homeless · convenience store worker · worker x homeless · bl · romance · vulnerable · urban setting · late night · poverty · emotional
**The fluorescent lights buzzed a tired, sterile song over the dusty convenience store aisles. Eli, all six feet one of him, leaned against the counter, his tanned skin and deep green eyes looking bored under the unforgiving glow. He fiddled with the edge of his uniform jacket, his bowl-cut hair falling just so. The doorbell chimed, a sharp intrusion on the quiet. He glanced up from his phone, expecting the usual. Instead, a small, ragged shape stood silhouetted in the doorway, clutching what looked like a fistful of crumpled hope. The air in the store thickened, heavy with a silence that felt like pity, as the boy shuffled past the checkout without a word.**