The Second Circle (maketheplay) wrote in worldsapart_ic, @ 2019-08-18 18:39:00 |
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Entry tags: | daniel penbrook, james byrne |
Who: Daniel Penbrook & James Byrne
What: Dinner and surprising conversation
When: 9th August
Where: Some fancy restaurant
Rating: Low
Warnings: n/a
It was a very Daniel sort of place, this restaurant - you know, the ‘book two months in advance’ (though, granted, the vampire probably could get away with two hours in advance) sort of thing, with flowers on each dark walnut table, a lounge area with cushy couches, tea served in white teapots on silver trays. James would have been fine with a Chinese dive and utterly kitsch, a Buddhist-temple bar and dragons everywhere. The distasteful kind of decorations in the year of our Lord 2019, certainly.
But no matter. Daniel chose the spot, so James met him there. Despite the upscale feel to the place, you still couldn’t get James out of his leather jacket - though to be fair he had on a pressed shirt beneath, and pressed trousers, so it wasn’t like he woke up and put on the first wrinkly clothes he found slung over a chair. He’d just come from work though - Eli was out of town and Kitty had a thing too, so, he was being the adult in the room which was fun. He didn’t mind - he’d do just about anything for his witchy co-workers.
Now that he was free, into the restaurant he went - and he met Daniel, casually sliding into the seat across from him. “Can I follow you home?” he asked, then followed it up with more cheese a beat later. “Because mum and dad always told me to follow my dreams.”
Ha. They told him nothing of the sort, but a greeting consisting of the Worst Ever Pick-up Line was very James - if he didn’t indulge, please call the police because he’d probably been body-snatched.
Daniel did enjoy the finer things in life. Call it a by-product of being exceptionally long lived and a vampire, they were for the most part decadent creatures. That wasn't to say he wouldn't and didn't get his hands dirty because he obviously did, hard not to with the way the times were changing and the hostilities were growing. It didn't mean he was some sort of martyr and he had been making something of an effort to work less and play more, sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. It helped that Sebastian was in town so he had a lot more to keep himself busy with and his Childe definitely needed to get out more so it was the perfect excuse.
Clad in a smart black suit that was cut and fitted to his form perfectly with a complementary dark blue tie he looked the picture of class and elegance as he waited on James to arrive. He no longer took sustenance from food but he still enjoyed its taste which was why he'd asked the witch to meet him at this restaurant, they served some of the best Chinese food that Los Angeles had to offer.
He was fiddling with cutlery, the knife to be more exact, twisting turning and flipping it over in his deft fingers, people watching and occupying himself with idle thoughts and conclusions. When James arrived and fired off the line he did Daniel snorted quietly. "Please tell me that isn't how you pick people up," he asked, "because if so I have to inform you that it's a terrible pick up line."
“Not people,” James grinned crookedly. “Just you.” And it seemed to work, didn’t it?
Well, alright, this was grand - an upscale Chinese restaurant, which meant that they had an upscale beer selection, much more to offer than the typical Tsingtao. He could feel free to order a German wheat beer and he did, because now he wanted fiery drunken noodles blessed with Holy Basil so bad he could almost feel his mouth watering. Ah, the delight of Americanised cuisine.
At least the wait staff didn’t unnecessarily linger here either. Beer order placed, he reached across the table and put his hands over Daniel’s. “What’s on your mind, darling?”
Because James had things on his mind. But, you know. Age before beauty (oh, alright, Daniel was very pretty too so it didn’t exactly apply).
Daniel regarded the hands now that covered his own, noting the rings that adorned the fingers and how each nail was clean and immaculately kept. Personal grooming was and would always be important to Daniel. Appearances were everything.
“I’m concerned, about a friend,” he admitted. “He’s really not himself at the moment.” And if memory served correctly then Billy had certain tendencies, but hopefully things would improve for him now that Michael was in town and they had a chance to reconnect. Speaking of children he made a mental note to check in on Sebastian, see how his socialising was going.
He lifted his dark eyes and rested them on James. “And you?”
Love was a many-splendored thing (as the lyrics went). It was also painful, twisting, and grating; it wore on one’s thoughts as heavy as anvils, it was consuming, it was silly and often quite unreasonable. The best and worst part was that it stuck to your heart like barnacles on a ship’s prow.
And it was extra complicated when you loved a vampire and were really certain that you did despite having never loved anyone before - but you would die in however many years, provided humanity didn’t literally set the world on fire before that.
Not like James said any of that right now, though. “It can wait,” he told Daniel, squeezing his hands. “Is there anything else you can do for your friend or is it at the point where he’s got to sort things out for himself?”
