Russian Blue
by Rainy
AUTHOR's NOTES: Hi! So, all day I've been plotting Russian Blue. I tell you, this would be a whole lot easier if I had someone to chitchat the plots with other than myself. I've started to look weird walking around town just blabbering things to myself in english (for those of you who still dunno, I live in Mexico) – not many people know english around here, so they think I'm being possessed by some evil demon... or something... it's actually really funny...
DISCLAIMER: Fake belongs to Sanami Matoh. Other characters and story line is my own twisted creation. The song is called "Unforgetful You", as performed by Jars of Clay (got it from the "Drive me Crazy" soundtrack... never actually seen the movie, but the soundtrack is cool)
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Chapter 6
"'Allo... got a light?"
Ryo offered Gaiev a lighter so that the English boy would light up his cigarette. It was beginning to be a custom that every afternoon, around six or seven o'clock, Gaiev would come out of the building and find Ryo smoking in the stairway, he'd ask him for a light and then he would carry on. Alexeyena – Gaiev's sister – told Ryo that her brother worked at a pub somewhere in town and that was his usual leaving time. So today, Ryo just figured Gaiev would be on his way to work...
But, alas, Gaiev sat next to Ryo as he gave him back the lighter.
"Thanks," he said. They sat quietly for a couple of minutes.
"You'll be late," Ryo heard himself say at last. He left like that old lady who lives in a shoe and felt embarrassed to feel Gaiev's surprised look.
"Pardon me?"
"Your job. You'll be late" (for the love of God, shut up! Just shut the hell up!!)
"Oi' Oi'... what's this? Are you keeping tags on me now?" Gaiev sounded almost teasingly.
"N-no... No! Is just that... at this time you always ask me for a light..." (Great! Now you're officially a stalker!) "...and then you go... on to your business, I assume you go to work, right?" Ryo was now officially turning all shades of red. Gaiev took another drag off the cigarette as he was observing Ryo's every move. Ryo shamefully turned to see him, "Right?"
"Aye... I do. But turns out tha' today 's my day off... Tha' and Alexeyena doesn't let me smoke near Alex..."
"The baby?" Ryo sounded more relaxed now.
"Yeah, 'im too..." Gaiev replied with another puff.
"Oh... Not very friends with your sister's husband, hum?"
"Care-taker," Gaiev corrected him properly, "'s very different than the hole husband thing. And no; me an' Ivan aren't the world's greatest friends. Bu' I guess if my sis' loves 'im an' 'e loves my sis' back, I have nothing to complain 'bout... An' you? Livin' with someone?"
"Nope... I live alone, actually..."
"Really?" he seemed surprised, "Hum! I though you lived with tha' blond girl... the very perky one who visits Alexeyena..."
"Oh! You mean Carol? No... no.. She.... err... She's my son's fiancée..."
"You 'ave a son? You're married then?"
"Errr.. no... It's... It's complicated... Bikky... the-the blond kid with dark skin? Yeah, he's my adoptive son... and Carol... well, Carol is kinda' my adoptive daughter... she always looked up to me as a father figure... it's..."
"Complicated..."
"Exactly..."
"But you live alone then? Not married or anythin'?" asked Gaiev as a faint smirk crossed his lips.
"No! No...." Ryo smiled innocently.
"What you do?"
"Excuse me?"
"Your work. You must work to afford a flat like this one...."
"Oh! Yeah... I'm a cop, actually..."
"Ah! A Police officer! Nice! You get good pay 'ere in the States or is it the same crummy job as in Britain?"
"I don't know... Haven't really put much thought in to it..."
"Must be crummy... 'elping all those people an' still not get good pay... Can... Can I ask you something? I mean, if it's not much bother..."
"Not at all..."
"Ok... ok, two questions. First, what's your name?"
"Oh... Randy... Randy Mclean... But you can call me Ryo..."
"Ryo... nice name. Japanese?"
"Yes... middle name, actually... Next question?"
"Well… I don´t ´spose you would want to go out for coffee or tea... or even a pint sometime..."
