Well, at the challenge of a friend of mine who calls himself a paradigm and my own interest, I have decided to write a story with yaoi themes to it taking front and center. I had some enjoyment expanding my comfort zones when it comes to writing and I hope it paid off. Please enjoy!
Ike reached into his pocket again and looked at the pocket watch. He ticked his tongue with a shake of his head. It was going to be another five minutes before he could officially call Robin late. He walked back and forth outside in the pouring rain with his midnight blue suit being kept dry by an oil-paper umbrella depicting a tsunami roaring over the coast.
His leather shoes kicked up small puddles of the late evening rain, waiting for his friend to arrive. It was not like Robin to be keeping him this late, but he did have to consider the schedules of a theater producer. With their latest play being a western adaptation of a traditional Japanese kabuki, the hours of meeting and organizations were to be tough for him. Financial backers, acting agents, professors in the field of theater, and the union leaders for the various groups in production would be wanting to talk to him without end.
A slick silver car cut through the heaven fell water and rolled up to the cub not far from where Ike was standing. The driver changed the gear to park and the door opened with a factory new smell seemingly drifting from the interior. A well-built, white trimmed bangs and finely dressed individual stepped out of the driver side and tossed the keys to the waiting car boy. In the many years since he had last seen him, Robin had grown from a bookish introverted child to a fine young man.
Robin made his way through the rain, and embraced Ike under the paper umbrella. "Ike! It is so good to see you again." The arms clasped around his well-muscled abdomen and Robin's lithe hands pressed firmly into Ike's back
Ike returned the hug of his old friend with one arm while he awkwardly held the umbrella over them. "It is good to see you too. How long has it been? Five, six years?" The bluenet released from the embrace and the two started to walk into the restaurant, the lit words Suz'ana flashed a florescent white over the rippling puddles. Once they were under the canvas canopy of the entrance, Robin shook his white locks of hair like a bemused dog and chuckled as Ike tried to shield himself from the sudden burst.
"Indeed, far too long for my liking. I think the last time we saw each other was at my twin sister's piano recital back in '10, so I think it has been six years." Robin replied as Ike walked through the door, closing the umbrella as he did so. The host, a very athletic woman with a long dark blue ponytail in a white buttoned shirt and simple turquoise tie with the small name clip reading Lucina, smiled and directed them to their table. It was one in the corner, aged white oak chairs and table covered with a simple black lace tablecloth and a single lit candle awaited them. On the table was polished silverware on white satin napkins and gold laced platters with diamond cut wine glasses.
Ike pulled a chair out for Robin, who took his seat with a smile and a hint of rose on his pale cheek. Ike sat down as well and the two were given their menus. "Is there anything I can get for you from the bar or wine cellar?" Lucina asked them as the two got comfortable in their seats. Her voice held a delicate tone but there was enough verbal growl to make it very arousing to Ike. Though he loved the features of hair, face, and eyes… the voice is what really drew him to someone.
"A pinot noir. Light red, sweet, and at least five years old on a wet year. I believe my friend here will be going with his classical green plum chardonnay." Robin replied before Ike could so much as open his mouth. So long since they last saw each other and his friend knew his preference by heart. "Two scotches on the rocks and two glasses of filtered water."
Lucina smiled and left the two men alone to look over their menus. "How come it seems that people remember me most by what I drink rather than who I am?" Ike asked his friend in a joking manner.
Robin chuckled as he glanced over the menu. "My friend, with that body I am surprised even I remember what you drink from time to time." Ike responded with a chuckle of his own. He looked over to the man who was such a shy ghost in the time since college, whose smile was rare but seemingly the most perfect thing in the world…
Ike arched his brows as he looked back down at his menu, mentally scratching his mind why he thought that. Probably was just the nostalgia of seeing an old friend overwhelmed some part of him.