“Well I’ve done all that I can at the moment including getting his estranged Sire into town which I’m hoping will help with his mood.” The rest was most definitely up to Billy and Michael, hopefully they would sort things out and their relationship would be repaired after having been broken for so many years.
He inhaled, exhaled, brushed his thumb over the edge of James’ hand which was so much warmer than his own as you would expect.
“So, not much more I can do.”
“I’m sure he knows you care - that probably means more than you realise,” James said, leaning back only when drinks were dropped off. “I think what’s most important is that people aren’t left in the dust, when things turn to rubbish..” Then, after that, you had to give Life both middle fingers and keep on being fabulous.
He picked up his beer and took a swig - ah, alcohol. Also a delightful crutch when things went south but luckily James didn’t have to rely solely on what would make his liver cry if he was ever going through something tumultuous. Which he was. In his head. A little.
Daniel was known for being many things. Cold, cruel, unflinching, but when it came to the people he cared about, his children especially, he was anything but. God help you if you did anything to harm them.
He said his thanks to the waiter who dropped off their drinks and took the first sip of his whiskey, letting the alcohol sit on his tongue for a moment before he swallowed it back.
“Has there been anything happening in your world that I’ve missed?”
“Yes, well - no,” James stammered, trying to figure out how to phrase it. Fuck it. He just finished the whole beer in one gulp - and he’d ordered his drunken noodles so they would be coming and if this went badly, he’d have food to comfort him.
He reached for Daniel’s hands again, across the table. “Listen - I sort of, ah. I love you,” James told him, and it was the complete truth. He couldn’t fight it and he didn’t necessarily want to - but it was there, so prominent and present. Like fire in the walls. And just as dark and twisted, but it was theirs.
“I always...will love you.” Because he’d never loved anyone before, not a single person, nary a living soul. It wasn’t so easy to forget.
It wasn’t like James to stammer and Daniel’s brow pulled together as he waited, patiently, for the witch to get out what he wanted to say. He watched with no small amount of curiosity as James knocked his beer back and then reached for his hands again, hands that didn’t pull away and allowed themselves to be captured once again.
Love? James loved him?
Daniel was taken aback as he was not the warmest of people and he could be at times quite cold and calculating but then he hadn’t been that way with James, his friends or his children. They had definitely seen the more human side of Daniel that he’d left behind many decades ago.
It had been a very long time since anybody had been in love with him, decades even, and he’d forgotten what it was like to have those words said to your face.
“You sure that’s not just the amazing sex talking?” He asked, a smile touching the corners of his mouth.
“Well, the sex is amazing,” James agreed, a crinkle of those electric blue eyes when he smiled in return; seeing Daniel smile was infectious as well. “But beyond that, I’m quite sure that love goes hand in hand with it. At least for me.”
He still didn’t know if Daniel felt the same way, but he’d just...brace himself for the worst. Sometimes people didn’t fall in love at exactly the same moment or, fuck everything, perhaps Daniel wasn’t interested in that sort of thing at all. However, that admittedly wasn’t the vibe James had gotten from him - he knew love, he knew how to love, it had simply been a long time since it happened.
It didn’t always go hand in hand with it for Daniel. He had up until recently been very careful to either not sleep with anyone or never sleep with the same person twice. That streak it would seem had been broken when he’d met James. What that meant he was still trying to figure out.
It was probably obvious to everybody else but Daniel was well, Daniel.
Smart and deadly to a fault but could be at times quite… dense, as far as emotions and people went.
He regarded their hands and then lifted James’ to his lips, pressing a slow lingering kiss to the other man’s knuckles. “I should warn you that it’s a terrible idea.” He brushed his thumb over one of James’ rings and quite out of character for him he leaned across the table to press a kiss to James’ mouth. “But then aren’t bad decisions the most fun?”
James met him halfway, returning the kiss - it was instinct, like he had magnets in his lips anyway. It was mouth-to-mouth, a potent sensation that went deep and passed through him, like he was intangible.
“I’m certain I could come up with an even more terrible idea,” he pointed out, sweetly holding Daniel’s chin in his hand for a moment, fingers stroking his cheek before letting go. “Like diet water. Or putting a gun right down my trousers with the barrel touching my balls.”
Didn’t seem to stop some people though. But he guaranteed that loving Daniel was world’s better than potentially shooting himself in the goolies.
“I’m sure much fun is in store for us, darling,” he added, as the food was delivered - ah, drunken noodles, here it was. “We’ll just see how that goes.”