A/N: Returning to ff. net after a long absence! I fear I may be a tad rusty, but hopefully you'll all enjoy this. It's related to a previous fic that I did a while back called "Ludwig's Horrible, Terrible, No-Good, Very Bad Dinner Date" (GerIta, btw), but it's not necessary for you to have read it in order to understand this piece. If you'd like to read it, you can find it under my profile. Now on with the fic!
"Ooh, looks like I'm just in time for the gun show!"
Aldric, who had just finished pushing the last heavy set piece into the wing of the stage, startled violently at the smooth voice that suddenly echoed all around him, interrupting what had been total silence. Although he had heard that voice over the phone just earlier that week for the first time in years, there was no mistaking its owner. He glared in the direction of the sound booth at the back of the university's theater where he knew the culprit must be lurking.
"If you're gonna talk to me, do it face-to-face like a normal person!" he shouted so that his harasser could hear him from where he was. "Or at least use the headset! Being surrounded by your voice from on high like this is pissing me off!"
Julius picked up the headset that had been left in the sound technician's chair, slipped it on, and switched on the power. Aldric was treated to Julius's deep, playful laughter right in his ear, which simultaneously brought a faint flush to Aldric's cheeks and sent a shiver down his spine.
"I see, so you prefer something more intimate for our conversations," Julius murmured into the headset, his voice rich and seductive even as it quivered with suppressed amusement. "How wonderfully unexpected."
"On second thought, this is even more disgusting," Aldric growled. The otherwise silent theater suddenly seemed just a tad too warm, and he didn't like it. "We're talking in person or not at all."
"Wow, how nostalgic, being back in the theater like this," Julius sighed, ignoring Aldric's complaint entirely. "Of course I'm less used to seeing it from back here; I usually had the lead role."
"If you're just going to babble about pointless things, then get lost," Aldric said stonily. "Some people are trying to get some actual work done."
"But I'm so versatile when it comes to theater, I'm sure I could handle the technical aspects too," Julius bragged.
"You just wanna press the buttons," Aldric scoffed, picking up a broom so that he could sweep the stage. "Grow up."
"I could raise and lower the backdrops like a boss."
Aldric hurried to step aside when a soft whir signaled that a backdrop was coming dangerously close to clonking him over the head.
"Watch it!" he snapped as the heavy cloth, painted in brilliant colors to resemble a sunset over a grassy knoll, separated him from the rest of the theater.
"Sorry," Julius said, but Aldric could hear the insufferable grin in his voice.
Aldric let out an irritated huff as he stalked out from behind the backdrop to glare towards the sound and lighting booth where he knew Julius was lurking, leaning against his broom. "Look, if you have an actual reason for impeding my work, then say so before I wring your useless neck."
"Mm, I love it when you're feisty," Julius purred.
Aldric threw down his broom so that it hit the stage with a resounding clatter, and apparently this was enough to get through even to Julius that he wasn't in the mood for any more games.
"I just had to know…" the Italian began in a voice that almost succeeded at sounding offhanded. "I couldn't tell when you turned down my dinner invitation whether you were just giving me the brush-off or you really couldn't make it... Guess you weren't making it up after all."
"Obviously," Aldric grunted, suddenly very glad that Julius had stayed all the way at the back of the theater rather than coming to speak to him face to face as he'd demanded earlier. "Now that you've confirmed it, go away."
"But I'm still curious what would bring the dean of the school of humanities and social sciences to do lowly stagehand work," Julius persisted. "Isn't that kind of below you?"
"What's it to you how I spend my time?" Aldric growled, picking up his broom again so he'd have something to occupy his hands. Not that Julius was making him uncomfortable or anything; he just wanted to finish this job so he could return home to his sons. If he wanted to have an excuse to turn down Julius's bothersome invitations, that was his business.
"Don't think I haven't noticed that you're dodging my question."
"I'm not," Aldric said stiffly. "But I have not obligation to explain myself to you."
He began sweeping the stage again, signaling that he was finished with this conversation but at the same time doubting that Julius was simply going to leave him alone until he got what he wanted. To his surprise, Julius was silent, and for a moment, Aldric thought he may have actually decided to leave him alone after all. The feeling this prospect gave him was unexpectedly complicated.
"You're upset, aren't you?" Julius said eventually, breaking the silence at last. "About how things ended between us before."
