Fic - Seduction by Proxy
Hello, all. It's been a while, so I return bearing warm and fuzzy fic. It's a follow up to the story " The Fair Stranger," which I wrote last August during an infestation of break-up bunnies. (Also, this was done without benefit of a beta reader.)
fanfic100 prompt: 009 - Months
Rating: PG
Pairings: Dorian/Klaus
Notes: This Klaus version of “The Fair Stranger” has been begging to be written since the original was penned. It might be helpful to read the first version--or it might not. ;-D
Summary: When Dorian’s flirtatious nature finally becomes too much, Klaus puts an end to their relationship, but he just can’t seem to let go.
By: Margaret Price
Written: June 5, 2008
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Seduction By Proxy
Word count: 2,520
What the hell am I trying to prove? Klaus thought for what seemed the hundredth time as he stood in the street, staring at the door of a bar in London. A gay bar in London. He knew the Earl was there already, having seen him go in nearly a quarter hour earlier.
It was over.
It had been over for nearly a month.
I knew I shouldn’t’ve trusted that degenerate! Selfish, narcissistic... Damn the man!
*
“My darling Major,” Dorian had said time and again, “no one could ever replace you in my affections.”
Klaus had been dubious, but had still-foolishly, stupidly, willingly!-acquiesced to the Earl’s advances.
“There is nothing wrong with a little flirting,” Dorian had later said. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
“It does to me!” Klaus had fired back. Each time, he received a promise from the Earl that he would never do it again. And a look. That look in those huge blue eyes that he couldn’t seem to say no to. That is, not until the Earl had broken his promise one time too many. Turning those adoring eyes in the direction of another man. A younger man. A man half Klaus’s age!
That was the final straw.
After less than a year, Klaus ended the affair, turning a deaf ear to Dorian’s pleas for forgiveness.
Now, here he was, nearly a month later, still following the Earl’s movements. Night after night, the Earl had been seen going to one bar after another, one nightclub after another, one man after another!
*
Klaus was returned to the present when a man exited the bar, scrutinized him in his disguise, and then snickered as he walked away. Klaus ignored him. He was on a mission. A personal mission. A mission to prove, once and for all, that he had been right.
Klaus took a moment to get his thoughts in order. To “get in character” as it were. He ran his fingers through the blond wig he was wearing to make himself look disheveled, leaning forward to let the hair fall over his face a bit. All the makeup in the world couldn’t hide who he was if he let Dorian look too closely at his face or hear him speak too much.
He drew a deep breath, adjusted his clothes one last time, and then entered the bar. He stood on the threshold, his eyes taking in the room. As he did this, he heard the conversations within lower to a murmur. Obviously he had gotten the “lost foreigner” look right. He spotted the Earl just as the bartender called out, “Come in if you’re going to.”
Lower your eyes, Klaus reminded himself as he shuffled to the bar. Don’t make eye contact too soon. When he did briefly raise his eyes, he was asked, “You lost?”
Klaus replied in German, using a thick accent that would disguise his voice. He purposely kept his eyes lowered, allowing the long, unruly blond hair of the wig to fall into his face. “Nein, erm...no,” he said, going on to order a drink in halting English that was so bad that he winced inwardly.
“You sure you’re old enough to drink?” someone asked.
Klaus kept his eyes down, pretending not to understand.
“Oi, mate. I tink y’ sh’d check ‘is ID,” another slurred, nudging against the seemingly wayward German.
Klaus clamped his teeth together to keep from replying out loud. I think you should fucking learn to speak your own language!
“Perhaps he’s a Nazi spy!”
Perhaps you’d like to talk in a falsetto for the rest of your life! Klaus didn’t dare raise his eyes now. The idiot Limeys would probably melt under his intense glare.
It was at this moment that Dorian intervened, coming to the “boy’s” rescue with his usual style and grace. “Excuse me, gentlemen, but you’re blocking my seat,” he said as he casually brushed the brutes aside, sliding gracefully onto the stool beside the seemingly wayward newcomer. Then to the bartender he said, “Timothy, darling, this lovely young man would like your best German beer.”
“Coming up, m’lord.”
Klaus gave Dorian a sideways glance, seeing him casually tossing his hair over his shoulder before giving the others at the bar a piercing look. A clear warning that they should back off, which they did. The Earl had staked his claim, and no one had the balls-or the looks-to compete.
“Danke,” Klaus replied, purposely turning away when Dorian flashed a brilliant smile at him.
