Chapter Ninety One
...
Connor rang the doorbell and waited on the front step, trying to calm his nerves. It was just dinner, he reminded himself. Yet here he was, as nervous as a teenager before prom. He'd been surprised when Victor had asked him on a date - a restaurant that was on his list, even - but it had been a pleasant surprise, and Connor had agreed without a second of hesitation.
Ryuu had spent the rest of the evening ribbing him about the date and trying to make him go through all of his clothes to find something suitable to wear. Connor had eventually given up on completing his exercises when both Craig and Adam had joined in on the discussion.
"It needs to be grey but, like, dark grey," Craig said adamantly.
"Because he's Batman?" Adam asked, grinning.
Craig laughed. "Dork. It's 'cause it makes his eyes look brighter."
"You've got a charcoal shirt, Papa. You can wear that with the green tie, y'know, the one that looks like the ocean?" Ry said, grinning at the obvious reminder of Victor's bright blue eyes.
Connor had looked between the three boys, shook his head, and left to get several shirts from his wardrobe. If they were going to argue over what he should wear, then they could at least see what he owned.
"I'm not wearing a tie; it's not that sort of restaurant," Connor said as he returned with his shirts.
"Where are you going?" Adam asked, looking to his phone.
"The Silver Fountain. It's a Thai restaurant in Westville."
Adam tapped on his phone, Craig looking over his shoulder. "Hmm, it's not The Glass Mirror, but it's fancier than The Paper Lantern. Don't tell Warren I said that," Craig added.
"Let me see," Ry said, batting at Craig's hand. "Ooh, nice! Papa, you so have to wear a tie."
After almost half an hour of them arguing about shirt and tie combinations, Connor had finally had enough and sent them all to bed. They'd slept in the lounge room on mattresses that Craig had produced from seemingly nowhere, whisper-talking for most of the night instead of sleeping.
Somewhere around 2am, Connor had left his bed to tell them to quiet down. He'd opened the door a crack, but had stopped abruptly in his bedroom doorway when he heard Victor's name. Now that he was alert, Connor couldn't stop himself and he listened to the conversation rather than the noise.
" - really screwed him over, y'know? I don't think Cara was always like that, she actually liked Victor when they first started dating, but I don't know that she ever really loved him? I guess she got obsessed with being someone else after that. Or maybe she just wanted to be better than everyone else, I dunno. Fuck," Craig ended with a sigh, rubbing his hands over his face.
"It's not your fault, Craig," Ry whispered.
"Been telling him that for years, dude," Adam muttered.
"I just... I thought it'd be better after Elijah and Elliot were born, y'know? And it kinda was, like, Victor just loved them so freaking much and Cara loved the attention, so she was her own version of happy. Even Dad didn't say anything about me being a freak for, like, three straight months."
Connor realised he was almost crushing the doorknob in his grip at Craig's words. He forced himself to breathe, to calm down, to let go of the doorknob.
"Then someone else had a baby in the social circle, so the twins were suddenly old news, and Cara lost all of the attention they'd brought her. Then she realised that the twins preferred Victor's company and she started arguing with him, saying he was trying to take the twins away from her and that he was going to leave her. I think in some way, Cara actually wanted that to happen because then she would've gotten sympathy from people. Victor suggested couple's therapy instead," Craig said with an incredulous laugh. "I don't think anyone expected that, and Dad made the usual comments about him being sensitive and weak. Not where Victor could hear, of course. Cara just agreed with him; she didn't even try to defend Victor."
There was a long moment of silence, and Connor wondered if they'd fallen asleep. He didn't know if he wanted to hurt Cara for treating her ex-husband and brother like crap, or if he wanted to hug Victor and Craig for putting up with her for so long.
"Anyway, it's good that Victor's moving on. He deserves to be loved, y'know? Everyone does."
"A-fucking-men. Now shut up and go to sleep; I'm tired, dude," Adam said with a groan.
"You said that an hour ago, and you're still awake," Ry said, grinning.
"And miss the heart-to-heart? Yeah, right," Adam scoffed. "I'm shutting off your phone, dude, or you'll be texting Grant and Jewel 'til morning."
"Aww, c'mon. Just one text?"
"One. You've got thirty seconds."
The front door opened, startling Connor out of his reminiscing. He smiled when Victor gave him a very obvious once over. Connor was glad he'd let the boys convince him to wear the charcoal button-up shirt and ocean-green tie when he saw Victor blush in desire. "Hello, darling."
