Eugene Davis sighed dreamily as he looked through the viewfinder of his camera at the attractive young man. The man was sitting on a park bench, reading a book amongst the autumn leaves. The afternoon sun glistened on his dark hair and reflected off of his glasses, blinding Eugene to the man's eye colour.

Adjusting the polarising filter on his camera, Eugene tentatively snapped a photo. Without glancing at the result, he adjusted the filter again and snapped another.

At that moment, the man turned his head in Eugene's direction. Eugene ducked frantically behind a bush. He stowed his camera back in his backpack and shuffled away, darting from tree to tree to try and avoid the man.

Every now and then, he looked over his shoulder, but the man had remained on his bench, engrossed in his book.

As he neared the edge of the park, Eugene let out a breath that he did not realise he had been holding. He removed his backpack and took out his camera once more.

Looking over the photos, he smiled. These were amazing candids. They would definitely be going on his blog later. Perhaps he would grayscale one. Everyone loved a good black and white picture. Especially the aesthetic blogs.

Not that Eugene did alterations just for extra likes and reblogs. However, he wanted to keep his popularity up so that come the time of his graduation, he would have a decent following and a potential income source.

Eugene once again tucked his camera away as his phone began to ring.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Dinner is ready," his twin's voice replied. "It has been for about five minutes. Do you plan on coming home or shall I feed it to the cat?"

Eugene swore under his breath.

"I'll be back in two minutes!" he declared, hanging up before Oliver could protest that his arrival in anything less than ten minutes would be extremely unlikely. Eugene started to run down the road, barely stopping at the crossings to look for oncoming cars before pelting across the tarmac.

Brakes screeched as a car whipped around the corner and skidded to a stop mere feet from him. The driver shook his fist at him.

"Watch where you're going, pillock!"

Eugene hopped onto the safety of the path once more.

"Sorry!" he shouted, waving at the driver of the car.

"You need to be more careful," a voice said from behind him. "People drive like maniacs around here."

Eugene spun around to see a very familiar young man standing behind him. Face flushing red, he stammered, "Uh, thanks!"

The man frowned, peering curiously at Eugene.

"Hey, do I know you?"

"Nope, sorry, never seen you before in my life!" Eugene declared, backing away. "Sorry! Have to go!" Then he turned and ran, faster than before, in an attempt to escape the object of his earlier photographs.

Moments later, Eugene arrived home panting and out of breath.

Oliver looked him up and down as he came through the door.

"Are you alright?" he asked. "I wasn't actually going to feed your food to the cat."

Eugene laughed breathlessly.

"Cats can't eat spaghetti, Eugene." Oliver put his hands on his hips. "I was just joking."

Eugene collapsed into a seat at the kitchen table and the cat in question began to brush against his leg.

"Hey Luna," Eugene smiled and petted the gray cat's head gently. "Is meanie Oliver keeping you from eating spaghetti?"

Oliver squinted at him suspiciously.

"So if it wasn't your dinner you were so worried about, then what was it?"

"I'm not worried!" Eugene said quickly.

Oliver narrowed his eyes, then raised an eyebrow at Eugene.

"Really?"

"Yeah! I was just out, innocently taking photographs and then decided to take a healthy jog back home!"

"In your sweater, coat, and jeans?"

"Health trumps all, dear brother. My endurance knows no season." Eugene removed his jacket and flexed his biceps to illustrate this point.

"Right." Oliver reached over and pinched Eugene's arm, flattening the muscle with barely any effort. "Such endurance. Just look at the muscle on this boy."

"Oww!" Eugene frowned. "You didn't have to pinch so hard, Noll."

"Well you didn't have to lie."

"I'm not lying!"

Oliver stared at his brother with tight lips.

"Ugh," Eugene relented. "Fine! I took a picture of a cute guy and then he followed me home."

"He followed you home?" Oliver was incredulous. "Should we call the police?"

"No! He, um, he didn't actually follow me…" Eugene faltered. "He…"

"You saw him again and got embarrassed?" Oliver supplied.

"Maybe?"

Eugene began shovelling pasta into his face to avoid having to answer any other question. Oliver sighed and went to wash up his plate. Once done, he located the cat food and fed Luna.

"I am sure there is a legal issue with you taking photographs of random strangers," Oliver muttered. "If you get sued, I am not going to assist with paying any costs."

"Cheers," Eugene mumbled through a mouthful of pasta. "Love you too, Noll."

"Clear up once you're done, I have work to do."

Oliver left the kitchen diner area. Luna and Eugene finished their meals in silence, then Eugene cleaned up both plates.

"It's not my fault that guy was cute," Eugene told Luna. "It would have been a crime to art if I had not taken that photo."

Luna licked her left paw.

"It was his own fault for sitting under the trees. Everyone knows photographers love taking pictures of the autumn leaves!"

Luna sent Eugene a look that clearly said 'Victim blaming? Really?'

"Okay fine, maybe I should have owned up to it but he was really, really attractive and I got all flustered okay?" Eugene defended himself.

Luna began cleaning the fur around her butt.

"Cheers Luna. You're so supportive," Eugene muttered, sarcasm lacing his voice. "Well I'm gonna go upload these so you enjoy your bath."

