FAKE: The Advantages of Culture (G)
Summary: Dee will take hope where he can get it. Even a museum.
Notes: Taline requested Dee, Ryo and the Museum of Modern Art, so this is for you. The painting is loosely (very loosely!) based on The Bather.
THE ADVANTAGES OF CULTURE
*
Dee will take hope where he can get it.
Usually, it's from how Ryo reacts to him. Not the yelling: he gets that from everybody. It's the way Ryo melts into Dee's kisses, the way he watches Dee's back as intensely as he yells at Dee afterwards for whatever stupid reckless stunt Dee pulled that made his back need watching. But mostly the kisses. It's taking Ryo longer and longer to push Dee away. Hell, a couple of times now the only thing that's saved Ryo's virtue is Dee's gentlemanly refusal to take advantage of a sleeping man. (Yes, it was gentlemanly. Bikky can shut up about it any time.)
But this time, it wasn't on the job, and it wasn't a kiss. Hell, Ryo wasn't even touching him.
The point of the bet was to win a kiss, one he didn't have to steal, one where Ryo wouldn't even think about pulling back. Except then he lost. How was Dee supposed to know that Jim had gone vegetarian years ago? More to the point, how did Ryo know? So instead of getting a kiss, Dee had to wake up early that Saturday and go to the Museum of Modern Art. It was enough to make a grown man whimper. Even if it did mean getting to spend an afternoon with Ryo, it was going to be an afternoon of total boredom, spent staring at paint splatters or lines or melting clocks, with maybe a few minutes of staring at Ryo instead when his partner wasn't looking.
He was wrong. Well, partially wrong, anyway. Sort of. The museum did have paint splatters and lines and melting clocks (or stuff like melting clocks, anyway), but they also had furniture (who the hell paid good money to come see chairs?), and paintings that actually looked like something. And statues.
It was down near the bottom of the museum -- second floor, maybe -- when Ryo slowed down. He'd been doing this all afternoon, so Dee opened his mouth to say something smart-ass about whatever Ryo was looking at now.
He followed Ryo's gaze, and shut his mouth. It was a painting of a young man, naked, stepping forward out of water and grinning out at them. And Ryo -- Ryo was smiling too, absently, eyes unfocused like he was remembering something. Dee wished (again) that he could read Ryo's mind.
"It's nice," he said after what felt like a long pause.
Ryo didn't yell. Instead, he transferred that soft smile to Dee himself, and said, "He looks like you."
"Uh, thanks." He didn't see the resemblance himself. But if Ryo was seeing him in old paintings -- especially naked old paintings -- that had to mean something good.
It wasn't much But Dee would take hope where he could get it.
-end-
Notes: Taline requested Dee, Ryo and the Museum of Modern Art, so this is for you. The painting is loosely (very loosely!) based on The Bather.
THE ADVANTAGES OF CULTURE
*
Dee will take hope where he can get it.
Usually, it's from how Ryo reacts to him. Not the yelling: he gets that from everybody. It's the way Ryo melts into Dee's kisses, the way he watches Dee's back as intensely as he yells at Dee afterwards for whatever stupid reckless stunt Dee pulled that made his back need watching. But mostly the kisses. It's taking Ryo longer and longer to push Dee away. Hell, a couple of times now the only thing that's saved Ryo's virtue is Dee's gentlemanly refusal to take advantage of a sleeping man. (Yes, it was gentlemanly. Bikky can shut up about it any time.)
But this time, it wasn't on the job, and it wasn't a kiss. Hell, Ryo wasn't even touching him.
The point of the bet was to win a kiss, one he didn't have to steal, one where Ryo wouldn't even think about pulling back. Except then he lost. How was Dee supposed to know that Jim had gone vegetarian years ago? More to the point, how did Ryo know? So instead of getting a kiss, Dee had to wake up early that Saturday and go to the Museum of Modern Art. It was enough to make a grown man whimper. Even if it did mean getting to spend an afternoon with Ryo, it was going to be an afternoon of total boredom, spent staring at paint splatters or lines or melting clocks, with maybe a few minutes of staring at Ryo instead when his partner wasn't looking.
He was wrong. Well, partially wrong, anyway. Sort of. The museum did have paint splatters and lines and melting clocks (or stuff like melting clocks, anyway), but they also had furniture (who the hell paid good money to come see chairs?), and paintings that actually looked like something. And statues.
It was down near the bottom of the museum -- second floor, maybe -- when Ryo slowed down. He'd been doing this all afternoon, so Dee opened his mouth to say something smart-ass about whatever Ryo was looking at now.
He followed Ryo's gaze, and shut his mouth. It was a painting of a young man, naked, stepping forward out of water and grinning out at them. And Ryo -- Ryo was smiling too, absently, eyes unfocused like he was remembering something. Dee wished (again) that he could read Ryo's mind.
"It's nice," he said after what felt like a long pause.
Ryo didn't yell. Instead, he transferred that soft smile to Dee himself, and said, "He looks like you."
"Uh, thanks." He didn't see the resemblance himself. But if Ryo was seeing him in old paintings -- especially naked old paintings -- that had to mean something good.
It wasn't much But Dee would take hope where he could get it.
-end-