Rosemarie and David were lounging on the couch when he entered the living room. David had his arm wrapped around Rosemarie’s shoulder, her head nestled against him in a way that made Louis feel rather envious of both of them for completely different reasons.
“Are you trying to replace me, David?” Louis asked.
“We've already established that I'm her favorite vampire,” David said. "Besides, I'm not afraid of paint and wood shavings." He stuck his tongue out at Louis and Louis caught his eye, wondering if David could guess how much he wanted to chase the pink tip back into his mouth. He smirked as David's face flushed a little.
Rosemarie chuckled, reaching a hand out to Louis, though she didn’t move away from David. She looked too tired. Louis stepped over and took her hand, giving it a squeeze.
“You boys off?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’ll help you to bed first," he said. "David, you know where my room is, you can find something to wear in there.”
“Thanks,” David said before carefully untangling himself from Rosemarie. "I'll text you tomorrow," he said to Rosemarie, giving her a hug before handing her off to Louis and disappearing down the stairs.
“He’s a good boy,” she said as he walked with her into her room.
“You talk about him like an old granny,” Louis warned.
“You’re a good boy, too,” Rosemarie said, giving his arm a squeeze. Louis chuckled and kissed the top of her head.
She sat on the bed as Louis pulled a pair of soft sage pajamas from her dresser, inhaling the delicate scent of amber and roses that suffused everything she owned. He set them beside her on the bed and leaned down to hug her once more.
“All right, do you need anything before I leave?” he asked. She shook her head. Louis looked around doing a mental check. She already had a glass of water beside her bed and she'd plugged in her phone while Louis got her pajamas. He deemed that she would be fine until he got back.
“Go on, Louis," she urged, "you’re going to be late for your gathering. And you've already left David waiting."
Louis opened his mouth to say something about skipping it entirely, but David really was waiting downstairs so he just nodded.
"Your medications are in the cupboard," he said. "I can sort them tomorrow."
"Lou," she said, "go on. I'll be okay for a couple hours. Besides, I'll just be asleep anyway. You may as well go have fun with your friends."
Louis rolled his eyes but nodded and went to find David.
He rapped his knuckles on the door as he entered. David didn't look up and Louis took the opportunity to study him. He was in the process of rifling through his shirts, giving them odd looks. His hair was in its usual state of natural disarray that it adopted after a day's work. He was lean, but his shoulders were broad and his chest well defined beneath his light graphic tee.
"Finding anything?" Louis asked, amused.
David glanced over, wrinkling his nose and Louis quirked a brow at him. Louis didn’t think any of his clothes were that peculiar. They were mostly neutral toned button fronts, hardly objectionable.
“Do you own any colors other than black and white? Or is anything that’s not monochromatic impractical?”
“Black and white never go out of style. And, no, nothing that would look good on you,” Louis said. He ran his hands over the different button fronts until he found one that was plain white but in silk with a nice sheen. He pulled it off the hanger and held it out.
David frowned at it, but stripped out of his tee-shirt anyway.
Louis took a moment to appreciate the ridges of his abs and the peaks of his nipples before forcing his eyes back up to David’s face. David’s chest was entirely hairless. Louis wondered if it was genetic or if he waxed to get that smooth. Louis wanted very much to run his hands over David’s chest to find out.
Before he realized that he was staring at David’s chest again, the shirt disappeared from his hand and began buttoning up over that expanse of tanned skin.
"Leave the top two undone," Louis said and David's hands stilled. Louis nodded in approval.
“I guess it's not too bad,” David said doubtfully. He turned this way and that in the mirror. The silk clung to his slim waist and the vee created by the open buttons drew the eyes to his cleft of his chest.
“Are you implying that you’ve never worn a white button front before?” Louis asked with a quirked brow. David shrugged.
“Nope. Not unless it was under a monkey suit,” he said, grinning.
Louis pulled a pair of slacks off a hanger, too, considering before shaking his head.
"Just wear your jeans," he said. They did something great for his ass and David just looked right in jeans, casual and charming.
"Do I tuck it in?" he asked, making a face.
Louis chuckled and shook his head. "No, but go brush your hair," he said, directing him towards the bathroom. "You look look deranged."
