Don't Got No Degree
For a Friday night in London it was relatively calm, groups of friends on their pub crawl moving around the area, the only reason why it was so calm was because of how early it was in the evening. The sun was long gone by now, winter was harsh but at least it wasn't raining making everything so much more miserable, winter in England was miserable with or without the constant rain. Everyone was now out on the lash, Christmas being close it gave everyone in England an excuse to drink like tomorrow wasn't coming. But it wasn't too bad tonight, tonight was cutting it close to being the holiday rush officially beginning.
Steven wrapped his jacket around him tighter, he wasn't sure if the cold was because of him being so tired or if it was because he was running off of barley enough sleep. In his defence, it wasn't his fault, with Marc running a couple of jobs every once in a while to keep up with rent and the bills, as much as Steven want to, neither of them could keep up with the constant rise in cost of living. Steven wasn't happy with what Marc would do but it kept them with a roof over their head, Steven had made it obvious that if they had to move to a cheaper part of England he would. However Marc wasn't going to make Steven leave somewhere he really loved.
Strolling down the street towards his apartment complex, Steven finally felt some sort of warmth by the time had had gotten into the building and standing the graffiti covered lift. Steven was slightly nervous about running into his neighbour, about six months ago some American Bloke moved in across the hall from Steven. He had somehow managed to fall embarrassingly fast for said random bloke, when they started inviting each other round, helping each other out and Steven being his tour guide around the city. It only took a couple of months for Steven to finally noticed that he had fallen for this American, the endless teasing from Marc didn't help his denial of said feeling either.
It was about half eight by the time Steven had gotten back into his flat, collapsing on his bed and letting any stress of the day disappear. He got his keys in the door and wasted no time finding his way into the flat, shedding his coat and ignoring everything in him to tell him that he should get some food and drink something. He was too tired to do anything now, all he wanted was to curl up and fall asleep for the next twelve hours. His flat was awkwardly filled with a large amount of books, scattered paper and old notebooks. His coat left somewhere in the mix and a weeks worth of clothes that needs washing, Steven pulled himself out of bed when Marc started annoying him to no ends.
"Steven, c'mon buddy, it's gonna take a few minutes to get some food sorted," he whined, Steven knew it wasn't healthy to fall asleep on an empty stomach, but me might have been able to ignore it if Marc wasn't there constantly being caring non-stop and making sure Steven was OK. He knew it was a silly thing to complain about, Steven did care about Marc and was grateful for his constant worry and concern for Steven's safety.
"Fine, bloody hell," Steven sighed, swinging his leg off the bed, hauling himself up and walking over the kitchen, "I'm up, I'm getting food," he raised his hands in surrender as he made is way other to the kitchen on the other side of the flat. Pulling out a loaf of bread from the bread-bin, making himself some toast was the best option at this point. He was too tired to make anything else and had no left overs in the freezer to defrost, he wasn't really in the mood for eating a meal anyways. Marc shut up after Steven had eaten, Steven changed into pyjamas and finally got into bed. The one thing he had been dreaming of all day.
To say Steven wasn't mentally unprepared to run into his neighbour would an understatement, his lack of knowing what to say and stuttering over every other word would be the perfect statement of how mentally unprepared he was, besides it didn't help with Marc snorting in the background. Steven had the day off work, he was now at a better job working in a bookshop with a manager that wasn't out to get him at every turn. So, Steven thought that today would be a great day to do a food shop, get some washing done and pick up some stuff for around the flat. While Steven was locking the front door, behind him Eddie stumbled out of his flat, Steven turned his head so quickly it could be played off as Eddie scaring him. Eddie looked like he was in a rush, but the second he saw Steven something seemed to change.
"Hey, Steven, how you doing?" Eddie stopped where he was, looking genuinely happy to see the Brit.
Steven's heart stuttered, "I, um, I'm alright, how about yourself?" he managed out, any thought he had in his head dissipated within a matter of seconds.
"Oh," Eddie seemed shocked that Steven was taking interest in his life, "Oh y'know, slept through my alarm, still haven't handed in my most recent piece and am running so late. I'm very surprised my boss hasn't fired me yet," he joked locking the door behind him, straightening up his jacked and then looked at Steven, "As much as I want to talk, I'm so painfully late. Later, though?" he said, the two were now walking down the hallway together, "You've got the day off right?"
"Um, yeah, later sounds good, mate," Steven fiddled with his fingers nervously.
"See ya' later," Eddie called out as he made his way over to his motorbike.
"Laters," Steven called out, his voice was small and hardly even audible to anyone. He wasn't sure if he was meant to feel this nervous around a person, but somehow Eddie had this effect on him. Marc would tease Steven relentlessly, it was almost like Layla all over again, but this time Steven didn't have the impending doom of the world ending to distract him from his lack of absence of any game.
