Gaiaonline fanfic. - Fifteen; Window
Title: Fifteen
Chapter title: Chapter 4: Window
Fandom: Gaiaonline.com
Rating/pairing: SFW, Teen - Liam/Ian
Warnings/spoilers: NA
Word count: 3, 465
Summary: Liam/Ian. Slash. Fifteen one-shots.
"I look ridiculous." Liam grumbled to himself as he smoothed down wrinkles in his costume. The flimsy material did absolutely nothing for his manly figure and he could say with all clarity and truth that pink and red were defiantly not his colors.
The shirt was Sam's idea; she had convinced him that the loose shirt that tied at his waist with a pink rope with hearts adorning all over in a horrid pattern that made him cringe was a good way to blend into the Valentine's Day theme. The pants weren't much better. Felt like a second skin, tight enough that he could still feel his legs but the shade of red kind of made him wish it would cut off his circulation so he wouldn't have to see it anymore.
"Quit your whining and hurry up; it's going to be midnight soon." Sam came up behind him, her barely contained giggles making him more nervous and fidgety with his outfit.
"I feel like a horror comedy."
"Oh but you look so much worse; much-much-worse." Sam chuckled, handing him his heart shaped mask. "Don't let anyone ever convince you red's a good color for you."
"Thanks." Liam frowned at her. This was big for him and he was nervous enough to feel sick, the feeling in his chest was making it hard to breath but he couldn't let himself back out from this.
She smiled and turned him to face her. "Listen to me, you can do this-he will love this, believe me."
"… Really?"
"God, yes," Sam rolled her eyes, she may be somewhat new to the area but it wasn't hard to pin Ian down as a hopeless romantic. "He's going to fall for you the very first day."
Liam smiled a little hesitantly, "You really think so?"
"Either that or he'll at least forgive you for only remembering him as 'Hat Guy' for the better part of four years. Now," She motioned to the clock hanging from his wall by the exit. "It's time for you to leave. You can do this."
Liam took in a deep breath and nodded, slipping on his mask he gave a thumbs up to his friend before leaving, his chest still a tight knot of worry.
Liam felt the dread wash over him as he took in the size of Ian's shop and home. There were so many windows! He didn't even know where to start; he couldn't even begin to guess which one may be the man's bedroom window as opposed to any other window; who needed that many windows?
He stomped down on the panic that was beginning to form in his chest as he pulled out a grappling hook tied to the end of rope what was dyed pink from his red satchel that Sam bitched about him needing and set about trying to find the one window he needed.
"I need to start setting simpler plans…" he grumbled when, for the twentieth window was too dark to see in. He was about ready to give up and crawl back to Sam's shop and mope around until she got sick of him, that is, if she didn't kill him first for coping out first.
"Alright Rufus," Liam heard Ian yelling down at his cat-Liam cringed as he remembered his first exchange with Rufus-from the top of the stairs and had a mini scare when the window he was hanging in front of lit up and exposed the room was a small bathroom. He scrambled to the side of the window, praying that he wasn't caught peeping into Ian's bathroom.
That would put a small damper on things, he thought as he ran his fingers over the soft rose petals.
Chancing a peek through the window again, Liam found that Ian had his back to him and was still standing at the door; he was safe for now at least.
"I'm just going to take a bath and then I'll be off to bed." Ian chuckled shyly and Liam couldn't look away as the dark haired man step back into the room, shutting the door firmly-not locking the door, Liam couldn't help but notice-and proceeded to strip his clothes.
Liam shot back against the side of the window after he caught a large portion of naked pale skin; his back pressed firmly against the side of the house. He was trying to will away the part of him that kept telling him to look and watch the other man but he couldn't afford the outcome if he was caught.
He wanted Ian to like him, not think him a creep and a peeping-tom. Plus, Rufus would shred him alive if that ever happened.
Making up his mind, Liam reached over and placed the rose he had been holding up right to lean against the window sill; hoping that it would catch Ian's eye.
