Timeless

Chapter Ten

A/N - I can't with these two🥹

TW - very brief mention of drug abuse

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Alexius
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Opening up the store today, I felt ten times better than I had last week, and for the first time in a while there was actually positivity coursing through my veins.

My grandmother had come down with a fever the other day, and while you or I could recover normally, it was a blow to her already deteriorated immune system- I'd had to stay at home and look after her.

But she'd improved recently, and now I was back at work with a spring in my step, trying to remain positive.

The key word being trying.

The store looked the exact same as it had when I'd last seen it, and it was refreshing to be in my space again.

Well, mine and Zeke's.

And speaking of him, I couldn't help but smile when I heard the door swing open, a familiar head of black hair and an all black outfit filling my vision.

"You're early", I noted, a smile stretching across my face when I saw the two coffees in his hands, "and bearing gifts".

"To be early is on time, to be on time is late", he lifted a shoulder, extending an arm to me, "hazelnut and caramel". My heart swelled and I thanked him, letting my eyes linger on him while he dragged his fingers through his hair and cracking his knuckles.

Something had shifted since the last time I'd seen him six days ago, when he abandoned his cousin's birthday party to come and see if I was okay, where I told him the truth about my grandmother, where he comforted me with his hand in mine.

I could still feel his hand in mine, almost a fucking week later.

I felt like a lovesick teenager, not a twenty-five year old man.

"You didn't", my face lit up as he reached into his hoodie pocket, pulling out a bag of pastries, "my day gets better and better". He smiled softly, handing them to me and taking a barely noticeable step backwards; I placed the pastries on the counter and moved so I was on the other side of it.

I was slowly picking up on even more of Zeke's tells: the way he moved away from me whenever I had food, the way he would fidget until I'd either finished or put it away; sometimes he vanished entirely. I never wanted to make him uncomfortable, so if that meant not eating around him, then so be it.

"Uh, how are you doing?", he asked me, wringing his fingers together, "and your grandma?". I had to admit, it was a relief having him know now, and he didn't look at me in pity like I'd expected him to.

He cared, just like I did about him, and it felt good having him in my corner.

"I'm good. Better", I smiled, adjusting the backwards cap on my head and clearing my throat, "she's better too- well, as good as she can be".

He nodded with a small smile, surprising the two of us by reaching over and placing a ringed hand on my forearm. Tracing the movement with my eyes I couldn't help but let a smile show; that was the second time he'd initiated contact with me in a week now.