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Eli

As soon as the elevator doors opened Elijah and Mark went their separate ways. Though Mark did turn around to check out Elijah's ass when he thought no one was looking.

"Hey," Alex started to follow Elijah as soon as he saw him, "so what exactly happened last night?"

"I'm in this clinical trial for a new medication." Elijah said without even looking in Alex's eyes.

"What for?"

"You can ask but I'm not going to tell you. Suffice to say, the new meds and alcohol don't mix." He opened the door to his office and Alex followed him inside. "I'd be more than happy to buy you a drink to make up for it, I just wont be drinking with you."

"Actually," Alex's eyes were focused on Elijah's and a smirk crossed his face, "I'd like that."

Elijah thought for sure that Alex was straight and was only leading him on as a joke. Then again there was something genuine about the way he was looking into Elijah's eyes.

"Do you mind if I clarify that?" Elijah asked.

"What?" Alex responded.

"When you say, 'I'd like that.' What exactly do you mean?" Elijah had one raised eye brow as he removed his jacket and threw on a lab coat.

Alex wasn't sure why he'd said that, he wasn't sure what exactly he was feeling but he knew there was chemistry between them.

"Well," Alex hesitated to answer, "it's weird, but I'd like to see you again."

"You can see me right now." Elijah smirked.

"No I mean-I don't know what I mean. It's just-How about tonight you and I do something after work?"

Elijah was pleasantly surprised by this. "Like what?"

"I don't know. Dinner?"

Elijah started laughing and Alex turned a shade of red that made him laugh even more.

"What?" Alex was getting upset.

"I'm sorry." He was trying not to laugh. "That was just so precious."

"Fine." Alex turned around to leave. "Sorry I even asked."

"No wait." Elijah reached out and grabbed Alex's shoulder, making him turn around. "I'd like that."

– – –

It's always been a rare pleasure to have a clear spring night in Seattle, and tonight you could see the moon so clearly it was as if the sky had never heard of clouds. Alex was sitting on a bench in front of the hospital, his right leg bouncing up and down with jitters. Elijah smiled to himself as he approached the resident.

"So," Alex jumped a little, startled by Elijah, "did you have any particular place in mind?"

"Well what kind of food do you like?" Alex was most definitely nervous.

"Well I like food that is cooked and edible." Elijah smirked.

"Um, alright." Alex scrambled to his feet, quickly spinning around to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything.

"Wait Karev," Elijah stood still making Alex stop and turn to him, "have you ever gone out with a guy before?"

Alex looked down and then back up at Elijah. "No."

"There's nothing to be ashamed of, or nervous about." Elijah assured him. "No pressure, no expectations, let's just enjoy a clear night.

Alex let out a deep breath, nodded, and turned around to see the cab he'd called earlier. Elijah smiled as he walked past him and opened the white Prius' door and slid inside, Alex smirked and followed suit.

"Where to?" The cabbie asked.

"Mercer and Broadway please." Alex directed.

"Where are we going?"

"Galerias. It's this great Mexican place up on Capitol Hill."

Elijah and Alex stepped out of the cab onto the dimly lit street. Alex was walking away from the glow of store lights and heavy beat of dance music. Elijah graciously followed him to a door with a small awning and thin patio next to it. They could feel the buzz of the patrons reverberating through their chests as they walked through the door.

"Two for the patio." Alex had to raise his voice a little for the host to hear him.

Elijah sat silently, sipping on his water while he watched Alex squirm in his chair. "Will you please calm down. You're starting to make me nervous."

"Sorry. I'm just a little lost here."

"How do you mean?"

"Like what are we supposed to be talking about?"

"We talk about what ever you want to talk about. It's no different than an ordinary date."

Alex smirked nervously and took a drink from his margarita. There was a nervous silence between them before Alex began talking again.

"So I did kind of go out with a guy once before, in college."

"Oh?" Elijah perked up. "Tell me about it."

"Well it was weird. We'd flirted, kind of as a joke, for a long time before I asked him out. He was just as shocked as you were earlier. We went to dinner and watched a comedy show, but nothing happened. I took him home, he didn't invite me up and we never really talked again after that." Alex looked up at Elijah like a wounded puppy.

"So you think you're gonna make the same mistake again and cause problems in the work place."

"Kinda yeah."

"I see." Elijah put a small piece of his chicken enchilada in his mouth, chewed and swallowed. "Here's the thing, I wasn't expecting anything hot and heavy to happen tonight. I was expecting some back and forth banter, some laughter, and possibly a few of the war stories of Seattle Grace."

Alex nodded and took a nervously large bite of his quesidilla.

"So can we do that?" Elijah smiled, his Texas twang only lightly surfacing in the face of another uncomfortable silence.

There was a pause as Alex chewed his awkwardly large bit of food. Elijah slowly started to smile and the more Alex struggled the larger Elijah's smile got until he was almost laughing at the man sitting across from him. Finally Alex gave up, rolled his eyes, and with a severely muffled voice made a noise that seemed to indicate agreement.

After significant laughter and chewing things settled into a more normal first date vibe. They laughed together, tried each others' food, Elijah told some jokes that were only funny because of how dumb they were, and Alex told a few stories about the people of Seattle Grace.

After they were finished eating, they decided to go for a walk down Broadway. Alex directed their movements to Cal Anderson Park where there was an old movie being shown on a blow up movie screen and a bunch of people were cheering and laughing as the icon of the channel that the movie had been pirated from showed up on the bottom of the screen. They came to sit on the benches in front of the fountains. Elijah was pulling his coat around himself tighter as a cold breeze brushed him. Alex scooted closer and put an arm around him.

"I'm still trying to acclimate to the temperature difference." Elijah said, even though his shivers were gone now and he was already feeling warmer with Alex being so close.

"It took me a while too." Alex assured as he looked into Elijah's dark brown eyes.

Elijah felt like Alex could see into his soul, which unnerved him and made him feel safe at the same time. The two were so focused on each other that they didn't even hear the movie watchers chanting "KISS KISS KISS!", as their movie was reaching it's romantic climax. They slowly came closer and closer until their lips met. The crowd cheered and whistled as lips locked together with fresh romance and gentle passion. The two separated and looked at each other again.

"Well Alex I think I'd like to end the night on a good note, if that's alright with you?" Elijah smiled.

"Yeah, I kind of have to get up early for rounds tomorrow." They stood up together and calmly walked back to the area where all the cabs where. "I guess this is where we part ways for the night."

"I had a good time tonight. We should do this again some time."

"I hope we do. Good night Elijah."

"Please. Call me Eli."

– – –

Author's Notes of Rage: I'm going through and putting this little beauty at the bottom of all the chapters I'm currently writing. My STUPID Open office wouldn't open ANY of my writing files for the past month and a half and I just got it working again, so trust me folks I did not forget this story I was about to burst with creative juices! well here's the beginning of romance with Alex. In the next few chapters expect to see some more of Mark and Alex...possibly at the same time...I'll let you imagine that even though it's totally not gonna be what you think. HAHAHA! I'M BACK BITCHES!