she's hooked to the silver screen

Touya never gave much thought to the whole ‘falling in love’ thing. Why would he? Life just didn’t have shit like that in the cards for him, he was sure of it.

He had to be sure of that. The world had already burned the lesson to not hope for shit into him.

But if something like that had crossed his mind, it certainly wouldn’t involve direct eye contact with a cute blond boy while Touya shoved cold food in his mouth from someone’s used plate in the back of a restaurant.

Getting a job while just barely seventeen wasn’t easy these days, but it was damn fucking hard when Touya was also a disowned high school dropout and secretly homeless as well. Not that he was going to complain, there was no point in that. It wouldn't change his circumstances. No, Touya hid that part of himself to the best ability and somehow did it effectively enough to land himself a shitty job washing dishes at a restaurant with a dickish owner who ‘attended’ a different prestigious culinary school every time he was asked for his accolades.

This was a diner. A diner that didn’t even have good coffee.

But this shitty blessing of a job now dangled by a tedious thread thanks to a pair of stupidly gorgeous gold eyes locked on the spoon that hung from Touya’s mouth.

Touya didn’t even like seafood and now it was going to get him fired from his only source of income.

And of course it had to be the ‘pretty waiter’ too, the one with the charming smile that surely made more in tips serving one table than Touya made in a day scrubbing dishes until his scarred hands felt dry and raw.

“It was a fucking clean spoon.”

The blond bastard nearly jumped out of his damn skin when he finally spoke. It was kind of hilarious.

Whether it was the sound of Touya’s voice that caused the boy to trip or over his damn feet or the clatter of Touya tossing the spoon and plate into the empty metal sink with unnecessary force, Touya didn’t know. But after catching himself with a hand on the edge of the metal counter, the boy just said, “Oh.”

Oh.

Touya laughed, if only to hide himself at his lowest.

It’s not like he wanted to be someone who did shit like this, but sometimes the unyielding squeeze of hunger outweighed shame. The last thing Touya ate was Pringles he bought a day and a half ago with some cash he swiped from the wallet of a one night stand after he slipped silently out of their apartment. It was annoying how the feeling of shame still managed to grab him by the throat this hard when he already had stooped so low so many times now it shouldn’t even matter anymore. For fuck’s sake, why would this guy have even cared if Touya had eaten with a clean or used spoon anyway?

Whatever, Touya wasn’t sticking around to find out.

“Take a picture or just go scram and snitch to the boss already. The whole staring thing is getting annoying.”

Despite all the bravado Touya attempted to project, his hands tremored slightly as he untied his apron to throw it aside as his stomach twisted itself into knots. He planned to simply storm out of the place without even a second glance at the waiter, despite how easy he was on the eyes, but Touya didn’t get a choice in the matter.