New Connections (Private Leif)

It had been about a month since the destructive creature tried to take down Xastristan. Even though Arik could connect some things of what happened he still didn't have the full story. News had came out saying their views of it, but everyone had a different story. It seemed like he wasn't the only one boggled. Some of the worse injuries still hurt, but most of it was cleared up. Luckily, Arik still didn't see any signs of serious head trauma, which was a surprise to himself even.

Today had been his first day on a mission outside of the base since the incidents. The way this city prospered after near-total-destruction attacks was astonishing. The rubble was all cleared up, roads fixed, and most of the smaller buildings were put back together. The bigger ones were still being made, but the amount of them that filled the skyline was more than Arik thought was possible in this short amount of time. 'They must not want to seem weak to the other countries,' he guessed, 'strong even after times of down.' If only he could do the same.

Most of his time in the base had been spent fixing up his laptop, which now hung comfortably in his jacket-pocket. It was nice to get some fresh air and stretch his, still slightly sore, legs. His main mission had been finished, which wasn't hard like always since it seemed like his team didn't necessarily believe in him that much, so he decided to spend a bit more time out in the city and see how some businesses were fairing. His favored coffee shop was bustling with people. They always seemed busy so it was good to know that the chance of them going out was low. He made his way in, taking little notice of the people here. That is, until a blonde provoked his memory.

The blonde was sitting down at a booth, just receiving a cup from the waitress. To anyone, he was just a normal person, but Arik had flashes from when he woke back up, a strange face looming over him and other people talking, the smoke. If he hadn't hurt so bad he would have probably tried to get away from there. There was no simple way to tell if the two were the same person, but he guessed there was only one way to find out.

The table in front of the blonde was empty, so Arik took it so that he'd be able to secretly study the male. If he wasn't so focused on trying to figure out if he matched and wasn't in his guild, he probably would have thought that the mission was strange. But he's secretly watched people too many times to think of it that way anymore. He picked up the menu off the table, lazily eying it as he tried to compare the image in his head to the person at the next table.

Most coffee shops had wifi in Xastristan, but not the one where Leif normally went.  Even though it served some of the best coffee in the country, it didn't have any wifi due to them wanting to promote "social interaction".  He hadn't been expecting to stop at the same shop again so soon, and he had left Quby at home, so he was without wifi for the time being.  Leif had tried to check some of his social media, but the reception was terrible since the shop was at ground level underneath a hotel.

Leif's drink had finally arrived at his table.  It felt like it had been an eternity since he had ordered it.  He thanked the waitress and asked for the bill, not thinking he would be staying a while.  As Leif took a small sip of his frappé, he noticed someone familiar sit down at the next booth over.  Leif flashed a smile at him and continued sipping from his drink.  After a few minutes, he decided to get up and go talk to the man.  He still didn't know his name.  Even though they had been through a lot, they never really talked or got to know each other. "Do you mind if I sit with you?" Leif asked.  Wow, it really is a small world.

Arik was actually considering if he should get something to eat with his drink when the other man came by. It had startled him slightly, but then he was surprised by the fact that the very person who he was studying came to ask if he could sit with him. "S-Sure," he said, trying to offer his best smile. Now that the blonde was sitting there Arik had no idea what to say. If he ever had a trace of knowing his name while the monster was roaming it was gone now.

Luckily the barista came by to save him from this awkwardness. He ordered himself a cup of green tea and a banana. After she left he realized that he actually hadn't had anything to eat this morning, a bad habit of his. Now that it was back to just the two Arik almost hoped that she'd come back soon. Curse him and his weak social skills.

"I just realized that you might not remember me.  We kinda met during that...  Catastrophe," Leif smiled softly, realizing how shy the other man was.  He didn't want to make the other man uncomfortable.  He still didn't know the other person's name, but he figured that it would come up at a later time when he was more comfortable talking to Leif.  Trying to strike up some small talk, he said "I'm glad that you're okay.  You seemed to have sustained some pretty bad injuries last month."

Arik let out a sigh of relief. So his suspicions were right, it was the guy who was there when Arik ended up waking up. It was kind of nice knowing who that strange man was, and to be able to talk to him. Maybe he'd be able to tell him more about what exactly happened. Arik scratched the back of his neck and chuckled when the man mentioned his injuries. "They probably looked worse than they were," he lied, knowing fully that if he was left out there he most likely would have died within a couple hours. "So... I don't, can you, do you remember what all happened?" he asked, trying to find the best way to ask.

The barista came back to drop off his stuff and he thanked her, taking a sniff of his tea. Mint, his favorite. He'd have to let it cool off before he could take a sip.

The blonde laughed sheepishly, not knowing how to respond to the other man's question. "To be completely honest, I don't remember much of what happened," he tried to answer. That was a partial lie though. He remembered watching the other man bravely save someone from the rubble and distract the beast. Leif remembered how he had pulled the unconscious body of the other man into an alley, but that was all.

