Work Text:
“Hi!”
She held back a low groan at being interrupted while the lead characters in her book were finally about to clear up the pile of misunderstandings and looked up, frowning at whoever dared to disturb her. She felt her eyes widen as she was met with warm, honey-brown ones and a lopsided smile directed at her, belonging to the incredibly handsome face of a tall man about her age. The blush warming her cheeks was as instant as the smile on her lips. She decided on the spot that this man could interrupt her whenever he chose to.
“Hi?” she said when her brain finally caught up, her voice hoarse from disuse and shaky from abashment, turning her answer into a question. She cleared her throat immediately to regain at least some sort of posture, her blush intensifying because whyyyy can’t I ever have a normal reaction to a beautiful human being?
As the gorgeous stranger started to stow his luggage into the overhead compartment, she couldn’t help but admire the sight in front of her; how the muscles on his back rippled as he lifted his bag, visible through his tight white t-shirt; how his bicep trembled with the effort of pushing his too-big luggage into the too-small space; how his reddish hair fell onto his face as he bent down to rummage through his backpack, pulling out a water bottle, a charger and a kindle and placing everything neatly on the table opposite her.
Okay, maybe this train ride wouldn’t be as boring as she initially had thought it would be after all. Maybe this could finally be the moment she could practise her flirting since her friends had started to make little jokes about her lack of skills in that department. If it turned south, she would probably never see this adonis of a man again. And if it turned out well… She sighed happily to herself; what a great story that would be to tell their grandchildren!
But first, talking, not jumping right into unknown territory or whatever the saying was, she reminded herself, knowing there were reasons why her friends made good-hearted fun of her flirting skills.
Once the man was seated in front of her, he looked up at her again, eyes flickering over her face, his smile now a tad hesitant. Whoops! Caught staring then. She cleared her throat again, frantically trying to think of something to say that didn’t include a breathy, “Fuck, you’re hot!”
“So, you’re going to Paris, too?” Brilliant. Stating the obvious. She mentally facepalmed. “I mean, what’s the reason for your trip, are you staying in Paris or are you travelling further?” Jeez, what was wrong with her, asking such an intrusive question to a complete stranger? Apparently it wasn’t just the flirting she needed help with; the basic skills of how to talk to people - especially the hot ones - needed improvement too. The warmth on her cheeks was back in a rush and she coughed-laughed awkwardly, mumbling a quiet sorry, her eyes fixated on his water bottle.
Lucky for her, the man just chuckled softly, the timbre in his voice friendly as he answered her.
“No need to be sorry. It’s no secret,” he said, seemingly catching on to the reason for her uneasiness, “And yes, I’ll stay in Paris, no travelling further. I’m about to visit my father. You?”
Grateful for his response, she looked up again, staring possibly a bit too long into those amber eyes before she clocked the questioning expression on his face. Right, answer.
“Yeh, I’m staying in Paris, too. But I’ll be stuck with boring work-related stuff.” She shrugged, lips pressed into a tight smile as she thought about the stress awaiting her in Paris as a sudden thought crossed her mind. We are both staying in Paris? We could meet up again? She felt her smile turn genuine again as she let her eyes trail over the handsome stranger’s face, searching for any indication of interest in continuing this conversation. Since his smile didn’t lose its open friendliness, she just decided to try her luck.
“So, we’re both staying in Paris? We could-,” she started but was interrupted by a clearing of the throat and a deep voice stating softly and unsure, “I think you’re sitting in my seat?”
With her eyes still firmly trained on the beautiful man sitting in front of her, she saw him turning his head towards the intruding voice. His eyes widened and his smile grew, even his skin showed a reaction with his cheeks suddenly tinted in a rosy colour as he took in the other man.
Confused, she finally turned her head as well to the person staring at her expectantly, if a bit shy. He clutched his backpack tightly to his chest, his silver suitcase pulled close to his feet. He was beautiful, tall and lean; his dark curly hair peeking out from under a rainbow beanie, looking impossibly soft; his eyes a piercing shade of blue fully trained on her.
