Chapter Text
Alejandro couldn’t deny that humbleness wasn’t an actual part of his personality. Sure, when he’s around others that’s one of the qualities he’d try to convey about himself, but he just couldn’t stop admiring how much about him was truly amazing. He’s charming, smart, athletic, and his looks were just as enviable as the million dollar prize he’d set as reason to enter a stupid reality TV show.
While not his favourite thing in the world, there were many perks to this particular show: he’d get to travel around the world, compete with weak minded teens desperate for fame, show off his dashing persona in front of all viewers…
Well, it was actually a really good deal. He was about to get lots of fun with the pieces around the chessboard and get famous in the way. José would never be able to beat that, and he’d definitely would never let him forget it.
The thoughts made his feet fly for a second as he drank in the view of the wide road, exciting even through the dusty bus window. Everyone around him didn’t seem quite aware of his emotion, as most of them were rather swimming down their own minds. The other contestants’ determination was incredibly obvious, as Chris’s last deed against their sanity worked out perfectly to get his new season.
As determined as they could be, Alejandro was sure that probably wasn’t going to be a problem. He was expecting it to be a decent competition after all, and adding a little more difficulty was the right spice for his amusement.
Seizing on the topic, he was urging to entertain himself learning from his peers, so he initiated his inspection throughout the seats. Just as he had started to analyse the weird guy with the blue cap that was picking his nose on the back seat, an odd voice brought him out of his head.
“Hey, dude, can I sit here?” He turned around and found himself under the indifferent gaze of a scrawny boy.
The guy was quite peculiar, as he wore a horrendous outfit (three top layers and hiking boots, what was he thinking?) and spoke with a nasal uncaring tone. Yet, he had a surprisingly cute face, even with the wrinkles that ran through his forehead and the bags hanging under his rich dark brown eyes.
He soon composed himself as he noticed his stare stopped being casual and was rather awkward (and pathetic).
“Sure, amigo, take a seat.” His voice came out shaky and slightly quiet. How did that happen?
“Gracias, dude.” Said carelessly the scrawny boy in return as he got himself next to Alejandro, making the latter feel a little warm in his face.
The guy remained indifferent, crossing his arms and huffing while looking at a big blond guy and a curly redhead giggling and making funny faces. Silence stood for a long while as Alejandro tried to take a better look at him, his eyes going to and fro to avoid getting caught.
The boy was a little smaller than him, and though his hair evinced the boy came out of the shower and let it ravel all over the place, it looked unusually soft. His horrible outfit resembled years of usage, though it still seemed to be lightly bigger for his size. Piecing the whole image together ended in something singular, as a character you see once in a lifetime.
Just as he kept marvelling on the new boy, he noticed the guy had brought nothing with himself. Alejandro had his backpack at his feet, having no other option as the compartment on the bus was unrealistically stuck, and it seemed everyone else was on the same situation. So, where were his things?
“Um, I’m sorry, but…did you actually brought anything with you?” His question awkwardly broke the silence.
“Oh, yeah, I did. It’s just…” He turned back at the laughing pair a couple seats in front of them. “I was sitting next to Lunchbox, but then Nutsy came over and having them both is inhumanly annoying, so I gave up my lands to them and looked for another seat.”
Alejandro saw him frown and sigh, though he didn’t really seem upset, just exhausted. He soon turned to look at him in the eye and resumed his chat. “Thanks for letting me sit in this one, by the way. I’m Noah.”
The boy stuck out his hand from below his crossed arms, expecting a handshake. Alejandro took a second to process the action and firmly answered the gesture.
“Alejandro Burromuerto.” Said a little more confident than before.
“Huh, yeah. That’s true.” He let go of Alejandro’s hand, leaving a little empty sensation on him. “You’re the one from Dirtbags, right?”
Ah, true. That was a thing.
