What Truths the Light will Show

Disclaimer: As per usual, I must reluctantly admit that I do not own any part of V for Vendetta in any way, shape or form.

Chapter Six

VvV The Past VvV

Grant nervously passed a hand through his short brown hair as he strode towards the phone. This is ridiculous, he thought viciously. Utterly ridiculous. I'm preparing to make a phone call, not to bloody wage war with an invading army. Then why did he still feel so nervous?

There was absolutely no reason to feel this anxious. He was merely going to make a phone call to cancel a planned meeting with a man he barely knew and to whom he owed absolutely nothing. True, it would be rather rude of him to phone and cancel mere hours before he was meant to meet Gabriel, but that mattered very little at the moment.

The fact of the matter was, Grant had been vaguely dreading this arrangement since a few hours after he had agreed to it. He would have to think up some sort of excuse, of course; a last minute emergency or illness or something of the sort. The little white lie wouldn't matter and would be much kinder than admitting that he didn't want to go because…

Because why?

In truth, because he was afraid. The intense emotional pull that he had felt towards Gabriel was horribly frightening both in its intimacy and in the social consequences. Grant hated admitting the possibility that he could be attracted to another man, and even worse, to the fiancé of his cousin through marriage. It was craziness!

And the thing was, right now, it was easy to pretend that it was just him being crazy or being foolish. While he was out going about his usual routine and chatting with his friends, it was so easy to believe that what he had felt for the other man was of no consequence, that it was just an absurd flight of fancy or a reaction to too much heat and sun and stress.

But what if it wasn't? When his mind wasn't occupied, Grant often found himself caught unawares by lingering thoughts of Gabriel's startling green eyes, his easy smile and his poise. The man was clever and charming, confident and beautiful… God, it was an irresistible combination for any woman, and apparently for some men as well. Grant had never considered himself to be a homosexual; he had always been very attracted to women, thank you very much. But the fact that he was feeling that same sort of attraction towards another man was… unsettling to say the least.

The phone rang, jarring the man out of his train of thought and making him jump. His heart pounded frantically as he berated himself for being such a prat.

"Hello?" he said into the receiver, his voice sounding a little more breathy than he would have liked. Calm down, man, calm down.

A smooth, calm voice on the other end replied, "Hello, is this Grant?" It took him a moment to recognize the voice. When he finally did, his heart skipped a beat, and then started pounding furiously.

"Ah, Gabriel. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Grant instantly cursed himself for the words that tumbled out of his mouth. God, how much more idiotic could he possibly make himself sound?

"There's no pleasure, I'm afraid. I actually called with a bit of bad news…" he started calmly. He's called to cancel, Grant thought with a sinking feeling of disappointment. Before he could even stop to think about how absurd he was about the situation, seeing as he was just about to ring up Gabriel for the exact same reason, the voice on the phone line continued.

"I've just received news from a friend that the restaurant where we were to meet has been shut down due to health code violations, so it appears we have to think of someplace else to get together." Grant remained silent for a moment; a bewildered look was on his face. "Hello? Are you still there?"

Grant blinked and shook his head slightly. "How did your friend know it was closed?" There was a brief chuckle on the other end.

"She was the one who did the inspection of the premises. Apparently, I don't want to know why it was closed, especially since I used to go there quite often for lunch. I was actually thinking we could go to a nearby coffee shop instead. It offers rather decent food as well; salad, soup, sandwiches, that sort of thing."

"I don't know," Grant replied. Say no, say no, you've changed your mind, a voice in his head insisted. Then he smiled at the silence on the line. "I mean, I really must question your choice of restaurants. Did you ask your friend if this coffee shop was safe, or is it as dodgy a place as that restaurant of yours?"

"She said the place was fine, thanks for the vote of confidence. God, are you always such a tease?" The voice managed to be both playful and exasperated. Grant started slightly, his face flushed. God, it was true. In his own twisted way… he was actually flirting with this man.

And he didn't even realize it. It just felt sort of natural. Good heavens…

"So," he tried to ask nonchalantly, "where exactly is this place?"

VvV Later, in the coffee shop VvV

In Grant's humble opinion, the meeting with Gabriel had been going well for the first little bit. They chatted amiably about the weather, and then segued quite nicely into the topic at hand; ancient cultures. It was a bit difficult to get the conversation started, as they really had no idea what topics Gabriel's friend would be discussing. In the end, Grant stuck to his area of expertise.

It turned out that Gabriel was an amazingly easy man to talk to. He was a very attentive listener and had a way of looking at you without staring too intensely. Grant hardly ever found himself getting distracted from the conversation. But still…

Every so often, Grant caught himself gazing just a bit too long as Gabriel savored his drink or brushed a few soft, light brown strands of hair from his face or getting lost listening to that low, mellow voice. The absolute worst was when he had been drawing a symbol on a notepad and was demonstrating the meaning. Gabriel had shifted the chair closer and leaned over, his shoulder brushing up against Grant's arm, their hands almost touching.

Grant was jolted out of his train of thought when Gabriel let out a low, bemused chuckle. He leaned over the table.

"Don't look now, but that old bird there has been sending us the nastiest looks for the past ten minutes," he whispered, his breath tickling Grant's ear. Gabriel's soft, shoulder length hair brushed briefly against the side of Grant's face. It was a struggle not to get lost in dangerous thoughts.

He shook his head slightly and fought the urge to peer over his shoulder. "Why? What are we doing?"

Gabriel merely smiled wickedly. "She seemed particularly upset when I leaned over and whispered in your ear just now."

Oh. A treacherous blush suffused his pale skin. The object of his affection just smiled even wider, obviously finding the whole thing terribly amusing. Under normal circumstances, Grant would have done as well. But now… the woman's assumptions about him just hit a bit too close to home.

"I shouldn't laugh, you're embarrassed. I'm sorry."

"No, don't be. I'm just… caught off guard by it, is all." There was the sound of chair legs scraping against the tiled floor, then the woman walked past their table towards the door. Grant risked a glance up at her, only to see that she was glaring directly at him. She was a picture of disapproval with her brow deeply furrowed, thin lips tightly pursed.

They watched silently as she trotted out the door. A few seconds passed before both men broke into peals of laughter. "Oh God," Grant gasped, leaning on the table and holding his side. "She looked so utterly annoyed!"

"She looked like she ate a lemon!"

"We should have blown her a kiss," Grant chuckled as he reached for his coffee, then took a sip. Gabriel smiled wickedly and leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"We should have given her a heart attack and kissed each other."

After several minutes of struggling to breathe between laughing and drowning on coffee, Grant reflected dimly that it was something of a small miracle that he didn't spray the whole thing all over the table.

Author's note: Wow, this chapter was kinda hard to write. The first ones flowed so nicely, this one didn't. I hope this doesn't make the writing seem odd. Poor Grant is having such an awkward day. Should I make it so that he has a really pleasant afternoon? wink wink (hm… do I dare even attempt to write mature scenes? Readers be warned, if I do try, it will probably turn out horribly.)

Chapter 7 is done, chapter 8 is turning out to be difficult to write… sigh. Much as I hate to keep you guys waiting, I like to try to have two chapters written in advance. I'm just crazy like that.