s watched Eli around the other residents, the way his face lights up, always polite, endlessly charming. He’s also glimpsed through Eli through the window, intently gazing at his laptop with a fiery passion. He can see a little bit of himself in him, the way a sharpness lurks about his actions, no matter how hard he tries to disguise it. If only Victor was as socially adept as Eli, life would be so much simpler. If Eli was like a dog, attentive and easily likable, then Victor was a cat, independent and moody, an acquired taste. The kettle hisses loudly, bringing him back into the moment. He fetches a mug and taps some hot chocolate powder into it, watching as it dusts the air. He is craving something warm and sweet. He sits down at the kitchen counter and slowly sips at his drink, the warmth filling him instantly with a sense of satisfaction.
The sound of snow crunching under metal has stopped from outside. Victor can’t recall how much time has passed since he last heard the scrape of snow and gravel. He abandons his cup half empty, and makes his way back towards the window.
—
Eli doesn’t remember how long it’s been since he started anymore. He’s made progress and his arms are stiff from shoveling. He wipes a frozen hand on his forehead, stepping back to look at his handiwork. He sighs, not even half of the area has been cleared. He pauses, looking back at his car. Is it really worth it? Is anyone really going to use the road today? Eli supposes he could just call it a day, retreat into his house, but his greater sense of do-goodery prevents him from leaving his car parked in the middle of the neighborhood's only road. He can’t bring himself to cause any more trouble, especially where property is involved. He gives in to a little temptation and goes to get his house key anyway. The emphasis here is on tries. The door to his car has frozen shut in the past hour he’s been outside, and his hands are so numb from the cold he can’t get a solid enough grip to wrench it open. Just great , he thinks. With a huff of annoyance, Eli picks the shovel back up and continues to work.
His jeans are soaked through but he doesn’t care. The only thing he can focus on is shoveling, the slosh of snow as it falls into tidy white piles, the snowflakes settling over every part of him. Eli doesn’t recall stopping, but at some point he finds himself sitting there on the cold, wet ground, staring off into the distance. Along the way he began to lose the meaning of his task to begin with. Overworked, overtired and stressed for no reason over a stupid suggestion from weeks ago, Eli has had enough. He lets himself sink into the snow, hardly feeling the cold now that he’s been outside for so long. He looks from the pale blue sky over to his house, waiting silently for his return. He starts to look over at Victor's house and he notices a curtain quickly swishing closed. He stares back at the sky, closing his eyes, letting the cold seep into him. He feels grounded, and his thoughts settle into nothing.
Thump. Something warm and heavy hits Eli in the face, waking him from his frozen trance. He sits up, shaking off the object.
“Hey! Who threw that-“
Eli pauses, he’s staring face to face with his neighbor, who is wearing a rather unamused expression upon his face.
“Aren’t you going to put it on?”
It takes a minute for Eli to realize he means the thing that was violently thrown at him. Turns out it is a rather nice black overcoat, which seems to be wool judging by the weight. He frowns, reluctant.
“Why do you think I’m cold? I’m perfectly fine.”
He doesn’t know why he’s being so impolite with Victor… who can probably very clearly see him shivering through his shirt. Unexpectedly, Victor just leaves him there. He turns around and walks right back into his house, shutting the door quietly behind him. By this point the light has started to dip below the trees, and a warm orange spreads across the clouds like rays of fire. Eli takes a suspicious glance around before quickly shrugging the coat on. It feels warm and the lining is soft, it's a very nice coat. He lies back down on the snow, calm settling over him again- although this time he can actually feel his limbs. He’d have been content to just lie there, a smudge of black and white on the snowy concrete, the faint smell of pine wafting from the wool. Eli closes his eyes, but after a few moments he hears the snow lightly crunch behind him again.
“You’re going to get my coat wet.”
Victor's cool voice slides through the air, its tone flat and unamused. Eli ignores him. Another crunch and he feels the presence of the other man beside him in the snow. He opens his eyes to find Victor crouched next to him, arms crossed disapprovingly. Notably, he has no jacket, only his usual black turtleneck. Looking down at himself, Eli can guess where it went. He sits up with a reluctant sigh.
“Can’t you see I’m trying to zone out here? It’s been a long day.”
Victor cocks his head in curiosity. Then he smiles, cunningly.
“How’s the snow shoveling been treating you?”
Eli throws a glare back, dragging himself to his feet. As if to prove a point, he heads straight back to his car, reaching out to the door with confidence.
