Just another man in the field [1/15]

[jeongbro]

It had been a little over a week since Henry had heard from Goodnight, and he had to admit, he was a little bit worried about that. They didn't need to talk every day; it was nothing like that. But he knew that holidays could be stressful for people--they were stressful for him--and New Years had been an event. He'd heard from Goodnight after that, but his last substantial conversation had been about a week ago, and Henry was worried he might have drunk himself into a stupor.

Or worse.

So he was trying not to think of worst case scenarios on his way over to Goodnight's apartment. Worst case scenarios didn't help anyone, and especially not someone with high stress levels like Goodnight Robicheaux.

Henry reached the apartment and knocked a couple time, knuckles sharp on the door. "Mr Goodnight? You alive in there?"

He heard nothing. He waited. He knocked again. "Mr Goodnight?" Maybe if he called him by surname Goodnight would come to the door faster. Henry knew what it was like to cringe every time someone mangled your name, and Goodnight's was even more complicated than Henry's was. He was preparing to knock a third time when he heard rustling inside the apartment, and the scuttle of dog nails on the flooring. Henry put on a bright smile in anticipation of the door opening.

And open it did, but that wasn't Goodnight Robicheaux. The man standing in the door was the same height as Henry--and Goodnight--wide in the shoulders and slim in the waist, with short, wispy facial hair and ink-black hair falling to his chin. He was colored, almost to a T, in ways that Henry was familiar with, because he had the exact same coloration. Henry's smile didn't falter.

This was Billy.

Henry was just opening his mouth to say something in greeting when Billy's face transformed from vague confusion to what could only be described as the picture-definition of pissed off. Henry had never seen someone's face change so quickly. And then Billy slammed the door in his face.

Inside the apartment, Billy left his hand on the door for a moment, then turned to shout toward the bedroom. "Lucien Eugene--why is there a young Korean boy at your door?!"

Comments

[goodnight_robicheaux]

"Two thirds of the company here is far from polite and the other third is a teenager that has probably heard worse, if my younger years taught me anything." He winked at poor Henry before he hid behind a sip of his coffee.

Goodnight smirked at Billy's nudging. And when he looked at him it was with nothing but adoration. God, he'd missed this man, the easy banter with him. The way Billy tried not to smile when he was amused.

[jeongbro]

Henry watched them, doctoring his coffee. He flushed a little bit at the implication of their intimacy, the teasing of it; Goodnight hadn't given him details, but he'd been awful plain about their first encounter, and Henry appreciated the attempt at discretion on Billy's behalf.

"I think I'm fine without the finer details," he said, crossing back over to the other side of the counter and trying not to watch them too intently. It was just--well. He didn't think he'd seen Goodnight this happy in the month he'd been in Darrow.

[goodnight_robicheaux]

It took Goodnight a moment to respond; he was lost in looking at Billy, everything in his expression soft and warm.

"Probably for the best," he said after Henry's comment finally sank in. He made himself look away, gazing fondly down at his coffee instead.

"Apparently his apartment is right down the hall. This place has an odd sense of humor."

[jeongbro]

As subtly as he could manage, Henry pulled his phone out of his pocket and snapped a quick picture o the two of them while Goodnight and Billy were looking at each other. He set his phone down, but Billy was already staring at him, some sort of judgment around his eyes.

"Darrow's a bit odd like that, yes," Henry said with a soft laugh. "The only other now-Darrow Korean in town lives in my building. That was a nice irony."

[goodnight_robicheaux]

"Darrow's a bit odd in more ways than I care to think about." But Goodnight supposed he should be more grateful; whatever this place was, it brought Billy back to him. When Billy put a hand on the counter, Goodnight lightly brushed his fingers before his touch fell away. Stolen moments, stolen touches. They were in a private, domestic space but they also had company.

They had been negotiating these spaces since they became close.

"Has it really been a week?" he asked at last, looking at Billy like he was appalled that they were capable of being that wrapped up in each other for so long. Goodnight hadn't thought to count days, only the minutes, seconds between every kiss or touch they'd shared since Billy arrived.

[assassinwithahairpin]

Billy wasn't entirely sure what Henry was doing over there with that little contraption of his, but he gave him a look for it nonetheless, and Henry looked, at least for the moment, apologetic. Goodnight hadn't seen. That was, maybe, for the best.

He sipped his coffee. "It was the eighth, when I got out," he said.

Helpfully, Henry chimed in, "Today is the fifteenth. So, yes. Seven whole days. What a successful reunion, no?"

[goodnight_robicheaux]

Goodnight made a face, and maybe he warmed slightly at Henry's comment. A week. Well, it had been worth it. "Successful enough to make you think I might be dead," he drawled, smiling none the less.