Aldric didn't so much as hesitate in his sweeping. "That's ancient history."
"Oh, come on!" Julius demanded, his voice sounding considerably less cool and calm than it had all evening. For some reason that Aldric refused to contemplate, this caused the complicated feeling in his chest to deepen. "Tell me with complete honesty that you never wish things could've gone differently, and I'll never bother you again!"
Oops, there were some dust bunnies lurking in the corners that he'd managed to miss somehow. Aldric turned his back on the sound and light booth to pursue them. He half expected Julius to attempt to force an answer out of him as he drew the dust bunnies out of their corner with his cleansing bristles, but to his surprise Julius lapsed into silence again.
"…Our sons've started seeing each other," Aldric said suddenly, surprising even himself.
"I've heard," Julius replied. His voice was soft, and Aldric thought he was smiling, though he couldn't be sure without seeing him. "Feliciano is always coming home, gushing about his latest date with Ludwig. I can't help being jealous sometimes of how uncomplicated and happy their relationship seems…"
Aldric said nothing, but he'd be lying if he said he hadn't been reminded of Julius and himself in their younger days when he'd watched the interactions between Feliciano and Ludwig when Feliciano had come over to their house a few weeks ago. Whether he was jealous of what their sons had, well… that was harder to say. He supposed there was something enviable about being able to love someone simply and honestly.
"Look… I know things'll probably never go back to that level of simplicity between us after everything that's happened, but I know I'm not happy with the way we left things, and I don't think you are either, even if you won't admit it out loud," Julius said. "I wanna try again. That's why I invited you to dinner."
"I'm not finished here," Aldric pointed out. "I'm not going to leave the job half done."
"Heh, no need to worry about that!" Julius assured him, regaining some of his old bravado now that he hadn't been completely shot down. "I actually brought some dinner with me. Homemade pizza, crafted by yours truly, and a bottle of Italian red wine! Go ahead, tell me your mouth isn't watering already!"
"Presumptuous as always," Aldric grunted. "What if I turn you down again?"
"You won't."
Aldric's stomach gave a funny lurch when he suddenly realized that he could hear Julius's voice coming from two sources at once: from the headset, and from the man himself, who had somehow managed to sneak up on him while Aldric was sweeping. He had what appeared to be a picnic basket in his hands, hands that, like his face, had aged unfairly well. The German found the theater growing uncomfortably warm again at the sight of Julius's insufferable grin as he tore off his headset.
"Don't creep up on people like that," Aldric said grumpily, turning his back on Julius once more. "And what makes you so sure?"
"Hmm, there are a couple of telltale signs," Julius purred as he set down the basket and sidled up behind him, putting a hand on his shoulder and inviting him even closer. Aldric stubbornly stayed where he was, but was frustrated to find that he couldn't pull away. "For one, the back of your neck is getting red."
Aldric snarled, hunching his shoulders to hide his flushed neck as Julius's breath caressed it.
"For another thing, you never had a problem with telling me no when you really didn't want to do something, which you're clearly not doing," Julius continued smugly. "And finally…"
Alric went stock still when Julius's lips grazed the rim of his ear ever so lightly. He refused to allow himself to shiver at that gentle, nostalgic touch; he refused.
"We're all alone in this romantic place," Julius gestured around the stage and it suddenly occurred to Aldric that there was something date-appropriate about the sunset backdrop that Julius had almost knocked him out with earlier and the soft orange and fuchsia stage lights filtering through it. The tantalizing scent of the homemade meal wafting out of the basket Julius had brought didn't hurt either, and to his frustration, Aldric's stomach suddenly growled, causing Julius to laugh. "…And by the sounds of things, you're pretty hungry."
Aldric clicked his tongue in annoyance, but didn't deny any of this because to do so would be a lie.
"Come on, give me another chance," Julius urged, his lips brushing the shell of Aldric's ear once more. "You won't be disappointed."
Feeling certain that, in spite of Julius's claim, he would regret this very much, Aldric plunked down where he was on the stage against his better judgment.
"I'm only in it for the food," he insisted.
"We'll see about that," Julius said knowingly as he began to lay out their meal on a blanket he had produced from his basket.
"Yeah, you will," Aldric replied stubbornly. He hoped that it wasn't obvious to Julius that he was, in fact, still trying to convince himself.