Leif looked down and shifted his coffee cup in his hands. He had never felt so nervous. It was very unlike him to actually not know what to say or how to act. He wanted to hit on the guy across the table from him, but would he understand? Did he already have someone else in his life? Were his parents overprotective and not wanting him to date? Were his parents even alive? As hundreds of thoughts flooded Leif's mind, he realized that he still didn't know the other man's name, and the other man didn't know his. "I just realized that I haven't introduced myself. I'm Leif," he said, reaching his hand across the table to shake the other man's.

You couldn't blame him for trying. It was slightly disheartening that the blonde didn't remember as well, but it wasn't too much of a problem. Now all that was left was to bother his teammates or choose one of the the stories to go with. Or maybe he could wait and the flashes for memory would eventually link back together.

The man's voice brought him out of his own thoughts. 'Leif,' he idely pondered. It was unique, unlike his own. He took the man's hand- warm, meaning that his were colder. "Arik," the were replied, holding on for a second longer before letting go. He took a sip of his tea, staying quiet for a minute before asking, "So, what brought you down here today?"

Arik...  That's a nice name...  Leif thought absentmindedly, trying to think if he had heard the name anywhere else before.  "Oh, me?  I work during the night, so I kinda just wander around the city during the day.  I come here for the coffee to keep myself awake," he said, laughing awkwardly near the last part of his sentence.  He had never had trouble talking to anyone before, but there was a kind of air around Arik that made Leif feel...  Uneasy, to say the least.  It was almost as if Leif was actually attracted to Arik.  It'd be a shame if he's straight, Leif thought, mustering up the courage to ask out Arik.

"Hey so like...  Do you wanna maybe get a drink sometime and talk some more?" Leif asked, not exactly knowing how to ask out someone who was so quiet.  Leif almost always knew what to say, and the way he had been acting around Arik was very unlike him.  Negative thoughts about what could go wrong ran through Leif's mind, but he still maintained his charming smile, trying to not be intimidated by Arik's quietness.  He still didn't know that that was why he was so nervous around Arik.  Most of the time the people he hit on were drunk and loud, which was what Leif was used to.  However, this time he was talking to someone who was more reserved, and he didn't know how to act accordingly.

Arik chuckled. "I tend to stay up well into the nighttime hours, on purpose or not," he admitted. Although, Arik knew fully well that it was mostly due to his were blood. Even if Arik hadn't known this guy for awhile, he almost wanted to say that he seemed more uncomfortable than usual. Ah, it was probably nothing. The were couldn't judge, he was always uncomfortable. He took a sip of his tea, now at that nice won't-burn-your-tongue-off temperature.

He put down his tea so he'd be able to answer the other man. He opened his mouth to say yes, but then closed it before he did. "I mean, I don't drink alcohol but..." Why was he suddenly embarrassed by this fact? Arik had a rather good reason of why he didn't drink, but that didn't stop the slight flush upon his cheeks. As if to try and hide it, he peeled his banana to take a bite of it.

"Oh, no no no if you don't drink alcohol that's fine.  We could maybe just meet back here and talk some more," Leif said, slightly embarrassed that he had jumped to a conclusion.  He had to keep this conversation going somehow, but he wasn't aware of how to do it.  Normally he had a ton of conversation starters just stored in his head, but today he wasn't able to think of a single one.  It felt like the more Leif talked to Arik, the more he forgot how to hit on someone.

By now, the ice in Leif's frappé had melted, and the drink became watered down.  He swirled the drink around in his glass, trying to not meet Arik's eyes.  He still didn't realize that he was legitimately attracted to Arik, and not just because he wanted a one-night-stand.  He felt like he should ask Arik something about himself, but he just didn't know what.  Leif felt like he was putting too much pressure on Arik for the time being, seeing as the other man was blushing.  The only problem was, he didn't know how to keep Arik there.  People normally were very open with Leif, but Arik seemed quieter than most.

Arik was relieved that the other man wasn't too concerned about the fact that he didn't drink alcohol. It was almost nice to know that people won't, or at least hopefully wouldn't, make fun of him or anything. "I mean, yeah, we can come back here another time and chat some more," the were said with a smile. He only hoped that he wouldn't get stuck in a mission or something and have to call it off, or not even be able to do that and leave the blonde wondering where he was. "When would you like to meet again?" Arik didn't even realize what he was doing, that the other male might be taking this as a date or just simple interest.

He continued to nibble on his banana as he waited for the other man's reply. He knew that he tea was getting cooler the longer he let it sit, but cold tea wasn't too bad. Maybe he should get out his laptop so he could mark when the blonde wanted to meet up again.

