When London bumped into the annoying culprit who had run straight into him, he hadn't expected to find that he was cute.

Of course, if someone who took the bus home regularly had been that cute when London collided with him on his way to catch the bus before it left without him, he would have noticed earlier. Right? Well, no. He had always been in his peripheral, but London didn't really look at people in the bus. He stuck to himself, with his Candy Crush and his sci-fi novels. (Mostly Candy Crush, but he liked to think he was literate.)

"Good morning," London said, blinking down at the short person. The one he had crashed into. He had blond hair, and despite London's shorter-than-the-average-male height of 5'5, this boy probably stood at no more than 5 feet tall and had to look up to make eye contact with London.

"I'm really sorry for bumping into you, er...."

"London," he filled in. "Have you been on this bus before?"

"I'm Carter. And yes." Carter nodded. "I've seen you, too." Carter gave London two awkward pats on his chest, and London took a step back when he realized the close proximity between them.

"Uh, hey," the bus driver called out from his place at the front of the bus. "Are you two going to get on, or...?"

"Uh, yes." Carter was the first to speak, flushing a bright red and rushing onto the bus. London followed awkwardly, getting in just as the doors swung shut and the bus was jerked into motion.

There were no seats left in the bus—only two (actually, more like one and a half—much to London's disdain, some people had no sense of spacial awareness and left their bags all over the seats) in the very back, so London and Carter just barely squeezed in, with Carter on the seat and London holding onto the bar above his head.

Carter's blush was not going away at all, even with the cool A/C in the bus (probably too cool for an autumn day, in his opinion). He spent a lot of his bus rides to and from work staring at London, who always sat down tapping and swiping at his phone or trapped in another world with a different book every time he stepped on.

He had examined the specimen of London very meticulously, tracing his gaze over the curvature of the boy's forehead, then nose, then lips, then jaw, how his eyes flickered over the pages or screen of his phone, and he felt slightly offended that London didn't even know Carter took the same bus as him.

And now he was sitting next to the attractive goddamn boy on the bus, London's figure towering over Carter even though he was leaning backwards onto the railing behind him. Carter was looking at anywhere but London's crotch (which was just about level with his face when Carter slouched, much to his mortification). Of course Carter and his pale-ass cheeks would turn so red the colour could probably be sampled and named "tomato sauce" as a paint chip in the hardware store.

London, however, was tense at first but composed himself rather quickly, nonchalantly pulling out his phone and opening up Candy Crush. Again. Sometimes he wondered if Candy Crush Addiction was a real thing.

He was sneaking glances at Carter every once in a while, and Carter hadn't seemed to notice yet—Carter was also looking at London, observing how he seemed so focused on the game. London was dressed in dark colours with inky black hair to match and didn't look like the type to be playing Candy Crush in the back of a bus, sandwiched between the bus doors and an underweight boy.

London finally caught Carter while he was staring at his face instead of his phone screen, and Carter was sure he was at his limit but he blushed harder anyways. London gave a hesitant smile and turned back to his phone, his cheeks also turning pink.

Carter cleared his throat, desperate to cut the tension. "So, uh, what stop do you get off?"

London paused his game of Candy Crush to look up. "Um, I get off in about two stops, and then it's a 5 to 10 minute walk home."

Carter nodded. "I get off in three stops."

London raised his eyebrows. "Really? Sorry for never noticing you here the entire time we've taken this bus together." He waved his phone, Candy Crush still on the paused screen. "I'm addicted."

Carter took out his phone, his lips tilting upwards in a small smile. "I like Piano Tiles."

London nodded. "Never tried it."

Carter was the one to raise his eyebrows this time. "Really? Never? I thought it was a pretty popular game. I've played Candy Crush before."

London shrugged, shutting off his phone. "I'm loyal to the ones I love."

"I'm pretty sure that's a good thing," Carter chuckled. "Download Piano Tiles as soon as possible. You will get addicted, I promise."

London rolled his eyes playfully, but nodded anyway. "As long as you get Candy Crush and text me your highest score. I want to beat you."

