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Little Vine was a small diner tucked away in the corner of the city, somewhere just between the highways that led to the countryside but reachable by foot if you lived downtown the city.
It wasn’t popular by any means but it’s long history and loyal customers kept it afloat even through multiple economic crises before a mystery investor donated a large sum of money to keep it running for the next decade or so.
It was a quaint little thing. Sitting on a small hill with multiple floors and wooden furniture. The smell of fresh bread could be smelt every morning and the tables were old but well-polished and taken care of. The smell of bread would blend into other pastries and drinks like coffee and donuts by the time the sun had set in the distance.
The name was appropriate.
A small grape vine that once grew wild as an unwanted weed outside the house when it used to be a small bookstore, now grew over the balcony and rooftop, blooming fermented and fresh grapes mixed with some wisteria flowers that had appeared there mysteriously after a few years.
As much as it was quiet, it was still a place that brought back memories for many who lived in the city.
And mixed within those smells was the drifting smoke from a cigarette.
A figure, small in the space, shoulder hunched, and hair tussled but slightly styled. A coat covered his frame and his eyes wandered down to the street. A scarf around his neck clipped with a pin shone against the faint city lights.
The door to the second-floor balcony opened, the warm candlelight filtering out into the dark night.
“I didn’t know you picked up smoking again.” Lohen said, approaching the railing.
In his hands was a cup of coffee, purely black and bitter but smelling divine. A light jacket around his waist, a button down and rumpled collar. Slacks and formal shoes and a silver watch on one hand.
Illuga took another inhale and crushed his cigarette with two fingers and sighed out the smoke. “No cream this time?”
Lohen took a sip of the boiling coffee. “Nope, gave it up.”
A slight breeze passed through them.
Illuga pocketed the cigarette and leaned fully on the balcony, watching the stream of people wander about in this hour of night.
Lohen barely concealed a laugh. “Ten years too long?”
Illuga sighed, his breath smelling of smoke and it fogged up in contact with the air.
“Far too long.”
Lohen moved closer to Illuga, who dropped his head on his shoulder.
The wind began picking up, howling and sweeping their hair but neither moved. They barely shivered. In the distance, some cars beeped and the distinct sound of stores closing for the night but they stood there, quiet and listening.
They didn’t need to talk, never have. They just needed time. They’ve always had enough time.
Illuga breathed steady and Lohen waited. Because when Illuga breathed steady, it meant he was waiting and listening for a moment to break.
Illuga moved like his very existence needed justification, a reason to disrupt fate itself. As if he could find a perfect moment in his life to simply exist.
From the snowy streets of Nod-Krai to the dimly lit candles of an abandoned shed. He waited as if he needed permission to talk, or perhaps, he was simply scared that if he talked at the wrong moment, his life would crumble down and he would start from square one.
Lohen took another sip of coffee.
“I met someone.”
“Mhm.”
“His name is Flins.”
“Mhm.”
“He’s very nice. Very polite.”
“...”
“He rejected me.”
“...”
Illuga rested there, silent now and breathing.
He swallowed hard. Lohen could feel it, Illuga knew that Lohen could feel it. But when it came to Lohen, he trusted him to not say anything about it. They’d known each other long enough for that.
Illuga moved closer, huddling himself to keep warm though something tells him that Illuga wasn’t that cold from the night.
“Is he still your friend?”
Lohen felt the movement, a head nod from Illuga.
He didn’t continue that thought. He wasn’t the best at comforting or saying compassionate words. He only knew how to stay. Because for him, staying mattered more than words. Staying meant that loneliness wasn’t an option even if his mind told him so. Staying for Illuga, meant that he trusted him with his feelings and wouldn’t run from them.
He would never run from him. Never. Never again.
Lohen gazed down the small building itself, the vine curled up in the corners with the leaves reaching up to the sky, as if trying to touch the moonlight.
His rings glinted in the light as well as his watch.
They were older now. More competent, more stable, more responsibilities.
They couldn’t cry or throw a tantrum, they couldn’t enjoy whimsy or childish things. They had endless papers to fill and a reputation to uphold.
But sometimes every year, sometimes every decade, they would meet here. Where the city was within reach and present around them but they were just far enough where they felt on top of it all. Like they were gods who weren’t bound by mortal rules.Like the thought that they would never have to return could ease their minds if only a little.
“I had a case.” Lohen said quietly.
He knew Illuga could hear him and that he was listening. That was his way of caring.
“It didn’t go as planned. 3 casualties, 2 deaths. 1 gunshot fired.”
Lohen leaned harder on to the wooden railing. “One death was caused by the gunshot. The one who shot it was me.”
Silence stretched.
Lohen internally laughed. It was funny, wasn’t it? The kinds of lives they live. When a rejection and heartbreak could stand on the same foot as a crime scene and a death but understanding all the same. Where their own pain could be let out without being compared or judged.
Lohen lived his life in comparisons. To wealth, to status, to money, to value.
“Was it hard?” Illuga whispered.
Lohen shook his head. “No. He was a crook and he was already dying. I put him out of his misery.”
Illuga hummed.
“I found out he was my father after the fact.”
Some part of the railing creaked and some light in the building made their shadows flicker.
Lohen leaned his head to rest on top of Illuga’s.
“But that’s behind me now, right? It’s not important.”
Illuga remained still and silent. Because he could tell.
The imperceptible shake in his voice, he was gripping his coffee cup harder than usual despite it burning hot, the way his unusual eyes glowed in the dark.
It was affecting him far more than he was telling him.
But Illuga couldn’t pry. He’d already asked a lot and he would likely ask for more.
“None of this is important.” he settled on saying. “This city, my fleeting crush, it’s all the same.”
“Well said, Birdie.” Lohen smiled but Illuga could already tell that it didn’t reach his eyes.
A moment passed again, this time with a little less tension.
Illuga breathed calmly.
“I’m leaving the city.” He said.
“When?”
“The next night. Back to Nod-Krai.”
Lohen took a sip of his coffee, awkwardly at the angle he was at but a sip all the same.
“Is it safe?”
“Flins is there.”
But they both knew that wasn’t an answer. Nod-Krai wasn’t a place for anybody weak. Laws mattered less than connections and money mattered more than morals.
“Are you sure?”
“No.”
Lohen nodded slightly as if it was a good enough answer.
“What are you hoping to find?”
“A place to belong.”
That didn’t need explanation. Lohen knew that for a while. Illuga didn’t belong here. Not in this city, not on this balcony, not next to him. Because for him, belonging wasn’t with the people but with the knowledge of the people, the mysteries he could uncover about his unknown past and be satisfied with it.
After all, what’s a home without meaning? Why accept love if you don’t know how to love yourself?
And Lohen would accept it and wait. Because he was one of the lucky ones.
One of the ones who were told how to love, how to belong, and how to give meaning to things that didn’t initially have them.
Even if those meanings were given to him, it wasn’t the same as not knowing in the first place.
So.
“When will you be back?”
“I don’t know.”
He was honest, they both were with each other. Only with each other.
Illuga lifted his head and took a step back, facing Lohen this time, a warm smile on his face.
“Will you…wait for me?”
His eyes, blue with a ring of red, the glint of his ruby earring catching the light. He seemed almost wistful at the thought, as if he was wishing for something impossible.
Lohen’s face was blank, staring, as Illuga waited for his answer. The wind blew between them.
“I’ll wait for you.”