The Lewd Beauty And The Grump [Rin&Hideki] (Private)

[-Hideki-]

Indifference was shown on his face when Daniel accused him of either marking things he heard as uninteresting or tearing them apart to throw the negative into people’s faces. Even if he did that he didn’t care and what the man said left him completely unaffected however when the prostitute continued and mentioned that duck in the pocket of his jacket, which actually wasn’t a duck, that Chen had given to him, pointing out how he had taken it regardless of his refusal of the gift, heat was shooting into his face and there was a slight rosy shade to see on his pale cheeks and the tall man looked away from the brunette and there only was a snort to hear when the guy spoke about whether he was doing that to push people away or whether he thought people who didn’t have the same life experiences he had or weren’t as tough as him were weak. “I just took the bloody duck because although I told that whore I didn’t want it and he should take it away he was about to leave it there anyway and I couldn’t just leave stuff at the bar, it has to be in order alright.” He barked but his face was still gloving especially since he was blatantly lying right now, trying to do the same he had tried to in the brothel when Chen had given this to him. There was no denying that he had found it cute and nice that the man had thanked him for having saved him, that he had felt some warm fuzziness and that it had almost gotten through to him and there had been no way he could have let that happen, let anyone get through to him, touch him in a sense, much less a damn whore of all people. Not to mention that Chen was undeniably beautiful and the fact that Hutson found some whore beautiful and attractive, a whore he should only look down on, was difficult to stomach for him. He had indeed wanted to push the other away, he had wanted to seem unaffected and unreachable and keep the distance but he had not managed to not be affected at all since he had found it really sweet and the physical touch, a man so pretty kissing him, it had made him feel even weirder about it and had made him say mean things as a matter of defence against what was going on inside of himself.

 

“And I told you that I don’t need to and don’t talk about my feelings. Who does that anyway.” He barked when he had settled back down on the bed after having gotten out of the bathroom. “I’m also not worried about you touching me or whatever.” He rolled his eyes. For fucks sake he wasn’t some nervous defenceless maiden afraid that if he was with a man in the room the guy would do naughty stuff to him and touch him inappropriately. Not that it’d work anyway. Even if the man were to touch him, stroke and suck his cock or do whatnot with him, he’d probably not get hard or not get hard for long or maybe he would and it would be disastrous in another way. Why the fuck was he even thinking about something as absurd now?

 

For a moment he thought that Daniel either wouldn’t answer his question about his sexuality and his coming out or respond with the security guards signature by saying ‘None of your business’ back at him now returning the favour but then the other did speak after all and the first thing he learned was that the man hadn’t had a father. “What happened to him? A child needs his father!” the man stated. “Maybe you wouldn’t have ended up in such a business with a proper male role model.” The ex-soldier said and he wasn’t even trying to be cynic or mean now, it was a part of his opinion. He was then remaining silent and just listening to the man though, learning that he had come out at sixteen, that he had had a boyfriend at that time and that his mother had not been too happy about it, had given him the grandkids remark but had then chosen to just ignore it. “It sounds like she had hoped that if she just ignored the fact and avoided acknowledging it that it would go away!” Rex pointed out, thinking about it, before his question was returned to him and Daniel wanted to know whether his family and his friends knew.

 

An unhappy, cynic laugh came from the former major general in return and he shook his head. “No.” he answered. “My parents are… I couldn’t have told them.” The blond didn’t know how to start explaining it. “I’m a conservative man… but my parents are on a whole other level…” he decided to give the other an idea where he was coming from. “They think we’re all sick perverts who need help. Say they won’t mind what happens in people’s bedrooms as long as they don’t have to deal with those ‘queers’ and we’re invisible.” He told the brunette. “They’d not have been able to take it. My mum would have had a heart attack right away had she learned that her own son was one of ‘those’. And my dad, he’d have said I’m not and should stop to say such things immediately and send me to conversion therapy camp or something.” another laugh was to hear, dry and not any happier than the previous one. “My boyfriend, Sebastian, he had already told his parents in middle-school, he told them that we were more than friends and they accepted him how he was, the loved him how he was, they even accepted me how I was and me being with their son, they didn’t see anything negative about our love. He wanted me to be true about who I was as well, it was a fight reoccurring throughout the decades in our relationship but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t tell my parents. I didn’t have the guts. If there’s something I regret than that is that. That and not having taken him up to Canada and marry that man immediately when he said he wanted that.” Rex just kept talking he didn’t know why, he didn’t know how, he hadn’t even realised it, words had just left his mouth somehow and when he realised that he was talking way too fucking much he bit his bottom lip and got silent again, before he added. “My friends know though.”

 

Granted, Rex Hutson didn’t have many friends. He never had had but now his “circle” of friend consisted out of exactly two people he regularly met with in an old fashioned pub. One of the two was a twenty-six years old ex-soldier who had gotten so severely wounded that they had to honourable discharge him and after he had been released from the hospital after a year he had gotten on disability with too much money to die but too little to live. He looked like a stitched puppet, was physically crippled, in severe pain, downed his pain killers with alcohol, was constantly drunk, even more furious than Rex, flung around insults like other people greetings, was spewing the wildest conspiracy theories and was in denial about having complex PTSD although they had told him to see a professional about it. Raging Roger, that was how they called him, was basically like Rex’s and his other friend David’s child they had never wanted to have. They had to drive him to the hospital when he had had to get his stomach pumped out again because he had overdosed his pills and had drunken too much, they had to stand between him and other people if Roger had insulted them so bad that they were about to knock his lights out, they had to drive him around since he had lost his driver’s licence when he had hit a granny with his car after he had repeatedly had smaller accidents because he had gotten flashbacks in traffic or his body had not moved how he had wanted to, they had to listen to his endless rants about everything including how the government were all fascists for taking his drivers licence, they listened to him calling them fascists because they had suggested that he maybe, just maybe shouldn’t hold guns anymore and then had the man pouting, not talking to them for weeks until they got back together and the two of them secretly took the bullets out of Roger’s guns without him noticing. They fetched him from the police department when he had gotten arrested for drinking in public again, losing the paper bag to hide the bottle in, getting noticed for throwing a tantrum, spitting in front of some religious building screaming that he had been blown into bits of pieces while fighting for the nations safety and freedoms, fighting the enemy but the government was letting those very terrorists, the enemy into their country as a thanks showing money up their arses while he was left to rod. When then addressed by the police for drinking in public, the police officer pointing at the bottle, Roger had thrown the bottle through the window of the religious building asking ‘which bottle’. David apologising to the police officers, saying that Roger had it tough, the police letting Roger go because they knew David and they were feeling sympathetic for the young man who looked like a scarecrow.

 

And then there was David himself. David was in his fifties, married and a father of two. He was a suspended policeman who some radical, terrorist fringe groups wanted to see dead because he had shot a gun man dead. The criminal had threatened a victim with a gun and David had shot him as he had seen no other option but it had turned out that the gun man’s gun had not been loaded and even if it had been the media and those groups would have probably come for his head accusing him of being a racist. The baiting in the media had gotten so bad that David had had to suggest his wife and his kids to move to his parent’s in law to South Korea for a while to be safe because his family too had been threatened while he was hiding in that district of the city from those who wanted his head while he was suspended because the police had not been able to resist the pressure of the public and had not been able to keep him as an officer.

 

The blond looked at the other when he was praising exchange between people and how he loved the unknown, the difference in cultures and people and while he agreed that an exchange of ideas and opinions was beneficial that was as far as it got for him. When it came to what he surrounded himself with he liked what he knew. “A thriving, open market place of ideas is important.” He agreed. “So is debate and freedom of speech.” He added. “But I like the familiar and to be surrounded by the familiar and the homey in my private life!” the soldier told the other and that was how it was for him and how it always had been. No matter if it was food, music, traditions and rituals, he liked to stay in his ways. He wasn’t at all adventurous or prone to the exotic in that regards. He didn’t like to eat what he didn’t know for example. Actually Sebastian had already been incredibly exotic to him because he had been the son of a German and a French immigrant born in Switzerland who had moved to the US when he had been two years of age and his boyfriend’s parent’s European food was as extraordinary as he was willing to ever go. Even that had been weird at the beginning. Sebastian’s last name Voß had had an odd letter and Rex initially had struggled to say it right considering he wasn’t good at foreign languages to begin with, his parents had had weird accents and the food he had not known either, well, he had come to love both the man’s parents - feeling more welcome and like he could be like himself around them than around his own parents - and the food but that was beside the point.

 

There was surprise he was unable to hide when the other man told him that he wanted to know what made him smile because he liked his smile, because seeing him happy was making him happy. “Why?” he asked confused and it was genuine. He didn’t understand. For that to be the case he did have to like him in a sense and Rex had never behaved towards Daniel in a way that would have made him likeable in the slightest. Then again, although it had not made him happy to see the brunette smile he had been thinking about how he liked his smile as well. He stopped thinking about that though and raised an eyebrow and one side of his lips flashed up when the man asked him whether that had sounded gay. “Well, it certainly didn’t sound straight.” The security guard remarked and then added. “But we already estimated that neither of us is straight….” The blond said and he looked at the other man curiously. “What kind of men do you like? Do you have some type?” he wondered, not quite sure why but he wanted to know, maybe because he didn’t have any experience dating, having been with Sebastian all his life.

[♠[Rin]♠]

Daniel rolled onto his side as he listened to what William had to say. He rested his head on his hand, his arm bent and his ellbow on the mattress. While the blonde explained how he just taken the ‚duck‘ because he couldn‘t leave anything on the bar, which apparently had to be clean, the prostitute couldn‘t resist to laugh under his breath, trying to at least keep it low. He could see the pink shadows very clearly and the way William was defending himself was quite entertaining to him. Not in an insulting or sadistic sense, just friendly humour. Daniel pushed his upper body up, leaning over to the security guard, and with a grin on his lips, he softly sang just one word to him: „Liar.“ It was sung slowly, and so it also accidently sounded a little flirtatious, soft and sweet, but that was honestly how his voice was.

 

Then he plopped back down onto the bed, folding his arms behind his head. „Can‘t tell anyone anyway. Nobody‘d believe me.“ There was even a second low laugh when William kept defending himself because of the talkt-about-your-feelings topic. „Right, right. I got it. You are a strong, independent man who don‘t need no support,“ he edited the well-known standard femistic statement. Given that most of his cirlce of friends had consisted of girls, he had had many such talks. Especially Monique had always kept him up-to-date with her drama. He had learnt soon enough in his childhood that it wasn‘t bad to admit sorrow or pain to another person as a man. Additionally, during his career, he had sung many songs about love and loneliness. Emotions and feelings were a big thing which no singer could ever avoid. At some point, everyone threw an emotional song at their fanbase. Even the Rockers and heavy metal bands. Especially those, to be honest. Contrast was important - as was acting. The music industry was pretty two-faced, a fact everyone knew but nobody really cared about. There were few songs by him that had come from that heart rather than the brain and he would be a liar if he claimed otherwise. It also came into his mind that William‘s little sister had been at one of his concerts. A girl he had never met and never known had been so near, and yet he would probably only exchange words out of respect and politeness. That bothered him a little, but he had been quick to learn that treating fans individually never worked out well.

 

Daniel narrowed his eyebrows in a thoughtful manner as he was asked about what happened to his father. It was a little hard to sum it all up for a person who a, had had a father and b, had a positive opinion on up-bringing by both the female and the male side. William also stated that he was conservative and that his parents were worse, which Daniel instantly understood well. If his mother had been like that, he probably would have kept it a secret as well. „My parents were quite young when they met at some fine, high-society party, because my Mom was a secretary back then and my father was, uh.. I think he was still in the middle of his studies. They married a few months later due to financial reasons. With each other‘s help she built her hotel and he begun his lawyer career. It took two or three years until their businesses were booming, so they made a little deal to just separate. They kept the marriage for the money and all the benefits, but because they didn‘t love each other, they decided to split. Long story short, he lived his life, she lived hers, and I at some point they agreed to having heirs for their businesses, where the marriage came in handy again. My Mom bore two sons, we lived with her, she brought us up, we never met our father and that was it. I think he had a girlfriend a little later on who also had a baby, but I don‘t know its name or gender or how old it is by now. So, technically I have a living father, but I don‘t know him. Apparently, his business was supposed to fall into my brother‘s hands, and I was supposed to inhert hers. I never really got to see the papers though.“

William went on to talking about Sebastian. That his parents had accepted their son and his son‘s boyfriend, also that he regretted not telling his parents in the end and not marrying Sebastian when it was welcomed. It sounded like the blonde had been more comfortable with his boyfriend‘s family than his own, which was understandable. „That‘s actually impressive to me, you know?“ Daniel said. „I‘ve never really loved someone so much to marry him, to be honest. I am glad you know what it feels like.“ Death was inevitable and the only way move on was to remember that person in a positive way, keep happy memories alive. It was good to see that William could also feel joy besides the sorrow when he talked or thought about his dead lover.

Well, his friends knew, he said. Daniel couldn‘t really think of anyone who was friends with William, but that was to be expected, because if William hated the brothel so much already, he wouldn‘t make friends with people who went there. „That‘s a success, too.“ Friends were important and them knowing and acknowledging his sexual orientating was a win.

 

„Ohhh, okay. You‘re old-school“, Daniel grinned. He had already suspected William of being traditonal and keeping the familiar around himself. He really wondered what the other‘s apartment looked like at this point. It felt good to finally have a conversation like this with William after such a long time of constant rejection. Sure, the blonde could just be too drunk, noticable by how much information his answers suddenly gave away. Daniel felt like he had learnt more about William this night than in the past few years together, which he indeed had.

However, no matter how much and what he got to hear, it didn‘t reduce that little painful knot consisting of feelings in his chest. His last relationship had been more than ten years ago, so it was unsettling to develop something for a man he had thought only to want in bed. Even during his career, one-night-stands had dominated his love life. Sure, paparazzi were dangerous if he had kept a man for more than a few nights, but that hadn‘t been the major reason.

 

Now, Daniel had actually expected a less… interactive answer from William after he had told him that he liked to see him happy. The answer was an honest ‚Why?‘ and it caught the brunette unprepared. He looked at the blonde surprised, but it didn‘t last long because shame replaced it shortly after. Feeling uneasy, Daniel sat up and crossed his legs, cleaning his throat. „Ehh…“ His gaze wandered through the room as he tried to word out some kind of half-truth that would satisfy the blonde‘s curiosity. „I just found that you… are likable. Because, as I told you, I observe people and you, er, stood out.“

My original reason was because you are hot and I want to have sex with you was more or less the truth, but he couldn‘t say that. Back then it was easy to think that, but now that he knew William better, he couldn‘t objectify him like that anymore. Shit. „You don‘t like me, but I am stubborn,“ Daniel added to lighten the mood a little, giving the other a smile. The following question was even tougher. William fit quite well into his individual dating rules, of course. Would he notice if he just generalized it well enough?

 

In order to get rid of his embarrassment, Daniel chose to focus on the question and provide a response. „I do have a type, actually. I‘ve met many different men, so it somehow crystallised itself out of the crowd. Personality-wise, I find the capability to speak the truth and talk back attractive. I don‘t really like it when someone‘s a yea-sayer and keeps his needs very low, doesn‘t open his mouth ever if he feels uneasy, et cetera. Also, self-confidence, healthy egoism, capability to discuss and rationality. I was with a dreamer once and that went downhill pretty quickly. Don‘t get me wrong, I don‘t have anything against beliefs or some individual culture, but he would believe every ghost story without seeing any evidence. Also he said that he didn‘t believe in chemistry and physics and that somewhere, in some laboratory, there were dragons or elves. I don‘t know, really.“ He laughed a little as the memories returned. „Body-wise… it changes a little over time. But in general I like bright hair with bright eyes and dark hair with dark eyes. Height and weight aren‘t that important to me. I mean… all in all it‘s not like I‘ll find the perfect man because I know that nobody‘s perfect like that, so I keep it quite general. The heart does what it wants anyway. Love is a biological reaction, so there‘s no way we can actually choose. It‘s a bit funny, I think.“

 

Daniel‘s gaze moved over to the TV, but he didn‘t really listen to what the narrator was talking. Assuming that William‘s type was exactly what Sebastian had been, he was pretty far away from that. Sure, people had told him that he was beautiful, but beauty was always different in other people‘s eyes. But man, was he really thinking about that now? Was it actually bothering him that William might not like the way he looked at all? He wasn‘t the type to change his appearance for a lover, because he adhered to his likes and dislikes and there was never more than compromising. Of course one had to adjust a little, but surely not change altogether. Well, one thing was clear: William didn‘t like his cardigan because he had called it stupid, but that was more funny than depressing in retrospect. Clothes were the least problem, his body and his face however were the real deal. If William didn‘t like him as he biologically and personality-wise was, there was nothing he could do.

 

Oh well. Not now. That was something to think about when he was back in the brothel and alone in his room.

[-Hideki-]

Being called a liar in that playful tone of voice, the other apparently amused by the security man’s struggles only made the blush on his face get worse and he hated it, he hated that his face was even capable of something like this, it really shouldn’t be. “I’m not lying.” He mumbled grumpily. “What reason had I to lie? Do you think it actually meant shit to me to be thanked by a whore? Do you think I find him attractive or what delusion do you suffer from? Ridiculous!” he barked, turned away and focussed on the TV screen.

 

To be mocked because he didn’t fancy talking about his emotions and feelings, that he didn’t like such talks and that he was actually not feeling equipped for it and it wasn’t his strength rubbed him the wrong way. “Fuck you!” he growled deeply. “That you think it’s a good idea to whinge and complain and nag and discuss your fee-fees constantly annoying someone else with it just tells me one thing, your parents have spoiled you too much into a mollycoddled brat and should have probably given you more than one proper spanking when you cried and whined and complained again that’d have taught you to suck it up and learn how to handle yourself and your shit without burdening other people with stuff that doesn’t interest them and you wouldn’t be such a sissy now.” He barked. “And what the fuck does me not wanting to dress in a terrycloth pyjama and hop into the cosy corner with you while we swagger about unimportant shit like emotions stuffing ice-cream into ourselves to do with independence? No really because I’m not getting it!” he wanted to know. Hutson associated the word ‘independence’ in a political, territorial and historical sense and it was clear that this was not the context here. On a personal level he could only think of financial independence, meaning that he could provide for himself and didn’t need welfare. In that sense he was in fact an independent man. Roger on the other hand was not. His tragic and terrible fate had made him depended on the disability money he got, he couldn’t provide for himself what was one major aspect of why the man was suffering from severe depression, desperation and aggression. Rex also couldn’t see how financial independence was worth mocking or what it had to do with talking emotions. The only other way that came to mind as he was thinking more was independence in the sense of bondlessness. And that was something that the ex-soldier had always found awfully undesirable, a complete negative and he didn’t see himself like that nor did he want to be like that. He had had an amazingly strong bond with Sebastian and he’d do everything to get this man back into his life, he felt as though he was incomplete and empty without him what converted into anger in his case. Not only that. Rex felt a connection, a bond and as a part of his nation, he was very patriotic, he also had had that feeling about the Army and nowadays, where he had lost the one he loved, whom he still felt connected to regardless, and was down incredibly low, he had still bonded again although completely differently, with David and Roger, as there was no doubt they cared for each other and helped each other out when needed.

 

The blond man’s eyebrows narrowed and his facial features darkened when Daniel told him about his parent’s ‘financial arrangement’ that didn’t deserve the term marriage in his eyes. “Disgraceful!” he hissed and it was already clear how much he loathed people like those. “And Sebastian and I hadn’t been allowed to marry but people like those were capable to although they clearly don’t deserve it.” Rex spoke the rage back in his voice as he snorted. “If one asked me those people shouldn’t be allowed to marry! That is not marriage! It has nothing to do with marriage! It stains the name of the institution! It’s abusing and disgracing marriage! Marriage is about commitment of two individuals who love each other and care for each other and who want to take responsibility for each other, who want to live together, who are devoted and loyal to each other in sunny and stormy times! That’s what matters, not gender! So many heterosexual’s don’t even understand or value this, they just take it for granted, get married without thought and then get divorced again.” he yelled not to Daniel specifically but more generally because it was pissing him off. “Your parents didn’t have any values, responsibility and morale obviously. They were probably shallow and all that counted for them was money and career. Your ‘father’ although a man like that isn’t deserving of the term didn’t even own up to his duties and responsibilities towards his own sons. It’s no wonder that you turned out like that, without values, without morale, without responsibility even for yourself, without dignity and honour, because you’ve never been taught or shown any of that.” the former major general said. “Your role models were the opposite of this and that’s how you turned out to be as well. Maybe one can’t blame you entirely for this after all.” He concluded and although it might seem like it in this moment it was not his intention to insult the prostitute.

