who_is_she | (no subject)

It had been a couple months since Farhel's stint in the hospital had landed him a roommate, and he was pretty sure Then hated him. It was a shame, really, because Farhel thought he was a genuinely good guy, if a little strange, and smoking hot to boot. But Farhel supposed his lifestyle wasn't the easiest to live with.

But annoyances aside, Then didn't seem to leave his room for anything outside of work, so Farhel had kind of taken to... following him around. Under other circumstances Farhel would have left it alone and let Then despise him in peace, but Then seemed genuinely miserable. Whenever he was puttering around the kitchen or making up excuses for why he couldn't watch Say Yes to the Dress with Farhel he just... didn't seem content being alone, despite his objections. And it had been a few months, and recovering from an appendectomy was officially no longer an acceptable excuse.

Farhel knew there was at least one person at the mall Then would talk to, and Farhel had a few more in mind that he might be less annoyed by.

So he'd dragged himself out of bed, put his hair up in a messy bun and took off to meet Then at the mall just before his shift ended. He got held up by the skateboarders out back, and after conducting dinner business he made his way into Macy's. He strolled into the back rooms, ignoring whatever "employees only" signs he passed. He found Then alone in the back, unloading a huge box of shoes. Farhel held back for half a moment, his walk slowing as he watched Then's muscles flex under his tight work shirt as he lifted the boxes. Farhel cleared his throat before what he was doing could be classified as "ogling".

"Hey, Then!" He greeted cheerily, hosting himself up to sit on a box nearby, "How's your day going? Good? Busy? Great?" he asked, grinning.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Adjusting to life without anything that he used to regard his identity with had taken Then some time and some days he felt like he hadn't made any progress at all. He didn't have his family, he wasn't with the military anymore, and he even lived in a different city. He had nothing left from his old life and sometimes he felt so disconnected from the world it felt like all of that had been a dream and that he had always been alone. He had never felt more lost and confused in his life. Keeping himself busy with work and going to the gym and running each night was the only thing that had kept worse thoughts at bay but on slow days at work his mind couldn't help but wander.

He felt incredibly lucky that he even had a place to stay considering his circumstances, and that Farhel had been so kind as to invite him to live with him. Farhel had done more than enough trying to make Then feel welcome but Then was fairly certain there was nothing that would make him feel like he was home again. It wasn't the first time the thought that Farhel probably just pitied him for his situation crossed his mind. He had never gone into detail about the accident but Farhel had to have heard the doctors who stopped by to check in him talk about it. So he suspected that Farhel being needlessly sweet and attentive to him probably came from a place of feeling bad for him, which bothered Then a little, but he knew if this was the case that it was only coming from a good and well-intentioned place. He was just glad Farhel never tried to ask questions about the accident or his family because he was nowhere near being able to discuss it.

He had just unloaded a truck and was finishing checking on some shoes when he was surprised to hear a familiar voice. He supposed he should have gotten used to Farhel dropping by his work seeing as he had developed a tendency to show up without warning. It was a little weird to Then considering they hardly interacted at home since Then avoided as much social interaction as possible but this also just reinforced the idea in his head that Farhel probably just pitied him.

"Fine." He answered, keeping his focus almost entirely on his work. He only had a couple minutes left in his shift but he didn't feel comfortable just leaving it for someone else because he wanted to start socializing. Not that he was particularly fond of the idea of socializing either. "What are you doing here?" He tried conversationally.