Nowhere Haven

New Acquaintances

A ring echoed in the room. An echo that made the person right next to it flinch. Loud and disruptive. How irritating.

Oliver picked up his phone from the edge of his desk and checked the screen. His face stiffened when reading through the message he just received. A heavy sigh escaped his lips and he put his phone away again. The blond didn't like being interrupted during work, no matter how agonizing the hours were. Particularly not if it wasn't an emergency.

Oliver was still adapted to the way of receiving only messages if it were Fukase's. Even then it was only whenever the blond didn't answer the prior phone calls, regardless of if he was at work or not. Consequently, he never liked the sound of receiving a message. It only brought him trouble. However, this given condition has stopped a few weeks ago. Fukase suddenly wasn't the only one texting Oliver anymore. A certain coworker slid into Oliver's life every now and then as well.

They had just worked together on a small company's project as the back-then-stranger had approached Oliver for more than only work. His positive and bright aura had astonished the blond right away; it caught him totally by surprise. Suddenly, conversations with others aside from Fukase had something charming to them and Oliver could feel himself opening up a little. Mostly because he barely had anyone else, and Oliver was just lonely.

As much as he was looking forward to their regular meetups every time, the delightful hours carried a heavy weight for Oliver. Even though their relationship could barely count as friendship, the blond knew he could never lose a word about his new acquaintance around Fukase. Raging jealousy would only end up in having another argument burst out and Oliver was truly tired of that. Keeping his meetups a secret bothered him though. Fukase never showed up at his workplace, even so, the blond couldn't help but feel watched whenever he and the coworker met up for lunch. Fortunately, their time spent together was limited on that. Oliver wouldn't know what to tell the other one if they suddenly wanted to meet somewhere else.

A glance at the clock signaled him for it to soon be time to take his lunch break. Oliver just quickly finished up and then checked his phone again. His coworker had sent him the address to a takeaway not far from the workplace. The blond hurried outside. It has been raining off and on and he didn't want to get wet because of his forgetfulness in bringing no umbrella. Once he opened the doors to the small business, his eyes immediately spotted the person he was searching for. His faint smile got answered with a bright one coming from his coworker and he settled down next to him.

"You could answer my messages, so I know whether you come, you know," Kazehiki said with a mischievous smile, "I already got something."

Oliver looked down to his counterpart's table and noticed the half-finished meal. He hurried up for nothing. Eating together was not their only shared interest though, so neither of them really minded. Instead, they used the time to talk more. Most often, it were mundane topics they rambled about, accompanied by Kazehiki's occasional complaints about things he kept forgetting about in the progress of their conversation. Oliver didn't mind. Quite the contrary, this forgetful kind was a nice change of matters. It helped Oliver to get out of his monotonous routine every once in a while.

Oliver came back home in a better mood than usually. His meetup during lunch time had an even more delightful character than the other times and put him in a happier mood. Oliver didn't even notice the small smile he had carried the way home into his room. His mind still was back at the takeaway shop, as Fukase made his way to the blond. He was yet unnoticed.

"You're in quite a good mood," Fukase said and broke the silence. Oliver jumped at the sudden voice. He was daydreaming too much for noticing Fukase earlier. The redhead left his lover's startled reaction unanswered. "Did you meet someone?"