Zincbuggz🦈🌪

It had been a long day doing a full-day shift (thanks to three of his co-workers being absent at work), but luckily, the creamy and soft cream-filled Maritozzi that Angus gifted to Francis on his way while passing through the first floor had him whipped and refueled with energy to write one journal entry for that day before going to sleep.

Francis stared at the open journal on his table, trying his best to combine the important events of today into one single entry. In the end, there was only one thing that was really worth noting of, and Francis hurried along with his brandished pen to jot down everything:

Dear Diary, Today, Angus had been very kind and shared with me his cooking again. The Maritozzi melted in my mouth the way the Canolli from last week did, and gave me the energy to write this in my diary for today. I hope I'll get to taste more of Angus's cooking in the future.

Francis dropped the pen on the table, stretched his arms above his head, took one deep breath, and heaved it all out as his arms fell back to his sides. There was a time when this very notebook had gone untouched for far too long---it had been given to him by the company he was working for as self-therapy for the dangerous job he was undertaking in an era of human-eating doppelgangers, and the entries ranged from one word to one sentence descriptions of his shifts. Ever since Francis just got used to the dangers he was facing, the journal served no need and remained untouched, collecting dust in his desk drawer up until a week ago when a certain businessman had moved into the apartment.

Since then, almost each and every journal entry had been about the mustached fellow two floors down, each one notably longer than the last and always punctuated by Francis's wishes for more of Angus's cooking (his mother led him to believe that repeating a certain wish on paper everyday makes that wish come true after all).

Still, it was nowhere near the level of a truly passionate and romantic lover who yearn for their significant other. Francis was, and still is, not an expert in cherry-picking the words he needed for his journal entries, and they ended up reading as too flat or, in more basic terms, dry.

Well, it's not like that was a matter of concern. After all, no one but him could read his journal after all. And in some way, the feelings that he poured onto these entries---lacking as they were from a stranger's perspective---were intimate and private to him alone.

He recalled the friendly businessman's smile from earlier, how cheerful and enthusiastic he sounded, and it warmed Francis's heart just thinking about it. The only time he had felt so warm was during a cold Winter night while him and his momma huddled in front of the blazing fireplace, and… The freckled girl with different-colored eyes from college… It had been love at first sight which turned into a night that he could never forget, but she was gone, and the feelings had been long gone as well. Francis bit his lip and his face slowly warmed as the realization began to set in:

"Oh."

"…Oh."

There was no denying it anymore. The room suddenly feeling ten times hotter when Angus was around and him pretending to be sick that one time so he could get a taste of the soup that Angus made himself. Francis was hopelessly, devastatingly in love.

The image of telling Angus came to mind, but Francis shook it off as best he could with a migraine coming on.

It was far too early---they had only met each other for a week---and there was no telling if Angus felt the same way. "Mmm… Not yet…" He mumbled out loud, talking to himself. He still recalls how gentle and yet firm Angus calling him a 'friend' was in the hallways not too long ago. Of course, Francis sighed but his lips twitched upwards before giving way to a full smile. He's a friendly fellow, after all…

And for now and maybe a while more, maybe that was just the label their relationship was going to have---a so-called 'friendship' that was built on the obliviousness of a certain classy man and the understanding of a patient man who was now, truly, down bad.

"Mmm… It'll take a while, but…" Francis closed the journal on the page he was previously writing on and swept his hair back while smiling to himself. "I'll wait as long as it takes…"

I had to use default font for the ID since i don't have the font file augfh💔 and i also edited the entry req by separating each alphabet for the name and job lmao