Work Text:
The sun had set over four hours ago. It had been dark for over four hours but yet when Richard stepped out of the bar that his new work colleagues had picked it was still warm and the jacket he had brought along wasn’t needed. People had laughed and hugged each other good bye, spirits far to high to be ending the evening. But it was well past midnight and the bar was closing surprisingly early for a Friday evening, some of the younger staff would move on to some club, others would go home.
Richard decided he was going back.
The whole matchmaking process of the company had worked for most, Richard had felt far to awkward to be staying with his colleagues out for another drink and he was tired. He hadn’t even wanted to go to begin with, but he had forced himself out of the apartment and gone to the bar where the other staff would be. He had moved across the globe for the job opportunity of a lifetime, what he had dreamt of ever since he had been slaving away for since he was fourteen. He was away from all comfort home called England with tea, his family, his old friends, fish and chips and Crumpets.
He had not moved to New Zealand on his own, to Auckland, to land his dream job, and then not have a single friend. But friend making was hard, and most of the people working in the company already were younger and seemed much more interested in drinking then actually getting into intelligent conversations. Richard felt left out and after a barely two weeks he already started to doubt his decision of taking the job and moving here.
He already missed The Chatty Man on the TV and he hated The Chatty Man.
Richard forced a smile when his drunken Colleagues turned to him for their goodbye’s and good nights and their concerns if he would make it back alright. Richard assured them that it wasn’t far and that he would walk, that he liked walking in the evenings. Not so surprisingly, they accepted those replies and quickly were off to the club that some had talked about or taxi’s, entering them loudly and clumsily. He felt a little overrun by it all, and a heavy sigh escaped past his lips as he found himself alone.
But he was alone, and progress was progress. So Richard turned to his left and started walking down the streets. The air was thick, it would certainly rain later on. Electricity was hanging in the clouds just waiting to be released and he just hoped that he would make it back to the apartment before it started pouring down. Even if he felt his shirt sticking to his back and a little bit of water would feel like a world wonder. But it was January, he missed normal winters where it would be freezing and there might be a slight chance of snow. This was just bizarre, instead of snow, he had thirty degrees at daytime and not much less at night.
Crossing the road, Richard then took the first turn to the right and definitely set his direction towards back to the apartment. Not home, the apartment. The current place he was staying at. He walked down the road and took another turn to the right, then after two more minutes to the left. He wasn’t far away from home now, and soon he would be able to crawl into bed and sleep until dawn. Until the cat woke him up again and demanded for food and attention. What he would do tomorrow on his free day he still didn’t know, but that was problems for tomorrow, not now. One thing was for sure however, he would not unpack his boxes, he wasn’t sure he would stay in New Zealand. He thought of the Chatty Man again and how much his brothers wife loved The Charry Man.
“Hey!” Richard didn’t bother to turn around, there were some kids at the other side of the street. They were probably the ones being called at, not him. He didn’t recognize the voice from anyone at work and he didn’t know anyone else. Instead, Richard sped up his pace a little bit. “Hey you!”
Surprisingly, Richard felt a tap on his shoulder which made him look over his shoulder but not stop walking. Maybe he did know the person in order, but as soon as he laid his eyes on the figure behind him he realized that he didn’t.
The man before him was short, blonde hair with a golden tint and scruff in the same color. He had the most beautiful gray eyes that Richard had ever seen and for a moment he was speechless. He wore a dark green sweatshirt with the hoodie down and zipper undone, revealing a t-shirt that once upon a time probably was white but now was grey. On his arms he could see many small round puncture marks, not to mention that he looked skinny, under his beautiful eyes were bags and he looked exhausted, yet his eyes beamed out hope.
“Please sir.” The man spoke up, hand extended towards Richard who stopped walking, turning slightly to him. “Some money sir, if you got some to spare.” He spoke carefully, as if one wrong word would cause him to turn around and leave. Richard wasn’t to surprised, and judging by the look of the other, definitely younger man he knew exactly where his money was going to end up in.
