Prompt 23 - Stalk
@wolfstarmicrofic February 23, word count 541
Remus had been seeing the same guy nearly everywhere he went for weeks. At the supermarket, at the bank, at the park as he cut through on his way home from work and, strangely, on his parent’s street when he went over on Sunday for lunch. He had no idea why anyone would want to stalk him; he was boring. The guy must be totally disappointed at the mundaneness of Remus’s life.
Two days later, he’d come up with a plan. He’d made eye contact with the man following him, and the guy had spun on the spot and taken off in the opposite direction.
He retraced the route he’d picked on the map in front of him. He’d have to be quick to make it work, or he’d miss his chance of confronting this guy.
Remus didn’t have to wait long before he spotted the now-familiar dark curls and grey eyes following him around the high street. He went into Boots and bought himself a lip balm, and his stalker followed him in. Remus kept an eye on him and was relieved when he put down the bottle of multivitamins he was browsing and followed him out of the store.
Remus walked slowly towards the little alley between the stores. He made sure not to hurry before he got to the corner. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the man was following him. He led him through the twisty-turny alleys behind the shops. The next left turn would take him to a dead end, while the opposite way would bring him back to the passageway he was on. He went right.
He had to run, or he wouldn’t make it in time. He hurtled around the last corner, and there he was, maybe ten steps ahead of him. The man got to the end and looked left, then right. Remus raced up behind him and pushed him left. He used his long arms to corral the man further down the dead end.
“Hi,” He said pleasantly. “Is there a reason you seem to be everywhere I am?” The man gulped and put his hand into his back pocket, taking out a small notebook. Remus’s notebook.
“You, er, dropped this, and I was trying to find a way to give it back to you, but I, er, I struggled to figure out how to and somehow ended up stalking you,” the man winced. Remus took the notebook from his hand and flipped it open.
“I thought I’d lost this forever,” He mumbled, flipping through the only copy of his novel he had. He’d stupidly only written it in his notebook and not backed it up on his computer.
“It’s really good,” the man told him.
“You read it?!” Remus said excitedly. “Can, can I buy you a drink and maybe talk about it?”
“Yes, definitely a yes. I’m Sirius, by the way.”
“Remus,” Remus shook the hand Sirius offered, and they walked back through to the busy shopfronts and nipped into Remus’s favourite pub. It was an odd end to Remus’s day, but it was better than anything he’d ever imagined. He walked home with a new bounce in his step and Sirius’s number in his phone.
