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Heathcliff staggered down the street, his eyes half open and sleep still residing in them. He lugged his rifle in the large bag it fit in, and held his card inbetween his gloved fingers. He usually took a bus to commute to the Office. It was easy enough with the wage he got (when he didn’t miss any shots, that is).
“Agh, shit!” The bus was coming down. He wasn’t at his stop. He ran forwards, his arm extended out to flag the bus down. “You bastard! Didn’t get told it was.. urgh, whatever.” Heathcliff mumbled under his breath. He stepped onto the bus, blissfully unaware of what was to come. A ding from the card-reader, and he turned around.
‘Well, fuck.’
There were no seats, and the bus was full to the brim. It didn’t help he had to have that massive rifle in its’ bag too. Ideally, he would have sat down near the back of the bus, next to the window, and rested it on said window. Not today, not at all. He shuffled down the aisle slightly, looking for anywhere to hold onto. He didn’t register anyone’s faces, they didn’t really matter in the moment. There was practically nowhere to rest, nowhere to hold onto minus the pole right next to someone. The bus was loud, and obviously crowded. There was someone talking from all angles.
“Hey. Isn’t this bus way too full?!”
“I know right! It’s never usually this bad, especially not at a time like this..”
“How’s your new Fixer job going?”
“Great~ I’m so glad I don’t have to carry anything massive around yet.” (Heathcliff knew this was practically aimed at him and his massive rifle.)
Heathcliff pulled out his phone and began to aimlessly scroll. On anything, really. Just something to remove the tension from the packed space around him. Mostly on the chat he, Hong Lu and Sinclair shared. Enough so that he began to remember every damn text he sent. The overbearing hum of voices gave him something to do too, there was always something interesting to hear, however loud the bus was.
He didn’t really look up. There wasn’t much to see, anyway. He’d seen this scenery dozens of times, in the rain, sun or shine. However, he noticed the person sat in-front of him shift their legs, a lot. Could they be that restless? Heathcliff wanted to tell them to get up and stretch their legs a little bit. He’d save their seat, of course. He stretched as much as he virtually could (which, wasn’t much) and set his bag containing his rifle down on the floor, relieving his back and the strain upon it. It didn’t help that the stupid rifle rammed into his shoulder, either. He took a hand off of the pole just for a second, to scratch his shoulder.
Perfect timing for the bus to swerve like an idiot, right?
Of course it was.
It took a huge drift to the side, almost crashing and making a few people topple over fully. Heathcliff was almost one of these people. He span around and threw out a hand to wherever he’d be able to latch onto something. One hand stuck on his bag, now shoved between his feet and the other hand unfortunately landing on the person who was sat in-front of him’s thigh. He doubled over and threw a dirty look to the front of the bus. He didn’t realise how hard he was gripping that person’s leg.
“Agh, shit!” Heathcliff retracted his hand and straightened back up. A red flush hit his cheeks. He was about to look the person in their face until he recognised parts of the outfit they were wearing. No, no. It couldn’t be him. When did he ever get on this bus?? Heathcliff would know if he did! He looked at their gloved hands elegantly laid over their lap, the belts upon their chest, then finally looked up at their face.
Since when did Hong Lu get on public transport like this?!
“Hi, Heathcliff~” Hong Lu grinned sweetly up at the scowling Heathcliff. “Funny seeing you here, am I right?” He folded his arms over his chest, and blinked quickly at Heathcliff’s surprise.
“Fuckin’ hell, bossman! Since when did you get on here?! Oh, of course it was you shiftin’ closer to me..” Heathcliff softened up slightly at Hong Lu’s smile and his seemingly uncaring nature about how hard Heathcliff had just been clutching onto his leg. He would have been really embarrassed if it was some random person. “Sorry for grabbing ya like that.” He murmured, a slight laugh escaping his lips.
“It’s no problem~ You’re really warm.” Hong Lu reached a hand up to touch Heathcliff’s cheek with the back of his hand. Heathcliff practically jumped back at how cold it was. “Haha, I’ve always told you my hands are cold. It baffles me how harshly you react every-time~”
“Ack— You asshole! Why are you so cold?!” Heathcliff shifted a little closer to hold Hong Lu’s hand to his chest. It wouldn’t help much, but he’d try as hard as he could. “At this point, I’d put your hand under my damn shirt, you’re that cold.” He mumbled, leaning slightly against the pole that he held so tightly onto earlier.
“Hm~ We’re off at the same stop. Do you know how long is left?” Hong Lu vocalised his thoughts up-to Heathcliff, who shook his head and scowled again.
“How the hell would I know when I almost missed the damn bus? Did you see me running for it?!” Heathcliff grumbled. Hong Lu let out a soft laugh and nodded his head. It looked a little funny.
“Haha, you looked so tired, then you just bolted up. How much sleep did you get last night? Certainly not enough.” Hong Lu said, his eyes glimmering slightly at the memory of it. “Why don’t you have a nap in the Office? I’m unsure if we’ll get anything today.”
“Mm.. good idea. Might do, you never know.” Heathcliff retracted his hand from Hong Lu’s, who kept his hand placed over Heathcliff’s chest. He took out his phone, and checked over how long it’d take for the two to get there.
“Half an hour?! The fuck is with this traffic?” Heathcliff pouted, his eyes narrowing at the absurdly late timings the bus was on now. How it went from stupidly early to terribly late confused him so. Hong Lu let out a small giggle and leaned back in the seat slightly, resting his hands back onto his lap.
It didn’t look like the bus was going to empty at all either for a long while. Oh, how fun. How fun.