 

Realising how this had him enraged he rubbed the bridge of his nose and took a breather. “You say your mum has a hotel. That you inherit it! That you are by no means penniless, how come that you didn’t go to your mum’s hotel and start a decent job, another career, something where you could have kept your dignity or simply started working in that hotel instead of throwing yourself into the trash like you did?” the security guard asked because he didn’t understand. This was not the type of person who usually ended up as whores. Daniel might have had nothing, no cash, anymore but other than other people he was from a middle class family who’d have had the capability to catch him up and let him refocus without ending in the dumpster of this city as what was one of the lowest links in the ghetto’s food chain.

 

His blue eyes peered into the green ones of the man next to him when he was told that it was impressive how much he had loved Sebastian, learning that the other had never really loved another person so much he’d been ready to marry him. Those people who had learned that had always been surprised when they came to understand that Rex Hutson was capable of incredibly deep feelings and of caring for another person more than even for his own life. The blond man had left the impression of a cold, unfeeling man to most people while in the end he might not feel something about many people or things but when he had feelings for a person they went deeper than average. And judging by how shallow and short lived relationships seemed to be for many people these days, yes, that was admirable since the former soldier could only shake his head and find it pathetic what many called actual relationships or how they handled their ‘love’ lives. “At least you had the decency to acknowledge this and not abuse the institution of marriage for a tax scam like your parents did.” He gave him that.

 

“Yes.” It came from him when the other was calling him old school. “There is nothing wrong with being old school and preferring what’s familiar although people constantly try to convince you otherwise.” He said straight away with narrowed eyebrows, examining the other to figure out if it had been an observation or an accusation of some kind, if there was an underlying negative connotation Daniel felt when he said or heard words like ‘old school’ or ‘old fashioned’ or ‘conservative’.

 

The simple question as to why it made him happy to see him smile was causing an obvious uneasy within Daniel, the man’s eyes flew across the room, he stuttered and when he did form a semi coherent sentence it was definitely not the truth. He was such as a bad liar, if not a worse liar than Hutson himself when he had tried to convince the other he had only taken that present of Chen’s to not leave the bar in the grubby bordello disorderly. A grin crossed the security man’s face as he was definitely not buying that he had stuck out as likeable to the brunette man, leaning forward, his lips nearly touching the whore’s earlobe when his deep bass whispered “Liar!” into his ear, his warm, alcoholic breath tickling the other’s skin, in a manner that was deliberately similar to the way the other man had done it before just lacking the sing-sang voice and the blatant flirtatiousness because he really couldn’t talk like that.

 

After he had remarked that they already had estimated that they both were gay the whore continued to speak, saying how Rex didn’t like him though and how he would stay stubborn regardless. It made the blond laugh drily whilst shaking his head. “Bullshit!” he called. “You don’t care whether I like you or not. Whether I like you or not doesn’t even matter to you and making me like you isn’t your goal to begin with.” The man pointed out, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “All you want is my cock. To get me to fuck you!” the ex-soldier stated. “To prove a point. To make me go against my values. To then rub it into my face how I am just the same kind of scum you and everyone else surrounding that brothel is, to brand mark me a hypocrite, to win against me.” the blond man said. “You don’t even want me because you find me attractive and desire me sexually, much less because you find me likeable or would want me to like you. It’s a game for you, that’s all it is.” he analysed a grin still to see on his face. “Well, I am not playing such games and am quite stubborn about that too. I’m not interested in hook-ups and one-night-stands. They are worthless, brainless and not enjoyable.” He made that clear before a challenging, daring look crossed his face. “Tell me, Daniel, you mock me because I don’t like to talk about my emotions but have you ever actually had deep feelings for another person, truly, truly valued and cared for them to a point their prioritise became yours? Had feelings for someone else that went beyond the surface, weren’t empty and shallow? Or are you just feeling the need to blabber about every little superficial whim you feel, every small feeling that has no deep roots and doesn’t even scratch the surface like your average tattletale, nosy Nancy gossiper, feeling deep and important while you exchange shallow insignificancies?” Rex wanted to know, his tone a little provokingly.

 

The first thing he learned before asking about the man’s type was that the other had been with many different men and it didn’t surprise him but made him snort regardless. “Of course. What else than promiscuous could you have turned out to always have been.” Hutson remarked but throughout what followed he actually only listened, taking it in without commenting it. And he was surprised. Surprised to hear that the other had thought about it and to hear more personality traits than physical traits! He would have thought the man to solely talk looks and physical features but he had been wrong. “I admit that I thought you were a lot shallower than that. I expected less personality and more looks and physicality. “ he honestly told the other straight away. “However you’re wrong.” He then added. “Love isn’t a biological reaction, not primarily. Sex, attraction, desire that is a biochemical reaction, that’s true. But sex and love are not interchangeable. While the biochemistry and sex plays a part in love also, love too has a strong psychological, interpersonal aspect and is tied to experiences and connecting as well. You fuck someone with your dick; you love him with your mind, it requires your being, your personality and who you are and who he is, basically all of you.” Rex told the other. He had always hated it when people had reduced gay relationships to fucking and lust. To reduce his love to sex and raging hormones! He wasn’t denying that it played a part in it. Yes, he had desired Sebastian, wanted him, his dick had gotten hard for him but he too had loved him and that were two aspects. “Anyway, that ex of yours you mentioned was full retard! How did you even meet someone like that?”

 

Rex saw the other turning to the TV again so he turned back to the screen as well but his mind was stuck at the type question. He had never thought about this prior to their conversation. Did he have a type? He didn’t know. If he thought about what kind of men he liked it was only Sebastian coming up. Was his type Sebastian? But Sebastian wasn’t a type, Sebastian was an individual and that individual didn’t exist anymore and no matter how much Rex wished it was otherwise he’d never get him back again. Then again he didn’t even know what type he was. Was he a type? Someone’s type perhaps? “What type would you say I am?” he asked musingly. Rex was disciplined, responsible, ambitious, efficient and organised, he was clear-cut and honest, held strong values, was loyal and devoted and pretty dominant of a man in bed. Look wise he was tall, muscular, light haired and white skinned. Was that a type? Was he attractive? Not that it mattered whether he was or not, he had just never asked himself that question since Sebastian and him had been together since middle school prior to where they even knew how they’d turn out as grown men, hence he just wondered.

[♠[Rin]♠]

Daniel nodded and nodded along to William‘s little rant. As usual, he was going way further than the prostitute himself had wanted it to go, but honestly there was rarely a way to stop the security guard when he was angered. He would talk endlessly, spilling arguments, words floating out of his mouth like water from a waterfall. And just when he thought it was over, it began once more. This time it was about his parents, how they hadn‘t deserve marriage, how marriage wasn‘t valued as it should be anymore, how people took it for granted, took it light-heartedly. His thoughts had brushed marriage only when he had been a teenager, but it was short-lived due to his mother‘s disagreement. He hadn‘t ever considered marriage an option, plus he hadn‘t had anyone before whom he would have wanted to marry. Hearing William expressing his opinion strengthened his statement that he was conservative. He really was old-school in every sense.

Upon hearing that he couldn‘t be blamed for his lack or responsibility, morale and values because of his parents left Daniel a little unsure, however, in a sarcastic way. He hadn‘t ever blamed his parents for his low standards, because he had been seeing himself as a personality beyond their control ever since he had learnt of many different morales from various people in adulthood. „Uhm.. thank you?“ Well, of course he had morales he followed, but he was just too hard to offend and provoke.

 

Subsequently, William asked him how it came that he landed here. Sure, his mother had a business and was making good money, but he instantly shook his head. „I don‘t think you understand how much of a despicable asshole I was“, Daniel said. „There was no hole left to crawl into, no last straw to hold onto, nothing,“ he emphasized. „I fucked up, everything, and to top it off, I was too gutless to take responsibility for it. I drank too much, I smoked too much, I was constantly a douchebag to the people who valued me as a friend, and last but least, when everyone had ditched me, - including my manager by the way - I blamed my Mom openly for the things I did wrong. I said very mean things to her face and when she left and cut all the support, the money, cut off the relationships with all the influencing people. Additionally, I was too much of a coward to admit that I was wrong and I never even apologized, I just left without anyone noticing. And because most people knew my face, I had to go somewhere far, far away. Now, Europe wasn‘t in the budget, and I spent a lot of time travelling by foot, sleeping on park benches, living off rain water, blah blah. My career had started a few months before highschool graduation, so I have a highschool degree, but I never did anything else. I never went to college or did an apprenticeship, so I had nothing to offer to anyone. The first time I had earned money back then was when I accidentally stopped on the streets for a break during the night. A car stopped by me and well, you know the deal. I had tried asking several shop owners and gas station owners for work, but I was rejected every time. I was being dried out too, because I couldn‘t spend the little money I had had on more alchohol. In retrospect I totally understand why nobody would hire some lost man without papers and stuff. And after a few months I ended up here“, he explained. „The brothel was the only place that‘d hire me. That‘s the simple story of some pathetic asshole who ruined his own life. So, yes, I may have had a chance to turn it all around, but I threw it away and nobody but I myself did that.“ He chuckled bitterly, indicating that he was over it now at least. „It feels good not to be angry or sad anymore, to be honest. But say,“ he tilted his head lightly, „how did you end up here? You look like you came from some military base or police station.“

 

Daniel smiled cheekily as William said that there was nothing wrong with being old-school. „Yes, I completely agree. It makes you look a little old, though.“ A laughter followed. „I am kidding, I am kidding. I accept you the way you are~“

William listened to his half-truth and man, he wasn‘t buying it. Instead, he leaned over and whispered the same word into his ear as Daniel had before. A goose flesh covered his arms upon feeling the hot breath on his skin and he crossed them over his chest. In a half-heartedly defensive manner, he tch-ed. „Am not.“ The security guard went on, however. He talked about how Daniel‘s goal was to pull the other down in a sense the brunette himself hadn‘t ever thought about. There had never been the slightest assumption that talking to, spending time with or sleeping with someone on a „socially lower level“ dirtied his own reputation. William, however, took it very personally, to the point where Daniel lifted his hands to stop him. „Stop, stop, stop, William! Stop that bad habit of yours to interpret things into statements or actions of other people! That‘s not what I want at all!“ he truthfully responded. But had he at the start? Would he have gossiped about it if William had had sex with him? Would he have cast the security guard in a negative light? Right now, he couldn‘t tell anymore. „I actually do find you attractive for one thing, you are not just an object. And I certainly don‘t play such games. And the last thing I would want is to dirten you or your values or your honour.“ Had that been the reason why William had been so refusing all the time? „You seriously gotta start asking people before assuming things.“ Though, the prostitute froze for a moment at the following question. His arms sank back down and he opened his mouth, inhaling to say something, but as he thought about it, he couldn‘t provide an answer immediately. He exhaled, looking to the side to think of something, bringing his hand up to face to tap his finger against his chin. Now, had he? Had he ever had anyone so valuable to him that he would have given his own life? His everything? The answer was a solid no. His thoughtful face turned into a defeated look and he sighed. „Okay, tou-fucking-ché.“ His eyes moved back to William. He remembered his first crush. His name had been Christain. Back then Daniel had been convinced that that was true love, true feelings; his thoughts had always gone back to Christain no matter what time or day it was. He had had day dreams, had sung love songs in the shower and had had imaginary conversations when in reality he had never exchanged one word with his classmate. It had been when Christain had gotten a girlfriend that Daniel‘s hope for love had died a little inside. A few years later he had learnt that there was a big difference between love and a crush. He had never actually known Christain, had never actually been fond of his personality traits, had never known his good and bad sides, and if he had, would he have liked them as well? After his first boyfriend at the age of fifteen, who had moved away two years later and therefore broke up with him, Daniel hadn‘t had any relationship that had lasted longer than a few months.

 

He laughed when William called his ex stupid after his little lecture on love. „Thanks for the information, I will keep it in mind, Sir.“ It wasn‘t a mockery, after all he had already stated that he liked to learn new things. „Uhh, I think we met at a party. He was hot, really, but…“ Daniel shook his head in an admitting manner. „There was nothing in his head.“

The usual silence then fell back onto them. Both turned their attention back to the TV, and while Daniel was deep in thought, the blonde suddenly asked a question. It was out of nowhere, puling the brunette out of his train of thoughts, and making him look at the security guard in surprise. „What type you are?“ he repeated. His gaze moved back to the TV, though he wasn‘t paying attention to what was shown and told, instead he thought about the question. Assuming that WIlliam had only been with Sebastian, it was logical for him to think about such a topic.

It was silent for another moment, until Daniel finally provided an answer. „You are the hard shell, soft core guy.“

 

The documentary was slowly coming to an end. Daniel quickly leaned over to snatch the remote and changed the channel to find another one. A few clicks away a documentary about white sharks was on. However, he turned the volume down a little, given that their neighbours had finally gone silent as well.

[-Hideki-]

With an eyebrow raised in question he looked at the other man when he thanked him for having pointed out a connection between his parents having been bad examples and having had a bad influence on his development, values and morals. “It wasn’t a complement.” Hutson told him shaking his head. “It also doesn’t mean you aren’t to blame for it yourself at all. Everyone has their own responsibility.” He added baffled by the reaction of this person another time.

 

Daniel began to tell him his story rather freely, more freely than he had expected when he had asked him how it came that he had landed in the brothel when he apparently had been the heir to his mother’s business. It started with the man pointing out that Rex didn’t have an idea just how much of an arsehole he had been what the other man made sure to change describing his mistakes and what he had done to the people around himself, including his mother, to the blond. The former soldier just listened but his face darkened gradually whilst hearing about this behaviour. The man indeed sounded like a personality type Hutson hated and loathed but he acknowledged that he at least now owned up to it and condemned his own behaviour, that he had apparently grown and changed, hence he abstained from making any further remark about the other’s previous behaviour in particular. “Yes, you are pathetic. You did it to yourself. You brought yourself to fall.” He stated. “What I do not understand is why you’re still a whore though? Why you choose to stay pathetic? Why didn’t you, when you finally realised your mistakes, tried to rebuild and lift yourself up and get out of this shithole again? Why don’t you fight? Why would you surrender and arrange yourself with such a position and life?” he wanted to know. “Why are you such a coward?” Hutson wanted to know. “What are you so afraid of? Yourself?”

 

When he was asked how Rex had ended up in that place it was like an iron curtain had fallen onto his face. He looked distant, unapproachable and stared towards the TV screen stoically. Just in a way where one would expect him to respond with ‘None of your business’any second! “You and I aren’t in the same place. I still have an actual job even though it’s shit.” He started. “I still have my dignity!” he added and then turned his head to face the prostitute. “I had a career. I was good in my profession. I made choices in my career. Some of my later choices my superiors judged as disqualifying. I got ‘fired’ from my career without the opportunity to work in my profession again.” The man actually answered at least something to that question because he wanted to be fair after the other had told him his story and had admitted those things to him. “Even knowing the outcome and consequences, I’d do the same again.” He then told him, his blue eyes meeting green. “I feel no regret or guilt in that regard. None at all!” Hutson spoke clear and emphasised.

 

Laying the cards on the table about what he had analysed Daniel was doing by constantly flirting with him and trying to make conversation with him despite his attitude had the brunette man waving his hands around whilst repeating the word ‘Stop’ like a hung up audio cassette mix tape to then be told that it was nothing like that. The former musician explained to him how none of that had been his intention, that he wasn’t about such games either and that he did actually find him attractive and that he wasn’t just an object for him. “I wasn’t thinking I was. I was thinking you saw me as an enemy to defeat and gain a victory over.” He told him. Maybe he shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. Maybe his judgement had been too hard but he wasn’t convinced that the other’s intentions had been morale or good either, not in the slightest. “The issue with asking people is...” he started when being told that he should just ask people before he made such assumptions, “... that their answers don’t necessarily get you closer to the truth than trying to analyse their actions by yourself. People lie! Or oftentimes don’t even know why they do what they do or understand themselves. You usually are better off trusting your own judgement.” He told the other and there was a definite mistrust of other people shining through his words.

 

Then he realised something else though. “You said you found me attractive. What do you find attractive about me? We didn’t exactly get along well or were on the same wavelength!” he was curious to know. Rex had thought about the other as completely superficial and he had thought all he cared for were looks and Hutson who genuinely had no idea if he would have been considered commonly attractive had not thought about himself as standing out in the looks department. He just looked like some guy in his own mind, not special in any sense. Then again when he had entered those clubs seeking out those two disastrous hook-ups he hadn’t been in that club for long and had had guys expressing interest. It had not been difficult for him to get someone to fuck at all but Rex had assumed that this was just how it was in those establishments for everyone. “Would you say I’d commonly be considered attractive amongst fellow gay men?” he asked out of pure curiosity.

 

“You don’t have to.” The blond man told the other looking into the green eyes directly. “Maybe, if you start getting your shit together and pulling yourself out of that dirt and refocus your prioritise onto something true and lasting instead of fast pleasure you might actually experience what I am talking about and you’ll then be able to actually fully understand the difference without having to take my word for it.” The security guard found and he actually meant what he said there.

 

His eyes widened as he looked at the other man as he was told that he was the ‘hard shell, soft core’ type of man. “That’s a type?” he asked surprised before he was thinking about that a little more. And the more he thought about that the initial internal reject he had felt was calming down and he was starting to see it and had to admit that it was probably rather fitting. Although he wasn’t showing it to people usually he had something devoted and protective, kind and affectionate about himself.

[♠[Rin]♠]

„Well,“ Daniel started, interrupted by an awkward chuckle, „I just accepted it. And time flew by.“ It had been a hard time getting over all the things he had done wrong while the years passed by. Having a bed to sleep in and a roof over his head had been such a big success that he hadn‘t ever thought any further. It surely wasn‘t a job to live off well, given that he wouldn‘t even be able to pay for an apartment, and secondly he was thirty-six. Still young enough to do this job, but in a couple of years, he would have to stop at some point. There was no room for a prositute of 50+. Aside from that, there would be no retirement money after leaving. He didn‘t have any bank accounts with money on them, no private insurance, no medicare, and something deep inside told him that sending an application to Social Society was a waste of time. He worked for black money - money for the moment. William asked him what he was so afraid of, if it was himself, and why his was a coward. Now, the latter was the easiest to answer, because he was convinced that it was a negative trait of his personality. The question as to what scared him into just staying where he was was tougher. „I guess failure. I don‘t really have anything to offer. The extra money that‘s left at the end of the month is enough to eat two meals throughout the day and the money I save monthly is for buying average clothes that aren‘t holey, along with shampoo, toothphase, shavers, et cetera.“ There was a pause, before a snicker passed his lips as a thought crossed his mind. „Do you think I‘d make an acceptable secretary if I tried? I am good with organizing things. I actually learnt a lot about business organizing throughout my childhood, including job applications, but I don‘t have half the stuff I‘d need to leave a good impression anywhere.“ His resumé was pretty empty, he was close to his 40s and he didn‘t even own an outfit that would resemble a suit well enough to wear it in public. „Philosophically speaking, I wouldn‘t even be able to keep an apartment. I could do it all behind the boss‘s back, which is not the major problem, but bridging the time until the first paycheck and also until I‘d be able provide a deposit for an apartment would take at least two months. The brothel is pretty far away from the next-best shops, gas station, et cetera, and if I am honest, I am a little afraid of walking the streets in the dark. Maybe I‘m setting the bar very high out of experience, but that‘s all I know.“ He admitted, looking into the other‘s blue eyes. Perhaps William knew it better than he did. He hadn‘t really spent a lot of time outside of the brothel ever since he had arrived here. Barkeeper or waiter at the nearest club, bar or disco? Seller at a shop? Seller at a gas station? He really didn‘t see himself working there. The sad truth was that his current job as a prostitute was the only thing he had accomplished on his own. Thinking about putting so much effort into something he was certain wouldn‘t work out tied a painful knot inside his chest which he frankly speaking rather ignored than to be sad about it. „I really enjoyed music, but I missed the boat and the consequences are clear.“

 

He learnt that William had been fired due to actions within his field and hadn‘t gotten a second chance to performe in his profession again. However, compared to Daniel, he didn‘t regret what he had done, which was the major difference in their world views as they were now, Daniel found. „I see.“ There was nothing he could judge the other for. The reason had been so legitimate to William that he would do it again, which left a big positive impression behind.