"Hi," Victor said, smiling adorably.
"Can I come inside?" Connor asked.
"We're not going out?" Victor asked, frowning in confusion.
"Oh, we definitely are, darling. I'd just prefer to kiss you without so many witnesses," Connor said, his gaze flicking over to the neighbour's kitchen window where she'd been washing the same mug for the entire time he'd been standing there.
Victor sighed and shook his head. "Sorry about them, Connor. I'd tell my mother to back off if I thought she'd listen."
"You don't have to be sorry about a thing, darling."
Smiling, Victor stepped back so Connor could walk inside. Shutting the door behind him, Connor leaned back against the door and waited.
Victor stared at the knotted tie around Connor's neck and imagined his thick and calloused fingers working on the silky material. The thought brought a curl of desire to the pit of his stomach and it took a moment for Victor to realise that Connor was waiting for him to make a move. Stepping closer to Connor, Victor took his hand and threaded their fingers, his heart beating wildly despite such an innocent gesture. Connor let out a soft breath, cupping Victor's cheek in his broad palm, the curl of desire becoming a solid ember one spark away from flame.
"Look at me, darling?" Connor murmured.
Victor opened his eyes, not realising that he'd closed them in the first place, and was faced with Connor's intense lust-filled gaze.
"I can't kiss you now, darling. If I do, I won't stop and we won't be leaving the house until morning," Connor murmured, running his thumb along Victor's bottom lip.
Victor swallowed hard at the thought. On the one hand, he wanted to stay here with Connor and do everything he was suggesting, and on the other, the idea of jumping into bed with Connor so soon reminded Victor far too much of his relationship with Cara. And on the third and fourth hands, he really didn't want to leave the house without even a kiss between them.
"What if I kiss you?" Victor asked, the words practically blurted out as he thought them.
Connor smiled that broad smile that made Victor's stomach flutter. His hand left Victor's cheek and fell to his side, though his other hand squeezed Victor's gently. "The answer to that is always yes, darling."
Victor smiled and moved to kiss him. For all that Victor had intended for the kiss to be chaste, as soon as Connor responded, Victor could feel the ember of desire fanning into a bright flame. Connor kissed him like he'd never get enough, like he wanted just this and everything all at once. Victor kissed him back the best he could, trying not to turn to jelly because Connor's stubble was scratching against his chin and mouth, which was apparently something he really liked.
After a moment longer, Victor pulled back to breathe and forced himself to step back entirely. He thought of Cara and how he didn't want this relationship with Connor to start the same way. Trying not to feel too guilty about stopping, Victor looked at Connor. This time, he was the one with his eyes closed, and Victor watched as he brought himself together piece by piece until he was completely in control once more.
"Are you okay, Connor?" Victor asked when he'd opened his eyes again.
"Fine, darling. Just... I think I got too intense too quick."
Victor squeezed his hand - through all of it, they'd never let go of one another - and smiled. "I think we both did. That being said, I definitely liked it."
Connor glanced down and grinned. "I think it's safe to say we both liked it, darling. Now, let's get out of here before I have my way with you and we skip dinner entirely."
Victor grinned as he opened the door. "It's all right; I'm not wearing the right shirt."
Connor didn't even have to ask, since only Honey could know that, but he did ask, "You'll tell me when you're wearing the right shirt, won't you, darling?"
"Maybe," Victor said with a broad grin, walking outside to the car.
Cheeky brat, Connor thought as he watched Victor walk to the car in his extremely well-fitted suit pants and a loose short-sleeved green button-up shirt.
He took a second to calm himself down before following Victor outside, closing the locked door behind him.
...
"Tell me what you think, okay? I want your honest opinion," Ethan said, pacing back and forth from the Hive's kitchen to the dining area.
"Eth, breathe," Zach said, snagging his boyfriend's hand. "You're probably sweating out half of the stuff you're carrying," he added, wrinkling his nose at the sweaty feel of Ethan's hand.
"No, it's just regular sweat."
"I don't want to know how you know the difference between kinds of sweat, dude," Craig said.
"Aren't you two missing out on your extra language studies?" Jewel asked, frowning.
They'd all attended the morning language session at the Council building with Jared teaching them, and now, according to Ethan's timetable, he and Zach were meant to be practising together to help retain and improve their skills.
"We're waiting for this first. It's important," Zach said.
"All right. Ready, Grant?" Jewel asked.
