Chapter 3: |Beginnings|Chapter 3

The two fell into the comfortable silence they were both used to having, simply enjoying the presence of the other. Avery decided that since the box that once held their dessert was now empty, he could fold it back into its original flat shape. Although as he took it apart and folded it, he struggled since he couldn't find the creases in which it folded, but eventually he got it. After the box was flat again, he turned to face Nytin who had been watching him the entire time. 

"So..do you like this place? The ocean is pretty nice, right?" 

Nytin hummed and shrugged, "I guess..up here is fine, but me and the ocean…don't mix very well." 

Avery paused and was a little confused, "How come?"

"Well…let's just say every time I get near it, something bad happens." Nytin said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck, "We don't..get along very well."

Avery didn't push the question any further, as it seemed Nytin wanted to avoid answering it, "It's okay..not my favorite thing either..it's too salty, and the seaweed..kelp stuff.. that floats up is kinda gross too." 

Nytin stifled a laugh, "Yeah. Pretty gross stuff there, plus you'll smell like fish all the time if you come here often. " As he spoke, the waves seemed to get a tad bit more aggressive, crashing louder against the side of the concrete walls.

Avery hummed in agreement, "Still..it's almost as interesting as space, who knows what's down there, maybe a creepy hundred eyed monkey whale..thing." He said with a small laugh.

Nytin crossed his arms snickering, "It's probably something ugly, real ugly, with a stupid ugly face, kinda like all those weird looking fish."

As Nytin spoke a very strong gust of wind blew, making his hood fly back, and at that moment a soggy newspaper laced in seaweed flew up and hit him straight in the face. He shouted in surprise, grimacing and peeling it off, angrily throwing it on the floor. Avery hadn't seen what had happened, since he was shielding his face from the wind that had brought up sand that blew in his face, he just heard a loud wet smack, and saw the blurred shape of Nytin stand up and throw something on the ground in what looked like anger. 

"Are you okay? Did something happen?" Avery asked, standing up and moving closer to Nytin, who simply sighed.

"My.. bad luck has struck again, a gross wet..newspaper flew right into my face." He grumbled wiping his face with his sleeve, that's when he smelled it. He quickly moved his arm away from his face and visibly gagged, "Holy- That..smells..awful..I think it's in my hair.." he couldn't help gagging again, turning to stomp on the newspaper in anger, cursing under his breath. 

Avery grimaced at the thought of getting smacked with ocean newspapers and figured the right thing to do would be to offer a bit of help, "Would you like to come to my place for a little? I can wash your..hoodie..thing..for you, and you can wash your hair too."

Nytin didn't answer for a second, halting in his stomping to stare at Avery, and Avery figured he may have gotten weirded out, but he couldn’t tell due to not seeing Nytins face. He quickly raised his hands dismissively, "Y-you don't have too, of course! I figured you'd want to clean up and..uhm..y-yeah.." 

Nytin quickly regained his composure, he had been caught severely off guard by the question, "No! I'd really appreciate that, I've just..never been asked to someone's house before.." He lowered his voice, reflexively he went to pull his hood back on, and a piece of seaweed fell onto his head. He took a sharp breath inwards, as if he were going to scream and curse, but he simply picked it off his head and threw it back into the ocean water. 

Avery let out the breath he had been holding in, "My home is a little ways away from here, so we have to take the bus..or get a taxi..something along those lines." He said and opened his phone, he put an earbud in his ear and brought the phone close to his face and looked at the bus times, there weren't any coming soon so he decided to get a taxi from a rideshare app.

Nytin peeked over his shoulder curiously, watching him press buttons and type things with special buttons that appeared, he was curious so he decided to ask about it. "What are all those circles you're typing with? It looks cool."

Avery happily answered, "Oh well..since my eyesight has always been like this, my parents had me learn braille at a young age, just in case." He finished up ordering the rideshare and opened a typing menu, "My phone has a way to type in braille and fixes any mistakes I make, and a lot of the information also fills out itself, so it's a life saver, it also reads it back to me as a type." 

Nytin listened and was a little surprised at how advanced technology had gotten, "I didn't even know phones could do that, that's so cool." He wanted to try it too, considering learning braille to better understand Avery, "I kind of want to learn how to do this too. Can I?"

