Chapter 2: The Start of a Misunderstanding
"My name is…" Harris hadn't given his name to anyone but a new colleague in years, and even then it was only ever his code-name, and that made him hesitate, strangely overwhelmed. "Harris Harper." He gave himself another moment before he took the plunge. "I knew your father a long time ago and I thought I recognized you." It was the truth, for the most part. Harris was proud of that.
Better yet, it worked. Joshua continued to look skeptical, but he loosened his grip and backed off, letting Harris go. Harris missed his heat immediately, then scolded himself roundly for it. "And now you just happen to be walking my way?" Joshua asked.
"Precisely."
"You don't exactly belong out here, bruv."
Harris glanced around and was forced to agree. He contained a sigh, though just barely. Part of being unnoticeable was that he didn't have to worry about looking out of place in his fancy suit- and since he was unlikely to be robbed or otherwise harassed he didn't generally think too much about where he was. But Joshua was right; they were not in a part of the city where someone who looked like Harris generally spent his time.
Harris searched for an excuse and eventually found one. "I've been away for a while," he said. If 'away' could be understood to mean, 'not strictly alive', this too was true. "But there's a place I used to eat at not from here." Technically it was so long ago that Harris could hardly remember it, but the streets did seem familiar. "I wanted to see if it was still open."
Joshua relaxed even further, but said, "Show me."
Harris prayed that his memory of the place in question would lead him correctly, and happily it did. The pub looked very different than it had the last time Harris had been there- the paint on the sign was chipping away, a sharp drop in clientele was suggested by how empty it was, and it had undoubtedly changed ownership a few times- but at least it was still there. Harris gave Joshua what he hoped was a vindicated look. "There you are," Harris said. "So." For a moment both of them just stood, awkwardly, by the door. "Have lunch with me?"
"You're a fucking weirdo," Joshua said, but he went inside. Harris followed him.
The food was inexpensive, but Harris still offered to pay. Joshua looked uncomfortable- clearly torn between knowing that Harris really should pay and not wanting to owe him. Harris couldn't very well remind Joshua that he had spent almost all the money he had in the bookshop just now without making Joshua think that Harris was following him again, so he tried a different tack: "It's because of me you're even here, isn't it?"
Joshua rolled his eyes at that, but he still looked suspicious. "I don't owe you nothing if you do," he said.
"Of course not."
Something about the way Harris sounded legitimately offended seemed to thaw Joshua further, and he let Harris pay for the food.
They sat down at a table by the window, and Harris glanced out, searching for something to end the rather oppressive silence. "Good weather we've been having," he said at last. He had lost his knack for talking about inconsequential things a long time ago, but Joshua snorted and there was something about the very awkwardness of the remark that made him drop his guard even further, so Harris couldn't consider the remark a complete failure.
"Look," Joshua said, humor in his voice now, "who are you?"
"I told you," Harris said. "My name is Harris. I… work in a tailor's shop. Your father was… he was a customer many years ago and I thought perhaps I recognized you. You resemble him, you know."
Joshua nodded like he'd been told that before. "When did my dad have to go to a tailors?" he asked.
"For his wedding," Harris answered. It was a bit of a stretch of the truth, but since Harris was the reason he had met Michelle and come to get married in the first place it was close enough. "To your mother."
"You know he's dead, right?" Joshua said.
"I'm sorry for it." Harris meant it. His job was the romantic happily ever after. The fact that he had no power over what came 'after' that had always troubled him. "He struck me as a good man."
Joshua's smile changed his face, made him look so much younger.
Harris kept quiet for a moment, turning his attention to his meal. The sight of Harris poking at the greasy, paper-wrapped fish in his nice suit seemed to amuse Joshua, and his smile widened. Harris- well, Harris 'could' eat but he didn't need to, and thus rarely did. It had been such a long time since he'd simply had lunch with someone- and perhaps longer still since anyone had smiled at him like that, even if it was just because they thought him silly. Harris decided he might as well to press the advantage. "I really wasn't following you."
"Liar," Joshua said, but Harris could still hear traces of humor in his voice.
"I assure you I have no nefarious intentions."
Joshua actually laughed at that one, shaking his head to himself, and then he applied himself to his lunch. They both finished eating in silence.
When Joshua rose Harris did the same, saying, "May I see you home?"
"Yeah, no," Joshua said.