"Mm," The soft moan from inside the room had Liam forgetting all about his promise not to look and he was straining to see what caused such a noise from the other man.
He just caught a slight glimpse of movement off to the side in the shower, the outline of Ian's body just barely made out from behind the fogged glass doors before he found that he was falling with a slight shriek and a loud thud of his fall.
Before he even thought of what might or might not be broken he was up and running away hoping no one saw him at his absolute worst.
Rufus was up in arms after that first day of February. He was livid with the thought of someone creeping on his friend in such a manner and he hadn't known someone was there. Ian had brushed it off with a smile and showed Rufus the flower he had found on the bathroom window sill.
Rufus loved Ian, he really did. He was the best friend a talking cat could ask for but he was way too trusting and naive. Even the knowledge of someone perv'ing on him as he was taking a bath wasn't enough to extinguish the excitement he got when he saw the small rose sitting there nicely by the window.
For the next twelve days Ian found a small rose on his window sill every morning, it was a different place each time but they were always there every day.
There wasn't anything to suspicious about the flowers, just a regular red roses with a pink ribbon tied around the stem with and small note that said nothing about who was leaving these flowers for him. Just a sloppily drawing heart that looked like it was made with crayon. It made Ian's heart melt on contact.
Rufus had barked out his disregard for the flowers, already assuming the worst intentions of the person leaving presents for his Ian and vowed to double his efforts in patrolling the store at night to figure out who this pest really was and what he was playing at.
After the failed attempts by Rufus, Ian had started too asked around-he, without thinking, asked some of the customers if they knew anything about it and got starry eyed responses and suddenly the news got out that he had himself a secret admirer.
This stunned him even though he knew he had it coming with his big mouth, he didn't even think of the person as a 'secret admirer'-he'd actually forgotten all about Valentine's Day. At least now he had more eyes and ears open for any connections at all for the identity of this person, it was the only thing holding him together in this chaos that he brought on himself.
On the sixth day there was a sighting of a masked person dressed in an awful eye-sore of a costume climbing up the side of his shop around midnight. They were calling him 'Hearts' for the patterns on his shirt and for the shape of his mask.
Ian was sort of creeped out by the mask person but he couldn't find it in himself to discourage the person, he had grown quite a soft spot for whoever was leaving him these gifts and the roses were kind of nice to wake up to, so he left it alone.
But he always remembered check to see if he locked all his windows at night before he went to bed. Rufus doubled checked for him.
It was all over the forums the next day and he was getting hoards of mail from people that claimed to be the admirer or speculating this 'Hearts' person was and their speculations were all over the place.
That is, until the next sighting where they found out Hearts was a guy-Ian could only guess how that observation came to be known.
The users were in an uproar, the creepy mails and forums post seem to be never ending and growing in numbers; it was all everyone was talking about.
"GAY HEARTS FOR IAN" and "DRAWING GAY HEARTS ALL OVER IAN" or "WHO ELSE TOTALLY KNEW IAN WAS GAY?" -they got scary sometimes and more often than not, embarrassing. Ian stop visiting the forums after the petitions wars started and had Rufus go through his mail, asking him to screen his messages for him.
This whole Valentine's Day thing was getting tiring but he sort of was still hoping the window sill flowers continued.
Liam was freaking out after the first sighting of him, he had almost called the whole thing off and went to hid away in his shop but Sam had slapped some sense into him, forcing him to see it as a good thing.
He hadn't told her the whole truth about the first day when he had come back from Ian's shop covered in grass stains and bruises. Thankfully it seems that not even the users knew about that piece of information-he was sure he'd be run out of the community if they ever did.
The second sighting had been a lot harder for him to be convinced, but Ian hadn't said anything about it so at least it wasn't bad news… or so he was telling himself.
"Liam, I swear, get over there and stop freaking out." Sam threw a wrench at him. "It's the day before Valentine's Day and you need to get your ass in gear."
"But-"another wrench went flying by his head.
"No! You are not going to cop-out now." She took in a deep calming breath. "We talked about this. You need to make yourself known to him."