Grant nodded and opened his yearbook at the same time as Jewel. Craig looked over their shoulders immediately, glancing between them as they flipped pages.
"This is really good, Ethan," Grant said, smiling over at him.
"I like the layout better than the old one, too. It's way easier to read than that collage crap," Jewel said.
"They used Comic Sans as well, which isn't even accessible, let alone professional," Ethan said, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, it looks great; get to the awards already," Craig said, poking Grant's shoulder.
"I'm getting there," Grant said, tugging Craig so he was draped over his shoulders.
Craig grinned and kissed Grant's cheek. "Get there faster."
"Is it physically impossible for you guys to stop flirting?" Adam asked, wrinkling his nose as he came into the kitchen to refill his water bottle.
"Yes," Craig replied seriously, then tapped Grant's arm excitedly. "Ooh, there you are!"
Grant stopped flipping pages and looked to where Craig was pointing. "Most likely to be loved."
"Awww," Craig cooed.
"Ughhh," Adam groaned, leaning against the counter and drinking his water.
"What did you get, babe?" Grant asked, looking to Jewel.
"Most likely to make a difference. Not what I expected, but I'll take it," Jewel said, grinning.
"Thanks, Ethan. You did a great job on these," Grant said.
"You really think so? I mean, I didn't want to rush it, but I knew you had messages from the other seniors, and you can put them in the notes section in the back now."
Grant laughed. "Oh, I was serious when I told them I only wanted signatures. I'm going to put them next to their photos so Craig can practice changing into them and forging their signatures. It's easier to withdraw money from a bank than to steal from it, right?"
There was a long moment of silence.
"Uh, is it weird that I'm attracted to your brain right now?" Craig asked.
"Yes, dude, it seriously is," Adam said, wrinkling his nose.
"How many signatures did you get?" Ethan asked.
"All of them. I even made some of the parents sign the notebook, too," Grant said with a grin. "They just thought I was being an idiot."
"You got me to sign the book, Grant," Jewel said, frowning at him.
"Yeah, I know. It would've looked suspicious if I'd had everyone but you sign it," he said, kissing the back of her hand. "How are you at forging signatures, Craig?"
"Apart from my parents' signatures, not great."
"Well, we'll have to put a reward system in place for every signature that you get right."
"Oh, for Super Jesus' sake. Go downstairs already, I can practically see the lust on you," Adam said, making a gagging noise.
"You heard the man," Craig said with a laugh. He grabbed Grant and Jewel's hands, and shifted them down through the floor.
Ethan frowned at the floorboards. "I think Craig just shifted them into a wall."
"I'm not checking," Zach said, shuddering.
"Neither am I," Adam said, shaking his head.
Ethan looked between the two of them, then back to the floorboards. "I'm sure they'll be fine."
...
Babel read the document in front of her, frowning at what she read between the lines as much as the words themselves. After the interview with Brian Anderson, the register proposal had been scrapped, but a new proposal had gone through only hours later with much vaguer terminology than usual.
Most of the UN representatives were refusing to talk to her after the interview, but she could understand what their silence meant just as if they'd shouted at her. The few that still talked to her either didn't agree with the register or were trying to make her see why such a register was necessary.
She rolled her eyes at the thought. It was as necessary as a wall separating countries, which was to say, not at all. Reading the last of the document and adding her comments, Babel saved the file in several places, printed the document in case her email was 'lost in the Ethernet' again, and sent another copy through to her private email that not even Jared knew about.
Checking the inbox on her phone, Babel was surprised to see an email from an unknown address. Deliberating whether to delete it without even looking, she looked at the subject and sender closer: Important - please open.
"If it's spam, I'll just delete it," she murmured, opening the email to check.
Babel relaxed slightly as she realised the email was from Honey. Reading the contents, however, made her tense again. Reading the last line of the email, Babel slipped her phone into her pocket and ran from her office to find Delattre.
...
"Will these be okay? I can mature them for longer, if you want?" Layla asked.
"They're exactly what I wanted. Thank you," Curtis said with a broad smile. His smile faded as he looked from the cherry trees to Layla. "You're sure they won't hurt you, being cut down?"
Layla shook her head. "No; I already retracted my power from them weeks ago. In fact, the last metre is completely naturally grown. They really like the soil here," she said, looking to the ground beneath them.
"It's a good plot of land," Curtis agreed with a nod. "Now, Honey told me you need a lift to work?"
"Oh. Well, yes. I was going to walk to the bus stop. Are you sure you don't mind?"
