Who: Aramis and Porthos. When: June 6. Where: Their house, a restaurant, their house. What: Celebrating being roommates, definitely not a date. Rating/Warning: PG-13 / Grown men behaving like hormonal teenagers. Status: Complete.
Once Aramis has deposited the last box of his clothes in his new room, he wanders out to peruse the kitchen. Along the way he scoops up Bazin to snuggle a bit, since the kitten is a bit distressed at the new change in surroundings. At least Bazin knows Porthos. Aramis gives the kitten a little head scratch before setting him down to play with a bell-ball.
"Porthos, where have you gotten off to?" he calls out, pouring himself out some juice.
Porthos will lead Bazin around on a small leash, if it will help him get accustomed to his new surroundings. He will crawl along on the floor to gently nudge him out of the way of walls and things. He loves that kitten. In fact, once Porthos comes down from tucking a few boxes out of the way upstairs until they know where to put things, he scoops the wee thing up and gives him a kiss, nuzzling his fuzzy little head. "Just taking a few things upstairs. I'm back now."
He gives Porthos's chin scruff a scritch. "I was going to say, it's rude to leave me alone on my first day officially living here and all."
"I'd never. There were just a couple of boxes that were a bit heavy, and I didn't want you putting out your back." Porthos purrs at the scritching and kisses Aramis's cheek. "How's Bazin settling in? And how are you settling in?"
"You're sweet." Aramis scratches behind Bazin's ear gently. "It might take him a few days but I think he'll be all right. I think he recognizes your smell everywhere so that helps."
"I'll help him out as much as I can, I promise." With another little kiss to Bazin's tiny head, Porthos sets him back on the floor to play. "Got everything in your room?"
"Mmhm." He takes a sip of his juice. "I'll worry about organizing it all later. But it's there."
"I don't know how you can do it. I had to get all my boxes unpacked right away, or it'd drive me crazy."
"Because I suspect you're a touch obsessive compulsive, and I'm not." Aramis grins a little and nudges at Porthos. "It's cute."
"So long as you keep the kitchen as it is, we'll be fine." He nips at the end of Aramis's nose and tweaks his chin affectionately. "God help you if I find a spoon out of place."
He leans in and gives Porthos a quick kiss. "I believe in the sanctity of the kitchen. But look, we're roommates now, you'll have to learn to accept all my flaws and quirks."
"Oh I've accepted them. Now I just have to learn to live with them this close."
"I hope it doesn't destroy our friendship," he teases. He finishes his juice and rinses out the cup before setting it in the dishwasher. "I promise I won't be terribly awful."
Porthos pats his hip and kisses the back of his neck. "Good boy, you're already learning."
Aramis huffs out a laugh. "You're ridiculous." He runs his hand over Porthos's for a moment before turning around to give Porthos's cheek a pat.
"I am. That's well established." He grins and gives Aramis a kiss, nuzzling him happily. "I'm glad we did this, you know."
"Well, I'd hope so." Aramis wraps his arms around Porthos. "I'm glad, too, though, given how extremely fond I am of you."
"Oh are you? Well good, because I may well be deeply fond of you, as well." Porthos wraps his arms around Aramis's waist loosely, nosing at Aramis's forehead. Yeah, he loves him. Fuck.
Aramis knows that this is definitely no longer a friends-with-benefits situation. Of course he knows. Honestly, he's not sure why he's so scared to admit it out loud, but he's worried he'll jinx it somehow. So he smiles and kisses at Porthos's chin instead. "Then this should work out very well for us."
It probably hasn't been a friends-with-benefits situation in quite some time, but both of them are too stupid and stubborn to admit it. "And if there's ever anything you need, even in the middle of the night, you know where my room is."
"I'll be creeping in at all hours to curl up under the covers, don't worry." He squeezes the back of Porthos's neck and runs a hand down Porthos's chest as he ducks away to retrieve Bazin's toy from being stuck a little under the oven.
Ah, saved from dangerous intimacy by Bazin. Porthos takes a deep breath and rubs a hand over the back of his neck. "I feel like I should do something special for you, for dinner. To celebrate your moving in."
"We could go out somewhere," Aramis says before catching himself. He glances up from the floor where he's playing with the kitten and shrugs. "I mean. I'm fine with with staying in." Because then it won't really be like a date or something. "You don't need to do anything, really."
