(no subject)

[extendedmetaphor]

Or, perhaps, somewhere, they did go for that drink.

There was a lot that Irwin was still trying to adjust to. The weather, for a start. The lack of palpable history is disconcerting. He's refusing to address the dinosaurs.
And then there's Dakin. Of course, there's Dakin. Inevitably. Irwin might have been the only one who was actually surprised.

They skirted around it for a few weeks but, in the end, it just felt inevitable. That he'd find himself waiting for Dakin with a drink in front of him.
It was just a drink. And everything would be fine.

Comments

[thesubjunctive]

Dakin nodded again, still smiling that same damned smile. "Here. No one will care. No one's even listening."

[extendedmetaphor]

"I'll care," he protested, hating the way that Dakin made him feel fourteen again. He could sympathise with poor Posner. "I'm listening."

[thesubjunctive]

Dakin snickered at that, honestly amused by Irwin's answer, before leaning in a little closer again. "Are you serious? Are you really that embarrassed of yourself?"

[extendedmetaphor]

If he was honest - if he was really, really honest - he liked it when Dakin leaned in like that. He liked the closeness of it and the danger and the possibility. Proximity.

"That embararassed by you, maybe. I've never known anyone so...forward."

[thesubjunctive]

"Yeah? That's a bit sad."

Or it meant that he had managed to blow away all of Irwin's acquaintances in terms of forwardness. It wasn't a bad thought. At least Irwin couldn't say that he was doing that wrong. "I'm still waiting for an answer."

[extendedmetaphor]

"You're really going to make me do this, aren't you? This is a game to you."

He was amused though. Incredulous but amused. He lifted his drink, taking a sip to moisten his suddenly dry mouth.

"I'd be happy with gerund you were talking about," he said, finally. "Howsoever the details shook out."

[thesubjunctive]

"Good." Dakin leaned back abruptly, smiling as he took a long drink. "Was that really so hard to say?"

[extendedmetaphor]

"Yes it bloody well was," said Irwin, amused despite himself. "You're a horror. You're getting a kick out of this, aren't you?"

Bastard. Horrible, gorgeous little bastard.

[thesubjunctive]

"Possibly," Dakin said, though the grin on his face readily revealed just how much he was enjoying himself. It had been ages since he had been able to have this sort of fun.

[extendedmetaphor]

"Don't y have anything better to do?" He asked, willingly playing along now, for better or for worse. "Someone your own age perhaps? A girl, even."

[thesubjunctive]

"Does it matter?" The answer was no. Even back in Sheffield where he had Fiona (and probably could have had any other he wanted with very little effort) he'd still been more than a little obsessed with Irwin, with the idea of getting him to this point and beyond.

[extendedmetaphor]

"Apparently not," said Irwin, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "But I'm sure you hated Hector for that part, so why mr? You never did say."

[thesubjunctive]

"Hector?" Dakin's grin lost a bit of its edge for a moment and he shook his head. Irwin would be the sort of person to bring that up in the middle of this. Couldn't he see the difference for himself? "This is nothing like that. It's different. You're different."

[extendedmetaphor]

He hoped so. Dakin wasn't exactly passive here after all.

"On, God, " he said, without any real frustration. "I want you and there's something about that that makes me feel in real danger of being horrible."

[thesubjunctive]

Dakin really couldn't help being smug at that confession. Not that the knowledge was new or surprising, he'd known for ages that the older man wanted him, but at the fact that he had finally gotten him to say it. "Why? Are you worried someone will care you were my teacher?" He smirked. "Or are you that bad in bed?"

[extendedmetaphor]

He registered the smug and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. His drink was almost finished and he knocked the rest of it back, setting the glass down.

"No," he said, shaking his head, managing a smile. "Never that."

[thesubjunctive]

"Glad to hear it," Dakin said, finishing his own drink in quick succession and rising from his seat. That had seemed like as much of an invitation to move on to the main event as anything he'd heard. "Care to give me a demonstration?"

[extendedmetaphor]

Well. There it was. No more prevarication, no more posturing. In or out. Do or die, so to speak. There must be poetry for this.

He nodded. He stood.

"Alright," he said.

[thesubjunctive]

"I would ask your place or mine, but the answer's a bit obvious under the circumstances." The circumstances being a certain highly religious housemate who likely would not appreciate such goings on in the next room. Dakin would wait until at least the third time before annoying him like that.

"You'd also probably find it glib and expected."

[extendedmetaphor]

"Putting words in my mouth now, are you?" asked Irwin, grateful, for the first time, of the little hut near the stream, not far from the pub where they're drinking and intensely private.

He felt awkward, so he put his hands in his pockets.

[thesubjunctive]

By some miracle, Dakin managed to bite back on the first response that came to mind. While some of his mates may have found it funny, he doubted Irwin would.

"Why not?" He walked along next to Irwin, not a bit awkward, feeling intensely proud of himself just for getting to that point in the proceedings. "After all, you would think that, wouldn't you?"

[extendedmetaphor]

Honestly, Irwin was surprised that the joke that he'd so obviously left himself open for didn't come. He glanced across at Dakin.

"You do have that way," he said. "You're...effortless. It's irritating."

[thesubjunctive]

He looked over and smiled, effortless, just like Irwin had said. But he could hardly help that, could he?

"It's not the first time I've heard that."

[extendedmetaphor]

"I bet it isn't," said Irwin, still walking hands in his pockets. "Hopefully, at least some of this will come as a surprise to you, at least."

[thesubjunctive]

Dakin's smile turned rather smirk-like once more and he picked up the pace a little, eager to get there. After all, he'd had plenty of experience with girls, plus he had kissed men twice on the island, even if he had been drunk both times and even if it had all been in fun. How different and surprising could it all be? Sex was sex.