The Commute (fic)
Author: Razycrandomgirl
Title: The Commute
Fandom: Heroes
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 2814
Characters/Pairings: Gabriel/Maya
Disclaimer: Don’t own. Kring can have it.
Spoilers/Time Line: AU
Summery: He takes the bus more often than not, now.
Author’s Notes: Inspired by the Subway Stories series that was on HBO so many years ago.
Prompts: 100heroesfics # 38 "Touch" & Heroes15 #13 "Forbidden"
He takes the bus more often than not now. The subway holding too many memories and he needs a break from it. The Bus takes longer, and he has to leave earlier but he doesn't mind that part of it very much. All he has now is time.
He notices that it's different than that subway, the people seem more alive. Talking on phones, or with each other, staring out of the window intently. On the subway it seemed to be more about ignoring each other, but here it was a bit more opened. He supposed it was the windows. The bus was indeed a different animal. There was an air of anxiousness that was absent underground.
The movement of the scenery playing behind the glass pull to him at first, but Gabriel's eyes draw back to the people. The old ones staying toward the front of the bus talking amongst each other or with the driver if they are particularly friendly. The younger ones huddle up in the back. Sometimes it's too early for them to make much noise ... sometimes.
Gabriel stays in the middle, if he can help it at all. He actually has a spot he likes on the bus that he thinks it the best for people watching and remaining chimerical at the same time. He watches and listens, nodding off sometime in the early morning or offering his seat to old people and pregnant ladies when no one else could be bothered. He sometimes missed the subway, but he wasn't ready to go back yet.
His days were longer, filled with more time and nothing much else. The sounds of his shop began to to be too much. The ticking too loud, the walls too close and he finds a break from it all in the longer commute to and from his shop. Here, he is calm enough to doze. And when he does there, there isn't time enough to dream and he liked that.
He stares out the window as the light behind it fades and begins to drift. His eyes relax, hands uncurling and he doesn't feel as angry. The scenery starts to blend together, he sways with the motion of the bus.
~
There was a woman who sometimes occupied his preferred seat. Something about that annoyed him but of course he would never do anything about it. He was just tired the women in his life were always taking things from him in some way. And this strange woman was no different.
She'd sit there and sometimes she'd even smile at him because no mater what he'd sit down next to her if the seat was available. She was in his seat after all. But that was the only reason he told himself he did it. It wasn't because of the way she smelled or how warm her body felt when she moved about in her seat -she did that a lot-. She even tried to have conversations with her even as he tried very politely to ignore her. Or it seemed like he was trying when really he just didn't know how tr react to her at all. She made him all sweaty and he didn't like that. He decided he didn't like her for making him feel that way. But despite all that he still sat down next to her.
It started off innocently enough, then she'd started something else, by saving him a seat.
She greeted him in her usual manner, a muted smile with a polite nod. He sat down next to her barely registering her courtesies. He did notice the way her lips pursed when she'd been rebuffed and the perfume of her as she turned her head away from him. He chanced a glance at her when he was sure she wasn't looking. The brass colored clip in her hair almost blinded him as the sun light bounced off and hit him straight in the eye. He grumbled and she sucked the air between her teeth as he unfolded his paper and began to mock-read.
He had offended her as he usually did. It was unintentional, but he supposed it was for the best. Better to nip this infatuation with in the bud. She moved, angling her knees toward the window, away from him. As a result her warm bottom brushed against his hip. He angled his head in her direction but kept his eyes on the paper in front of him. He cleared his throat as a sudden flood of saliva threatened to choke him. She moved again, digging in her purse to start the music in her headphones. The bus continued to rumble beneath them bringing her body ever closer to his. She wiggled her ass (against him) just as the bus hit a particularly nasty pothole. It felt like she was almost in his lap.
He flicked his paper again in annoyance, but to no avail. She was ignoring him. Good, he thought as he moved himself closer to his seat, even though she was still in it. She should have known better. He spread his legs in an effort at a relaxed pose, his tweed covered elbow skimmed down her back.
Her eyes shined ice water at him, but he did no more than flick his paper and cleaned his throat once more. She got up and bristled past him with no more than rude 'excuse me' on her lips.
Technically, Gabriel thought, she started it.
