myhearthealing:
Atticus had felt confident when he’d asked Adrian out, really believing the man had met him halfway with his feelings. After all, he’d learned Adrian had taken his favorite shirt and cell phone and was using them to try and contact him and bring him back. But after Adrian’s very obvious attempt at deflecting, Atticus had to wonder if this was something the man did with everyone he screwed. Keeping it light, but unable to keep the bitter undertones from rising to the surface, Atticus laughed. “I don’t know, I thought it was already leading that way.” He rarely did relationships; if Adrian didn’t want one, that was something he could deal with. “Actually, you know what, I’m kind of tired.” his was partially true; he’d barely slept the night before. “Maybe I can catch up with you later.”
Adrian didn’t know what he had been expecting when he decided to go out of way to find Atticus after their landlord had given away their apartment when he assumed he and Briar were dead, but it wasn’t this. The man couldn’t have believed that they on the way to becoming... exclusive. They’ve barely been on any dates, nevermind truly getting to know each other. He could sense that Atticus was backtracking from his initial surprise from earlier, and Adrian didn’t like where this was going. “Well, I didn’t want to assume anything,” he said without thinking. He’d led people on before, it wasn’t like this was anything different. He liked his companionship and wanted to keep it, but he’d make his terms clear. He didn’t understand why this was beginning to prove to be difficult. He decided to see how far he’d get. “I’m sorry,” he said, his features softening. “This all started as fun and games, but I realized that you’ve become quite special to me. Otherwise I wouldn’t have gone through all that just to find you or track you to here. Mind if we spend the day together? I was actually hoping I could spend some time with you today. We don’t have to actually do anything.”