Harris knew better than to not accept the answer, so he just nodded and said "Goodbye, then." Joshua rolled his eyes again and turned away, heading for the door. Harris sat back down so Joshua could leave without feeling pursued. Once he was outside, Joshua half turned, looked back at Harris through the window, gave a little snort and then went on his way again. A moment later he was gone, probably under the impression that he would never see Harris again.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
CaitlynRaines
CaitlynRaines Power stones for the June 17-30 Contest please?
Chapter 3: A Gentlemanly 'Confession'
"You realize that this changes everything, Merlin," Harris said.
"I suppose it does," Merlin agreed, with nowhere near the amount of concern Harris thought was warranted in his voice.
The fact that Harris couldn't follow Joshua for the next few weeks (or months or perhaps even years that were sometimes required in situations like this) without being noticed meant that none of Harris's usual methods would work this time. He would have to cultivate a relationship with Joshua somehow, become his friend and find out why he was so closed off by actually talking with him, and 'then' steer him into the path of the right person- once he found them- the old-fashioned way. It was probably the most daunting job Harris had ever come across. "Is this even supposed to happen?" he demanded, leaning closer to Merlin across his desk.
They were in Merlin's office, back at their headquarters. The place that Harris and his colleagues referred to as HQ was based behind a tailor's shop- the one where Harris had told Joshua he worked. In reality, it was just a place he passed through on the way to his real work- though he did buy all his suits from there.
They had a kind of symbiotic relationship with the Agapian tailors that Harris rarely examined too closely. The shop was a cover when a cover was needed, and sometimes those who worked there did the little things that unnoticeable people were less good at- like renting out living spaces or buying cars. In turn, cupids like Harris were some of their best customers; Harris himself had even been a regular of the shop back when it was first founded and he was still mortal. And no, the significance of the fact that he could remember his tailor but not the last person who had touched him did not escape Harris. It was something he tried not to think too much about.
Something else he didn't think much about was how it all worked. He didn't know why the men and women who worked in the shop were able to interact with his kind the way all other mortals couldn't, and he didn't think too much about where the money they paid them with came from either- or the money he used for anything, come to that. It certainly behaved like real money, but he had no idea what it did to the larger economy whenever it went into circulation. Like a lot of the rules of Harris's current existence, it seemed to just... be.
In the back of the shop there was an elevator that could take Harris and his colleagues more than underground- it took them to one of the worlds beyond the world of living, the one that straddled the line between it and the next. It was where people like Harris stayed until they were retired and moved on at last.
"Supposed to happen," Merlin repeated, breaking Harris out of that train of thought, "no, it isn't. But it isn't unprecedented either."
"This has happened before? To who?"
"No one you would know," Merlin told him, a little imperiously. "But it has happened before and it doesn't make your job impossible. Joshua Alcott 'is' going to fall in love, Harris. I can guarantee it." He held Harris's eyes for a moment. "You do you trust me, don't you?" he asked.
"Yes," Harris said reluctantly. "But 'you're' going to have to trust 'me.' If I say I need something done by one of the other branches, you get it done, none of the usual mind games."
Harris could only see romantic auras, only effect romantic potential, but there were different branches that controlled every kind of relationship. Not just the different kinds of love- but also hate and jealousy and fear and dislike and even the minute connections that formed between people who never even properly met at all. Sometimes, in order to do his job, Harris needed someone to give one of those other dynamics a nudge the way he could only to do with romantic attachments. In a life like Joshua's, that sort of thing was never easy but it was almost always necessary.
"Fair enough," Merlin agreed. "Just fill out these forms and take them to the Archive."
The forms were in triplicate, but it was still too easy. There was something else going on, Harris knew it. He felt, though, that he had pushed his luck on the subject of Joshua enough for the time being. He decided to fill out the forms and bide his time.
~oOo~
Because he had- obviously- not been expecting to meet Joshua, Harris had done nothing to build a background for himself that would make it conceivable for them to meet by accident a second time. Harris was clearly from a different class, he lived in a different part of town- Harris had a home outside headquarters for when he needed it, though he spent almost no time in it- and he therefore operated in completely different circles. He and Joshua were two people who had absolutely nothing in common and Harris was supposed to make it seem like it was somehow perfectly natural for them to just run into each other again one day soon.
It was a feat that Harris thought would be difficult for anyone- even someone with a lot more social experience than Harris himself happened to have. If his first meeting with Joshua had taught Harris anything, it was that he had forgotten how to really talk to people.