~
The next time he saw her (sitting in his seat) she already had the headphones on and didn't even bother to fain a smile, but the seat next to her was available. Curiouser and curiouser. So he took it and began the routine with his paper. This time she was ready for him and made exaggerated work of putter her hair into a ponytail. He thought about saying something to her as her elbow bit him in she shoulder, but became distracted as the slide of her arms above her head made for a better view down her top. Gabriel felt his cheeks burn and his mouth go dry. He adjusted his glasses as they started to slide down his nose.
This time she cleared her throat and his eyes drifted up to hers. Her hand flitted up to the cross at her breastbone. She had caught him.
Before he could say anything in his defense, she had risen again and hurried past him, nearly knocking him out of his seat as she made a beeline for the door.
He'd tried a taxi for a little while after that.
~
After about a week of over paying for mad taxi rides, Gabriel decided his penance was up and he'd worked up enough nerve to try the bus again.
She was there, it seemed, waiting just for him. She hadn't worn the headphones this time having replaced them with a book. He was very stiff as he sat down next to her. He didn't speak when he started his paper reading routine, instead inclining his head to see what she was reading. A Spanish version of Dante's Inferno. He wanted to ask her about it, but felt like that was against the rule of there little customary meetings. Instead he folded his paper once and then again and actually tried to read it this time. But he was distracted. He couldn't help but notice her playing with her cross.
She was wearing a light canary yellow spring dress, with a white cardigan over her warm shoulders. She laid her book down on her lap then looked out the window. Her hands moved nervously working over the metal. He suddenly wanted to touch them with his own hand. The thought made him lay down his paper and rub his moist hands over his cord covered legs.
The motion of his hands made his arm brush against hers, pulling the cardigan from her shoulder. He felt her leg press against his and the draw of his hand rubbing frantically at his trousers lifted her skirt up just above the knee.
She took in a surprised breath as his leg started to bounce nervously against hers.
"Con permiso." She said and this time he stood for her and felt her body press against his as she exited the bus. He sat down in the seat she'd just vacated, MINE he thought, and jerked a bit as he felt something alien poking at him from beneath him. He moved his hand to recover it and found that she'd forgotten her book.
~
On another occasion he'd chosen to closed the shop early because it had been extraordinarily slow on the day. He'd caught her on the way home. The bus was packed and as she came toward him he made a gesture to stand she shook her head. Only he noticed as he sat back in the seat. The passenger sitting next to him was dead to the world, having already passed out from what Gabriel could guess was 'a hard days work'.
He looked up at her as she slid her backpack off her shoulder (a student?) and rested it next to his leg. She didn't look at him. His breath hitched as he felt her hand curl over his shoulder.
"Sorry" she murmured, still not looking at him and the softness of her body against his arm awakened him. He felt like all eyes were on him. Just then, she moved again and he tried to appear as casual as possible. This time she was wearing a white cotton dress with a blue denim jacket over her shoulders. Her head phones were around her neck and he could hear the music coming out of it.
He closed his eyes and let his fingers drum against his thigh. He counted out the rhythm in an effort to distract himself. He felt her shift again and his fingers stop as he felt her against them. Her warm skin was at his finger tips and he couldn't help himself, his hand moved to seek out her warmth. His mind raced as he kept his eyes closed. He thought at any minute he would feel her fists smashing into his face or at the very least hear her screaming at him, calling him a pervert.
Her reaction was one he didn't expect, not in a million years.
She moved into his touch.
Gabriel swallowed hard and felt a dark, barely containable need rush over him. The hairs at the nape of his neck stood on end and he took in a beep breath trying to get a hold on himself. He slowly opened his eyes behind his glasses, letting them drag over the woman beneath his fingers. He started a lethargic circular motion over the skin of her thigh. First, just gentile contemplating her with his hands, and then an intentional studying of the flesh beneath. Her skin was unbelievably soft.
She adjusted her grip on the balance bar above her head to move her hair off of her collarbone. She then bent slightly to pull at the hem of her skirt, lifting and then dropping it covering his hand, beneath her dress.
The rest of the ride was spent the that way, with nothing but a wisp of white cloth to hide their secret.
When his stop arrived, he stood up offering the seat with no more than an 'excuses me, miss'. She took the seat he vacated and he glanced her stuffing her dress between her legs, with an enchanting color about her cheeks and throat. He took some privilege acquainting his body with hers as they passed. The doors closed behind him and he walked on not bothering to look as the bus drove away.