"Su-sure..."
"Sure what?"
"I would love... to go out... sometime..."
Gaiev stood up, "Well then, let's go!"
"What?! Now!" Ryo sounded almost frantic, making Gaiev laugh.
"Well bloody yeah! I know this great place..." he said as Ryo got up, "A friend of mine works there, maybe you've met 'im... 'i's name's Gaiev..."
"You're taking me to your WORK to drink coffee..."
"'ey! It's the best bloody coffee you'll 'ave... Besides, I know all the staff – you're guaranteed a 100% piss-an'-spit free coffee..." Gaiev gave a mischievous smile and a wink.
"Wow... They spit and pee in your... coffee?!..." Ryo looked at him with non-believer eyes. Gaiev turned silently.
"Come now..." he said. Ryo walked right beside him (God... remind me NEVER to drink coffee in a public place EVER again...)
The Lemon Tree was a small café where chic people tended to meet and gossip about their favorite celebrity or their least-favorite person. It was a place where retro and modern art collided in harmonious collages of music, paintings and very little tables with very little chairs that made your ass look gigantic in them (RAINY'S NOTES: Don't you just hate these places??) But you could smell the coffee a mile away. That delicious aroma of pure grain coffee just being served hot, melting every evil doing away... The sight for poor musicians who made an ends meat by singing latin-american trova music that went a little something like Pablo Milanés or Silvio Rodríguez, heck! Even Oscar Chavez once in a while. A guitar and a mike, that's all. Private booths where in the back, away from all the gossiping, away from the little chairs. These booths had wide ample spaces with not too wide (but enough to place coffee mugs and beer bottles) where one could spread at everything one has (RAINY'S NOTES: Or as we say in Mexico, "Donde uno se puede estirar a sus anchas"!) very comfty... indeed...
"Hi, welcome to The Lemon Tree..." the waiter said in a very cheesy english accent before seeing Gaiev waving at him with a big smirk on is face and Ryo just looking around in awe, "Gaiev! You dog! I though it was your day off!"
"Cut the bloody accent, Devon, you make my people fall in shame!" Gaiev scolded him playfully.
"Sorry," Devon said dropping the British accent, "So, what'll be?"
"We want a booth"
"Ok... Yo'!" he shouted to another waiter, "Number 37 here!"
"What?! You're not giving me that shitty booth, Devon! I want number 32..."
"It's gonna cost ya'..."
"Name the price..."
"Shift... Friday AND Saturday night..."
"Done!"
"Yo'! Rodney! Never mind!"
Devon took them over to a very nice booth, the farthest one from the crowd, and was about to leave the menu when Ryo said, "Just-just coffee, thanks..."
"Oh... you?"
"Same as always..."
"Ok, so coffee and.. coffee..."
Devon left. Ryo frowned. "Mr 'aikes is british," Gaiev explained, "And so, 'e wanted to 'ire only british waiters... bu' that was kind of impossible, so 'e instructed 'is staff to speak in a british accent that just... it gets in my nerves sometimes... Devon is one o' me closest mates..."
"Oh.... It's... nice... very... chic..."
"I like the music, though. Can't understand a bloody word they're sayin' bu' I like the way it sounds..."
"Yeah..."
At that moment, Devon brought one gigantic cup of coffee and a bottle of beer for Gaiev. "Enjoy," he said before leaving to tend another table. Ryo wasn't quite sure how to drink that gigantic cup but eventually he got the hand of it.
"So…" Gaiev spoke after taking a sip of his beer, "Can I ask you another question?"
"You know, this makes three to you, none for me…"
"You can ask me anything…"
"You go first, since you seem so eager to know things about me…" smiled Ryo taking a sip of his coffee.
"Why are you always sad?" Gaiev asked with a quiet, soothing voice. Ryo looked at Gaiev with wide eyes but immediately looked away, biting his lip.
"Sad?" he asked.
