Relocation - Part Five

[churbooseanon]

Alex and David go to a bar, meet an awesome lady, and Alex maybe learns a bit more than he expected about David. I am so sorry.

 

Relocation - Part Five

More than twelve hours and he could still feel the scalding heat of lips against his own. More than twelve hours and he could still taste a latte and coffeecake when he unconsciously licked his lips. He could still feel the hand in his hair tugging it gently, still feel the pressure and heat and need in those lips that had pressed against his, the tongue that had slid so briefly over his, and the body that had been held against his.

Needed to do that in case there was never another chance, Shaun had laughed, his voice low and breathy and just so damn pleased with itself, and maybe a touch scared?

More than twelve hours and he couldn’t get Shaun out of his head.

Of course it hadn’t help that Tucker had spent the whole of their shift making veiled—and not so veiled—comments about the little incident, despite Connie’s threats to his job. Caboose had even added his two cents when Tucker would prompt him to, saying that it was good that ‘Wash and Mister York are becoming such very good friends.’ Church had, thankfully, stayed out of the conversation, clearly too distracted by the return of his 'on-again off-again on-again off-again oh will you make up your damn minds already’ (as Tucker put it) girlfriend Allison. She’d left shortly after Shaun with another possessive kiss of Church over the counter, leaving Daniel alone at the booth, staring blankly down at the table, his grip too tight on his mug of coffee. Something in the way that Daniel had stayed there for a full two hours and gone through four coffees and three muffins had made Shaun’s whispered words… most unnerving.

Then again, even going back to the apartment hadn’t been enough to free his mind of the memory. A meal and flopping down in front of his television hadn’t been enough. Finally moving to fill his bookshelves—minus one box of course—hadn’t been enough. So he had hauled his shoes back on and opted for the only thing that had managed to distract him from Shaun’s stupidity the night before.

Just his luck that it hadn’t been the right twin who had opened the door.

“You,” Alexa didn’t quite greet so much as glower when she opened the door. She probably would have even glared down at him if they hadn’t been the same height. As it was she met his eyes with an icy look. “Fifty bucks.”

“Excuse me?” David asked, actively recoiling a bit when she held her hand out expectantly.

“Fifty bucks. Between the product you used, drinking my beer, and just generally annoying me, that’s what you owe me.”

The look on her face was utterly serious and David found himself going for his wallet before he could really think about it.

“Alexa? Who’s…” Alex’s voice came from further into the apartment, and David pulled his hands away from his pockets.

“Alex, your sister is…” David called out, and backed further away when Alexa sneered at him.

“Just greeting someone that I figure is here for you,” Alexa shouted back, and in moments David was rescued by the arrival of Alex. “Just waiting to see what he wants to beg off of us tonight.”

“Alexa, I know you’re prone to being a catty bitch, but could you, I don’t know, abandon that for ten minutes and go back to whatever it was you were doing?” Alex asked, shooting David a smile over his sister’s shoulder. It wasn’t just warm, though. No, it made David think more of the smile that Alex had shot him when he’d come out of the shower the night before. Yeah, it was warm, but there was something else, something… appreciative?

No, David was just reading something into that look because of Shaun.

“Fuck you,” Alexa sighed, but she pushed away from the door frame and strode off, leaving David alone with her brother.

“Sorry. Looks like you got your first real interaction with my sister. She’s… a bit testy tonight. Well, she’s a bit testy all the time,” Alex laughed, shaking his head as he stepped forward to lean against the door frame. “What can I do for you? Decided to dye your hair next?”

“No,” David chuckled, though looking at Alex there was a part of him that wanted that. Wanted to feel those fingers in his hair, tugging at it lightly and…

Okay, there were times and places where things like that were appropriate to think about. Standing there in the hall in front of Alex, where anyone could come by and see them, was neither the time nor the place, regardless of whether or not that dark purple button-up shirt that wasn’t fully buttoned and thus gave David a good view of his collar bones was sexy.

“Well then, what can I do for you? I’ll admit right now that we’re running low on alcohol in here so…”

“You know, just because we had drinks last night and the night before doesn’t mean I’m only after you for your alcohol,” David laughed, and almost immediately wanted to call the words back. Shit, that sounded a bit forward, didn’t it? Yet Alex didn’t seem to read anything wrong with the words because he just smiled and shook his head.