David laughed but went into the bathroom. Louis pulled out a new shirt for himself, still black but with a subtle embroidered pattern over the collar and pocket.
"Do you have deodorant somewhere?" David asked, poking his head back out the door. Louis dropped his other shirt into the laundry hamper and looked over.
"In the top right drawer," he said.
"Ah," David said, eyes a little wide as he looked at Louis.
Louis raised an eyebrow, though he couldn't help but turn a little further towards David to give him a better angle. David's cheeks flushed a little and his eyes were slow to return to Louis's.
"Did you need something else?" he prompted.
David shook his head, then disappeared back into the bathroom. "I'm borrowing some, then," he called as he opened and closed at least three drawers.
Louis chuckled and pulled on his shirt before David appeared again, looking much more put-together than he had a moment before.
“Right. Now that that’s taken care of, let’s go,” Louis said, glancing at the clock.
They were probably going to be a little late despite David having come home with him. Possibly because he had.
The entire drive there, Louis couldn’t help but steal glances at David. His blond hair was mussed in an intentional way that made it look sensually disheveled instead of messy. He smelled like Louis deodorant and the particular scent that was just David and it was making Louis a little crazy.
Louis would have really liked to forget about the party and stop the car on the side of the road just so he could kiss him. Maybe pull him onto his lap so he was straddling Louis and really make out with him. He could imagine the ridges of him pressed tight against Louis so that he didn't set off the horn. He pushed away the thought before he could get carried away.
Tempting as it was, this was David and that probably wasn't what he was after.
But he had said that they could escape together again.
What Louis hoped he meant by that wasn't necessarily what David meant, though.
This was going to be a hell of a night.
*****
Jennifer and Nabila were talking by the door to the bar when they arrived.
“Finally decided to show up?” Jennifer demanded, giving David a really disappointed look. She did a once-over of him then glanced at Louis with a quirked brow. Apparently, Jennifer knew that David didn’t own a white button front.
“You two look great,” Nabila said, despite the fact that Louis was still wearing the shirt he had arrived at work in that morning. “Now get in here before all the food in the restaurant is gone.”
“You mean you started the party without me?” David gasped in mock affront. Jennifer cuffed him upside the head before taking his arm and dragging him through the door. Louis held the door for Nabila before bracing himself and following her into the crowd.
David was already talking to a group of people, including half the lighting crew and a number of the police station cast. His smile was infectious and his laughter cut through the din of the party.
Louis hovered near the edge of the group, speaking with whoever approached him without particularly encouraging them to stay. It had been all of fifteen minutes before Louis started itching to leave again. David seemed to be having a good time, though, so he backed out of the group and went to find a booth to watch. It wasn't his ideal way to spend an evening, but the view could be worse.
David seemed completely at east with this sort of crowd. Being around an audience seemed to amp up his enthusiasm instead of diffusing it. If Louis was a romantic, he'd have said that David was like the sun. There was a particular energy that radiated from him that Louis wanted to bask in. He was almost envious of the people crowded around him joining in his laughter.
He was so caught up in David that he didn't even notice Jennifer sliding into the booth next to him until she spoke. “You look awkward as fuck sitting here alone."
Louis blinked at her, then rose an eyebrow. “I’m not a people person.” An understatement.
Jennifer hummed. “Sure, but you could at least stop looking like you’re plotting murder. It's a party; lighten up.”
“I don’t look like I’m—”
“It’s the eyebrows,” Jennifer explained.
Louis's hand reached up to smooth over one of his brows before he could stop himself. He glared at her. “What do you want?” he asked.
“To make your brooding look intentional,” she said. “Things not going as planned with David?” She looked amused by that.
Louis took a sip of his drink, eyes wandering back over to David.
“Why do you ask?” he said.
“Because you look like you’re going to burn a hole through that nice white shirt that he must have borrowed,” she said. “And you’re way over here instead of over there with him.”
“I haven’t even approached him,” Louis said pointedly.
“Yes, I can tell." Louis almost thought she looked disapproving.
“I thought you warned me not to.”
Jennifer shrugged, taking a sip of something that might have been either vodka or water. She must have noticed his glance because she said, “Nabila is the DD tonight.”