“Hm?” was her eloquent answer and all she could muster as she stared into those blue eyes the colour of the sea on a summer’s day, her brain shutting down from meeting two handsome men in under 10 minutes, both apparently about to accompany her during their two hour-ish train ride from London to Paris. What were the chances? How could she be so lucky? Almost giddy, and barely containing herself from swirling strands of hair around her finger and kicking her feet, she tried to suppress a smile and keep her cool. Not succeeding, she almost missed as the man still standing started to talk again.
“I guess it doesn’t matter because as long as you have a reservation nobody cares but I tend to get a bit motion sick and that’s why I booked a wind-,” the man explained but stopped short as his eyes shifted from her to the man sitting opposite. His cheek immediately sported a lovely blush, his eyebrows shooting up and disappearing under the curls pressed down from the beanie, his eyes impressively wide. Confused again, she looked back at the reddish haired man only to find him still staring at the dark haired stranger. Her gaze flickered back and forth between the two of them, trying to make sense of what was happening. Did they already know each other? Why were they blushing and locking gazes for way longer than would be easily explainable in a social encounter between strangers?
It took them both to breathe a soft “Hi”, sounding like a hopeful question, into the air between the three of them for her to finally take an elaborate, if a tad disappointing, guess.
Okay, slow down, she told herself, keep your horses in check. Maybe they knew each other from school? Like friends or acquaintances, unexpectedly reunited after a long time apart? Taking each other in so thoroughly because they’d changed so much over time? Right, it has to be that. Don’t pull back that fast.
She cleared her throat again in an attempt to regain the men’s attention but to no avail. Their surprise encounter seemed to render them both silent and unavailable to anything else outside their bubble.
She coughed, slightly louder than advertised in a coach full of people still influenced with everything covid related. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a few heads turn to her, but not those she actually wanted to. She shook her head and inwardly rolled her eyes at them, her confidence becoming a little less, well, confident. Okay, different approach.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’m sitting in the wrong seat? The window seat has the number 45 and on my ticket it says seat 45, so,” she said, only barely holding back from tugging on the curly haired man’s sleeve to fucking finally gain his attention back.
At first, it just earned her a generic and distracted humm in response before she saw his consciousness returning to earth and the problem at hand; his lips forming a silent ‘oh’ as his eyes looked down to the ticket he was holding in his hand and back up at the seat numbers above their heads.
“Weird. I was so sure I chose a window seat, maybe I’m in the wrong coach,” he murmured under his breath, head turning from left to right in search of that piece of information written somewhere on the coach doors.
“This is coach number 10, I think?” The handsome stranger sitting in front of her suddenly but helpfully chimed in.
“Oh, okay.” Almost looking defeated, the man with the beanie placed his ticket on the table with a sigh and his backpack on the floor.
“Then it is the right coach. My mistake, sorry for falsely accusing you,” he smiled weakly at her through his raised arms, already lifting his suitcase to stow it next to the other stranger’s oversized bag. As he did so, his jumper slid upwards and revealed a wonderful sliver of tanned skin and a glimpse of the dark hair indicating his treasure trail. She felt her mouth go dry at the sight in front of her. A sharp intake of breath made itself heard from the person opposite her, redirecting her attention back to him. She found him staring at the same spot she’d admired mere seconds ago herself and, licking his lips, his blush intensified once more. He was certainly flushed because it was strange to see his old friend’s happy trail. Yes, that must be it .
Checking his ticket and the seating numbers once again, the dark haired man’s eyebrows shot up ever so slightly and another blush crept up his cheeks. What is it with these men and their blushing?
“Seems like I’m sitting next to you then?” He said into the direction of his assumed friend, a gorgeous shy smile playing on his lips.
That seemed to pull the other man out of his stupor as his eyes finally flickered back up to the man’s face, blushing impossibly harder at being caught in his staring.
