Work Text:
Cress leaned back in his chair, watching Micah, bent over his work. Micah fiddled with the object on his desk, adjusting wires and screwing plates of metal off and on.
Most days, Cress would get bored with watching Micah work, and either demand that Micah spend the day outside, wandering with Cress, or find something to entertain himself while Micah worked. In either case, Cress hardly spent time in the motel room, just watching Micah.
Three months. It had been three months, stuck in this loop, with Micah working endlessly over the device he swears worked just fine before. There was something about Micah that fascinated Cress, even when Micah insisted on doing nothing but working for hours on end, resulting in him stiff, exhausted, and dizzy.
Cress traced the outline of Micah’s nose with his eyes, dragging them down to his lips. Micah had his tongue stuck out ever so slightly, and Cress tilted his head and watched as Micah made a note on his sheet of paper, crossing something out, and then tapping his pen rapidly against the table.
The sun was setting softly, letting light streak in through the blinds, giving Micah a pink and orange glow. The AC kicked on in the background, humming gently. Micah made a quiet tching noise, and then flipped up his sheet of paper to look at the next. He huffed slightly.
Cress thought he looked strangely nice, in this lighting. There was some odd feeling sitting in Cress’s chest, something, he supposed, like attraction, but calling it that felt distinctly wrong. It had been a feeling that Cress had had to come to terms with already, after Micah had laughed, genuinely, once, and Cress felt it rip through him.
The immediate reaction that he had had to the thought was that it was something to be ashamed of, something to hide. Certainly his father and brother would think so, if they, heaven forbid, ever found out. Possibly Micah would, too. Cress didn’t dare broach the subject, even from a distance, to find out.
But, after a few more weeks, the feeling got less overwhelming, and more just a part of life. Cress worried that, if they ever escaped, the feeling would have to be addressed, even if it was by himself. Until then, though, Cress enjoyed the feeling as much as he could.
It wasn’t… Desire, exactly. Nor was it love, per se. It was… Cress rubbed his head, clearing the thoughts from them. Who cares, really? It didn’t matter, and was never going to matter.
Micah leaned across the desk for a tool, and Cress watched as Micah bumped his water glass, sending water splashing down the side to the floor. Micah swore under his breath, carefully pulling his notes and device away from the water before reaching for the paper towels.
Micah mopped up the water and dumped the sopping towels in trash, and then leaned back in his chair. He let out a slow breath and rubbed his face. Cress watched as Micah stared at the ceiling for a moment before leaning forward to work again. He admired the dedication, even if he did think that Micah could use a break more often than not.
The sun fell even lower in the sky, just low enough that the light went directly into the window, casting Micah in a silhouette, surrounding by a warm yellow glow. Cress blinked, trying to keep his eyes on Micah’s face, despite the blinding light.
Micah glanced at the window, and then he stood to close the shades. Cress sighed, disappointed slightly, for reasons he couldn’t place.
Micah worked slowly, and Cress watched, knowing everything Micah was doing was beyond him, and yet too enthralled by the slow methodical way that Micah flipped between his notes and the device to get bored and leave just yet.
After another long moment of silence, Micah looked up and met Cress’s eye. Cress felt his ears burn slightly, embarrassed to be caught staring.
“Are you going to keep staring at me for the rest of the night? Or would you like to get something to eat?”
-
Cress leaned back in his chair, watching Archie from across the room, trying to arrange his face into something like neutral. Their very presence annoyed Cress, not to mention the way they talked, the way they behaved as if they thought they were better than everyone.
Not to mention, their stupid prying nature. The moment Cress had offhandedly made a joke about being stuck in a loop— a joke that he regretted immediately, of course, but most people didn’t catch on like Archie did— Archie had pestered him for details.
Infuriating. Cress should have knocked their lights out.
They twirled a strand of hair around a finger absentmindedly, unlocking their mailbox. Cress took a long drink of his coffee as he watched, trailing his eyes across Archie’s vest, and up to their hand tucking their hair behind their ear.
As they leaned forward, the light caught one of Archie’s earrings, and Cress narrowed his eyes. There was much to dislike about Archie, but their appearance had never been one of them. Even Cress had to admit they were objectively attractive, even if he couldn’t relate to the feeling that been described to him, years ago.
If only they would stop talking, Cress thought. There was much to like about Archie until they opened their mouth. They were even intelligent enough, as far as pretentious assholes went. Cress pressed his lips together firmly. There was some comment that Remi would make here, he thought, about Cress’s own self-absorption, but Cress couldn’t think of what that would possibly be.