“As a matter of fact I was just about to go in-“
He tries to pull at his car door, once, twice… in vain. His cold hands feel numb against the metal and everything slides off when he tries to get a good grip. He can feel Victor staring at him from behind, and it only makes him more nervous and determined to succeed. After a few seconds of huffing and puffing he relents.
“Well, fuck. The car door is still frozen shut.”
Eli grabs his hair frustratedly in his hands, pacing back and forth in agitation. He’d not only failed at being dismissive, but now he’d made a fool of himself too. His avoidance strategy was not working at all. All the while? Victor is watching him intently with that infuriating shit eating grin, probably finding the whole ordeal very amusing. Furthermore, he doesn’t even look that cold, much to Eli’s disappointment. Victor walks over to the car, standing right next to him. Eli can feel the warmth coming from him as Victor's hand brushes his when he reaches for the handle. He also tries in vain, but no luck, the door is still frozen closed.
“You weren’t kidding. That has no chance of opening. What did you do? Leave your house keys in the car?”
Eli looks downwards in shame, just in time to hear Victor's quiet huff of laughter.
“I don’t think I can stand watching you mope out here in the cold any longer. Why don’t you just come over until the weather clears up. I even made some hot chocolate.”
Eli pauses, was he genuinely being invited next door again? Even after ignoring Victor for weeks, even after his big display just now?
He didn’t think he could ever hope to understand this man's logic. He pulls Victor's coat tighter around him and looks him straight in the eyes for the first time that afternoon.
“Yeah ok. Thanks.”
Somehow this feels like admitting defeat, surrendering to the other man's wishes. Of course, Eli can't really know what Victor was thinking at that moment.
—
There was no logic behind his actions. Victor was giving into his impulses that afternoon, having first decided to offer his coat to Eli- it wasn’t out of pity for him, it wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart (what little he had left). It was more like the insatiable desire to see what happened next. Was Eli so determined in his task that he would simply continue? Or could Victor somehow twist the narrative, could he influence his fate? Call it what you will, an experiment, an observation, another one of Victor's curious habits. He couldn’t have predicted what happened next.
It was both a win and a loss, he had concluded. Eli had reluctantly taken the coat, but only after he thought Victor wasn't there (and naturally he was still watching all along). He concluded that Eli prided independence and self sufficiency, he didn’t wish to rely on anyone, he liked to work alone. This was a very favorable conclusion, one that Victor knew all too well. Eli Cardale was hiding something, he was sure of it. Lying down in the snow, he saw a man in conflict, a polite stranger warring with something darker, something sharper. He realized it would be hard to befriend him, even harder to gain his trust, but for once Victor wanted to try. He sighs, if only Eli had more confidence to reach out, yet again it seems like he would have to make the first move.
He could almost laugh at the fact the only way to get Eli anywhere successfully seemed to be offering him food. Thankfully, after nearly an hour and a half of slowly laying out his plan for interaction, Eli accepts his offer to come over. Except, now that he had him in the house, he realizes he isn’t as confident in socializing as he initially thought. He really only interacted with work colleagues, and usually on business terms: cool, calm, efficient. He could always make an effort to be nicer, but what's the point in trying to get someone to like you if the person you present to them is merely a façade? (Victor can see the blatant irony in his own presumption loud and clear.) Eli was going to deal with him truthfully, or else never have to see him again.
The temperature change as they step into his house is immense and he can feel himself warming up instantly from the frozen outside. Because he gave his coat to Eli, he’d been stuck in only a turtleneck- warm, but not enough against the snow. Thankfully he’d left the kettle simmering on the stove, so it was just a matter of pouring out two new cups of hot chocolate before they could sit down in peace. He feels Eli hovering at his back as he works, gazing around his house with a dazed look. Perhaps he was intimidated by the size; open plan houses didn’t suit everyone. He finishes stirring the cups before placing them both on the kitchen table.
“Stop gawking and come sit down. It’s not as if you haven’t been here before.”
Eli obliges, sitting down on the opposite end of the table awkwardly, still wearing his coat.
“I was just looking at the décor. It’s very modern in comparison to my house.”
The furnishings weren’t even his choice, his parents had picked the whole thing out, just dropped him over here when they saw fit. However, he did appreciate the minimalism of it all, Victor was not a fan of unnecessary clutter.
“I like to keep things organized. Most of the boxes have been unpacked now so it’s beginning to feel a little more comfortable.”