“And you want me to pursue David?” Louis asked.
“Not really,” Jennifer said. “I do, however, want him to be happy. And sometimes learning to be happy comes with some heartbreak.”
“Wise words,” Louis said dryly.
“Not wise, just experienced.” Jennifer glanced over at David with something between fondness and pity. “I love him, but he’s never really had to grow up.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s been the baby all his life, he’s never faced the sort of adversity that forces you to overcome your weaknesses and grow stronger because of them. He’s a greenhouse baby. A penthouse baby.”
“So you want me to be adversity in David's life?” Louis asked, unsure whether he should be honored or offended that she wanted Louis to make David grow up.
“Some day, someone will be David’s adversity,” Jennifer said, meeting his eyes. “It might as well be someone who genuinely cares about him."
Louis looked over at David again and something uncomfortable settled in his stomach. "And what if I don't want to be his adversity?" It was a little too close to telling Jennifer that he was serious about David—a little too close to admitting it to himself, even—but he was certain that adversity was not how he wanted to characterize his relationship to David.
"I guess that's up to you," Jennifer said. "Just remember that I warned you."
Louis didn't have a chance to respond as the subject of their conversation started over toward them, the peculiarity of Louis and Jennifer sitting together engaged in conversation seemingly too tempting a lure.
He sat down on the bench with enough gusto that it made Louis bounce on the vinyl seat. His drink sloshed in the glass and he gave David a chastising look. David just grinned. The party didn't seem as bad with David sitting beside him, so close that their shoulders were nearly touching. He was inordinately pleased that David had chosen to sit on his side of the bench instead of Jennifer's.
“What are you two up to?” David asked.
“Just chatting about Louis's intentions toward you,” Jennifer said. Louis glared at her, but David just chuckled. “I’m giving him the shovel talk. Shotgun, truck, dog. You know, the country music trio.”
“I think it’s a little late for that,” David said, “you probably should have said so sooner.”
“Oh?” Jennifer said, eyes cutting from David to Louis.
David laughed and waved a dismissive hand.
“You have given him the lecture before he had a chance to realize you're really a big softie. Little softie, rather.”
Louis didn’t think he would have called Jennifer a softie—particularly to her face—but she definitely harbored an amazing amount of affection for David.
Jennifer glared at her friend, flicking his wrist before excusing herself back to the crowd.
“What are you drinking?” David asked, looking over.
“Shirley Temple,” Louis said, offering the glass to David.
David took it and took a sip of it, making a face at the syrupy sweetness before handing it back.
Louis chuckled, though he was a little self-conscious of the childish indulgence. What would people say if they saw Louis Greene drinking a Shirley Temple? He should probably have just had a water.
“You know, I can abstain tonight if you want to drink,” David said.
Louis shook his head. “I don’t drink."
David cocked his head. He was very close. Heat prickled across Louis's skin. He could smell David's skin, the scent of him growing stronger in the heat of the room, and Louis had the urge to lean in and bury his nose in his hair which was looking more mussed again. Louis wondered how many times he'd run his hands through it tonight. He could feel him, too, burning against Louis's left side.
“Why not?” David asked.
“I just don’t. Is that a problem?” Louis asked. He didn't realize how sharp his tone sounded until David's smile fell and he raised his hands as though in surrender. He cursed himself internally for letting the crowd get to him and taking it out on David.
“No, of course not," David said, "Sorry, I was just curious. I wasn't trying to, I don't know, pressure you or anything. So—”
Louis didn’t get to hear what David was about to say because one of the foley artists called him making David jump.
"Go on," Louis said, "enjoy yourself."
David hesitated for a minute looking a little confused, but Louis just raised his brow. There was absolutely no reason David should feel obligated to spend his time solely with Louis. He had other friends and this was a celebration, after all. After a moment, David gave little nod and excused himself with an apologetic smile. Louis didn't miss the worried look David threw him over his shoulder.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Louis was a lousy friend.
It wasn’t often that David asked him for anything and coming to a social outing—one he would have had to attend anyway—really shouldn't have put him so on edge. But part of his mind kept going back to Jennifer's warning, even as the rest of him kept wondering what David's neck tasted like and whether he'd let Louis kiss him again. Louis shook his head and let out a long breath.