Richard opened his mouth to speak, but he was dumbstruck. It could have had something to do with the few beers he had in the bar, the alcohol had numbed his senses even if it was just the slightest bit. “I uhh.” Richard muttered, he wasn’t even sure he had anything to give him, he hadn’t brought much money at all and most of it had disappeared at the few drinks he had.
“If you don’t want to give me anything for free I could always take you back in the alley and blow you.” All of a sudden Richard’s mind cleared up and he knew that he should turn around and leave. But yet the thought of the man’s lips around his cock in the back of the alley like he mentioned, the thought made his stomach tingle. “Or you can fuck me or whatever Sir do you have money to spare?”
Richard snapped out of it and shook his head, stepping away from the gorgeous junkie in front of him. “No, I have no money that is of use to you.” Richard said, and with that he turned around and headed up the street in a much faster pace, incase the blonde would be persistent with him. But no one followed, the blonde remained where he was and it wasn’t until he had crossed the road and taken a turn to the left that he noticed he wasn’t being followed anymore.
Up in the apartment the cat came to greet him, rubbing herself against his legs before running of again. Crazy thing, Richard thought as he hung up his jacket next to the door. He removed his shoes and headed towards the kitchen where he picked a bottle of cold water from the fridge. He opened it and drank, just in time to hear the first thunder strike in the distance.
He looked out of the window while he leaned against the counter. Thunder struck again not to long after, rain was pouring down from the sky now. He had made it just in time. He was inside, warm and comfortable. He was over his little incident with the junkie from the streets. And that, brought a twist to his thoughts that he didn’t like.
Obviously if the junkie had someplace to go, then he wouldn’t have been out with such weather hanging above his head? Then again, what really went through the mind of a person like that, he supposed nothing made sense for them. But being out in the cold rain like that, that couldn’t be good for anyone. Richard drank down some more water and tried to forget about the man with golden hair. How could he be sure that he was alright?
Oh come on Richard, the guy was an adult, and he had made his choices. He was not responsible for the blonde man’s fate.
But yet, five minutes later he was out in the rain with an umbrella over his head and sneakers, grumbling to himself as he couldn’t let the man go. He wouldn’t have rest until he saw that the guy was alright. Or that he even had left the place where he had been approached.
As Richard reached the street, it was abandoned, just him and the red umbrella and soaked shoes. But yet something told him to keep going. And he did. He took a peek in the alley that had been there, and sure enough, there was the dark green sweatshirt from earlier, the hood now up this time. The blonde was sitting against the wall, his bag shoved under his legs to keep it dry.
“Hey!” Richard called out and stepped into the alley, but this time it was him to get ignored on the first call. “Hey!” Richard called out, a little bit louder. This seemed to grab the man’s attention, and he turned his head to look at Richard as he approached, and as Richard got closer he could tell that the man was shivering. “Do you have a place to stay tonight?” Richard asked, though he was now quite sure that it was a stupid question. Why would he be in an alley if he had someplace to go?
Luckily the man didn’t seem to think of it as odd, and just shook his head lightly as he kept his eyes locked on Richard. And those grey eyes made his mind dazzled again. “Come on get up.” Richard said, the blonde’s brows furrowed together in confusion. “You can stay at my place for the night, you can’t be out in the rain you’ll get sick.” Oh dear lord he was starting to sound like his mother.
To that, the blonde scrambled up to his feet and grabbed his bag, quickly walking up to Richard and kept his gaze down. It also made Richard think of his mother once more, the guy had to be really desperate if he followed with strangers in a heartbeat for shelter, he could get killed that way. In all honesty, so could he now, for just inviting the guy in. “What’s your name?” Richard asked.
“Dean.” The other mumbled and looked up from the pavement to him again. Richard forced out a smile to the other and extended his hand to the blonde. Dean.
“Hello Dean, I’m Richard.” Richard said, Dean gave him a confused look, but eventually shook his hand even if his grip was painfully lose, like he barely made the effort into it. “Come on Dean, let’s get you inside before you catch a cold.” Richard patted Dean on his arm and started leading the way, Dean quickly at his heels.
He was going to die tonight now, Richard was sure of it.