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All It Ever Took
Adrijan’s squawk failed to hide his surprise, caught off guard by the appearance of the tall, blonde, and handsome figure before him, “You came?”
The figure shrugged, “You called.”
And wasn’t that just the cherry on top? The casual manner in which the bastard was able to shrug this off with?
“That’s all it took to get you here with me?” Adrijan sputtered. “My voice? Come on, Basil, what was the actual reason?”
The man in question rolled his eyes and stuffed frustrated hands into the front pockets of his hoodie. The red one. The one Adrijan knew from experience was so well-worn, it felt like wearing the physical embodiment of a hug. He’d always felt so safe whenever he’d worn the garment, surrounded by the grounding smell of his partner…
Giving it back after the break up had been difficult, to say the least.
Basil choosing to wear it to this meeting was certainly a choice. Adrijan tried, and failed, to convince himself it was all a big coincidence and not just a mammoth ‘fuck you’ from his ex and the entire universe.
Basil cleared his throat and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose mindlessly. His fingers brushed over his fringe in the process. Adrijan watched the fine blonde strands swing and still once more. He shoved his hands into his own pockets to fight the urge to comb the fringe backwards, the way he knew Basil liked it.
That wasn’t something he had the privilege of doing anymore.
“It wasn’t just your voice,” Basil murmured. “That got me here, I mean. It wasn’t just your voice.”
Adrijan bit back a petty and snarky retort. He resorted to simply gesturing for the other man to continue.
What he didn’t expect was for his ex to make direct eye contact with him. They’d been avoiding that, like an unspoken agreement. How else did you navigate bumping into someone who used to be your closest friend, and then lover? Who now needed to be a stranger?
Avoiding gazing into each other’s eyes had seemed a reasonable step forward.
“I came here because you asked,” Basil whispered, maintaining his unnervingly honest stare.
What could Adrijan do but fall apart?
Not gracefully. Never gracefully. No, instead, rivulets of tears and snot streamed down his face. A sound like a mix between an anguished cry and a final, dying gasp gurgled its way up his throat and out of his downturned mouth. Adrijan wrapped his arms around himself in a poor mimicry of a comforting embrace.
How dare he? How dare Basil actually show up, after months of Adrijan’s efforts to reach out to him and resolve things? How dare he wear that hoodie? How dare he utter those words? How dare he open his mouth again, reach a...
The figure shrugged, “You called.”
And wasn’t that just the cherry on top? The casual manner in which the bastard was able to shrug this off with?
“That’s all it took to get you here with me?” Adrijan sputtered. “My voice? Come on, Basil, what was the actual reason?”
The man in question rolled his eyes and stuffed frustrated hands into the front pockets of his hoodie. The red one. The one Adrijan knew from experience was so well-worn, it felt like wearing the physical embodiment of a hug. He’d always felt so safe whenever he’d worn the garment, surrounded by the grounding smell of his partner…
Giving it back after the break up had been difficult, to say the least.
Basil choosing to wear it to this meeting was certainly a choice. Adrijan tried, and failed, to convince himself it was all a big coincidence and not just a mammoth ‘fuck you’ from his ex and the entire universe.
Basil cleared his throat and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose mindlessly. His fingers brushed over his fringe in the process. Adrijan watched the fine blonde strands swing and still once more. He shoved his hands into his own pockets to fight the urge to comb the fringe backwards, the way he knew Basil liked it.
That wasn’t something he had the privilege of doing anymore.
“It wasn’t just your voice,” Basil murmured. “That got me here, I mean. It wasn’t just your voice.”
Adrijan bit back a petty and snarky retort. He resorted to simply gesturing for the other man to continue.
What he didn’t expect was for his ex to make direct eye contact with him. They’d been avoiding that, like an unspoken agreement. How else did you navigate bumping into someone who used to be your closest friend, and then lover? Who now needed to be a stranger?
Avoiding gazing into each other’s eyes had seemed a reasonable step forward.
“I came here because you asked,” Basil whispered, maintaining his unnervingly honest stare.
What could Adrijan do but fall apart?
Not gracefully. Never gracefully. No, instead, rivulets of tears and snot streamed down his face. A sound like a mix between an anguished cry and a final, dying gasp gurgled its way up his throat and out of his downturned mouth. Adrijan wrapped his arms around himself in a poor mimicry of a comforting embrace.
How dare he? How dare Basil actually show up, after months of Adrijan’s efforts to reach out to him and resolve things? How dare he wear that hoodie? How dare he utter those words? How dare he open his mouth again, reach a...