He didn't want to be here, but that wasn't David's fault. It wasn't even David's fault if he wasn't interested in Louis the same way Louis was interested in him. David was just hard not to fall in love with.
But didn't that give Louis all the more reason to meet him half way? Wasn't that the least David deserved?
Sighing, Louis stood from his secluded table and moved toward the crowd. He found David easily enough, following the sound of his laughter. He was chatting again, but he looked a little tense, like he'd been scolded. Louis's stomach clenched. He really was a shitty friend.
He walked up behind David and clapped a hand on his shoulder. David turned to him to see who it was and Louis was rewarded with a bright smile as David stepped over to include him in the circle of people he was talking to.
Louis's face relaxed automatically into the public figure facade he coined when he was ten and trying to figure out how to interact with other human beings in a more mature way than crying on set.
“Louis,” David greeted, even though they had just seen each other moments before. Louis smiled and greeted the foley artist and the small group of cast and crew who had gathered around David.
“Excited to be done with filming?” Amelia asked him.
Louis turned to her with a genial smile. “It’ll be nice to have some more free time,” he said.
“You working on anything else in the interim?”
“No, I’m taking a break from film to spend some time with family,” he said.
“Ah, I guess big stars don’t need constant upkeep,” she said with a laugh.
Louis stiffened. He knew she didn’t mean it like that, but the implication that he was slacking off rankled.
She didn’t seem to notice.
"I'm not sure I'd describe Louis's acting as low upkeep," David cut in. "His filmography takes multiple pages to list." His tone was light, but Louis was touched at the defensiveness in the words.
Amelia flushed. “Oh, of course. I didn’t mean it like that,” she said, turning a worried face to Louis. “I worked with you on Bottlecap, you've always taken your work seriously. I admire it. I didn’t mean to imply that you didn’t.”
Louis turned an easier smile on her. “I know you didn’t.”
He waved a hand to dismiss the issue even as he felt a little smug that David had defended him against even a perceived slight.
To Louis's surprise, after a while, he actually began to enjoy himself. He was pulled into half of David’s stories about the set. Their audience all seemed amused despite half of them having been there, but David understood how to captivate an audience with a story. He brought them to life in a way that was sometimes more real than what actually happened. Louis only had to step in a couple times to interject when David started getting really off track with the recounting.
It was a quarter to midnight before David, looking a little buzzed, wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Louis didn't dare look over at him. David's breath ghosted across his cheek as he leaned in to mutter in his ear.
"Should we run away?" he asked.
Louis laughed, agreeing easily and made their excuses to the rest of the increasingly drunk crowd. David didn't remove his arm until they stepped outside again. Louis felt a chill go through him as David's arm dropped from his shoulders.
“Where are we going?” David asked once he was buckled into the car.
Louis glanced over at him. It was late and David had been drinking. He should probably take David home.
"Not ready to go home yet?"
David pouted. "No, you need to take me sight seeing again before I go back to Weldstone Harbor."
Louis chuckled, shaking his head. "All right, where do you want to go?"
David considered for a moment before shrugging, looking bashfully over at Louis. "I don't know."
"The park?" he asked.
David giggled. Louis didn't usually like dealing with drunk people, but David was almost cute. He couldn't help but smile back. "The one we got busted at last time?" David asked.
“Maybe we’ll run into a fan of Lust Story this time,” Louis teased.
David cackled a little longer than was really warranted but he nodded. "If we get caught, just pretend to be a vampire. We'll say we're practicing lines."
David leaned his head against the window in a way that beautifully displayed the curve of his neck. Louis's brain helpfully supplied a variety of scenarios in which he could pretend to be a vampire, at least half of which involved his mouth on the corded line of David's neck.
Ripping his attention away from those thoughts was a herculean effort. He was going to have to play this out carefully because Louis wasn't sure he'd survive the fallout if he didn't.
*****
David inhaled the fresh air and watched his breath ghost softly. It was already May, but the mountain air was still cold enough to chill the skin. David wished he brought a jacket that morning, but it was almost worth it to see how the wind turned Louis's ears a really sweet shade of pink.
