out on the cantilever

I intended to leave it alone, I really did, but it's not for nothing that I am hyperfixated ^-^.

"Pretty weird thing, being out on a first date in the middle of a war, isn't it."

Minoth had a big silhouette and an even bigger personality, yet as he sat, even perched, against the anti-comportment of all his usual slouching, on the composite-stone bench in Magmine Eatery (Addam had been about to choose someplace much fancier, but Mythra had lain that plan decidedly to rest with a resounding thwack on the back of his princely head), he seemed...timid. Tepid. Out of his element, even though it was nighttime.

"First date? We've eaten together before, Minoth. Breaking bread's not so bad, surely we must have convinced you of that much." So apparently Addam hadn't understood the true point of why Mythra had so enthusiastically whaled her truest sensibilities upon him.

Minoth wanted to grumble out a "Get off your high horse, clown prince, you were the one who called it a date," but then he was the one falling down earthside, even on his rear just as he'd done earlier that day. Well. He'd be coy.

"Ain't this a date date, Prince? Aren't you gonna walk me home afterwards?" And if Addam was clever, which he wasn't, or if he was well-attuned enough to be able to read Minoth's mind, which he wasn't, he'd say something appropriately corny about "It's a little far to Aletta, shall I put you up in the palace?"

(And something something deep-buried thoughts about "Who wouldn't want to spend the night with a prince?" Bury them now twice as deep, just for good measure.)

He certainly wouldn't say "You already are home, with all of us," with the biggest, goofiest grin on his face. Not in any script that this playwright would have written. But, Minoth was nothing if not good at and up for a bit of snappy repartée.

"Where's your eye for romance, Addam? That doesn't quite fit the bill, now does it?" Questions, questions, questions.

"Huh?" Adorable. The way his eyebrows lifted and his chin tilted was adorable. "You can hold a guy's hand, you know. Come on, I don't bite!"

Across the street under the not-at-all-inconspicuous cover of an awning, Mythra's eyes near about rolled out of her head. "I can't watch this. I just can't do it."

"No one asked you to," Milton pointed out sagely, but he was watching too, of course. They all were, in fact.

"This is normally the time you and Minoth would be waiting to see who won your bet about the event of the evening, isn't it?" Oh, so you've got jokes now, have you Jin?

"Well, yeah, and I was gonna bet with him tonight too, but he looked too nervous for that, so I left him alone." And good for you, Mythra, because a waking bear is even more dangerous to poke than one that sleeps.

"You'd trust him to take a bet on something Addam would do?" Lora questioned, leaning forward and up on her toes. "He seems too crafty for that."

What, like he has his little prince wrapped around his pinky finger? Nuh-uh. Mythra rolled her eyes again. "Not on what Addam would do, on what he would do. Guy doesn't hedge at all. Ever."

"Master Minoth sticks to the script, one might say," Aegaeon put in. Mythra gave a triumphant nod, even at the pocketed idiom. "Exactly."

No one knew where the requisite respective gloves had gone, but suddenly it was very easy, even painfully obvious, to observe the cautiously intertwined fingers laid on the table behind the drab synthetic ether candle of a centerpiece.

"Damn it! I would have won that one." And yet, for all her grousing, Mythra didn't seem all that unhappy about it.

"And just what other items were on your docket, hmm, Mythra?" Brighid asked with archest voice.

Mythra began to tick obligingly off on her fingers. "If they were gonna hold hands, if they were gonna kiss, who was gonna pay, who was gonna trip on whose feet when the other one pulled out the seat for him...y'know, the whole first date spiel. My picks were yes, no, Minoth, Minoth."

"And his were no, yes, Addam, Addam?" Hugo continued the thread with a twinkle in his eye. "It almost sounds like a regular conversation between the two of them."

The ticked fingers and all the rest snapped shut into a fist that went promptly propped to hip. "I told you, we didn't bet, so I don't know what his picks would have been."

"Oh, but you don't have to," Haze said, sweetly as ever. "You and Master Minoth disagree about everything, so it's easy to tell."

"Well, duh. You wouldn't catch me going on a date with Addam. You gotta be pretty desperate to go on a date with your Driver."

Mikhail, still concentrated on the bistro scene, shook his head, and the motion was almost wise. "What? C'mon, twerp, you can't just shake your head like I'm so wrong without anything to back it up." So he pointed, impressively discreetly.

However impolite it may have been, whichever of the fateful, watchful nine had been caught slacking turned back to look. Addam and Minoth were still holding hands, but Minoth was now stroking his thumb over the outside ridge of Addam's, and they were both laughing with the most genuine joy.

"How long did you say they've known each other, Hugo?" Lora asked softly. "Eight years," he replied in a reciprocal tone. "There are many different meanings to the word 'desperate', Mythra. I don't think they're all bad."

me: writes [REDACTED] words of painfully repressed slow burn where they kiss and do approximately 37 other homoerotic things with practical impunity
also me: makes them hold hands and be happy like normal people and gets like this

(And then I made it sad. Again. So that's probably why - I'm incapable of doing anything else. This wasn't how I originally planned it to go/end, so it's very possible that I'll have another, better crack at this in the near future.)

Thanks ever so much, again, for the original fic because, well...gayass cowboy prince needed a dinner date, didn't they. I think so, anyway. :D