You Changed Me

2. Hello Stranger

His face felt tingly, as if the soft hands were back on his face, gentle and kind. His heart seemed to speed up and his hands began to sweat. He swallowed thickly as his hand slipped off the handle and he stepped back. His hands came up to his head and he tried to steady his breathing.

It had only been a few seconds. It must've been, for blue hair was still bent over, head in the opening of the giant block. He swallowed again and his eyes trailed over what he could see. His mouth went dry and his heart started beating faster again. He looked away, quickly, and cleared his throat.

"U-uhm... could I have that glass of water?" he asked. Blue hairs head came up quickly, body turning as if he was about to turn toward him. Instead, he hit his head on a shelf in the white block. Blues hands came up to the back of his head and Anti rushed forward, hands out.

An overwhelming fear for this man, even though he knew nothing could be very wrong. A bump at most. He just... his heart was screaming at him, make sure he's alright. So his hands were soon on his back, pulling him gently away and lifting him. His hands were running through the soft blue hair, checking for bumps.

He swallowed again, unaware of how big his eyes were, how panicked he looked. He only calmed when he heard soft laughter beneath him. He looked down, confused, to the big eyes looking up at him from his chest.

"What?" he asked, but he only received the shake of a head. Then Blue hair was pulling away, and his arms felt empty. His fingers were twitching, wanting to run through the blue hair once more. He smiled awkwardly, "Sorry..." he mumbled.

"It's alright, just wasn't expecting that is all," blue hair responded before turning towards the kitchen sink and filling another glass with water, "So, do you uh- do you work?" he asked as he turned and handed Anti a glass. He couldn't help but marvel at the clear, clean water. He even lifted the glass to the light so he could look through it, and it worked! Though the image on the other side was fairly warped.

He pulled it down at the chuckles on the other side of the room with a blush. He quickly drank the glass and set it down on the counter, "S-sorry," he said with a slight stutter, "I'm, uh, not used to clear water, heh,"

He flinched a little as blue hairs eyes widened, but froze completely when small arms were wrapped around his waist, head nuzzled into his chest, "I'm sorry," could be heard, muffled as it was, from his chest.

He shook his head, before remembering he couldn't be seen from his chest, and he sighed a little, "'What are yeh doin'?"

"I'm hugging you."

"...why?"

"Cause you looked like you needed one."

"And how did you come up with that theory?"

"Because you were standing there all cute and wide-eyed and innocent."

"...I what?"

Blue hairs face pulled back and he looked up with wide eyes. Both their faces were red, blue hairs from saying it and Anti's for being called cute.

"S-sorry, heh... I m-meant, uh..."

"You really think I'm cute?" Anti cut off his trailed off 'try to fix it' sentence with a soft voice. He knew the guy was really only calling his image 'cute', but it was close to his actual appearance... and a tingly warmth crawled through his abdomen as he thought about it. It wasn't bad though, it was... comforting, pleasant. Strange too, but not bad.

Blue hairs head nodded slowly, face as red as a firetruck, and he tried to pull away slowly. Anti blushed harder as well and he averted his gaze a bit. But as he did so, his arms, which had wrapped around blue hairs middle at some point, tightened and kept him from moving away.

"...I'm Ethan," blue hair said suddenly, breaking the silence that had consumed them. Anti's eyes trailed over to his face, surprised. Why is he telling me his name?, "Uh, sorry. I just... realized we hadn't introduced ourselves yet. A-and since I was thinking about inviting you to stay here till you could find a place of your own-"

"You want me to stay?!" Anti's eyes were wide as he looked down at the shorter man. He knew he needed to get going, that he did, in fact, have a home. And that Dark and the others would be expecting him back sooner or later... then again... they wouldn't be overly worried if I didn't show up for a few days...

"U-uh, well... yes? I mean, only if you want to, of course! I wouldn't force you to! B-but, well... you don't have a home, and I would enjoy the company. S-so it's a win-win... right?" 'Ethan' swallowed nervously and Anti nodded his head. It made sense...

He smiled and brought Ethan closer, hugging him in thanks. Then he pulled away and smiled wider.

"Why don't we get something to eat?" he asked, "I mean, your box looked pretty empty..." Ethan smiled at him as well. Anti found he enjoyed that smile, it was as bright as the sun, and it filled him with those strange happy butterflies.

"Yeah, just let me grab my keys and jacket and we'll head out," blue hair said with a nod. Then he disappeared from the room, only to return moments later with his jacket, dangling a set of keys off his finger, "Ready to go?"

Anti nodded his head and the two left the apartment. As they were walking, Anti couldn't help but look around. They'd been through here maybe an hour before, hour and a half at most, but at that point, he was very out of it. So now he was putting it all to memory, so he could find his way back alone if the need arose.

As they walked through an alley, Ethan had called it a shortcut, blue hair paused and looked at him with a confused smile.

"Hey, I told you my name. But I don't think you told me yours. And I don't just wanna be calling you 'green hair' and 'blue eyes' for the rest of our lives," Anti froze, not only because Ethan had said the rest of OUR LIVES, but for the fact that he asked for a name.

Anti's name was... well it wasn't normal. His birth 'name', S4-3N, left a sour taste in his mouth. He hadn't used that name since he was five, and he never wished to have it used again. Ever. And what he went by now, 'Anti'... it wasn't a very human sounding name.

He swallowed and shook his head, subtly clenching his fingers in a panic as he tried to come up with a name. Think Anti, think! Then he took a slow deep breath and smiled as he turned to face Ethan a little more. His voice was steady as he spoke.

"I'm Jack."