Until the Stars Fade Away [MxM - SaifahZon] [COMPLETED]

Night 4

THE GLACIAL SILENCE was broken by two sighs of relief the moment the taxi came into sight; two headlights coming towards them to the rescue. Saifah peeked at his date, awkwardly amused. Neither of them was even trying to cover up their reactions, knowing full well how disastrous the evening had been. There was no need to pretend either. The situation had been crystal clear for both of them for hours.

Saifah opened the car's door and scratched his neck.

"Well then..."

"Yeah..." The girl tried to crack up a smile. Without success.

"It was..."

"Definitely..."

Awkward silence chilled the night air yet again. No chance for a decent goodbye then, huh?

Saifah cleared his throat and tried one last time. "It was nice to meet you."

"Yeah, you too?" The tone of her voice went up, making it sound like a question. Shooting one last look at him, she hopped into the taxi and shut the door. Well, at least he had tried...

He heaved another long sigh of relief, watching the car disappear. Now that she was gone, he felt all the tension escape from his body. It really had been a nightmare. No "See you" or "We should do this again", not even one empty word that would have made it any less uncomfortable from either of them.

Actually, he wouldn't be surprised if the girl unmatched him on the app as soon as she had settled down on the backseat. That really was the worst date he had got in a while.

He took his phone out and without a second thought, he texted Zon. "Bad date. Can I come over?"

The reply came almost immediately. "Sure, cum."

Saifah snickered under his breath and entered a convenience store. A light smile returned to his lips right away. Over the last few weeks, Zon and he saw each other so many times, that any remaining traces of discomfort between them disappeared and they felt no reluctance to contact each other anymore. In fact, it became a routine to meet after each bad date or whenever Neo's sleazy behaviour hurt Zon; meeting up had slowly become the natural and obvious thing to do. At this point, Saifah was not even sure how many times they had slept with each other and did not much care. With his dates losing streak, the arrangement between them was not going to change any time soon.

The chilly breeze of the air conditioner brushed over his skin, as he strolled around the shelves. Every time one of them brought beer they had drank no more than half of the bottle, so this time, he tried to look for something different. Not always they had drinks, of course, but he didn't like coming empty-handed. In any case, they could always use leftovers another time.

Finally, he settled on a bottle of rum and moved toward the register.

He had to admit, he had grown to actually like that pact between them. Not only did he have a lot of fun in bed with Zon, but he also truly liked having someone to talk to freely and with no fear of being judged. Every so often, when he talked with his friends, he could catch that condemning undertone in their voices suggesting that his decision of waiting for a relationship was nothing but plain stupid and, on top of that, he was genuinely tired of them saying that maybe it was commitment issues after all or that he was just too fussy.

But he heard none of it from Zon, which was more than he could have ever asked for.

"I brought booze," he said, entering the condo.

As always, Zon was wearing his glasses, which-as Saifah had learned one day-he had to use for reading. Despite the fact that Zon hated them and wore them only around his home, Saifah had gotten used to that sight so much that they became like an attribute of Zon in his head. After all, they mostly met in the other's condo.