Liam took in a deep breath. "You're right."
"Liam," Sam smiled dropping her last wrench to the floor before bringing him into a hug. "When you came to me with this I thought it was one of the dumbest ideas you've ever had." -Liam cringed back-"But, probably one of your best attempts at courting."
"Thanks Sam." Liam rolled his eyes but wrapped his arms around her. "You always know what to say to make me feel worse and better about myself at the same time."
She punched his shoulder. "You love it you prick."
"Right, right," He waved her off before moving into her spare room to change into his horrid costume. Really, he was pretty sure that one way or another he was going to be happy when this was over. Whether or not it went the way he wanted, at least he never had to wear this hideous outfit ever again.
Liam had tried to envision the first time Ian would fully see him in his costume would go. It would usually start out pretty normal and okay before his pessimistic mind would take over and he would have to cut his thought process off before he copped out of it completely.
He and Sam had planned this almost perfectly; she would distract Rufus with small amounts of bite-sized fresh fish while he would climb up to Ian's bedroom window.
He had finally found out which one it was over the course of the weeks, stumbled upon it while trying to get away from Rufus's patrolling. It was a simple decorated room; a bed, side table with an ordinary lamp and an old book that looked way to extensive for Liam's taste and a closet.
After a couple weeks Liam had found a pattern in the dark hair shopkeeper's routine. Nearing nine thirty ((UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada) time) Ian would slip into his room after his bath or shower-usually depended on the stress of the day-and would curl up in his bed to read for an hour and then would at exactly ten thirty he would yawn and turn the lights out to sleep.
As if on cue, Ian walked in to his room clutching a towel around his waist and Ian almost choked on his tongue. Ian was one of those people who would bring clothes into the bathroom with him before his shower, he must have forgotten, which put a whole different spin on what Ian was about to do. But, damn, did Ian look good in nothing.
Liam cursed as he flopped his head back into the house, cringing when he heard the noise it made. "Crap."
"Hello?" Liam heard the hesitant steps getting closer to the window. "Is-is someone there?"
Panicking but not wanting his plans go to waste Liam swung out from the side of the window and waved sheepishly from his view point. Ian just stared, not making any movement or noise, just stared at Liam like he could see through him and down to his very soul.
"U-um…" Liam felt heat stain his cheeks as he held up a little flower for Ian to see. "For you."
"Liam?" Ian took a step forward and Liam felt his stomach drop. "Liam, is that you?"
"You-you recognize me?"
There was a pregnant pause where Liam thought he could literally feel his chest eat though this skin and burst open with suspense. It was killing him.
"Uh-…"
"Idiot!" Ian laughed; unlocking the window and pushing it open for Liam to crawl through. "What are you thinking-what are you wearing?"
Liam raised an eyebrow, eyeing Ian's own (lack of) clothing. "I could ask you the same thing." He purred in response, he was good at playful slightly tasteless flirting, out of everything he could do this with as much as ease as he could reprogram a robot.
"I-I, uh…" Ian wrapped the towel tighter around himself, shrinking as if he just realized what he was not currently wearing and was embarrassed by it.
"You should dress this way more often." Liam leered. "Unlike me, red is a good color on you."
Excitement bubbled through his veins when he saw Ian's blush all over his body. He wanted to touch; his fingers itched with wanting to see if Ian's skin felt as soft and firm as it looked. "Would you like it if I turned around while you get dressed?"
Ian looked at him if he was skeptical, but nodded just the same. When he turned around again, he was slightly disappointed but smiled when Ian had asked him if he wanted anything to drink.
"No, no thanks. I think it's better if we stay up here and talk for a bit." At Ian's confused frown he continued to explain. "Rufus doesn't like me as it is. I don't even want to know what he'll do to me if he finds out I was the one that-"he cut himself off before he could say 'peeked on you while you were taking a bath'
"-that left you the flowers." He finished lamely.
"Ah, yes." Ian smiled shyly. "He can be a bit overprotective sometimes."