Eugene took his plate to the sink and rinsed it clean before grabbing his backpack and taking it to his bedroom.

He opened the laptop on his desk and began importing the photos. As they imported, Eugene was once again stricken by how pretty the man was. He could have been a model. Eugene was suddenly afraid people would accuse him of posing fake candids.

He dropped one of the files into his editing software and began to clean it up. He adjusted the contrast slightly and added a warmer toned filter to accentuate the autumn leaves.

Finally, he added his logo to the bottom right corner before saving this file to post.

Eugene edited the other two photos as well, adding a black and white filter to one of them. He would post all three together, he decided. They made for a good set.

He loaded up his blog and clicked on the 'new post' button. He loaded the highest quality that he could without crashing the page and captioned it: Reading in Autumn. He added his usual tags and a few other relevant ones before hitting post.

Satisfied with his work, Eugene returned to his other imported photos from earlier in the day. Most were good photos, but they all lacked the spark that the candids held. Eugene felt no connection to them. He grimaced, knowing that he ought to share them. Some people loved the Autumn aesthetic. But he did not want to distract from the candids.

So instead, he set up a queue to reblog the candids a few times over the upcoming weeks. He wanted them to get all the attention that they deserved.

He sighed again, studying the man's face in the photos. Eugene wondered if the unwilling subject was a student like him. He looked to be about Eugene's age. He zoomed in on the book in the man's hands, but could not see what he had been reading.

Eugene was startled from his thoughts by a knock on his bedroom door.

"Come in!"

Oliver opened the door and studied Eugene.

"I don't think you should post those pictures."

Eugene's eyes flickered to the screen in front of him.

"Um," he laughed nervously. "Too late?"

"Eugene!" Oliver rolled his eyes. "Are you serious?"

"He probably won't see them," Eugene argued. "They're some of my best work, I had to post them!"

"No, you didn't." Oliver sighed. "You could have kept them private. You could have done a number of things other than post them."

"You don't understand! Haven't you ever… I don't know, done a really high quality bit of maths and wanted to share it with the world?"

"No."

"But—"

"I write papers and share them with the world because it is the only way to get funding and I need funding. Not because I want the other idiots to actually see my mathematics. They hardly understand it to begin with."

"Some would argue that they don't understand due to your poor explana—"

"Stop changing the subject."

"What's done is done, Noll," Eugene said. "Even if I took it down, people will already have seen it."

Oliver sighed again.

"Don't say I didn't try to save you."

With that, Oliver was gone, leaving the door opened just enough for Luna to sneak into the room.

"What do you want?" Eugene narrowed his eyes at the cat.

Meow.

"You came in here to judge me too?"

Luna hopped into Eugene's lap and flicked him in the face with her tail.

"Thank you for that, Luna." Eugene frowned. "You're such a help."

Luna settled into Eugene's lap and Eugene began to stroke the soft fur on her back.

"Listen, Luna, he was so pretty," he glanced back up at the pictures. "If you saw someone that pretty in real life, you would take their picture too."

Luna yawned.

"I mean," Eugene amended. "Provided you could actually hold a camera. And, like, provided you actually cared about the aesthetics of humans. What is the cat equivalent of that anyway? I have no idea… Would you lick them?"

Luna did not dignify this with a response.

"Fine, be that way."

Eugene stared down at Luna for a moment.

"I can't move now, can I?" He groaned and shuffled closer to his desk again to once again look through the other photos in an attempt to distract himself. He picked the 'best of the rest' and queued them to post over the coming months. They weren't as good, but they would keep the traffic coming in.

Later, Luna scowled as Eugene removed her from his lap.

"Sorry, I have to sleep and I can't do that here."

Luna answered by jumping on Eugene's bed and curling up on his pillow. She did not move after Eugene had changed into his pyjamas and cleaned his teeth.

"Come on Luna," Eugene groaned. "That's my pillow!"

Luna opened one eye to look at Eugene before nuzzling further still into his pillow.

Eugene sighed and crawled into bed, carefully laying down with his head resting just beneath Luna's paws.

Finally, the cat shifted, jumping up and allowing Eugene to settle before stepping onto his chest.

Eugene laughed, "Thank you for your generosity, Luna."

X~X~X

Eugene awoke the next morning to a face full of fur; Luna had at some point shuffled closer to his face. When he tried to pick her up, she protested by sinking her claws into his skin.

"Oww, get off."

He turned on his side and Luna fell off onto the bed. She sulked off, out of his room.

"I'm sorry Luna!" he called, but she ignored him, presumably in order to find a more compliant pillow.

Eugene yawned as he stood up out of bed. He only wanted to get up so that he could check the notes on his photos from the night before.

Several aesthetic and photography blogs had showered his work with reblogs and likes. He was surprised, however, to see that he had a message from someone's personal blog.

With some trepidation, Eugene opened the message.

attourneyatblog: Hey! I just wanted to send you a message because, uh, I'm in some of your pictures? They turned out great but you didn't ask my permission to use my image and all that so… I don't mind you keeping the pictures up (as long as you credit me attourneyatblog) but I would love to get to know you a bit better! Coffee sometime?