When Arik asked when Leif wanted to meet up again, Leif was surprised.  He never would have expected someone so shy to actually say yes.  His mind went blank for a moment as he tried to think of a time to meet up again.  I didn't expect to get this far. he thought, trying to think of a time when he was available.  It didn't occur to him that he was free pretty much whenever he wasn't working, so he was free from around 2:00am to 8:00pm.  "Oh, I'm always free.  Just give me a call whenever," Leif said, pulling a pen out of his pocket and writing his phone number down on his bill.

When he was finished writing, he put away his pen and folded the bill in half, handing it to Arik.  He wasn't able to look Arik in the eyes for most of the time, but when he finally did, he noticed that they were a vibrant shade of green, which stood out compared to the rest of the dull colors he was wearing.  Oh no...  His clothes... Leif thought.  He had just noticed Arik's clothes after all that time.  Maybe it's in style in the emo community, he hoped, trying not to think too much about it.

Arik nodded, taking the number and glancing over it before putting it and putting it in one of his pockets. At the same time, he glanced up at the clock. It had gotten a lot latter than he had anticipated. He slightly winced at the fact that Yuuki wasn't going to be too happy that he was later than she wanted. "I, uh, I should probably go now," he said, placing some money on the counter and moving to leave. "I'll notify you when I'm free to meet."

Arik didn't think much about what had just happened. It had just seemed like a regular meeting, like something friends would do. So, he just made his way back to the DS base, hoping Yuuki wouldn't notice that he was a bit late.

(( Timeskip to about a month later, 4th encounter ))

"Hey I was just calling to see if there was a movie or something you wanted to see today.  Talk to you later," Leif said, speaking into his phone.  He tapped the red button to end the call and tossed his phone oh the couch beside him.  He had called nearly six times in the past week.  He hadn't hooked up with anyone since he had officially met Arik, and it was getting to him.  He figured that if they were going to have an actual relationship that he should probably stop being so clingy.  Is he ghosting me?  Is this what it's like to be ghosted?  He picked up his phone again and opened up the messages app.  Scrolling through the list, he could count around 15 people that he had actually ghosted.  Leif didn't regret it.  He had only gotten together with those guys just to hook up, but Arik was different.  There was still something about him that made Leif feel different inside, but he still didn't know what.

Arik had been busy, and he was lucky for those few times that he had some free time. Usually, he'd just stay in his room, but now whenever he was free for more than half an hour he went out. He doubted that anyone in the base knew what he was doing, but he didn't really care. He went out with Leif whenever he had time to because of all the times he felt bad about ignoring his calls, texts, whatever. Half of it was just that he wasn't sure how to reply, and the other part that he was on a mission and even just reading the message would put him off-task for a bit. Arik just wondered why now was so busy.

It had been about an hour since Leif had left the message that Arik was able to get back to him. 'Sure, we can see whatever.' He had texted back, feeling bad and too nervous to call him back. 'Meet at the coffee place?' Since that was a place they both knew, it was easiest to meet up there. Arik was already heading out in that direction, figuring the answer would be a yes. He never really cared about how his hair was, but the were stopped and used his phone to make sure his hair wasn't too much of a mess.

If the boy was honest, he had no idea what movie they should watch. He wasn't much of a TV watcher, and much less one of movies. They were long and, he could be doing better things with his time. But at the same time, he never actually tried to watch one through. Maybe he'd like it? Arik had no clue what type of movie to watch though, so hopefully the blonde would choose one for them.

Leif’s phone dinged as he got a notification that Arik had texted him.  He didn’t actually know who had texted him, but he figured it was Arik, since he hadn’t been getting many texts lately, due to the lack of “dates” he had been going on.  He planned to change the noise for a notification from Arik, but decided against it.  He had never had a real, proper relationship before, and he didn’t know what to do to keep this one from screwing up.  Hell, he didn’t even know if Arik felt the same way about Leif as Leif did about Arik.  He would have picked up his phone that instant to respond, but he remembered how he had felt with all the other clingy guys instantly responding to his texts.  The blonde waited a minute or two before responding with “Great. I’ll be there in a little bit.”

As he walked towards the coffee shop, Leif thought of his list of movies that would potentially be good to see, but had been waiting for Arik to be able to watch one with him.  He had narrowed it down to two movies, one was horror and the other was a romantic comedy.  He made his final decision as he stepped out of the door, and figured that he would surprise Arik when they got to the theater.  The blonde lived fairly close to the coffee shop, so it was only about a five minute walk.  He arrived at the shop sooner than Arik, so while he waited, he ordered a frappé for himself and tea for Arik.  He didn’t know what kind Arik liked, so he just asked the waitress for the most popular one.

Arik had finally made into the coffee shop, and it wasn't a surprise when he saw that Leif had gotten there first. The were suspected he must live close to here, at least closer than DS was. Arik smiled as he took his tea, giving Leif a thank you. He didn't mind most teas, he mostly choose based on just what he felt like in that moment.