 

„An enemy?“ Hearing William talk about them both like the had been stuck in a game of chess made the brunette‘s lips curl into a smile. It was funny in some weird way, because he had never been competitive or an envious type of person. „Enemies is pretty harsh. Let‘s just start out as friends.“ Saying that most people aren‘t reliable when it came to answering questions and exposing their motives was a popular opinion Daniel couldn‘t and didn‘t want to argue about. It was a subjective view of another person, which he respected. „You are right, people lie, but if you don‘t give them a chance, you will never know if they are indeed honest. Truthful people are a rarity, therefore I think holding onto them is one hundred per-cent worth it.“ The mistrust against people in general was very much clear in William‘s voice, but Daniel assumed that if he addressed that topic, he might get a never ending list of reasons filled with content for the entire night.

 

A little unexpectedly, the blonde then returned to address the topic about Daniel finding him attractive. In fact, the brunette had thought that the security guard wouldn‘t bat an eye but as he heard what the other had to say it dawned on him why. And to top it off, he had even asked what Daniel found attractive about him, which - and he couldn‘t help it - made the prostitute grin, because if there was a thing he was good at, it was mentally tearing other people‘s personality apart. „Usually, I am old-fashioned when it comes to that,“ he said. „I like a person as a whole, as just what they are. I don‘t pick out certain things I highly love or dislike.“ But he saw why it was a little confusing to the blonde. „To me, there‘s a clear line between rejection and hatred. If you truly hated me, you‘d have made it clear. Rejection however is something everybody can get over. Mind you, I didn‘t know you when I first saw you, but your physical features harmonize so well, which makes you attractive to me. Like, the light hair with the pale skin and your height with your broad shoulders. Other than that, I like your stubbornness, your loyalty, your know-it-all attitude…“ He lifted a finger at every new word as he went on. „Your working morale, your self-confident demeanour, the way you listen to everything and watch your surroundings without anybody noticing, the husky tone of your voice, the sudden analysing look in your eyes when you check the rooms, the physically careful and kind attitude around people you don‘t hate, your secretiveness, aaaaaand…“ He narrowed his eyes as he searched for a way to word out his thought. „Did you notice that your shoulders always lift a little and lower again before you respond to something you don‘t agree with? That too.“

 

The response to the next question did take a little longer as he thought about what other people might think. When William added in surprise that ‚hard shell, soft core‘ was a type, Daniel laughed. „Yes, it is. It was a quite popular type in the 80s, but nowaday most men are more drawn towards the emotional types as far as I‘ve heard.“ He looked back to the TV and bent one leg, folding his fingers ontop of his knee. He tapped his thumb on his knee-cap, taking the preferences he had heard from other people into consideration. „It‘s a little hard to say. You are quite, dare I say, normal,“ Daniel explained and looked back at the security guard. „Blonde, blue eyes, white, trained - that‘s just the opposite of brunette, brown eyes, slender, four-eyes, which is also commonly normal. As far as I‘ve experienced, the crowd usually splits into two groups. A, they want someone who stands out, and B, they want someone who is your everyday neighbour. But all in all I‘d say yes, you would probably be considered attractive. You do have that tough, unapproachable look on you though, which might scare some men away, but if you were to approach someone first, I don‘t think that - strictly based on your appearance - he‘d reject you.“

[-Hideki-]

Being told that what Daniel was afraid of was failing made Rex cross his arms in front of his chest. “Failure! You are so afraid of failing that your fear of failing guarantees that you’ll stay a failure. You already are a failure. You can’t fall lower, you’ve got nothing left to lose, you might just win. Sure, you could try and fail but you might as well not. If you don’t do anything though you’ll not only never know, you’ve already failed and lost and you can’t even say ‘I tried’ because you didn’t.” The blond told him clearly how he saw this. What followed then was the question if he could make a decent secretary if he tried, listening some abilities he had only to then find reasons why this would never work for him regardless which were all financial. “Judging based on the abilities you listed, yes, I see a chance of you being able to be a decent secretary.” Hutson said looking into the green eyes. “But only if you quit on trying to find excuses and reasons as to why this won’t work and you don’t have a chance anyway.” He added. “If you need an outfit for a job interview you can find one in a thrift shop for a little money, less even than your ‘average clothing’. It might not fit 100% and maybe it’s not the newest fashion but that doesn’t matter.” He told him. “And forget the deposit. My renter didn’t even want to see my papers. That’s probably why those scum-fucks live next to me. I swear if I stumble over their shoes once again or can’t sleep because of their misbehaviour I’m gonna call ICE on them and they can deport them back to the shithole they crawled out of!” he yelled and then coughed. “Anyway, it’s possible to figure something out if you want to. I’m even willing to assist. You’re scared of walking the streets? Get an apartment that’s on my work way close to mine and I accompany you. I can too accompany you to the thrift shop and the interview. If someone’s willing to improve, to become a decent member of society out of their own will I’m the last one to not help.”

 

The blond man examined the other when he told him that he really did enjoy music but that he had missed the boat and that the consequences were clear. “You can still make music if you really want to. Nothing is stopping you from composing and making music. There are a lot of different ways to make your music heard nowadays as well. Yes, you have to start all new, yes, some will have you in an unfavourable memory and maybe you’ll not get up to where you were again but it’s still not a path that is blocked. No one can keep you from making music or forbid you being a musician.” The former soldier said. “If I had the chance to and was allowed to do what I have always done throughout my life, get back into my profession again I’d do it in a heartbeat. Even if it meant to start from the bottom and having to work myself up again. But this path for me doesn’t exist anymore. I’m not allowed to ever work in my profession again. You however are.” Rex pointed that out.

 

A nod came from him when Daniel said ‘I see’ in response to what he had told him about his career and for a moment he stared against the wall absent minded. He’d probably not say ‘I see’ if he knew what Major General Rex Huston had done. Chances were that he’d be condemned for it. If people knew they’d want to see him punished most likely and not just discharged for something completely different that had not even been the point but only used to shield and protect Rex from more severe consequences. The security man turned his head towards the whore again and looked him straight into his eyes, examining his features and his reactions. “What are your opinions on frontier justice and vigilantism?” he asked, leaving out the aspect of revenge.

 

Surprise was to see on his face when the brunette suggested that they’d start out as friends instead, implying that he had never even felt any hostility, nor the urge to defeat him, only to add that people indeed lied but that there were rare truthful people and that one could only find those by giving people a chance. It reminded him a little of what he had said to the man earlier about failure in career in principle at least and hence he was entertaining the idea. “Fair enough.” He mumbled. “Let’s become friends then…” he said only to snort. “I’d never thought I’d try to befriend a whore….or even know a whore for that matter…” Rex pointed out the absurdity of the situation to himself.

 

With raised eyebrows he looked at the man unbelievingly when Daniel told him that he was ‘old-fashioned’ when it came to attraction, that he saw the person as a whole what would include who they were and their personality and not just some aspects he found attractive or unattractive about them. It didn’t make sense to him. It didn’t add up in the slightest on his mind. “That doesn’t make sense.” He pointed out. “How can you claim this, claim to be old-fashioned and care about the person as a whole when your history is filled with the opposite, namely promiscuity! When you hook-up with someone, have a fling, all you see is how they look like. You can’t know this person as a whole or be attracted to this person as a whole and you can’t tell me it matters either because you will have zero to no interaction despite with his body while fucking him.” The former soldier said. “What you claim to be doesn’t match your behaviour and your actual choices and the fact that you’ve never really felt for a man you’ve been with.”

 

From what the brunette then told him about what did find attractive about him it was his looks in the end after all but just when he wanted to say ‘See’ the man was adding a shit ton of other things that he found attractive about him. And it was interesting. Definitely interesting as he had not expected that! Hence, when the man had finished talking he nodded. “Right… so basically what attracts you to me are all the traits in character that you yourself are lacking!” he had noticed. “That your life has always been lacking. That the people surrounding you have lacked.” Rex said. “That makes you feel drawn to me.” he concluded.

 

“I liked the 80ies.” Hutson said when he was told that the type of man Daniel thought he was had been popular in the 80ies which had been the years of Rex’s childhood. The mentioning of how emotional men were popular in the gay community today according to Daniels knowledge made him snort. “Emotional types….” He shook his head in disagreement. “Society is going to the dogs.” He grumbled. The man went over to listening closely again though when the shorter man went on to explain whether Rex would be seen as attractive, which he had now doubted because he was not an emotional type by far. His looks seemed to sit better with the standards though and Rex would agree that he was a normal guy, finding that term a positive and good one. The conclusion Daniel came to when he said that he didn’t think that Hutson would get rejected was also matching up with the two experiences he had had in those clubs. He had not gotten rejected and had had easy game. He laughed though hearing the other say that some people wanted someone who looked like their everyday neighbours. “I would never want someone who was in any way like any of my neighbours. Heck, I don’t even want them as neighbours. No decent American citizen would want them as neighbours. Believe me, not even you would want to be their neighbour. They are awful! All of them!” the blond man told him and when he turned his head to the TV he saw that his shift had ended while checking the time at the corner of the screen.

 

Thus he was getting up, walking to the window, only to see that the storm was still raging on and that neither of the two of them were probably going home that night. Hence he dropped his pants exposing some rather tight boxer briefs before he got back to the bed again. “We’ll have to stay it seems.” He told the other, settling down on the bed, this time, lying on it.

[♠[Rin]♠]

He didn’t really react to William’s first few sentences so much as to nod in agreement. However, upon hearing the last parts, he was indeed a little surprised. He tilted his head, his eyebrows slightly raised. „I feel honoured you are willing to help me this much. I’ll take you at your word and return to it, promise,“ he responded with a smile. It was true that compared to William he was able to perform in his profession again, and starting from the bottom wasn’t a problem at all to him, however the sweet taste of his career’s climax was still in his mouth. It felt like he had given up on music as well, accepting its end, just like his life as a popstar in the very moment he had set foot into the brothel. He had actually bought a guitar at some point a few years ago, though due to his still existing will to avoid being recognized it remained unused and wrapped in his wardrobe. He remembered his manager telling him that his voice had some uniqueness in it, something memorable, and throughout his time as a singer, he had learnt that if there was one thing that was unmistakable, it was a unique sound. „Currently it’s not a big thing to me, though.“ Singing wasn’t something he saw as a way to become famous anymore, because the idea of producing music on his own, in his private life, just for himself, was appealing enough presently.

 

Unexpected was the moment of silence that fell over the security guard after Daniel had answered his generalized story with just ‚I see,‘ but just as unexpected was the question that followed. An indescribable emotion flashed up in the brunette’s eyes. His gaze lingered on the blonde as if he was looking right through him, until the moment in which he finally tore his eyes off William and searched for the next-best thing to stare at, which turned out to be the TV. His jaw dropped, however no tone left his throat at first. His shoulders sunk again, despite him not having noticed that he had even tensed them. „There are lines,“ he said, maybe a little too sternly at first. His noticed that himself and softened his voice again to continue. „Nothing wrong can turn out right by saying wrongs are right to do. I mean… Hm.“ Within his attempt to find a way to word out his thoughts, Daniel set his hands behind himself and leaned back a little. His gaze wandered up to the ceiling, stuck there for a few moments, while he gently chewed on his bottom lip, before he finally turned his head again to meet the pair of azure irids of the man he was sharing a hotel room with. „Vigilantism always depends on certain factors. Everyone has a different tolerance. Some see a push as a reason to punch someone, while others accept most of the things done to them or someone else, and again some other people are blessed with a healthy tolerance level that stops at fatal crimes like rape and murder. In my opinion, the first thing to do is to see what a judge, the police or the government will do. The law isn‘t perfect, because humans aren‘t perfect. We are constantly trying to improve it, but there will always be loopholes. There‘s a lot that‘s going on which will never reach the surface and there are people who will never face a trial, but… if certain factors go together, vigilante justice may be needed. If the government refuses to take care of it, if the police can‘t find any evidence, despite you knowing exactly that a certain thing happened, I admit, there is nothing else you can do. However,“ he stressted, „one shouldn‘t traffic in justice driven by sorrow and grief. It‘s always about real guilt. If a man saw a boy raping his daughter but the police can‘t prove that it happened, I‘d totally understand if he went and did it himself. That is, in my opinion, a solid reason. Protection is something the law can‘t offer twenty-four seven to one-hundred per-cent. However, the reason and the evidences have to be solid and genuine. Killing a man for a substitute isn‘t okay, that‘s really far away from okay. Killing someone for a clue isn‘t right either. To me, vigilante justice is something that happens between specific people for a specific, real reason, there‘s no room for excuses or assumptions.“

 

Daniel couldn’t help but smile, hearing that William accept his friendship. The following comment did make the smile turn into a grin however. „You’re welcome,“ the brunette cheekily answered. „There’s a first time for everything.“ The blonde also pointed out that Daniel’s actions didn’t seem to fit what he said. A thoughtful expression spread on the prostitute’s face at first, before he shrugged. „Looking at it like that, I can’t disagree. I can’t fully agree either though. You are right in saying that people are often reduced to their looks and I did that myself when I was younger when it came to one-night-stands. However, I was in love once, maybe not for too long and not deep enough for marriage, but I was. I think picking things one likes or dislikes out of a person is a little unfair. It feels like receiving a Mercy chocolate palette and only choosing the flavours you like the most. That’s just my opinion though.“ William also added that everything Daniel liked about him were things he himself lacked. To that, the brunette couldn’t help but laugh. „I don’t think that’s so bad. Nature would be quite the failure if it hadn’t molded us to be drawn to our opposites to a certain extent. Variety and diversity are important.“

 

William revealed that he liked the 80s and apparently he wasn’t fond of what society had become. It was going to the dogs, he said. Additionally, he told Daniel about his neighbours, who were a disaster. Loud, missbehaving, unreliable. He could imagine that that wasn’t comfortable at all. „Having lived in hotel rooms most of my life I can’t really relate, but it does sound pretty bad. Have you never had decent neighbours?“

The security guard stood up and walked to the window to look outside. It didn’t take him too long to decide that they both would have to stay here, which he let the brunette know. Daniel nodded, having assumed that the storm was still heavily ruling the outside. „Thanks for keeping me here, though,“ he said. „I am not taking it for granted.“

William now got rid of his trousers too, leaving himself in nothing but a pair of tight boxers. Ahem. Psst, don’t look.

Daniel’s gaze skipped down to his own outfit instead. The top was fine to sleep in, but jeans were the most uncomfortable to lie in. He grabbed the remote and turned off the TV, then he placed his pillow back to where it belonged. Subsequently he unbuttoned his jeans and slid out of them rather quickly. His slender legs were quite as tanned as the rest of his body. He was wearing a black thong with an additional G-string snaking around his hips on each side. His hip bones were indeed visible, however faint lines of muscles were also visible on his legs. He was right in between skinny and normal. During his career he had been more muscular, but within the years of working as a prostitute, he had lost a lot of them.

He folded the jeans and leaned down to lay them on the ground, before he pulled the blankets on his side up in order to slip underneath. The though of going to bed without brushing his teeth wasn’t appealing, but there was no way to help it and it wouldn’t kill him. At times, he really was a bit of a spoiled brat still, but he mostly dismissed those thoughts with an accepting smile.

[-Hideki-]

Those blue eyes peered into green when Daniel expressed how honoured he felt that Rex was willing to help him that much to get out of the brothel and to get a real job, followed by him saying that he’d take his word for it. “You can.” The security guard made that clear. “I never once broke a word nor did I ever offer my help without meaning it! A man is only worth as much as his word.” The blond stated and he indeed didn’t say things light-heartedly or without meaning them. “I won’t accept you to postpone this issue and come back to it, when, in a year though?” he added strictly. “We’re going tomorrow before your work. We’ll meet at 3:00pm in front of the brothel and before our shift starts you’ll have clothing and called at least three businesses to get a job interview.” He ordered in a way that accepted no ‘No’ for an answer and had something of a drill-sergeant. “So before you get home tomorrow morning, buy some news papers and check the available jobs.” He told him.

 

Observing the other man closely he was very aware of how tense the guy suddenly got at the mentioning of vigilantism and the way those green eyes looked at the former soldier was clearly letting it show that he was questioning him now that he could assume that Rex had applied vigilant justice and the way his jaw dropped showed how he felt taken aback by that topic, uncomfortable with the idea of what the man next to him may or may not have done applying and taking justice into his own hands. For a moment he almost thought he’d get so afraid that he’d ever so slowly move from the bed to suddenly storm out of the hotel room away from someone who could have done anything from punching someone who had hit a friend to taking a life in self-administered justice. Rex’s face however remained blank, as if this wasn’t affecting him, as if it wasn’t even about him and vigilantism had nothing to do with him when it definitely had and when he still practised it.

 

The prostitute however did speak again and the words came out stern, even harsh to a degree as he stated that there were lines. He then spoke in a softer tone but what he said sounded a lot like the common ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’ and Hutson at this point thought he knew what was coming and was certain that this man would be one of those who’d most certainly condemn him or even call for him to get convicted for the things he had done if he knew them. What followed was in a sense a surprise because it was more differentiated as expected by the way the man had started to formulate his answer and the blond man listened closely. In the end there was a chance that maybe some of his actions would be seen as just by this man and others might as well not or too, it depended on the man’s perception perhaps but it was likely that there were things he’d condemn after all. Rex had never murdered anyone with his own hands in the name of vigilant justice but he had used his power to take their lives, to take revenge and in that sense, yes, he had taken lives in the name of his justice and seeking revenge.

 

“The law is too soft! It’s not merely flawed, the system is ineffective. It protects criminals rather than to punish them and to protect the victims and society from them. The state has failed, justice has failed. It doesn’t protect its citizens effectively anymore. The citizens must protect themselves.” Rex clearly said. “Jf you want to see justice prevail, you need to be justice. You can’t hope for the government or the law. They let you get slaughtered like a sheep and won’t blink an eye to set your murder free after a few years in a cosy prison cell with a TV, for him to go out and kill the next person afterwards.” He said and it was clear that this was his deep routed conviction. Rex’s mind was in a state where it was threatened constantly and constantly fighting for his survival and for justice. He knew that the Armed forces could not have kept him even if they wanted to when not even his discharge had changed anything about how he felt about what he had done as being legitimate and about vigilantism. He had even entertained the idea of forming a paramilitary group protecting and keeping the streets safe and clean from criminal scum. He too had thought about installing something under the surface of a security company and that thought was one that had been ripened more and more on his mind. One thing was for sure, he’d not protect whores for the rest of his life. He’d do something that mattered for his nation and his people again. Roger would be on board immediately although he could only do some administrative tasks but David, who had been a policeman before he had gotten suspended could understand their anger, their frustration, and their thoughts and hey, it wasn’t like he had not had thoughts like those as well throughout his career but he knew why the system was not one of vigilant justice in the end. Why there were courtrooms, why executive authority and judiciary were separated and he was against their plans.

 

David however was fighting against windmills with both Rex and Roger and he was at the brink of giving up the fight altogether as it was hopeless to get either of them to trust in their system, the government or state institutions again even a little and he probably wasn’t the right man to do so either because he had been unjustifiably suspended from the police force for doing his job because of media outrage and false accusations of racism. Then again the former policeman felt obligated to stop them sometimes even though it was not exactly successful for the most part, like that one time where two thugs had mobbed three college girls and Rex and Roger had yelled over at them to get them to stop and the thugs had retreated, running away, only for Roger to start chasing after them and David trying to at least stop Rex, telling him he shall rather just stay and let it be as they had already retreated, and Hutson was ripping himself free out of his grip and chasing them through the streets of the ghetto they all lived in to punch both of them into a pulp for harassing those girls, while Roger had not come far as he had nearly collapsed after fifty meters from the intense pain his body had been causing him, clinging to a lantern and then onto David.