David wanted to bite them. David sucked in a sharp breath and shivered. Maybe he was more drunk than he thought.
"Cold?" Louis asked.
David shrugged, but before he could deny it, Louis had opened his trunk and pulled something black out of it.
“Heads up,” he said before tossing it to David who skillfully caught it. With his face.
“What are you, a boy scout?” David laughed, wrapping the fleece blanket around himself like a cape.
Louis raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment.
“It’s nice out here,” David said, talking about so much more than the scenery from this particular park. “Why don't you like it here? It seems like the perfect place. You like being alone."
Something crossed over Louis's expression at that, but David's mind wasn't clear enough to decipher it.
"I like solitude," Louis said after a moment, "but I like convenience more."
"Or you just like watching people too much," David teased.
Louis's face flushed a little but David was too high on the excitement from the end of filming and the buzz of alcohol to analyze it too much. Instead, he walked over to the fence that separated the park from the little river and leaned over it, looking down into the water.
"How drunk are you?" Louis asked, taking two steps over to grab David's hips, just above the waistband of David's jeans, as though to pull him back. "You aren't going to fall in and drown, are you?"
David laughed. Everything was good right now. "Not drunk enough to need a babysitter. Or to go swimming in jeans," he said, though he liked the way Louis's hands felt warm against his waist.
Louis gave a skeptical hum and David leaned back enough to bump him playfully with a shoulder. “I’m not drunk,” he insisted. “Just buzzed.”
"Good," Louis said, though he didn't elaborate.
David turned around until they were face to face, brows furrowed. He studied Louis's expression for a minute, the warmth of the alcohol seeming to leave him.
"No need to be judgmental," David said. "I rarely overindulge."
"I'm not," Louis said, voice going quiet, though there was definitely something lingering in his expression.
"Then what's wrong?"
"Nothing," Louis said. "I'm not... you haven't done anything wrong. I'm not judging you. I'm just... weird about alcohol."
That certainly still sounded like Louis was judging him. David frowned, pulling out of Louis's grip and leaning against the fence again. Louis gave a frustrated sigh and looked away for a long moment before meeting his eyes again.
"It's not you. I'm not judging you," Louis said. "It's just..." He hesitated and it took David a moment to place his expression.
David was floored when he realized that Louis was ashamed of whatever he was hesitating to voice. David didn't think he'd ever seen that expression before. He didn't imagine Louis felt shame, if he was perfectly honest.
"You are," David said, shrugging, "But it's fine."
"I'm not," Louis insisted. He sounded almost angry about it. David wasn't sure how to deal with whatever this was. "I just have a family history."
David's stomach clenched. "Oh."
There was silence for a long moment and David wasn't sure how to make this uneasiness better. Louis moved to the side and David had the urge to grab him just to stop him from moving away. He didn't go far, though, merely leaning back against the fence beside David.
"I lost my father to a bad combination of drugs and alcohol. Rosemarie found him."
David's eyes went wide. He knew Rosemarie had raised Louis, but he hadn't known this part of the story. He had never looked into who Louis's family was or what their story was. Before they met, because he hadn't cared and after because it felt like an invasion of Louis's privacy.
"Louis—"
"For my mother," Louis continued, holding up a hand to stop David, "it was a long string of DUIs culminating in someone dying. She's in prison now."
"I'm sorry," David said, watching Louis's profile. "That's why you don't drink?"
"That's why I don't drink," Louis confirmed. It sounded almost like an apology. His expression was something vulnerable, too, when he finally looked over at David.
David wasn't sure what possessed him, but he reached out to press a hand to the back of Louis's head, patting his hair a little. Louis looked shocked for a moment, but didn't brush him off, his lips even curling into a slight smile.
"I'm not judging you, David," he said after a moment. "I know you. I trust your judgment. But, no, I'm not comfortable with alcohol. I don't know that I ever will be."
David nodded. "Okay. Thank you for telling me." He tilted his head, watching where his fingers disappeared in Louis's hair. He should stop, but he didn't want to and Louis hadn't stopped him. So he kept petting him. Louis had really nice hair—thick and surprisingly soft. Another thought occurred to him. "Would you prefer that I didn't drink around you?"