“Ah, I quite forgot about it, yes.” He blushed a bit, remembering his indiscretions from that day. As he pondered through those memories, a familiar face popped in his head. “And you were Chris’s assistant.”
“Yes, the most traumatic experience of my life, even death by sharks seemed like mercy compared to it.” He affirmed, totally deadpan. “I even agreed joining this prove of decline of humanity. Again. I lost all self-respect I had left thanks to that psycho.”
Noah’s comments were so casually pessimistic. Alejandro was sure many wouldn’t be fan of them (well, surely if they weren’t about Chris), but he found them actually enjoyable. He wanted to hear more of his mind.
“So, that means I’m a hopeless case of human being, throwing myself with no self preservation instincts whatsoever and feeding the sadistic sheep mentality of reality TV viewers.” Alejandro snarked in response, feeling a bit nervous as he spoke. Was it witty enough? Or too witty?
“Yeah, you should really reconsider your life choices while you have the chance and use those rock-hard arms to break that window and throw yourself out of this hearse.” Noah replied as he pointed at the glass. “Trust me, any major injuries will be better than keeping up with this dignity shredder.”
His face turned red as he heard Noah’s remarks about his arms, but he only became fully aware of his flustering when he let out a silly giggle.
Alejandro knew he’s always had a charming laugh, quite smooth and sufficiently deep. One would swear he laughed like an angel, it was simply mellifluous. However, this one giggle was shrill, a weird and off-key squeal that made him feel dumb. Luckily, Noah didn’t hear it.
As silence took over again, Alejandro dived into his thoughts as he wondered what the hell was wrong with him. He wasn’t used to derailing so badly from his impossibly perfect gentleman act, not even by himself. But the tingling feel on his hands made it hard to get back on it, and he couldn’t get rid of the feeling.
He kept scrutinising on his behaviour, when the unpleasant rumble of the engine was suddenly over. McLean’s figure stood excitedly as usual in front of the bus, as cameras recorded his speech. He couldn’t quite make any of his words out, but all the passengers were starting to climb down the vehicle.
Reaching out for his bag, he saw Noah standing up and held out a fist. “Well, I gotta go get my stuff so, guess I’ll see you around.”
Alejandro bumped his own fist as he shyly stared into Noah’s eyes, trying to find any words to answer back. None came out.
“Bye, guapo.” Noah let out without any real emotion, heading back to his original spot to grab his own pack.
Guapo. He called him guapo.
A sudden impulse made him jump out of his seat and bang his head against the compartment. He groaned as he rubbed the new little bump on his scalp, and turned back to check if anyone had seen his idiocy. No one noticed, apparently.
Some girls had just gotten out of the bus when he saw the big blond guy Noah talked about freaking out.
“No, please! I don’t want to fly!” He wailed as a tall guy with a green shirt and a white cap held him and took him out the car.
“Easy, bud! If you keep squirming like that you’re definitely gonna get us killed on the air.” Noah yelled as he walked towards the door, rolling his eyes when he heard the blond boy screech louder.
“He’s afraid of flying, remember!” He could hear the tall guy say from outside.
A guy with squared glasses was just getting into an etymological observation when Noah climbed down as well. As he lost him out of sight, Alejandro stood still until his systems turned back on and remembered what he was there for. Many others were already gone when he made his way down and out the bus, finding himself with a pile of fallen teenagers. He offered them his “assistance”, observing his inevitable bewitchments work.
“I-I have a boyfriend!” The blonde he helped out exclaimed. Well, this looked promising.
As the whole introduction took place, between Chris’s sociopathic babble and his victims rants, Alejandro recovered his composure as he kept in mind his goal, the primordial reason of this madness: winning his million. He took a deep breath and eyed his opponents, his beautiful mask put on as he did. The faces he met showed full admiral and love, some timid and some playful. His confidence went back up, now it was utterly clear that this show was all his.
Feeling as unreachable as he started, he crossed his gaze with Noah, who gave him a little friendly grin.
He felt the tingling again.