 

The security man looked at the other when Daniel told him why he couldn’t fully agree with what he had said about his stated prioritise not matching up with his doings and the blond listened to him only to narrow his eyebrows when he heard what the other called ‘love’ there. “What you describe isn’t love.” He told him. “Not for ‘long’ and ‘not deep enough for marriage’ make that very clear that this was not love. You might have had a crush there. You might have liked the person or cared for him to a degree but if those feelings didn’t last long and they weren’t even deep enough for you to feel you wanted to spend eternity with this person it was far from actual love. People nowadays use words such as love inflationary and wrongly which derails the actual meaning it has.” The man found and sighed. “Since you might have liked him though and had some feelings I will say ‘fair enough’, however this is then the exception to the rule in which you were having brainless one-night-stands. Hence what you described as a general priority of yours or the general way you see things is actually the exception for you and not vice versa.” He pointed out.

 

Curiously and questioningly he looked into the green eyes when he was told that he felt like picking parts one disliked and liked out of a person was unfair, using a merci chocolate pallet as an analogy. “When I got a merci chocolate pallet I sorted those that contained ingredients I was allergic to out and gave those to my sisters only keeping and eating those I could without harming myself.” Rex told him, his blue eyes looking into the others directly. “Point is, someone having some traits I like and appreciate doesn’t matter if that person has traits which are a deal breaker to me and which I can’t possibly tolerate.” He said. “Hence, I never actually bought merci chocolate pallets because I was allergic to half of the chocolate in it but bought something that I could eat completely as it is, that contains nothing that is intolerable to me.” The former major general told him. “I don’t see anything unfair with that.”

 

To him pointing out that Daniel felt drawn to and attracted to all the traits of Rex that he was lacking the prostitute laughed and told him how variety and diversity was important and Hutson screwed up his nose, then scratched his chin musingly. “In a sense a relationship needs a certain balance. Ideally the partners amend each other in their strengths and weaknesses. To this point I am willing to agree.” The blond stated. “Not further though.” he made that clear. “Since there needs to be compatibility as well! Coexisting, living together can only work with compatible parties and to be compatible fundamental values need to align! This holds truth for small groups such as couples or families but also larger groups such as nations or international unions. One can’t coexist with someone who is so fundamentally different that the values collide, that leads to complete incompatibility that cannot be overcome. If you put such individuals in a relationship it’ll turn into a powder keg and result in massive conflict. Diversity is not necessarily always positive.” The soldier found.

 

“No.” he stated. “Throughout the majority of my life I had decent neighbours who were upright and good American citizens.” Rex let the other know. “Only since I live in this city and in this district my neighbours are wastes of space and oxygen and complete scum.” The man told him. “Well, maybe I should be lucky about those insufferable fuckers that live next to me because I at least don’t have the junkies, dealers, or the flat that is basically a zoo next to me on my floor…” the man rubbed the bridge of his nose. “You probably won’t do much better apartment building and neighbour wise at first.” He told the other man. “Then again, if I call ICE on them they will get deported out of the country and the apartment is free. You could move in. It’s cheap, the renter doesn’t want to see your papers and that way it’ll be only me, you and that creepy lady who talks to herself on that floor.” He suggested, feeling brilliant right now as he had the perfect way to get rid of his awful noisy neighbours whilst ensuring that no one even worse would move into that apartment.

 

After he had dropped his pants and he was in his underwear, settling back onto the bed he noticed how Daniel was actively avoiding to look at him now and it made him grin and shake his head. “I won’t rip your head off if you look at me. Nor will I yell ‘Are you a fag or what?’ at you.” He said almost teasingly. But he couldn’t help it, the man was behaving as if they were in some locker room or the public toilet and had to stick to the etiquette to not look at another man’s body, because god forbid someone was gay or could think someone might be gay. Then again Rex had been a little of an exception - although he himself had stuck to the etiquette quite strictly even though he had sometimes been tempted to look if he found someone visually pleasing – due to his height! People seemed all too curious to know if a certain other part was meeting their expectations of being the size of short people’s arms when they saw his height and built and tried to get a glance on his dick and examining their faces he had realised surprise and maybe disappointment because the man’s cock was not the size of a baton. It wasn’t huge and it wasn’t small. It was average. His ex who had been ten centimetres shorter than him had had a larger dick than him. At his age he was content with it but as a young man he had had a phase where not matching those expectations had made him insecure and he had projected his insecurities onto Sebastian who had caught up on him acting weird and had called him out on it, to then hear Rex ask if he was disappointed with his equipment not matching his expectations too and that he should just say it already. Sebastian had raised his eyebrows and facepalmed in frustration before saying:“Sure, because all I was thinking about when my at that time slightly shorter best friend in middle school I had a crush on finally confessed to me and kissed me and I was sweating and dying from nervousness was having expectations and making assumptions about your dick size in relation to your bodies height you moron.”

 

Along the lines of practise what you preach the security man wasn’t even trying to not look or to hide that he was looking at Daniel and his body when he was undressing. “You should eat more, I can see you rip cage.” He commented but his eyes had already roamed over the man’s slender upper body and were now stuck on the lower half that didn’t leave anything to the imagination considering the underwear the other had chosen to wear. He couldn’t do anything against the heat that was starting to pool in his groin as blood was rushing down when he was looking at that arse and that was when he decided to occupy his eyes with something else, not without remarking:”Someone apparently planned to get ravaged judging by the choice of underwear. Why else wear something as uncomfortable.” ,though in an amused tone of voice. “Seems that I’ve ruined your plans.” He added still amused before he took the blanket and turned onto his side while the other was folding his clothes.

 

His hand reached out for the remote and he turned on the TV again before he closed his eyes. “Either that stays on or you can try your luck talking me to sleep.” He stated, placed the remote onto the bedside table and closed his eyes.

[♠[Rin]♠]

The brunette was going to suggest that he’d return to it in a week or so, but William instantly added a strict time and day, which was three in the afternoon tomorrow. Basically today, since midnight had surely already passed. Daniel brought his arms up in a defensive manner. “Yes, Sir.” He wasn’t afraid however, his facial features instantly softened again and the surprise was replaced by an accepting smile.

Now, the security guard’s opinion on vigilantism was a little – how to say? – predictable. He thought law was weak, ineffective even, and neither did it act in the favour of the right and innocent, nor was it doing a decent job at protecting the civilians. “Solid, genuine reasons and evidences,” Daniel repeated and the tone of his voice implied that there was little to no room for convincing him otherwise. He really didn’t want to argue about such a delicate topic as well, especially not with someone who obviously held a grudge against the law, therefore he kept his opinion on his side and took the other’s arguments in, however without applying them to his own thinking for now. “If you did something, then it’s your business and I will be the last person to tell you what to do. I wouldn’t call the police on you either.” He himself hadn’t ever performed vigilante justice, but he couldn’t say for sure that he wouldn’t for somebody he was close to.

 

“Okay, okay, okay,” Daniel sighed after listening to all the arguments shot his way by the blonde. “Two points in your favour.” Especially the destruction of his chocolate metaphor had made him chuckle. How could one man be so full of refutations? Well, at least he was giving him the ‘fair enough’ because he had had feelings for someone, short-lived but still. And also he was partly agreeing with him on the diversity theory, though he added a few important bullet points. “True. Consilience is important. That’s why one shouldn’t rush things,” Daniel nodded.

 

William exposed that he had indeed had decent neighbour until he had moved into this city. He let the brunette know that his own living situation wouldn’t differ so much from his, to which Daniel nodded his head in comprehension, however his eyebrows narrowed a little in a sceptical manner as soon as the security guard came up with the idea to get his current neighbours deported and have Daniel move in instead. It was a calculated plan which he wasn’t sure if he should be fond of or not. “Am I being a means to an end right now?” He asked, watching the other attentively. He wasn’t offended by it though. “It’d be a nice opportunity, but pushing an entire family out of their home like that doesn’t sound fair. I’ll search for a free apartment instead.”

 

The blonde noticed immediately that Daniel was trying his best to keep his eyes off him from the moment on where he had taken most of his clothes off and he was not letting it go without commenting on it, rather amused even. The brunette lifted his hand to his lips and cleaned his throat, his gaze still everywhere but near the security guard. “I’m, er, just being respectful,” he mumbled. It wasn’t a good answer, nor was it fully truthful because he indeed didn’t mind to watch other men undress, but it was the only next-best thing he could come up with to cover the embarrassment that had revealed itself in form of a red colour on his cheeks. Additionally, he could feel the other’s eyes on him to a hair’s breadth while he himself was undressing. It didn’t seem to upset or bother him however, which wasn’t a surprise because it was part of his job to strip for other people. He hadn’t had a problem with it as a teenager either. He had always liked his body and had received compliments on his figure as well as his agility and stamina in bed despite being slender.

The first thing he got to hear was about his weight. “Not a big eater”, Daniel answered. “Except when it comes to cake. I could eat tons of cake. Especially chocolate cake with strawberries. I actually baked one once and it was good, but the realization that I wasn’t supposed to get fat as a popstar hit me hard in the face back then.” A few moments passed in which William’s gaze remained on his bottom half now. He folded his jeans and leaned down to place it neatly on the floor, before sitting back up. He was told that his plans had apparently been to get ‘ravaged’ and that those had been ruined by a certain guy with blonde hair. Daniel puffed his cheeks in embarrassment and denial. “Oh shush.” He slid underneath his blanket and shifted into a somewhat comfortable position, which turned to be on his side, his back towards the security guard and completely wrapped up in the coverlet. William turned the TV back on, saying that it either stayed on or Daniel would need to talk him to sleep. Upon hearing that, he chuckled. “Once upon a time…” he joked, yawning into the palm of his hand and closing his eyes. “So, at last, you truly are the type to fall asleep in front of the TV.” He quickly added, referring to his assumption from earlier with an amused smile.

 

 

 

At some point during the early morning hours, the disadvantages of being a light sleeper finally caught up to Daniel. It had been fine to fall sleep due to fatigue but now he was slowly opening his eyes to blubbering he didn’t understand. His senses were slowly returning to him. His view was still a little blurry and the voices in the background didn’t make sense either at first. He sat up, rubbing over his eyes, yawning into his hands. His tired gaze moved to the TV and his eyes narrowed because of the bright light in the middle of the dark room. “Mmm…” He groaned lowly to himself. What was that? The news? No, a rerun of some reality show.

Daniel fumbled around to find the remote, before he remembered that William had placed it on the bedside table. With a sigh he set one hand right next to the security guard as support and leaned over the man to reach out and grab the remote off the nightstand. Still keeping himself up right above the sleeping figure he moved his arm towards the TV and pressed the button to turn it off. The screen immediately went black and the noise was torn out of the present, leaving the room in silence. Relief spread inside Daniel now that the annoying sounds weren’t tormenting his ears anymore. Perfect.

His gaze skipped over to the window, where the weak light of the street lamps was shining through tiny holes of the heavy, old-fashioned curtains. Daniel set the remote down and crawled to the other side of the bed. He pushed the blanket off and stood up to walk to the window. Halting by the right side, he gently moved the curtain to the side. The small lights of the lamps reflected in his emerald eyes. The storm had slowed down and ended completely throughout the night, leaving the streets covered in dirty rain water. The colourful lights of shops mirrored in the puddles on the road, mixing with the yellowish complexion of the street lamps, and distorted by small waves caused by a cold wind. Back when he had lived in New York for a few months he had watched the busy streets at night almost every night. Now, this wasn’t NY, but it was something.

Daniel remained there for a few more minutes, until he let go of the curtain again. It fell back in place and darkened the room like it originally was. Afterwards, he walked back to the bed to sit and re-organize his blanket so that he could wrap himself up in it once again.

[-Hideki-]

Rex stared. He stared in bewilderment. In disbelieve. Had this man lived under a rock or a deserted island the last years? “Jeez, I assumed that you didn’t have access to the internet but it seems like you never watch the news nor look at the world that surrounds you if you honestly sit there and feel like you need my personal story as a genuine reason or as evidence for what I just said.” He spoke. “Open your eyes! Wake up already! Or just watch the news once in a while and you’ll see all the evidence you need. Not even the mendacious press can cover up what is going on.” The security guard said, not trusting the media one bit either, even less so than the state. “And it only takes a step into the library and a look into the law books or at recent cases to know that our law is too soft.” The blond man said but the baffled expression just wouldn’t leave him. One thing was for sure though; he’d not use his personal experiences, his story, his actions to convince someone to see his side.

 

The blankness reappeared on his face when Daniel spoke about how it was his own business if he had done something, that he wouldn’t tell him what to do – frankly, Rex wouldn’t listen anyway if he already didn’t listen to his friend David – only to ensure him that he wouldn’t call the police on him either. “The police? What would you call them for to begin with?” he asked seemingly in confusion and not understanding what the other was even implying there and how he got to that conclusion. The blond man certainly did understand. However even if Hutson was to tell the other his story and he would decide that he wanted to see Rex in prison, calling the police wouldn’t change a thing. All they could do was giving him to the military police because the military had its own law but the military police wasn’t searching for him! There were no accusations against him! They had been dropped. Every single one of them and the former major general had only agreed to ‘confess’ having abused his power in favour of a sexual relationship with an inferior – what was not true since Sebastian and him had been a couple since middle-school where they had been, well, both boys in military school hence had the same rank– if the other accusations weren’t only dropped but destroyed and his father’s best friend who wanted to spare his old friend and his son everything worse than the discharge as it was, any media attention or whatnot, had let Rex not only delete all data gathered about him permanently but he had also given him the printed folders and Hutson had thrown them into the fireplace. Ironically enough he had escaped judgement for his vigilantism through corruption of the military law….

 

“I’d rather call it killing two birds with one stone.” The security guard said when Daniel asked if he was the means to an end right now. “I want to get rid of the scum, you need an apartment.” He pointed out but when the other went on about how it wouldn’t be fair to kick a family out of their home for him Rex raised an eyebrow and a cynic laugh escaped him. “It’d not only be fair it would be implementation of the actual laws that aren’t strictly enough implemented. They are criminals! Illegals! They are violating the laws of our nation because they aren’t even allowed to be within its borders. Not only that, they are behaving like garbage, aren’t assimilating and are robbing decent citizens sleep. Well, my sleep and the sleep of the lady who talks to herself… but that’s not the point.” Hutson said. “I wanted to call ICE on them for a long time anyway; I might as well do it sooner or later with you moving in or not. The only thing stopping me so far has been that one never knows if not someone worse will move in afterwards. That problem would be solved if you were to move into that apartment though.” he explained. “Honestly, if you give him his money the renter wouldn’t even realise.” Hutson joked and laughed about just how dubious that whole apartment building and district was.

 

When the whore stuttered something about just being respectful, still looking everywhere but not at him with a hilariously red face it made Rex bust out into laughter for a moment and he looked into the flushed face of the man. “Respectful? Since when do you know what respect means? You were annoying the shit out of me for months now incredibly obtrusively, not letting out any opportunity to hit on me in pretty vulgar ways even.” The former soldier reminded him. “Who would have guessed that behind that loud mouth of yours you get all embarrassed and flustered , avoiding to look at me, when I’m only in underwear.” He found that extremely amusing since it was pretty ironic after all. “What if I dropped those boxer briefs as well? Would you sink through the ground then?” he jested, teasingly, laughing with a snort.

 

“Not getting fat as a popstar.” He repeated with a dry laugh. “Getting fat isn’t favourable for anyone. It’s just as unhealthy and unappealing as being a walking talking skeleton.” The man found shaking his head. “You should eat your bloody cake every once in a while. Your industry was full of bullshit anyway.” the blond said. “And what is it with women being into and drooling over popstar guys who look effeminate and so thin that I’d be scared to fucking break them in half if I touched them anyway. Men have to look like solid men and not like dolls.” He found. “Did they tell you ‘popstars’ don’t have body hair too? Or why do you look as smooth as the chick in that advertisement for shower gel or body lotion or whatever the fuck it is?” Rex asked scratching his chin, trying to focus his mind onto some stupid topic like that to get his focus away from how hot that arse was, that he liked the traces of muscles that’d built out more if the other would be more active and the veiny wiriness of Daniel’s body. It was that whore’s fault anyway, who wore underwear that was that lewd and accentuating, Jesus fucking Christ!

 

His comment in regards to the underwear was making the other ‘shush’ him and Rex who had turned around to sleep was grinning widely even after he had turned on the TV. When the prostitute then pointed out that he had been right, that Hutson indeed was the type who fell asleep in front of the TV he grimaced though. “Shut up!” he hissed but his lips were torn in a smirk.

 

It didn’t take long and he fell asleep, he was drunk enough for that to happen anyway and the alcohol too was the reason as to why Rex, who was a light sleeper, was snoring and laying there like a stone even when Daniel woke up, leaned over him, turned out the TV, got out of bed and whatnot. The security guard slept through the whole night and it was around 9am that he was waking up. His head felt like a truck had run over it but that he was pretty used to by now and he knew very well that if he was to open his eyes, that the light would feel as if someone was ramming knives through them and straight into his brain. When he reached for the sunglasses on what was supposed to be his coffee table in his apartment he realised that he was not at home and the events of the day prior were unfolding again. His sunglasses he had left in that club, shit.

 

He forced himself to open his eyes anyway and fortunately the light falling through the heavy curtains of the hotel room wasn’t that bright and the sting he felt in his head could have been worse than that. Sitting up he looked to the side where he knew Daniel was laying and there he was wrapped into the blanket reminding him of a mummy. Rex left for the bathroom, took a piss, threw water into his face and went to where his clothing was on the heater as he wanted to get home, take a propershower and get started for that day. When he was dressed in the same stuff he had worn the other evening he went over to the bed where the whore was still sleeping in, whistling loudly before yelling:”Get up lazy ass bastard!” at him what had never once not woken somebody up and was incredibly lovely as it was too.

[♠[Rin]♠]

Amidst the silence it was so comfortable to sleep. Rolled up in his blankets and with one hand underneath the pillow, Daniel was floating in dreamless relaxation, until something dramatically woke him up. Someone, to be precise though. A certain someone.

The brunette grimaced painfully upon hearing the loud whistle. He curled up into a ball and hid his face in the pillow, while William was telling him to get up. “My GOD!” he groaned, seemingly not a morning person. He took a deep breath before he turned his head and opened his tired eyes to look up towards the blonde, his voice back to its normal soft tone. “You love commanding other people around, don’t you? – You don’t need to answer that.” Daniel rolled onto his back and stretched his limbs under the blanket, arching his back, before he collapsed back down on the mattress with a sigh. He rubbed over his eyes with his knuckles, then finally sat up and picked his jeans up from the ground. “What time is it?” he asked while he pushed the blanket off and slid back into his trousers. Buttoning them up, he stood up from the bed, grabbed the blanket and folded it, setting it back down neatly.

 

He quickly vanished into the bathroom subsequently to use the toilet and wash his face with water from the sink. After rubbing the transparent liquid onto his skin, his gaze moved up to the mirror. He still looked intensely tired. He would need a proper shower and some breakfast at the brothel. Hopefully the others were already there and nothing had happened after William and him had left without telling anyone. Given that Daniel had left his phone at the brothel for security reasons he couldn’t text anyone, but he didn’t think it was that much of a deal for the others. They usually were a little more carefree than himself even. He was certain that at least Peter had noticed their absence and honestly that man had a heart of gold, so making him worry really wasn’t what he wanted. Aside from that, he still did wonder what had happened at the bar that had made William storm out of it as if followed by the devil himself. He assumed it was something violence-related, something that could have involved the police.

 

Daniel left the bathroom again and automatically looked for his cardigan but, he quickly remembered, he had left it at the bar. Yeah. Fuck. Okay. Whatever now. What else was there to take care of? Oh yes, newspapers and the three P.M. agreement.

“Are we leaving right away?” Daniel asked William while he walked to the window and pulled one curtain to the side. Daylight fell into the room and scared away most of the shadows that had lingered in the corners. He also opened the window and leaned out to inhale a good portion of fresh oxygen. His gaze dropped down to the street, which was still wet but otherwise it was fine. The cold was refreshing in this moment, given that he had been protected by the warmth of a blanket all night. A few cars drove by and an old man was walking along the pavement on the other side of the street.

