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Nick stole a box of Cap'n Crunch from a grocery store.

He was sitting on a bench in a park several miles from the store, eating the cereal, studying each piece and savoring the flavor, letting them melt rather than chewing them. It would make them last longer, give him the illusion of being full quicker.

A woman walked by and glanced at him, then did a double take, and slowed for an infinitesimal moment to once-over his clothing... then she moved on quickly. A couple with a baby walked by. The husband saw the woman glance Nick's way, saw her eyes once-over him, and wrapped his arm protectively around her shoulders.

These reactions were different than those he'd received before the shower, before he'd unearthed his face from all that damn hair.

How pathetic, he thought. I'm the same as I was yesterday. But today, they aren't judging me.

Mally had tried to make him stay overnight, but he'd refused. She'd begged him. He'd laid down on the couch, she'd gotten a pillow and blankets and left a cup of water out for him, and gone to bed herself. He got up and left.

He didn't want to become a burden to anyone.

Especially not to the pretty, generous stranger.

He'd ended up sleeping between two dumpsters on an alley behind the grocery store he stole the cereal from, tucked under his blanket.

This park was a favorite place of his to go. He haunted it because it gave him a chance to see AJ. Every morning at 9:15, AJ went for a jog on a path that took him right through this park, right past the bench that Nick had selected to eat his Cap'n Crunch cereal on.

When he first discovered this fact, it'd been completely an accident. Obviously, being in Los Angeles, he knew there would be a possibility of AJ seeing him, of seeing AJ, of bumping into one another. But he'd masterfully avoided most of AJ's haunts, kept away from the places that were most likely to make their paths cross.

He'd been in the park for the pond. Watching ducks swim had always been a soothing activity for him. He'd gone many times to watch the ducks when he was a child, and somehow never grew out of throwing bits of bread crusts to over excited water fowl. He was sitting on that bench, watching the ducks in the pond across the way, when a flash of red and grey fabric and tattooed arms passed in front of him. He'd looked up and seen what he thought was an illusion - AJ, jogging, his iPod headphones lodged carefully in his ears.

The next day, when he returned to see if he could spot AJ again, he'd been rewarded for his patience in staring down the path because AJ spotted him. By this time, Nick's Hagrid look had already settled into place, his beard and long hair obscuring his face. AJ hadn't even recognized him. He'd glanced at him, then looked away, a freaked out expression on his face.

The fifth time Nick and AJ crossed paths this way, Nick grunted a 'hey' as AJ went by, and AJ sped up.

That was the closest to conversation they'd ever come.

Nick rarely sat on the bench in fear that AJ would notice he was always there and decide to strike up a conversation. Usually he sat on the grass or behind a bush to watch as AJ jogged by the spot so that AJ wouldn't catch on that he was watching him.

Nick liked the days when AJ was humming or even singing quietly along with the music on his iPod. Those were the days when AJ was happy, and Nick felt happier the rest of the day afterwards. There were more days, though, that AJ only half heartedly ran by, his eyes stony and unfocused. Sometimes, he ran without an iPod, muttering to himself, snatches of which Nick never quite caught.

It was just good to know that his brother was still alive, still breathing.

Tossing a handful of cereal into his mouth, Nick glanced at the time piece that stood a few feet away from the bench, a fixture of the park. It was 9:15. Any second now and AJ would go by.

Nick was scared. Part of him wanted AJ to recognize him. Part of him did not. The part that did knew that the part that didn't would be just as hurt as the part that did would be if he didn't, though. Nick rolled the bag closed inside his Cap'n Crunch box and put the box down at his feet, next to his bag and rolled up blanket.

AJ came running around the corner, his iPod absent, his eyes unfocused. He was puffing, mouth moving as he talked to himself. Nick watched as he approached and saw - clearly saw - AJ's eyes wander to Nick's.

For the briefest of seconds, AJ slowed. Nick's heart slammed in his chest. But then AJ's eyes turned away... and he kept running.

Nick turned on the bench to watch as AJ's back grew smaller, fading away down the path and finally turning to the left.

He let out a shaky breath and leaped to his feet, vowing to never come back to the park... ever again.



AJ got around the corner and stopped, his heart racing - from both the run and what he'd just seen. He doubled over, his hands open-palmed on his knees, gasping for air. A ghost, AJ convinced himself, It was a fucking ghost.

He had to know it was a ghost, though.

And if it was him, he had to change things.

AJ stood up right and turned around, moving back the way he'd come at a walk. When he got to the path he'd just left, he looked back at the bench.

Nobody was there.

Just a ghost.