Chapter six
Tony too woke to the sound of rain. He got out of bed and went over to his window and stared out for a while. He didn't particularly care if it rained or not. Every weather had its own peaks. Sun and warmth were of course awesome because you could just do so much. You could go outside and play basketball with your friends or just sit in the park.
Rain was a different matter though. With the rain it depended on the season. When it was winter and cold and everything was just grey, rain could be really depressing. On such days it all depended on how much you really had to do that day. If you were able to just stay in bed all day and not go out at all, the rain could be nice.
On days like that his mother had always insisted on having breakfast in bed and then never got out of it for the whole day. She had practically forced his father and him to stay there with her all day, just cuddle and watch movies. In the afternoon, one of them had to get up and get the hot chocolate and the popcorn for an even better movie experience, or so she had said. Tony had loved these days. When his mother had died, he had been afraid that he had lost these days too. The first time it had rained on a Sunday, his father had been busy with work and Tony had crawled into his father's bed and proceeded to watch a movie alone in the big bed.
His father had later called for him to join him for dinner, but Tony hadn't been able to answer. He had managed to watch half of the first movie before he had started to cry. He wanted his mum back, wanted hot chocolate and popcorn and his parents to cuddle up to and laugh because of the silly things the people in the movies did or the running commentary his mum would always run along.
His father had found him there. Lying in the bed with his head buried in the pillow, his little body shaking with sobs, not even able to produce tears anymore because he had spent the whole day crying.
Tony remembered how Senior had turned around and left the room again and how afraid he had been that he had made his father angry. He had wondered if he had finally destroyed their already strained relationship.
But his father had come back. He had sat down beside Tony, taken him in his arms and soothed him. When Tony had finally been able to look up into his father's eyes, he had seen the deep grief his father felt, grief so much like his own. He had been startled when his dad had pushed a hot chocolate into his hands, put a movie on and then cuddled Tony to him. Tony had been amazed by the turn of events and looking back, that was probably the time, he had realized that his father was better with actions than he was with words. They had fallen asleep in that position, cuddled up together, watching a movie. The next day his father had excused Tony from school, and they had talked. Talked about his mother, shared stories about her and spent the day repairing their relationship.
Tony shook his head to clear away the memories. He realized that maybe it was the perfect day to spend the day in bed and watch movies. Even though it wasn't cold, the rain was pouring down heavily, and Tony had nothing else to do today.
After watching two movies he realized he had some energy to burn off. He wasn't used to just lying around all day anymore and not moving at least a bit. He decided to go for a run, even if it was raining, it was still warm and getting wet was not a problem, he actually quite liked running in the rain.
He got ready for the run and then started with a slow pace. He was in good shape but didn't want to start off too fast. He was a natural long-distance runner and was in good condition, which had helped tremendously on the basketball court. He liked running, he could clear his head and burn off the endless energy he sometimes had, like now.
When he came to a crossroad, he realized that he had no idea where he was, he had been so lost in his own head that he hadn't focused on where he was going. Besides he had just moved here two days ago after all and hadn't found the time to find the perfect running route and discover the area. Tony figured he would just cross the road and then go back on that side. He hoped he would recognize something that would point to the right way home. The rain was coming down heavier again and he was a very wet. Maybe it hadn't been his brightest idea to go for a run, he could have done a workout at home or wait till the rain had stopped or lessened, but what was done, was done.
After a short while he realized that this was the road to the little diner he had found yesterday. He sighed with relief and decided he would go there, warm up a bit and wait till the worst had passed. He could also ask someone what the fastest way to his home was, so he could take a nice long hot shower.
Tony went inside the diner and was immediately greeted by Elaine. She took one look at him and told him to go to the bathroom to at least dry off his hair.
Tony chuckled, she obviously was a bit of a mother hen, but it was quite sweet, she even had remembered his name.
As he walked out of the restroom, he noticed an older looking man sitting in one of the booths, drinking coffee. He had silver grey hair and just by looking at him, Tony could tell, that this man was a leader. He just oozed the authority and commanding aura and Tony immediately hardened in his pants. 'Down, boy, now is really not the time', Tony thought.