A little bit more awake now, Daniel leaned back and closed the window again. He turned around and crossed his arms. And now that he took a moment to look deeply into the other’s azure eyes, the prostitute narrowed his eyebrows a little. William without sunglasses suddenly represented a very new picture of the blonde. Did he always look this bad? Was he an alcoholic? He had been talking fine yesterday despite his drunkenness, so a certain question formed in the brunette’s head. Was the other ever sober?

Ah, this was probably not the best time or place to ask such a question. That didn’t mean that it wasn’t worrying however. Daniel finally tore his gaze off the security guard again and looked over to the door. They went by bus and by foot yesterday. It was a long way, but now that it was daytime it was a lot less troubling. Aside from that… what had the bus stations been named again? He had totally forgotten to check in the middle of the heavy rain. “Uh. You remember the way, right?” It was quite the reasonable question in his opinion. Sure, William had assured that he never forgot anything when he was hammered and he probably knew the district better than Daniel, but still. Thinking about it further, he was pretty easy to kidnap, now wasn’t he? His sense of direction sucked and he was bad at remembering street names at the first glance.

[-Hideki-]

Apparently Daniel wasn’t used to getting up in the morning and Rex screwed his nose when the other man curled himself together and complained instead of jumping out of the bed at command with a salute. If that was the Army and Daniel a soldier he’d make him run in his underwear now until he collapsed for the disrespectful ‘My God’ remark but this was not the Army, Daniel was not a soldier and neither was Hutson anymore. At the comment the man made in regards to the blond liking to command people around he raised an eyebrow and laid his head a little to the side in question. Where did he get that idea from? As the security guard, former Major General, had climbed up the ladder in his military career commanding inferiors and giving orders had been part of his daily business, he had been an authority figure who had come from being ordered around since military school on to ordering other men around. It had not been something he had particularly liked or disliked, it had been a part of his profession and he had never even thought about this. Sure, it had helped that the blond was a rather dominant man and that he could easily exude authority what had given him an easier time commanding than Sebastian had had for instance.

 

The questions as to what time it was and whether they’d leave right away Rex answered briefly with “8:30am.” and “Yes.” And while Daniel was in the bathroom Rex was already getting a little impatient sitting around in the hotel room staring at the wall. Recapitulating the other night he thought that he had talked too much in his drunken head. He had let himself get carried away somehow and had revealed certain things about his own personality and his own history and he probably shouldn’t have but he didn’t regret it either. However when the whore left the bathroom he was looked at weirdly, well his eyes were and he could feel the prostitutes eyes closely examining him as if he wanted to figure something about him out by doing so. “Do you wanna take a picture that lasts longer.” Rex snorted sarcastically not fond of being stared at in such a way. It came even weirder and sillier though when the brunette man wanted to reassure himself whether the security guard remembered the way back from the hotel to the brothel. “No. Where are we?” he asked sarcastically again before he rolled his blue eyes and shook his head. “Of course I do. What an idiotic question.”

 

And as soon as the other man was ready the security guard was out of the door, walking past the old lady who sat on her chair and disinterestedly stared straight ahead at the picture of the crying clown to leave the building and go to the bus stop. The ride took quite a while and now that the sun was up one could see the dirt and the rundown-ness of the district uncovered. One stop before the station that was closest to the brothel Rex turned towards Daniel nodding into the direction of the bus’s exit. “You need to get out at the next stop.” He told him and then added. “3:00pm. Not a second later. Got it!” he reminded him of their ‘appointment’ which he called an appointment on his mind because he didn’t want to call it a date. It wasn’t a date after all! It really wasn’t! It was everything but a date! It was so unlike a date as unlike it could be!

 

Hutson stayed in the bus for three stations until he got out and only had to walk two minutes to get to the apartment building he lived in. After he had walked up all the stairs to his apartment and he arrived at the floor he had to kick his way through the shoes again and he already heard the loud noises from his neighbours and his blood pressure was on the rise again, his muscles tensing up and he was so close to hammer his fists against the door and yell threats at them again but before the fist met the door he came to a halt looked around himself and then stormed into his own apartment only to get back with a large garbage bag throwing every single pair of the illegal’s shoes into it, getting back inside of his apartment with the garbage bag, closing the door, opening the window, looking all the way down to where the trash cans were positioned and threw the bag with all the shoes right in there.

 

It gave him a tiny satisfaction and a small feeling of victory as he closed the window and went into the bathroom to take care of his dental hygiene before he got under the shower. Aside from the fact that he had gotten into a fist fight in the bathroom of a club and that he had gotten a little too communicative he had managed to get that night of Sebastian’s birthday over rather well, a lot more dignified than the last couple of years, maybe because he had not been alone one second and had at one point actually stopped with the alcohol. He also hadn’t broken much and his throat didn’t hurt as if he had eaten a hand full of glass because he had screamed too much in agony at one point. The year prior he had ended up huddled naked under a cold shower in the middle of what had seemed like a vandalised bathroom with splinters from the mirror all over the place and a bottle of whisky punching the wall whilst screaming, feeling like crying but still remaining unable to do so.

 

Freshly showered he went on to make himself some bacon and eggs planning on heading to the gym afterwards but even when he had eaten all of it his body had just refused to get up from the sofa, especially when he could hear the neighbours desperate outraged cries as they realised they had not a single shoe anymore what made a warm, satisfying, gleeful feeling stream through him as he was spreading out across the sofa, grinning as he let them knock on the door, not responding. And at one point he dozed off again without realising.

 

It was a message arriving on his phone that woke him up at 1pm. It was from David who told him he should meet him over at the pub as soon as possible and Rex jumped up from the sofa immediately. He washed through his face another time before he got ready and considering that appointment he had with Daniel he was wearing normal clothes for a change. He had a black turtleneck shirt, black jeans, boots and a wool coat what made him look more like the average respectable citizen than the attire with the bomber jacket he was wearing for work. He wasn’t running around in a bomber jacket with ‘Security’ written on its back and combat boots in private although that was the only way the people from the brothel had ever seen him. Grabbing other sunglasses he headed for his favourite pub.

 

It was a traditional, old-fashioned western-style bar with a Confederate flag on the counter run by an old man named Harrison who originally was from Rex’s home state but had lived in that city for the longest time as he had once moved there after meeting his wife back in the old days and upon entering the almost homely smell of alcohol, fried food and tobacco was filling his nostrils. At 2:00pm the pub wasn’t that crowded, there were some costumers who seemed to be part of the attire because they were heading in as soon as Harrison opened the doors and only left when he was closing them sitting at the bar, some people here and there, old man Harrison polishing some glasses while his daughter Claristine was chattering with an exhausted looking woman in the middle of the room and yet it was loud, loud in a familiar way.

 

“She wanted to marry me knowing my profession. We fucking married before I left because she wanted to commit to me before we would part ways and I’d be at the frontlines. She swore her fucking love to me! For a lifetime! And what was when I returned? This dumb shallow cunt didn’t even want to get close to me anymore, didn’t even look at me. She said me screaming in the night scared her, she said she couldn’t touch my scars, said I looked too ‘differently’ meaning horrifying. No shit Sherlock, I would like to see if she looked any better if she had been blown apart like that, this disloyal whore. Instead of thanking me for my deeds to our nation she cheated on me with some damn beta-cuck street-artist hippie sissy, that has never done anything for society in his entire life. And now she wants me to sign those damn divorce papers! She has the nerve to call me and make it urgent because she wants to marry that swine! This dumb slut!!!” a hoarse male voice yelled through the entire pub, no one paying any attention or mind because everyone knew the man and the tantrums he threw at the bar from time to time already.

 

Rex’s eyes moved to the table where the young man with brown hair was sitting and when he saw him hanging over the table with his upper body, his partially numb, stitched back together hands and fingers formed into fists, his scarred, reconstructed face looking exhausted, chalk white and sickly he knew that raging Roger had had too many pain killers with alcohol again the other day and David had most likely driven him to the hospital where he had gotten his stomach pumped and they had had to spend the night in the hospital they had just gotten back from. “Shit! All women are shallow, disloyal, superficial cunts! I wish I was fucking gay too, like Rex. That bloke would have stayed loyal to his guy even if his dick would have gotten blown off or something. And this twat wouldn’t even touch me because I have scars in that area!” he screamed further, his grey eyes that didn’t have eyelashes looking at David, the man with the red-greyish beard and the short hair who was sitting opposite to him, listening patiently to all of this although it wasn’t the first time Roger was ranting about his wife or women for that matter. He ranted about women whenever one of them screwed her nose or looked shocked or disgusted or made grossed out noises again at the way he looked because the young man who had nearly lost his life was of course seeing and noticing this and it was damn hurtful to be looked at as if he was a monster because he looked like doll that had been shredded by a dog and stitched back together again. But those chicks apparently couldn’t pull themselves together when they saw him.

 

Roger made a grunting sound before he snorted:”He even still loves him and that guy is dead since years! That is loyalty and love. My dumb whore of a wife has never even heard of it and what about that air headed slut you are married to? She ran away too didn’t she! They have no backbone, no honesty, they are backstabbing and manipulative. They just want to get something from you be that your money, status or your cock.” And Rex knew that this he shouldn’t have said and as expected by the security guard his friend David’s face got incredibly dark. “I swear to god Roger if you’re gonna call my wonderful, caring, lovely wife a slut ever again, one single time, they’ll have to stitch your stupid face back together again, do you hear me!” the former policeman barked. “She never left. I told her to go because she and my kids were getting death threats too due to that situation.” He corrected and raging Roger had fallen silent, his eye peering at the table like a beaten dog.

 

He heard David sigh, pressing his fingers against the bridge of his nose before he saw him patting Roger’s arm as if the younger man was one of his sons. The oldest of the three knew that Roger was actually normally a good guy and he understood how deeply hurt he was, how betrayed he felt, how disappointed he was and how he was feeling not appreciated and not validated and that not only from his cheating wife who had then left him for another man but from everyone and everything. “Listen, you should sign those divorce papers. Just do it. I know you’re trying to harm her but you’re only going to harm yourself in the long run. And you also don’t want to be gay, what you want is Rex, someone who loves you not only unconditionally but so much that he would murder for you, give everything up for you and could never be able to let go and stop grieving even after years of you being dead to the point it cripples him. And this is not healthy as well by the way!” David told the young man and then flung a gaze the tall blond man’s way who was standing at the entrance of the bar and was now walking over to them with a greeting nod, pretending he had not heard that part that had been directed to him. “You both need to carry on. Maybe sign in at some dating app or something like that. Get yourself out there and live again.” He encouraged but Rex chose to ignore that too.

 

With some effort Roger raised his torso from the table, narrowed what would have been his eyebrows if he still had them and called through the whole bar so that he didn’t have to get up and limp over to it. “Hey! Harrison! Pour me some Scotch will ya!” he ordered but the old man behind the counter shook his head. “No can do. It’s been bad last night. Too bad for my liking.” He declined and both David and Rex knew what was to follow. It was boiling in Roger and then the man was erupting. “What no! This is a free country! I can drink whatever I fucking want you twat! You’re not my bloody nanny or that whore of a wife so give me that bloody Scotch now! I decide ! It’s my decision! Don’t police what I fucking drink!” he yelled and Harrison shook his head ignoring the man what made Roger all the more furious who was standing now and that was when Rex was leaning down on the table, supporting himself with his hands and looked towards David. “Let me guess a certain someone had his pain killers with alcohol again yesterday!” he guessed and David nodded. “Exactly! I have spent the whole damn night and this morning in hospital with this moron so I am glad that you’re here now. It’s your turn today. I’m done and going home and rest some. My kids and my wife call me from Korea this evening and I don’t want to be half asleep then.” he told the former major general while Roger was screaming his lungs out trying to get Harrison to sell him alcohol again.

 

“No. I can’t. I have an appointment. Sorry.” Rex refused and David smiled but it was more of a threat than anything. “But honey-pie what are you saying there! No is not an option! You have him today, he is your son too, it’s your turn! You can take him to your appointment. He’ll be so happy to be out and about with you. And he just got his stomach cleared so he won’t be throwing up on you either if you keep him from the alcohol that is.” the man jested cynically and Rex rolled his eyes with a sigh while Roger was now turning to David yelling at him as well:“Keep him from the alcohol! I’m a grown man! I make my own choices! This is America alright! I can take as much painkillers with as much alcohol as I god damn want to, got it! And now I want my Scotch!”

 

Hutson turned towards Roger, his blue eyes looking into the other man’s eyes before his deep bass voice was cutting through the other’s raging words. “You sure are free to do that. But just because it isn’t illegal to take way too much of your medication together with alcohol it doesn’t mean that it is a smart thing to do! It is actually completely retarded as I have told you how many times exactly?” he stated calmly and clearly and the young man’s grey, blurry eyes narrowed, his face torn in stern anger and he was swaying because his destroyed leg was starting to go weak and giving in, his hand reaching out, his fingers playing a trick on him again, twitching as he was making an effort to bury them into the black fabric of the security guard’s coat to keep standing upright and making it seem as though he had grabbed him while he was actually clinging onto him for support. “Have you just called me retarded? You are retarded! You are a retarded fag!” Roger barked and the blond shook his head rolling his eyes. “The retarded fag is right though!” Harrison supported what Rex had said and David was nodding his head. “Yes, definitely. What you’re doing is irresponsible and stupid to say the least.”

 

Roger’s eye widened only to turn into slits, his mouth twitching angrily and the scars that were his lips quivering. “Fuck you! Ganging up on me like this! This is a conspiration, this is unfair and I don’t have to put up with your unfair insults! I’m leaving!” he hissed, let go of Rex’s coat, tried to hold balance and limped off to the door with his head held high, pouting.

“How many times did he storm out like that this month again?” Harrison asked and David showed a three with his fingers. “Three. Three times since the beginning of this month.” He told him.

 

Hutson stretched his neck and groaned:”I should probably go and catch up with him.” He said, shook David’s hand, said till then to Harrison and was out of the door after Roger. Raging Roger had not come far though, he was sitting a few houses to the right on the steps leaning at the wall and typing something on his phone as fast as his stitched back on fingers would let him. The former major general leaned onto the wall of the house next to Roger without addressing any of the things that had been talked about in the pub; he actually said nothing at all. “It’s too far to walk to where I live. I need to wait for the bus. It’s ten minutes until it arrives so I took a break alright…” the man explained himself defensively although Rex had not asked him. “Hm.” The blond made. “What are you typing?” he wanted to know and he could see that the other was weighing if he should tell him or not or if he should find it embarrassing or not because the younger man didn’t seem so sure of it now. “David said I should register on some app… I’m doing that…. He can’t say I’m just ranting and not doing anything then.” Roger told him and then he offered Rex the phone. “Here, I put a dating profile up.” he told him and Rex’s eyes hushed over what the other had typed into that profile:’I don’t want a shallow dumb whore who has no backbone, loyalty and integrity or is a manipulative bitch. That will rule out 99,99% of you all I suppose. But if you aren’t some whore or a hippie fucking cunt, we can talk!’ It said and the security guard blinked his eyes. Now, Rex was certainly no expert on online dating or dating in general but he was certain that this was not how those things worked.

 

“Get up and let’s go. I have an appointment. You’ll accompany me.” Rex told his friend and the younger man raised what once had been his eyebrows. “An appointment? Something official? I don’t know man…” Roger screwed up his nose not wanting into some government building or to the doctor’s office or something along those lines. “No.” Rex clarified and the grey eyes were laying on him as Roger reached out his arm for Rex to pull him up from the stairs. “So you’ve got a date.” The man remarked with a smirk on his face and in a teasing tone. “It’s not a date!” Rex yelled and raging Roger laughed loudly. “So it really is one! Rex got a date! Who would have thought! Who’s the man and whose the woman in the relationship?” he teased further and Rex clenched his teeth. “Shut it or I push you.” He hissed amusing the younger one all the more.

 

At the speed Roger walked it took them quite a while to arrive at the brothel but they were still on time, five minutes early even and as Rex was leaning against the wall of the building he usually worked in, waiting for the whore to show up, Roger was looking up at the sky and his eyes were narrowing sceptically and critically. “You see that…” he spoke, almost whispering. “What?” Hutson asked as the door of the brothel was opened and he wanted to turn around because he thought it could only be Daniel but Roger demanded his attention. “That’s the chemicals the government releases into the air to manipulate our brains and to make us submissive and guidable, robbing us of our own thoughts and personalities.” The man pointed out and he was darn serious about this whereas Rex was saying nothing just trying hard not to laugh about the man’s conspiracy theory, being halfway successful since he couldn’t keep himself from grinning, because the younger one didn’t handle it well and got mad if made fun of for his rather wild tin foil hat theories and he had many such theories. Watching the history channel with Roger one was always surprised which historic figures apparently had never actually died. However he wondered how this would be going with Daniel and Roger. He just hoped that Daniel would not look at the other grossed out or shocked and would not be put off by his appearance since he didn’t want the young man who had gotten honourably discharged from the Army, unlike Rex, to get hurt again unnecessarily.

[♠[Rin]♠]

“Yes,” Daniel assured upon being reminded of their ‘appointment’. He wasn’t a forgetful person in general. He could keep many things at once in his head, except for directions. Directions were a horror to remember, but catching up with the newest information about food receipts every Tuesday at 2 pm? He got that. It was the same with names and faces. He hadn’t misidentified a single person in his life so far, which was something he was secretly quite proud of.

The bus was slowing down towards the next station. William had told him that he had to get off here, so he stood up from the corridor seat in advance and swiftly waved a hand as goodbye. “See you. And thanks for the stay,” he said smiling, before he walked forward to the front door. The vehicle stopped and he stepped down the few black stairs. The soles of his shoes met the ground with a silent thud and behind him, the bus’ door closed before it moved past.

Daniel was about to leave when his gaze met a tobacconist’s. He sighed to himself and entered the small shop. A bell rang the moment he opened the door. An old man with a full grey beard was standing behind the counter, looking up from a magazine. He rose a bushy eyebrow in something that Daniel could identify as mistrust. Either he had had bad experiences with customers in general or it something about the brunette himself that was upsetting him. The shop was full on both sides with countless shelves and revolving stands which were filled with all kinds of goods. Cards, posters, drawing utensils, pens of all colours, colour palettes, CDs, trading cards and other things he couldn’t identify during a brief look around without making it awkward. Next to the counter there was a glass vitrine filled with lighters, a box full of newspapers and behind the seller were the cigarettes to be found. Those were locked in behind a glass wall out of security reasons.

Daniel stepped forward to the counter, grabbed a newspaper and put it on the table top in between him and the old man. “Just this, please.”

“Everything?” The man asked anyway and upon seeing Daniel nod, he typed the number of the good into his box office. “1,90 Dollars.”

The brunette slid his hand into his jeans’ pocket and pulled out a ten, which he handed over. The man took it and placed it into the box office, calmly taking out the change and dropping it onto the counter. “Bye. Come by again,” he said, though it sounded like the usual phrase every customer would get to hear.

“Bye,” Daniel responded. He put the change back into his pocket, grabbed the newspaper which he rolled up in his hands and left. He could still feel the eyes of the seller in his back until he finally closed the door behind him and moved on to follow the pavement.

 

Daniel made it to the brothel within a couple of minutes. The moment he entered the big hall, there was a yell from the other side of the room. Chen, who had been cleaning the bar counter, dropped everything he had been holding and ran up to the brunette to take him tightly into his arms. They were about the same height, so it was still fine to breathe as those slim arms wrapped around his torso with the strength of an upset constrictor. “I missed you,” he mumbled into the brunette’s shoulder. “I was worried too.” Without letting a second pass, he then leaned back, bringing his hands up to Daniel’s shoulders. “Where were you? William and you were suddenly gone! We searched the whole club until the barkeeper said he saw a blonde guy with a security jacket rush out of the club with a second person.”

“We weren’t far away, really,” Daniel answered with an encouraging smile. “No need to worry. Nothing bad happened.”

“Okay, so… you were alone?”

“Yes?”

“Ah.” The Chinese’s eyes skipped down to Daniel’s neck and arms, the only parts of his body that weren’t hidden by his outfit. “Hm.” Then, his eyes went back up to meet his colleague’s emerald ones and his lips curved into a teasing smile. “And what happened?”

“Oh c’mon,” Daniel sighed. “Not you too. Nothing happened.”