“I know that look on your face. Bad day at work?”

“Shit,” David confirmed. “Really messed up. And my only friend in town is my boss, who I really can’t deal with right now especially since she’s dragging me to some event tomorrow. I don’t want to impose on you but…”

“Hey, Alexa!” Alex called over his shoulder as he strode back into the apartment. “I’m heading out. Don’t blow the apartment up while I’m gone!”

David watched as Alex stopped by the loveseat and started to root around for a coat. The way he bent over as he dug through the pile drew David’s eyes over his body, how could it not. Alex was in amazing shape, and David couldn’t help but wonder how Alex’s body would feel pressed against his rather than Shaun’s. What would it be like to have Alex lean down to kiss him, to hold him to…

“Okay,” Alex said as he turned back to David and hauled on his coat, “I know a good place downtown. It gets sort of busy on Fridays, but if I’m right I know someone working there tonight. If nothing else, we’ll get quick service.”

Which might or might not be a good thing, David realized as he stood aside so Alex could close and lock his door. He’d always been a lightweight when it came to drinking, and some of the decisions he’d made before had been…

A knife pressed to his neck, shaking as Ethan stared at him, eyes wide and hurt and crazy.

Well, this wasn’t going to bite him in the ass in the same way.

Dear god he hoped not.

* * * * * *

“Well if it isn’t tall, blond and not screaming,” the bartender laughed as Alex finally made it through the press of people to the bar, David trailing behind him. “What brings you around my place, North?”

“North?” David asked as he came to a stop at Alex’s elbow.

“Oh, and you brought a…” Lacey started to chuckle and Alex shot her the sharpest look he could manage. She must have caught it because she trailed off and just smiled at David instead.

“A what?” David insisted, sliding onto a stool and glancing between Lacey and Alex.

“Friend. I normally come here alone,” Alex lied quickly, shooting Lacey another look. “Right, Alicia?”

There was a wide smile on the woman’s face, and a tension around her eyes that told Alex that she read the meaning in him using her full name.

“Yeah, North isn’t exactly the most social guy at bars,” Lacey said at length. “I’m guessing you’ll want the usual?”

“For me at least,” Alex confirmed as he took the stool next to David’s. “Open a tab for us?”

“You got it, North. And what can I get you…?”

“David,” he frowned, “and just get me whatever he’s having.” With that he turned his attention to Alex, “You know, you’re really going to have to explain this 'north’ thing to me.”

“Should have realized that would be a repercussion of meeting up with Lacey,” Alex laughed, shaking his head as Lacey moved to get their drinks. “Lacey’s naturalized to this area, like me and Alexa. We all went to college together, and I meant that in the loosest way possible. All different majors, but Lacey and Alexa met in some extracurricular group and before I knew it our little twosome was a three, and…”

Alex shrugged. It was a lot harder to tell this story with Alexa’s pretty serious insistence that strangers had no business knowing her sexuality. But it was a lot harder to explain Lacey when he left out the fact that his sister had been involved with the woman for a good period of time.

“Anyway, there were a lot of people named Alex or variations thereupon when we were in school. Eventually it was determined that people needed other modifiers to explain which Alex or Alexis or Alexandra or whatever they were referring to. Some people went by their last names. Others had nicknames from growing up. Unfortunately Alex and Alexa weren’t going to work, Alexa refused to be referred to as 'the twins,’ and our last name was the same so Lacey came up with an answer. Alexa and I are from a small town in South Dakota called Lemmon. It’s practically on the border with North Dakota, no kidding. We came out here for college, clearly, but Lacey jumped on that detail readily and referred to us collectively as the 'Dakotas.’ Alexa was dubbed 'South’ and I got 'North’ because I was taller. These days the only person who calls either of us by those names is Lacey,” Alex explained.

Of course, as he finished that explanation Lacey was back, plopping bottles down in front of them, and smiling.

“Yeah, and in return South dubbed me 'Four-Seven’ because I’m from New Mexico,” Lacey laughed, shaking her head. “You need anything else, North, just wave. I’ll make time for you.” With that she was back to work, already halfway down the bar dealing with someone else.