"No! I'll take you out. Let's go out. What are you in the mood for?" Porthos gets down on the floor to drum his fingers on the floor to get Bazin to come play with him, too. "We should do something fun, to celebrate?" "Maybe not our usual brand of fun." So maybe he's testing the waters a little, but Aramis can't really help himself. "Maybe just somewhere sort of nice? Where we haven't been yet. Just us. It could be fun."
"Instead of going to a bar after, you mean. Yeah, I'd like that. Something just us." If Porthos blushed, he'd be blushing, and he keeps his attention on the kitten trying to pounce on his hand instead of looking at Aramis with a dopey smile.
This is it, Aramis thinks. They're going on a date. This is them going on a date. He clears his throat a little. "Since, you know, it's just us living together and all," he says, as if that's going to make the situation any less than what it is. "We can have someone else do the cooking for once."
"Yes, absolutely, I agree. Is there a place you had in mind?" Bazin is chewing on his fingers, and Aramis is proposing something like a date, and Porthos feels very contented.
"I don't know. We could just dress up nice and drive around until we see a place that looks promising?"
"Well it's me, dressing up nice is a given," he teases. "I'll go get changed out of my moving clothes, and we'll figure something out."
"Well, dress up a little extra nice for me, gosh." He leans over to give Porthos a kiss, then gets up. "Fortunately, I never dress nice so I don't need to make extra efforts. Putting on a suit jacket is extra enough."
"I will dress up extra special nice just for you." Porthos smiles at the kiss and touches his cheek lightly. "This'll be nice."
"Yeah, it will be." Aramis just stands there grinning a bit at Porthos like a fool before he remembers that he has things to do. "I'm going to go dig through my boxes of clothes. I'll, uh. Let you know when I'm ready."
"If you need anything ironed, I can do that real fast for you. I'll feed Bazin before we go." Another kiss, because he gets a date with Aramis, it's wonderful. But it's not a date. ... but it is, a little. He feeds Bazin, rattling the food in the bowl so the kitten can hear his way over to him. Then he goes back to his room to take a deep breath and find what he wants to wear.
"I might need to take you up on that offer." He grins again and slips off to his room to hunt down something to wear. He debates just wearing a nice shirt and a jacket with jeans, but, well, if he told Porthos to be extra nice then maybe he should be, too. So Aramis ends up walking to Porthos's room in just his boxer briefs, holding a proper suit and shirt in his arms. "I need something ironed." "I can do that for you." He smiles and takes the suit with a smile. "Ooh, I'll have to step up my game, too. I'll have this done in just a few minutes. Go fix your hair and come back, and I'll be done." Porthos pulls the ironing board out and starts heating the iron.
"Are you saying my hair is unsuitable for a nice night out?" Aramis puts his hands on his hips and raises his eyebrows, teasing. "I'm hurt."
"At least try to get a brush through it," Porthos winks and tugs Aramis over for a kiss.
"You're so rude." He gives Porthos a kiss anyway. "Now I'm going to spend all night being high maintenance just because." He wanders off to brush his hair and tame it down a bit, then returns and sits on Porthos's bed while he finishes ironing.
"Oh no, whatever will I do." Porthos smiles to himself as he irons out Aramis's suit very carefully, then his shirt, and hands them over. "Get out of here, you. I have to get dressed, as well. I'll be ready in a few, all right?"
Aramis laughs. "What, I'm not allowed to be in the room while you change? Heaven forbid I'll see you almost naked. Whatever will I say in confession." He takes his clothes and heaves a dramatic sigh, then rolls his eyes, amused.
"Just wait until after dinner," Porthos calls after Aramis. "I'll do things to you that'll make your priest blush."
"It's not hard to make a priest blush," he calls back, cheekily. Aramis gets dressed, going out of his way to look good for Porthos because ... Well. He wants to. He's sort of looking forward to going out and doing something coupley. Later he can play it up as just having a good time if it starts getting too intimate or close to home. Once he's ready he goes to sit on the couch to wait.
Porthos takes a little time to pick out what he's going to wear. In the end, he goes with a black suit, black shirt, and then offsets it with some colour with a purple waistcoat and gold tie. Smashing. A little product in his hair to make his curls behave, and he joins Aramis in the living room. "Oh well hello, handsome."