"It's the least I can do. Thank you for the trees, Layla. They're going to look amazing for the deck. I'll take good care of them," Curtis promised, patting the nearest tree's trunk.
"I know you will," Layla said with a smile as she followed Curtis through Honey's paddock to his car.
...
"Detective Fisher," Alan answered the phone, frowning when there wasn't an immediate response. "Hello?" he said, looking to the caller ID, only to see it was a private number.
"Do you know the Paper Lantern?"
His frown increased at the odd question. "The Chinese restaurant?" he queried. "Hello? Look, lady, if this is some sort of joke - " Fisher cut off, realising that he was talking to a dial tone and hung up the phone.
If that had been a prank, then it was the worst prank call he'd ever received, Fisher thought to himself, shaking his head.
An hour later, he found that he was still thinking about the call and their odd question. He knew the restaurant, but there had to be another reason they were asking about it, surely. Fisher opened a web browser and Googled the restaurant. The website was basic enough to navigate, but the logo of the paper lantern niggled something in his memory. Frowning as he tried to remember the most recent cases he'd worked on or had heard about, Fisher closed the browser and searched his most recent cases.
"What are you looking at, Fisher?" Mia asked curiously as she returned from the kitchen, a mug of coffee in her hand.
"Had an anonymous caller this morning. You remember that car crash with the five victims a few months back?"
"It was my first case; not going to forget it any time soon," Mia said, wincing at the memory of the charred bodies in what was left of the burning car.
The truck driver had tried to help the victims, but the flames had been too hot and strong for him to get close enough - several cases of alcohol in the boot of the car had been the cause of that, apparently. The investigators had put the cause of the fire as unknown, since there didn't seem to be a starting place for the fire, and they hadn't found a lighter or matches in the car's remains. It had been her first case with Fisher, and Mia was amazed by the way he could see and understand things that others seemed to miss. He'd been the one to point out the thorns at the scene, though there hadn't been any thorny plants along that road at all - he'd walked the length of it to check and then made her double-check. The truck driver had been the only one at the scene, there were no houses around, and even if it was the result of supers, they would have been seen at the crash or left another set of footprints. It was still an unresolved case and one that Mia tried not to think about too long, lest it drive her mad with the need to solve it.
"This look familiar to you?" Fisher asked, turning his screen towards her.
Mia frowned at the picture of Chinese food containers. "If it wasn't for the evidence marker, it'd look like a stock image of Chinese food. Is it a case?"
"This was Tyrone's case, not ours. And not the food, the logo," Fisher prompted.
Mia set her mug down and moved closer to look at the logo: a red paper lantern stamped on the side of the containers. "The Paper Lantern? Isn't that a Chinese restaurant?"
"Yeah. Now, look at this," Fisher said, bringing up the car crash case. He waited for the images to load, scrolling until he found the one he was looking for, double-clicking the photo so it filled the screen. "This is Sagar's purse. See the red card in there?"
Mia's frown appeared again as she saw the curled and burnt edge of a red card. "I don't know, Fisher. It could be a business card from anywhere or anyone."
"I thought the same, so I got the purse from Evidence," Fisher said, nodding to the clear plastic bag sitting on the other side of his desk. "The purse is melted, but it protected most of the cards."
"It's definitely a knockoff, then. Real leather doesn't burn," Mia said, grinning.
Fisher rolled his eyes. "More importantly, see the red business card? Turn it over," he instructed, Mia doing so and looking closely at the edge of the red card to see part of the paper lantern.
"Okay. Two times is a coincidence, not a pattern. So what do we do now?"
"Investigate and hope there isn't a third time," Fisher replied, grabbing his things and standing.
Mia set the bag down and wondered if she'd have enough time to pour her coffee into a travel mug.
"C'mon, kid," Fisher called over his shoulder.
Mia sighed, took a moment to mourn her coffee, and hurried after her partner.
...
Connor looked from his menu across to Victor, grinning when he caught Victor looking at him. "Do you know what you want to eat, darling?" he asked, chuckling when Victor blushed at his innuendo.
"The Thai salad sounds good. What about you?" Victor asked, sipping at his water and trying to calm down.
"Pad Thai; it's my favourite dish," Connor added with a smile. "Ry cooks it for me for my birthday every year. Unfortunately, he's not a very good cook."
Victor laughed. "Well, we have that in common. I wonder if Elijah or Elliot will be able to cook; I've burnt water before," he admitted, grinning.
