Call on me
"Lord Smythe, this is Sir Kurt Hummel, he is son of Congressman Sir Burt Hummel, and brother of General Finnegan Hudson" Mr. Anderson said as an introduction, motioning to the tall boy besides him.
"I've heard much about your father and your brother's activity in the front. Pray, what is it that you do?" Sebastian asked, knowing how rude he was being, but enjoying the way that Sir Hummel's cheeks blushed in embarrassment.
"I involve myself with the arts" Sir Hummel said, looking straight at him, being equally rude in his attitude.
"Oh, are you an artist or are you modeling?" Sebastian chuckled; thrilled with the way that Sir Hummel just couldn't contain his rage, letting just enough to be rude back. It was so refreshing when someone forgot customs and fell into discussions with him; not many were bold enough to do it, most of them feared his tittle more than they deplored his attitude.
"I'm an artist, why do you inquire? If you are looking for someone to stand the sight of you naked, I'm sure there are countless of women in a whorehouse who would gladly be paid for it" Sir Hummel commented; his tone light but the hard look in his eyes telling of something severely different.
"There's no need to pay for such things, my dear Sir, it's just about knowing the right kind of women… or men" Sebastian smirked, enjoying the way that Sir Hummel's eyes got big and incredulous.
"You are the most rude and vulgar man I've ever had the displeasure of knowing"
"It was you who came to be introduced, not me, if you had no interest on making my acquaintance when you already knew the kind of gossip that runs about me, why would you ever want to be introduced?" Sebastian asked, getting closer to the man and looking at him straight in the eyes.
"Blaine assured me that you were nothing like they said, and that we might have some common interests, but I can see now that maybe they weren't wrong" Sir Hummel said, looking cold and hardening his eyes at him.
"Common interests… maybe we do have them" Sebastian smirked, knowing what he was implying and noticing the blush that permeated Sir Hummel's cheeks, betraying how much truth there was in that statement. "Well, I'm sure you have many more things to do and people to talk to, gentlemen, so I'll take my leave. Sir Hummel, should you want to talk about those common interests, maybe you should call on me. Nothing would please me more than have you in my withdrawing room"
With that Sebastian left, knowing that Sir Kurt Hummel must be throwing hateful glances at him, forgetting decorum and manners, but also knowing that he should be expecting to be called upon sooner rather than later.
Sir Kurt Hummel took his time, but three days later when his footman came to tell him he was at the door, Sebastian could barely contain his excitement to what this call would end up being about.
When he walked into the withdrawing room he could see the rigid way those shoulders were stretched. He couldn't see much of him, but the man staring at the fire made a very strong image. The lights from the flames did nothing but reflect on his shiny hair and the soft angles of his face.
Sebastian greeted him with ease.
"Sir Hummel, it's great to see you" he says, walking to the man and extending his hand for him to shake. After the last time he guesses he must try to show him that he has some manners if he wants him to come back. Sir Hummel turns and looks at him, appraisingly, before taking it. "So, you did call in the end. To what do I owe the change of heart?"
"Blaine insisted that it would be useful for us to know each other, that you might be of help in my latest project and as such I should try to be in good terms with you" Sir Hummel said, being more truthful than it was recommended. Sebastian liked that.
"You speak before you think, don't you, Hummel" he asks before sitting down, motioning for Sir Hummel to do the same. "I like that. Even though don't know what your project might imply and why would knowing me would be of help, I am sure you would be entertaining to be around; even if only to hear you complain about me"
"If you are going to call me by something other than my title I would appreciate it if it would be my name" the man says, sitting down on the edge of the sofa. Ready to spring as soon as Sebastian made a social faux pas, he was sure. "That being said, I'm not looking for you to model, but I am looking for models for a painting, the kind of people who would not been found in society because I doubt that any decent man or woman would adhere to this kind of representation"
"So, my friend, you are looking for whores?" Sebastian asks, smiling at the way when the man stutters and closes up. "You know, that night you talked pretty badly about them, I'm not sure it would be a good idea to introduce you to any"
"I didn't talk badly about them, I talked badly about you" Kurt said, smirking. Sebastian just laughed.
"You are quite funny for such a feminine man" he comments, loving the way Kurt loses his smirk. "I could take you to some places if you want to find those models. I could take you to some places if you wanted more than models too".
"Just models, I do not wish to lay with them, I just want to paint them" Kurt explained, obviously keeping his words to himself, even if the burden of wanting to unleash them was obvious in his posture.
