This Charming Man

Title: This Charming Man (2/3)
Author: Chibi Hentai-chan
Archived: Kitsunehi\'s Garden of Forbidden Prose, My FFN account and Deviant Art account
Pairings: 1x2, hints of 3x4
Warning: Large words, AU set in some modern city, drinking, innuendo/adult content, oh an yaoi/shonen ai
Disclaimer: I am making no money from this and if I do I plan on changing the names and faces to protect the innocent fictional character.
Please remember if you drink don\'t drive and if you frotterize don\'t get caught (but I\'m not advocating the latter)

\"Oh and you\'re a real stand-up comedian?\"

\"No, I\'m a computer nerd. We have quirky senses of humor.\"

\"And it shows. So are you a system admin or something?\"

\"No, just an IT grunt. I need another year of experience before I can become an administrator.\"

\"Sucks to be you.\"

\"Doesn\'t it just.\" Heero took a drink from his glass giving their verbal volley a slight reprise. His eyes tracked the movement of Duo\'s glass as it rose to his lips, noting how his long fingers grasped the stem\'s elegant curve. The drink was the clean, clear distinguishing trait of vodka, iridescent in away, moving and changing in streamers as it swished in the glass. It was active, unfettered, and utterly trendy in a timeless way. Martinis were as James Bond and old Hollywood as the elegantly polite sips Duo took.

\"So, what do you do?\" Heero asked after the cream had cleared from his throat.

\"Bet you\'ll never guess.\"

\"Do I get a hint?\"

\"It requires a college degree,\" Duo said with a smirk.

\"That really narrows down the field.\"

\"Sitting here and talking to me narrows down the field. Haven\'t seen any guy even look at you in the last half an hour.\"

\"That\'s the way I like it.\"

\"So you don\'t want my attention either?\" Duo asked, feigning a hurt expression.

\"Well, it\'s more entertaining than my drink,\" replied Heero blandly before taking another sip from his tumbler.

\"I don\'t have to take this kind of abuse,\" was the melodramatic response.

Heero smirked, \"Well, we know it\'s not acting.\"

\"What\'s not acting?\"

\"Your career. It\'s not acting. You\'re so bad they wouldn\'t let you on daytime television.\"

\"That\'s low.\"

\"It\'s true.\"

\"And I bet you\'re always truthful, right?\" Duo asked leaning towards Heero. His glass was still in his hand as he rested an elbow on the bar, the dim light causing the blue stem to glow. For a moment, it reminded Heero of Duo\'s eyes, how it shifted hue with the changing light, from cerulean to midnight in the blink of an eye.

He took another sip from his cocktail before answering, stalling as the thickness of the liquid filled his mouth. The odd part of his brain, the one that suggested he throw matches out the window as he passed high-risk of fire signs and leaving a virus in the Microsoft updates packages would be fun, thought how much like drinking Duo this was. The rich, deep voice and skin that belonged in advertisements echoed the smooth sweetness of the drink. His sex-deprived synapses pinged with their own version of drinking Duo, and Heero savored that notion before swallowing. \"Only when I\'m not at work.\"

\"Well, we wouldn\'t want you to be fired for being an asshole, would we?\"

\"We?\"

\"Yes, you have to have a job to support my shopping habits.\"

\"You have your own job, you can support your own habits.\"

\"Speaking of which, you made one poor attempt at guessing,\" Duo stated coyly adding, \"try another,\" and a wink.

\"Rocket scientist.\"

\"Waaaay off.\" The longhaired man took a long draught from his glass while running a finger down the back of Heero\'s red Hugo Boss tie.

\"PR.\"

\"Nope.\"

\"Are you coming on to me, Duo?\"

\"Do you have a boyfriend?\"

\"No.\"

\"A girlfriend?\" That inquiry earned Duo an incredulous look. \"Okay, no. Then yes, I\'m coming on to you. Do you have a problem with that?\"

\"No.\"

\"Good.\" That said Duo leaned closer. Heero could taste the cloying scent of alcohol on his breath.

\"What kind of martini is it?\" he asked, nodding toward the glass.

\"Vodka. You want a taste?\" For a moment Heero thought he meant something else until the conical glass was between their faces.

\"No. I was just wondering.\"

\"It\'s really very good; called a First Kiss, got vanilla, raspberry, and chocolate vodka, but it\'s not sweet.\" They stayed like that for a moment, their breaths meeting and mingling over the martini glass, Heero warily meeting Duo\'s persistent gaze until a cacophony of shattered glass at the other end of the bar, startled them away from each other. \"So are you Asian-American or something, because you look like it, except for your eyes. Has anyone ever told you that you have beautiful blue eyes?\" Duo asked after a moment.

