Troyler AU - Uncuff Me

ten

Note: It's a long one.

The sun was setting in the fair horizon, the dimming golden light turning a zesty orange, piercing stubbornly through the thick white clouds into the loft. The shadow on the floor changed shape at the bottom of Troye's shoes as he strutted in front of the tall mirror, and the rustling sound of his dress pants filling the otherwise quiet loft. He placed the long strip of black bow tie on a small round table next to the mirror and looked at the dark shading on his face casted by the setting light of the sun.

His index fingers met at the back of his neck as they descended down to the center of his shirt collar. They glided smoothly to the front, tracing the bone of the collar until they reached the triangles of the wing tips and fasten the button just below his Adam's apple. The silk of his shirt felt really soft, it was exquisitely gentle on his skin. With a light flip, he turned the wing tips up before retrieving the black bow tie and draped it around his neck, letting the two ends hang from each side of his neck, left side shorter.

He remembered it like it was yesterday, the careful instructions being forced upon him when he was just a boy, on how to tie a good bow tie.

You have to make sure to adjust the length accordingly to the circumference of your neck, boy, or else you're gonna look like a silly penguin. Always start with the left tail shorter. Cross the right tail over and up through the neck loop. Then you fold the short tail into the shape of the bow and bring the long tail to the front and wrapped around it. You see this loop you created at the back? Pinch the long tail and push it through the loop and then it's done. It's that easy.

It seemed that what they say about riding a bicycle is true, Troye had the tie turned into a pristine little bow in under a minute as he replayed the verbal instructions in his head. He made the final adjustment by grabbing the two bow ends with his thumbs and index fingers, pulled and tugged gently to balance the shape on both sides before strapping them perfectly in place. Satisfied with how the bow looked, he glanced at the image before him, watching his reflective self in the mirror and immediately felt a sense of nostalgia swept through him like cold breeze. He held his breath as he kept his eyes locked on his face, jaw tensed as he struggled to keep his repressed memory from bursting its way out to the conscious part of his brain.

He studied the person in the mirror and he almost could have forgotten who this person is or who he used to be. Almost. Dressing up in this formal wear, his stance turned rigid by default; his body stood taller, his shoulders pulled further back, straighten and squared. His eyes cold as ice, his jaw tighten and the angle it created could cut through inches of glass with a single touch. It felt like meeting an old friend that you haven't seen for a long time, whom their faces you vaguely remembers anymore, but due to the sheer amount of time you've acquainted yourself with them, just one look and all memories came rushing back like those time in between meant nothing. Familiar but reluctant. Strangely remorseful. Troye took a deep breath and exhaled loudly, wishing it will shrug those memories away.

He turned sideways to shift his gaze on the bed whilst his left hand began doing the cuff link on his right wrist. "Casp, I won't be home until the day after tomorrow. Just try not to die before Taylor comes by later tonight. You can do that for a couple more hours, right? Not dying? Although, I haven't heard of anyone dying so abruptly from a cold."

"Mmmhmmmmhmmpph mmmphh..." Caspar said into the pillow where he dived his head in.

"Great. Now you're actively trying to die by suffocation. I can't hear you when you stick your face into that pillow, you twat."

Caspar turned his head to lay his cheek on the fluffy pillow instead. "I said, why do you insist on using confusing words like 'the day after tomorrow' when you can very easily just tell me you'll be back on Sunday?"