"So, those interests in common that Blaine was talking about, they are true. We do like the same kind of things then?" he asks, looking at Kurt in a new light.
He could see it now if the way his hands were nervously cringing in each other, and the rigid posture of his back. The way his skin looked pale and soft, feminine in a way that talked about long hours at home, in the dark, surrounded by nothing but paint and canvases on wooden frames. He didn't see the energy that was bound to appear in other men, but he saw the way that his distinguished voice and his elegant way of carrying himself betrayed those things that were only accepted in a woman.
And yet, there was something in his eyes, am under surface layer of energy and passion that nothing short of manly; something that attracted him enough to offer.
"I know you understand what I am talking about, you do not need to tell me. I will not talk about this with anyone else if that is what you wish; confidentiality is a must when things like this are being tossed around" Sebastian commented, looking at him and trying to calm him down from the place where his nerves seemed to have gone. "May I enquire why, though, are you straying from the decent ladies and portraits into whores and decadency as your theme?"
The change in the subject seemed to surprise the man, but the relieved sigh he gave confirmed every doubt that Sebastian could have. It was a strange thing to find another man in society with the same tastes about life, willing to let it be implied that he liked the same things, and even if it was just a little step, Sebastian was glad for Kurt's bravery in accepting the implication and not talking his way out of it.
"Portraits of gentlemen and ladies grow boring after a while, especially when you know that out there in the underclasses there is a world were social conventions are nothing but a waste of time" Kurt says, looking at him again, and there it is… that passion he was thinking about, it is there shining in his eyes when Kurt thinks about things that he has yet to understand.
"Quite different from what you told me that night when you accused me from being the most rude and vulgar man you have ever met" Sebastian comments with a smirk, enjoying the way that his cheeks get flushed.
"There are places for you to be vulgar, and places for you to be at your best. The club, while not a totally respectable place, is not a place for you to talk like that and it was embarrassing for Blaine and me" Kurt says, being cuttingly truthful. For such a creature, who talked so much about manners and the right way of living in society, and seemed to crave to know the other side of the coin, Kurt was too complex a man for Sebastian to understand as simply as he had Blaine. Making his acquaintance was probing to be quite a challenge, and he was nothing but thrilled about it.
"So, I should mind my manners around you at the club and in decent company, but not while we are alone and, say, at a brothel?" he asks, standing up and walking towards the man he steps into his personal space just enough to see him catch a surprised gasp.
"Exactly as you said. Regardless of that, would you help me with my endeavor?" Kurt asks, creating more distance between them by sitting closer to the back of the sofa.
Sebastian took a risk and let his weigh fall on a knee next to his legs. The man was flushed and was looking a bit alarmed to his eyes, but didn't ask him to move, so Sebastian made no intention to do so. He stayed there, letting this man get used to his closeness and to the warmth of another man and he, no doubt, had never felt before.
"Of course, as long as you let me watch while you paint. It has always fascinated me the way that someone can strive to portray in such a little surface the enormity of human reactions, and knowing that you haven't paint anything but old wrinkled ladies in the best clothes makes me think that to watch you would be like learning with you" Sebastian says, slipping a few fingers under Kurt's chin to make him look at his eyes and not at the rug. There was an infinity of emotions going through them and he could not classify any.
"You are welcome to stay as long as you do not disturb me" Kurt said. Sebastian got caught in the breathless quality of his voice and the way his pulse seemed to be hurrying up. It was too much for one day, at least if he wished for more to be possible, so he let go and stood up straight once again.
"Do you want a drink? I have some really good Cherry" he suggested.
"I… I should get going, really. It would be a pleasure in another occasion" Kurt says, standing up quickly and fixing his clothes.
"That's alright. Say, if you are free this Thursday I know of a place that could be of use for you" Sebastian offers.
"I should check with my family, but I am most sure that I can make some time for it as long as it's early in the evening" Kurt answers, all politeness and decorum once again; completely in control of his reactions as a gentleman should me. Sebastian feels already missing his most daring nature.
"I will make the arrangement then and send a carriage to pick you up during the evening. Feel free to send the carriage back with your excuses if you are unable to come with" Sebastian says, extending a hand to Kurt which is grabbed sooner than before.
"Until then, Lord Smythe"
"Sebastian, call me Sebastian. If you are making me call you Kurt you should feel free to have the same familiarity" he says with a smile, not letting go of Kurt's hand until the man flushes again.
He keeps replaying the way the man's cheek flushed with color hours after he is gone.
TBC...