There was something almost irritatingly naïve and hopeful about Ray Garraty, Gary Barkovitch decided as he watched the idiot talk to the even bigger idiot, Peter McVries, who, while a bit more cynical than Garraty, still had that air about him. That, 'nothing bad's really going to happen to me' air.

Maybe with McVries it was more of a false 'I don't care what happens to me,' but either way, both of them pissed Barkovitch off. Garraty probably a bit less, if only because he wasn't an absolute dick all of the time.

Case in point, he was dropping away from McVries and heading straight for Barkovitch. Barkovitch hunched his shoulders and shoved his hands in his pockets, keeping his eyes straight ahead. No point in letting the asshole know he'd been watching him.

"Barkovitch?"

"What do you want?" Even to his own ears, he sounded resigned. Which… hadn't been what he'd been looking for at all.

"Pete wants to know why you've been watching us."

"Tell Pete that I can do whatever the fuck I want, asshole," Barkovitch snapped, immediately on the defense. Garraty looked a little shocked, then like he'd been expecting it. Then he started looking like he was going to move away, and then he really did start to move away. And something inside of Barkovitch snapped a little. He reached out, fingers brushing against Garraty's sleeve, and Garraty turned back.

"What?" he asked. He sounded mad. Barkovitch swallowed past the lump that had grown way too quickly in his throat.

"I-" he broke off, staring down at the road. It started to rain a little, and he huddled further inside his jacket. He couldn't find the words, then, but he knew that if he didn't come up with something, he'd be alone again. And that was something he didn't think that he could handle. "I- wait."

Garraty raised an eyebrow. Barkovitch swallowed again. "What?" Garraty asked, finally. Barkovitch licked his lips. He couldn't think of anything. He couldn't think of anything and he couldn't tell Garraty 'hey, you haven't been completely horrible, mind making sure I don't go totally insane by sticking around for a few minutes, because if you don't I might snap for good?'

He was quiet.

Garraty looked like he wanted to leave.

But… not as much as he looked like he wanted to leave when Barkovitch talked.

"Do you need something?" Garraty asked after a few moments. He'd been glancing at McVries about once every three seconds, and McVries had been alternating between glaring at Barkovitch and returning said glances.

"I- uh- yeah," Barkovitch said. "D-do you have the time?"

Shit.

That would give him another five seconds with human company.

"Yeah…" Garraty said, giving him a weird look. "It's about seven."

"Right," Barkovitch said. He nodded. He shoved his hand deeper into his pocket so that Garraty wouldn't see that he had his own watch. Garraty gave him a final weird look, then headed off again. Barkovitch involuntarily made a noise in the back of his throat, and Garraty stopped again.

"Look, are you… lonely, or something? Because I don't… I don't think I'm the right guy if you want some company," Garraty said, awkward as ever. Barkovitch bit down hard on the inside of his cheek to stop himself from saying something probably stupid. But then Garraty sighed. "You know what, fine. Okay. I'll hang around for a while."

Barkovitch didn't say anything to that, just nodded.

Even if they weren't going to talk – and, if Barkovitch was being completely honest with himself, that was probably for the best – it was fine to have someone near him, someone with him that didn't want to murder him.

This was requested by an anon on Tumblr, who wanted a Garraty/Barkovitch! It's… it's been a while since I wrote Walk-verse Barkovitch.