Avery nodded, "Yeah! It's not too difficult, I could probably teach you a little..." He said with a smile, then his phone buzzed, "Oh..change of subject, sorry, we should probably head to the pick up point, it's on the street corner." He tapped a bit more on his phone and it began telling them where to go, Nytin followed obediently, casting one last dirty look at the ocean, before smiling and catching up to Avery. 

The two walked towards their destination, Nytin protectively standing near Avery as the sidewalks began to fill with people walking, and not watching where they were going, too focused on everything but the things they should've been paying attention to. Nytin had been looking around and just barely noticed that someone on a skateboard had been rolling towards them quickly from behind while looking at their phone, threatening to ram into the both of them.

He grabbed Avery's waist and moved out of the way just in time, with Avery letting out a startled 'woah'. He quickly let go of him when he deemed it safe, "Sorry, that guy on the skateboard was coming full speed towards us..thought he was gonna ram into you."

Avery gave him a thankful smile, "Oh, well then thank you, I'm always running into people when the sidewalks get busier..well they run into me most of the time..I can't dodge in time." He said with a sheepish laugh, sticking closer to Nytin as they made their way to the corner.  

Nytin felt irritated upon hearing that, "People need to be more aware of their surroundings, it's not that hard." He said kicking a rock, he knew people were absent minded and inconsiderate, but he didn't know it was that bad. Avery was grateful that Nytin cared so much about it, smiling a little more as they walked.

The two made it to the corner just in time, as the rideshare app notified Avery that their driver had arrived. Shortly after, a black suv drove up next to them, after confirming it was their ride they climbed into the back seat. The brunette woman in the driver's seat greeted them, and began driving. She clearly seemed to be in a talkative mood because she almost immediately began chatting with Avery, Nytin wasn't in any mood to talk to anyone but Avery, so he simply stared out of the window, listening to the conversation. The woman had asked how their day was, and what they were doing near the ocean in such cold weather, Nytin thought she was a bit nosey, but Avery happily answered her questions and asked a few of his own, until they arrived at a large apartment building. 

Avery led the way into the building, using his electronic key to open the door, "We're almost there, just have to go up a few floors." He walked towards the elevator and pushed the call button, the doors opened and the two walked in.

 Nytin was silently taking everything in, it was a fairly modern place, but overall nothing too luxurious. He watched Avery hit the button for the top floor and was startled when the elevator started moving, "W-woah..that feels so weird.." his stomach felt like it had been shoved downwards, and he had almost lost balance, using the bars to hold himself upright.

Avery snickered a little, "The elevator does feel weird sometimes, especially when they're fast like this one." 

The doors opened and Nytin hastily got off, but he still felt sick, and a tad bit dizzy as the floor spun slowly around him, forcing him to close his eyes. Avery got off and noticed Nytin simply standing there, appearing troubled. He put a hand on his arm looking up at him worriedly, "Are..you okay?" 

Nytin nodded, "Yeah…just..I don't like the elevator." He said standing up straight, shaking his head, he didn't want to seem weak in front of Avery and kept a straight face, as much as he wanted to lay down on the floor for just a few minutes. Avery seemed to accept that as an answer and led Nytin towards his apartment who wobbled after him, slowly regaining his senses. Avery stopped at the seventh door and felt the numbers on the side, confirming that it was in fact his home.

He took his keys out from his pocket and opened the door, letting Nytin inside, "Ta-da! This is my humble abode.." He said while closing the door, Nytin took a good look around, feeling adequate enough to confidently move around, overall it wasn't decorated much, and he had a good guess on why. It was a cozy area, with a loft as a bedroom instead of an actual room, the kitchen and dining room were below the loft, while the living room was in the center of the apartment.

"This is pretty nice, do you..live alone?" Nytin asked slowly, as if trying to decide if this was an odd question to ask, or a normal one, Avery seemingly didn't have any pets either, so naturally he was curious

Avery walked over to him and nodded, "Yeah, but I often have my friends over, so it's not too bad.." He then motioned to Nytins cloak, "Uh..So…do you want me to wash this?" 

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Nytin paused as if he forgot what he came here for, "O-oh right, yes please.." he reached up, releasing the clasp that kept his cloak together, and then took it off, "Thank you for helping me out, you've already done a lot.." he said handing it over to Avery, "I'll make it up to you sometime."

