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"Hey my mom asked to get bird seed," Giullian declares, as they approach a pet shop one afternoon after school.
Will just nods their head.
“Sure,” Timothée agrees, fiddling with their backpack’s straps, it's always fun to look at the different animals and imagining what it would be like to have one at home.
As the teenagers enter the cramped store a tall blonde man who's retrieving a cat carrier from a high shelf catches Timothée’s eyes. They feel their cheeks flush and quickly make their way down an aisle. Meandering along the fishes, birds then rodents.
“Can I help?” the tall blonde asks.
“Umm,” Timothée tries to answer, blushes, looks to the shelf and pulls a bunny harness off the peg, “just this?”
Armand, as the white plastic name tag says, smiles.
"Oh, I prefer Armie," acknowledges the man, Armie, after they both have been in a short staring trance.
"Timothée," the dark head provides, extending their right hand.
"Timo- wait wha-"
"Armand!" someone shouts from the other side of the store.
"I have to tend to that. I'll see you around, yeah?" Armie apologises, walking backwards and looks over his shoulder one last time before rounding the corner. Timothée smiles and nods their head in agreement.
“I didn't know that you had a bunny,” Will jokes from behind Timothée.
“I don't,” Timothée asserts, face starting to turn red with a flush again whilst returning the blue harness to the shelf, “did Giullian get the bird seed they needed? Let's go,”
Timothée has been visiting the pet shop at least once a week, went to the coffee shop opposite to ‘people watch’ one specific person at least twice a week whenever they had free time and has changed the walk from school to home to stroll past the store everyday just in case that they can possibly see a glimpse of the tall blonde.
Today is a coffee shop day and Timothée settles into their usual spot with their usual bagel order.
“Hey, can I sit here?” someone questions next to Timothée, pulling the chair slightly out.
“Uh, yeah,” Timothée nods, gathering their things closer to themselves then peaks a look at the stranger at the same time as the stranger. It's Armie.
“Wait, aren't you the guy that has a bunny, fish, a cat, a hamster and a parrot,“ Armie says, counting the pets on his hand, “how do you live, Tim!?”
“Uh, I don't actually have any pets,” Timothée admits, a finger gliding over an indent on the high wooden countertop.
“Then why are you at the store almost every week?”
Timothée takes in Armie’s blue eyes, the blonde peeking through when their hair gets hit by the sun in a specific way, the way their canines reveal themselves every now and then and asks, “Do you really want to know?”
“Yes,” Armie says, lips parting in a smile.
“I like you,”
“And I like you too,”
They talk for a while about anything and everything.
Armie glances at his watch, “Oh, shit! I need to get going. I'll see you around,”
“Yeah. Definitely. Yeah,” Timothée gets out of his seat as well. There's a moment where they both want to do something but don't know what. They both just end up staring, nodding and then Armie is leaving.
On their now weekly visit to the pet shop Timothée watches as Armie is busy cleaning tanks, asking and answering questions. When they see the small shelled reptile, it's love at first sight.
Walking right up to the terrarium, they almost have their face against the glass enclosure before the familiar blonde is by their side again.
"Ertle the Turtle," states Timothée.
"Actually I believe it's a terrapin because it doesn't have flippers," Armie corrects, bending down to the same level as Timothée.
"It's staying Ertle,"
"And then there's also regional differences," Armie says, looking at Timothée looking into the false environment.
“Is it possible to do lay-by?” Timothée queries after checking the price at the corner of the tank.
“Uhm,” Armie tries to remember if their manager said anything about that during training but comes up blank, “actually I don't know but I can find out for you,”
“That would be— or could you keep Ertle until I have enough money?"
“Maybe bring a parent around and then we can arrange something, yeah?” Armie says.
“Yeah,” Timothée nods his head, feeling chastised and goes back to observing the shelled animal, “yeah, I'll bring someone soon,”
Several months later
After psyching himself up for a minute Armie finally knocks on the door.
“You must be Armie, come in,” A women says, opening the door wider for Armie to come in and showing Armie to the living room, "Timothée should be here soon,”
“I’m Nicole, can I get you anything to drink? Tea? Coffee?”
“Um,” Armie swallows nervously, settling on the edge of a couch’s cushion, ”water?”
“Coming right up,” Nicole says and disappears into the kitchen.
“Thank you,” Armie says, seeing the glass case next to the couch for the first time and Marc sitting by the dining table, “ good evening sir,”
“Evening Armie,” Marc greets, closing his laptop and gathering his papers into one pile to observe the man that's taking his son out on a date.
"Hey, Ertle," Armie says, peering into the expanded environment, Ertle peeking their head up at the visitor.
"I still don't know how Tim convinced us to get the little guy," Marc says, after giving Armie a once over.
Nicole enters with the glass, “Here's your water,”
"Thanks,” Armie says, taking the glass and a gulp.
“Do you want to hold Ertle?'' comes the question from the other side of the small dining table.
Armie looks up, Timothée is dressed in a button down shirt with jeans and sneakers with his curls neatly parted to the left.
“Um," Armie, spots the time on the clock behind Timothée, "actually the movie starts in twenty minutes, that's if you still want to go.”
"Oh, yeah," Timothée smiles, nods his head, "Yeah, I still want to go,"