man on the run • shyan

i never told you what i do for a living

A/N: warning the song is really loud

There's a man in a three-piece suit at his door.

Cecil Tinsley had woken up to insistent knocking, a Ryan shaped emptiness in his bed.

He groaned, musing his dishevelled sandy hair and answered the door in only his cartoon boxers and one of Ryan's many t-shirts dumped on his bedroom floor.

He's been having an intense staring contest with the intimidating man for about five full minutes now.

"Uh how may I help you?"

The man continues to glower down at him despite Tinsley having an advantage in height. He grunts, looking Tinsley with blasé, trying his best to look over the detective's shoulder.

"Have you seen Goldsworth"

Tinsley feels like he's tripped over himself and prays that his unease doesn't show on his features. The strange man raises a suspicious eyebrow at him as he clears his throat.

"W-who?"

"Goldsworth? The Unsolved Killer? He was seen on this level last night"

Tinsley isn't an idiot despite all his previous admittedly stupid decisions.

He knows Ryan's a wanted man no matter how human he seems when they're together. The man's a criminal first, out in the world he's nothing but filth. He also knows by giving his heart to the criminal brought consequences, most that involved his safety, he was just in denial that they would come so soon.

The man at his door is dressed nothing like an officer, he carries an air of danger and cruelty, the same kind that surrounded Ryan the first night they met. Tinsley doesn't want to think of why he may be hunting for Ryan in the first place, he just knows he can't let the man find him.

The man is getting impatient and Tinsley does his best to feign innocence, conjuring up his memories of high school theatre club, as he pulls off his softest grin.

"I can't say I know where he is, hell I don't even know what he looks like, but it's terrifying to think he's so close"

The man gives him an unimpressed glare but leaves regardless with a huff, mumbling in his headset to someone about how no one in the building has seen their target.

Tinsley bids him an overly cheerful goodbye, slamming the door the moment the man's back is down the hallway.

He sighs, squeezing his eyes shut and slides down his door, collecting his head and wonders to himself if this was all worth it.

∆

Tinsley knows he really shouldn't trust all of Ryan despite how tiring it is to be constantly suspicious of your partner.

He gives Ryan his space and tries to not be too clingy despite craving the other man's touch at the oddest moments.

He follows the rules, doesn't bring Ryan up in any conversation with his coworkers about romance, he doesn't tell his parents about Ryan either even when they pester him about his dating life. He doesn't call Ryan when he's at work despite how much he wants to hear the other man's voice. He doesn't ask too many questions despite how much he wants to tear Ryan apart and put him together, discover every single thing that makes him tick, know if he had a childhood or if he's always been this way. He wants to see how human the devil actually is

Cecil Tinsley is a detective at heart.

And Goldsworth is a criminal first.

There's so much his lonely soul craves that he knows he can't have, the feeling of their skin touching like oxygen to his lungs.