Re: adrian's place; dietre & hugh
If Dietre had any sort of confidence in himself, he would have the courage to call this night what it was. It had been planned out with, and had hit every marker that would earn it the title of ‘date’, all while he denied what it was to himself. Once upon a time he would not have been so terrified of seeking clarification. Hadn’t he sat down with Liam and told him how he felt? He’d been honest and open, upfront about his inexperience with love yet sincere when he said he knew that he liked the man. A lot had changed since then, and Dietre was left battered and bruised emotionally, more so than he had been to start with, and now such frank conversations seemed impossible. He told himself he’d suffer less keeping everything to himself than he would if he offered his heart to be chewed up and spat out at his feet yet again. Was he wrong? It didn’t matter. He was just too scared to find out.
“You think she looks proud?” He turned to peer at Sieglinde too. The dog met their looks with a cock of the head, first to one side, then the other. “The only thing that tilt says to me is ‘confusion’.” Dietre was right, Sieglinde had never seen her master behave in such an odd way. Seeing him dance left her baffled, and she watched with keen interest, dark eyes bright and curious.
Dietre almost wore a mirror expression when he watched Hugh demonstrate the spin with his invisible partner. “Hm… I think I could manage.”
He stepped into position, then smiled, recalling their discussion after Dirty Dancing. Hugh reminded him when he mentioned staying in his ‘space’. “So we’re keeping to our dance spaces now?” He outlined an invisible circle around himself with his hand, “This one’s mine?”
“Where’s yours, exactly?” He was teasing, and his questions were mostly rhetorical and innocent despite the directions such talk could easily go.