Chapter 14

They set dinner up for Friday, and Erik insisted on being the gentleman. He'd pick Charles up, he'd drive them over, and dammit, he'd buy dinner. Once glance at his bank statement was enough to tell that somehow or other the brunet had managed to pay for all of their drinks last week.

In the meantime, Erik made sure to get all of his cafe-work out of the way for the weekend. Vendors, landlords, employees: if there was something that needed doing it was going to have to get done now because by this weekend he was either going to be a boyfriend or a miserable fiend. He didn't want to hedge his bets on which one it would be.

Charles seemed to like him-hell, Charles, for some reason, seemed to really like him (although Erik wasn't sure how much of that was true and how much of it was Charles' naturally inclusive demeanor). Still, he wasn't certain enough to think that just because a guy seemed to like him that that meant the guy would want to date him. He had been with a lot more guys than he had ever dated. Some people just weren't the dating type. Hell, Erik had never really been comfortable labeling himself as the dating type. He had only ever dated three men (four if you counted that kid from college who certainly thought of Erik as his boyfriend although Erik hadn't returned the estimation), and none of those had ever lasted over three months. The only thing that separated them from the men he occasionally slept with was that he slept with them a lot more continuously. It just seemed to be the type of guy he attracted: he was unaffectionate and anti-social and the men willing to date him were generally similar. They were ships passing in the night. Ships that had sex. And then didn't talk for three days. And then had sex again, maybe, if neither of them were too busy.

Charles was something new. Charles was something amazing. Charles was something that looked damned good in a navy blue pin-striped suit.

It was Friday night at last and when Charles answered the door Erik had to swallow hard to avoid drooling all over himself.

He had thought the man looked good with his sweaters...suits were a class all their own on the hotness-scale of this young man, and Erik was going to have fun filling in the rest of the scale once they were hopefully dating.

"Hello, dear," Charles greeted, pulling him inside and kissing his cheek. The younger man smelled just as good as he looked. Erik's body was thrumming too much for him to speak-if he tried to force out sound he knew he'd just get some kind of pitchy, keening noise.

"I'll just get my jacket and I'm ready."

Erik nodded, rubbing his throat to try to massage his vocal chords into working.

"You look edible," he managed-he had been too focused on getting words out to plan which words would be coming out. "Indelible," he corrected, and wasn't even sure if that was what he had meant to say in the first place or just a good cover-up.

Charles stared at him a second, but he looked more flattered than freaked. Erik was lucky the man always took his compliments in the must non-creepy light.

"Thank you, my friend! You're nothing to scoff at yourself," he said, coming close and kissing Erik softly on the mouth. He had meant it to be quick, but Erik's arms were incapable of having him so close and not wrapping around him. The taller man only broke the kiss to breathe him in deeply, drunk on the feeling of Charles' taut body under his hands.

"Are you wearing cologne?" he murmured. Charles nodded and looked up at him, his eyes lit up by the entry-way light. Erik thought there was some design in the fluctuations of blue there, but he didn't have enough time to study them.

"Is that okay?" Charles questioned, his minty breath warm on Erik's skin. "Are you allergic?"

"No, why did you think I was allergic?" Erik snorted. Charles smiled-Erik realized anew how darkly pink his lips were-and reached up to press his knuckles to Erik's overheated cheeks.

"You're flushed."

Erik just smiled. "That has nothing to do with allergies."

Charles' cheeks went rosy with a blush and Erik's smile took on a teasing tilt. "Are you allergic now?" he asked, and Charles twisted away gently, laughing.

"I guess I am. Let's get out of here before it gets any worse." Erik glanced around the living room as Charles put his jacket on.

"Raven not home?"

"No she's at a rally."

"What kind of rally?" Hopefully not a future-in-law-murdering rally.

"I'm not sure. It's one of her feminist school assignments. She likes to keep me in the dark about things like that. I have too much testosterone to be trusted," Charles laughed and Erik was surprised when his hand was suddenly being held.

Surprised but by no means displeased. "Ready?" the brunet asked, eyes so lit up and intoxicating.

Erik smiled and nodded, his skin tingling and his heart bubbling up in his chest like a spring as they walked out the door hand in hand.