“You can have my window seat so you wouldn’t have to suffer,” he smiled encouragingly at the curly haired man, already shoving his belongings to the other end of the table and carefully standing up, shuffling his impressive height along the tight space between the seat and the table.
“You really don’t have to. I’m sure I can-,” the other started to reel back in a rush.
He was interrupted by a sincere sounding “I want to,” followed by an “It’s really not a problem,” that turned almost silent towards the end as the men were now both standing without as much as a few centimetres between them, gazes locked once more.
They sure must have missed each other, the way they constantly returned back to their own bubble, she mused.
“I’m Nick,” the almost-ginger haired man suddenly blurted out, awkwardly extending a hand towards the other man.
“I’m Charlie,” the curly haired man answered, pulling down his beanie with one hand and grabbing Nick’s offered one with the other. They slowly shook hands while gazing deep into the other’s eyes and suddenly it dawned on her.
Oh.
They were not friends from way back: they were just instantly smitten with each other.
She almost laughed out loud at her own cluelessness, only slightly mourning her chances of having a happily-ever-after with either of them.
Her friends would have a field day knowing how she managed to go from flirting with a beautiful stranger to meeting even two of them and then witnessing love at first sight that decidedly did not involve her. She leaned back, taking them both in with her new realisation. The way they were still holding hands and gazes still locked, their smiles so soft. The way they seemed to communicate with their eyes in a language foreign to her.
When will it be my turn? She sighed, seemingly louder than intended because both heads turned back to her, eyes still sort of dazed. She tried to contain her giggles but judging by the sheepish smiles she received in return, she didn't succeed very well so she just quietly watched the scene unfold in front of her.
Both men cleared their throats and between muttered, “You’re really sure?”, “I am! I really am!” “You’d tell me if not?” followed by an, “I wouldn’t have offered it otherwise!” that sounded simultaneously exasperated and fond, they both awkwardly shuffled around until they were both seated, with Charlie now sitting in the window seat. She watched as he smiled contentedly towards the platform, while Nick’s eyes rested on him, a smile on his face so tender it touched her romance-loving heart and she almost felt like an intruder. To keep herself busy but mostly to give her a disguise to observe them further without being called out a creep, she grabbed her book to pretend to read. The motion seemed to alert Nick to her presence and, bless his heart, he returned back to their conversation, back when she’d thought she’d have a chance with this handsome stranger who’s name she now knew by proxy. Because he’d introduced himself to the other man, not her. Right.
“I think you were proposing something to me before Charlie joined us?” He smiled at her openly and for the briefest of moments, she cursed Charlie’s existence and fate itself for sending him to their seats. She shook her head at her own silliness. Even though she’d been talking to Nick - no, the dark-blonde man; you don’t really know his name, she reminded herself - he’d not for a moment looked at her the way he’d looked at Charlie from the very beginning. Trying to come up with something that would explain her wording from before and let her keep her dignity, she slowly put down her book again to gain some time.
“I believe I wanted to ask you if you could tell me some insights about Paris? I’m sure you know more about it since your dad lives there?” was what she finally settled on, a smile on her face that was for sure bordering on a grimace, begging every deity available for him to have forgotten their exact conversation, not wanting to explain that she’d been about to bluntly ask him out after knowing him a whopping five minutes.
Confusion flickered over his face at that, clearly remembering a different wording, too. But before she could start to panic, a small smile played with his lips and a barely visible shake of his head showed that he would drop it and she let out a small sigh of relief. A* for empathy, Charlie really was a lucky man!
He delightedly started to list all of his favourite places, starting from beautiful hidden corners in the quartier of Montmartre, the bistros worth visiting, the quiet spaces in the Quartier Latin and how to avoid long queues at the sights. His adorable eagerness, emphasised by his bright smile and soothing voice were barely distracting her anymore as she listened intently to him, trying to remember the onslaught of actually helpful details. But the same could not be said for Charlie, she observed, after glancing at him and his almost dreamy stare directed at the man sitting next to him. She couldn’t contain her grin and it wouldn’t have made any difference anyway with Charlie’s focus entirely on Nick who was still distracted with remembering everything he wanted to tell her.