"You'll definitely have to tell me how you managed that; it sounds like quite the story," Connor said.
Victor shook his head. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it was just me being distracted by a case and forgetting the pot was on the stove. I did manage to destroy the pot so thoroughly that I needed to replace the whole set."
"The whole set?" Connor echoed with a frown.
"It was easier to replace the whole set to appease Cara than it was arguing with her about it for another week," Victor said, shrugging. "Sorry, I didn't mean to bring her up."
Connor reached across the table to squeeze Victor's hand gently. "You're allowed to talk about her, darling. She's the mother of your children and they'll want to know about her. Surely there's some good with the bad?"
Victor snorted. "Yeah, one percent good and ninety-nine percent bad. Our whole relationship was fucked up, and I didn't even realise until afterwards and... and, you. Just being with you for this last month, even as friends, was already ten times better than three years with her," he admitted shyly.
"Kuso," Connor muttered when the waitress headed towards them. (Shit. Japanese)
"What's wrong?" Victor asked, wondering if he'd already managed to ruin this thing between them.
"In a moment, darling," Connor replied, winking and relieving Victor's tension.
"Good evening. Are you both ready to order?" the waitress asked, looking between them with a smile.
Connor and Victor both nodded, Connor nodding for Victor to order first. Once they'd placed their orders and the waitress had left, Victor looked to Connor for an explanation.
"I wanted to kiss you, darling, but we're too far apart. Would you mind if we go against social convention so I can sit next to you?" Connor asked, smiling.
Victor laughed brightly. "I think I can rebel against social conventions for one night."
Connor rearranged the table settings so he could sit next to Victor comfortably, then stood and moved seats. Victor didn't have a chance to say or do anything before Connor kissed him fully, his hand resting on Victor's thigh. Victor opened his eyes as they pulled away a moment later, smiling when Connor cupped his cheek and brushed his thumb against his lip.
"Thank you, darling. Now, would you like something to drink with your meal?" Connor asked, turning to look at the drinks menu.
"No, I - " Victor stopped abruptly, paling.
"Victor? What's wrong?" Connor asked, looking around the restaurant for a potential threat.
"Mrs. Quinton's here," he hissed, nodding to an old woman across the restaurant from them.
"That's bad because?"
"She's Maxville's - no, the world's - biggest gossip, so Mother will probably know we were making out before we even get our food."
Sensing that Victor hadn't finished yet, Connor waited for him to continue, resting a hand on his thigh.
"Mrs. Quinton has two greyhounds who chased me when I was a kid, and when I told her about it, she just laughed at me. She called me a rabbit, which was a difficult nickname to get rid of with buck teeth. I just... hate her," Victor muttered, knowing how pathetic he sounded for hating an old woman for laughing at him as a child over fifteen years ago.
"Do you want me to fight her?"
Victor laughed incredulously and shook his head. "Twelve year old me would love it, but I'd prefer not to have to post your bail because you beat up an old lady."
Connor grinned. "Not even to see me in handcuffs?"
Victor looked at Connor so fast his neck cracked with the motion. "Fuck, Connor. You can't do that to me."
"Oh, I would love to do that to you, if you're not averse to it, darling."
"I - uh... I..."
Connor took Victor's hand and squeezed gently, his expression somewhere between amused and concerned. "Did I break you, darling?"
"Yes. I mean, no. I mean, no, I'm not adverse, and yes, you broke me. Is this what every dinner will be like with you?" Victor asked, grinning broadly.
"We haven't even gotten to dinner yet, darling," Connor said.
"True. Imagine dessert," Victor said with a laugh.
"I'm already imagining it in several ways, darling. Should I share or leave it a surprise?"
Victor licked his lips and grinned. "Sharing is caring, isn't that the saying?"
Connor laughed and leaned across the short distance between them to whisper in Victor's ear. He pulled back a moment later, adoring the blush that spread across Victor's cheeks. "Does that sound good to you, darling?"
Victor nodded eagerly. "Definitely."
Their waitress returned with their food, both men thanking her as their plates were set in front of them. As Connor and Victor ate, their conversation turned to their everyday lives: their children, the case Victor was working on, the promotional video Connor was helping Ollie create for the international market, things they'd seen or done during the week.
Victor was so wrapped up in the conversation and Connor's story about Ryuu's first karate lesson as a four-year-old that he didn't even notice Mrs. Quinton leave the restaurant.
...
End of the ninety-first chapter.
