Week of Drabble-A-Thons Day 1: First Kisses
WEEK OF DRABBLE-A-THONS
DAY 1 - FIRST KISSES
Welcome to the Week of Drabble-a-Thons (yes, finally, I remembered and stuff). Today’s theme is first kisses. Below the cut are any prompts I received ahead of time to play with, but you can also leave prompts in comments or write off the cuff (as long as it’s on theme).
Rules/Set up of the game1. We ( Read more... )
Their first kiss is terrible. They're back in Chicago, in Dukey's joint, where everyone except the mark is a grifter and can be depended on not to spoil a game.
Henry's already there when Johnny walks in with the mark -- a truly unpleasant fellow from Grand Rapids: lying, cheating, stealing -- the man would sell his own grandmother (and possibly had). The plan is for Johnny to point out Henry to the mark as the man to know, then to get disorderly and tossed from the bar so that Henry can move in.
There are a dozen ways that Johnny could get himself ejected, all tried and true. Johnny must be feeling inspired, though, because he doesn't go with any of them. Nope, he decides, God only knows why, to pretend that he's homosexual and drunk.
When he wanders across the barroom to crowd Henry against the wall and knocks off Henry's hat, clumsily. Johnny whispers, "back me up," before planting a big sloppy smack on Henry. It's wet and half on his lips, half on his chin, and completely unpleasant. Henry doesn't have to feign his disgust as he shoves Johnny away and the bouncer moves in.
Afterwards, the mark uses the incident to move in on Henry himself, coming over to "apologize" for his "friend." Henry uses some ripe language as he wipes his face with his handkerchief. The hook works perfectly: the mark transfers his trust from Johnny to Henry, and the stage is set for their variation on the gold brick scam.
After seeing off the mark, Henry has one last drink. He doesn't let it show on the outside, but Henry's feeling low as he heads home. The game's going fine, but he wishes Johnny hadn't played the scene like that.
Johnny's waiting for him when Henry opens the door of his rented room. The kid either talked the landlady into letting him in (likely) or picked the lock (slightly less likely), or climbed in the window (too much trouble) but however he did it, Johnny is in and shows no sign of leaving.
Henry shrugs out of his coat, turns to face the door as he says, "What?" What are you doing here? What do you want? What do you think you were doing out there? What now?
Johnny's coming at him again as he turns around. Johnny says, "That kiss was just for the mark. I want you to know that." He's crowding Henry against the door, again, but this time it's smooth, this time he's letting Henry feel every inch of where they touch as he moves in. This time he's looking Henry in the eye, with so much trust and affection and heat that Henry can barely breathe. This time he carefully removes Henry's hat and sets it on the dresser. This time he stops, his lips almost touching Henry's.
Johnny says, "I can do better than that."
Henry says, "Yeah? Prove it."
Johnny tilts his head and does.
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nothing quite like grifters in lurve.
There really isn't!
May I point you towards the_sting_fic?
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