Avery smiled gratefully, "That sounds great, let me go put this in the wash, and then if you want I'll show you where you can wash your hair." 

Avery left to go put the cloak in the washer, and Nytin decided to explore a little, he went up to the coffee table that was in the middle of Avery's living room, carefully he picked it up and saw what appeared to be Avery and his parents, he couldn't have been more than seven at the time, but he was in a hospital bed, being hugged by his parents holding up a sign, but Nytin couldn't make out what the sign said, as the photo was old and faded. He jumped when he heard Avery's voice come from behind him.

"It'll be about an hour or so before it's done, drying included…oh." Avery had walked over to stand next to Nytin, he noticed that Nytin was holding something, and had looked on the table, the picture that was usually there, was gone, so he could only guess that's what he had was the photo. 

Nytin quickly put it down in its proper spot, "Sorry, I shouldn't have grabbed it, I was just curious.." he said softly. 

Avery gave a small smile, "Well, that was me and my parents, it's a little bit of a bittersweet memory though.." he picked it up, bringing it close to his face, staring at it for a moment before putting it back down, sitting down on the couch and closing his eyes, he felt the cushions move as Nytin sat down next to him.

"Do..you..want to talk about it?" Nytin asked, looking over at Avery, who simply shrugged.

"It's not..too bad. I ended up not having cancer like the doctors thought I did after months, and months of testing and treatments, " He said with a small sigh, "so we were all really happy, but it turns out I'm still getting worse, and there's no diagnosis, so there's no treatment.." 

He spoke so casually about it, Nytin figured he was fine, but clearly he wasn't, Avery seemed to put up many walls, which reminded Nytin of someone, that someone being himself. He put a hand on Avery's shoulder comfortingly, "Well, I'm sure you'll get better soon Starshine, you're doing pretty good now, yeah?" 

Avery opened his eyes when Nytin put a hand on his shoulder and smiled gratefully, "Yeah, you're right, I've been feeling pretty good these past few weeks, thank you for that."

Nytin was severely taken aback, he had to take a few seconds to simply respond, confused on why Avery was thanking him, "Y..wait..? Me..? For..for what?" 

Avery smiled a little wider at Nytin's confusion, "For spending time with me, I mean I know we didn't talk much in the beginning, but it was..well no..it is still fun." He said softly, "I was feeling pretty down a while ago, but you gave me something to look forward to everyday." 

Nytin stared at Avery, it was so odd, he had been feeling the same way that day, down and lost, and then Avery appeared, prodding him with a stick, with little to no fear, looking at him with that welcoming and warm smile, and then their friendship had begun, he sighed in content, "Me too, I wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep for a hundred years that day, and then you started poking me, and talking to me.." he smiled, "I can't lie..at first I was annoyed and bitter, but then you were so nice to me, so I decided to come back, and I'm really glad I did, so..thank you too." 

Avery and Nytin smiled at each other, they hadn't known each other for very long, maybe around a month but already felt a strong bond with one another, a mutual feeling of appreciation for the other. Then Avery spoke again, a devious smile spreading across his lips, "So…you were annoyed with me when we first met?"

Nytin froze, "No! Nono..W-well..wait..I guess but..not anymore! It was just for a little bit..a tiny..tiny bit..I swear..!" 

"I'm hurt Nytin, I thought we were closer than that." Avery covered his mouth dramatically and looked away, as if he were truly in some sort of emotional turmoil, truthfully, he was trying to hide the fact he was laughing.

Nytin then realized Avery had been messing with him again when he heard soft snickering, he frowned disappointedly, but couldn't help chuckling. He jokingly pushed Avery away, "Pfft..Quit messing with me like that, it's too hard to tell if you're serious or not." 

When Nytin pushed Avery, he let himself fall over and finally let himself laugh, "Sorry, it's just..you get so serious, I won't do it..much.." 

Nytin rolled his eyes and then remembered he needed to wash his hair when the rancid smell hit him again, making his eyes water, "Hey..Statshine? Could..I wash my face..and my hair..? It's kinda..gross." 

