Work Text:
Eli Clark sat at the coffee shop engrossed in a book. The cafe’s ambience was his playlist, the afternoon light, his lamp. He was reading a book that told the tale of two lovers in a fairytale; whimsical enough to fill my daydreams. Suddenly, it just so happened that the moment his eyes peeled away from the pages for a short rest, they landed on him. The man he just noticed walking into the cafe.
What a charming man he was. Or rather, how he seemed. His face concentrated on what to order on the menu while his hands fiddled to get the exact amount of cash from his wallet. Eli’s gaze fell upon his hands. It seems like his knuckles were wounded. Why?
Perhaps he was in a fight protecting his beloved’s honor. Perhaps he punched the wall in a fit of rage after he lost in a video game. Perhaps he was foolish enough to have a bet with his friends, and thought that he could break through solid ice.
Eli found himself staring at his hands for so long, then his eyes wandered to what was on your back. On top of the green hoodie laid a backpack. It was filled to the brim with its contents, making Eli wonder. What was in your bag?
Did he happen to be the type of person who would bring extra food to share with the people on the street? Did he come close to failing a course, and so you brought extra reading material to catch up? Did he by any chance collect the coolest rocks that he found on the sidewalk, and stuff all of them in your bag?
Eli could not approach you and ask these questions. You seemed like someone who was beyond just my league - he was someone who could be anyone and himself at the same time. He was a stranger and therefore a canvas to thousands of untold stories that he went through.
While Eli not so subtly watched the man pay for your coffee a taller lad walked in the cafe and tapped his shoulder. And Eli watched the man in a green hoodie chat with him, his mind wandered faster. Who was this fellow with a mark on his face?
Was he an old lover of which the man in green broke up with because they wanted different things in life? Or did the scarred lad leave because he told him that his heart beats for another?
Was he a childhood friend who just so happened to walk into the cafe you were in, and struck up a conversation? Was he a group mate who failed to do his part in the assignment and was asking you to cover for his mistakes? Was he your brother? Cousin? Friend? Enemy?
And just like that the scar faced lad was gone.
“Goodbye, Naib.”
Before Eli could register what was happening, Naib caught his eye.
For a moment the world stopped. Everything was quiet and yet so loud at the same time. Eli couldn’t move. Should he talk to this man- this “Naib” person? What would happen if he did? Would they get along? What if he wasn’t into guys? What if he was taken? What if he didn’t even want to get to know him? Surely, he’s not the type of guy to be into reading and owls just as Eli was.
Suddenly Eli blinked, and oddly enough, he saw something. To this day, he couldn’t explain how or what caused him to see these things but there it was: visions clear as day. Eli saw himself dressed in a blindfold and hood, running together, a man with a familiar and similar green hoodie grabbing his hand as they ran through what seemed to be a gate.
He blinked again and then he saw himself draped in blue, floating among the stars, a blue haired man in a ponytail smiling right at him. He blinked and saw him and Naib, both people with wings- he didn’t know how he knew it was Naib but he just felt it. The same way he felt it when he blinked once more and suddenly he was… smoking? The detective in front of him took the cigar from his mouth, put it on his own and smiled.
He blinked one more time and he was back in the cafe.
The barista handed Naib his drink, but they were still making eye contact.
Eli felt his face grow red. How long were they staring at each other for? What were those weird visions? They could be daydreams, but Eli’s imagination would like to think otherwise. After all, it would make things a lot more interesting. But regardless, neither of them moved. Did this stranger see the same thing or was Eli just as delusional as the main character in those books of his?
The barista cleared his throat.
Naib blinked, said something incomprehensible to the man impatiently waiting behind him in the line. He gave one more glance at Eli. Now, every time Eli would tell this story to his friends, he always wondered if Naib was giving him a chance to do something. Or was Naib just as bashful as he was and was trying to muster up the courage to speak to him too (though, Eli doubts it). But just like that, the moment was over, and Naib took his drink and walked out.
Eli came back to that cafe the next day. Surely it was a silly thing to do, but there was always a small chance that Naib could come back. He didn’t.
He didn’t show up the next day.
Or the next.
Eli eventually wondered if the coffee in that local cafe was really that bad and he just never noticed it because he only stayed there for the ambience. But regardless, Naib never came back. And just like that they never saw each other again.
Eli moved on with his life. Nothing too extraordinary. He graduated, raised Brooke, and was happy. But even in his years of living, he couldn’t help but reminisce on that one day in the cafe near his campus where an interesting, attractive short man in a green hoodie caught his eye. There was just something about him that made him wonder. There was something about those odd daydreams that made him sometimes think that there should have been more to their story.
If there was, it was not meant for this life.
Perhaps the two could meet again. Not in this universe, but in another.
Maybe there they could be together, but in this one, as it was not meant to be.