“Four-Seven?” David asked, tilting his head in an endearing way as he sipped from his bottle.

“Lacey’s from New Mexico,” Alex explained. “Forty-seventh state. New Mexico was a mouthful, so we just called her forty-seven. Then Alexa was far too drunk one night and it became Four-Seven. Don’t ask me. My sister is flat out crazy.”

David laughed, “Reminds me of Connie.”

“Connie?” Alex asked in shock, bottle frozen halfway to his mouth.

“Yeah. Shit, I’ve only called her Rebecca or Becky in front of you, haven’t I?” David asked, shaking his head before sipping from his bottle again. “The old friend who helped me find a place and a job out here? Also my boss now, funnily enough. Anyway she pretty much hates her first name, and I’m one of the few people who get away with using it. Never liked it. At last, in high school, she decided she was tired of being called something she hated, and sat me down for a brain storming session on a new name for herself.”

“How did you get to Connie from Rebecca?” Alex asked, hoping that his voice sounded more interested than confused. Could it have been possible that he’d misread the situation? The timing was right, wasn’t it? If Alexa had been late on Wednesday because she’d been with Connie, then the woman who David had met and insisted was a friend, like a sister, could have been Connie. And Connie had known that Jenkins had moved out of the apartment that was now David’s, in part because Jenkins had been the fourth on her cafe’s 'blue team,’ which would make David the replacement Alexa said Connie was bringing in. The old friend who had been moving out here because of relationship troubles…

Which matched up with how David had been when Alex had knocked on his door the night before.

“Connie’s parents were, are, pretty serious Catholics. She had to do the whole rigamarole. Which includes a little something called Confirmation, where a person goes from a child to an adult in the eyes of the Church. You take on the name of some saint as you become part of the community. This was about the same time she wanted her own name that wasn’t Rebecca. So I helped her go through books of saints and we found this daughter of the Emperor Constantine. Thus she picked up Constance as a name, and we started calling her Connie,” David provided. “Took a lot of pushing from me and E…”

David trailed off suddenly and Alex couldn’t help but notice the baleful glare he sent at the bottle in his hand and the tightening of his grip on it.

“You’re going to break that, and I doubt your ex is worth the ER trip,” Alex said gently, hoping the guess was good as he thought when he placed his hand gently on David’s arm.

“That piece of shit isn’t even worth the cost of the beer,” David spat as his hand relaxed. “Sorry… It was a pretty rough break up.”

“Seems like it,” Alex agreed, finally turning his attention to his drink. The first chance he got he was going to have to steal Connie from his sister and get as much of the story as he could out of her. The last thing he wanted was to keep trying stumbling blindly into the clear war zone of David’s previous relationship.

She must have been some special piece of trash to mess David up this much.

“Anyway, we’re here to drink away your shitty day at work, right? Willing to tell me just what was up with that?”

* * * * * *

And with just that, a single question, David couldn’t help but think of Shaun’s fingers in his hair, the heat of his lips, and the press of his body.

“Worst day ever. Of all time,” David declared as he finished his drink. Alex’s hand was almost immediately up and within seconds Lacey was there with another for him.

“Wow, pretty weighty declaration there, David. Manage to get fired already?” Alex chuckled, a deep, throaty thing that made David tingle all over—or maybe that was the beer.

“No,” David sighed, shaking his head. No, that might have made things easier. He could have spent his next few days looking out for a new job rather than getting dragged to a picnic with coworkers he didn’t like, and ones he didn’t know. “Nothing that bad, I guess. Just… Well, for one thing my coworkers decided that they were going to give me a nickname.”

“Seriously? Third day in town and you’re already making name for yourself,” Alex laughed.

“Yeah, except I had no say. They decided that I’m henceforth to be referred to as Wash.”

Alex raised an eyebrow then smirked before sipping his beer. “Let me guess, you’re from Washington, D.C.?”

“Seattle actually, but they decided that wasn’t worthy enough. And then it happened, the customer from hell.”

“Surely it wasn’t that bad,” Alex soothed, his hand coming out to rest on David’s hand again, and it was only that light—burning—touch that made him realize that he’d been squeezing his bottle too hard again. “What did they do?”