“You can tell me. I am good at keeping secrets.”

“I said nothing happened,” Daniel repeated. He took Chen’s hands off himself and took a brief look around. “Did anything interesting happen however while I was gone?” he wanted to know.

“Not really,” the other answered. “We had a few customers around the ending time of the shifts. Three or four.”

The brunette looked the other up and down. There was still purple bruising on his face, but he was handling it well. Most of the prostitutes were used to rough treatment despite the rule not to be violent with them. He knew that Chen had gone through house violence as well throughout his childhood and had had problems in class later in high school, however he never talked about it. Nobody knew what exactly had happened, but it had made him leave school as a minor and run away from home. Daniel knew for a fact that Chen was both physically and mentally scarred by the incidents he had gone through as a kid. There was no excuse to treat him badly, because he didn’t deserve it. Finally, as a dishonour to his family, he had tried to get a degree somewhere else, and believe it or not, he had had many part-time jobs, but they were all short-lived because he had quit all of them after getting to know Tommy, who was the main reason Chen was here in the first place. Chen had already been here before Daniel however, thus he didn’t know since when the other had been working here exactly, but given that he was only 29, it probably wasn’t a long time before Daniel’s career had headed south.

 

“Give me a minute for a shower and I’ll help you clean,” Daniel promised. When the barkeeper wasn’t around, it was always oddly quiet in the brothel. He was some kind of source of energy and wisdom. He arrived on time, he left on time and he hadn’t a lot to tell but preferred listening instead. He was always concentrated, but never ceased to miss anything that happened. He had a girlfriend whom he shared an apartment with, however otherwise there was little information about him.

Chen nodded in appreciation and made his way back to the counter. “I’ll start counting when you go up the stairs,” he joked.

Daniel laughed. “I like you, but you are as intimidating as a pink butterfly stuck to a marshmallow.”

The Chinese narrowed his naturally thick eyebrows for a moment before he giggled. “Interesting comparison.”

Daniel left to his room, where he collected a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt and grabbed a small bag from his closet that contained his hygiene utensils. He took those items with himself to the bathroom at the end of the first floor’s corridor. It was a cold room that stretched to both sides. There were merely three showers, one toilet stall and one washing basin with a mirror that had a crack at the right upper edge. The bright blue tiles that covered the walls, the ceiling and the floor were very old, some of them had dirt on them that wouldn’t come off even after hours of scrubbing, therefore the prostitutes had used old, holey towels to cover them. Beyond the brothel’s rules, the prostitutes themselves had added a few which applied to them only. One of those was to enter the bathroom without shoes. Daniel took his pair of converse off at the threshold and stepped inside with his socks on. To be honest, this old-fashioned room was the cleanest place in the whole building.

 

After a hot shower, Daniel brushed his teeth and changed into his new outfit. He brought his belongings back to his room and grabbed a few cleaning utensils from the storeroom on his way back to the bar. Chen was scrubbing spilled alcohol off the counter when Daniel walked up to him. “And?”

“Seven hundred and eighty seconds,” his colleague answered. He looked up with a smile. “You are seven hundred and twenty seconds late.”

“I am terribly sorry,” Daniel grinned. “What’s left to do?”

“Swiping the floor.”

“I am on it.”

 

After everything was more or less cleaned up – it never was clean, but at least they tried – Chen went to bed. Daniel learned that he hadn’t gone to sleep yet, so that was well-deserved. When he checked the time, it was one PM. He knew that taking a nap would only mess with his sleeping-rhythm and increase the fatigue he was feeling. Therefore, he chose to return to his room, however, on the way upstairs, he ran into Tommy. The older man smiled heartily at him. “You’re back! Welcome. It’s perfect that I meet you here, we want a fourth player.”

Daniel rose an eyebrow. “A player? What are you playing?”

“Come with me.” Tommy turned on his heels and went back upstairs. Daniel followed him to the very first door at the top of the staircase which had “Private” labelled on it. His colleague opened it and revealed a well-known concrete staircase. They went down to a room that was once a cellar, but the shelves in here were rotten and empty. Everything else was made of concrete and held a bitter cold. The walls were so thick that there was no way to find out what was behind them. There was a hole in one of them already, but despite its depth, there was still just concrete. No bricks, no piles, just concrete. It felt like being in a pillbox.

There was only one lamp in the entire room whose shade was broken on one side. It was hanging down towards a round wooden table like a sad dead rat, but its light was bright and would sometimes hurt your eyes if you looked directly into it. Two of his other colleagues were already sitting at the table with a set of poker cards on it together with invaluable chips. Tommy gestured to the table with a fantastic smile. “Poker!”

“Ah,” Daniel nodded. He couldn’t help but smirk. There was one thing among the many he had learned from his mother and that was how to win such games. “Of course. Why not.”

 

When quarter past three rolled around, Daniel was back in his room to change into a more suitable outfit for going outside. He chose a purple top whose sleeves were rolled up to the elbows and whose ends were coloured black. He combined that with grey jeans, grabbed his wallet and phone and left for the entrance. On his way, he was of course asked where he was going, to which he responded that he would do some shopping. There were another thousands of questions thrown at him, but he dodged most of them and quickly made his way to the front door. He pushed it open and stepped out onto the pavement. The door gently fell back into its frame. The wind was nicely cool and the street looked fine in daylight, but the two men to his right instantly caught his attention. One of them was William in civil clothing, which looked good on him. The darkness of his outfit created an interesting contrast to his light skin. Next to him stood a younger man with grey eyes, who didn’t look stable on his feet. In fact, he didn’t look stable at all. To be honest, he reminded Daniel of that puppet that belonged to Lilo from Lilo and Stitch. He was literally stitched up, apparently. His eyebrows were missing, which made him look expressionless at first glance. He was looking at something in the sky, but when Daniel lifted his gaze, there was nothing he could spot. William was holding back a chuckle and at first the brunette wasn’t sure if he had read the time right. No, he was sure he was on time.

Daniel looked up to William first. “A friend of yours?” Then his gaze skipped to the foreign man. He smiled and offered him a hand. “I am Daniel. Nice to meet you.” Sure, his counterpart’s appearance was a surprise, but not a scare. Without meaning it as an offense or a comparison, he had seen worse in horror movies and his fear-tolerance was pretty high when it came to looks. Something really bad had happened to this guy and there was seriously no reason to be mean or disrespectful.

[-Hideki-]

It was when he heard Daniel’s voice that he turned around and the amused grin about Roger’s crazed theory on his face disappeared and he nodded when the whore asked him if the younger man was his friend. “Yes.” He confirmed and he was just about to introduce the two to one another when the brunette made a step towards his friend already offering him his hand. Raging Roger looked taken off guard for a moment, if they could strangers, even men, usually avoided to touch his scarred, stitched hand with the contorted looking fingers so he wasn’t really used to this form of politeness anymore. When his brain had managed to fully realise this he took the hand and tried to shake it like in the old days but his handshake had become a lot less firm than back then, it was a little sloppy even although he didn’t let go of the hand for a while as his grey eyes were closely examining the stranger. Looking for any signs and hints that could show that he was not trustworthy, that there was something foul and wrong with him but apparently there were no indicators at first sight that Roger would have assessed as such.

 

“Roger.” His hoarse voice sounded as he finally introduced himself to Daniel and let go of his hand. His eyes however were still on him before a cocky smirk was forming on his face, making his scars strain. “You’re quite the pretty boy huh!” he remarked. “I had no idea you were into that sort of guys now. I thought you only liked men as masculine as yourself. Whatever happened to that?” he teased Rex who was rolling his eyes as he ignored the young man. “You sure have a nice face though. If he decides he doesn’t want you, you can still grow out your hair, get a pair of tits and I’d totally fuck you!” he provoked testing Rex’s and Daniel’s boundaries at the same time. “You can’t effort that Roger!” the blond hissed as he was starting to walk into the direction of the thrift shop.

 

The scarred man’s eyes narrowed and he looked to the side as he was limping next to the other two. “I’d call it pretty low how you’re making fun of the fact that the government doesn’t care for its soldiers and its own people whilst stuffing all the money up some terrorists arses who can make themselves a nice life here and then blow the citizens into bits and pieces ….” Rex cut him off. “I wouldn’t make fun of that issue.” He assured but Roger blabbered on “…But you know, your boyfriend is a prostitute so you have it quite tough as well so I can forgive that.” he countered and the grin was getting back onto Roger’s face. “He is not my boyfriend!” the security guard barked much to Roger’s amusement. “Oh come on now, no need to deny it. Yes, having been with a Lieutenant was a lot more classy but you shouldn’t deny your prostitute boyfriend like that, whores have feelings too. What are you trying to tell me next that the former president was not an illegal Muslim Arab who has been put into that position by leftist groups through election rigging to destroy the country from the inside?” his friend presented another of his conspiracy theories. “Yes, I would definitely call that bullshit, because it is bullshit.” The blond commented wishing he could drop Roger at the daycare centre they passed by in that moment, tell them to keep him from the alcohol so that he could go to the shop with Daniel and take the man back from the kindergarten teachers afterwards. They’d probably charge double for Roger though because he was a lot more exhausting than the average toddler.

 

“How about you rather tell the one where you claim that Lady Gaga and the like are Russian agents there to corrupt our youth and make them weak-minded and dumb so that Russia and China can overtake us. That’s at least entertaining.” Rex said and Roger raised where his eyebrows should have been. “Not taking this one serious is just making you look stupid and uninformed in front of your new boyfriend.” The soldier said and Rex yelled at him: “He is not my boyfriend!” and then added in a calmer tone. “And he actually was from that industry too.” The blond informed the other man. Yes, Rex didn’t think highly of the entertainment industry, he found that it was national dulling and distraction, like bread and circuses in ancient Rome but Roger took it to a whole other level again. The man looked at Daniel now. “Oh, so you’re that kind of whore. I thought you were the type who spread their legs for money, you know, I thought you were the more respectable kind of whore.” He commented, then shrugged. “Oh well, at least there is no mistaking who the man and who the woman is in your relationship.” He added and Rex’s carotid was pulsing. “Shut up!” he growled dangerously deciding to ignore Roger from that point on.

 

“I apologise for his behaviour.” He told Daniel ignoring Roger’s stupid ass grin. Then the security man took a deep breath. “Did you buy a newspaper how I told you and did you check for fitting jobs? Already called somewhere?” he wanted to know how productive the other man had been during the time he had had and the thrift shop wasn’t far anymore. It was a rundown building with old mannequins dressed up in fitting clothes in a way that tried to make it seem as though it was a real boutique and not a charitable institution so that the poor people in that district could buy themselves some clothing or toys for their kids. The employees of the store worked hard to keep it orderly and neat but the people who lived on the other side of the bridge would have never sat a foot into this but would have only gone past it with a disgusted face.

 

The store was rather crowded. Some teenagers were searching for a dress for prom because that was all they could manage to buy and that already hurt their families financially, mothers with kids were roaming through the clothes trees and boards, some elderly citizens here and there, even families and some people Roger would clearly disapprove of. Rex didn’t want trouble, he just wanted for Daniel to get a suit and be gone again and he really hoped that Roger managed to control his anger. Well, at first the man at least said nothing but just flung angry gazes and screwed up his nose and the woman with the kid on her hand didn’t even realise how he looked at her because she was too shocked about how he looked. She had never seen someone who had been that severely wounded and she wondered what had happened to him or where this man was even from that something like this had happened to him, this was not a common sight in the US after all, but her kid was starting to cry. She gave the boy a pat against his arm, telling him to stop, that it was impolite, she apologised feeling uncomfortable but Roger’s fists formed. “What are you crying you brat! It was your work after all!” he yelled and the woman hushed out of the shop with the crying kid, apologising another time although not getting what the guy was talking about.

 

“Let’s get to the suits.” Rex told Daniel and gesticulated towards the other end of the store when a jolly voice sounded, a voice that was actually too happy for that place. “Hey! Hello!” the woman called out to them and when Rex and Roger turned around they could see a tall, thin woman with a lot of metal pierced in her face, red strands dyed into her black bob, heavy eye make-up, blood-red lipstick and all black revealing clothes and Rex recognised the neighbour Roger had described to him and complained about because she was keen-eared, had heard him scream in the night, worried, entered raging Roger’s apartment which had not been locked to see if he had been alright and despite him not being in physical pain had found his body cramping and shivering as he slept and since then she had decided to keep an eye on him because she didn’t want to ignore someone who needed help. And that sense of responsibility and civil courage had resonated well with Rex and it made him instantly like her despite the unconventional clothing she wore.

 

The woman apparently worked in the shop and she left the counter to come over to them. “There you are! I wanted to bring you food but you haven’t been at home last night. I was worried something had happened.” She expressed and Roger’s eyes narrowed. “Oh yeah? How often do I have to tell you that you should stick to your own business MingMing!” he barked at the young lady who was about the same age as him. “And how often do I have to tell you that my name is Kathrin and not MingMing?” she answered and Roger grumbled. The woman then turned to Rex and Daniel. “He cramps and screams at night. And during the weekend I found him lying in front of his apartment door because he wasn’t able to unlock it anymore. I obviously can’t just ignore this.” Kathrin said and raging Roger’s expression got darker as she spoke telling Rex about how he couldn’t unlock his own door anymore, although in reality Rex had seen him in worse conditions already and was very much aware. “I don’t need your fucking help MingMing! Keep your little punk ass out of my life and leave me alone!” he barked and walked somewhere else in the shop, just away from the woman.

 

“You are friends of his?” she then asked the two other men. “It’s difficult to imagine that someone like him has friends.” The woman said. “Why is he that mean and such an arsehole to people all the time?” Kathrin wondered and Rex was sure that people said the same about him too and that many would think no one wanted to be his friend either so that made him and Roger a wonderfully fitting pair. “You hear him scream and cramp at night. You know where he lives, have seen his apartment. Then take a look at him. The man is twenty-six. Now you know.” Rex explained leaving out the part where Roger was especially unpleasant towards women because he didn’t want to give them a chance to hurt him anymore like they had done that often and intensely already.

 

She sighed as she looked after Roger with a sad, worrying expression but turned her head back to Rex again when the man spoke another time. “If it is not too much to ask and you don’t have plans for that night I’d like to ask a favour of you. Could you perhaps go over to his place tonight, keep him from the alcohol, just distract him from drinking, he just got out of the hospital you see and I need to go to work later on and it’d be difficult to take him with me there. You can watch the history channel together, you’ll love it, his conspiracy theories are incredibly entertaining.” He tried to make spending the night with Roger sound as fun as possible but it turned out he didn’t even have to advertise it. “Sure, I’d love to.” Kathrin said and Rex thanked her but she was already walking over to Roger.

 

“I’ll come over to your place later on. I can make some food, bring snacks and movies. What would you like?” she asked him and Roger turned towards her angrily. “For you to piss off KittyKat! I don’t want you to come over to my apartment with anything! Isn’t there some Chinese restaurant or massage temple you can go work in instead!” he yelled and she sighed, rolling her eyes. “Are you capable of saying something nice as well or are you always just a disgusting jerk to people who haven’t done anything to you?” she asked him and Roger frowned, holding himself up on a clothing tree, then he turned towards her and said. “Nice tits!” as something nice to say, peering at the woman’s boobs and Rex was running his hand over his face already seeing himself losing his babysitter for Roger that night having to take the man with him to the brothel. Oh boy! Much to his surprise though he heard Kathrin laugh as she shook her head. “Thank you.” She said. “Nice arse!” she returned to Roger and gave him a slap onto his arse and Rex could actually see Roger grin and he didn’t even protest when Kathrin told him that she’d see him later on.

[♠[Rin]♠]

Daniel tilted his head a little as Roger took a few minutes to react to his introduction. His hand remained in the air until the man gave him his and shook it. The grip wasn’t as firm as expected, however given his appearance and the scars, it was indeed something to expect from him. He surely wasn’t as strong as he might have used to be. He said his name was Roger, however he kept the brunette’s hand in his grip for a little while longer and examined him with his eyes. Daniel was about to say something before the other suddenly spoke. A little surprised, he blinked once but gave the other a smile. “Thanks.” There was no stopping the man afterwards, he instantly turned to William and voiced his surprise about the blonde changing his type for men. Daniel narrowed his eyebrows, uncertain as to what to think about that remark, though Roger looked right back to him within a second. There was hardly space to answer his statement because William immediately said that he wouldn’t be able to afford it. That somewhat made Daniel chuckle. It was quite the counter.

 

They started to move towards the nearest thrift shop and Daniel learned that Roger was a fan of conspiracy theories. The one about Obama was a really tough one. Next came something about Lady Gaga and the Russians, whereat William revealed to his friend that Daniel had once been part of the music industry. Upon learning that, the former soldier turned back to the brunette and said that he had thought he was someone who sold his body for money. “I am sorry, but I am what now?” Daniel wasn’t exactly sure if he had understood or if Roger was just getting it wrong. He seemed like someone who spoke his mind before thinking about it first, so that also made him wonder if he should take most of his statements seriously at all. And the moment he was called William’s boyfriend, he finally understood where all the comments were coming from. “We’re friends,” he said, but he wasn’t certain if Roger would believe him. It was obvious that he was enjoying teasing the security guard however he also seemed like he was happy about the false information. It made him look genuine.

Aside from that and despite not matching appearance-wise, those two seemed alike. Their perspectives matched to a certain extent, the major difference was that William really wasn’t someone who believed in something like conspiracy theories. Yeah, they would both fit into some military camp for sure.

 

“It’s fine,” Daniel answered to William’s apology. “I did some babysitting in the hotel when I was younger, I am pretty sure I can handle it.” He was asked about the newspaper if he had already called somewhere. To that, he nodded. “Yeah, one place. The walls in the brothel are as thin as paper as you know.” His gaze dropped off William and moved back ahead. “I didn’t want to wake anybody or draw too much attention. Do you remember that big old shop that’s been abandoned for a few years?” He looked to the other side of the street. “Down the other road.” And then back up to the security guard. “Apparently someone bought it. They said they’re putting a supply store in there. They’re only looking for a few people right now though because they don’t have enough money to pay as many as they need because of the financial situation of the store opening. Even if I am not sure if they’ll succeed. Uh, there were three others that I might be able to do, but yeah, I haven’t called yet.”

 

They entered the thrift shop. Daniel’s eyes instantly looked for something specific it seemed, but they were interrupted by a woman, a friend of Roger. Their conversation left a big impression and the brunette could help but chuckle. “I am pretty sure that’s partly how Peter feels when he wants to share stories with you,” he teased the blonde. He turned around to look for the right section, which was far in the back. On his way there, he slowed down in movement to at least give the other clothes a glance. Admitted, he usually didn’t buy clothes at the thrift stop but he remembered very well that he had bought several things from a second-hand shop somewhere here too when he had come to this district years ago.

His gaze got stuck on a hoodie with a chess pattern on it. It looked fine, maybe a little big, but otherwise it wasn’t bad at all. Daniel halted briefly to check the tag. It was definitely one size up however the prize was, well, more than fine. This was still a thrift shop. Though, there was a huge difference between something cheap looking cheap or something cheap looking expensive.

He went on to finally reach the section where the shirts and suits were. A plain black one and a dark tie with brown accents would do. Brown was always a good choice to enhance green eyes. Additionally, he needed a shirt. Either an entirely white one or a white one with a discreet colour pattern, that way he would be able to use it for most jobs. Appearance was always important when it came to that. It wasn’t about wearing extraordinary clothes and drawing attention, it was about fitting in.

Daniel’s eyes scanned one piece after another. He checked most of the tags, sighing in despair that most of them were either too big or too small. William was right, it didn’t need to fit perfectly, but he still wanted to at least be sure. One-size would fit okay, he guessed. He was a small in measurements but a medium in height, which wasn’t typical for a grown man.

It took him a while, feeling the fabrics, checking the colours, picturing a combination in his head that would look right. “What do you think of these?” He asked William as he picked out a matte black jacket and a pair of fitting trousers. “These are the only one-size pieces I’ve found so far.” At first glance they looked fine. By further examination one could tell they weren’t of best quality, but it was about leaving a good first impression and not about winning Promi Shopping Queen.

