Aiden’s ordinary life was, well, ordinary. He typically got up right around lunchtime with barely enough time to shower and shovel down some ramen—or a sandwich if he was running extra late—and headed to his afternoon classes. Once he was freed from the confines of education, he’d head to the convenience store located on the first floor of the apartment building he called home and would clock in for a shift. His weekends were spent at the library studying or diving deep into a drawing session for his animation final. Brace on his hand, stylus between his fingers and whatever seasonal flavor of his favorite energy drink he could find at the ready. Thankfully, he was making decent progress on his short film, but it was exhausting.

His life was a perfectly scheduled cycle of tasks and to-do’s. It was mundane, typical, and calculated. He never deviated from his calendar, and all of his friends (the three that he had, anyway) told him he was boring.

Aiden Bowie was boring. Not that he had much interest in going to concerts or movies. He rarely allowed himself the luxury of visiting the art museum in the next town over to enjoy an afternoon of relaxation. His excess cash was spent on manga and webcomics—and the occasional cozy video game when one went on sale—and he couldn’t really indulge in much R&R with his own self-imposed deadlines. No one told him he had to also start a massively detailed webcomic series that became fairly well-liked over the years. That was his own fault, but it was all he could ever really think about. Animation was something he loved doing, and he didn’t regret his choice when it came to his degree, but the space opera webcomic he started in his freshman year had become his passion. It took on a life of its own, and his degree had helped with the social media aspect, but it meant every spare second had to be focused on his tablet.

Maybe he was boring, and his friends were right. But what could he do?

As he sat on the stool behind the convenience store checkout counter, watching chatty classmates and bumbling businessmen trying to get something to eat before going off to do whatever it was they had next on their schedules, all he could think about was Damianos, the stupidly hot buff demon-like alien king that had become the fan-favorite character of his comic. Go figure, the hot goth with a prehensile tail and curled horns was the one everyone loved.

The hero, a shameless self insert named Eiden, had been doing the typical hero’s journey thing for a long while now, and he missed drawing the steely-eyed monster that had won not only the hearts of his fans, but his own.

It was a necessary part of the story but man he missed drawing sexy demon-alien-thingies. One more chapter and the story would start to turn back toward the fun stuff. If he could just survive this shift he had a long weekend ahead of him to spend rotting away at his desk drawing. Maybe he’d do a spin-off comic for his paying subscribers, a doujin about the hero and the villain in an AU story in a college setting, where Eiden could be more like him—but less boring—and Damianos could be a handsome emo art student. Live out his fantasies that overwhelmed his socially withdrawn and hopeless romantic mind.

Who was he kidding? He hardly had time for the current mess of stuff he’d already piled on, let alone another story. Still, a guy could dream. It had been a while since he’d been on a date, and the well-off town he called home wasn’t really the vibe for anyone outside of tech nerds and moody artists.

As he reached for his energy drink the bell above the door chimed. He lifted his blue eyes up from his phone with a gacha game open on its screen to address the guest in case it was someone coming to pick up a mobile order he’d neglected to prepare. For a second, the setting sun clipped the beveled frames of his glasses and he wasn’t able to focus. His mouth gaped open when he saw a man approach the counter.

Tall, dark, mysterious, and goth as hell, the customer was someone Aiden had never seen before. In a college town like this, even with as fancy as the neighborhood was, new faces were a rarity mid-semester. Shaggy pink hair with black tips, eyes a shade of brown that almost looked red in the sunlight, so many piercings, a black leather jacket over a white t-shirt and ripped up black jeans. Yeah, Aiden would have remembered him.

“Hi, question, phone chargers,” the man said with the thickest English accent Aiden had ever heard outside of a cinema.

“That… wasn’t a question,” Aiden mumbled.

“Oh, right, sorry! Do you have phone chargers, and if so, where would they be? I just got in and realized I forgot mine, no brain cells,” the stranger said with a playful wink.

“Yeah, far wall by the magazines, next to the pharmacy stuff.”

“Thanks, mate.”

Aiden’s cheeks grew so hot as he watched the man walk away. He rubbed the back of his neck and clicked the button on the side of his phone to dim the screen, embarrassed that he’d left his obviously NSFW gacha game with scantily-clad men up for anyone to see. He brushed back his wavy brown hair and turned to look at himself in the small mirror that was used to check corners above him and man he looked like a mess. He’d forgotten his earrings, his hoodie was too big and looked misshapen with the convenience store vest over his body, he’d forgotten his name tag and… wait, was his hoodie on inside out? Great.

He quickly pulled his vest and hoodie off, thankful he’d put on a t-shirt underneath, and flipped it inside out. Had he gone to school like this? Or did he put it wrong when he left class? Why hadn’t his friends said anything? Maybe he was overthinking it.

“Nice ink,” the stranger said as he walked back to the counter, obviously eying the admittedly cliched watercolor koi fish Aiden had tattooed on his arm. What could he say? He liked the vibe.

“T-thanks, a friend of mine does watercolor work,” Aiden said with a blush on his cheeks. He quickly slipped his hoodie back on and took the outstretched charger and the energy drink can from the customer. “This is my favorite flavor.”

“It’s not my usual thing but I need something to keep me awake, and it smelled good,” he said as he pointed to Aiden’s own half-empty can. He ran his card and grabbed his purchases. “Thanks, mate. Catch you around!”

Aiden watched with confusion as the tall, happy-go-lucky goth exited the convenience store. He really, really, really hoped he would see him around. He didn’t even catch his name, but it was the most exciting thing that had happened to him in recent memory.

The exhausted convenience store clerk didn’t have much time to think about it, though, as a wave of college students came barreling in the door, and he had to quickly put the handsome stranger out of his mind.