"Overprotective is putting it nicely." Rufus is downright rabid in some cases-most of those cases involving Ian somehow.
There was another pause where Ian sat on his bed and indicated for Liam to follow, sitting beside the other shopkeeper.
"So," Ian began in a small voice. "Why are-did you do all this?"
Liam laughed a little, a slight blush coating his face. "Would you believe me if I told you this was all a ploy to get you to be my Valentine?"
"You did all this just so you could ask me on a date for Valentine's Day?" The shock was clearly written all over Ian's face.
"You have to admit, this makes it a lot harder for you to say no."
Before Liam could react, Ian had closed his hands around his face and brought the other man into a kiss. Liam was surprised, not complaining, but surprised as he deepened the kiss with his hand running along the back of Ian's neck.
Ian was a shy kisser; he was hesitant at first and at every turn. When Liam had run his tongue along his bottom lip Ian had let out a breathless moan, which sent shocks of pleasure down Liam's body, and slowly opened his mouth letting Liam coax him into a sort of tongue war.
It wasn't what he had been expecting, maybe a small peck of the lips if he was really lucky-it was really all he was hoping for. So, when he slowly crept his hand up under Ian's shirt he was giving him time to realize what was happening and the choice whether to continue down this path or to wait.
Ian had taken the initiative and slipped his shirt over his head and pulled Liam's mask off his face. "I can't believe you did all this."
Liam had to admit he was a little over whelmed with Ian's responses. He wasn't exactly in any sort of concealing clothing, everything that he was feeling was right out there for Ian to see or touch as it seemed to be.
"Yeah, honestly, me either.' He croaked out, pulling Ian back into another heated kiss. "Took, months to plan and-"
"Ian!" Rufus' shout rang out in the bedroom door stopping the two occupants as if frozen to the spot. "Ian is someone in there with you? Are you alright? It's not that peeping-tom 'Hearts' is it? He's not forcing himself on you is he?"
"Hey!" Liam shouted at the door. "That first time was an accident!"
Ian looked at Liam in horror, shaking his head fast and indicated him to stay quiet with a finger held up to his lips. Lips that were puffy and bruised looking, Liam couldn't help but notice with a satisfied sigh.
"… Liam?" The said shopkeeper jumped in horror as the cat screeched his name through the door. "What are you doing in there with Ian? Ian! What is he doing in there with you?"
There was a pause as Liam could just feel the tension rise and leek through the bottom of the door. "You're the 'Hearts' guy!"
"Now-now Rufus," Liam stuttered, looking to Ian for help. "I really didn't mean to peek in on you in the bathroom that first time. I-I just-you have so many windows! I didn't know which one was your bedroom and you were just there and taking off your clothes and I just couldn't stop myself from taking just a small peek. But I didn't see anything I swear! The rope snapped before that-not that I wanted to! I just-"
He was cut off by Ian's hand. "I get it Liam, it's okay, I forgive you."
Liam took a deep breath, relaxing slightly back into the bed. "Really?"
"Really, really." Ian smiled and leaned down to give him a small kiss before backing away from the bed to the door.
"Rufus?" Ian asked, opening the door to see a fuming cat; tail twitching back in forth in jerky swipes. Leaning down, Ian ran his hand along the cats back as he continued to glare daggers at the intruder still cowering on the bed. "Would you mind running the store by yourself tomorrow?"
"Why?"
"I, uh," Ian blushed looking over at Liam. "I have a date."
Rufus was shocked to say the least. "You did all this just to ask for a date? Really?"
"I-"Liam started to weekly defend himself.
"Rufus." Ian chastised and the cat sighed; defeated.
"Alright, I'll man the store tomorrow for you."
Ian made a happy noise and picked the cat up to cuddle him, sure he would do anything to make Ian happy but it didn't stop him from showing of his dangerously sharp claws to Liam. All ten of them ready to rip out his throat if he ever did anything to hurt his friend.
The other three chapters can be found here : http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5313609/1/Fifteen
Thank you, Quincy, for being a good friend by telling me my grammar sucks and reading this over for me.