The city was empty, it was still relatively early in the morning, most people where out heading off to work or dropping their children off at school. Once it got to midday Steven had finished everything that he needed to do, he wasn't one to fancy staying out in the could any longer that he wanted to, heading home was going to be his next best option. Sat on the fairly busy bus, Steven felt his phone buzz from his pocket, pulling it out to see who had texted him, the list being only a couple of people.
Eddie (12:12):
i feel like me being late this morning and cutting it close to my deadline is going to give my boss a heart attack. then again, if he read my work history he should know what he got himself into.
Steven couldn't help but let out a small chuckle, when Eddie had move in six months prior they both became close very quickly having more in common than either of them expected. Eddie talked about how me messed up too many times and needed a fresh start, not because he was running away but because it was just better for him to start clean and try and work up from there. Steven gave him a hand getting all of his stuff lugged up into the building before it started raining on everything, Eddie offered to order a takeaway as a 'thank you' for all of his help over the first week of being in the complex.
Feeling less alone in the world with Eddie being nice to Steven at every turn, he would listen to all of Steven's rants about Ancient Egypt, or how Donna was driving him up the wall. Even after he went missing for a good month, Eddie was there to great Steven once he was back in his flat, safe and sound. Help Eddie get all of his stuff sorted, warning him when it came to how sarcastic British people are, and just simply being Eddie's only friend. How couldn't Eddie have taken to Steven so quickly, he was dorky and nerdy, cared so much about his interests and would go off on one if he was given the chance.
Hating most of his days in the office, his boss would be out for him at every moment, giving him the benefit of the doubt, Eddie understood he wasn't the world's greatest employee. He would cut it close to deadlines, turn up late most days, but he got his work done despite of all these things, he'd still turn over good articles with compelling writing and interesting points. Even thought he would have small victories, silly exciting news and just something funny he heard about his colleague's personal lives, Eddie would find a way to text Steven something.
Steven (12:14):
To be fair, mate, the real question is how many days haven't you been late this week? But your gaffer is also a git so...
Eddie (12:15):
ok, ok, no need to expose me like that. but i still turn in my work on time and make up the hours
Chuckling to himself, Steven got so wrapped up in the conversation that he nearly missed his stop, he found his way out of the bus quickly and possibly pissing off the driver. He let out a quick apology as he ran past him, getting out and returning back to his chat, slipping his phone into his pocket with his hands as soon as he stepped off the bus. It was achingly cold, Steven could feel it everywhere the second he got off the bus, making his way down the short walk back to his complex he felt his phone go off again in his pocket.
Eddie (12:17):
please, i need a reminder that there is life outside of the office...
Steven (12:17):
It's only lunch?!?!
Eddie (12:17):
what are you doing?
Steven laughed at how ridiculous Eddie was being, placing his phone back in his pocket as he unlocked the entrance door to the complex. Stepping back into the warm, Steven returned back to the conversation filling Eddie on about how he thought everything would take him the day but in reality it only took him a few hours. Steven had to look up a few times to make sure he wasn't walking into a wall, person or the lift doors. He passed the old lady from down the hall, who was still terrified to no ends of him, he really did feel bad for scaring the living life out of her and has tried to apologise since but it was just better to leave it alone.
Offering up a night of movies and Indian takeaway, Steven's heart leapt at the chance of spending even more time with Eddie. He heard the snickering from Marc, it had been a good few months of this, of Marc taking the mick out Steven for this. Pushing it away and ignoring the little American Man living inside of him just so he could continue to talk to Eddie without having Marc be the annoying little shit he normally is. Burying himself in the pile of books he had been meaning to go over, Steven lost track of time so when Eddie turn up after his shift, Steven was massively confused at where the day had gone.
"How long have you been doing this?" Eddie asked when he saw the scattered paper and the scribbled notes, he was placing the bag of food on the kitchen counter. Eddie was pulling out plates and cutlery for the two of them while Steven was sorting out something to drink, it was this easy lapse in domesticity that made Steven fall hard for Eddie.
"I'm not sure, I lost track of time when I started reading about Anubis, did you know that..." Steven went off on a rant about Anubis and his relationship with Horus, before he could go any further into his rant, "I'm sorry, I went off on one another tangent, didn't I?" Steven hid his face behind his hands.
Eddie chuckled, they had both moved onto the sofa and were eating their meal together, the TV was playing in the background some re-run of Fresh Prince. Eddie looked at Steven, he always got so invested, "No, no, it's all good," Eddie reassured, "You always talk for the both of us," Steven hid his blush behind eating his food, he wasn't sure how he was going to survive this.