Eugene swore and clicked on the blog name to bring up his homepage. There was not a single post about the author, but a lot of memes and posts about gay and animal rights. And kitten pictures. So many kitten pictures.

apollomoonphotography: How do I know you are who you say you are?

He did not have to wait long for a response.

attourneyatblog: Does this convince you?

Attached to the message was a selfie. Eugene swallowed hard as it loaded. It was definitely the cute guy from the previous day. He was grinning, his glasses slightly lopsided and his hair messy, presumably from sleeping.

Eugene struggled with his reply, finally settling upon something straightforward and simple.

apollomoonphotography: OK, I'm convinced. Why do you want to get coffee?

attourneyatblog: You owe me something in exchange for my image, no?

Eugene gulped. He definitely would not mind exchanging a few things for those photos…

apollomoonphotography: Where do you want to meet, then?

attourneyatblog: How about the Caffe Nero by the park? At, say, ten?

Eugene glanced at the time. It would take about twenty minutes to walk to the cafe, which gave him little over an hour to shower, dress and make himself look half as good as his date. Was it a date? Date or not, Eugene was unsure he even had anything nice to wear.

Eugene bounced out of bed and ran to his brother's room, knowing that Oliver was far more likely to have something clean and respectable than he would.

"What are you doing?"

"I need something nice to wear!" Eugene said as he rifled through Oliver's wardrobe. "This is important!"

"Of course it is," Oliver muttered. "As long as you clear up the mess you're making." He indicated the shirts that had fallen off of their hangers and onto the floor. Eugene scowled and scooped them up.

"I don't have time for this, Noll!"

"Why the hurry?" Oliver sat up and rubbed his eyes. "It's Saturday."

"I'm meeting Cute Picture Guy."

"Cute Picture Guy?" Oliver chuckled, eyebrow raised.

"He found the photos online and he wants to meet me!"

"To deliver his lawsuit?"

"No!" Eugene finally decided on a nice blue shirt. "We're getting coffee and he said that he wanted to get to know me!"

Oliver sighed, laying back down and pulling the covers up to his chin.

"Don't get sued." He sighed again. "Or kidnapped. This guy could be anyone."

"He's far too cute to be a kidnapper."

"You realise how little sense that makes, right?"

"We're meeting in a public place, it'll be fine," Eugene muttered. "I'm borrowing this shirt."

Oliver sighed yet again, but Eugene ignored him. Instead he returned to his room, dumped the shirt on his bed and then headed for the shower.

He took a while under the hot water. Eugene washed his hair twice, just to make sure. Once he had towelled himself dry, he shaved and inspected his face for any other imperfections.

Eugene began ruffling his hands through his damp hair, wondering whether he should finally use the hairdryer his mother had gifted him. Usually, he just allowed his hair to air dry, but now he was pressed for time and he needed to look perfect.

Shrugging, he took the orange blowdryer out of the cabinet underneath his sink and plugged it in.

Once his hair was dry, Eugene went back to his bedroom to get dressed.

He paired his brother's shirt with his favourite pair of dark jeans. He felt vaguely guilty as he rolled up the shirt's sleeves. This would leave Oliver's shirt with new wrinkles. Nothing that an iron could not fix, though. Perhaps this Christmas, Luella would gift them an iron; yet another electronic appliance they would rarely use.

Eugene spun around to admire himself in the mirror on the back of his door, only to find that his attempts at blow drying his hair had left him with a weird parting.

"Crap!"

He ran back to the bathroom and wetted his hair. He grabbed a comb and tried to make his hair lie in some resemblance of order. Just as he was about ready to cry, Oliver walked in.

"What are you doing?"

"My hair looks stupid," Eugene moaned. "What am I going to do?"

Oliver sighed, stole the comb from Eugene and pointed to the toilet. Eugene lowered the toilet seat lid and sat while Oliver wet the comb again and got to work. Oliver had the sense to use the hairdryer again, but this time, pointing the direction of the airflow in the direction he wanted Eugene's hair to sit.

"There," he said finally. "That'll have to do."

Eugene bounded up and checked his reflection.

"Thank you!"

"Now get out, I need to use the toilet."

Eugene did not need telling twice. He ran back to his room, collected together his phone, wallet and camera bag — perhaps his new friend would want to see more of his photography? Or even better, let him take more photos… With less clothing…

Eugene shook his head. Now was not the time. He checked the clock. He just had time to make toast before he had to leave. He was about to leave his bedroom when Oliver called through.

"Don't forget your shoes."

Eugene looked down, he had indeed forgotten to put his shoes on.

"Thanks!"

He slipped on his trainers and then pelted down the stairs to the kitchen, where he shoved two bits of bread in the toaster. Eugene downed a small glass of orange juice while he waited for them to pop. Once they did, he slathered them with raspberry jam and headed for the door.

"See you later!"

"Don't get sued!" Oliver reminded him.

hello! Hannah and I wanted to write a short yasune fic but then it turned into two entire chapters. hope you enjoy!

co-written with Snavej (and a few lines from Toa)

please rate and review!

Love, Bee