Elaine went to the other man and talked with him for a while and Tony wondered if he came here often, Elaine certainly knew him by the looks of it. He could just ask Elaine, but he liked to find out himself. The man had done nothing but sit and drink his coffee but just with that one look he was a mystery to Tony, one he would like to solve. Additionally, he didn't want Elaine to know that he was interested in the other man. He was sure he could just play it off as him being noisy and wanting to know if he could make a new friend with that stranger, but he was also relatively sure she would immediately see through his bluff and know that his interest was as much sexual as anything. Even if Tony was also sure, that Elaine was open-minded and didn't mind homosexuality, he didn't want to risk it and have it coming out that way.
When Elaine asked him if she could get him anything, Tony jerked out of his thoughts and stammered out an order for coffee. Elaine looked him in the eye and then looked over his shoulder in the direction of the other guy. She couldn't know, could she? Surely not. No one was that good, even when you worked with people every day, no one was that good at reading people that they knew what you were thinking just by looking at you for a moment. Also no one had been able to read Tony adequately in years, except his father, but that was a different matter! Tony was quite skilled at hiding his feelings or thoughts, which he actually hoped would come in handy as a detective while working undercover.
Tony just stared as his coffee as Elaine went to talk to the other man and when she came back, he noticed that she had a slight smirk on her lips. He wondered about that but didn't want to think about it too deeply and decided to just ignore her for the time being and not give her anything to see in his expression that could betray his thoughts. He groaned inwardly, why was this making him so uncomfortable, he normally wasn't like that. He was quite open with his sexuality and didn't mind strangers knowing, but maybe it was the anxiety of the thought of not being accepted by his fellow students at the academy if it somehow become public knowledge that he was bi before he had the time to get a feel for how they would react. He scowled, he was being ridiculous, how would they know, the diner was nearly empty, and he argued with himself, that he was just being paranoid and that his fellow students were surely good people who weren't biased and wouldn't judge him based on that. Or so he hoped. God what was wrong with him, he had never had a problem with making friends and had never had a problem with second guessing himself. He stopped himself, he had promised Steve that he would enjoy his time at the academy and that he wouldn't stress himself before he had met the people there. He honestly didn't know where these thoughts came from, he knew that there were a lot of people out there who were supportive or didn't give a shit about who was dating who and he hadn't had a problem with prejudices against him before. Maybe he had read to many stories about police officers being biased even if the logical side of his brain knew that it didn't mean that every police officer was thinking like that.
'What the hell, Tony? What Is wrong with you, just stop thinking about it and you'll see how the people at the academy are tomorrow and then you can stress out but not before that! You are interested in that guy because he is seriously hot and when Elaine could see it in your expression, well, what's the problem, she isn't going to tell anyone, and besides she's thinking what she is thinking, you can't change that now and you don't even KNOW what she is thinking!', Tony thought to himself, which finally got the part of his brain with all the doubts to shut up.
When Tony noticed that the older man stood up out of the corner of his eye, he tried not to look him over too obvious. As the man was leaving, Tony felt eyes on him and just barely stopped himself from looking up. He could have sworn he the eyes going up and down his body and he couldn't completely stop his body's reaction. He gave a full body shudder, and his cock was already completely hard again.
He groaned inwardly, great, he would just sit here for a while longer and wait till the other man was gone and for his cock to go down again.
After finishing his coffee and asking for directions for the quickest way home he was finally able to take that hot shower. He sighed with bliss and then went downstairs to make himself some dinner.
He ate, cleaned the dishes and then sat down at the piano again to play. He immediately felt that today he was not in the mood for sad and melancholy but for something happier. He was finally starting a new chapter in his life tomorrow and he expressed that with his music.
He played and played, thinking about the new experiences and about the stranger that had evoked such strong reactions in his body, not realizing the time that passed. He just played piece after piece until his fingers hurt from over-use and as he looked at the clock, he saw how late it was already and that he needed to go to bed, so that he would be ready to start his first day at the police academy well rested.
Little did he know, how much his music had impacted the life of the person living next door and how much more his life was going to change because of that.
Author's notes: I promise, we will move forward a bit in the next chapter, at least I hope so… I really have no idea, where my mind is going to take this, but I plan to move the story along a bit. So, bear with me please.