Chapter title: Chapter 4: Window
Fandom: Gaiaonline.com
Rating/pairing: SFW, Teen - Liam/Ian
Warnings/spoilers: NA
Word count: 3, 465
Summary: Liam/Ian. Slash. Fifteen one-shots.
"I look ridiculous." Liam grumbled to himself as he smoothed down wrinkles in his costume. The flimsy material did absolutely nothing for his manly figure and he could say with all clarity and truth that pink and red were defiantly not his colors.
The shirt was Sam's idea; she had convinced him that the loose shirt that tied at his waist with a pink rope with hearts adorning all over in a horrid pattern that made him cringe was a good way to blend into the Valentine's Day theme. The pants weren't much better. Felt like a second skin, tight enough that he could still feel his legs but the shade of red kind of made him wish it would cut off his circulation so he wouldn't have to see it anymore.
"Quit your whining and hurry up; it's going to be midnight soon." Sam came up behind him, her barely contained giggles making him more nervous and fidgety with his outfit.
"I feel like a horror comedy."
"Oh but you look so much worse; much-much-worse." Sam chuckled, handing him his heart shaped mask. "Don't let anyone ever convince you red's a good color for you."
"Thanks." Liam frowned at her. This was big for him and he was nervous enough to feel sick, the feeling in his chest was making it hard to breath but he couldn't let himself back out from this.
She smiled and turned him to face her. "Listen to me, you can do this-he will love this, believe me."
"… Really?"
"God, yes," Sam rolled her eyes, she may be somewhat new to the area but it wasn't hard to pin Ian down as a hopeless romantic. "He's going to fall for you the very first day."
Liam smiled a little hesitantly, "You really think so?"
"Either that or he'll at least forgive you for only remembering him as 'Hat Guy' for the better part of four years. Now," She motioned to the clock hanging from his wall by the exit. "It's time for you to leave. You can do this."
Liam took in a deep breath and nodded, slipping on his mask he gave a thumbs up to his friend before leaving, his chest still a tight knot of worry.
Liam felt the dread wash over him as he took in the size of Ian's shop and home. There were so many windows! He didn't even know where to start; he couldn't even begin to guess which one may be the man's bedroom window as opposed to any other window; who needed that many windows?
He stomped down on the panic that was beginning to form in his chest as he pulled out a grappling hook tied to the end of rope what was dyed pink from his red satchel that Sam bitched about him needing and set about trying to find the one window he needed.
"I need to start setting simpler plans…" he grumbled when, for the twentieth window was too dark to see in. He was about ready to give up and crawl back to Sam's shop and mope around until she got sick of him, that is, if she didn't kill him first for coping out first.
"Alright Rufus," Liam heard Ian yelling down at his cat-Liam cringed as he remembered his first exchange with Rufus-from the top of the stairs and had a mini scare when the window he was hanging in front of lit up and exposed the room was a small bathroom. He scrambled to the side of the window, praying that he wasn't caught peeping into Ian's bathroom.
That would put a small damper on things, he thought as he ran his fingers over the soft rose petals.
Chancing a peek through the window again, Liam found that Ian had his back to him and was still standing at the door; he was safe for now at least.
"I'm just going to take a bath and then I'll be off to bed." Ian chuckled shyly and Liam couldn't look away as the dark haired man step back into the room, shutting the door firmly-not locking the door, Liam couldn't help but notice-and proceeded to strip his clothes.
Liam shot back against the side of the window after he caught a large portion of naked pale skin; his back pressed firmly against the side of the house. He was trying to will away the part of him that kept telling him to look and watch the other man but he couldn't afford the outcome if he was caught.
He wanted Ian to like him, not think him a creep and a peeping-tom. Plus, Rufus would shred him alive if that ever happened.
Making up his mind, Liam reached over and placed the rose he had been holding up right to lean against the window sill; hoping that it would catch Ian's eye.
"Mm," The soft moan from inside the room had Liam forgetting all about his promise not to look and he was straining to see what caused such a noise from the other man.