Lucina came back with the drinks and the two men placed their three course orders. Ike sipped his sweet acidic wine as Robin swirled his light crimson wine in the thick tall goblet. She smiled and assured them that their asparagus risotto and calamari angel hair pasta would be out shortly. Ike placed his glass down and folded his arms over the thick blue silk of his suit. "So, big show producer then? I always remember saying that it was too specialized to get any job fresh out of college."
Robin chuckled as he tasted his own wine. "Indeed, you were always the voice of logic I never really wanted to hear. A band aid I would always tear off when I was finished but the first to be placed back on when I was hurt." His face suddenly contorted with a flicker of sadness, no doubt remembering one of the many times the white haired youth had been hurt and Ike was there to make sure he had a shoulder to cry on.
Ike noticed that twitch in his eyes and gave his old friend a reassuring smile. "It's ok. I'm still here for you." Robin gave another one of his trademark smiles, the malcontent variety of emotions seemingly bled away from him. That white smile. For a moment that was all Ike could focus on. The whispered chatter of other guests seemed to bleed away into the background of senseless chatter. The images at his periphery began to mute over each other until all he could focus on where those lightly stained pearls forming a very attractive smile.
He blinked, and in an instant all of his senses came back to him, though he noticed that his heart thudded a bit harder in his chest and he had not taken a breath in some time. Silently he sucked in the air through his mouth as he reached for his caramel brown scotch. "So this play of yours, how has the production been going?"
Noticeably glad to see that the attention was on his pet project, Robin stumbled over himself in excitement. "Much better than I have ever expected! I have managed to get several actual kabuki theater actors to help my current selection of actors in depth training in their methods and tradition. Makeup has come in, having worn it I will say that it was the pretty penny. Though the only trouble is the electrician unions and acting guilds are refusing to budge on some of their requests."
Ike shrugged and placed down his glass full of ice with hard spirits. "Well it is one of the dues we pay for living in a free society I guess." The two continued to talk in depth about the concept of unions, their place in modern society when compared to when they were first needed, and various other topics off on that tangent. By the time their appetizers came to their table, the two were getting into a competitive, though still friendly, conversation about the power of union leaders over the business world.
The food silenced each other and they thanked their servers before both lowered their heads in silent reverence for the saints and angels. A few moments passed and the two began to devour their food, a sudden hunger suddenly appearing in the both of them. Ike took some of the wine infused rice with bacon and slivers of asparagus into his mouth while robin used his knife to slice into the lightly fried calamari and parmesan sprinkled noodles. "So enough about me, how are you doing since we have last seen each other?" Robin asked as he slid some of the food on to his fork.
Ike swallowed the spoon full of the risotto and went back for another. "Quite well. I have been working with the city's fifth precinct in the homicide unit. I was promoted in the last week after bringing down a serial arsonist. You may have heard about it, the Green Alliance member burning the homes of various officials in the oil industry?"
"Ah, yes." Robin replied as he took a bite of his own food. Ike saw that Robin was looking him straight in the eyes. He never really noticed how attractive they looked. The white was pearl like his teeth, but the deep hazel was something like fine chocolate that could only be sought by the most ambitious man on the planet. One of Robin's eyebrows arched, "Is everything ok, Ike?"
Ike shook his head, a slight chill running down his neck. "Sorry, I was just lost in thought." It was a lie, something was up with his mind. Why was he thinking about the features of Robin in such great detail? Surely this must have been taking in how such a closeted and shy child turned into an incredibly handsome man anyone could drool over.
No, there was something else. Something else beyond simple admiration. Ike dispelled such thoughts and returned to the previous topic. "The pay has been an improvement over my previous position and is definitely a step up from my time in traffic investigation. I never want to see another set of tires as long as I live."
"Just as I don't want to read another script written by the Bard or by some hack who just got booted from a day time soap drama." Robin replied and the two men clinked their wine glasses on something they could all drink to. The tart sweetness of the wine worked well with the asparagus risotto and Ike continued to devour his app. "Well, I think you recommended this dinner at the right time. I just had to let go of my longtime boyfriend."