Lips, searing hot, pressed against his own. Fingers tangled in his hair, tugging gently and something in his shock or subconscious had kept him from groaning. He had tasted like a hot cup of latte and Connie’s special coffeecake. His hair had the tangy smell of gel in it. His voice had been low and breathy and hungry.

David hated himself for playing it over and over in his head so many times. This was supposed to be a distraction from that, not a reliving.

“Kissed me,” David said at length, taking another swig of his beer. “Right in front of other customers he just came up, pulled me against him, and kissed me.”

He could still feel it on his lips.

“He?”

Shit. Shit shit shit shit.

“Some asshole regular,” David continued quickly, refusing to look up from his bottle, refusing to glance at Alex. Fuck, he hadn’t been supposed to mention the part where it had been a guy. That was probably going to make Alex all kinds of uncomfortable. Fuck, why did he have to mess up this friendship so quickly?

“I’m guessing you didn’t like it,” Alex said after a minute, his voice still completely level, though possibly a hint amused.

David’s attention almost immediately snapped to Alex—a dizzying move to be honest—and what he found on the other man’s face wasn’t disgust or regret. No, Alex looked somewhere between amused and pitying.

“I’m not exactly fond of relative strangers kissing me in front of customers, no,” David admitted, watching Alex’s face carefully.

“You should have punched him,” Alex suggested with another sip of his drink. “Maybe twice.”

“Would have if he hadn’t pretty much fled the cafe immediately,” David sighed, raising a hand to run through his hair. Not that it hadn’t been nice and all of that, and damn it had been nice to have something other than Ethan to think about all day. But there were lines that weren’t supposed to be crossed, and kissing strangers was one of them, even when you had been asked out by them first.

“Well, consider doing it next time you see him, provided your boss will let you,” Alex suggested, smiling widely as if there was some secret little joke behind it. “Was this out of the blue?”

“He… tried to get my number yesterday,” David admitted with a sigh. “When that didn’t work he left me his. I threw it away. Like hell I need to waste my time on some self entitled ass who thinks he can hit on anyone and everything.”

“I’ve seen the type,” Alex agreed with a serious nod. “But you didn’t answer my question…”

“Question?” David found himself parroting as he took another draw from his beer. He had been hoping that Alex would forget that part. Because the answer had to be a powerful yes.

Alex sighed and finished his beer, gesturing Lacey over. The idea was a good one, and David quickly downed the rest of his bottle. Before he could even put it back on the bar there was a new one waiting for him, the bottle cool under his hand when he grabbed it.

“Listen, David, I don’t mean to pry, but clearly whatever happened with your ex was… complicated. That much is clear just from how upset you get at hints about them,” Alex started after another sip, turning on his stool and giving David what he thought was a comforting smile. “And normally I’d never suggest this sort of thing to anyone because honestly I find the idea a bit… distasteful. But sometimes after a really bad relationship, you need to put something between you and the other person. Well, not something so much as someone.”

“Kind of hard to entertain the idea of a rebound when you’re a month out of eight on-again off-again years together, and a longer friendship,” David sighed before taking another drag of his drink. He was going to hate himself for it in the morning. In fact, Connie was probably going to have to haul him out of bed like she had threatened if he didn’t stop soon.

“Maybe,” Alex agreed, frowning. “But a rebound isn’t necessarily what you need. Something less than that is probably more what you’d be looking for. Sort of like… a bite of sorbet to clear the palette between courses at a fancy dinner, you know?”

David couldn’t help it. He started giggling, actually giggling, at the look on Alex’s face, at the very suggestion. There was a flash of annoyance across Alex’s face, just barely there, but David kept laughing.

“What’s so funny,” Alex demanded.

“The way you’re dancing around suggesting a one-night stand,” David choked out around his laughter. “Just say it, Alex. You think I should find someone to screw. If all my problems were so easily solved that way, I’d probably agree. As it is…”

He twisted the bottle around in his hands a few times before taking another sip. “As it is I don’t think there is anything further from my mind than a quick fuck.”