"Looking at yourself in the mirror again?" he teases, looking over at Porthos with a wide smile. Aramis stands up, reaching over to smooth down the lapels of Porthos's jacket. "I've never met anyone who wears a suit as well as you do. It's not really fair, you know."
"Such flattery. You'll never get me out the door if you keep talking like that." Porthos settles his hands at Aramis's waist and kisses him sweetly. "What sort of food are we thinking of?"
"Mm, then I should probably just keep my mouth shut." He kisses back, taking his time. "I don't know. Something Italian maybe? I'm craving gnocchi. Or risotto or something."
"Yeah? Will you speak Italian for me if we go?" Aramis is a really. Really fantastic kisser and Porthos is completely fine taking his time kissing him.
"Last time I spoke Italian to you, it nearly backfired on me." He presses a kiss to the corner of Porthos's mouth. "Should I call a cab? So if we get liberal with the wine it won't be so bad?"
"Yeah. Yeah all right, let's do that." He kisses Aramis's cheek before Aramis can pull away completely. "How did it backfire?"
"I didn't say it did. I said it nearly did." Aramis gives Porthos a look to tell him to listen, then calls them a taxi. "About ten minutes, they said."
"Nearly backfire, then. How did it nearly backfire?" While they're waiting for the cab, Porthos steals a few more kisses.
"Because I left you in a bar with a message written on a napkin, and it took you close to three or four hours to reply to me. Then it took another hour before I ended up in this exact spot." He nibbles on Porthos's lip. "I thought for sure I'd end up having a lonely night."
"Oh!" Porthos laughs and bumps his nose against Aramis's cheek playfully. "That was when I was trying not to be too forward. I'm not worried about that, anymore."
"Trust me, I've noticed." Aramis smirks and gives Porthos a nudge.
"I'm excited to hear you speak Italian again. Or Spanish. Or French. Or anything. You sound sexy in any language."
"I like when you call me sexy. I might just play it up now, if only because of that." He tickles Porthos's chin and heads out when their taxi arrives, and asks the driver to take them to a good Italian restaurant.
"I won't understand a thing you say, but I'll want you unspeakably." He wraps an arm around his shoulder when they settle into the cab, leaning comfortably against him.
"Are you like this with all your roommates?" Aramis laughs. He wraps his arm around Porthos, more than happy to be leaned against. "Or am I the special one?"
"No, you're just a very special roommate. And an incredibly special friend." He presses a kiss to Aramis's hair and rubs a hand over her back. "I'm glad you've moved in with me."
"I'm glad you asked me." He presses their foreheads together. "This is honestly the happiest I've been in a year."
God, if Aramis keeps saying things like that, Porthos will have no choice but to fall head over heels for him. He tips his chin up and gives him a tender kiss. "Neither have I."
Aramis wants very badly to say something along the lines of how he loves Porthos, but he doesn't. "Then we're clearly perfect for one another," he says, a touch playfully. The restaurant they pull up to looks promising, and once inside Aramis is glad they dressed up in suits. "Goodness, this is lovely."
"It really is, isn't it? Let's see if they can get a table." He strokes his hand over Aramis's back and kisses his jaw. "Think they'll let a couple of hooligans like us in?"
"I'd be slightly more concerned about us being a same-sex, interracial couple," he says, though he's not very serious about it. He gives Porthos an amused smile. "If we have to wait, we can have some drinks at the bar to pass the time. I'm in no rush to go anywhere."
"Oh, should I try to keep my hands off you, then?" Though he makes no move whatsoever to do anything of that sort. "We'll be fine. I'll growl anyone down who says anything against you."
"Normally I'd say I can take care of myself, but I don't mind that thought." Aramis gets their name put on the list, and it's not going to be too bad of a wait. "Apparently our disguises of being fine gentlemen fooled them."
"Wonderful, let's get a glass of wine." Porthos settles in at the bar and starts looking at the wine list. "They have a fantastic selection here. Kudos to our cab driver."
"I hope you tipped him well." Aramis sits next to Porthos and glances at the list. "I'm thinking a red for myself." One of the best parts of living in California, Aramis decides, is all the local vineyards and the good wine. "They all look delightful."
"I'd split a bottle of red with you, if you'd like."
"Wonderful. Do you want to try the house red? Then have something fuller with supper?"
