Chapter Text
"Hello. My name is Adam Raki. You must be Mr. Bela." Adam tried to put on his most sincere smile, but he could feel himself shaking all over. Being in the opera house was much quieter than the bustling streets of Bucharest; nevertheless, it was still someplace new and was very off putting.
The man with what Adam guessed was pain on his face looked him over and gave a disgruntled sigh. "This way." Adam supposed it was a positive sign that the man turned and started to walk away, leading him through hallways toward the back of the auditorium. Adam didn't mind that Mr. Bela wasn’t talking, he didn’t like to make conversation either. Saw it as pointless. Maybe he could make a friend quicker than he thought. This chain of thought was put to an end when Adam found himself being shoved into a dark room surrounded by different machines that were apparently used to help enhance sound. Adam didn't know anything about music or the machinery that was piled in front of him, but he knew he could learn about it easily through books or the internet. The job was not what Adam was worried about. He was more worried that his brand of macaroni wasn't sold here in Bucharest. Luckily, he thought of this back in America and bought enough to last him three months. The clerk looked at him in an odd manner when he started to pile his ninety packages onto the supermarket counter. Again, Adam didn't mind, he was used to the funny looks. Just as Adam was getting lost in his thoughts, he heard shouting.
"No, Charlie, not fucking was, fucking is. Fucking meaning I fucking am 'til death do us fucking part." During the last part the man got really quiet and Adam became curious as to what was going on. So, Adam did what he thought was appropriate and opened his large metal-grated door, poking his head out. Just as he did, three pairs of eyes stared back at him: one from a pretty, young lady, one from an almost dirty-looking, skinny man, and one from a scary-looking man.
Adam didn't like the tension hanging in the air, so he did tried to break it in the most polite manner possible. "Who are you?" The question being mostly directed at the more menacing fellow because Adam honestly wanted to know.
"Well this here is apparently fucking Charlie. This gorgeous woman here is my Gabi. And I'm Nigel. Now that we have that out of the way. Who. The Fuck. Are you." The man, Nigel, stepped toward Adam's room, giving him a heated stare through his maroon colored eyes.
Remembering his interview training that he and Beth worked so hard on, Adam tried his best to put on a friendly face. He failed. To Nigel, Adam looked like he was having a seizure of some sort with his mouth twitching until it finally met its resting place as a smile.
"My name is Adam Raki and I just moved here from America. More specifically, from New York. Manhattan. Manhattan, New York. I really loved it there, but I got a new job here. In this opera house. I'm supposed to work on the acoustics, but I can't do anything today because I don't know anything about acoustics. What I do know about is space. Everything about space. Well, not everything. But a lot. For example, did you know that everything is moving away from each other faster and faster, so that means eventually the sky will be dark because we won't be able to see the stars anymore?"
"What the f-"
Just as Nigel was about to finally let his annoyance show, Adam saw Mr. Bela.
"Oh hello!"
"What are you doing? You can't be here. You will go immediately or I will call the police." Adam shifted his gaze and focused on a floor tile.
"B-but, Mr. Bela, I thought I worked here." Adam opened the door fully and let his sorrow show through his bright, blue eyes. Adam didn’t think he could handle another disappointment like being fired again. He worked too hard to get this far. Adam started to bring his hands to his ears in order to shut the world out. Maybe he could just make it all go away. Before Adam could fully invert his senses, he heard Mr. Bela’s voice come through.
“You idiot. Not you,” Adam looked up and uncovered his ears. Mr. Bela was now looking at Nigel. “I’ll tell you once more. Get out. Go!” The last shout had truly scared Adam and shook him to the core, he hated conflict. Nigel just smirked and looked at Gabi.
“Gabi, darling, we really do need to catch up soon,” Nigel finally made eye contact with Mr. Bela “Nice meeting you again, Bela. Charlie,” His gaze shifted once more, “I’ll catch you later.” Adam didn’t understand why Nigel had to do all this catching, Couldn’t they hold themselves up?, and considered asking him, but decided against it, seeing as though Nigel had somewhere to go from the quick goodbyes.
Nigel turned to face Adam and finally caught his attention without the blue-eyed man looking away. Even though the stare only held for a second, it was all Nigel needed. From that quick glance, Nigel felt his heart skip a beat and his breath catch in his throat. Adam’s eyes looked like a child’s who had seen too much and was forced to mature too quickly. The color matched the sky on a perfect day that made Nigel feel guilty for staying inside. In Nigel’s childhood, he would be sure to sit on his roof and look up at the sky for hours. He felt that if he didn’t, the day would be wasted. He knew that color. And here it was, staring back at him. Another person hadn’t made himself feel this way since…Gabi. Nigel shook his head and started to leave with a low growl, huffing as he finally left the theater.
The whole act lasted only a moment, but to Adam it felt like an eternity. Since Beth, he hadn’t really looked anyone in the eye, let alone keep contact. This was all new to Adam and it felt weird. Not weird in a bad way, but weird like jumping on a trampoline made him feel, his stomach in his throat and a fluttering feeling in his abdomen that his dad had described as ‘butterflies.’ Adam didn’t know what this all meant and it was very confusing to him. All Adam did know was that he wanted to look at Nigel like that again and wanted to know if it made Nigel feel the same way. Adam would never ask though. After offending Beth by asking if she was sexually excited like he was, Adam decided to let people tell him what they felt by their own accord. Even if Adam really wanted to know.
After Nigel left, Adam felt all the eyes on him again and felt the uneasiness settling over him.
“Goodbye, I’m going into my room. If you want to know about the star Sirius or any other star or anything about space in general, I will be in here until six o’clock pm. Thank you.” Adam closed the door slowly to give anyone a chance to ask him a question if they wanted to, but they didn’t. No one ever did. Adam supposed Nigel would want to hear. Nigel seemed to want to ask him a question before Mr. Bela came in. Perhaps he could find Nigel somewhere. Maybe he could ask the pretty lady or the scruffy looking man. Before then, Adam decided to occupy himself by reading each manual for the different machines cover to cover until his shift was over. It was one o’clock now, so Adam supposed he could at least finish three of the ten books today and read the rest tomorrow. Even as he got started and settled himself in a metal chair in the corner of the room, Adam couldn’t stop himself from thinking about those dark crimson eyes.