#alnitak
People wanted In Transit fanfiction…well this is what you get. I will apologise in advance if characterisation is a big off, I’ve got covid and wanted to write anyways haha. But if you guys want more of this kind of thing, I’ve got at least 2 more ideas for Cairo and Alnitak, and I’m willing to take requests!
Cairo knocked on the door rapidly with his prosthetic arm, carefully transferring his right arm to be balanced on the prosthetic as he winced at the burn on his hand, doing his best to ignore the pain, convincing himself that he’d had worse, his prosthetic proved that. Alnitak opened the door, using his free hand to brush his hair back as he did, his expression becoming more tense as he locked eyes with Cairo.
“Cairo, I’m working, you can’t just visit me out of nowhere when I’m on shift,” Al said hurriedly, stress visibly lacing his features.
“Not sure I’d call this out of nowhere Al,” he joked slightly, showing Alnitak his right hand with a slight grimace. Al looked at his hand and sighed softly
“Another locked door?” He asked, as Cairo shrugged in response, a small smile on his face “I suppose you’d better come in then.”
Cairo walked into the doctor’s office, a wave of relief washing over him knowing he could finally see Al, it may have been a little drastic, but Alnitak had been avoiding him all week, and he was running out of options that didn’t involve him landing himself in hospital.
“Sit down here and let me take a look at your hand” Al said, attempting to seem indifferent to the whole situation, with his less than confident tone of voice betraying him.
Cairo sat down on the bed and put out his hand for Al, who carefully took it and began examining the burn, a silence settling on the room as he did so.
“Al, can we talk?” Cairo began before Al turned away from him, walking across the room and grabbing bandages, gently wrapping Cairo’s hand as Cairo continued to gingerly hold his hand out.
“Al, can we-”
“What made you try a locked door again?” Alnitak asked hurriedly, cutting Cairo off from finishing his question.
“I dunno” Cairo started “You know me, I’m impulsive”
“Not without reason.” Alnitak shot back, “after everything that’s happened I couldn’t see you risking something so stupid, when that’s a surefire way to caught,” he continued “and you must’ve removed your prosthetic beforehand, otherwise you’d be in a lot worse shape than this. So you had time to think about what you were doing before it happened, and yet you still tried to open a door you have no access to. What’s Faraday doing now that’s so important you’d risk that again?”
“I wanted to see you,” Cairo suddenly said, as Alnitak finished bandaging his hand.
“What?”
“I wanted to see you,” he reiterated. “I haven’t seen you all week.”
“Why didn’t you just call me?”
“I did. Five times,” Cairo shot back
“Sorry,” Al began, looking down, “I’ve been busy with work.”
“Bullshit.”
“What?”
“That’s fucking bullshit Al,” Cairo continued “You’ve been avoiding me.”
“I’m not avoiding you, I’m literally at work now.”
“You’re not even supposed to be on shift today.” Al paused slightly in response, not knowing what to say.
“Cairo I-”
“Half an hour” he said, cutting him off, “give me half an hour, and I promise it’ll be worth it.”
Al looked at Cairo, and sighed, his gaze softening as he gave in, “Fine, half an hour, but no more.”
Cairo immediately perked up in response to this.
“Ok great! Follow me” Cairo said, shooting up from the bed and smiling at Al as he led him out the room, using his injured hand to drag Alnitak with him, ignoring the pain.
Before Al knew it, he and Cairo were getting off a train and he was being walked through the red, Cairo taking him through the crowded corridors like it was second nature.
“Cairo where are we going?” Al asked for what was at least the third time during the trip.
“Hang on, we’re almost there,” Cairo responded, turning a final corner and leading Al into the room he had been enraptured with on first sight.
The vines across the walls and dangling from the ceiling brushed next to their faces as Cairo led Al to the corner of the room, sitting them down in a patch clear of plant life so they could see the whole display. Al looked in wonder at the different flowers in the room, the white, pink, and purple hyacinths running around the edge of the room, as clusters of Orchids, yellow Freesia Double Soleil, and Bellflowers filled the rest of the space. Al ran his fingers gently through the fronds of the ferns behind him and let out a shaky breath, finally letting himself relax slightly.
“I remembered you liked this place,” Cairo said softly, smiling at Alnitak, glad to see him less stressed, even if just for a moment.
“Yeah,” Al responded simply, letting the room wash over him as he took in all the details of the plants, his eyes scanning over them quickly as a comfortable silence washed over the pair.
“Hey Al,” Cairo began, breaking the silence as Alnitak looked over at him “I’m really sorry for whatever I did when we went to the club,”
“You didn’t do anything.” Alnitak went to interject.
“But I did, and you might not want to say what it was, but,” Cairo paused slightly, debating his word choice, “you’ve been distant since then, and I do stupid things while I’m drunk, and I don’t remember much, but I do remember wanting you to have fun, and I know that I did something wrong, so don’t try to deny it Al.”
“It wasn’t what you did.” Al responded, his breathing shaky as he tried to keep his composure “It was the realisation as a result of what you did.”
Cairo looked at him softly, giving him a small, reassuring smile
“Do you wanna talk about it? “I’m all ears.” Cairo told him gently, “Well, a higher percentage of ears than most,” he tried to joke, lifting his prosthetic slightly.
