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“What are you humming?”
Zachary was liking this new harbor. After so long out at sea, it was a relief just to see land at all, but it was really beginning to feel like home.
It was nothing like the old harbor, of course. Nothing will ever be like the old harbor. But the way technology interweaves itself here- the consoles and computer rooms and holo-decks, a stand against obsolescence. Every one a story medium, every one here, saved from obscurity, running perfectly and as intended. And every game to ever exist. Zachary was in heaven.
Dorian mostly stayed around the plain old stacks. He preferred his stories that way- timeless. But there was always reason to wander out of the stacks, to go ask Simon about how the archival work is coming along, or exploring new rooms with Lenore, or- well lets be honest. He almost always left the stacks looking for an excuse to bump into Zachary.
After spending so long together on that ship, being apart was… strange. Wrong feeling, almost.
Luckily, despite the breadth of the new harbor and its many allures, wherever Zachary was, Dorian could always find him.
Zachary pulled out his earbuds. Funny that there should be earbuds, here. Dorian still wasn’t quite used to it.
“What did you ask?”
“I asked what you were humming” Dorian swayed his finger back and forth, conducting invisible music. He watched as Zachary swivled around in his chair to face him, smiling softly at the squeak it made. The way Zachary looked at him made his fingers itch for his sword, but… not for very long. This is real. We’re in a harbor, a new harbor. There are no earbuds in the starless sea. And Zachary…
“Oh! It's this song I heard today, it's been stuck in my head.” Zachary hummed a bit more, eyes closed, smile on his face. He looked so blissful like that. Dorian resisted the urge to kiss him. He resisted how his fingers itched. Zachary…
“How does it go?” He asks, and Zachary opens his eyes at the question. Good. Good.
“Uh. Well. I just heard it this morning so I don’t quite know all the words, but if you want, I can try-” Dorian nods, too quickly. Zachary smiles at him. He feels his muscles relax. His fingers stop itching. Like before.
Zachary keeps his eyes on Dorian, and starts to sing.
“I like you more than axolittle in fact I love you axolol! I love you so much I give you a gastronival bottle, feed you every day in nature that your waters full of snow! Give you little fishy friends for when my love is not enough!” He hums some more and Dorian felt his cheeks heat. This man, he was so-
“Lovely” he breathed out, looking straight at Zachary. Zachary met his eyes, quirked an eyebrow. “The- song that is. Of course. Where did you hear it?”
Zachary started laughing, and oh what a beautiful sound. “Of course” he teases, though immediately flushes himself. “Well it was. Well you know how Simon is getting us connected to the internet, up there” he waves vaguely upwards, and Dorian nods, “Well I heard it on. Um. A website. And its a good song, so. Yes.”
Dorian resolves to stay for a while, and pulls up a chair next to Zachary. These gaming chairs, however silly they were, were comfortable. “What website?”
Zachary Ezra Rawlins clears his throat, clearly somewhat flustered. Dorian was getting more and more curious by the minute. “Is it like,” he makes a lewd gesture with his hands, and Zachary barks out a laugh.
“No, no, no, god, that would be an incredibly wholesome song for a porn site, though.” He grins conspiratorially. “We should totally-”
“Yes, yes, later. But what was the website? I would like to listen to this song I think.” He probably would not go listen to the song later. If Dorian wanted to hear a song with words in it he’d probably just ask Zachary to sing it for him. But flustering Zachary was such fun.
Zachary sighed, seemingly giving up. “It was-” he started to say, then seemed to think better of it “Have you heard of a website called Tumblr.com?”
“I can’t say that I have.”
“Oh god, okay. Well. It was a post on Tumblr.com, about how the wikipedia page for axolotl sounds like a Cake song-”
“A… cake song?”
“Yes,” Zachary powered through, “and then someone else made the portion they quoted into a song. And its a very good song!”
“I heard, yes,” Dorian grins.
“I don’t think you’ll find it if you look it up, though. Um. The search function isn’t very good.”
“Is it like, a music website? Like Myspace?”
“Like My…. god sometimes I forget how much older you are than I am.”
“Whats a few years next to an eternity on a sea made of honey?”
“Myspace. Dear god.”
“You don’t believe in god.”
“I don’t believe you were on Myspace.”
“What’s wrong with Myspace?”
“What profile would you even make on Myspace?”
“That, my dear Mr. Rawlins, is for me to know, and for you to never find out.”
“That sounds like a challenge.”
“Why were you so embarrassed to talk about Tumblr.com?”
“I spent a great deal of my teenage years there being incredibly obnoxious about popular book series and was something of a, well, you know.” He makes a very strange motion with his hands and Dorian laughs.
“I don’t think I do”
“Well lets just say that I regret those days and thank the god I don’t believe in that you are technologically illiterate.” Zachary huffs, but he's beaming.
Dorian laughs, and stands up. He stretches his arms, cracks his knuckles. He pulls out a bit of paper from his sleeve and scribbles something on it, dropping it on Zachary's desk, then starts towards the door.
“I’ll see you later, Zachary.”
“I’ll see you later.” he agrees, glancing curiously at the paper.
“And oh, Zachary?” Dorian says, glancing back at him.
“Yes?”
“I like your shoelaces” he says, and winks, and darts out door.
He can tell the exact moment that Zachary unfolds the paper revealing his old Tumblr URL.
He hears Zachary’s groan from across the hall, and the shouted response, and he laughs, and laughs, and laughs.
And hums the axolotl song all the way home.