[-Hideki-]

When Daniel chuckled and teased him, telling him that he was sure that this was partially how Peter felt when he wanted to tell him his stories Rex snorted and rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses. “Peter is a politically over correct goody-goody and his stories are trivial and boring.” The blond man found that this was an obvious difference to this lady who seemed despite the weird looks pretty laid back and not too moralising. “I also had an active conversation with him once. On Election Day. Remember.” The blond reminded Daniel who had been around in the brothel to witness their fairly heated conversation. It had been Peter who was normally in a good mood getting mad whilst following the election on the TV over the bar ranting about how the ‘dumb rednecks’ voted like shit and would cause their nation the worst president in history. It had pissed Rex off who had told Peter that voting how he didn’t like didn’t mean voting like shit and that he should shut his stupid arrogant mouth as he apparently didn’t understand how a democracy worked and that different regions had different issues and concerns and voted differently. The man who was from the South had taken Peter’s comment personally although he had not voted in that election at all hating both candidates because he was feeling as patriotic for his home state and its people as for the nation. It had resulted in both men yelling at each other that night especially considering that Peter – who just like everyone else in the brothel had no idea who Rex really was and where he was from – had not understood why the man had gotten that angered as if personally attacked by the way he had expressed his frustration as it had usually been the other way around.

 

Rex didn’t quite fit in the store. His clothing looked newer than most of the second hand clothes and were expensive, high quality products he had bought before his discharge. If one had looked at him one would have never thought that he lived in that district, he would have fit right in with the people across the bridge the way he looked. The rich liberal city folk would probably see him as one of them and treat him with respect whereas they’d only screw up their noses at Roger and Daniel, well, at least as long as they’d not know that Rex was from the South, then they’d show their arrogant faces to him too and put him into the box ‘redneck’ although they’d certainly criticise that Rex himself often categorised people but yeah for hypocrisy and double standards everyone held.

 

Roger unlike Rex however seemed to know the store quite well and he didn’t look too rich to be there either. Sure, he too had clothing from his past but he had not been a major general and hadn’t been that wealthy nor did those fit him anymore. Living on alcohol and painkillers for the most part he had lost quite some weight and not only weight but muscle too and had he been athletic before he was now skinny, as skinny as Daniel if not skinnier although he was taller what made him look like a matchstick.

 

He followed Daniel who was – not going straight for the suits but looking at a chessboard printed shirt that if it had been for women and a lot smaller could have been something Roger’s neighbour Kathrin had worn – checking out the clothes. The security guard wasn’t interested in any of the clothing. He didn’t like shopping for clothes and he thought that Daniel would be managing just fine and he was just there to accompany him on the way and offer him protection from the scum of the district, hence he was surprised when the other wanted his opinion on the suit. Rex was no one who had much of an opinion or a clue when it came to fashion. He could see when something was neat and didn’t like bright colours. Hadn’t it been Goethe who had said that only simple people and kids liked bright colours? Well, he agreed with that.

 

That suit obviously had no bright colours so that was good. “Looks acceptable.” He commented because the fabric didn’t seem to be of the best quality and that was visible. He reached out his hand and touched the suit and it only confirmed it. “It’ll do if we won’t find something of better quality.” The man said. “You should try the stuff on though due to your low budget and the fact it’s a suit.” He suggested. If it hadn’t been for suits Rex had usually bought stuff according to the sizes written in them because he didn’t care and had hated to try them on. He too had encouraged everyone else to do so because he hated shopping but once he had gotten discharged and his salary had significantly dropped he had not bought something and then just flung it away and bought something else if it turned out too big or too small after all and had tried every stupid thing on that he had bought. It was a hassle.

 

It too was a hassle that he started to search through the clothes trees now himself to maybe find something else, for Daniel so that they’d be through faster and out of the store sooner, paying attention to the sizes and labels in the clothing. “If something fits you’ll call those other two jobs and then we pay that new store a visit and see if it’s something for you.” He said whilst looking. “What is with the apartment opposite to mine now? Or do you have something better in prospect that you found on the newspaper?” the security guard wanted to know. It took a while of senseless shoving of clothing and then he found something. It was a quality label, didn’t look too worn and definitely didn’t feel as trashy as the other one. He pulled it out and threw it over the clothing tree to present it to the other man. It was a black, pinstriped suit with a grey shirt and Rex grabbed a black tie from a board and laid it onto the assembly. “There. What do you say to this? Should fit your scrawny body well enough.” He suggested

[♠[Rin]♠]

Daniel hesitatingly nodded as he was reminded of that heated conversation back then. It had taken a long while for them to calm down. “That’s not exactly what I meant but I already know that your way of thinking often goes into the opposite direction of mine.”

William approved of his choice of when he was asked, also suggesting that he might try it on. “Sure. Just wait a moment.” Daniel looked around for a cabin and found a row of three in the corner. Given that the suit itself was already pretty dark, he took a white shirt for now with him as he went to check if the middle cabin was free, which was the case. He vanished into the small room, pulled the old curtain close and carefully set the pieces on a provided wooden stool. There was no mirror, but he remembered seeing one outside in between the coat stands. Daniel was quick in changing, it only took him a few minutes until he pushed the curtain to the side again and stepped out. The trousers fit, the jacket looked a little big on him. The sleeves reached down to his caput phalangis and gave it a bit of a sloppy look. The shirt underneath was fine, maybe a little tight on the shoulder, but overall it wasn’t visible due to the jacket anyway. All in all it was okay-ish, so to say. Daniel had rarely worn suits in his life because he didn’t like them. He had received compliments when wearing his old Gucci suit at parties or galas, however he had never felt comfortable in them. Apparently, they made him look taller and fit well because of his slim features. Back when he was still more muscular, his suit would enhance his arms, thought only for those who cared to look. Daniel himself found that suits made him look very serious and… maybe a little like his mother. She, too, had worn women’s suits all the time. It had always been a surprise if she had worn something casual, a skirt or even a dress.

 

“Mhm, was planning to do so,” he agreed to William’s plan. His eyes lit up when he was presented another suit. He hadn’t thought that the blonde would be interested in helping him, but he guessed that neither he wanted to stay here for a long time. They had time until their shifts would start, but nobody would want a hectic day. He also understood that William had to look after Roger.

“Hm, pinstripe…” Daniel looked sceptical. He grabbed the jacket’s sleeve and felt the fabric with his thumb. “It looks really good, but pinstripes usually symbolize a supervisory position because they are a bold detail. So, I am not sure if I’ll fit in well wearing this. It’s not only for a job interview after all, I might need it later on as well.” His gaze went up to the tie and the shirt. “A little dark. You’re not very colourful, aren’t you?” he smiled, looking at William before he turned back to the clothing set. He slid his hands into the pockets of the trousers and tilted his head a little, trying to see the outfit on himself in front of his mind’s eye. For a moment in which he wasn’t smiling or grinning he suddenly had the appearance of a strict and unapproachable person.

 

“But thanks, I’ll try it on anyway.” Daniel then beamed. He quickly turned to the mirror to check on what the suit he was wearing right now looked like. Keeping that image in mind, he grabbed the one William had chosen and vanished back into the changing cabin. Seven minutes later, he was back and stood in front of the mirror, checking his appearance for any flaws, turning to the sides and also examining the back. “It’s a quite dark look in combination with my brunette hair. What do you think?” he asked the blonde and turned towards him.

 

Daniel’s gaze went over to the other ties. Thoughtfully, he stepped towards the shelves presenting all kinds of colours and patterns. He grabbed a black one with a forest green horizontal stripe in the middle and held it in the air next to the one he was wearing. “This might brighten it up,” he suggested. "But it might also match with the plain black one and the white shirt." And at that point it was hard to decide. It would be idiotic to pick the other suit if it was of lower quality for sure. On the other hand he didn't want to choose something that didn't look decent on him.

[♠[Rin]♠]

[i forgot to react to a line of yours, I added it quickly into this reply.]

 

Daniel hesitatingly nodded as he was reminded of that heated conversation back then. It had taken a long while for them to calm down. “That’s not exactly what I meant but I already know that your way of thinking often goes into the opposite direction of mine.”

William approved of his choice of when he was asked, also suggesting that he might try it on. “Sure. Just wait a moment.” Daniel looked around for a cabin and found a row of three in the corner. Given that the suit itself was already pretty dark, he took a white shirt for now with him as he went to check if the middle cabin was free, which was the case. He vanished into the small room, pulled the old curtain close and carefully set the pieces on a provided wooden stool. There was no mirror, but he remembered seeing one outside in between the coat stands. Daniel was quick in changing, it only took him a few minutes until he pushed the curtain to the side again and stepped out. The trousers fit, the jacket looked a little big on him. The sleeves reached down to his caput phalangis and gave it a bit of a sloppy look. The shirt underneath was fine, maybe a little tight on the shoulder, but overall it wasn’t visible due to the jacket anyway. All in all it was okay-ish, so to say. Daniel had rarely worn suits in his life because he didn’t like them. He had received compliments when wearing his old Gucci suit at parties or galas, however he had never felt comfortable in them. Apparently, they made him look taller and fit well because of his slim features. Back when he was still more muscular, his suit would enhance his arms, thought only for those who cared to look. Daniel himself found that suits made him look very serious and… maybe a little like his mother. She, too, had worn women’s suits all the time. It had always been a surprise if she had worn something casual, a skirt or even a dress.

 

“Mhm, was planning to do so,” he agreed to William’s plan. His eyes lit up when he was presented another suit. He hadn’t thought that the blonde would be interested in helping him, but he guessed that neither he wanted to stay here for a long time. They had time until their shifts would start, but nobody would want a hectic day. He also understood that William had to look after Roger.

“Hm, pinstripe…” Daniel looked sceptical. He grabbed the jacket’s sleeve and felt the fabric with his thumb. “It looks really good, but pinstripes usually symbolize a supervisory position because they are a bold detail. So, I am not sure if I’ll fit in well wearing this. It’s not only for a job interview after all, I might need it later on as well.” His gaze went up to the tie and the shirt. “A little dark. You’re not very colourful, aren’t you?” he smiled, looking at William before he turned back to the clothing set. He slid his hands into the pockets of the trousers and tilted his head a little, trying to see the outfit on himself in front of his mind’s eye. For a moment in which he wasn’t smiling or grinning he suddenly had the appearance of a strict and unapproachable person.

 

“But thanks, I’ll try it on anyway.” Daniel then beamed. "As for the apartment... I haven't found anything particularily good in the newspapers. I don't know a lot about apartments though, to be honest. Like, what prices are fine and which aren't or what condition the apartment should usually be in." He quickly turned to the mirror to check on what the suit he was wearing right now looked like. Keeping that image in mind, he grabbed the one William had chosen and vanished back into the changing cabin. Seven minutes later, he was back and stood in front of the mirror, checking his appearance for any flaws, turning to the sides and also examining the back. “It’s a quite dark look in combination with my brunette hair. What do you think?” he asked the blonde and turned towards him.

 

Daniel’s gaze went over to the other ties. Thoughtfully, he stepped towards the shelves presenting all kinds of colours and patterns. He grabbed a black one with a forest green horizontal stripe in the middle and held it in the air next to the one he was wearing. “This might brighten it up,” he suggested. "But it might also match with the plain black one and the white shirt." And at that point it was hard to decide. It would be idiotic to pick the other suit if it was of lower quality for sure. On the other hand he didn't want to choose something that didn't look decent on him.

[-Hideki-]

As Rex was waiting for Daniel to change and try on the first suit Kathrin walked over to him, offering him a coffee which he took with a thanks. It really seemed to be good to know someone like her he thought when she left two more mugs on a small old bedside table that was for sale for Roger who was currently searching through some board and Daniel who was in the changing cubicle. The coffee was strong and it was cheap but it was better than nothing and as he waited he took some gulps from it, listening when the brunette informed him that he had planned to do what the security guard had suggested anyway and Rex was positively surprised to hear that.

 

When the prostitute stepped outside in the first suit Hutson?s enthusiasm left much too be desired. It looked cheap in quality and wasn?t fitting well. If the other one fitted the man properly or they could find something else he?d not advice the man to take this one. Then again it was the brunette?s own choice and as long as he didn?t ask for it he?d not give his opinion on the suits and the looks. Someone else however was too keen in making his opinion known though. ?Pfft, he looks like a sissy girl dressed in a too large bin-liner.? Raging Roger stated wearing a cowboy hat on his head he had found on the board and had hung an American flag around his shoulder like a cape. ?Roger!? Rex hissed and the young man looked at him making his grey eyes huge. ?What? Am I appropriating your culture??he joked gesticulating at the hat and Rex shook his head but he was chuckling nonetheless. ?No. If it was a confederate flag you totally would though.? he jested not at all seriously and turned back to Daniel who was being critical about the pin-stripe suit he had picked out for him.

 

?Is that so?? the blond remarked with a shrug when the brunette explained to him how pin-stripes usually meant that one had a supervisory position and hence he was not so sure of it. The former major general had no idea of how the dress codes were in business because he had never worked in an office. He had been in the military all his life. He could recognise every uniform and every rank the military had. Rex himself had had two stars and had he not been discharged he?d probably have more by now. His old man had had four stars as a general before he had retired after all and the blond knew he?d have gotten there sooner than later.

 

He was paying more attention and was raising an eyebrow when Daniel told him that he had not read anything promising apartment wise in the newspaper admitting that he had no clue when it came to apartments. ?First of, forget the condition it should be in. You won?t find that in this ghetto. I had to renovate too. Not much of an issue. If you?d ask I?d help. Second of all, if the opportunity presents itself that you could have an apartment that is totally bearable, take that opportunity for now and don?t refuse the idea because you apparently have resentments against ICE who do a really important and great job!? he told him when Roger was chiming in again, slurping on the coffee, burning his tongue, cursing hell onto earth, before he did speak, sounding weird now due to his burned tongue.?One floor under mine an apartment has recently gotten free.? He looked at Daniel and Rex in turns. ?That old cat lady died in there four weeks ago or so. No one realised until three days ago. Those cats of hers started to eat her crops. They got euthanized because they had eaten human flesh.? He told them. ?So if you want I can give you the number of the landlord and you?ve got yourself an apartment.? He offered. ?If the stench is out of it, it?ll be as good as new.? The young man said.

 

Internally Rex hoped that this would be nothing for the other and he?d take his offer over Roger?s so that he?d finally get rid of his neighbours. Well, at least no one died and got eaten by cats in the apartment he was talking about recently and it only stank like the weird food those people were eating and that would be out in no time, he thought, when Daniel had disappeared in the changing cubicle again. Seeing the other return, this time wearing the pin-stripe suit it looked better in quality and it was fitting decently enough. Rex liked it much better than the other one and he actually found that Daniel looked good in that but judging from how the other had commented on the security guard not being a colourful person it was likely that the brunette himself wasn?t too thrilled about wearing something without bright colours. And indeed Daniel remarked that it was quite dark in combination with his hair but then asked Rex how he found it.

 

?I don?t think it?s too dark. Looks good on you.? He stated and wanted to say something more when Roger was at it again. ?Now you look like a chipmunk! I?ll call you Alvin from now on. Hey, you even sing don?t you!?? the man commented and laughed about his own joke and he was the only one but he didn?t care at all. The moment Daniel took the tie with the forest green stripe saying that it?d brighten the whole thing up raging Roger got something important to say immediately. ?Now it?s chipmunk with mistletoe around its neck!? he found and Rex now barked at him. ?Stop sabotaging everything! He looks good in this.? then he sighed and took two other shirts from the clothes tree. ?Here!? He said, pressing them against Daniel?s chest. ?If you want it brighter you can combine the pin-stripe suit and the black tie with one of those or a white shirt too.? Hustson suggested handing the other man one aubergine coloured shirt and an emerald green one, throwing a death glare to Roger to keep the man quiet.

 

Raging Roger, who was getting more miserable the more Daniel tried on, was pulling something out from the costume rack, showing a clowns costume. ?This one would be perfect for him.? He said in a waspish tone and Rex pulled the clowns costume out of Roger?s hands. ?Enough with this! Be a man and stop grudging.? The blond demanded. He knew what was up with Roger, he knew that the young man felt bad because Daniel was trying to get a proper job, was having a chance to improve and Roger was not seeing a chance for himself because he was too disabled for working and for anyone to hire him, living on the little disability money. Raging Roger pouted when Rex threw the clowns costume over his head and Roger pulled it down from his head and put it back onto the rack standing next to Rex.

 

?You know, maybe you should buy a suit.? The young man then said. ?I have plenty. No need.? Rex answered him. ?Perfect. Then how about we buy an in ear microphone and you go onto one of those political meetings at the other side of the city and I?ll tell you what you should say there via microphone and we make it into politics and change the country like this. Your face, my ideas!? he suggested. ?No.? Rex refused. ?But it?d totally work.? Roger found. ?No.? Rex shook his head and Roger pouted again while Rex was indulging in the bad coffee. ?How about I become a history teacher then! They are searching for teachers with combat experience now after all, arming the teachers against school shootings and stuff!? raging Roger suggested and Rex was so shocked at the mere suggestion that he spat his coffee out in a fountain and started to cough. ?No. Definite no! Everything but a history teacher!? he vigorously refused as the idea of raging Roger teaching young kids what he thought was history was not amusing in the slightest.

[♠[Rin]♠]

At first he wasn’t sure how to respond to Roger’s words, but sooner or later he just rhetorically asked: “How comes that the word ‘sissy’ keeps coming up lately in relation to me?” He asked, looking from William to Roger and back, before his gaze went to the mirror. The suit fit way better than the other one and it looked like it was of better quality. Also, yeah, the pin-stripes were doing something there.

William informed him that the apartment’s condition wasn’t of importance and that renovating was something he had to expect. For some reason he had thought the other would say that. He also offered his help. Daniel knew little about renovating, just a few basics like cutting and applying battens, painting walls and hanging up photos. That was it. However, Roger was the next one to speak up. Apparently, the apartment below his was free currently because of an old woman’s death along with the information that her cats had started to eat her. “That’s horrible,” Daniel said with a surprised blink of his eyes. “Where exactly is it located?”

It was still a question of location. He was mainly looking for jobs within reach, yes, but he still had to take the work place’s address into account. Then again, he also felt like he owed William. He understood the other’s perspective and the help was appreciated, very much so, though his conscience was leaving a sting in his chest. William added that such an opportunity should be one to take, which was perfectly understandable. “You were going to call the ICE on them anyway, now weren’t you?” he asked. “Let’s wait a bit. I’ll have to call up the other two places as well. They are not far from here, but still. I can’t afford to move in any apartment right now anyway. I have to work for a few more nights at least.” That he didn’t have enough spare money for a first rent wasn’t the case, but afterwards there wouldn’t be much left. “Also, I need a job first. Who knows how long it might take. I agree with you completely, it’s a great opportunity, but let’s not rush things.”

 

As he re-appeared wearing the pin-stripe suit and looked into the mirror, Roger’s words cut through his thoughts. A chipmunk? Alvin and the Chipmunks? “You don’t want to hear me sing, believe me.”

The suit did fit well and didn’t look as cheap as it actually was, which was a win. William didn’t think that it looked too dark, he said, but he also didn’t like the tie with the emerald stripe on it. Instead, he pressed two brighter shirts into the brunette’s hands, however he shook his head. “No colours. The moment they get dirty, they won’t ever be the same after cleaning them.” He set them aside and chose a light grey one instead. He disappeared into the cabin again to change the shirts and returned right after. White was always a heavy contrast to black, but the light grey colour was neat. It wasn’t too bright, wasn’t too dark. He didn’t look too tan or too pale in it. He turned to the other two men and looked from William to Roger. “History teacher?” That were the last pieces he had heard but judging by the security guard’s expression it wasn’t a topic one would want to stretch out. Thus, the prostitute turned to the younger man. “Roger, have you ever tried painting or sketching?” he wondered. “You are quite the creative type of person,” he then added with a smile. “I’ve heard it’s a really neat hobby. Calms the nerves, helps to express ideas, feelings and thoughts.” Sketching indeed also had a therapeutic effect. Many people who were dissatisfied, felt grief or sorrow, suffered from a mental or physical illness tended to draw what they felt. It wasn’t about beauty or talent, it was about expressing one’s own world to oneself. Everyone held a subjective version of reality deep inside and sometimes it was a little off, may it be deliberate or unknowingly. He himself wasn’t talented at all when it came to painting. He had never been particularly interested either. He was aware that practise made perfect however, so there was no reason not to try it out. It was Roger’s decision though.

