Notes: Written in February 2008 for Yuuta's birthday and posted to my LJ.
Characters: Fuji Yuuta & Kisarazu Atsushi.
Train Tracks
By Miki
Yuuta's standing on the platform at about where he expects the second carriage to be once the train pulls in (it's 8am and his suit feels too stiff because it's just come back from the drycleaners and he's busy trying to subtly adjust his underwear through his suit pants), when he first notices the man.
It's rare to find stations without double glass these days, but this station is one of those and Yuuta's never felt comfortable standing near the middle carriages because they tend to be the most crowded, and the yellow lines on the platform never do much to deter people from pushing from the back anyway.
Some of the stations around these have been shut for a few days as glass walls and doors are erected but this station is one of the busiest and for some reason, seems to be last on schedule for renovation, which makes Yuuta think he should start walking the extra two blocks to the station next along the train route, because as he eyes the people streaming along the platform behind him, he knows that if this train is any later, the space behind him will become just as crowded as that in the middle. And people crowding at his back make him nervous these days, completely unhelped by the stories in the media about suicidal idiots jumping in front of trains at this station.
Even as he pulls the day's newspaper from under his arm and unfolds it, he winces to see the headlines. And so he closes it again, glancing around him and deciding he'll save it for later, when he's in the safety of his office where there isn't a crowd of suits all looking serious and tired and standing over the yellow line and peering downwards at the tracks and...
And Yuuta hears rumbling in the distance.
The train's coming.
He jerks, cold pricks under his skin and his heart suddenly in his throat, hand instinctively shooting out to catch the man's arm and yank him back from the edge of the platform.
He looks surprised, teetering on his feet as his eyes go wide and he stumbles against Yuuta.
"Hey! What are you doing!?" Yuuta yells, arms around the man's torso as he yanks him backwards further. His newspaper smacks the concrete floor and he finds himself glaring at the man, even as the train suddenly whooshes into the station, right past them, air rushing at them and brakes squealing against the tracks.
"What am I...?" the man repeats, blinking a little. "I just dropped my tissues."
Then, standing up straighter and politely removing himself from Yuuta's arms, he smiles somewhat demurely, surprising Yuuta.
"You... dropped..." Yuuta winces, and takes a cursory glance at the gap between the train and the platform. The train's just coming to a halt, and people are pushing past the two of them, jostling and bustling. "Really? Are you sure?"
"Yeah," the guy answers, smiling slightly again as he points to his nose, which Yuuta notes is, actually, slightly pink.
"I have a cold but I'm not suicidal, if that's what you thought," he notes, taking a step towards the train. But as he's about to put a foot in, someone squeezes herself into the last possible spot right up against the train's yellow line, and the next moment, the doors slide shut.
"Next train, I guess," he sighs as he steps back, and Yuuta nods blankly, confused about what's just happened.
He stares at the man a second longer, eyes flicking over his appearance and registering the fact that he looks quite young, and tries to convince himself that it was just a matter of having dropped his tissues. If he were really considering jumping, he ought to be middle-aged at least, and look stressed out or depressed or somehow miserable. Not as though he's about to burst into laughter.
"You don't have any tissues, do you?" he asks with a slight smile, and Yuuta almost feels indignant at his amusement. He'd seriously thought for a second that the guy was a jumper!
Nevertheless, Yuuta scrounges in his briefcase and pulls out a packet looking somewhat old, but the guy doesn't seem to notice it might have been in here for a whole year, because he takes it from Yuuta gratefully.
It's hard to stare at someone inconspicuously, even if Yuuta's brother is an expert at staring holes in people's heads through closed eyes, so he ends up stealing glances that possibly don't go unnoticed. Or at least, he notices after a minute that he's doing it, and realising that the other man must notice too, his ears turn a pretty shade of pink and he finds himself tongue-tied until the other man talks first.
They talk as they wait for the next train, and it turns out that he works in the same district as Yuuta, his office just a few streets away and in a building Yuuta's already familiar with. He takes his lunch breaks at the same time and heads home an hour earlier than Yuuta does. This isn't the time he normally catches the train in the mornings either, but he slept in this morning because of his cold.
They stay in the same carriage on the train ride, squashed up against a pole together, Yuuta a little more practised in keeping his balance during peak hour train trips, and when they shuffle out at the same stop, Yuuta's slightly disappointed they actually walk in opposite directions to their offices.
He awkwardly plucks his business card from his pocket and hands it over.
"Just... Just in case you run out of tissues again," he jokes nervously, and gets a smile and a polite nod in response.
And as he walks to work, he wonders if that's it, if there are just some people who you're not supposed to get to know because your paths will never cross enough to allow you to.
It's a depressing thought, and he spends much of the day playing with his pen and fiddling with stacks of paper, never really getting anything done.
But as he walks to the train platform the next morning, he peeks around the corner and sees a familiar face.
He falters for a moment, unsure if he's imagining things or if the same man is really standing there. Then he walks the rest of the way to his usual spot on the platform, puts his feet together and is halfway to rocking on his heels when he realises he's just being stupid by not saying anything.
"Good morning," he greets, tentatively, with a small smile for reassurance.
"Morning," the man smiles back, and Yuuta's so glad he actually said something.
"I slept in again," the guy adds, tapping his watch a little.
Yuuta can't help the grin spreading across his face. "Still sick?"
There's another slight smile and the man points to his nose, possibly pinker than yesterday, and Yuuta scrounges again in his briefcase for the packet of tissues he knows he put in last night.
"I thought you'd have some," the guy says as he takes the packet, and Yuuta blinks for a second, registering what he's just said.
So apparently he wasn't the only one who thought they might just be bumping into each other again.
"Are you taking this train tomorrow morning too?" Yuuta asks.
"Not if I want to keep my job," the guy answers, making Yuuta chuckle under his breath. He knows exactly how it is.
"But I am having lunch today next to your building... if you want to join me."
.fin.
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