This story is for amusement only- I only profit by making the Mouse happy! And the Mouse is so much fun when happy!

June 7th, 2000 4:50pm

Sanos was there early and so was Kenshin, waiting in the doorway of his closed bistro. The small man had on a soft cotton shirt of a light burnt-umber color and black slacks. A thin black jacket was thrown over his arm, his jet black hair tied back into that foxtail brush. A pair of small amethyst and diamond hoops glittered in his left ear He looked cool and poised, and gave Sanos a gentle smile of greeting. "There's been a little change of plans, and I forgot to get your number this morning. Teo called and said she has to work late. Would you like to attend the theater with me later? I already have the tickets."

"What show?'

"It's a performance piece by a young woman who used to work for me. It's off-off-Broadway, but she has had some interesting things to say. What do you think?"

"Sounds wonderful. Where do you want to have supper?"

"There's a little place up in Harlem, I think you'd like. Let's go."

They took the subway, chatting about nothing much. On the street, Kenshin drew attention from a couple of teenagers who started to make a few nasty comments. Before Sanos could say anything, Kenshin turned and just looked at the boys. They all stepped back, shut up, and took off. "What did you do, Kenshin? You don't have a gun, do you?"

The small man laughed. "No, I just let them see I wasn't frightened and that I could take what they threw and pay it back threefold. It's a manner of behavior that Teo taught me long ago. If you can show that you're not afraid, most idiots will back off. They only prey on the frightened because they're weak themselves."

"And if they're not weak?

"Then you run like hell! I'm not stupid, you know." The two men laughed as they turned into the door of a small Spanish restaurant. Kenshin was greeted as an old friend and he and Sanos were shown to a quiet table. Kenshin ordered for them in Spanish and poured Sanos a glass of wine.

"How many languages do you speak, Kenshin?"

"Three: English, Spanish, and Japanese. Though I've learned to swear pretty well in Korean, thanks to my produce dealer! Teo speaks French and Chinese as well. We've had so many different immigrants working for me in the past years that you kind of pick up a little of everything. Don't you speak Spanish? I thought Sanos was a Spanish name?"

"I don't know really, my family was sort of from all over. I guess the first Sanos was a traveling man, no body knows too much more than that. I do speak some French."

Kenshin looked at the big, attractive man with such a beautiful open smile. "Eye candy" Teo had called him, and she wasn't lying! He had changed into a lemon yellow cotton shirt since this morning and the color just made his eyes look even warmer brown than before. Oh, definitely a tasty dish, but behave and play slow, Kenshin, you've been fooled before. "Here's the salad- so tell me, Dave how long have you worked for "The Weekly Saga"?"

They talked and laughed through dinner. Sanos found that the older man was very well read and traveled, with a good eye for detail and background. Sanos was interesting to Kenshin as well, having come out as a teenager and lived as an openly gay man in several parts of the country working for mainstream and independent papers.

"I've spent most of my life here in the city, since I left home when I was fifteen. I've lived in the brownstone for twenty-one years now, and I can't think of living anywhere else. I do love to travel though."

"You bought into it?"

"No. I lived there with Teo when she first found me, up in the little place on the fourth floor. Then when Hank got sick, she moved down into the second floor flat with him. After he died, he left the place to Teo and me."

"And Hank was ?"

Kenshin blushed faintly. "He was Teo's – um- mentor, you might say. He owned the brownstone and the bookstore. He was sixty when I first met him, but we became good friends during the years we knew each other. Teo got him to adopt her when she became a cop, that's how he had medical insurance. Too late, unfortunately, he already had an undiagnosed lung cancer – he smoked like a chimney. He died in '86. I'd already taken over the little coffee shop that's my bistro now. I just moved downstairs with Teo to help out and I stayed."

"And you've lived with her ever since?"

"More or less." They were served paella with saffron; it smelled as good as it looked. Kenshin served Sanos and took some himself. "I did move out once for almost a year. I was in L-U-V; he was an A-S-S, but I wouldn't listen to anybody. When he nearly broke my jaw, I hid out at a friend's. Teo found me in one day, she already had my clothes in the cab, and some of our friends were moving my other stuff back home. I've been there since."

"Did he apologize? And try to make amends?" He couldn't believe how calm Kenshin was about such an upsetting idea as an abusive partner. He wouldn't have stood it for a minute.

Kenshin shrugged. "Of course he did, he was always sweet- when he wasn't high. That's when the trouble started. He came to the bistro and tried to get me to come back. I said we were finished. He grabbed me, and Teo was there this time. He didn't come back."