Mercy Beau decided at that moment to appear and sit against Henry's leg. Goodnight shook his head a bit. At least once during the week the dog had woken him from an unpleasant, anxiety-ridden dream, almost exactly at the same time Billy had rolled over to do the same.

"If I had thought it through more, I ought to have called you to take Beau out. Wouldn't have had to leave at all." He smirked behind his next sip of coffee.

[jeongbro]

Henry and Billy both groaned a little, though for two entirely separate reasons. Henry ended up laughing, unable to hear whatever it was that Billy leaned over to say into Goodnight's ear. He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know what it was that Billy had said, given that he felt the need to whisper it in the first place.

"I think I'll just thank God that I didn't interrupt you two in the middle of it all. You both made a good attempt at being dressed. I'm impressed."

[goodnight_robicheaux]

Goodnight tipped his head toward Billy and whatever he said drew another smile. He nudged Billy before turning his attention back to Henry.

"I don't think either of us would have been inclined to answer the door in that case. Modesty is our virtue." He at least managed to say it without smiling too much. "You said it was up to you to plan your next date, didn't you? Don't distract me from your gossip, Henry."

[jeongbro]

"Oh, there's hardly gossip," Henry said, looking into his coffee and trying to not flush. Then--and he still didn't think it qualified as gossip--he said, "We went for a hike, and the New Years, apparently, was a second time. And he's decided that I get to pick the third. I think, before that, he and I need to have a discussion about what qualifies as a date, because I've taken him out a couple other times, but those were before he asked if he could take me out?"

Henry sighed, long suffering, and looked up at the ceiling of Goodnight's apartment. Behind him, Mercutio Beau whined softly in agreement. "Things are so much easier when it's just casual sex."

[goodnight_robicheaux]

That last comment startled a laugh out of Goodnight. "You are not wrong," he drawled. "But the alternative isn't so bad either, even if it does take some effort."

He looked at Billy, full of soft fondness and adoration. If Billy had not taken the chance, Goodnight might not have ever made his own feelings known. He had seen too many terrible things happen to risk that shred of unspoken hope. The chance had been worth it, of course. But then, Billy was brave in a way that Goodnight no longer saw in himself; in a way that he might never have had in him in the first place.

[jeongbro]

Henry snuck another picture of the two of them while Goodnight was making that besotted face. This time, Billy didn't seem to notice, though that seemed to be because he was making a similarly besotted face right back. Henry was fairly certain he was melting.

"If this is what being with someone for a decade does," Henry murmured with a soft, fond smile on his face, his tone just a little teasing, "I suppose I can get used to dating."

[goodnight_robicheaux]

Goodnight took the risk. How could he not? He leaned close, pressed a gentle kiss to Billy's mouth because he was there, and he could. They were in a private place, and of all people he knew Henry would not get them into any trouble. He loved Billy, and the way he was looking at him just then, and he wanted to kiss him.

When he drew back it was with a lingering smile. "It's certainly worth the suffering of navigating awkward social situations in your youth," he assured Henry.

[jeongbro]

They kissed. Henry felt like he was intruding on a moment. He looked down at his phone and his coffee and let them have it. Discretion was a premium he could afford, though he wanted to assure them both that Darrow was a kind place, that people wouldn't hurt them here.

He found, though, that he couldn't guarantee that. The city itself, nevermind the people, was strange and sometimes cruel. Henry had been here for eight months, almost on the nose, and he still worried for those things he was most familiar with--hate, cruelty, disdain--because that was the Darrow he'd first walked into, within a week.

Goodnight spoke, and Henry looked up again, smiling softly. Billy was looking at him, worried and soft and curious. Henry intensified the smile. "I am exceedingly good at navigating social situations, thank you very much. It's romantic ones that I have no idea what I'm doing with."

[goodnight_robicheaux]

"The first part of romance is a social situation," he pointed out.

He lingered close to Billy now, their bodies touching comfortably, familiarly. Not as intimate as they could be, but it felt nice to be that way in front of another person. "You've already said as much, all that talk of trying to sort out a date."

[assassinwithahairpin]

The closeness settled something in Billy's chest, something that he hadn't realized was piqued. Henry was discrete in being around them, seemed a smart boy; Goodnight was comfortable with him, and so Billy let himself relax.

He slid his hand on the counter, behind Goodnight's back. He could see the answer in Henry's eyes even before he asked the question, so he didn't phrase it as a question, "He's your first companion, this--Virginian."

Henry looked puzzled a moment, then flushed, and nodded.