~
He ran his hand over the copy of 'Dante del Infierno' and let his mind slip in and out of reality.
It was another day that seemed too long in the shop and he looks forward to the commute. All the waiting makes him anxious and whimsical at the same time. He daydreams of the things he does with her and the things he wants to do with her. Not all filthy things, though his imagination does get away from him. He wanted to go for walks with her, holding her hand along the way. He wanted eat food with her and run his fingers through her hair, but most of all he wanted to talk with her. Well, maybe not 'just talk' but it's pretty high up on the list, he ponders.
He couldn't do it when they rode together, there was some unspoken rule they had both silently agreed upon. Silence is golden.
He would sit for hours sometimes wondering how he could break that silence. Breaking in to ...
The ring of the bells over his door rouse him. He winced as he'd caught himself daydreaming, yet again, of her. He readied himself with a standard greeting when he noticed his imaginings hadn't completely dissipated. That, he thought, or he had actually dreamed her up.
His face was on the brink of blooming into a scarcely used yet brilliant smile, as he recognized that she was actually there. There and not just a dream. And then he noticed that she wasn't alone.
There was a him.
"You?!" she said. She had a look about her like she suddenly didn't want to be there. "I mean ... My clasp, sir, it is-"
"It can't be fix." Gabriel said, staring at his companions' companion.
"But-" she tried.
"I mean," he felt himself start. "I can't fix it." He pushed the chain across the counter and directed his hard gaze to her this time.
She bristled, backing away from the counter before regaining her composer and beckoning her acquaintance. She sniffed at him in distaste as she spoke to the man who was fiddling with some of Gabriel's quartz crystals.
"Más rápido, Alejandro!" But he man wasn't moving fast enough for the woman's taste.
"Mirar! Ha cristales, al igual que Superman!"* The man spoke with a tone of amusement in his voice. Gabriel felt himself blush furiously in embarrassment. They were making fun of him.
"Leave now." It was hardly over a whisper, but she heard him.
Gabriel took a little satisfaction at watching her practically cuff the man by neck and drag him towards the doors of his shop.
"We will leave him in his 'Fortaleza de la soledad'**." He watcher her hair snatch around her head as she turned from him. The man with her looked more than a little lost.
Gabriel bent to pick up the copy of Dante's Inferno she'd left on the bus sometime ago. He thought about giving it back to her, but resolved quickly that she owed him something for flaunting her boyfriend in his face like that. He curled his fingers into the book then lifted it behind his back when he caught her fleeting glance back though his window. By that time the bell had announced there departure, she was already too far away to risk going after.
He decided that he was going to sleep in his shop that night.
It was stupid of him to think she was actually alone and that she could want him too. He laid in the small cot hidden in the back of his shop His mind racing. His stomach rolled sickeningly at the thought that he'd might have been molesting the poor woman for weeks on end. Why hadn't she said anything? Why hadn't she stopped him.
And now, worse of all, she knew where he worked.
~
Gabriel found in the space between sleeping and wake as the ride seemed to get a little rougher. Then he realized that it was actually a hand shaking him awake.
"Señor, you will miss your stop."
Gabriel felt himself jerk awake, he reached for the hand grabbing at his shoulder. A gasp as the tendinitis beneath his fingers flex forming a fist. His hand loosened releasing the wrist. And he turned to see what had disturbed him. A woman stood staring down at him. Her hair falling down over her shoulder in a soft curling ponytail, long and dark and he doesn't let his mind wander too far.
The bus jerked violently and Gabriel's grip tightened to keep her from falling. It jerked again and the motion sent her body rushing toward his. He felt her hand on his knee for balance, watched her eyes grow wide as his hand clasped onto her shoulder, fingers threading in her hair.
"Is there a problem, Miss?"
It seemed a long time until either of them noticed the bus driver had spoken.
"Miss?"
"No, there's no problem. My friend just fell asleep on the bus. Come now, we need to wake you up. I will walk with you, to make sure you get home okay."
"Okay ..." Gabriel replied a bit bleary eyed but
"Good night." She said to the driver.
"Are you sure miss?"
"Si. He is my friend. Buenos Nochas."
~Fin
*"He has glasses, like Superman!" Alejandro meant the crystals.
**Fortress of Solitude