Lake lasted for ten minutes before he got bored and reached for his bag.
At first, he thought that the park being empty would be to his advantage but after spending some time here, he realized it meant there was nothing to distract him.
The sun’s rays were mild, generous trees providing coverage.
He wasn’t exactly the only one here, there was a lady wearing glasses a couple of benches away, and she had her head stuck in a book... Maybe he should pick up reading.
There was nothing wrong with eating right after getting to the park, that was the reason he went through the trouble of coming here anyway.
He could eat on the bench he was on, but he had carried a picnic blanket, and it would be a shame not to use it.
So Lake rose to his feet and walked off to find a perfect picnic spot.
The part of the park he had come to was somewhat circular, with a gently flowing fountain in the middle.
He could no longer see the lady who was reading, he had left her behind in that part of the park.
Lake found the perfect tree to have a picnic, it had the fountain in its line of sight but was far away to spare him the rushing noise.
He was all alone in the park but he didn’t mind, it would have been a tad awkward if he had to eat in the middle of a bustling park with everyone doing their own thing.
As soon as he laid out his food he could hear footsteps approaching.
Lake looked up in concern, thinking it was the reading lady, and was stunned to find a completely different person.
"Can I help you?" He asked in growing concern, sitting cross-legged on his patterned blanket.
The Alpha seemed to shake himself out of whatever trance he was in, "Sorry for startling you," He apologized, making no move to leave.
Lake didn’t respond, waiting for an answer to his question.
"I come to this park every day, and this is the first time I’ve seen a new face," The Alpha explained himself, crouching to bring them to eye level much to Lake’s disapproval.
"I see," He muttered, unenthused.
"I’m Clint, by the way, nice to meet you," The Alpha stuck out his hand.
Lake eyed the outstretched hand, looking him over. He tried to make himself smaller by crouching but it didn’t help much.
The Alpha was well built, with dark hair cut short, his pale blue eyes really kind.
So although his usual response would be to take off his neck tie and chase off the Alpha, he took his hand.
"Lake," He introduced.
"Are you new here?" Clint grinned, crouching like a toddler.
"You could say that," Lake shrugged, going right ahead to eat without caring for his audience.
"I live close by with mom who’s a little sick, so I come here often. The park is usually deserted though, save for Freida, who’s always busy reading..."
Lake had to take a deep breath for Clint because the Alpha spoke without taking a break.
"Here," He shoved a sandwich at him, hoping to shut the Alpha up with it.
Clint had a genuine smile on his face, wonder in those startling eyes. "Thanks. You’re really nice. Frieda just throws a book at me when I try to talk to her."
Lake could guess why... "Eat your sandwich," He told the Alpha.
He didn’t remember inviting him to take a seat though, but Clint went right ahead and got comfortable on the blanket beside him.
At that point, Lake resigned himself to having company for brunch. The only way to get rid of Clint would have been to throw fruit at him as soon as he approached.
"This is really good, could you teach me to make sandwiches ? I’m sure my mom would like them..."
Even a full mouth couldn’t stop the Alpha from talking, it made Lake stricter than he was.
"Don’t talk with your mouth full," He scolded before he could stop himself.
All Clint did was give him an eye smile and then proceeded to hum his words.
Lake gave up then, he wasn’t talking much so it didn’t hurt that Clint was doing the talking for them both.
He split his food with the Alpha who quickly got comfortable, munching as he spoke.
He talked about how he had been trying to get the park more popular, and tried to convince Lake to join him to clean the park on Sundays.
Lake thought that if the Alpha wanted to meet new people there were better places to do that, he was certain that there were other parks in the district which wasn’t a ghost town.
He didn’t say it though, listening to him ramble. He talked more about his mom and how he was taking care of her.
Clint didn’t expect a response so Lake didn’t give him one, listening to the Alpha talk.
Clint was mostly harmless, his only flaw was chatting off the ears of anyone he met.
It meant that Lake ended up staying longer at the park than he initially planned to.
It was well past noon and they had to move to a bench at a different part of the park because the sun had gotten to them under the tree they previously sat.
The only upside to having Clint cling to him the entire time was that the Alpha had gratefully scarfed down all of the muffins, it had Lake worrying that he didn’t get enough to eat.
Getting a call from Caspian interrupted the umpteenth story Clint had been telling him, completely unprompted.
"I’m sorry, I have to take this," He rose to his feet, walking a short distance away.
"Hey," Caspian greeted as soon as he picked.
"You sound awful, what happened?" He immediately demanded, worried.
"We took a break so we could stretch out our legs," Caspian informed him, "Nothing happened, what you can hear in my voice is my upset that I have to go back there."