"You probably already have, considering the fact that I only kept the app on my phone for a few hours before deleting it out of boredom." Carter lifted an eyebrow. "By the way, how will I text you if I don't have your number?"

"I feel personally attacked, Carter, honey," London said back, placing his hand over his chest. "And, hand me your phone. I'll add myself."

Carter's eyebrow twitched in irritation at the dumb pet name but he passed his phone to London anyways. London kept his arm wrapped around the pole for balance, handing the phone back to Carter after he pulled up a New Contact page and typed in his name and number.

"Text, please," London finally said, standing up and walking off the bus.

"Don't worry, I will." Carter spoke mostly to himself, because by the time he caught his breath enough to reply, London had stepped off the bus.

When London arrived home and connected to wifi, he found a single text from an unknown number. Assuming it was Carter, he made a contact for him and checked the text.

Carter: i'm on level 4 on candy crush right now. download piano tiles (!!!)

London texted back instantly—the text was sent five minutes ago, and he abandoned all senses of the 3-day rule and that not-seeming-desperate plan he produced in his head on the walk home (plan? What plan?). He didn't really care, either.

London: level 75. You have a lot of catching up to do :)

Carter grinned his first real grin in a while after his phone buzzed on the tabletop and he glanced away from the television to look at the notification.

Carter: challenge accepted :)

When London took the bus the next day, it was a lot less crowded. It was a Saturday and London only had Mondays completely off from work, but that meant on weekends there would be less of a crowd because of the lack of students travelling to and from school. He sat in the same area every time, anyway, but it was nice having some sense of personal space.

London worked as a journalism intern in a large commercial building downtown. He had just recently completed his undergraduate degree and was offered an internship by recommendation. Of course he took it—who wouldn't? The pay that came with the internship as well as a part time job at Starbucks as a barista sufficed in allowing London his own apartment a short bus ride away from both jobs and other basic necessities, such as food and clothing and electricity. (And bus passes, of course.)

Obviously, it was a bit draining to hold up two jobs side by side to simply survive alone in a city by himself, but it was alright. London just kept telling himself it would get better. He would get a promotion eventually and be able to drop the Starbucks job. He would be able to live comfortable without being constantly away from home. Maybe, one day. Just not quite now.

London slipped his ticket into the machine, releasing the small slip of paper from his hold and heading to the back of the bus again, scanning for a short, blond figure. He spotted him easily considering the lack of people present in the bus and made his way to the seat beside him, holding the backs of the plastic blue seats for balance while the bus jolted its contents around.

Carter glanced up at London and straightened up when he realized he was coming his way. London was wearing all black again, except he had a button-up shirt on instead of a t-shirt and jacket.

"Hi," Carter said a few moments of internal panic after London settled down beside him.

London cracked a smile as soon as Carter spoke. "I'm level eight on Piano Tiles."

Carter's eyebrows shot upwards. "You played all the way to level eight?"

"I suppose you could say that Piano Tiles has my stamp of approval," London chuckled.

"I'm at level fourteen, but I assume I should probably start quickening the pace of my advancement before you end up beating me," Carter remarked.

"I'll take that as a challenge," London quipped back with an entertained smile. "Where's your stop?"

It took a short moment for Carter to register that the subject had changed. "Um, just the next one after this."

"I get off the one after that," London said in response. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but where do you work?"

"Oh, just the downtown library," Carter said with a nod. "On the weekends and after school."

"What school?" London asked, raising an eyebrow at this new revelation. "Please don't tell me you're still in high school, I'd feel like a complete and utter creep if you haven't even graduated yet and I'm trying to flirt with you."

Carter flushed bright red and averted his gaze quickly, standing up as the bus pulled to his stop. "I'm completing my undergraduate study. By the time this year ends, I'll be 20."

London relaxed into a comfortable smile. "Thank god. I'm 21, by the way."

Carter smiled in reciprocation and, after a moment of awkward hesitation, he turned to get off the bus.

[a/n] achievement earned: completing first chapter!!

i dont know how this relationship will develop help

r.i.p me -sabrina