It stings, in a way. Obviously, Gabriel knew beforehand that he’d come on this trip solely to get away from London for the time being. But James’ words solidify the fact that, while they went on the trip together, they were doing it on their own. He clears his throat. “Right, yeah. Obviously. Why would I want to wander around boring stuffy museums? We’ve got enough of those back in England.”
His attempt at faking flippant nonchalance must be worse than he thought, because James eyes him for a moment and offers, “Well, if you-”
“No, no. You do you, and I’ll do me. Besides we’ll do breakfast or dinner, right?” He kind of hates the hopeful undertone his voice takes on when the last word leaves his lips. Never did he imagine he could be one of those guys, hopelessly in love with the guy still getting over his last relationship.
James eyes him again, suspicion shining in his eyes. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
Gabriel can’t help but huff, affronted by the thought. “You say that like I’m never nice to you.”
“Well, you are. But not like this.” James relents, shrugging from underneath his blanket. Gabriel will forever deny the flush that appears high on his cheeks, terrified that he’s been caught. “Like what?”
“I don’t know. You’re normally a lot more crass,” is all James says before he turns back to his book. Gabriel hums but doesn’t say anything else either. He taps his fingers on the table, angsty in the warm bubble they’re in. If he’s already being this obvious with his soft spot for James this early on in the trip, he’s loath to discover how the rest of the month is going to pan out. He stands up, saying, “I’m getting a cup of tea, before the restaurant closes. You want anything else?”
The corner of James’ mouth ticks up, as if he knew Gabriel would be offering this sooner rather than later. So sue him, he’s a creature of habit. “You think they have custard creams here?”
Gabriel laughs, a teasing smile lingering on his face. “I’ll see what I can do.” His eyes stray to his luggage, where he stashed a few packets of the biscuits just in case. As he steps out of their cabin, the train swerves left, sending him sideways. He bumps into someone, causing them to spill thedrinks on the tray they’re holding. There’s a vulgar curse and a dark stare washing over him when Gabriel reaches out and tries to keep the rest of the contents contained to the tray. “Sorry, mate. Didn’t see you there.”
“How? You don’t have eyes?” The blond stranger grits out. Gabriel shrugs his shoulders. The tray’s shoved into his chest with force, leaving him scrambling to get a hold of it before it scatters to the floor. “I said I was sorry. We’re on a moving train, things happen.”
The man grumbles again, angrily pulling the tray out of Gabriel’s hands when he’s finished wiping the milk from his face. Gabriel thanks his lucky stars it’s not the piping hot water that splattered against the man’s body.
A door further down the compartment slides open. His heart skips a beat when a familiar face pops up from the doorway. Granted, he’s only seen the bastard’s face in fleeting pictures when he went snooping through James’ social media, but those gray eyes and that pointy nose are as familiar to him as any of his own exes.
“Everything alright, babe?” The man says, taking a step out of his own cabin. Gabriel’s roughly shoved aside by the stranger still next to him and disregarded with a snarl and a final curse. Paul, Gabriel believes the douchebag of an ex is called, looks at Gabriel but doesn’t say anything else.
“This guy just bumped into me. Accident.”
“We are on a moving train, after all.” Paul jokes when the man joins him.
Gabriel can’t help but call out, “That’s what I said as well.”
Paul looks at Gabriel again, wincing a little. “Sorry about him. Been a long couple of days.” For a moment, Gabriel feels bad for snapping. But then the sparse stories James shared with him over the last year flicker to mind, and he changes his train of thought. This man didn’t deserve any kindness. Not from Gabriel, anyway.
5 [James] Venice, Italy
December 4th
Gabriel has been acting differently since he came back from his tea run last night. The rest of the evening was spent in silence, something tense and uncomfortable brewing in the air. James knows it’s only a matter of time before Gabriel bursts and tells him.
Or before he finds a different way to deal with it. Where James would rather talk it out, even if things could be uncomfortable, Gabriel is someone that can hold something inside as long as he feels like he needs to.
“You okay? You’ve hardly touched your coffee.” James nudges the cup closer to where Gabriel’s hands are absentmindedly tearing up a croissant. James already finished two cups of tea in the time it took Gabriel to start on his.
“What?” Gabriel mutters. He shakes his head and pops a little piece of crumbled up croissant in his mouth. Stillchewing, he curtly replies, “I’m fine.”
There’s a quiet elegance to Venice. The air smells faintly of salt and the fog lingering over the cobblestones gives it a mysterious feel. Even from inside of the restaurant James can tell that he picked a good day to do his exploring mostly indoors. He expected the streets to be overrun by tourists, like in those videos you see circling around online. He’s rather pleased to see that the opposite is true.
It’s obviously still busy on the street, people wandering around the canals and stopping at the market stalls. But there seems to be enough room to walk around at a normal pace, without having to worry about where to put your feet.
He chooses to ignore Gabriel’s insistence that he’s fine and takes the final bite of his own breakfast. While it’s nothing fancy, a croissant filled with red currant jam, he realizes that he likes it well enough. Especially with the promise of more sweets and snacks to be found at the market. He wipes his mouth clean, taking the absolute final sip of his tea and asks Gabriel about his plans for the day.
It doesn’t come as a surprise that Gabriel doesn’t seem to have any. “I’ll see. Listen, there’s-”
“I’ll be off. Wanted to go see Santa Maria della Salute,” he says, at the same time as Gabriel starts speaking. A beat later he asks, “Yes?”
Gabriel hums from behind his cup, having finally startedon his coffee. “More old churches then?” he teases. He ignores James’ inquiry. In contrast to the white table and the bright air outside his eyes are unusually green. The black turtleneck he’s wearing puts his long neck on display. James swallows hard, looking away.
“You say that as if you don’t spend all day sketching old buildings for fun.” James huffs, crossing his arms. From his place at the other side of the table Gabriel hums, shrugs his shoulders and salutes with his cup, as to say ‘you got me there.’