Louis's smile was gentle when he spoke. "No, it's fine. I mean it, David, I trust you."
David thought they'd have to revisit this discussion when he was not, in fact, under the influence of alcohol, but for now he just nodded. He wasn’t surprised when a warm shoulder bumped into his side. He was, however, surprised when the shoulder stayed pressed against him, a stark contrast to the autumn air. With his hand still resting at the back of Louis's neck, it was nearly an embrace.
Louis looked over at him and David's heart jumped into his throat. He dropped his hand from Louis's hair, letting it rest on the railing as he looked over to the swings.
"So, I'll have to come visit, you know," David said, very smoothly changing the topic to cover his awkwardness. "During the break. Rosemarie and I have plans."
Louis snorted then outright laughed until David elbowed him.
"Stop laughing at me," he groused.
“You aren’t really going to build that bookshelf, are you?” Louis asked, placatingly taking the change of subject, even if his expression was almost one of disgust.
“I am definitely going to build the bookshelf," David said determinedly. "Rosemarie and I have already sketched it out and taken the measurements. She said she'd take you paint chip shopping next week.”
Louis groaned with exaggerated despair. “You shouldn’t encourage her. She already has more books than any sane person should own, and most of them have half naked men on the covers.”
“Why are you complaining, then?” David asked before his filter could catch the comment. Drunk David seemed to be pretty keen on flirting with Louis.
Louis just sighed, giving David a put upon look. “Vampires are not my thing.”
David caught his eye and suddenly couldn’t tear himself out of those dark depths. His arm was still pressed nearly all the way across Louis's back and Louis was so warm against his side in that thin black shirt with the little dragons embroidered across the collar.
“How do you feel about werewolves?” he asked, eyes drifting down to Louis's lips. They were so close that their breaths mingled in the air when they spoke.
"Complicated," Louis said with a breathy quality in his voice that made David want to press himself up against him.
"Louis—" David said, eyes having trouble choosing between staring at Louis's lips or his eyes.
Louis leaned forward ever so slightly and David's breath left him all at once.
He didn't know who finally moved in the rest of the way, but he was pretty sure it was him. Whether it was the alcohol making him reckless, or the fact that he was dressed in Louis's silk shirt and wrapped in Louis's fleece blanket, or just the smell of Louis now that his aftershave had worn off, David didn't know, but the first press of their lips drew a groan from him.
David turned further towards Louis, wanting to be closer, even though he couldn't figure out what to do with his hands. Or his lips. Or any of him, really. Louis didn't seem to mind. His cool hands came up to cup David's nape. They were nearly of a height, but this close, David was all too aware of that spare inch Louis had on him, requiring him to tilt his head just so to maintain the connection.
Louis's tongue dipped into his mouth and David shivered, he could taste the cherry and ginger from his drink and hear the little gasps of his own breath as Louis caught his lip between his teeth. He'd never thought kissing could be like this. He wanted more.
David's hands found their way to Louis's waist, fingers rubbing up and down against the fine threads of his shirt until his finger tips began to go numb from the stimulation. He shuffled closer until there was barely an inch of him that wasn't plastered against Louis.
One of his thumbs rasped against David's cheek, his fingers hooking behind David's neck. He had the other arm wrapped around David, his hand flat on his back, pressing their chests together until he could feel each of Louis's inhales and exhales.
“This is what kissing should feel like,” David murmured breathlessly against Louis's lips.
Louis pulled back slightly. David's hands tightened around his waist, but Louis didn't pull back far, staying close enough that their noses rubbed when he moved. David laughed at the close up view of Louis's quirked brow.
“You’re a good kisser,” he explained, feeling a little bashful.
“Good,” Louis said, pressing another kiss to David's lips.
This kiss was chaste, though, and tender enough that it made David’s eyes flutter closed so he could better concentrate on the feeling.
“Is this what you want?” David asked, pulling away.
“Obviously, this is what I want,” Louis said as though it actually was obvious. It was certainly not obvious to David. “But that’s my line. Is this what you want?”