“Thank you …?” She said as his speech came to an end and, after a moment of puzzled confusion about her forming it as a question, he filled the space with “..Nick”, chuckling lightly.
“You’re welcome …?” Nick politely asked back, still smiling, but not at all sounding as breathless as he’d sounded exchanging names with Charlie.
“...Imogen,” she finished his sentence, smiling back.
At this, Charlie finally tore his gaze away from Nick and towards her, acknowledging her existence by introducing himself to her now too.
Their talk was interrupted by a monotone announcement, informing the passengers about their upcoming train ride in different languages and she returned back to her book.
“So, do you speak French then?” she heard Charlie ask into the quiet that followed after the loud interruption. She gave up her attempt on actual reading, unable to not listen to them talk.
“Oui, je parle français à cause de mon père!” was Nick’s excited answer in flawless French, “tu parles français aussi?”
An obviously flustered Charlie stuttered through his answer of “No I just thought because of your father living in France and all of that, yeah, um, yes,” followed by repeated clearing of his throat.
She got it though; an involuntary flush creeping up her own cheeks again at the combination of Nick’s warm voice and a language rendering her weak to the knees by default. And she wasn’t even on the receiving end of them!
“I take it you like French then?” Nick asked, teasingly and clearly feeling smug.
“Oh, it’s fine... It’s cool,” Charlie answered, obviously trying to disguise just how much he liked it but clearly failing, if the tremble in his breathy voice was anything to go by. She lifted her book even more to cover her face and yet another unintentional smirk forming on it.
Peeking over the edge of her book after a moment of silence, she found them staring at each other again and despite knowing that they’d only just met not even half an hour ago, the sudden urge to yell an exasperated “Just kiss already!” at them was strong. Nevertheless, she felt her eyes widen as both men slowly started to lean into each other, eyes fluttering shut in the slowest of movements. She held her breath, a warm feeling starting to spread in her chest and taking a ride with her blood flow to access every part of her body. Just as they were about to close the last remaining hint of a distance, a loud thud startled all three of them, eliciting squeals in various vocal registers, Nick's voice being the highest of them all, causing them all to laugh despite the initial shock.
“I’m sorry,” an agitated voice started to explain, leading the attention to the fourth person now standing at their table, a man perhaps as old as the three of them combined.
“These are all gifts for my grandchildren and they’re so bloody heavy, don’t know what I was thinking,” he went on, seemingly mostly to himself as his tone grew almost silent the longer he talked. He rummaged through his bags, putting some under the table, others under the seat assigned to him before he glanced up at the luggage compartment. Both men offered to help him at the same time, causing him to stop in his movements and properly look at them. Apparently faster in clocking them than she had been, he fondly said, “Oh, that’s so nice of you, thank you! What a lovely couple you two are.”
Nick and Charlie both gasped, ready to correct him, but he just smiled at them knowingly, causing them to blush again and effectively shut them up.
Observing everything from behind her book, she couldn’t help but be impressed at the old man’s ability to read these men so easily.
After a moment, Nick got up to help the man and now it was his t-shirt’s turn to slide up and reveal a tantalising sliver of skin for Charlie and her to admire, which they both did, if Charlie’s hungry gaze was anything to go by. She snickered into her book after finally tearing her own gaze away, mostly to not be caught. Charlie didn’t have such luck as it seemed, because once Nick sat down again, she heard him quietly whisper, “You like what you see?”
“Shut up!” Charlie giggled in response, sounding slightly exasperated.
Nick chuckled lowly as he continued, “It’s okay, I also enjoyed the view when you were stowing your luggage, very much so!”
“Shut up!” Charlie repeated, even though it was much closer to a whine now and his voice sounded much fonder than before. He turned his head to the window to hide his grin and his blush at the same time she returned back to her book.
