Work Text:
Mornings are quite smooth and peaceful out there. Slightly benefits those who sit at home all the time.
Most people are restless, after the cataclysm. No one gets enough sleep.
Trying to rest makes your eyes, skin and, maybe, brain burn. Nowadays, pajamas or blankets have no use.
It’s not as hot as it usually is before 10 in the morning.
Tanks God it’s the night time.
Maybe, just maybe, if the cataclysm was associated with, uh, let’s say, eternal cold, it would be much easier to endure. Just maybe. After all, for the coat guy, it will never be colder than that exact moment.
Even heated summer breeze out of the window at night feels like freezing winds of an endless winter in the woods.
That's all the freezing one was thinking about at that moment. The whirlpool of thoughts never stops. In such cases, he gets up from the sofa and heads to the kitchen to make himself some tea or smoke a cigarette by the open window. Smoking before bed is a mandatory ritual. The only right way to fall asleep after.
Yes, it causes him nightmares, those are never gone. It doesn’t really matter at all.
As soon as he opened the window, the hot air, which seemed to him like a cruel freezing gust of wind, hit him in the face. The pleasant smell of the night air filled his lungs. It always brings back memories of not the best childhood. Wouldn’t wish it on your enemy, to be fair.
As soon as he sat down on a chair opposite the window and took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, he heard the door creak and saw him... His motherfucking idol, whom he quietly praised this whole week. No, it’s not the right words. He was clearly obsessed. A silent admirer.
The owner of the house calls him “Foreigner”. Other roommates mocked him with “Wireface” name, as if it was an insult.
Coat guy considers attachment and intimacy with people nonsense. Something useless. The thing that always ends bad. Because no matter how much he tried to get close to someone, it all ended in horrible pain. It's easier to just watch someone you admire, isn't it?
They never tried to communicate with words before. Not talking makes things easier. But in that case it’s much better than usual.
They don’t have to speak to each other.
„Don’t try something stupid. You will be disappointed sooner or later anyway.” - that’s all he could even think about each time Wireface was on his way.
There’s no point in even trying to build a conversation with that guy, he won’t understand anything.
But, perhaps, that’s an actual chance to build a strong bond with the person who doesn’t talk?
In any case, one of them is misunderstood simply because he is alienated to the core, like an humanoid from elsewhere, and the other is misunderstood by people due to the language barrier.
They’re in the same boat. They share same pair of shoes, kind of.
The owner of the house still doesn’t understand coat guy’s obsession, what did he saw in the foreigner, neither why those idiots constantly play staring contest in kitchen in the morning, or whatever they were trying to do. Is this an attempt to talk to each other with eyes?
His breath froze as he studied the face of the foreigner in the moonlight, who shyly waved his hand at him, whispered something in his own language, like if he was asking if they could spend some time here, together. Just the two of them.
Oddly enough, coat guy understood what he wanted and mutely nodded.
Poor guy with wounds around his mouth smiled, then took a chair and placed it next to him, almost tripping.
Was he.. Nervous too?
They just sit there, in silence. You can only hear grasshoppers outside.
Foreigner points his finger at the cigarette, as if asking to share. The frozen one looks inside the pack and notices with annoyance that there is only one left. Looks like they have to split. He curses himself in his head. But, perhaps, this is their chance to get closer?
The fuck is he thinking about?
The odd feeling swirls his chest. Haha. Wouldn’t be so funny if butterflies flew out of the hole in his stomach. Hahaha.
“L-l-looks like we h-have to split”.
Is his voice shaking because of the cold or because he's anxious?
Wireface shrugs his shoulders as a sign he didn’t care about splitting. Curious crooked smile on his face started to melt.
Coat guy lit a cigarette and took a long drag, blowing the smoke out of the window, then passed a cigarette to wireface, hands trembling.
He takes a small drag and coughs slightly. Is it his first cigarette?
Coat guy doesn’t really believe that someone is not disgusted with him.
In the moment, while he looked outside the window, he felt something warm. Is this a touch? God, where is the source of this heat coming from? How can he not give in? He turns to foreigner with an embarrassed look, clearly not understanding what is happening.
The foreigner touched his ears, saying something quietly to himself and smiling, with an amazed look. Eyes shining in moonlight.
He so wanted this touch not to disappear, so soft and warm. In general, to be honest, he wanted to fall into his arms right after, but this was.. ah.. too much.
Coat guy wants to destroy him. Or be completely destroyed by him. He wonders all the time, how it feels like, when someone is totally obsessed with you. Not the other way around. Coat guy is just so tired of gripping on other individuals from a distance, “displaying” his obsession weirdly.
He just… Stares. And takes care of his picked “individual”, like, for instance, the first day they met, when coat guy helped foreigner to get rid of the stitches in his mouth, treating small dot-wounds, and, uh, made him a sandwich. That was kind of a stupid idea, realistically speaking of. Foreigner’s wounds were bleeding and hurt badly when he tried to consume it, but, at least, he stopped whining like a puppy out of hunger.
Coat guy shivers, touching Wireface’s hand with his fingertips. He can’t resist, that’s why he leans in for the touch. He’s not slick with it. As a domestic animal.
Foreigner looks at him with curiosity, as if begging for an answer to what kind of holes he has in his ears.
“H-huh..? I had t-tunnels in my ears. Before cat-cataclysm”, he said as if Wireface would even understand it.
It seems like.. He did.
He traces the hole in his ear with his finger.
“Wow”, the only intelligible sound that guy made during his entire stay.
The poor guy looked amused by it.
Wireface laughs quietly and pulls a strand of hair back, pointing to his own ear. There was an earring! This bonded them together a little, or at least coat guy felt that way.
That’s why he.. Smiled. When was the last time the corners of his lips curled uncontrollably into a smile? Can’t even recall that.
Whoreface lures him closer with his finger, and then suddenly inserts his finger into the hole in coat guy’s ear, laughing. A purple blush comes to the frozen one’s face. At first he loses his smile, trying to comprehend what is happening, and then, together with the foreigner, he bursts into laughter. This doesn't feel like him at all. He felt.. Alive?
They didn’t care much about waking up the whole house on accident.
They sat there for another hour, trying to somehow communicate, laughing at stupid things. And.. Touching each other’s face, arms, wrists. Just for the sake of sanity.
At some point they both got so sleepy coat guy started singing on the verge of a whisper, his favourite song. “Never let me down again” by Depeche mode or whatever. Some sort of a lullaby for his beloved one.
Foreigner stared at him, listening with his cute heart-warming smile.
So sweet that it was gut wrenching.
He himself was so sweet, that if coat guy was a visitor and ate him up, his fucking teeth would be definitely unfixibly rotten forever.
Some kind of hidden adoration was visible in foreigner’s eyes.
This time it’s not the coat guy who’s staring, studying features, trying to understand.
It’s the Wireface staring at him.
Marvelous.