David bit his lip. The literal answer to the question was yes, David wanted this. But that wasn’t really what Louis was asking. Louis was asking about something more than that. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly.
Louis hummed and nodded thoughtfully as though that was the answer he was expecting. Was it that obvious that David had no clue what he was doing? Maybe it was, actually.
David flushed looking down and feeling a little ashamed, but Louis didn't pull away, his thumb just moved to trace over the curve of David's ear making him shiver. Maybe Louis really didn’t mind his inexperience.
He looked a little disappointed by David’s answer, though. David pulled back a little more, trying to get air back into his lungs. Louis's hand tightened around his neck for an instant before relaxing and falling to his side. David was tempted to take it and put it back where it had been. Instead, he took another step back, dropping his own hands to his sides. They felt awkwardly empty now that they weren't on Louis anymore.
“Then where do we go from here?” He searched Louis's eyes as though he could find the answer to his own confusion in them.
“Wherever you want to go,” Louis said with annoying sincerity.
David ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “That's a terrible idea," David said. "I don’t know what I want, Lou. I don’t know if I’m interested in men like that—I don’t even know if I’m interested in people like that.” He could feel his face turning bright red at that admission and ducked his head, covering his face with a hand. “Christ. I think there’s something wrong with me.”
“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Louis said, wrapping a soft hand around David's wrist to pull it from his face. David met his eyes. “I’m not asking you to predict the future. I’m not asking you to tell me if this will work out.” His grip on David's wrist moving down until they were holding hands instead. He gave David's hand a squeeze.
“Then what are you asking?”
“I’m asking if you want to try,” Louis said and he looked so good in the moonlight with his ears and nose pink from the chill that David was really struggling not to throw caution tot he wind and just lean in and kiss him again.
"I'm asking if you'll go out with me, David," Louis clarified. David hated him a little bit for how calm and rational he sounded.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” David said honestly. “And I don’t want to disappoint you.”
“You won’t disappoint me,” Louis said, “no matter what happens.”
“But I might hurt you,” David pointed out. “I don’t know if I can give you what you want.”
“Don't I get to decide whether it's worth it to me?” Louis asked. And when he said it like that, it sounded perfectly rational, but it didn't feel right. It felt like David was taking advantage of Louis's interest for his own purposes.
David shook his head slowly. “I don’t think it is. Because if this all goes wrong, I don’t want you to hate me.”
Louis considered that, his eyes drifting toward the river until they finally came back to catch David’s again.
“That's not a possibility. I know that I can’t rationally promise you that I won’t hate you, but I won’t.” Louis was quiet for a moment, though David recognized it as the quiet he got while he figured out how to express his thoughts in words.
“Why?” David prompted.
“Because that’s not what I feel for you,” he said slowly.
“Sure, you don’t hate me now,” David said, rolling his eyes. “But that doesn’t mean that you won’t hate me when I decide that I can’t go through with it.”
“Because you don’t know if you’re interested in men—interested in me—sexually?” Louis clarified.
David nodded, his face somehow heating further. That was only part of it, but it was close enough for now.
“And you haven’t figured that out yet,” Louis said.
David flinched, trying to tug his hand out of Louis's grip. This was exactly what he thought would happen if he shared that little secret. He shouldn’t have been so stupid. Louis knew all about sex after all, didn’t he? There wasn’t much news about Louis in the media, but when there was, it was often in conjunction with his latest fling.
“Wait, David, I didn’t mean it like that,” Louis said, grip tightening on his hand. “I just mean, if you haven't figured it out on your own but you don't want to try anything with someone else because you haven't figured it out, aren't you just stuck? Why not try figuring it out with someone else?”
“Because I don’t want anyone to get hurt!” David snapped.
Louis's hand was still around his hand like an iron band, but his thumb was starting to rub slow circles on the back of his wrist. The blanket had fallen from David’s shoulders at some point and now pooled around his ankles. The cool air on his back cleared his head a little.
“I don’t mind the idea of fooling around, David,” Louis said. David’s stomach dropped a little at that and he looked away. That was both exactly what David wanted to hear and also exactly not what David wanted to hear. “If you just afraid of hurting me, then you should put that out of your head. I can make my own decisions and I can protect myself.”
