TW: None?

 "Xephos!" Sjin knocked again, more insistently this time.

Still, the wooden door didn't budge. Sjin could hear music coming from inside, but there was no sound in response to his call. He yelled again, but the music got louder as if to cover it.

With a sigh, the man turned away from the house and began to make his way down the concrete stairs, heading towards the road. He stuck his hands in his pockets, his blue eyes fixed on his shoes.

"Sjin!" The door he'd just left behind was flung open, slamming into the fake white plaster walls. Sjin turned to see Xephos standing there, out of breath and his face lightly flushed red.

"Sorry," he explained. "I thought you were Ridge."

Sjin held up one hand. "Say no more," he told Xephos with a grin. "I get it."

The smile momentarily disappeared from Xephos' face as his thoughts flashed back to Ridge. Sjin couldn't help the irrational jealousy that stabbed through him - Ridge and Xephos had been together a long time, and Xephos still seemed a little fragile from it.

Xephos smiled again, though it seemed a little forced. He gestured for Sjin to follow him inside before sprinting away to turn the music down.

Sjin trailed him into what Xephos called his "studio." It was really just a small room with wall to wall windows overlooking a the river, and the city beyond.

"I really do love this view," the architect murmured, placing his hands on the long table that stretched across the entire room.

Xephos grinned as he sat down in the chair to Sjin's right. "You always say that," he said teasingly, laughing when Sjin pouted at him.

"Well, it's true," he protested, unable to stop his lips from curling upwards.

Xephos sighed as he glanced over at the river, frowning when he noticed the clouds overhead. "That'll ruin my lighting," he muttered irritably, glancing down at the half finished landscape he'd been working on.

"No, it won't," Sjin told him, leaning over to peer at the painting. "You just have to change this and this a little." He gestured to a couple of areas on the paint that seemed off-colored.

Xephos tilted his head, studying the places the architect had motioned to. "Yeah, that might work," he agreed, but rose from his chair instead of picking up his brush.

He grabbed Sjin's hand as he passed the man and dragged him along behind, heading for the door.

"W-Whoa, Xephos, weren't you just painting..?" Sjin managed, trying not to blush from the contact.
"You're here," Xephos said simply. "It must be boring to watch someone paint for hours."

"No," Sjin protested. "I like watching you paint."

Xephos threw himself down onto the couch, making a face at the architect standing there. "Yeah, sure," he said. "You're just being polite."

"No, really." Sjin gave him a small, shy smile. "You look so focused it's calming."

Xephos chuckled sheepishly. "Well, friend, if you really don't mind..."

Sjin just laughed as the artist pulled himself off of the couch and headed for the studio without hesitation. He followed the blue-eyed man into the small room.

Settling himself on the stool that Xephos had gotten just because he said he felt bad for making Sjin stand around, the architect leaned over and watched as skillful hands began to continue the painting they had halted on previously.

Absently, Sjin let his hand slip into Xephos'. Xephos gently squeezed his fingers, smiling through his concentrated art face.

It was a landscape painting of the view. This was actually Xephos' third apartment this year; he changed often, so his paintings were never the same. Sjin told him he could paint the same scene a thousand times and it would always be different, but the stubborn artist refused to agree.

When the sun finally started to set, Xephos put down his brushes and disentangled his hand from Sjin's. He gently covered the wet painting with a special cloth, and put his paints away. He began to tidy up the room as Sjin sat there, waiting patiently.

When Xephos was done, he turned to Sjin, a question forming on his lips. "Why did you even stop by?" He asked, but grinned teasingly, and added, "What's your excuse this time?"

Sjin picked up the long-forgotten plastic bag by his feet, handing it to Xephos with a smile. "I picked up the new paints you ordered."

Xephos accepted the bag, surprise flitting across his face. He peered inside, checking that these were, in fact, the acrylic paints he'd ordered a week and a half ago.

"Ah, well, thanks," he mumbled.

"So, uh, yeah." Sjin chuckled sheepishly. "I guess I'll go, then."

Xephos frowned slightly. "It's so annoying that this place doesn't have a guest room," he muttered, more to himself than to the architect standing before him.

He seemed to perk up, and glanced at Sjin. "You could always sleep on the couch," he offered shyly.
Sjin grinned. "Could I? I've only done it every time I come over."

"Oh, shut up," Xephos responded with a laugh.

So, Sjin ended up crashing on Xephos' couch - like the day before yesterday, and three days before that. In fact, he really had slept over every time he'd been to Xephos' apartment.

Just as the architect began to fall asleep, he heard someone moving around in the living room.

"Xephos?" He mumbled sleepily, trying to lift his head and look at the person quietly slipping past.
A quiet sigh broke the silence, and soft footsteps headed towards Sjin, who didn't bother to pry his leaden eyelids open. Soft lips were pressed briefly against his forehead, and then the footsteps retreated. Sjin waited, but fell asleep when he realized Xephos had gone.

The next morning, Sjin sat up blurrily, running one hand through his tousled brown hair. Instantaneously, he glanced at his reflection in the TV screen and smoothed his hair down into its usual style.

When he rose, he padded softly to Xephos' bedroom, peering in after a moment's hesitation. The bed was unmade but also hadn't been slept in. Sjin briefly wondered where Xephos was, but decided he'd turn up eventually.

Heading back into the living room, he noticed the studio door was open. He could've sworn that Xephos closed it last night.

Sjin went to close it, but the person slumped on the table stopped him in his tracks. He crept in silently, watching the rhythmic rise and fall of Xephos' chest.

On the table to the left of the artist, there was the picture he'd spent hours finishing yesterday. Xephos had added something; there were two people holding hands. He'd done it so that the hands seemed the focus of the image - of the actual people, Sjin could only see the upper part of their legs on either edge of the picture, and half of their arms.

Sjin noted silently that the person on the right was most likely Xephos - the pants were the ones the artist was currently wearing, and his hands were callused and rough.

The other person wore baggy jeans and their skin was tanner. Their hands were smoother, but still a little rough from whatever work they'd been doing.

Sjin held up one of his own hands, then compared it to Xephos'. They were softer than the artist's, but still not as soft as they'd been before Sjin went into architecture. Sjin glanced down at his pants; he was wearing baggy jeans, like he so often did.

Sjin glanced at the picture again, and smiled. Trust Xephos to do something like that overnight.  

Credit to britishparty on tumblr