Chapter Text
Masai was speed walking down the street. As in, the type of walk speed one might possess as a child when your grandparents' basement light is off, but you don't want to look like a dumbass booking out of it. Good god, he fucking hated Gramercy at night. Masai just needed to get to the next train station. Despite the fact that he was damn near vibrating with nerves, considering how many gangs roamed out here. Not that they didn't do that everywhere, but he was just one guy, alone, in the middle of an empty street. Eugh.
Every alley was vandalized with gang tags. The same one he kept seeing, over and over, though, was an orange and black "GR". He dared to stop and inspect one of those recurring tags for a few seconds, and shuddered when he realized. It was fresh. The spray paint still wet, suffocating the mark below it in a bold declaration of territory. It was like a permanent mark of, "We ain't taking any shit, get off our turf before you land yourself in the back of the paper."
Masai just shook his head, tossing that thought away, and kept walking, quicker this time, his hood up and his head down. He held his breath, trying to shut up. The damn sound of his own nervous breathing was making him anxious. It was in this moment that he regretted trying to avoid getting stuck in a crowd of pedestrians. But here him and his poor sense of direction were, on violent grounds in the dead of night. Don't be suspicious, don't be suspicious- You're a grown man, pull yourself together, goddammit. Walking like a damn wound-up toy, he couldn't stop himself from glancing back and forth every few seconds. He thought he was being ridiculous, it's just night, you're not a child. He stopped for a moment to take a deep breath... and then he felt a firm hand on his shoulder.
"It's dangerous to be out alone this la-" The man was cut off by the embarrassingly loud yelp of surprise and freight that Masai let out. Masai froze, his eyes wide. "Sorry 'bout that. But why are you out here man?"
Masai's head whipped around to see the mystery man. The man had an eyebrow raised, and he was pulled away slightly, as though he was still startled by how Masai had yelled. He just stared up at the man, doe-eyed.
Oh God.
He's hot.
"Helloooo? Are you deaf or something?" Masai snapped out of whatever gay trance this man was putting him in and opened his mouth to answer. To the man's amusement, it took Masai a few attempts to force the words out.
BRAIN. MOUTH. WORDS. FLIRT OR SOMETHING GODDAMMIT YOU USELESS HOMO.
"Y-Yeah, I,I know! I was just uh.. I just have to get to the next train?" Masai cursed himself for tripping over his words like a white girl in a horror movie trips over air. He tried to act cool, but his dumbass was still staring at the man like a deer in headlights.
"Hm, how come? Nobody usually comes around here this late," the man inquired. He genuinely seemed curious, maybe he was just a normal person. He seemed trustable enough, Masai decided, for now.
"I just um.. got kinda lost," Masai muttered, not really wanting to let this guy hear it. The man just smirked slightly and snickered.
"'Course you did.. why am I not surprised.." he muttered, muffling a laugh. Masai glanced at him a few times, but didn't let himself make direct eye contact. WHAT COULD THAT EVEN MEAN??? "C'mon, walk with me. Can't have you being alone out here, it's dangerous at night." Masai rapidly nodded, walking next to him.
"So, really, how does one find themself in Rif- gang territory at this hour? You look like a real civilized guy, this ain't your side of town, is it?" He still had that damn subtle charismatic smile on his face. Masai, afraid to say some dumb shit, shook his head and kept his eyes to the concrete. "Boy, I'm not gonna kill you, talk to me, brother."
"Brother."
"I um.. I just didn't wanna get caught in rush hour traffic. Tried to go around, but then I just ended up needin' to catch the next round, but it didn't come back 'round, so the train probably jammed, so I tried to look at a map for another train home, but I can't remember directions for shit, and I was trying to remember the street names but I think I took a wrong turn and I never really come to this side of the city and it's really fucking frightening at night so I-" Masai cut himself off when he realized he was rambling like a damn fool. To his partial horror, and relief, this guy was wearing a slightly wider smile and... and Masai realized he didn't even know his name. He opened his mouth to ask, but so did the other man at the same time.
"You first."
"I-I just yapped a whole ass rant at you, you talk."
He snickered, smiling as he looked at the ground and shook his head. He lifted his gaze back to Masai and spoke, "So you ended up out here because you got lost?" Masai glanced off and sheepishly nodded. "Eh, that's fair. No one can read those damn maps anyways." This got a small smile out of Masai. There was a beat of silence, and Masai took it as an invitation.
"So uh.. what's your name?" Masai looked the man in the eyes with a decent bit of confidence this time. This dissolved immediately when the man's smile dropped and he stopped walking, his eyes holding suspicion.
"The hell you wanna know? You a cop?" He interrogated, his tone sharp. It was like being scolded by a teacher. Masai's eyes widened in fear and he tried to sputter an explanation out.
"N-No! I just-" He was interrupted by the man, who broke into cackling, a hand over his mouth. However, the smile reached his eyes enough to tell he was damn near grinning.
"I'm playin', pretty boy. Name's Cyrus, you?" All of the tension in Masai's shoulders left at that, and he started at smiling again. Cyrus. That's a good name.
"Masai."
"Masai. I like that."
He was at a loss of what to say, but it was okay. He just wanted to walk here, with Cyrus. It occurred to him that he was now walking like a normal human, and not like a terrified animal. He didn't want to reach that train station, he didn't want to leave just yet. Was this really happening? Had he just met this beautiful boy on graffiti grounds? Had he just exchanged names with him? Had he really just been called 'pretty'?
Wait.. PRETTY BOY???