“So what are you proposing? That we head back to the hotel, get in bed, and see what happens?” David asked, a little more rudely than he really needed to. He wasn't sure why the idea of it hurt so much.
“I don’t want a one night stand, David," Louis said, meeting his eyes with all the intensity he had on the first day they met. "I want to be with you—I want to date you. But if that isn't what you want, if it doesn't work out, I still want to be your friend."
David’s heart skipped a beat. He couldn’t, for the life of him, understand why Louis would want that, especially after David had admitted to him that he wasn’t sure he could feel that kind of desire for another person. He wasn’t sure he could give Louis the kind relationship he wanted or deserved.
“I don’t think that that’s a good idea,” David pointed out. He wasn't sure he could make Louis happy in the same way Louis made David happy.
Louis's smile quirked into something between fond and teasing.
“I’m not sure that anything involving you is a good idea, but I still want it.” Louis's hand started skimming up David’s arm, trailing over his shoulder and neck until it was cupping his jaw again. Louis's thumb stroked over David’s cheek and David leaned into the touch, closing his eyes and only just restraining himself from stomping his foot.
“You’re supposed to be the rational one,” David complained. "I'm too impulsive to give proper consideration to these kinds of decisions."
“I’m willing to throw caution to the wind if you are,” Louis challenged.
When David opened his eyes again, they had somehow ended up practically plastered together again. Maybe Louis had stepped forward. Maybe David had. It was hard to say. Either way, David couldn’t keep his eyes from stealing down to Louis's lips as he spoke.
Instead of answering, David found himself leaning forward, pressing his lips into Louis's. Stubble scraped against stubble and David found one of his hands sliding over that dragon embroidery to to tug at the hair at Louis's nape.
“Fine,” David said when he could pull himself away. “But I want it noted that this was all your idea.”
“Happy to take the blame, in this case,” Louis said.
David could feel the rumble of laughter in Louis's chest and wondered vaguely when his other hand had ended up pressed against his chest.
"It's almost one,” David muttered, glancing at his watch before he could be sucked into another kiss. If they kept this up, he wasn't sure his impulsiveness wouldn't start making even worse decisions.
He wasn’t sure if it was an invitation or a plea for escape, but Louis pulled back with a nod.
David shivered and reached down to pick up the blanket. Pressed so close to Louis, he hadn’t realized how cold it was getting, but by the time they were back in the car, he was shivering. Louis cranked the heat all the way up and David pulled the blanket up to his neck, sneaking glances at Louis and wondering if this was real.
Was he actually dating Louis Greene?
David turtled his neck down into the blanket and leaned his head against the seatbelt as he considered the choices that had brought him to this point. The gentle hum of the engine lulled him to sleep before they even reached the half-way mark back to Midtown.
*****
“David,” Louis said, a warm hand jostling him awake. David yawned, looking blearily over at Louis. His perfectly kempt hair was mussed in the back where David had run his fingers through it and David had the giddy but terrifying realization that if he wanted to, he could actually do it again. If he wanted to, he could probably kiss him goodnight.
He was allowed to kiss Louis Greene.
It was like five-year-old his dream come true. Well, not exactly, but the essence of it was pretty close. What a terrifying thought.
“Sorry,” David said, straightening up and stretching a little so that his back popped. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
“You’re fine,” Louis said, sounding amused.
“Want to come up?” David asked. It seemed like the thing to do, though he wasn't sure it was a good idea or what he'd do if Louis said yes.
Despite agreeing to go out with Louis, David didn’t want to ruin things. He didn’t want to hurt Louis, either.
Louis shook his head, though he looked at least a little reluctant. “I need to get back to Rosemarie.”
“Are you okay to drive?” David asked, feeling bad for keeping him out so late.
“I’m good. It’s not that far,” Louis said.
David had a hard time picturing any sort of drive he was so tired, but maybe Louis wasn’t as exhausted as he was. He might really be a vampire. He didn’t even look tired.
David nodded, heart thundering in his chest. He didn’t know where to go from here. But whatever had just changed between them, David didn’t think it was a bad thing.
"Goodnight," David said, and then he leaned in and did kiss Louis Greene goodnight.