\"Yes, on my father\'s side. And all too frequently.\"

\"But your mom\'s American?\"

\"Yeah, I guess. I think her grandparents came over from Sweden or something. They\'re from Europe somewhere. Obaa-san and Ojii-san are from Japan, but I don\'t know what part.\"

\"Oh, so are they in Hawaii?\"

\"No, Seattle.\"

\"Oh, farmers; that\'s cool. Did your Obaa-san have a stall at Pike\'s Place?\" Duo asked stumbling over the foreign word.

\"No Jii-san did, women weren\'t allowed to own property back then,\" Heero replied with a smile. He found it oddly cute listening to the other trip over the Japanese name.

\"Thought I\'d take a guess. So, was your grandmother a picture bride?\"

\"No. Are you a historian or just trying to impress me again?\"

\"I\'m just interested.\"

\"You\'re not a historian?\"

\"Hell no, I need to make money,\" he said, laughing at his own joke. \"My college roommate was Chinese-American and talked me into taking an Asian-American history course. It was pretty interesting. There\'s so much stuff you don\'t get in a general history course, I kind of feel cheated that we didn\'t learn it in compulsory education.\"

\"You are an odd man, Duo Maxwell.\"

\"Yeah,\" he replied with a shrug, downing the rest of his drink. \"So, were you raised in Seattle then?\"

\"A suburb of Seattle actually. And my grandparents weren\'t farmers. They sold bento lunches.\"

\"The chicken-on-a-stick stuff?\" Duo made a face of disgust.

\"No, boxed lunches. They had rice balls, pickled radishes, omelets, and things like that.\"

\"Sushi?\"

\"Sometimes.\"

\"Hmmm, I\'ll have to try Japanese bento sometime. It sounds interesting.\"

\"It\'s not bad, just different then American lunches. I was teased a lot because my mom insisted on bento boxes for me instead of sandwiches.\"

\"Well kids usually make fun of what they don\'t understand,\" Duo stated sagely. \"What do you say we get another set of drinks and take this conversation to a table?\"

Heero took a moment to look around, not catching any sign of Trowa\'s auburn hair above the throng. \"Fine with me,\" he replied before looking at his watch and mentally gawking at the time. \"An hour is my limit on waiting for a friend; no matter how good of one he is.\"

\"You\'ve been on these stools that long? No wonder you\'re cranky. Let\'s get that cute butt of yours onto something more comfortable,\" Duo said sliding off his stool and standing close. A desire to finish off his drink came to Heero; something in his battered masculine ego would expire if he allowed the long-hared man to get ahead of him. In a few swallows he was done, setting the tumbler back on the bar and following Duo. He ordered tonic water after they had settled at their table, earning him a quizzical look from his companion.

\"What are you the designated driver?\" he teasingly asked as the waiter sped away.

\"No, I don\'t have a car.\"

\"Please tell me you use cabs to get around.\"

\"No, I ride the metro. Although I have yet to see someone rubbing up against the seats. I\'ll keep an eye out and tell you if I do.\"

With a flippant wave of his hand, Duo replied, \"Consider it ramblings to get your attention.\"

\"So you were trying to impress me.\"

\"No, just entice you.\"

\"Frotteurism doesn\'t usually entice me into conversation.\"

\"But it worked. It even got you to move to a table with me. I might have to use it in the future.\"

\"It will only work on me once.\"

\"A pick up line only has to work once; if you had to use it twice on the same person then you\'d be a sad man in a leisure suit scrounging in dark lounges to pick up drunken women. As you can see,\" Duo stated, sitting back and spreading his arms, oozing with the confidence of conquest and a deep seeded self-worth, \"I\'m not wearing a leisure suit and you are most definitely not drunk. Therefore I only need one hook to reel you in, because I don\'t believe in catch-and-release dating.\"

\"I\'m not going to sleep with you tonight, if that\'s what you think.\"

\"Good, I hoped you had more self-respect than that.\" Then, with a lopsided grin and an oddly sentimental tone, he added, \"I\'m glad you have more self respect than that. Now where\'s my drink?\" The last question was the switch and Duo returned to his cool, flirtatious demeanor, not acknowledging his momentary lapse of character.

Over the hours, drink after drink arrived at the table and empty glasses left with the same steady ease as the men\'s conversation. After several more attempted guesses at his companion\'s occupation and more pointlessly random conversations in between, Heero realized that the bar was incessantly noisy and Duo\'s word were slurred past the point of \"relaxed\" lubrication, as the long-haired man was wont to put it. Duo had become so placid that the walk to the door became a laborious task that Hercules would have bowed beneath; Heero\'s study of mythology was an archeological find, buried under C++ and images from random Abercrombie and Finch catalogues, so the scope of his undertaking wasn\'t apparent until both men were through the bar door and faced with several flights of stairs. Somewhere around the second floor, Duo started moving without the use of his companion and made it to the curb to hail a cab without assistance.