"So, what are we going to see? He asked, hoping to get an idea of it off of the title. He tried to think back to movies he might have watched when he was littler, but he only had fragments, and they weren't going to be what they would watch today. At least, he thought. If they were going to a theater then it should be new movies... unless the blonde had other plans.

((Timeskip about 30 minutes later to the movie theatre))

Leif had bought the tickets to the movie online as he and Arik walked to the theater. For a moment before he used his fingerprint to purchase the tickets, he thought he would let Arik pick, but then decided that it would be best to just not tell him. He felt like Arik needed more exposure to the world around him, and, as always, was trying to fix a problem that didn't exist. He was much more comfortable around Arik than before, which was a good thing, especially considering the movie they were going to be watching. He figured that Arik wouldn't complain about anything because Leif felt like he was fine with whatever, so he'd have to be sure to ask him if he wanted to leave an theater-hop to a different movie if he didn't like the one they were seeing.

Leif led Arik to their seats and Leif sat down, just as the lights were dimming. Thankfully, they had just missed all of the pre-movie ads, and were arriving just as the actual movie was about to start. The movie he had chosen was a movie adaptation of an old Earth-based tv show called "The Twilight Zone". Leif had no idea what it was about, but the reviews online were raving and it looked like an interesting pick. He didn't actually know what Arik liked that much, so he just picked what he assumed Arik would like, even if he might have been completely wrong.

Arik followed Leif to the theater, letting the other male lead. He had never actually been to a theater before, and he wasn't sure what he expected. He took a seat in one of the chairs, looking around at the structure of the building before the lights dimmed and focused his attention on the big screen. Arik wondered if he seemed childish, looking around at everything and being so intrigued at it. A few minutes after the movie began to play he turned around, looking up at the projector. Sure, he knew how one of those worked, but the expanse of light from a single point to a wall was still something he found interesting. Eventually, he settled down and watched the movie more than his surroundings.

As the narrator was starting to make the introduction speech for The Twilight Zone, Leif was shutting off his phone. He glanced up as it was shutting down and saw a shopping mall, one of his favorite places to visit, but this one looked a little different than the others. He figured that he would let the movie progress and see what would happen. He looked over at Arik and smiled a little, glad to see that the other man was getting a little out of what Leif thought was his comfort zone.

About three quarters of the way through the movie, the main character was back to the ground floor of the shopping mall. She had just returned from a floor that supposedly didn't exist. As she was talking to the clerk, the mannequins stepped down from their pedestals and began to surround her. Leif thought that this was probably the scariest part of the movie, but they had only gotten through one of the three stories.

Arik watched the movie, taking in the details he could and trying to figure out what was going to happen next. He's heard things said about movies, like something about zombies or some cute romance couple, but he didn't think that he heard of this one. It was entertaining to try and figure out what was going to come next, but a lot harder here than in real life. At least in reality he could look around on his own accord and decide when he's finished, here it just goes on it's own. Normally, it'd be a 'what do you expect?' moment, but Arik didn't know what to expect.

At first, the moving mannequins startled him, as he didn't expect an inanimate object to move, but it still kept him interested for what was next. The make even leaned forward a bit, as if trying to get closer to what was happening.

The movie ended about 45 minutes later, and by then Leif was tired of the terrible 'phycological horror' movie.  As the credits started rolling up the screen, Leif turned to Arik and said, "I'm so sorry.  That's not what I had expected at all."  He sighed and thought to himself about what a terrible time this must have been for Arik.  He smiled softly and stood up, stretching his arms in front of him, not knowing if Arik wanted to go anywhere else, especially after Leif’s terrible choice of movie.  Hopefully they'd get to go on another date sometime, but Leif felt like Arik was getting a little sick of him.  "Hey so like...  If you ever wanna do something again, just hit me up," Leif said, feeling embarrassed that he picked such a bad movie.

For not knowing what to expect out of a movie, Arik thought it was rather good, and was confused when Leif started to apologise for it. "I didn't know what to expect, it was very interesting with all the concepts they used." He said, a slight worry in his voice. "I mean, if I'm honest, this is the first movie I've sat through." The were could feel himself blush, and for some reason he did whenever admitting something to the other male. It was strange behavior for him, but maybe it was because he didn't want the other to judge him too much. And yet, Arik never cared much about what others thought about him. If he did, maybe he'd do something with his hair or clothes or something. But no, the more bland he could be the better, at least for now.

Arik opened his mouth, about to say something before his watch started to vibrate. He moved his jacket back, frowning at what it had to say. Yuuki wanted him back at the base. The boy looked up at Leif, sorry that he had to leave. "I've got to go... and yeah, I'll 'hit you up' again sometime." He said, hoping that it wouldn't be too far in the future. Arik left, heading back to the base and making sure that Leif, or anyone else, didn't follow him.