first greets and last meets

day 5 (part II)

Ishan suddenly stopped in his tracks, the fingers holding onto Shubman's wrist slowly leaving him from their hold. Despite not chasing after Ishan for too long throughout the rapid city blocks that blurred past his vision, Shubman's chest heaved out shaky breaths in order to bring himself back to his senses. The adrenaline from their sudden actions slowly wore down, his pounding heartbeat growing less painful as it settled back in his chest. The wrist he withdrew from Ishan's fingers was still warm. Cold air finally hit his sensitive skin, sending a shudder throughout his body. Before Shubman could even ask him why he had paused, Ishan started laughing to himself amusedly.

The soft chuckles that escaped past Ishan's lips were slightly melodic to his ears. "Sorry, I have no destination actually." He admitted, his fingers rising up to attempt to hide some of his bright grin as well as his reddened cheeks from their running session before. "I just didn't want tonight to end yet."

Shubman's head tipped to the side as his eyes examined the other male closely, biting back a smile of his own. "You know, technically, you've kidnapped me, right?"

"I know." Ishan beamed, pausing momentarily to take deeper breaths in order to relax himself. "But didn't you think it was fun?"

Shubman just shook his head, the smile he'd been hiding finally breaking through.

"So.... we're out here. What's next?" As his eyes glanced around at whatever part of the city they had ventured into, he was unable to recognize any of the neon signs that were still turned on during the quiet hours of the night. Other than maybe a single convenience store being open, it just looked like a bunch of closed restaurants and office buildings in the area.

"I don't.... exactly know." Ishan admitted hesitantly, head tipping to the side as his eyes surveyed the area. "We could keep walking until we find a metro station and then figure out where we are."

"The metro doesn't run until 5:30am..."

Ishan shrugged carelessly. "Not a problem. That leaves us with about..... three hours or so? Then my dreams of pulling an all-nighter will finally be complete."

Shubman shoved his hands into his track pants pockets, now feeling the cold air starting to bother him. "Couldn't we have pulled an all-nighter back at the room?"

"Nah, it's not the same." Stubbornly shaking his head, Ishan pulled out his phone and started going through Google Maps. "It's kind of special to spend it outside, isn't it?"

Shubman didn't exactly understand what was so amazing about wandering around at night until sunrise. After all, they were in Delhi for fuck's sake. Nothing about this city even whispered safe to Shubman. But he knew if he even tried to convince his roommate to go back early, he'd probably be bitched at for the whole ride back about being some kind of scaredy cat.

"I'll get us some hot coffees; you decide where we're going next." Shubman gave in, spinning on his heel and turning into the nearest 24-hour convenience store. Ishan called out that he preferred hot chocolate instead, which Shubman would certainly have to treat him to.

After a while of trying to understand exactly where the woman in Google Maps was trying to send them, they gave up on her before moving silently to the park they spotted a few meters in front of them. Their feet moved without much of a plan, just wandering through the pre-marked paths that wound into the park.

Somehow, they had ended up stumbling on a children's playground complex, in which Ishan took the lead in scaling up the structure and taking a seat on the tallest platform. Shubman joined him without questioning, positioning himself beside the entrance to the slide, relying on the tube to block some of the wind from his body. "Well, this does feel somewhat safer. I don't think anyone could even see us up here."