No, his mind, and his eyes, were following the line of Alex’s jaw, wondering just what it would be like to place kisses along it. Wondering how Alex would kiss compared to Shaun. He already knew what those fingers felt like in his hair, even brushing faintly along the skin of his neck.

He really never should have agreed to going to the bar with Alex. Connie had always told him he was an affectionate drunk. Maybe too affectionate. And now here he was, far too much alcohol in his system, more likely to follow, sitting with a man he was already attracted to, talking about sex.

This was the stupidest idea ever.

“Just a suggestion,” Alex agreed after a moment, and the way their eyes met, the way he was swallowing, hard, made David shiver slightly in his seat.

There was no way Alex couldn’t tell he was staring, right?

Fuck.

“In the mean time,” David declared, tearing his eyes from Alex to stare down at his bottle instead, “a few more drinks because I’d rather not think about anything more complicated than how obnoxiously green your bartender friend’s hair is.”

“It is pretty green,” Alex chuckled back, and when he tipped his bottle toward David, David didn’t hesitate to tap the neck of his bottle against Alex’s.

Focusing on silly things like that went a lot further to keeping himself under control than talking did.

* * * * * *

“I shouldna had tha fif beer,” David slurred as they stumbled from the elevator.

“Honestly, I don’t think you should have had the fourth, or the third,” Alex chuckled as he readjusted David’s arm around his shoulder, hauling his friend a bit higher up so he didn’t have to bend over so much to keep him from falling. “You’re a serious lightweight.”

“Shuddap,” David groaned as they stumbled down the hall toward their rooms. “I jus don’ wanna 'member.”

“Well, there’s a bit of a chance of that,” Alex agreed as they shuffled down the hall together, more than half of David’s weight on him. They’d been like this since the bar, and in the end Alex had been glad that he’d insisted on a cab both ways. Not that he’d expected David to end up in quite this state.

“No,” David disagreed, his voice painfully sober for a moment for all that Alex knew that wasn’t possible. “Never going to forget.”

There was a weight to the declaration that made Alex shudder.

“'Smy door,” David’s voice groaned as Alex brought them to a stop.

“You still have your keys?”

“Here,” came the chuckling reply as David fumbled in his pocket and the keys, predictably, fell to the floor. “Whoops.”

“Whoops is right,” Alex chuckled right back, twisting around with David. “Gonna need you to stay standing on your own for a moment. Think you can do that?”

“Maybe?” David asked as he smiled and nodded. Well, at least David was cheery kind of drunk.

Carefully Alex leaned David against the wall by his door and bent over to pick up the keys. When he straightened he had just enough time to register the fact that David had stumbled forward a step before there were hands fisted in the collar of his shirt and Alex found himself pulled down to David’s level.

David’s lips only managed to brush briefly over his before Alex got his hands up to David’s shoulders and pushed him back.

“No,” Alex insisted firmly, maybe harder than he should have because it was more for his own sake than David’s. “You’re drunk.”

“Yeah,” David agreed, giggling up at him. “But I wann'ed a kiss you.”

“Maybe,” Alex sighed as he leaned David against the wall again and fumbled through his keys to find the one for the apartment. In seconds he had the door open and had returned to David, pulling one of David’s arms over his shoulder again to help him in. “But you’re still drunk.”

“I wann'ed a,” David insisted as Alex navigated them through the door.

“I’m sure,” Alex grunted as he realized that David was starting to topple, and he was going sideways too fast for Alex to fix it. As quickly as he could manage he spun them both so that they were at least going down on a clear part of the floor, rather than risking David hitting his head on something. Of course that meant they were sprawled on the floor, door open, with David half on top of him, which was doing nothing for the situation.

David, probably having seen the whole thing as an opportunity—because Alex couldn’t believe it was deliberate—leaned up a bit to press his lips against Alex’s jaw in a fumbling kiss. Followed by another a bit higher up his jaw, and another, and Alex actually groaned when the quick kisses reached just below his ear, earning him a pleased chuckle from David.

“Lemme…”

“Nope,” Alex insisted as he wiggled out from under David and pushed himself to his feet. “But rest assured, we’re going to have a long talk about this when you’re sober. Damn long one.”

With a sigh he moved to close the door and drop David’s keys into the bowl by the door. With that done he turned and stared down at David, who was honest to god pouting up at him.