"Well... The firs' time I saw you... you where sitting on that park... looking so sad..." Gaiev began to speak, making Ryo look up to see him again. Gaiev was looking down on the table, playing with the bottle´s tag, looking for more courage to say what he wanted to say, "An' I though something really bad must o' happened to you to look as sad as you looked that day... I wanted to talk to you... bu' I just couldn't bring myself up to do it.... and so I left... I was amazed to see you again at the tea shop, and even more amazed when you asked me name... bu' that sadness hasn't disappeared at all, has it? It's still there, an' I was wonderin' what was it..."
Ryo smirked delightfully, "Gaiev..." and at the sound of his name, Gaiev turned to face him, drawing a nice smile. God! He had a beautiful smile! "I – I was going through a rough time.... I... I still am..."
"Want to talk 'bout it?"
"I lost my partner... Dee... he was my partner..."
"Oh..." Gaiev frowned, "He was a police officer too, then?"
"Yeah. He was. He was also my lover..."
"Lover?" Gaiev's eyes widened.
"The first one I seriously had..." said Ryo thinking back, "My first experience with another guy... and for a while I thought it would last forever but... well... he died..."
"Oh... Good reasons to be sad... How long was this?"
"A year and a half ago," Ryo half laughed at how pathetic that sounded.
"Not long, then..." Gaiev said.
"Not long."
"So I guess I would be very inappropriate if I where to tell you..."
"Tell me what?"
"That the first time I saw you I thought you where adorable..."
"Really?" Ryo smiled and blushed slightly, "And...I'm not anymore?"
"No, you're not adorable anymore..."
"How come?" he sounded almost disappointed to hear this.
"Because you're bloody gorgeous..." and the lustful way he said it made Ryo go from red to magenta in one second. He looked down on his coffee and giggled softly.
"Thanks," he managed to say.
They spent the rest of the evening talking about small stuff like why Gaiev despised his brother-in-law ('es such a whinny lit' american boy… no offense…), why Ryo despised his new partner (He's so cocky!) and how much the both of them found that Devon's british accent only made him sound gay-er… if that was possible…
"Never though it was, bu'… it is…"
It was already about 11:30 when they decided to call it and return home. They walked slowly, as if wanting to make the evening last longer than it should. Gaiev told him about his life in England: about his first boyfriend and how a pathetic break-up that turned out to be; about Loreen, his first girlfriend, and how this girl only made him decide that he was definitely sticking to boys; about his school days and how he'd wish he'd finished high-school before he came to the States for the first time to reunite with his mother, a move that was very much a mistake since the woman didn't want anything to do with him once she found that he was dating a nice boy instead of a nice girl (you know, like a "normal" kid) Ryo on his behalf told him about his parents and how they died when he was 18; about the time when he decided he wanted to be a cop and about his first day at the 27th precinct, when he met Dee, and his life changed forever.
As they approached Ryo's door, Gaiev sighed, "I jus' figured out something…"
"What?"
"This 'as been our first date…"
"No," Ryo laughed softly, "I think this was more as a reunion to talk about times gone by… not a date…"
"No, you're right. It takes more for it to be a date, right?"
"Right…"
"Let's make it one, then…" Gaiev said, reaching out to touch Ryo´s chin with this fingers, as delicately as if he were to touch a flower, raising Ryo´s head to face him, to meet with the lovable blond´s eyes and kiss him without permission, without hesitation, leaning forward, pressing Ryo's body against the wall and his own, and it was Ryo who broke it, turning his head to one side.
"S-sorry," Gaiev apologized, steping back and turning his head towards his own appartment door, feeling almost embarrased for what he did.
"It's getting late," he murmured with a shadowy expression on his face. Gaiev nodded.
"G'night…" he said before walking over to his apartment, without even looking at Ryo's face again. Ryo stood there until Gaiev dissappeared behind his door. As soon as he did, he slipped down to the floor, touching his lips briefly, still half in shock for what just happened with the kiss…and Gaiev…and his heart throbbing…and his lips burning…
… and smiled…
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Next chapter! Dorian comes back! (yes, I know you love to hate the guy) Look it over! Please review!!!
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