He just caught a slight glimpse of movement off to the side in the shower, the outline of Ian's body just barely made out from behind the fogged glass doors before he found that he was falling with a slight shriek and a loud thud of his fall.
Before he even thought of what might or might not be broken he was up and running away hoping no one saw him at his absolute worst.
Rufus was up in arms after that first day of February. He was livid with the thought of someone creeping on his friend in such a manner and he hadn't known someone was there. Ian had brushed it off with a smile and showed Rufus the flower he had found on the bathroom window sill.
Rufus loved Ian, he really did. He was the best friend a talking cat could ask for but he was way too trusting and naive. Even the knowledge of someone perv'ing on him as he was taking a bath wasn't enough to extinguish the excitement he got when he saw the small rose sitting there nicely by the window.
For the next twelve days Ian found a small rose on his window sill every morning, it was a different place each time but they were always there every day.
There wasn't anything to suspicious about the flowers, just a regular red roses with a pink ribbon tied around the stem with and small note that said nothing about who was leaving these flowers for him. Just a sloppily drawing heart that looked like it was made with crayon. It made Ian's heart melt on contact.
Rufus had barked out his disregard for the flowers, already assuming the worst intentions of the person leaving presents for his Ian and vowed to double his efforts in patrolling the store at night to figure out who this pest really was and what he was playing at.
After the failed attempts by Rufus, Ian had started too asked around-he, without thinking, asked some of the customers if they knew anything about it and got starry eyed responses and suddenly the news got out that he had himself a secret admirer.
This stunned him even though he knew he had it coming with his big mouth, he didn't even think of the person as a 'secret admirer'-he'd actually forgotten all about Valentine's Day. At least now he had more eyes and ears open for any connections at all for the identity of this person, it was the only thing holding him together in this chaos that he brought on himself.
On the sixth day there was a sighting of a masked person dressed in an awful eye-sore of a costume climbing up the side of his shop around midnight. They were calling him 'Hearts' for the patterns on his shirt and for the shape of his mask.
Ian was sort of creeped out by the mask person but he couldn't find it in himself to discourage the person, he had grown quite a soft spot for whoever was leaving him these gifts and the roses were kind of nice to wake up to, so he left it alone.
But he always remembered check to see if he locked all his windows at night before he went to bed. Rufus doubled checked for him.
It was all over the forums the next day and he was getting hoards of mail from people that claimed to be the admirer or speculating this 'Hearts' person was and their speculations were all over the place.
That is, until the next sighting where they found out Hearts was a guy-Ian could only guess how that observation came to be known.
The users were in an uproar, the creepy mails and forums post seem to be never ending and growing in numbers; it was all everyone was talking about.
"GAY HEARTS FOR IAN" and "DRAWING GAY HEARTS ALL OVER IAN" or "WHO ELSE TOTALLY KNEW IAN WAS GAY?" -they got scary sometimes and more often than not, embarrassing. Ian stop visiting the forums after the petitions wars started and had Rufus go through his mail, asking him to screen his messages for him.
This whole Valentine's Day thing was getting tiring but he sort of was still hoping the window sill flowers continued.
Liam was freaking out after the first sighting of him, he had almost called the whole thing off and went to hid away in his shop but Sam had slapped some sense into him, forcing him to see it as a good thing.
He hadn't told her the whole truth about the first day when he had come back from Ian's shop covered in grass stains and bruises. Thankfully it seems that not even the users knew about that piece of information-he was sure he'd be run out of the community if they ever did.
The second sighting had been a lot harder for him to be convinced, but Ian hadn't said anything about it so at least it wasn't bad news… or so he was telling himself.
"Liam, I swear, get over there and stop freaking out." Sam threw a wrench at him. "It's the day before Valentine's Day and you need to get your ass in gear."
"But-"another wrench went flying by his head.
"No! You are not going to cop-out now." She took in a deep calming breath. "We talked about this. You need to make yourself known to him."
Liam took in a deep breath. "You're right."