He suddenly found he couldn’t look at him, and had no idea why. He had gone out of his way to become the perfect bait. Why should it bother him so much when the man took it?
What followed was a mostly one-sided conversation in German, with Dorian asking the questions and Klaus, who gave his name as Jakob, saying very little so as to not give himself away. Much of the information he let Dorian learn was from yes and no questions, which were answered with nods or head shakes.
“Jakob” was from a country village that Klaus was sure Dorian had never heard of. He used a dialect that would give the Earl some trouble, but not too much. At some point, he let slip that he had come to London to lose his virginity. Naïve, blond, and a virgin. The Earl of Gloria trifecta.
When Dorian gave a small laugh upon hearing this rather intimate piece of information, Klaus momentarily forgot himself and actually looked at him. Then he thanked God that he had remembered to wear colored contact lenses! The expression on the Earl’s face was…
“Till you descending on our plains,” Dorian whispered. “With foreign force renew my chains.”
Klaus scowled. “Excuse me?”
“Nothing.” Dorian’s face lit up with a dazzling smile as he slid to his feet. “Nothing at all.”
When the Earl held a hand out to him, the disguised Klaus stared down at it. Would Dorian realize who he was if he took it? If he touched him at all?
It turned out that he didn’t need too decide one way or the other as Dorian took him by the arm and gave him a gentle tug. “Come with me.”
* * *
Dorian offered to take “Jakob” to his hotel. Klaus, however, had other plans, saying that they could use his own room, which was nearer. They stopped along the way to buy a bottle of wine. Or more accurately, for Dorian to buy some wine, as Klaus continued in his pretense as a naïve youth and motioned that he knew nothing about wine. Good wine, anyway.
When they got to the less than opulent hotel room, the Earl did what he could to relax his obviously nervous partner. He sat beside him at the end of the bed, stroking his hands, speaking gently, telling him not to be afraid.
Klaus could not help but remember their first time together, the Earl acting just as he was now. It wasn’t until Dorian tried to kiss him that he flinched away. He couldn’t allow Dorian to kiss him. He couldn’t give himself away until he was ready to confront the man. So...why wasn't he doing that now? Why was he letting this go on?
“Just...take your time,” Dorian said gently, breaking into his partner’s thoughts. “I wouldn’t dream of making you do anything you don’t want to. You can stop any time, if that’s what you want.”
If that’s what I want. What the hell do I want?
After a quarter of an hour, Klaus decided it was time to put this sham to an end. He drew a deep breath, announced that he was ready, and vanished into the bathroom supposedly to disrobe. Instead, he removed the disguise, washing all the make-up from his face, and then stood staring at himself in the mirror. What the hell am I doing? Other than making a damned fool of myself...
Before Klaus could come to any kind of a decision on a course of action, there was a tap at the door followed by the Earl’s voice. “Jakob, I’m sorry, I can’t...do this.”
It was all Klaus could do not to yell, “What!?” at the top of his voice. Instead, he said, “Did I do something to offend?”
“No, no, dear boy. You did nothing wrong.”
“I don’t understand.” Isn’t that the understatement of the century! Klaus mentally added. What the Earl said next made Klaus feel like a heel, and he was glad that the door was between them.
“You deserve better than me. Your first time should be with someone...special. I had someone special, and I lost them because I was selfish and shallow.”
Klaus Heinz von dem Eberbach, you are an ass! He thought as he looked at himself in the mirror.
“Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”
“Nein,” Klaus lied.
“I’m trying to say that...you deserve someone...” Dorian’s voice caught. “Someone young. Not a broken down old queen chasing his lost youth.” A pause. “I’m sorry. Really.”
“So am I,” came the truthful reply.
Klaus reached for the doorknob. Time for you to know what a fucking idiot I am. To his surprise, he felt the knob stop turning in his hand.
“No, please,” Dorian said quietly. “Just...let me go.”
I already did, fool that I am! “Okay.”
“Good luck, Jakob.”
Klaus closed his eyes, leaning his head against the door. What he really wanted to do was bash his head through it. He waited until he heard the outside door close before coming out of the bathroom. Then he sat down on the bed and ran his fingers through his hair, staring down at floor for several minutes. What the hell do I do now?
When he finally looked up, his eyes fell on the forgotten bottle of wine.
* * *
It was several hours before the Earl finally returned to his hotel suite where Klaus had been impatiently waiting for him. Klaus heard the door open, then he heard Dorian gasp, obviously having seen the bottle of Moselle wine that Klaus had left chilling in an ice bucket.