So he tried to think of himself as someone else- someone he was trying to bring into Joshua's circle as a potential match. How would he steer them together under those circumstances?
It was a foolish idea but a useful intellectual exercise, and it was how he came up with the idea for the first little tweak Merlin negotiated on his behalf.
Through a raffle that no one in Joshua's family was ultimately willing to admit to 'not' signing up for they ended up winning a substantial gift card to the kind of shop they normally couldn't afford to patronize but which none of them were willing to let go to waste. Harris didn't bother too much about the details- he didn't do much shopping himself, after all- but he had it on good authority that it would look perfectly reasonable for him to "happen" upon them there.
Technically, Harris ran into Joshua's little sister first- or, rather, Eliza ran into him, plowing into his legs face first and nearly falling over backwards as she did so. Harris caught and righted her. "Are you all right, little one?" he asked, crouching down in front of her.
"Not little," she protested, tossing her head.
"Is that right?" Harris murmured. He didn't have to look up from her little face to know that Joshua was getting closer. He might not have been able to see its color, but Joshua's grey aura certainly shone a little brighter as he zeroed in on his tiny sister's location.
"Sorry," Joshua said quickly, scooping her up. "She got away from me there." There was something defensive in Joshua's voice, as if he was entirely expecting to be accused of poor childcare in addition to being not the usual clientele of the store. When Harris looked up at him there was a proud yet rattled set to his chin that hardened but then fell away altogether when Joshua looked back down at him. "It's you," he said, blinking.
Still crouching on the floor, Harris said, "I'm not stalking you," which probably didn't help his case all that much.
To be fair, Harris wasn't thinking very clearly. For all he had prepared for it, a part of Harris still hadn't expected Joshua to have remembered him. That was another part of being unnoticeable; even if a person had a conversation with Harris, he didn't stick in their minds. He hadn't had anyone but one of his coworkers remember his face or his name in... well, in as long as he'd been what he was.
"Sure," Joshua snorted. He looked vaguely amused though; Harris supposed that was something. He eyed his sister seriously and said, "What've I told you about talking to strangers, Eliza girl?"
"Not a stranger if you know him," Eliza pointed out astutely.
Harris rose, saying, "She has you there."
"No, thank you, she don't, since we ain't exactly been properly introduced."
"Oh," came out of Harris's mouth. It was a half a question, half an uncertain statement to fill the sudden silence. He wasn't sure what Joshua was saying, what he actually expected.
Joshua shifted his grip on Eliza and reached out a hand. "I'm Joshua Alcott."
That was when Harris realized that Joshua had technically never told him his name. He hesitated only for a second before gripping the offered hand. "Harris Harper."
"Me too," Eliza said, and looked satisfied when she got to wrap her small hand around his forefinger. "Eliza."
"Hello, Eliza," Harris said.
Another silence followed the introductions.
"We just have to-" Joshua said, gesturing vaguely in the opposite direction. Harris nodded and let them go.
It was genuinely a coincidence when Harris arrived at the cash register at about the same time that Joshua and Eliza did. "You first," Harris said automatically. The presence of someone behind them in line, even if that someone didn't stick in her mind very well, made the cashier work faster and not hassle Joshua at all, and he looked grateful for it.
Still, Harris was surprised to find the two of them waiting outside the store. Joshua put Eliza down, but since she still trailed close behind him it didn't exactly give them much more privacy. Joshua said, "What 'are' your intentions?"
"Pardon?"
"Last time we met you said you had no nefarious intentions. So." Joshua cleared his throat. "I was just wondering what your intentions were."
And this was exactly the opportunity Harris had been waiting for, a chance to build something with his charge that would allow him to be a little more active in his life. "I like you," Harris said. He had discovered- rather abruptly, under the circumstances- that it was true.
Joshua snorted. "You barely know me."
"I suppose so," Harris said. "And you, I think, don't particularly like me. I was hoping both of those things might change. But, of course, it's out of my hands."
"Because you ain't stalking me?"
"Exactly so."
"Okay," Joshua said, ducking his head. His lips curved upward and he looked… more pleased than Harris would have expected. Still, the banter- such as it was- came easier than he would have expected, and if it made Joshua smile that would have to do for the time being.
Still, when Harris asked, "May I see you home?" again he fully expected to receive the same response as last time.
"Why the hell not," Joshua said instead.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
CaitlynRaines
CaitlynRaines
Power stones for the June 17-30 Contest please?
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