"Liam," Sam smiled dropping her last wrench to the floor before bringing him into a hug. "When you came to me with this I thought it was one of the dumbest ideas you've ever had." -Liam cringed back-"But, probably one of your best attempts at courting."
"Thanks Sam." Liam rolled his eyes but wrapped his arms around her. "You always know what to say to make me feel worse and better about myself at the same time."
She punched his shoulder. "You love it you prick."
"Right, right," He waved her off before moving into her spare room to change into his horrid costume. Really, he was pretty sure that one way or another he was going to be happy when this was over. Whether or not it went the way he wanted, at least he never had to wear this hideous outfit ever again.
Liam had tried to envision the first time Ian would fully see him in his costume would go. It would usually start out pretty normal and okay before his pessimistic mind would take over and he would have to cut his thought process off before he copped out of it completely.
He and Sam had planned this almost perfectly; she would distract Rufus with small amounts of bite-sized fresh fish while he would climb up to Ian's bedroom window.
He had finally found out which one it was over the course of the weeks, stumbled upon it while trying to get away from Rufus's patrolling. It was a simple decorated room; a bed, side table with an ordinary lamp and an old book that looked way to extensive for Liam's taste and a closet.
After a couple weeks Liam had found a pattern in the dark hair shopkeeper's routine. Nearing nine thirty ((UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada) time) Ian would slip into his room after his bath or shower-usually depended on the stress of the day-and would curl up in his bed to read for an hour and then would at exactly ten thirty he would yawn and turn the lights out to sleep.
As if on cue, Ian walked in to his room clutching a towel around his waist and Ian almost choked on his tongue. Ian was one of those people who would bring clothes into the bathroom with him before his shower, he must have forgotten, which put a whole different spin on what Ian was about to do. But, damn, did Ian look good in nothing.
Liam cursed as he flopped his head back into the house, cringing when he heard the noise it made. "Crap."
"Hello?" Liam heard the hesitant steps getting closer to the window. "Is-is someone there?"
Panicking but not wanting his plans go to waste Liam swung out from the side of the window and waved sheepishly from his view point. Ian just stared, not making any movement or noise, just stared at Liam like he could see through him and down to his very soul.
"U-um…" Liam felt heat stain his cheeks as he held up a little flower for Ian to see. "For you."
"Liam?" Ian took a step forward and Liam felt his stomach drop. "Liam, is that you?"
"You-you recognize me?"
There was a pregnant pause where Liam thought he could literally feel his chest eat though this skin and burst open with suspense. It was killing him.
"Uh-…"
"Idiot!" Ian laughed; unlocking the window and pushing it open for Liam to crawl through. "What are you thinking-what are you wearing?"
Liam raised an eyebrow, eyeing Ian's own (lack of) clothing. "I could ask you the same thing." He purred in response, he was good at playful slightly tasteless flirting, out of everything he could do this with as much as ease as he could reprogram a robot.
"I-I, uh…" Ian wrapped the towel tighter around himself, shrinking as if he just realized what he was not currently wearing and was embarrassed by it.
"You should dress this way more often." Liam leered. "Unlike me, red is a good color on you."
Excitement bubbled through his veins when he saw Ian's blush all over his body. He wanted to touch; his fingers itched with wanting to see if Ian's skin felt as soft and firm as it looked. "Would you like it if I turned around while you get dressed?"
Ian looked at him if he was skeptical, but nodded just the same. When he turned around again, he was slightly disappointed but smiled when Ian had asked him if he wanted anything to drink.
"No, no thanks. I think it's better if we stay up here and talk for a bit." At Ian's confused frown he continued to explain. "Rufus doesn't like me as it is. I don't even want to know what he'll do to me if he finds out I was the one that-"he cut himself off before he could say 'peeked on you while you were taking a bath'
"-that left you the flowers." He finished lamely.
"Ah, yes." Ian smiled shyly. "He can be a bit overprotective sometimes."
"Overprotective is putting it nicely." Rufus is downright rabid in some cases-most of those cases involving Ian somehow.