Ike could tell that there was some underlying tension, but he wouldn't have picked that as the reason. "So I guess you and Shulk just grew apart over the years?"
Robin nodded and ideally played with the last few remains of his noodles. "I guess you could say that. Neither of us cheated on one another, though I guess you could say that we both did too much window shopping on the side of each other. And with the damned religious fanatics that kept harassing Shulk at work, he would come home drunk on more than one occasion and make big deals out of little things."
"On the other side of the coin, you seem more married to your work than you ever seemed like you would give any attention to him." The words left Ike's mouth without much of a thought, and while he wished he had chosen them a bit more carefully, he wasn't against saying them.
Robin nodded as he took a long sip of his scotch. "Yes, Shulk pointed that out as well. We still want to remain friends, but decided that we both needed to grow up ourselves before we try to get to know someone else. I miss having someone to share the bed on a stormy night, but on the same side of the coin it is very good to have a good friend to be there for you and take you out to dinner after not meeting for six years."
"This guy sounds like a real charmer, know where I could find him?" Ike teased Robin who playfully scowled at him. Feeling what the next question was going to be when it was going to be directed at him, Ike beat Robin to the punch. "Yes, I am still enjoying the life of a bachelor. I have my eyes on a few ladies, but so far none that are eligible for my current schedule as a police detective nor am I myself settled down for a family at this moment in time."
Robin nodded, "I guess it would be much like being married to a soldier, except they come home every night though the stress of the job would be like surviving a warzone in the concrete Vietnam. But you still have a few numbers from those sorority meetings, Zelda and Peach are both still very single last time I met them." Ike returned his smile and set about on the last few spoon-fulls of his appetizer.
He found himself looking into Robin's eyes again. The hazel amber tint to them seemed like a sandy island caught in the center of an alabaster hurricane. They seemed to just enthrall Ike into their embrace. Then there was that lovely hair…
Ike shuddered internally at the thoughts, akin to the adage of someone walking over your own grave. Robin looked oddly at Ike and was about to say something but decided not to. He looked down to his almost empty plate of pasta and continued to eat with the white noise of other conversations and sounds filling the background.
They finished their plates and almost as if on cue, two chefs with identical mustaches came out with two platters of food. The only thing telling them apart was a green and red trim. Robin's filet mignon, done medium, came with a side of slice green beans and boiled russet potatoes with a sour cream and chive dollop was given to him by the green tinted chef, who was taller as well as skinnier than his portly companion. Ike's porterhouse, done to a medium rare tint, had a selection of fresh broccoli and leaks paired with a Mediterranean slaw was handed to him by the one in the red striped chef suit. The two bowed their heads and left the two to their food.
In a manner like two children trying to race one another, both Ike and Robin drew their forks and knives to devour their food. Their meats were cooked just as they had ordered them and seemed to melt the second they placed them on their tongues. Robin made an audible sound of delight as he tried the delicious food while Ike only made the sounds of his satisfaction in his mind.
The two didn't speak for minutes, each of them so focused on their food and drink that they both almost forgot that there was someone else sitting across from them. Both finished their vegetables first before truly focusing on the meat and starch. Robin speared a potato and popped it into his mouth, though he instantly regretted it as steam erupted from the root and he winced as he forced his head back with a grunt of pain. As he did so, a small lock of hair came loose from this head and fell down at a curve over his eyes.
In that moment, for some unknown reason, Ike's entire perspective focused on that strand of hair. The way it caught the light, looked so smooth like white silk, and the body to it. Ike just wanted to run his fingers through it, to smell it in its entirety. He looked to his friend and just saw someone he wanted to be lost with, someone to hold against himself to share heat in the cold unfriendly world. Just to feel alive-
The thoughts hit Ike with an almost physical force, noticing also that the belt line suddenly was quite a bit tighter. He stood up shakily, the heat evacuating from his skin as a cold sweat began to form over his exposed face and hands. "Excuse me." He mumbled to the surprised Robin as Ike walked with a slight stumble to the emerald tiled men's room.