Klaus appeared at the bedroom door just as Dorian picked up the card attached to the bottle upon which was written:
I was wrong. I’m sorry.
-- Klaus
“He’s gone mad.”
“No, I was an idiot,” Klaus replied quietly.
Dorian spun around, his eyes wide. Once he recovered from the shock, he started across the room. “No, you weren’t an idiot. You’ve been right all along. I’m nothing but a selfish degenerate-”
“You are nothing of the kind!” Klaus snapped, his tone surprising even himself.
Dorian gave a small laugh of irony. “Oh? Then let me tell you about tonight, so you won’t regret ending things.”
“I already know about tonight.” More than you can possibly imagine.
“What?”
“Tonight. The boy at the bar...”
“You followed us!”
“I was there.”
“You-” Dorian seemed to completely lose his train of thought. “Where?”
“Doesn’t matter. I saw you rescue the boy from those toughs.”
“Which means you also saw me pick him up and take him back to his hotel room.”
“And then bolt like a scalded rabbit.” Klaus was surprised that Dorian actually seemed embarrassed by this.
“You’d think I was the virgin, not him.”
Klaus merely grunted in reply. To his surprise, the next thing out of the Earl’s mouth was an accusation.
“Bastard! You confronted him after I bolted, didn’t you?” Dorian’s voice dropped in pitch. “Klaus, if you threatened that boy...”
“I do not threaten children.”
The Earl was silent a long time as he thought this over. Finally, Klaus could stand it no longer and leaned forward, gently kissing him on the mouth. To his relief, it was returned. Then Dorian was hugging him. “Oh, God, Klaus, I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too.”
Dorian leaned back to look him in the eye. “Have you?”
“Yes. Very much. I was an idiot, and I’m sorry-for everything.” And I mean everything!
“Everything?” Dorian scowled. “You mean what you said?”
“What I said and...what I did. And if you hate me for it, I will understand.” Klaus saw the bewildered look on the Earl’s face deepen.
“Klaus, you’re not making sense.”
I know. Klaus held out a hand. “Can we...sit?”
Dorian scowled over at the sofa but did not object. He sat beside Klaus and tried to read his expression. He finally gave up trying.
Klaus drew a deep breath. “First off, you are not a broken down old queen.”
Dorian’s mouth dropped open, his eyes growing wide. Klaus took advantage of his shock to plow ahead. He took the man by the hand, gently stroking it. “You said that…the first time should be with someone special,” he said softly. “And...” He faltered, afraid to look into Dorian’s eyes, afraid of the betrayal he felt certain would be there. Instead, he saw only amazement.
“And...?” Dorian prompted.
“Who could be more special than you?”
Dorian blinked. Then his eyes narrowed. “Are you just playing to my ego so I’ll forgive you?”
“Will it work?” came the hopeful reply.
To Klaus’s relief, this caused the Earl to laugh. He didn’t realize how much he had missed that laugh.
“It was you all along, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.” A pause. “Do you hate me?”
“I don’t know...”
Klaus nodded, lowering his eyes.
“Tell me something,” Dorian said suddenly. “Why did you hide in the bathroom? Were you planning on coming out as yourself to confront me?” The guilty sideways glance he received was acknowledgement enough.
After a long silence, Klaus admitted, “I couldn’t do it. I had all that wretched makeup off, the contacts out, that damned wig off... And then...I couldn’t go through with it. I realized that I was the one being selfish.” He paused, shaking his head. “Before I could figure out what to do, you came knocking on the door.”
Dorian blinked and then shook his head. “Christ, we are a pair.”
That they were. A right pair of fools. “So, do you forgive me for being an idiot?”
“I’ll have to think about it.”
Klaus heaved an exasperated sigh. “Fuck, Dorian, you know I’m not good at this...this...”
“Romantic crap?”
“Yes.”
Dorian was unable to hide his amusement. “You’re doing fine so far.”
“That’s only because I’ve had time to work out what I was gonna say.”
“Oh!” Dorian slapped his arm. “Beast! And here you had me thinking you were speaking from the heart.”
Klaus rolled his eyes. “I am. I just...can’t pull it out of my ass the way you do.”
Again, he was rewarded with the Earl’s delighted laugh.
Klaus turned a meaningful glance over to the bedroom. “If it’s any consolation, I have the disguise with me.”
Dorian’s eyes lit up. “Why the hell didn’t you say so in the first place!” he said in mock disapproval before jumping to his feet and dragging the man into the bedroom.
Jakob would be having his first time with someone special after all.
-END-