There was another pause where Ian sat on his bed and indicated for Liam to follow, sitting beside the other shopkeeper.
"So," Ian began in a small voice. "Why are-did you do all this?"
Liam laughed a little, a slight blush coating his face. "Would you believe me if I told you this was all a ploy to get you to be my Valentine?"
"You did all this just so you could ask me on a date for Valentine's Day?" The shock was clearly written all over Ian's face.
"You have to admit, this makes it a lot harder for you to say no."
Before Liam could react, Ian had closed his hands around his face and brought the other man into a kiss. Liam was surprised, not complaining, but surprised as he deepened the kiss with his hand running along the back of Ian's neck.
Ian was a shy kisser; he was hesitant at first and at every turn. When Liam had run his tongue along his bottom lip Ian had let out a breathless moan, which sent shocks of pleasure down Liam's body, and slowly opened his mouth letting Liam coax him into a sort of tongue war.
It wasn't what he had been expecting, maybe a small peck of the lips if he was really lucky-it was really all he was hoping for. So, when he slowly crept his hand up under Ian's shirt he was giving him time to realize what was happening and the choice whether to continue down this path or to wait.
Ian had taken the initiative and slipped his shirt over his head and pulled Liam's mask off his face. "I can't believe you did all this."
Liam had to admit he was a little over whelmed with Ian's responses. He wasn't exactly in any sort of concealing clothing, everything that he was feeling was right out there for Ian to see or touch as it seemed to be.
"Yeah, honestly, me either.' He croaked out, pulling Ian back into another heated kiss. "Took, months to plan and-"
"Ian!" Rufus' shout rang out in the bedroom door stopping the two occupants as if frozen to the spot. "Ian is someone in there with you? Are you alright? It's not that peeping-tom 'Hearts' is it? He's not forcing himself on you is he?"
"Hey!" Liam shouted at the door. "That first time was an accident!"
Ian looked at Liam in horror, shaking his head fast and indicated him to stay quiet with a finger held up to his lips. Lips that were puffy and bruised looking, Liam couldn't help but notice with a satisfied sigh.
"… Liam?" The said shopkeeper jumped in horror as the cat screeched his name through the door. "What are you doing in there with Ian? Ian! What is he doing in there with you?"
There was a pause as Liam could just feel the tension rise and leek through the bottom of the door. "You're the 'Hearts' guy!"
"Now-now Rufus," Liam stuttered, looking to Ian for help. "I really didn't mean to peek in on you in the bathroom that first time. I-I just-you have so many windows! I didn't know which one was your bedroom and you were just there and taking off your clothes and I just couldn't stop myself from taking just a small peek. But I didn't see anything I swear! The rope snapped before that-not that I wanted to! I just-"
He was cut off by Ian's hand. "I get it Liam, it's okay, I forgive you."
Liam took a deep breath, relaxing slightly back into the bed. "Really?"
"Really, really." Ian smiled and leaned down to give him a small kiss before backing away from the bed to the door.
"Rufus?" Ian asked, opening the door to see a fuming cat; tail twitching back in forth in jerky swipes. Leaning down, Ian ran his hand along the cats back as he continued to glare daggers at the intruder still cowering on the bed. "Would you mind running the store by yourself tomorrow?"
"Why?"
"I, uh," Ian blushed looking over at Liam. "I have a date."
Rufus was shocked to say the least. "You did all this just to ask for a date? Really?"
"I-"Liam started to weekly defend himself.
"Rufus." Ian chastised and the cat sighed; defeated.
"Alright, I'll man the store tomorrow for you."
Ian made a happy noise and picked the cat up to cuddle him, sure he would do anything to make Ian happy but it didn't stop him from showing of his dangerously sharp claws to Liam. All ten of them ready to rip out his throat if he ever did anything to hurt his friend.
The other three chapters can be found here : http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5313609/1/Fifteen
Thank you, Quincy, for being a good friend by telling me my grammar sucks and reading this over for me.