[goodnight_robicheaux]

Goodnight smiled when he realized Billy had relaxed, when he felt the slide of his arm behind him, closing the space between them. It felt good to be able to relax this way in front of someone else.

A smile tugged his mouth when Billy got right to the heart of the matter. He was good at that, and Henry's reaction proved his aim had been dead on. It almost always was.

"That makes the dance a little harder," he agreed. Billy was not the first man Goodnight had taken up with, but their relationship was easily the longest he'd ever had, and the happiest. "But you'll get it, Henry. Gansey seems just as unsure as you are." Even if his observations had been brief.

[jeongbro]

Henry watched them, soft and observant but trying to be unobtrusive about it; there was only so much you could do to be unobtrusive and still curious. The steady relaxation of the both of them was reassuring; the casualness of the conversation. They trusted him to see them like this.

What an honor.

"More," Henry finally observed, remembering that he was being spoken to. He poked at his phone a little bit, a comforting distraction from his constantly wandering thoughts. "He's only been with girls before. I've at least had...experiences with boys."

[goodnight_robicheaux]

"I'm not sure the fundamentals of approach are that different," Goodnight said, though he had to consider that. Where he was from there were some intense differences, if only because he couldn't have ever courted a man with any kind of public knowledge. Those relationships were necessarily private, and he was beginning to trust the idea that here, that might not be the case. It was a habit - a protective instinct - that was hard to let go of. He'd always known that bad things could happen to him, and worse things could happen to Billy.

"I suppose discovering that feeling for the first time is always a bit startling," he admitted. "If he grew up anything like I did."

[jeongbro]

"His mother is a senator," Henry proclaimed, though he didn't get into the politics of it because he couldn't, really, remember the timeline of the American political shift. Saying she was a republican, he thought, would probably sound like a good thing--and, if Henry were honest, he'd looked over her fiscal responsibility platform and it did seem fairly strong. But Senator Gansey was also known to toe the party line, and that meant a lot of things that threatened people in Henry Cheng, and now her only son.

"Virginia's still fairly conservative," he continued after a thought. "Though the university cities in the valleys aren't such bad places. Outside those, though. I think Gansey jut grew up with the ideas of what proper is."

[goodnight_robicheaux]

The title certainly meant something, regardless of the political leanings behind new party lines. "I imagine the children of politicians rarely live much of their own lives. One has to make sure the family is beyond the reach of scandal."

And if this Gansey was the son of a senator, whatever party she represented, Goodnight imagined that no one would take it well that she had a son that might like other boys. "Given that we fought an entire war hellbent on not changing, I imagine the majority of the south has remained fairly conservative." He would be shocked if he was wrong. He was still, tentatively, catching up on the history he'd missed.

[jeongbro]

"Major cities tend to lean more liberally," Henry stated, a quiet fact. But it was the sort of liberal lean that was mostly inexplicable, when surrounded by conservatism. "Henrietta was near a lot of old coal mines; even being so near some of the college towns, most people were conservative because they thought it might be better for job prospects."

Henry wasn't really sure how to explain the modern political climate, not only in terms of explaining it to two people that had lived in a time that, historically, was viewed as being more close-minded, but to someone specifically that had fought in the Civil War.

So he laughed a little and flapped a hand. "I'm a Korean-Chinese who lived in Canada before this. I don't really know very much about it."

[goodnight_robicheaux]

"I am catching up on my history, son. You don't need to try to explain the intricacies of modern politics. That cities might be more liberal leaning than more rural crowds does not surprise me for a moment. And I imagine certain attitudes below the Mason Dixon have not changed all that radically."

Goodnight sounded vaguely ashamed of that last point, but from what he was gleaning from history books it was a fact. Places still taking pride in the battle flag, flying it like they'd never lost the war. Ridiculous.

He lifted an eyebrow when Henry tried to get dismissive. "I'm not sure I beileve that, but I won't press you. I have time and I have books."

[assassinwithahairpin]

"Good, you can fill us both in on what we've missed," Billy said, quiet, toward his coffee cup more than it was specifically out loud.

Henry seemed to think this little statement was particularly amusing; it was probably the delivery more than anything else. But he laughed, just a momentary outburst of joy, before he meekly lowered his head. But Billy could see he was still smiling.

Easily slipping into Korean, Billy teased Henry for finding the joke funny. Henry teased him back for making a dad joke. It got a chuckle out of Billy at least.

[goodnight_robicheaux]

Goodnight rolled his eyes and nudged against Billy. He heard that.

"Oh I don't like this at all," he declared once the two of them were going at it in Korean. "Gonna need to start taking lessons so I'll know when the pair of you are talking about me."