He shouldered the door open and was relieved to see that no one was in there. He erratically pulled on the faucets and a stream of cold water shot out. He placed his hands under the running water and splashed his face with the ice cold liquid with his eyes screwed shut.
What was he thinking? No, what was going on with him?! Ike was a close and dear friend of Robin, but in that moment he considered him nothing more than a piece of meat. Also he thought of sexual urges that obviously got his body aroused. Was he… no, it couldn't be. He was a hot-blooded man who eyed up every female that sat across from him at the bar or in the office. He never once had considered any sexual inclination to the same gender before, but at the same time he could not deny that there was something about Robin.
Like his sister, his body had become perfect in every way. Slim, lithe, pale complexion but with a fair amount of muscle to truly form out the body. Anyone would be attracted to him if they so chose. Why did he feel that way now, now after all these years and times seeing him in college?
He felt that same supple hand grasp his shoulder and he opened his eyes as she shut off the water. He looked up into the mirror, his eyes burned red with irritation to those same perfect white ovals Robin called eyes. "Ike…"
Ike turned around and looked to his old friend knowing that there was going to be some explaining to do, though the concern was laced all over Robin's face. "I know there is something wrong, and it wasn't the food. What happened? Did something at work go wrong? A death in the family?"
Always the first to see if he could identify the problem to others. "No, not at all. I do have something wrong, a problem."
"What is this problem?" Robin asked with genuine concern in his voice. "Tell me what it is and I can try to alleviate it."
Ike looked into his friend's eyes for another brief moment, before he looked away. "My problem is you." Robin sucked in the air in surprise, but he kept from answering as Ike was about to continue. "When I saw you tonight, I felt something… different, something I have never felt to you before whenever we have met. The features I usually adore in women were seemingly highlighted in you. The smile, the eyes, and the hair… all of it seemed to call to me like a siren song."
Ike ran his fingers through his hair as he walked a few paces away. "I don't need to be a detective to know that it was some kind of a sexual urge towards you. For a brief moment, I saw the tow of us together in a less than proper way. I don't want that to happen…"
Robin nodded and took a few steps closer to Ike, surprise and concern lacing his face with equal measure. "What's wrong with that?" It sounded selfish but Robin was not that. Why should Ike be afraid of having feelings towards another man, a good friend?
"Because you are here, and I feel so small… so human." Ike rubbed the corner of his eyes and looked at his old friend. "I feel so helpless right now in front of you, and afraid. I am attracted to someone who I have not only known for a long time but also is the same sex as I am."
Placing a comforting hand on Ike's arm, Robin looked at him. "Ashamed? You shouldn't be, I know this doesn't stem from an urge to simply fulfill sexual desires. I have felt feelings for you, and though they may have gone into the realm of intimacy, were by and large platonic. I know you are a true friend who was with me through the rough days of college, holding me as I dealt with the rejection of my parents when I came out to them. You were there to make sure I looked my best when I had my first date with Shulk."
He held Ike's massive hand in both of his own. "I may not know what exactly you are feeling, but I will help you go through them."
Ike gave a heartwarming smile. "I still consider myself as straight as an arrow, but at the same time I cannot deny that I feel something more than a brotherly connection to you. I find myself falling for you, like that in a dream when it lasts for a few moments before you resurface into reality."
"Then I should do this before you wake up." Standing on his tippy toes, Robin captured Ike's lips. Ike was initially caught off guard but soon embraced every feeling of the plush and smooth lips that touched his own. He placed his warming hands on Robin's cheeks and returned the kiss with an equal vigor. He tasted the cherry Chap Stick on Robin's lips along with the hints of alcohol and other elements of his meal.
Robin parted after a few moments and both took in air as if they had been submerged for hours. The two looked at each other for a moment before Robin straighten out both their suits. "Come then, the desserts have been left at our table, and I sure as hell do not want to eat my banana fritters looking at your layered chocolate cake."
Ike chuckled, following the man who was both the man in his dreams and the one to bring him back into reality.