 

“What’s this by the way?” Daniel now finally asked, pointing to the last cup standing on the table. It smelt like coffee. Strong coffee. “Did you … order this or something?” Suddenly, the generic sound of a phone ringing sounded through the room, coming from the cabin. “Sorry,” Daniel excused himself with an embarrassed smile. He quickly went back into the cabin to answer the call. “Yes?” he lowly answered. Personally, he didn’t like to take a phone call in public. It bothered him that anyone would be able to listen to whatever he had to tell someone he knew. “Oh, yeah. Maybe. I’ll try, okay?” It were only a minute or two until he returned. “There’s a grocery store nearby, right?” he asked William. “Could we stop by there for a moment? Chen wants me to get chocolate milk for him.”

[-Hideki-]

“Your behaviour.” Rex said. “Your looks.” Said Roger answering the rhetorical question the other man had asked into the room as to why the word sissy was coming up in relations to him. There just were certain things that Rex had not found exactly manly when it came to what the other man had told him back in the hotel room and Roger just found the man didn’t look particularly masculine especially considering that he was dressing his slender physique in weird purple shirts and the pretty face was doing the rest for him.

 

Roger laid his head to the side, his neck made an unhealthy cracking noise as he played with the cowboy hat pulling it into his face, pinching it back up again, and down again. “Opposite to that fast food place and next to the strip club with the beach logo.” The man informed him of the location of the apartment building he lived in and Rex crossed his arms in front of his chest because he had by now figured that Daniel had absolutely no idea about what was where in the district. “You’d have to take the bus home from the brothel.” He told him. “I also couldn’t escort you home. It’s the opposite direction from where I live.” He let him know. “Why would you escort him home?” raging Roger asked curiously. “He’s scared of walking home alone in the district.” The security guard told his friend and had one expected Roger to laugh he did not. “That’s understandable.” He nodded. “It’s full of scum and crime is getting worse. One gotta be scared as a civilian.” The young man agreed. “Especially for fair haired maidens like him it’s highly dangerous.” Roger couldn’t help himself after all and the next thing he knew was Rex taking the cowboy hat from his head, slapping him against the back of his head and then putting the hat back on. “Ouch!” Roger complained. “He’s not a woman.... not even fair haired for that matter.” He inhaled deeply because the other man had seemingly thought that tormenting him by being highly annoying was a good idea. “Of course he is. His hair is lighter than mine.” Was to hear from the youngest. “Stunt! Your bloody hair is dark brown Roger.”

 

“Sooner or later. More likely sooner.” Rex answered when Daniel wanted to be assured that the blond would call ICE on his neighbours anyway as if he wanted to assure himself that he’d not have anything to do with that then if he were to take that apartment and if it helped the former Major General didn’t mind to assure him of this. It also was true. He still didn’t know what would happen now that he had counter attacked by throwing all of their shoes into the trash but he still needed to chuckle thinking about how the trash truck had carried all those shoes far, far away and his illegal arsehole neighbours now didn’t have any shoes anymore that he could fall over because they would leave them everywhere and didn’t know how to behave in a civilised country. That the other needed a job first was clear to Rex so he wasn’t saying anything to this. But ICE needed time to catch them and then they’d need to renovate anyway. Thinking about the ICE Rex remembered his maternal cousin who was working for the ICE. He had a fairly high position too. Maybe Rex should join ICE, he’d do really important and good work for the nation and could throw as many of them illegals out of the country as possible. Then again it’d only work if his cousin would allow him to join under William Brix and wouldn’t check his documents because as Rex Hutson who had been dishonourably discharged from the Army for abuse of power... well, they’d probably not hire him because he potentially could abuse his power again then.

 

Both Rex and Roger blinked their eyes when Daniel, who had been a singer, a popstar, told them that they didn’t want to hear him sing. “Why? Did you use autotune all the time or why did my sister want to marry you when she was a teen exactly then?” Rex asked him and Roger laughed. “Your sister wanted to marry a gay twink who lets her brother fuck him in the arse. Do you have her number I wanna call her and tell her. Should make it a video chat I wanna see that face.” He laughed and the blond took the cowboy hat, pressed it into Roger’s face and shoved the man into a clothes rack.

 

Daniel apparently couldn’t really decide whether he was a fan of colour now or not. Had he complained about it being too dark and not bright enough he declined colourful shirts too leading Rex to shrug, putting them back to where they had been. It got confusing though when the brunette grabbed another grey shirt because he had initially given him a grey shirt to begin with. Well, maybe there was something different with this grey shirt that went beyond Rex who wasn’t exactly into fashion and as long as the man would like it in the end and they could leave the store soon it was all good with him.

 

When the other stepped out again and Rex had spat his coffee across the bloody store at the idea that raging Roger could teach their youth history soon Daniel turned to Roger who was pouting and really close to strutting out of the store again because he found that he’d make a really great history teacher indeed and he wanted Rex to apologise for implying that his understanding of history was somehow off and asked him if he had ever tried painting or sketching because he seemed to be a really creative type of person. “Oh yeah, damn is he creative.” Rex agreed, grinning widely and amused and Roger hissed like a snake at him because although he was perfect at insulting everyone and everything around him telling them to suck it up and to not be overly sensitive raging Roger himself was highly sensitive and felt attacked easily. “Well, not as creative as his mail friend who thinks that his nation is a giant cheesecake in reality and not a real nation.” The security guard was still amused and Roger pointed at him with his contorted index finger. “Hey! Cheesecake factory that enslaves his people. And he has linguistic evidence.” The scarred man said and Rex let his hand run over his face to not bust out into a fit of laughter. “Yeah, that evidence is really convincing....”

“To answer your question pretty-boy...No! I have never tried either of the two.”Roger answered. “And I think it’s a little too late for me to become an artist or a painter.” He added bitterly and showed Daniel his hands, moving his stitched on crippled fingers to demonstrate.

“That’s coffee. Obviously.” Rex answered with a raised eyebrow when Daniel wanted to know what the coffee was that was standing on the bedside table. “It’s for you actually.” He added and when he was asked if he had ordered it he raised his eyebrow even higher because one couldn’t order coffee at a thrift shop. “No. Roger’s neighbour gave it to us.” He informed the other man and Roger was screwing up his nose mumbling: “MingMing really can’t keep her Chinese nose in her own business. Maybe she’s a spy. No one’s actually that nice.” And Rex rolled his eyes, hard. “You like her Roger.” He said plain and drily. “No I don’t like this fortune cookie!” Roger outright yelled and his scars changed colour looking a purple-reddish now, making Rex laugh when Daniel went to answer his phone.

 

Nodding when the other man asked if they could go to the grocery store on their way to that potential employer of the former musician because Chen needed something Rex said:”No problem.” While already on his way to the counter of the thrift shop where Kathrin stood behind. And Roger turned to Daniel:”Who is Chen? Why is he calling you outside of work? You’re not cheating on him are you? He deserves the best. If you cheat on my friend I might break your neck.” and at this point Rex had long given up to convince Roger that Daniel and him weren’t a couple and he just let it be.

 

They waited for Daniel to pay for his suit when Kathrin thereafter looked to Roger and Rex. “You want to buy the hat?” she asked Roger and the man then realised that he still had that hat on his head and the flag around his shoulders and he blushed and started to stutter. “No... No...I...” he then mumbled “...it’s still 10$.” Inaudible and Rex took the hat from Roger’s head and placed it onto his own. “I wanted to buy this.” He said, paid for it, thanked Kathrin for the coffee and for later when she would keep Roger company and when he wanted to leave the store he saw the woman grab Roger by his wrist, leaning over the counter. “I’m American and my parents are actually Vietnamese and not Chinese cowboy.” With a wink and the man barked that it was the same thing, causing her to laugh when he left the shop after Rex who placed the hat back onto his friend’s head.

[♠[Rin]♠]

The brunette opened his mouth to say something, but as he started to think about the answers to his rhetorical question, he set a hand on his hip and looked to the side. “Yeah, okay.” His glance moved back towards the men. “Fair.” It was kind of true so there was nothing to disagree about. Roger told him where the apartment was and just the fact that he wasn’t sure where despite the description told him that it was too far away. William instantly brought up a few other arguments in favour of the apartment next to his. His friend then asked why he would need an escort but was understanding the reason instead of laughing at it, which was a bit of a surprise, but it was kindly appreciated. Daniel narrowed in eyebrows with a sigh when he was called a light-haired maiden. However, William instantly handled it himself, telling the younger one that the prostitute indeed wasn’t of bright hair colour and neither was he a woman. It was quite the parental behaviour William displayed when he was around Roger. And seeing that, Daniel couldn’t help but raise a hand to his mouth as he had to hold back a chuckle.

 

William said that he would call the ICE sooner than later on his neighbours. Something about it sounded a little off because he remembered being told that the blonde was planning on calling the ICE and not already keen to do it. Maybe something had happened between him and that family. Now that he knew the security guard better it wouldn’t surprise him.

The reaction to his statement about Roger not wanting to hear him sing triggered a reaction he should have seen coming. Daniel laughed when William asked him if he had used auto tune. “No, I didn’t. My talent and dedication to music are real. But that’s not what I mean,” he then added, “my lyrics are usually either bitterly sad or overly lovey-dovey and result in either pop or alternative rock and since neither of you seems to be type to listen to those I wouldn’t want to force that onto you.” A comment about his sister followed to which the former musician could only shrug his shoulders in response. “She was a teen, Will, don’t be so hard on her. Don’t get me wrong, I felt honoured by love letters and I really liked my fanbase a lot and I spent a lot of time with many of my fans too, but you can’t criticize a teen’s feelings. They are in the middle of growing up.”

Roger voiced a rather vulgar comment now that he heard that little story. “We’re not…” Daniel started but William was quick to take the younger man’s hat, press it into his face and push him backwards with his back meeting the clothes rack. “I’ll just… go.” Daniel smiled, pointing towards the changing cabin and following his words right after.

 

Roger showed him his crippled hands as he said that it was too late to become an artist or a painter. Daniel gave the younger man a thoughtful look. “I’ve heard of stabilizing gloves for holding brushes. But it’s really only a suggestion.”

William told him that the cup was filled with coffee, confirming Daniel’s assumption, and added that it was for him and that they didn’t order it. The punk girl had brought them. While Roger was raging about nobody being so kind naturally, Daniel took the cup into his hands and cost it out of politeness. He grimaced at the strong, bitter taste but gulped it down either way. It was a very kind gesture of that girl after all and kindness should never go to waste.

 

He put the cup back when his phone rang. He answered it and returned to inform both men about Chen’s request which William replied with positive answer to. Daniel quickly disappeared into the cabin again to finally change into his own clothes. He neatly folded the suit’s pieces and piled them on top of each other. With the pile in his hand, the phone back in his jean’s pocket with his wallet, he followed the other two to the counter. Roger turned to him however, asking who Chen was. Daniel was about to answer when the younger man voiced a threat towards him upon which the prostitute looked at him in shock, unsure if he was joking. He had never been accused of cheating and valued loyalty more than his own safety. Even if William and him weren’t actually a couple like Roger believed, it made no difference in the end. Daniel lifted his free hand in a defensive manner and smiled heartily. “Don’t you worry. Chen is a colleague of mine. He just really likes chocolate milk a lot and uses every opportunity to get one.”

 

Daniel paid for his suit and then witnessed how William bought Roger the hat. The temptation to comment on it was great but he saw the embarrassment in the younger man’s eyes because he apparently couldn’t have afforded it himself, therefore he only expressed his gratefulness to Kathrin for the coffee and left the rest of his thoughts unspoken.

The moment the trio stepped outside, Daniel took a deep breath. Fresh air, as fresh as it could be in this district, always triggered new energy in him. He really wasn’t the office type, he liked to do activities and he had enjoyed learning various kinds of dances during his career. The brothel didn’t offer any activity other than cleaning and obviously intercourse, though the latter was neither always enjoyable nor helpful at burning energy it an effective way. “Roger,” he then said, looking towards the younger man. “May I ask what your zodiac sign is?”

[-Hideki-]

Roger was actually quiet for a change, flustered, thankful and depressed at the same time by Rex having to save him out of an embarrassing situation in front of Kathrin by buying him those things. He would have indeed felt even worse if he had had to say that the thrift shop stuff was still too expensive for him but his disability money only covered the bare needs, such as food and housing and whether he had clothing didn’t even seem to matter so there especially was no money for something as unnecessary as a hat, much less necessary luxury as a glow that would help his hands to stay steady and stable so that he could draw or paint something. Then again Kathrin had seen his apartment already because she had entered it without being invited. And Roger’s apartment was.... well.... it was a roof over his head but unlike the apartment he had lived in before at the other side of the bridge that his wife now shared with that useless hippie while he was rotting in the ghetto.

Looking at Rex the man seemed to not think much about it though nor mind that he had had to buy a hat for 10$ and a flag for 2$ for Roger right now, he didn’t even mention it and how the young man with the dark brown hair knew the former Major General he wouldn’t mention it ever.

 

They just crossed the street to the grocery store when Daniel spoke, having a question for Roger and it was an odd one indeed. A question that made Rex turn his head to them a little weirded out even, seeing that Roger wasn’t any less surprised by the random question about zodiac signs. “Why? Are you a lesbian or what?” raging Roger asked and it made Rex let out a snorting laugh and the blond man was grinning, entering the shop, hearing his friend say. “Alright, I’ll tell you. Scorpio, for what it’s worth.” The man told him and it was clear that he wasn’t attaching any meaning to it. Roger might have been a conspiracy theorist but even he didn’t believe in esotericism. “What did you want to know this for now? What did this information tell you?” the scarred man wanted to know and the security guard couldn’t help but to be curious as to why he had asked that question as well.

 

When Rex remembered that the grocery store had a section with alcohol he told Roger to wait at the small bakery next to the entrance and despite all the protest of the twenty-six years old Rex insisted that he’d stay there and they could hear Roger huffing angrily until there was a loud rumbling of the man’s pumped stomach to hear when he smelled all the stuff from the bakery that was a lot too expensive for him to afford just like that. “Bring me some cookies at least!” Roger yelled after Rex hoping the security guard would not forget the cheap boring tasting butter cookies which he ate and could give Rex the money for.

 

Walking next to Daniel they headed to the cooling shelf where they got the chocolate milk Chen wanted them to buy and when Rex held that bottle in hand and his blue eyes behind the sunglasses examined the label on it he sighed a little melancholically. “Sebastian was addicted to that stuff too.” He spoke. “Not this one but self-made hot chocolate though.” Rex told Daniel. “No idea why because the stuff is obscenely sweet. And he even used to put marshmallows in it. It’s a mystery how he didn’t get a sugar shock really.” The man continued and there was a brief smile playing around his lips. “He even made me drink this stuff sometimes. I refused the marshmallows vigorously though.” He chuckled and handed Daniel the bottle. Rex rarely spoke about Sebastian. He thought about him a lot but he rarely ever articulated his name when he was sober because it always made him aware that Sebastian was gone, would never respond to that name again, and when he spoke about him then until now solely to David and Roger. But somehow... after that night....

 

It was probably odd and boring to Daniel that he was talking to him about his deceased ex-boyfriend in the middle of a bloody grocery store when they were grabbing some chocolate milk for Chen though. “When we were on vacation and not working his lips usually tasted sweet like this...” he said sounding a little off, shaking his head when he realised it. “Anyway...” he ironed his face so that he looked like usually again and his face appeared much less... soft, than in that moment.

 

“You should have rather kept the suit on right away since we could have gone directly to that new store then.” The blond focussed on their mission to get the other a job again, grabbing some random stuff from the sweets department for Roger – which turned out to be brownies – and headed over to the cashier, throwing the brownies onto the counter. “So, what have you planned now as the next step. Do you want to go back to the brothel already? Call those two other places beforehand?” he wanted to know, quickly greeted the bored, indifferent looking cashier who was chewing her gum with an open mouth.

[♠[Rin]♠]

The former musician tilted his head when Roger answered with the question if he was a lesbian. What did lesbians have to do with an astrological question? Had he missed something there? Was that a well-known joke? William was laughing at least.

A scorpio, Roger informed him, and subsequently he asked why – why and what information Daniel had gotten by knowing this now. The brunette clicked his tongue. “Making fun of my question and then asking why?” His lips curled into a grin. “Nah-ah.”

William left the young man outside of the grocery store for a reason Daniel couldn’t make out. He didn’t really care for it either because it wasn’t his business. Accompanied by the security guard, Daniel walked to the back of the store where the chilled goods were located. They found the chocolate milk quite fast and William took one of them into his hand. Daniel looked up as the blonde seemed to study the label. However, the silence was broken by him telling him another fact about Sebastian. The lieutenant had apparently liked chocolate milk a lot, he had even added marshmallows. William himself, he said, hadn’t understood how a person could drink so much sugar and Daniel couldn’t help but chuckle at the comment about his former lover not getting a sugar shock.

 

“I knew someone who was the complete opposite but followed the same scheme,” Daniel said. “Black coffee, bit into lemons, always bought food and drinks that were really bitter. There was probably something you liked to do and Sebastian didn’t understand. But that makes others interesting, doesn’t it? People mostly follow some kind of system when it comes to personality traits because we are brought up learning to follow social norms, but when it comes to personal preferences, there is no way to fake it, change it or cheat, so they are unique. And to be honest, isn’t it gorgeous to find something about a person you like that throws you off completely? Makes you wonder? It’s like a little surprise. An unexpected Easter egg.”

Daniel took the bottle into his hands. As he heard the little vacation story, he couldn’t help but narrow his eyebrows a little. That change in expression, even with the sunglasses on, was iconic by now, he had seen it on the blonde before, but he chose to react with a smile rather than worry to it. “That’s a nice memory. And in the least commercial way possible, it would make a good song plot.”

 

“Yeah,” he confirmed that he could have kept the suit on. “But they are still busy finishing the interior fittings. If anything, the owner said, he is going to start job interviews in the following weeks. We can still take a look if you are up for it, of course, just to see the state it is currently in. But I’ve brought the ads of the other two jobs with me, so if you like, we can go to one of those instead.”

They grabbed the cookies for Roger and went for the counter. There, William asked what Daniel’s plan was. The brunette nodded towards the cashier, greeting her, before he pondered the question a little. “I’ll call the other two places first,” he decided.

He paid for the chocolate milk, taking the change and putting it back into his wallet, which he folded close and returned into his back pocket. He waited for William to pay and then accompanied him back out. “The other two places are a small library down the road and the U12 Club in…” Daniel frowned as he tried to remember the exact address, but he gave it up after a few seconds. He fished a folded piece of paper out of his jean’s pocket, opened it and read the name out loud: “East main street. House number five. I have no idea where that is, but Google Maps said it wasn’t far away.”

 

Joining Roger again, Daniel positioned the chocolate milk bottle in between his arm and his chest and pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Excuse me for a bit,” he said out of politeness to both men and took a few steps to the side. He disliked making a call in public, but it wouldn’t be possible to do it at the brothel without anyone noticing which he wanted to prevent. He didn’t want them know. Not yet.

The library was the first one he chose. The husky voice of an old man answered the call. Daniel was barely done introducing himself and explaining the reason for calling when the man cut his words off and declared the requirements and his expectations which he strictly wanted him to meet. “Yes, Sir,” was all that Daniel could answer in between the man’s endless speech. When he was finally done, the brunette only came so far as to thank the man for the offer and information and was in the middle to wish him a good day when he hung up. Daniel lowered the phone with a shrug of his shoulders. That was quick.

Next was the club. He dialled the number and the voice a girl so happy answered that it made him wonder of she was sober. Once more he explained why he called, adding all the information about his person needed and received a rather positive response. That call took a bit longer because the girl asked him a few questions considering his education and even though he didn’t have much to offer, she still gave him a chance for a job interview. “Thank you and have a nice day,” he ended the call, packing the phone back into his pocket.

 

He returned to Roger and William and politely waited for them to finish their talk, before he looked up towards the security guard. “Are you busy on the upcoming Friday? The owner of the library wants me to show up in the morning and the secretary of the club said I’d be fine showing up during lunch break which lasts from 12 am and 1 pm.”