“You’re not going to work with me on this, are you?”

“Maybe,” David giggled again, and Alex just sighed. Fine, he could do this the hard way. He was, after all, Alexa’s brother. Dealing with an uncooperative drunk wasn’t exactly outside of his realm of experience. Of course he’d never dealt with a drunk who was affectionate—Alexa got surly around men—but it couldn’t be too different.

“You’re a pain,” Alex sighed as he carefully moved to crouch at David’s side. He dodged the fumbling hands as best he could as he slid his arms under David’s back and knees and lifted him, bridal style. That, unsurprisingly, seemed to suit David just fine, as he was wrapping his arms around Alex’s neck and leaning into Alex’s hold almost immediately.

“You’re strong,” David observed.

“A little,” Alex agreed as he slowly navigated the apartment, thankful that David had been an idiot and left half the lights in the place on. The bedroom should be just over…

“Ethan couldn’t even carry a tune.”

“Ethan?” Alex asked as he skirted the couch and made for the door he remembered David moving some boxes marked 'bedroom’ into. He hoped keeping David talking would prevent his hands and lips from wandering more.

“My ex.”

That… answered that question.

“Thas m'bed,” David said with an adorable smile on his face as Alex finally made it through the door. The light wasn’t on in this room, so Alex just stumbled toward the mattress, cursed when he kicked a stand by the bed, and dumped David on the bed.

“Yeah, figured that since we’re in your apartment,” Alex sighed. “Have you unpacked any medicine yet?”

“Unpacked?” David asked, and Alex just shook his head and went to the bathroom on his own. It didn’t take much rooting around through the medicine cabinet to find a large bottle of aspirin. With that in hand he moved to the kitchen, filled a glass with water, and returned to the bedroom to find a bedside lamp on and David lying on the bed with his shirt half off and his arms wrapped around a pillow.

“Yeah… I’m just going to leave these here for the morning,” Alex chuckled to himself. “I don’t think I want to trust you with anything more complicated than sleeping right now.”

“Stay?” David asked.

He wanted to, he really did.

“Not happening until we’ve had that long conversation, okay?” Alex answered. “But for now we’ve got to get you out of those clothes. You’ll hate yourself tomorrow if you sleep in them.”

David must have understood the meaning behind the words, though not the sentiment, because his grip on the pillow instantly slacked and he was leaning up toward Alex, a look on his face that made Alex bite his lip and shake his head.

“Nope,” Alex repeated, catching David’s hands as they stretched for him. “Not happening. Now stay still…”

It wasn’t easy to get David’s shirt up over his head while knocking his hands away wherever they tried to grab for him. Still, Alex managed it somehow, and tossed the shirt aside, and he was left staring at what was left before him.

“David,” he gasped, unable to keep himself from reaching out and running his fingers along the nasty scar that cut across David’s skin, starting close to his neck on the right side, sweeping over his shoulder, and then curving sharply toward his chest. “What…?”

Suddenly David was moving, slapping his touch away and retreating across the bed.

“Don’t touch me,” David snarled, fear and panic in his eyes.

“I…”

“Go away!”

“David,” Alex sighed, reaching out toward him, but that seemed only to amplify the fear on David’s face.

“Don’t touch me,” David repeated. “Go away.”

Quietly Alex backed away from the bed and stopped by the door with a sigh.

“We’re gonna have a really long talk about this tomorrow, okay? The first chance we get. All of it,” Alex insisted, his words quiet and strong. “Okay?”

“I’m sorry, Ethan…” David answered, his voice barely a whisper. “I didn’t mean to…”

The words trailed off slowly, fading into silence, and when Alex looked back over his shoulder he found that David had stretched out on the bed again, wrapped around a pillow. His eyes were closed, his chest slowly raising and falling in sleep.

Part of him wanted to move to David’s side, finish taking off his shoes and socks and maybe even pants so he’d be comfortable. Another wanted to climb into the bed with David and hold him tightly and whisper that he’d never let someone hurt him like this Ethan had ever again. In the end he just left, turning out the lights of the apartment behind him as he went.

Tomorrow he’d have to corner both David and Connie and have some seriously long conversations.