As if on cue, Remi returned, his own coffee in hand. Cress smiled at the bounce in Remi’s step, something that had been missing only a few months prior. It was nice to see it again.
Remi stopped at the mailboxes to talk to Archie, chirping a friendly hello. Cress felt his face turn back into a scowl. He didn’t mind if Remi wanted to make friends with Archie, and even if he did, it certainly wasn’t his place to say. But even so, he hated to be reminded of Archie so soon after appreciating Remi.
He watched Archie turn and smile at Remi, and the two of them talked for a moment, probably about whatever small things Remi remembered from the last time the two of them spoke. Remi went faintly pink, and Cress could see it stammer over its next words.
Cress sighed slightly. The urge to go over there and help Remi tugged at him, but the last time he had “interfered”, as Remi put it, with Archie, Cress had been in a sour mood for the rest of the morning. Since then, Remi had told Cress not to help if it was talking to Archie, even though it usually appreciated his help.
And so, Cress watched, as Archie made a circular motion with their hand, their eyes lighting up as Remi recovered from whatever slight mistake he had made. From this distance, there was something alluring about the way Archie looked when talking about their work.
Unfortunately, Cress was in range to hear them speak, and their voice was grating on Cress’s ears. Alas. They were so pretty when they were quiet. Absentmindedly, Cress stirred his coffee, thinking about tying a gag around Archie’s mouth and listening to Archie try and talk around it. Perhaps they would be less irritating that way. There was only one way to find out, Cress supposed.
Remi stepped away from Archie, waving cheerfully. Archie waved back. Remi came over to Cress and kissed him on the forehead, before telling him that he was going to head back upstairs to their apartment to do some reading. Cress smiled and nodded, kissing Remi on the hand.
When he looked back at Archie, they were watching him, eyebrow raised.
“Are you going to keep staring at me for the rest of the morning? Or would you like to go get something to eat?”
-
Cress leaned back in his chair, watching Archie bent over something she was working on in the dim light. The feeling was familiar, even if it did recall a distant pain that Cress had thought he had done away with by now.
It was dark outside, the only light coming from Archie’s lamp, pointed firmly at the device in her hands. Cress hadn’t asked what it was, this time. He was content to watch her work in the quiet.
She adjusted a panel, and then leaned back and looked at Cress. Cress startled slightly, but smiled at her.
Archie smiled back, and then her hand trailed back to the device. Cress recognized the look on her face. Her mind was whirring with a new idea, that had occurred to her just as she was about to stop. Cress gestured vaguely at the device, and she turned back to it, reaching for a new tool and her pen.
Her hair was pulled back behind her head, and Cress watched her jaw work as she mumbled calculations to herself, flicking her pen against her forehead a couple of times when she got stuck.
The soft light made her look gorgeous, Cress decided. It wasn’t enough to be a pretty boy, she had to go and become a beautiful woman, too. Cress blinked at the thought, feeling slight embarrassment for having it.
But, he couldn’t exactly pretend to disagree with it. There was something about Archie, something that had always drawn Cress to her, even when he had been this close to ripping her head clean off of her spine.
He took a deep breath, wondering if he was ever going to be able to explain this feeling to Archie. Probably not, he figured. There was no way he could even come close to saying the words aloud to her, even if thought he knew the right ones to say.
Archie made a humming sound, flipping her device over. She glanced at the clock on her desk, and then turned to Cress again.
“Are you going to keep staring at me all night? Or should we get something to eat?”
Cress tilted his head, pulling slightly at his hair. “What’s wrong with staring?” he said after a moment.
Archie snorted. “It doesn’t cure hunger pains, for one, dear.”
“Sure it does,” Cress said, without thinking. Archie raised an eyebrow. Cress felt his ears burn, and he looked away.
“Does it, now?” Archie said, standing and stretching.
Cress looked up at Archie, and then reached for her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. Archie stared down at Cress. He felt suddenly unsure of his own actions, but he held on to her hand nonetheless.
“Come on, love. Midnight snack?” Archie tugged on Cress’s hand.
Cress stood, readjusting his hand in Archie’s. He looked at her, and then, a wave of insecurity hitting him, dropped her hand. “Right. Snack.” He stepped towards the door, feeling his ears burn.
“Cress?”
Cress paused and looked back at Archie, a dark shadow outlined by the glow of her own lamp. She reached for Cress’s hand again, and Cress let her take it, feeling oddly strangled.
“Where to, then, dear?”