With the train now travelling through endless suburban landscapes, it got a little harder to follow the romance unfolding in front of her, especially since Nick and Charlie had switched to low voices as they talked without any pause. From time to time she looked up at them from her book only to find them a tad closer every time, completely enraptured in their own bubble. She couldn’t help but daydream about experiencing something as beautiful as that for herself.
A soft clearing of her throat brought her back to reality and she turned her head to the right, gaze questioning.
“Am I right those two just met?” the man sitting next to her whispered conspiratorially, “I tried to follow their conversation but due to the hen do nearby, I could only grasp little parts of it and it seemed so basic but they radiate a bond I’ve rarely seen before.”
She smiled at him and just nodded.
“Ah. Soulmates, then,” was his answer and again, she just nodded because, duh, that made so much sense! Her eyes involuntarily drifted to the two men sitting across from them and she chuckled as she saw their pinkies intertwined, both their arms placed on the arm rest between them. As her eyes travelled up, she saw them look at each other with what could only be described as heart eyes and she only barely suppressed a fond roll of her own at the sight.
Buried deeply in the antics of the two main characters in her book, she was almost startled as an elbow softly stabbed her in her ribs. She looked up and found the man next to her smile brightly at her, urgently motioning his head for her to look at Nick and Charlie. She turned her head and, sure enough, found them kissing slowly and so tenderly that it took her breath away. Her heart ached for them in the best of ways and she briefly tried to remember if she’d ever been as touched as she was now from just the sight of two people kissing. After a few beats, they gently pulled apart again but only enough to rest their foreheads against each other.
She looked back at the older gentleman next to her and they exchanged small smiles, seemingly both enjoying the view but simultaneously feeling like intruders.
“I have to confess, I initially hoped for a different turn of events, but I think witnessing love at first sight is just as beautiful as experiencing it myself,” she whispered to him.
“Oh, indeed, I think my reservoir of dopamine just got a filling for life,” he answered, chuckling.
She couldn’t help but laugh at that, moving her hand to cover her mouth and suppress it just a tad too late. Hoping she hadn’t disturbed the lovebirds with it, she quickly glanced over to them. But, of course, they hadn’t even flinched, seemingly just breathing each other in with their eyes still closed, totally indifferent to the world around them.
She sighed as she turned back to her book once more and shook her head, still chuckling to herself.
A few minutes later, loud announcements informed them of their arrival in Paris-gare-du-Nord and all four of them started packing their stuff, some obviously faster than others. She looked up expectantly at the men still sitting in front of her and couldn’t help but ask the one burning question that had formed in her what felt a very long time ago.
“Are you two planning on seeing each other again?”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the man sitting next to her look up too.
Nick and Charlie both blushed and looked at each other before nodding enthusiastically and turning back to her.
Nick was the first one to answer her, “Yes, we’re both staying in Paris for a week and plan to meet up again as soon as possible.” He looked down at the intertwined hands resting in his lap, his thumb stroking tenderly over Charlie’s knuckles, smiling shyly but so happy.
She clasped her hands and squealed at that, not caring about anyone else but them.
“I love that so much for you!” she said, “It was so lovely seeing you fall in love with each other!” Catching up with what she just uttered, she rushed to add, “Sorry, that sounded creepy, I swear I wasn’t like watch-watching you!”
Charlie smiled brightly at her, “I didn’t take it like that,” he reassured her. A little quieter, he added, “It was lovely experiencing it as well,” glancing up at Nick. Nick lifted his free hand and cupped Charlie's jaw, pulling him in for another soft kiss before he added, “It really was.”
A little “awww” escaped her lips at that and she felt her inside turn all gooey. She cleared her throat to get herself back on track and stood up to gather her things from the luggage compartment. Before she left, she turned back once more, just in time to see them exchange numbers on each other’s phones and then smile into a kiss.
As she was waiting for the train to come to a halt, the older man now standing in front of her turned around and whispered, “You know, I have a grandson your age living here in Paris who is single, in case you’re interested?”