“That’s the thing. I can’t” Al said, his voice wavering as tears began to fill his eyes “I can’t tell you because I can’t even admit it to myself, and I know you’d be fine with it, but if I say it then it’s real, and then I have to deal with it, and then other people have to deal with it, and I don’t think I’m ready for that.”
“Sounds like you’ve already admitted it to yourself but don’t want to accept it,” Cairo pointed out.
“Come on, it can’t be that bad,” he said as Alnitak looked away from him. “It can’t be as bad as burning your hand on a locked door as an excuse to see the guy that you li-”
“I’m gay Cairo,” Al interrupted, tears streaming down his face as he finally said the words that he’d been holding back from saying for so long.
Now it was real.
“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that” Cairo responded softly, his tone more hushed as he began to brush the tears from Alnitak’s face “I’m gay too, and you’ve been fine with that,”
“But it’s fine when it’s you,” he cut in, attempting to stop the flow of tears he’d been holding back from so long. “My dad wants grandchildren, and I can’t give him that, can I?”
“Al” Cairo said gently before Alnitak continued.
“I used to think that I just didn’t like people, that I would just settle down with the first woman who decided they wanted me, have children, and live my life comfortably, even if I didn’t love them romantically, and I was fine with that.” He paused slightly, taking a shaky breath, “and then you came along. You, and your gang of friends suddenly needed a doctor, and it was fine at first. At first, all you needed was someone to take care of your friend and fix your hand, no emotional attachments. But they happened anyway, and we got closer, and I started to care about you in a way that was different. And at first, I thought that it was because I hadn’t had many friends before, that we were just closer than I had got to anyone before, until I realised it was more than that. I wanted to know everything about you, and I still do. I wanted to listen to you talk about the things you care about, even if I hated them. I told you I hated space, but when I realised how much you loved it I couldn’t help but ask more question just to see your dumb smile, as you got to talk about it. And then I realised that it was more than wanting to be close friends. I wanted to be with you all the time, and hold your hand, and do things I shouldn’t do, because that wouldn’t be right, and you wouldn’t like me back, so I tried to stop. But clearly that didn’t do anything, because I still have these stupid feelings for you and they won’t go away, I’m still broken.” He finished shakily.
“Who said I wouldn’t like you back?” Cairo asked, looking softly at Al, his eyebrows furrowed slightly.
“No one, but it’s obvious you wouldn’t be interested in me, so why would it matter.”
“Are you kidding?” Cairo said incredulously. “First off, you’re not broken Al, you’re one of the smartest and most amazing people I have ever met, and you’re not allowed to deny that.” Cairo continued, anticipating a rebuttal “whatever you’ve been told, and whoever told you that, they’re wrong. You need to do what you feel is right, not what some snobby rich arsehole tells you just because they think they’re entitled to your life. They’re not.” He told Al bluntly, leaving no room for disagreement. “And another thing, I’ve had Sawyer teasing me for weeks about liking you, he said something about fucking ‘heart eyes’ or something. I’ve been flirting with you for weeks now, don’t tell me you haven’t noticed?”
“You’re not like that with everyone?”
“Fuck no,” Cairo responded, laughing slightly “and I meant what I said before.”
“What thing that you said before?”
“About Alnitak being one of the hottest stars in the universe,” Cairo told him, a slight flirty tone lacing his voice as Alnitak gave a small smile, his face now fully devoid of tears.
“Yeah, I know, It’s about 29,000 Kelvin, I looked it up once I got off the train line.”
“No Al,” Cairo began, trying not to laugh at how dense Alnitak was being. “I meant that about you.”
“Oh” Alnitak responded quietly, his face burning bright red as he turned away, trying to hide his blush. “Well, um uh, um, you’re not bad yourself?” Alnitak responded, his voice cracking as he grew more flustered, unsure of what to say. Cairo slung an arm around his shoulder and laughed slightly.
“Not bad?” He questioned teasingly “I’ll have you know I am very attractive.” Cairo said, smirking.
“I’m not going to disagree with that” Al said, his voice still shaky from being flustered as he looked up at Cairo “So, what does this mean for um, us?” Alnitak continued, clearly not sure of where to go from there.
“Well you still haven’t said you like me” Cairo teased, making Al push him lightly in response.
“Of course I like you, you idiot” He responded quietly, looking down.
“Well then, we take thing as they come, and take things as slow as you need,” Cairo told Al reassuringly, “and if I ever doing anything too far, or act like a fucking idiot, you need to tell me yeah?”
“Ok,” Al agreed, letting out a sigh of relief.
“Sooooo,” Cairo started, “can I call you my boyfriend?”
“Yes, you can call me your boyfriend” Al responded with a small laugh, a wide smile across his features as he rested his head on Cairo’s shoulder, taking in the room around him, and for the first time in a long time, allowed himself to be comfortable and relaxed, feeling safe in Cairo’s embrace.
Bonus:
Alnitak: How exactly are we going to tell everyone
Cairo: Don’t worry about that, I’ve got it covered
*with people*
Cairo: Hey guys, we’ve got something to tell you
*Kisses Al*
Ziggy: Oh you’ve got to be fucking kiding me
Sawyer: (smugly) I told you! 50 credits please
Ziggy: Yeah yeah, transferring them now
Guess who has almost finished the initially planned in transit fanfiction…and maybe I had two more ideas along the way for others (one of which happens to be based on one of the two new episode titles)
