Archive of Our Own ^beta

If Ray had been in his right mind, he guessed he probably wouldn’t have chosen the bus seat next to the sleeping older man. However, it had been a long day and seeing as his only other choice was a screaming baby, Ray had ultimately decided his best option was the quieter one.

The bus ride home had started out innocently enough with Ray finally having the pleasantry of settling in and blasting his music enough to muffle the infant’s cries. His zen mode took over quickly and he closed his eyes only to snap them back open when something landed heavily on his shoulder. Brows furrowed in confusion, Ray slowly turned his head, instantly receiving a face full of dark hair and sudden loud snoring. He stared at the dark mass in front of him, his thoughts wondering why this of all things had to happen. Ray shifted awkwardly, but the head on his shoulder didn’t move and he was starting to think he could feel drool soaking through his layers of clothing.

“Uh…” Ray cleared his throat and moved his shoulder up.

Unfortunately, this only caused the stranger to dig himself even more into Ray’s body and the Puerto Rican let out a sigh of defeat.

“Hello to you too,” Ray mumbled to himself.

At this point, Ray was beginning to wonder if the demon child would’ve been the better choice, but it was too late to change now and the Puerto Rican knew he would feel guilty if the stranger slammed down onto the seat if he moved.

Admitting his defeat, Ray sank into his spot and did his best to focus on his music while having someone sleep on him. This proved difficult however as the man’s head wasn’t all that light, plus Ray couldn’t help but glance at him every minute or so. From his angle, Ray could only see a few features on the man’s face, but if he was remembering correctly from earlier, the man was fairly attractive. It didn’t help that Ray would catch a faint cologne scent that drove him nuts because it just so happened to be a smell Ray had a weakness for.

As everything eventually turned into something Ray was getting used to, a thought occurred to him that he felt he should’ve picked up on sooner. Deciding to throw away his politeness, Ray shook the man, which practically turned into shoving when the man didn’t respond right away.

One near head-crash into the window later, Ray found himself in an awkward position when the man had immediately glared at him and started off with a, “What the fuck was that for?”

“Uh…well,” Ray began, feeling very under pressure. “You sort of fell asleep on me and I just wanted to make sure you didn’t miss your stop.”

It was now the other man’s turn to be embarrassed and he buried his face in his hands. “Oh no. Not again.”

“Again?” Ray wanted to laugh, but was more surprised by the fact that this situation had happened more than once.

“Stupid, dumb, bad habit. Sorry,” the man said, face still covered.

“No, no, it’s okay!” Ray immediately jumped in. “I just didn’t want you waking up and wondering where you were, that’s all.” His voice trailed off and he shyly looked down at his hands.

Ray heard a sigh and then felt himself being stared at so he slowly turned to the other man whose face now held a look of gratefulness.

“You woke me up just in time. Thank you,” the man said in a soft tone and gave Ray a slight nod of the head. “Joel, by the way, even though we’ll probably never see each other again.”

A hand had presented itself to Ray and he slowly shook it as his mind seemed to feel a moment of sorrow at this brief passing. “Ray,” he finally breathed out.

Hearing the gears of the bus slow down, both men looked to the front and then the man, Joel, slowly got up from his seat.

“Well, this is me. Thanks again for…everything,” Joel gestured and sidled past Ray to the exit.

“Yeah, see you,” Ray replied in a way that felt like he was only talking to himself.

Ray couldn’t help but watch Joel, even after the man got off the bus and shivered at the new loss of contact. The bus seemed much lonelier than before, despite there being idle chatter and nearly every seat taken, but Ray did his best to ignore this feeling.

In the back of his mind, he wondered why he was so taken away by that single moment, which could’ve happened to anyone, and shook his head every time Joel’s face popped into it. Like Joel had said, they would never see each other again and to Ray that settled things pretty quickly.

His stop came and went with Ray still thinking about his time with Joel as he settled into his apartment, but by morning Ray fell back into his normal routine. The thought of Joel seemed completely erased from his mind and before he knew it, it was another end of the day and another bus ride home.

When Ray stepped onto the bus, his eyes immediately fell on a familiar heap against a window and he couldn’t help smiling as he knew exactly where he was going to sit on this uneventful, probably normal, afternoon.