"That sounds perfect." It is like a real date, and that should be terrifying. But if anything it feels relaxed and comfortable.
Aramis gives Porthos a bright smile and orders them a bottle, and then raises his glass. "Cheers, to my fantastic new roommate."
Porthos grins and touches their glasses together. "Cheers. To new beginnings."
Dinner goes swimmingly. They have perhaps a little more wine than they should have, so it was a good thing they'd decided on a cab. All through out, Porthos keeps reaching out to touch Aramis's arm or his hand while they talk. When they leave the restaurant, Porthos has his arm around Aramis's waist and he kisses at his cheek happily. "This has been a wonderful evening."
They definitely have more wine than strictly necessary. But it's hard not to, when the food is good and the wine is good and the company is excellent. Aramis blushes a little all the touches but he likes them, and if he nudges their feet together a little too much, then so be it. He's more than happy to lean against Porthos outside, grinning a little like a fool. "And now we get to go home together. Because we live together."
"Yes. Yes we do." Porthos leans their foreheads together and tips Aramis's chin up for a sweet but lingering kiss. He stays snuggled close the whole cab ride home, ocassionally stealing soft kisses. His hand creeps over Aramis's thigh and up a little, squeezing lightly.
It's perfect, Aramis thinks. Better than perfect. Sometimes he gets the crazy feeling that if his dreams didn't take place in the seventeenth century, he and Porthos would be more than friends. He just feels a strong connection to Porthos and he's certain it's mutual. He runs his runs his finger and thumb along Porthos's tie, pressing kisses along Porthos's jaw as the cab pulls up to the house. "Here we are."
Porthos pays for the cab and ushers Aramis inside. Once the door is closed, he comes up behind him and wraps his arms around Aramis's waist, kissing at his neck. "Did I tell you how gorgeous you look tonight? Cuz you look fantastic."
He's giggling a little as he gets nudged inside, and he trips a little over himself so it's a good thing that Porthos grabs him. He tips his head back to grin at Porthos. "I wanted to look fantastic for you. I'm glad you think so."
"You always look fantastic. But I do like you in a suit." He slides one hand over Aramis's stomach, the other sneaking down his thigh.
"Not sure I'll be able to bring myself to wear one all the time," Aramis teases. He lets out a pleased sigh, turning his head to nose into Porthos's neck. "Maybe sometimes here and there. Just for you."
"Good thing I like you in jeans and a t-shirt, too." Porthos gives Aramis's thigh another squeeze and steals a kiss. "Come to bed with me? I'll help you get out of that suit."
"Mm, as if you even had to ask." Aramis isn't even remotely surprised that on his first night living with Porthos, he won't even be sleeping in his own bed. He wiggles free from Porthos and grabs his friend's hand, leading him toward the bedroom.
"I should -- " He laughs as he stumbles a bit, following after Aramis. "I should make you strip for me. Nice and slow. With a dance and everything."
"Oh you should, should you." He laughs as well, stopping in the hall to give Porthos a kiss. "I'm in no condition to try and be sexy right now. You get what you get, don't complain."
"You're always sexy. Even after a couple glasses of wine." Porthos grins and gets distracted kissing Aramis, pressing him back against the wall and sliding a thigh between his legs. "I don't plan on complaining."
Aramis gasps a little, leaning up for another kiss and pressing into Porthos's thigh. "Or a couple bottles," he murmurs, letting a laugh bubble out.
Porthos lets out a giggle and nips at Aramis's lips. "Or a couple bottles. It was good wine, I didn't want to waste it."
"Very good wine. I think you still taste like it, a little." He nudges their noses together. "Thank you, by the way, for taking me out. I didn't realize how much I needed it."
"I think we both needed it, a little. I'm glad we did it. We should do it regularly, maybe." Are they dating? They might be dating. Porthos still isn't sure about their current relationship status. But what he is sure about is that Aramis needs to be closer to him, so he tries to fix that by gripping the back of Aramis's thigh to press more firmly against him.
He opens his mouth to say something but his breath hitches for a moment. "Maybe," Aramis finally manages to say. He wraps his arms around Porthos's neck and tries to focus on him through the tipsy haze of wine. "I'd like that. Just the two of us."
"Yeah." His smile widens and he kisses Aramis again, bracing his hand against the wall and settling in for a good, long make out session. "Just the two of us."