“That’s good. Have you met anyone else on our street?”
Eli stares a little too inquisitively at him, as if daring him to admit something. Was he jealous of the potential others he could have met? Curious as to his social habits? Conversing with this man felt like a competition.
“Not really. I think they are intimidated by me. I wonder why.”
“Probably because you’re the nicest looking- I, uh, I mean you have the nicest looking house on the street by far.”
Victor attempts to soften his gaze; it seems Eli was warming up to him.
“Yes, I suppose my reputation does precede me.”
“Yours, or your parents?”
Ouch, that was a low blow, but also well deserved.
“They write those… self-help books right?”
This was not where he had expected the conversation to go.
“Yes. Personally, I think they are a load of pretentious bullshit. If they really cared about self-help they would have learnt how to care for themselves and their child better.”
To his surprise, Eli laughs. It’s quiet and a little nervous. He looks tense as he replies.
“I think they deserve your anger. Even if they paid for this nice house, it can’t replace the actions of the past. I know what it’s like… to have shitty parents.”
Victor leans in at this, trying to restrain his intense curiosity. Part of him needs to know, simply can’t wait to find out more, but another part, a deeper part, knows it’s best not to press too hard- he recognises the dark cloud that looms over Eli’s gaze at that moment.
“Let’s make a toast, to our shitty parents. May they forever leave us alone.”
This makes him smile, and relief washes over his features. Victor is glad he didn’t pry.
“I’ll drink to that.”
They both finish their drinks and decide to move onto herbal tea. With the change of beverage comes yet another shift. They start to get into an easy rhythm of conversation, playing off each other's thoughts, both curious, yet willing to see the other's boundaries. Victor hadn’t talked with someone like this in years, a person that was his mental equal. They discussed all manner of things from their jobs in medicine to the intricacies of the human body. Victor soon found out they shared an equal passion for biology, although Eli tended towards the more fantastical theories, he was more invested in the practical. However, he could indulge in a little theoretical discussion from time to time, just to humor himself. He thought that Eli seemed a little superstitious, some of his theories were a little far fetched. He guesses it makes sense, what with his religious background. He tried not to bring that up if he could avoid it, since he was not quite prepared to engage in theological debate at this moment in time. The afternoon had begun to creep into the early evening by the time they’d exhausted most initial topics of conversation.
—
Yet again, Eli had found himself sipping hot beverages in the house of Victor Vale. He was still taken aback by the sheer size of the house with its slick, organized interior. Numb from the cold, he didn’t have much to say or do until he was presented with a hot drink, which instantly soothed his nerves and calmed the riotous anxiety in his chest. He’d appreciated Victor's efforts to maintain conversation, and they soon found themselves falling into a comfortable exchange. Eli didn’t end up learning much about Victor himself, except his similar hunger for scientific knowledge. He simply enjoyed having someone else to talk to, to listen. Victor was attentive and responsive throughout, which Eli greatly appreciated. For the first time in a while, he felt genuinely seen by someone. An interaction for the sake of it, instead of the necessity. The light dips low outside the windows as dusk filters in. Eli decides he would rather end on a good note, before he could mess something up.
“I should probably get going. My car is sure to be defrosted by now.”
“Yeah, no problem.”
Victor gets up and heads for the door, his movements continually graceful. Dressed in all black, he moves like a wraith through the shadows. Eli follows, but hesitates at the door.
“Thanks. I’ll see you around. I promise I won’t strategically avoid you anymore.”
Victor feigns irritation.
“Avoid me? On purpose? Unfortunately for you, in case you forgot we only live several meters apart.”
“I think I’m glad for that.”
He steps outside, the softened snow crunching under his shoes. Eli takes one look back at Victor, his face schooled into neutrality, before heading back towards his car. A strange sort of confidence overtakes him as he feels the usual Eli slipping back.
He decides to yell back at the closing door.
“I KNOW YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S BEEN RE-CUTTING MY BUSHES, YOU SNEAKY BASTARD!”
If he listens hard enough, he can hear Victor's tinkling laugh from behind the door. He shoves his hands back into his pockets and fetches out his car keys. It had been a long, cold day. But at least he’d made some progress, Eli had made… a friend? Or perhaps something greater. He’d gained a Victor.
—
Several hours later, Victor sits up in bed suddenly, jolting himself awake. He swears lightly under his breath.
“I let Eli leave with my fucking coat. “