Avery perked up at that, he had forgotten that part of his offer, "Oh jeeze, I forgot- hold on.. let me find a towel for your face and hair, uhm..you can wash in the shower or the sink if you want." He said sliding off the couch and walking over to a closet, inside were different plastic baskets that were all color-coded and labeled with braille stickers. He reached up and grabbed a light blue basket, grabbing a towel and a wash rag, he put the basket back and handed the items over to Nytin. 

Nytin took the towels gratefully, and Avery showed him the way to the bathroom, "There's face wash on the sink, and shampoo and conditioner in the shower..uhh..left is cold..right is hot, the shower head comes off if you use it, same for the sink…" he moved out the way for Nytin to walk in, "but the faucet doesn't come off." He added playfully.

Nytin rolled his eyes again, not that Avery could see him do it, and walked into the bathroom, "Very clever, I'll be out in..well..as soon as I stop smelling like that disgusting newspaper." He grimaced just thinking about it and closed the door.

Avery heard the sink turn on and walked into the kitchen to wait for Nytin to come out, as he did the washing machine beeped loudly, he immediately went to it and put the now clean cloak into the dryer. He moved back to the living room and sat down, and that's when the exhaustion hit him, he slumped down and sighed. 

This was by far the most active Avery had been in a long time, his body was still weak and heavy, his eyes even heavier. I'll just close my eyes for a second, he thought leaning back against the couch, and with that he closed his eyes, and within a matter of minutes, had completely fallen asleep, curled into a tight ball. 

Nytin had taken around ten minutes to wash his hair and face, he was drying his hair when he walked out the bathroom, "Y'know, your shampoo smells gr..eat..?" His eyes fell upon the sleeping ball on the couch, he stopped talking and walked over leaning over Avery, "..If you were tired..you should have just said so Starshine." He said with a small playful scoff, he looked around and found a blanket, draping it over Avery, he ruffled Averys hair gently before going to go check on his cloak. It was still drying, and had about twenty minutes to go.

Nytin finished drying his hair and folded the towels he had been using neatly on top of the washing machine, he moved back to the couch, sitting down a little away from Avery to give him space. He closed his eyes crossing his arms over his chest, waiting patiently for either Avery to wake up, or the dryer to finish. 

The dryer had won the waiting game, and Nytin quickly went over to it as it loudly played a tune. He turned it off quickly and grabbed his cloak, putting it back on, "Boy have I missed you.." he whispered putting his hood back on, he closed the dryer and checked the lint collector, emptying it before heading back to check on Avery who remained asleep.

 He crossed his arms and snickered a little, "Sleeping so peacefully, just like on the day we met." He sighed, "I'm going to have to keep my eye on you, you're too trusting.." As he whispered, he slowly, moving an arm under Averys legs, and another around his shoulders, he picked Avery up with ease, using his shoulder to support his head, "You..really have no idea who I am, but you fall asleep so easily.."

Nytin carried Avery across the apartment and up the stairs to the bedroom loft, this area was even more decorated than the entire apartment, with countless books, posters, and items neatly placed around the room. He carefully put Avery back down, with his head on one of the many pillows on the bed, and covered him back up with the blanket, sitting down next to him, he saw a small but very thick book with no title right on Averys nightstand, along with what looked like a tool to write in braille. 

He grabbed it and opened it curiously, it was in fact, written in braille. Weird, theres no title, but its clearly a book, he thought, flipping through the pages, he then noticed that about half way through, the pages were empty, ..why would he..oh..this is a diary isn't it? You dumbass. He internally punched himself for carelessly looking through Averys things..again.

He put the book back where it belonged and stood up, looking around. Nytin searched for a few minutes, before finding a notepad and pen. He wrote in very big neat letters purposely so Avery could bring the note close to his face and read it, and put it on top of the nightstand. He went to the front door and made sure it was locked before heading back upstairs to the large window next to Averys bedside, "Im..not taking that thing again, so I'll be leaving from here.." He whispered, half to Avery, half to himself. He opened the window and crawled through, shutting it as he stood on the fire escape, they were up at least five floors, if he fell, he'd plummet to an almost certain death.

Nytin took one last look at Avery, making sure he was asleep, before climbing up the railing and jumping off the platform and vanishing into the frosty winter air. The moment Nytin disappeared, the first snow had begun to fall, inviting many to come outside or stare out of their windows as the large snowflakes that slowly fell from the sky, officially telling everyone that winter had offically arrived. 

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