Time Warp: Think that I would cry, on the phone?

[Levi Xu]

November 19th, 2024

"You were arrested? Mark, they're doing a background check! ....I can't stay with you....No, I'll call someone else....Yes, I have other friends in the city. Yes, I do.... Well, that's not going to help. Worse comes to worst I'll get a hotel.... No, I'm not going to call Evan."

After an hour, when his laptop battery was low and it was inching towards eleven, Levi gave up. He was stuck in New York City with nowhere to go, it was freezing, and he couldn't afford a hotel. (And the ones he could afford didn't have any vacancies.) He sat in Grand Central, staring at his phone, debating the contact he really should have deleted years earlier. Seven years, and it was still there. Seven years since he had fucked it up.

Fuck. He had nowhere else to go. Send.

"Uh, hey, Evan. It's me. Levi."

[Evan Brackett]

By the time ten had rolled around, Van was curled up on his couch reading. It was just a part of his evening routine: watch the news after dinner, maybe one of the primetime shows, read a chapter or two from whichever novel he was currently enjoying, and then get ready for bed. If it weren't for the fact that the lastest chapter had ended on a juicy cliffhanger, he probably would have been asleep when his cell phone rang.

Dog-earing the page, he set the book down on his lap and glanced at his phone. Levi's name was probably the last one he would have expected to see on the front screen. Initially, he had kept the contact for the soul purpose of knowing when to hit the ignore button, but time had eventually proven that inconsequential. It laid dormant in his phone for seven years now, removed from his speed dial but still ever present. Evan honestly had forgotten he still had it.

His thumb hovered over Ignore as he debated avoiding Levi, but he knew in the back of his mind that the other man wouldn't be calling him unless it was important. He huffed once before hitting the answer key and lifting the cell to his ear. There was a pause, and then he said, "Hello, Levi. It's been a while."

A long while.

[Levi Xu]

"Yeah..." It had been. They'd moved on, yes, but G-d, Levi still felt guilty. Doubly so, since it had been years and now he was asking for a favor. A big, awkward favor.

"I'm sorry for bothering you, and I know it's late, but..." His voice petered off, and he sighed before continuing. "I've got an interview tomorrow. I was supposed to spend the night with a friend in the Bronx, but something came up, and I can't find a hotel with vacancies." It was getting close to the holidays; for the first time ever Levi wasn't excited about Thanksgiving. He'd prefer if there was a place he could afford open so he wasn't begging for a couch from his ex. "I just... I'm so sorry, but I don't have anywhere to go."

Right, somewhere in there he was supposed to ask if Evan had a couch he could crash on, but he couldn't work up the courage to put that into words.

[Evan Brackett]

Evan's jaw tightened as Levi explained himself. "What constitutes as something?" He was asking out of curiosity, but it came out sounding like an attack. He had gotten over their break up, certainly, but he was still irritated that the man that broke his heart was calling him out of blue. And at nearly 11pm on a Tuesday night, nonetheless. The world didn't stop for emergencies, and he had to get up for work in the morning. Unnecessary stress before bed wasn't helping him.

Still, he couldn't just leave Levi stranded in New York City, and the situation was understandable, whatever the cause. Clearly the younger man was desperate. "So you're wondering if you can stay at my place?" Van confirmed with a sigh, his tone a little softer than before.

[Levi Xu]

"Well..." He was begging; he really shouldn't lie about it. Levi dropped his head and forced himself not to mumble, "He was arrested last week, and he's out on bail, but they're doing a background check on me for this job. I can't stay with him." Now that he thought about it, Evan might even have met Mark once or twice. They'd been roommates back in college, before Mark dropped out.

"Yeah. I just need a couch and a place I can leave my stuff during the interview. I'll sleep on the floor, even." He probably sounded just as desperate as he was, cold-calling Evan like this. G-d, what if Van was living with someone? "Please... It's a job at the U.N."

[Evan Brackett]

The phaser sighed again. Apparently, even after all this time, Levi was still befriending the trouble-making type. Granted, this was obviously not a new friend, but Van wouldn't have remembered Mark had the other man mentioned him by name anyway. "Alright, I can see how that's a problem." Background check? He inferred that it was some kind of government job from that, but he didn't consider the UN. That was interesting.

"Yeah, okay. It's fine," he decided. One or two nights wouldn't kill either of them. "Just until you find a better alternative, though." He got up and walked over to his front door, holding the phone between his face and his shoulder as he pulled on a jacket. "Where are you? I'll come pick you up."

[Levi Xu]

"Thank you. Thank you Va--Evan. You're a lifesaver." He blushed, not sure if it was okay to use the old nickname. The older man was still the same, though. He was still too nice for his own good.

Levi stood up himself and stretched before picking up the suitcase he'd been sitting on. He'd been in transit for almost twenty-four hours now, between delays, layovers, and this crisis. "I could come to you..." But then he blinked, thinking. "But I guess I don't know where you're living. I'm at Grand Central Station." Now that he thought about it, he realized that he had just been guessing that the older man was still in New York. He hadn't known for sure where Evan lived since...well, at least five years. That was probably the last time he'd talked to Horus.

Best way to drop out of contact with high school friends: Break your high school sweetheart's heart.

[Evan Brackett]

"You're welcome, and you can still call me Van. Most people do now anyway," he corrected, just catching the small hiccup.

That would have been really awkward, if Evan had just agreed to let the other man stay with him, and then they found out they weren't in the same city. It was a good thing the phaser's living situation had been rather stable for the last half of a decade. "Get on the subway and take the six--that's the green line--to Astor place. I'll meet you there, okay? See you soon." He ended the call and dropped the cell in his pocket, lingering a bit before grabbing his keys, slipping on his shoes, and leaving his apartment. What had he gotten himself into?

[[Continued in Can you help me find a way?]]