Archive of Our Own ^beta

When Shaima Gandezi looked in the mirror, he didn’t see anything special. He saw the way his eyes were just too big for his liking, or the way his nose was slightly bent to the right from one of the times Joel had gotten pissed at him. Shaima saw the small scar above his eye from where a piece of tarmac had lodged itself in his brow when he made violent contact with the ground. He still couldn’t look at Honda Civics without his brain briefly short circuiting.

He had gotten far in life. He was twenty-two years old, with way too much life experience under his belt than was preferable. The ever lengthening list of experiences was almost amusing at this point. Lana, car, wife, Lana again, Joel, what was next? He chuckled to himself. Who knew? If the universe was going to hate him and give him a hard time rather than just letting him live, he’d take its efforts and stomp them into the ground with a cackle like some sort of cartoon bully.

Brushing his hair out of his eyes, he straightened his tie again. 13 year old timid Shaima who couldn’t even say his own name without sweating would have fainted if he saw what his life was going to become. 16 year old couldn’t-give-two-fucks Shaima who’d just had his life thrown into a garbage bin would have probably been quite surprised that he’d even lived to 22 for various not-too-unrelated reasons. 22 year old police officer Shaima with a steady job, income and a wife was still surprised he’d got this far. 

So, when Shaima Gandezi blinked, what he saw in the mirror was the eyes-too-big and crooked-nosed kid who’d managed to succeed in life by some miracle. And that made him smile.