Chapter Text
The street outside Zayne’s building was wrapped in the kind of stillness that settled over certain blocks after midnight, when even the traffic seemed to hesitate. Xavier stood across the street for a moment, looking up at the building.
Two days. He had meant to come back sooner, but of course he hadn’t. His boots scuffed lightly against the pavement as he reached the sidewalk and stopped in front of the entrance. He hesitated, just long enough to think about what he was going to say.
Behind him, footsteps moved fast. Before Xavier could turn, a hand caught the back of his jacket and slammed him against the brick wall beside the door. The impact knocked the air out of him as an arm locked across his back, pinning him there.
Zayne’s voice was low and sharp against his ear. “Where the hell have you been?”
Xavier twisted instinctively, but the hold tightened. He spoke in that infuriatingly calm, soft tone he always had. “I wasn’t aware I had a curfew.”
Zayne shoved him harder into the brick. “For two days?” he demanded. The anger in his voice was controlled, but it was real.
Xavier tried to turn his head enough to see him. “Let go.”
“Not yet. You left your phone in an alley,” Zayne continued quietly. “You stopped answering every contact we have. And you think I’m just going to assume you went on a walk?”
Xavier exhaled through his nose. “I did.”
“Tell the truth.”
Xavier’s jaw tightened. “Then don’t believe me.”
The words hung there, and Zayne didn’t release him. For a moment neither of them moved. Then Xavier shifted slightly, testing the grip again.
“Are you planning to arrest me?”
Zayne’s breath was steady near his ear. “I sent people looking for you.”
That made Xavier pause. “…Hunters?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“They didn’t come back.”
Xavier huffed. “They’re alive.”
Zayne stilled behind him.
“They were in Sylus’s territory,” Xavier continued. “Caleb caught them.”
Zayne’s arm loosened slightly. “And they’re alive?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“That’s surprising.”
Finally, Zayne released him. Xavier turned around immediately, irritation flashing across his face. Zayne’s expression was colder than usual, even for him, but something under it had shifted now that Xavier was actually standing in front of him.
“You disappear for two days,” Zayne said, “and you expect me not to react.”
Xavier crossed his arms. “I didn’t realize I needed permission to think.”
Zayne’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t disappear to think.”
“I do now.”
The tension between them sat heavy in the air. Xavier could feel Zayne’s breath on his face. The brick wall was still at his back. Zayne’s hand was still braced against it beside his shoulder. They both seemed to realize it at the same time.
The proximity.
With the heat still lingering from the shove against the wall, Xavier’s pulse had kicked up. Zayne’s gaze flicked briefly to his mouth before snapping back to his eyes. A moment passed, and then another, and neither of them moved.
Finally Xavier cleared his throat. “…You done being dramatic?”
Zayne blinked once, like he’d just remembered where he was. He stepped back immediately.
“Next time,” he said evenly, “don’t vanish.”
Xavier rubbed the back of his neck. “Next time don’t tackle me in the street.”
Zayne’s expression settled back into its usual calm, but something about the tension between them hadn’t fully gone away.
“Were you going to knock?” Zayne asked.
Xavier glanced at the door behind him. “…Yeah.”
Zayne pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked it. “Then come inside.”
Xavier hesitated for half a second before following him in. Because despite the argument, despite the tension, there was still one thing neither of them had said out loud.
Zayne had gone out looking for him.
And Xavier had come back.
The apartment still smelled faintly of coffee that had long gone cold. The apartment was dim except for the kitchen light, which Zayne had left on hours ago and never bothered turning it off. He was standing near the window, arms crossed, staring out into the dark street below. The city lights painted sharp lines across his face, cutting his expression into something tense and unreadable.
Behind him, Xavier leaned against the kitchen counter like he had nowhere better to be.
Without turning around, Zayne said, “You warned her.”
Xavier’s gaze drifted towards the ceiling. “Did you expect me not to?”
Zayne pinched the bridge of his nose. “That wasn’t part of the agreement. The agreement was that I cover for you to go see your sister and you bring me information about Sylus. You’ve seen her, and given me nothing about him, and now you’re feeding him information about our operations?”
“I didn’t tip off Sylus.”
“You didn’t have to. I’m sure Catarina did.”
“You don’t know that,” Xavier said calmly.
Zayne huffed a humorless laugh, taking a few steps towards him. “Sylus just happened to show up in the middle of a street race with hunters waiting on the overpass? That doesn’t happen by coincidence.”
“I handed my sister information that might keep her alive.”
Zayne stared at him with that cold, icy look he was infamous for among the people he managed. “You’re compromising the operation.”
“The operation where Vale creates chaos and hopes that Sylus trips over it?”
Zayne’s eyes flashed dangerously as he closed the space between them. Zayne’s voice dropped another degree. “You’re starting to sound like you’re defending him. Did you forget why we’re doing this? He killed your sister.”
“I remember,” Xavier said simply. They were standing too close now. “She’s pretty lively for someone who died.”
Silence followed. Xavier’s steady, soft tone was grating on Zayne’s nerves. The way Xavier held his gaze always sent a confusing heat to Zayne’s lower belly he never quite understood.
Xavier studied him quietly, before coming to a realization. “You’re scared.”
Zayne scoffed, but the sound lacked any bite. “Don’t start reading into things.”
“You were worried about me.”
Zayne frowned. “What?”
“When I disappeared in Sylus’s territory. You sent multiple groups of hunters just to look for me. That’s not standard procedure for a single hunter.”
“That was different.”
“Why?”
Zayne’s jaw tightened. “You know why.”
Xavier stepped even closer. “Say it.”
“Because people who go missing around Sylus tend to stay missing.”
“And you thought that was going to happen to me?”
“Yes!”
The word came out louder than either of them expected. The room went still. Zayne’s breathing was uneven now, chest rising and falling faster than it should. They were standing so close now that the argument had lost its edges and something else had taken its place. The air between them felt charged, like the moment before lightning hits. Their faces were inches apart.
“You’re impossible,” Zayne muttered.
Then Xavier grabbed the front of Zayne’s shirt and kissed him. It wasn’t gentle, it was sharp and sudden and full of everything they hadn’t said. Zayne froze for exactly half a heartbeat before kissing him back just as hard, hands grabbing Xavier’s jacket as the argument dissolved into something messy and electric. Xavier’s hands relaxed across Zayne’s chest for just a few seconds as they devoured each other, tongues lashing with a hunger they were both afraid of.
Then both of them seemed to remember themselves at the same time. They pulled apart abruptly. Zayne stared down at him like he’d just done something reckless and irreversible. Xavier blinked and covered his mouth, equally stunned.
Finally Xavier said, a little breathless, “Well.”
Zayne turned away, stepping back towards the window and cleared his throat, like the distance would put things back the way they were. “…that was unhelpful.”
Xavier glanced toward the door like escape was suddenly appealing. “So...” he said carefully.
“Don’t.”
Xavier’s mouth twitched. “Right. We’ll just pretend that didn’t happen.”
Zayne nodded quickly. “Exactly.”
They both stood there for another few seconds, neither of them moving, neither of them leaving. Which made pretending significantly harder than either of them had hoped.