Walls.

Brendon shifted in place, from one foot to the other. He screamed nerves to anyone who was watching him. He stood biting his lip and pulling at his shirtsleeves, waiting for the man kneeling in front of him to turn and stand.

A breath of relief and a flushed red face was Brendon Urie next. Once his head was turned and he looked up, Brendon realized it wasn’t who he’d been anticipating after all. The face clearly did not belong to that of Ryan Ross. The stranger’s skin tone was too tan, he was shorter, he had green eyes that shimmered, and either dark eyelashes that gave him the look of eyeliner… Or he actually was wearing eyeliner. The only similarity was the hair, at least until you saw the part he’d dyed a blonde piece by his left eye.

He gave Brendon a smirk of a smile. “Can I help you?”

Brendon looked over the man again, catching a few details he shouldn’t have. He darted his eyes away and looked down at his feet. He found something attractive about the person standing in front of him, even if he was wearing a red vest with the store’s logo on it.

“...Sir?”

This time he forced his eyes on those mirroring green ones. “Do you think you could tell me where...” He showed the box with the tea’s name on it to the employee. “…This is?”

Another smirk of a smile and the man lead him a few aisles down, scanned over the teas and let out a breath. Brendon watched him squint his eyes searching for the box. “This is so odd. I swear they were here yesterday, I just bought my Dad a box…”

“Really? ‘Kind of weird, I’m buying it for my Dad too… Ha.” He held his head down, pulling at his arm sleeves over and over again. The hair. The man’s hair was killing him.

On the vest, Brendon eyes caught the name tag for the first time. Eric. Eric asked the customer in front of him to wait a second, or to follow him, while he went to the back to restock. Even though he said it would only take a second, Brendon just decided to follow him anyway. Probably not the best of ideas….

Eric lead his way to the back of the store. “So.. I haven’t seen you around here much. Usually it’s the same people coming around at this time at night. Just a few of those forgetful types… I’m not one to judge, but something tells me you’re not new or forgetful. You seem pretty well situated, and familiar… I can’t tell why…”

Brendon made a humming sound and explained that he’d graduated from the high school in the class 2 years back, and this was his first return trip home. He knew Eric wasn’t really paying attention as he climbed a ladder to get the box with the correct label, so he let his voice fade and just watched him from the foot of the ladder.

He couldn’t contain himself, eyeing the waist of the stranger and letting himself imagine more of that tanned skin becoming exposed. There was no sense in any of it, he despised lust and yet here he was…

Eric glanced down and smirked at the guy he was helping out, he could feel those eyes on him. This was definitely a compliment from this kid who seemed shy as ever, he probably couldn’t tell when someone was interested or not… But Eric was most certainly interested. “Hey… Uh, gosh. I didn’t catch your name-”

“Brendon…” His voice carried up to his ears like wind.

“Brendon, could you do me a favor and hold that ladder? There at those handles.. Yeah.” He made his way down backwards, carrying the rather large box with his left hand. “Hold it steady until my feet touch the ground, alright?”

Brendon made another humming sound and made sure he kept his eyes down now. What on earth was he doing? He was being entranced by the fucking store employees. Had he really become that desperate?

His questioning thoughts were startled by the sound of something being dropped. He looked up to see Eric closer now, no longer carrying the box. He’d dropped it over the side where it landed right side up. He turned to look down at Brendon. “Don’t let go until my feet are on the ground, okay? This thing is tipsy on the way down even if it’s sturdy on the way up..”

Brendon eyed the box on the floor. He felt the urge to grab the box, rip the plastic that covered it, take one of the tea packs and abandon the man on the ladder, but there was no way he could nor would do that.

Eric lowered himself, step by step, being extra careful with his footing. He smirked as he grew closer and turned around on the last step. Brendon’s eyes were on the floor, ending every thought he started, waiting for those feet to touch the floor. Ryan entered his head, driving the lust even more.

He placed his feet on the ground, becoming nose to nose with Brendon. His breath caught in his throat as those eyes were too close, too lovely to be real… His eyes lowered, catching that smirk again.

Then his eyes shut as the other leaned in, closing that final gap. Their hands went like magnets to the others body, attracted in every way but one. Brendon let his fingers graze over Eric’s neck before they tangled themselves in his hair, pulling ever so lightly….

Ryan took his lips off Brendon’s in need of an extra breath. Both were thinking in blurs of emotions, desires, and needs… Ryan bit down on Brendon’s collar bone, earning a surprised groan from his victim… Usually he bit without a thought of whether who he was with enjoyed it or not; It was all for himself, but it didn’t feel that way this time. Ryan licked over the bite with this gentle touch he’d never used before… He sighed over the feeling of Brendon’s hand on his waist, feeling himself pressed against him… He was about to sink his teeth in again when Brendon pushed him off a little. Brendon smiled with innocence at those hazel eyes that he‘d seen through the good times and the bad, the eyes that carried all his secrets… Including this one.

Brendon’s fought with himself to open his eyes so he could actually look and see the eyes that weren’t the ones he’d always been dreaming of. He finally brought himself to let them flutter open just as Eric’s did and he was just about to let them shut again, caught in the feeling of lips against lips soft and sweet, rough and warm…

Then he pushed the stranger on the steps and backed up. “What the hell!” Brendon walked around in frantic circles. What was he thinking… What was he thinking… He wasn’t… He wasn’t…

He stopped and looked at Eric who sat biting his lip, brushing his hair back and forcing his eyes closed. Brendon shook his head and just started walking, with no regard to if he was going the way they’d entered the storage area or just wandering.

Brendon only realized he didn’t know where he was when he found a back exit… For employees only. “’The hell, like it matters.”

He left out the back way, not giving a fuck if he’d never gotten his father that damn tea. He stuffed his hands into his pocket. Now because of that faggot, he had to walk around the fucking building to find his car in the complete dark. There were no lights on the backside of the building. He stared at the ground, cursing to himself, when he felt himself walk into something and fall backwards. Since his hands were in his pockets, he couldn’t grab onto anything… So, he hit the back of his head against the pavement.

He cursed again, pulling out his right hand to clutch the pounding spot on his skull. He opened his eyes to see a figure sitting himself up, rubbing dirt off his hands.

“Look, I’m really sorry… I should look where I’m going.” He crouched in front of Brendon and extended a helping hand, an unseen apologetic smile on his face. He lifted the stranger up and he saw the distressed expression on the man’s face. “Is… Everything okay…?”

Brendon shrugged. “I don’t even know anymore… Things just become so…” The other felt entitled to say something enlightening to Brendon, something to bring this stranger’s hopes up. Though no words came to him, so gave a shy smile. Brendon was able to see the light glow of white teeth, but took it to heart. He nodded his head and headed around the building, realizing he wasn’t too far from the car now.

Ryan watched the stranger walk away, feeling horrible. He’d just added to the dark of someone else’s cloud… He sighed and stuffed his hands into his brown leather jacket and held his breath, counting to ten..