"She sounds like a pretty fierce bitch, did she bite him?" Sanos started to laugh, till he saw how suddenly cold and hard Kenshin's eyes became. "I'm sorry, that was a lame mean joke about someone who is really important to you. Forgive me?"

The eyes softened. "This time I will, you really don't know her. She's my best and oldest friend, and she's never wanted anything from me except my friendship in return. She never laid a hand on Rico, more than pushing him away; she just made it plain that he was unwelcome to come back." He could still remember the pain of Rico's grip on his arms suddenly lifting and Teo moving into to pin the man against the wall, a French knife in her left hand just an inch from his eye. It was as if he had seen that move somewhere else before, in a distant dream. She had told the shaking man exactly what she intended to use the knife for if he ever came back, and he didn't. "He died of an OD a few months after. I never realized how much heroin he had been doing." Kenshin took a big sip of wine. "You certainly can get people to talk , Dave. It must come in handy in your job."

"I'm sorry to pry. Once a reporter, I guess. You two seem like a pretty interesting couple. She doesn't have a steady –whatever?"

"She gets bored when people get clingy. Though she mellowing with age; that girl you met this morning? Donna? She's been around for six months now; I think it's a record. She's mostly interested in her work. This case she's on now is a hard one to take. For both of us. Hey, boy reporter, tell me something about you now. Since we're sitting here, I am guessing you're unattached. You don't seem like the cheating type."

It was Sanos' turn to blush. "Yeah, I'm single. I just haven't met Mr. Right, you know? Though the Mr. Wrongs have been fun!" They turned the talk to other subjects.

The show was – boring, Sanos thought. The artist was trying to be avant-garde; it just didn't mean much to him. So he watched Kenshin instead, the shining eyes, the ready smile, the beautiful mouth and hands. He wanted to untie that thick hair and spread it over Kenshin's shoulders, preferably his naked shoulders, and bury his face in it and the man beneath it. Kenshin looked over and even in the dim light of the audience, Sanos could see him blush. It was charming to think of a grown man blushing like a boy. He was sort of a mix of young and old, experience and naïveté. Sanos could feel himself warming up, but remembered to behave. At least in public.

He insisted on escorting Kenshin home, saying that he would take the cab back to his place after. When the stopped before the brownstone, he told the hack to wait and walked the small man to the door. Kenshin turned," I want to thank you for a great night, Dave. "

"I had a great time too. Can I see you again? Soon?"

"I'll be at the bookstore tomorrow around two. I give the twins a break on my day off to have lunch together and bitch about how badly their boyfriends treat them. I'll be free after that."

"The twins?"

Kenshin laughed; "You'll understand after you meet them" He stood up on his toes and kissed Sanos gently. Dave returned and tried to deepen the sweet kiss, but Kenshin pulled away. "Good night Dave."

"Good night, Kenshin." He stood on the sidewalk and watched the light come on in the second floor front, another light was burning in the back, Gaudro must be home. Sanos went home in a daze. This man, who was eight years older than he and looked eight years younger, had stirred him profoundly. His tiny height –probably no more than 5'3"- and his delicacy was exciting to think about. He might look fragile, but he was unexpectedly strong and a little mysterious. He came to Sanos in his dreams that night, black hair flying like a cape, violet/black eyes full of tenderness and passion. He couldn't wait to see him again.

Kenshin sighed and kicked off his shoes inside the front door. He heard the door open from Teo's room. "How was the show, Nezumo-chan?"

"Pretty lame, unfortunately. She was doing better when you were with her. And ignoring her on a regular basis."

"Unrequited passion has fueled much of great literature. I'm not going to go back to that soppy little miss, though. The theater must suffer for my happiness. And how was dinner with the eye candy?"

"Yummy, both of them. You don't mind? You are working together, Shinju-sama."

"I am working. He is snooping around after me. As long as he's not in my way, I don't mind. You give him something better to think about, if you want to. Just play safe, hear? Are you coming to bed?"

"I think I'll sleep in my room tonight, if you don't mind. What was so important, a break in the case?'

"Domestic violence. One young man decided to chastise his errant lover in an alleyway behind Berkley's Bar. Obnoxious and thump-worthy behavior, but not connected to my case. But they're jumping on everything now that somebody's watching them. I'm going to bed then, good night, koi." She took him in her arms for a gentle kiss. Kenshin laid his head down on her shoulder for a moment.

"Good night, koi. See you tomorrow."

Teo went into her room and closed the door. Sanos was an annoyance and a pain in the ass, but he gave the nezumo something else to think about. And gave her a chance for the first full night of sleep she'd had in a week. She'd have to buy him coffee tomorrow.