Fic : Eat Me 3/? (Pinto, NC17)
Title : Eat Me part 3
Fandom : Pinto
Rating : Eventually NC17, this part, PG
Word Count : 2260
Summary : Zach owns a smoothie bar in Silverlake, but a new arrival in town might trouble his business, and his pants.
Chapters 1 2
Not wearing underwear was presumptuous, right? Zach stood with a towel around him weighing up the options. On the one hand, yes it looked presumptuous, but then unbuttoning someone’s jeans and seeing a jutting hipbone rather than a monogrammed waistband was guaranteed to make you moan, and if instead Chris looked scandalised he could always lie and say it was a hippy thing about feeling free and being closer to the air or some crap. No underwear then. Just those jeans with the worn patch about two inches below ass-line, that was like gay kryptonite.
He didn’t know where they were going so he went smart casual, finding his favourite leaf green shirt with the forest green detail on the cuffs. He slipped on the chucks that were the same exact colour as his grey jeans and looked himself over. One last touch, the wooden beaded necklace that Eliza had probably shoplifted for his birthday. It would lead Chris’s eye to his chest hair. One more glance in the mirror, a couple of practises of the smouldering glance, and yep, he was ready to go lure this hotty right out of the Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue and into his bed. Game on.
Chris was already outside the store as Zach rounded the corner. He looked great, wearing a ribbed,soft tshirt with a baggy cardigan over the top, the kind that made you want to slip your hands underneath it and give its owner a good cuddle. Chris smiled and squeezed his arm. “Hey Zach, you hungry?”
“Sure, where are we going?” Zach followed him as he walked past their stores and took a right.
“Alex’s. Say, did I just see your sales assistant walking an iguana on a leash?”
“Oh yeah, that’s Kerouac. Isn’t Alex’s a burger joint?”
“Blasphemy! They’re a barbecue joint, best in Cali, they’re amazing.”
“Uhm, okay, but I - “
“Does she need a permit for that thing? It was pretty big....”
Chris went about describing Kerouac’s habits, including the way he ran up trees without warning and ate cockroaches while Zach wondered how he was going to break it to him that he was a vegetarian. When they reached Alex’s, Chris ushered him inside and picked out his own booth, calling the waitress by name.
“You come here a lot?”
“Weekly, usually. I want to work my way through the menu. See anything you like?” Chris gave him that beautiful grin and Zach coughed.
“Uhm, I’m actually a vegetarian...” That got a laugh. Zach was relieved to see that he wasn’t being tossed out on his ear. “Do they have anything vegetarian?”
“Oh God no!” Chris smiled, “but don’t worry. Hey Lisa!”
The waitress came over, swinging her hips a little more than necessary. “Have you chosen gentlemen?”
“Yeah, I’ll have the pork and apple burger with swiss jack, a fried egg and a side of fries, and for my friend here...” He plucked her pen from her hand and scribbled on a napkin,only pausing to ask if Zach ate dairy and nodding sagely when he said he did. “Okay, give your chef that, tell him it costs whatever it costs, don’t worry about it. And I’ll have a root beer. You want a root beer? Two root beers.”
She wandered off with an amused look on her face and Zach stared at Chris. “So, are you going to tell me what I’m having?”
“Nope, it’ll be a beautiful surprise so long as you don’t ask me anything about it and promise to try it when it comes, deal?”
“Okay, deal. But if I don’t like it you have to take me to a weird smelling, incense ridden, dive where they serve eighteen different types of bean curd and the waitresses don’t wear shoes or deodorant.”
Chris lost it laughing and almost knocked over his root beer which had appeared from the stealthy Lisa. “You got it, I’ll even start the drum circle, how’s that?”
“I don’t live in a teepee or anything, vegetarianism is totally mainstream now.” Zach took a drink of his root beer, and hummed contentedly. Carbonated things were taboo in the world of the smoothie.
“Oh I know, I just don’t know why you would close yourself off from all that flavour, juices and tender flesh - you see these?” He tapped at the tip of a sharp incisor. “They’re for tearing flesh, that’s their purpose.”
“I’ve bitten my share of tender flesh, but I like it to be attached to someone who’ll appreciate it.”
Chris giggled, his eyebrows taking up residence somewhere in his hairline as Lisa appeared with their food.
“Okay, one pork and apple with swiss, egg and fries, and one Greasy Hippy.”
“Hey!”
Lisa laughed “Chef’s idea, nothing to do with you, I swear. Enjoy gentlemen!”
Zach looked suspiciously at the burger. “You swear this has no meat?”
“Uhv morse bo” Chris said through a mouthful of pork.
Zach took a deep breath and bit down. “Mmm my Goh”
“Hmm!!!”
“Mmmmmm.”
The ‘burger’ was slices of fried pineapple with thick wedges of pepperjack cheese, an egg fried hard, lettuce, tomato and onions with what tasted like chipotle all on a toasted bun. There was grease from the egg and the cheese, but it made the juices from the pineapple flip between sweet and savoury. The textures were phenomenal and the flavours intense and Zach wondered why the hell that burger wasn’t on the menu.The meal lasted about four minutes, which was obscene. They both sat, wiping their mouths and staring at their plates as if the food had just disappeared with no help from them.
Zach sat back, defeated. “That was amazing, where have you had that before?”
“Had what? Your burger? I made it up. It was good, right?”
“You made it up?! Man, you have missed your calling.”
Chris smiled and nodded and picked the menu up again. “So, dessert,they do a sharing sundae, yes?”
Zach laughed as Chris shrugged ‘what?’ “Sure, okay, you win. Your pursuit of food is almost Dionysian”.
“I say you should indulge in pleasure at every opportunity. Life is too short for salads.”
“Well I am a convert to your version of the veggie burger, I hate nut cutlets and curds, they’re revolting.”
“You’re preaching to the choir. I’m going to order a chocolate fudge sharing sundae with strawberries and lime, okay?”
“Oh my good Lord...”
----
Twenty minutes later Chris let him have the last strawberry, but stopped short of nudging it across the table with his nose like the dessert version of Lady and the Tramp. There was definite flirting going on, there was spoon sucking, bedroom eyes, giggling, and drips of ice cream and chocolate sauce, which Zach had done on purpose. Chris insisted on taking care of the check, saying that Zach could ‘get the next one’. All in all it was kind of 1950s and cute, and Zach felt a little slutty remembering that he was only a thin layer of denim away from a severe health code violation.
Outside the restaurant they started to wander back towards their stores, their conversation awkward as the elephant in the room followed them, prodding them with its huge,throbbing trunk. Zach decided to bite the bullet, or shoot the elephant, whichever metaphor fit best. “So, would you like to come back to my place?”
Chris stopped dead and looked at him. “Your place? What for?”
“Sex?”
Chris doubled over laughing, which set Zach off and, okay, they were standing in the street laughing at nothing, which was kind of adorable. Finally Chris straightened up, and put a hand on Zach’s shoulder. “Ok, let’s go back to your place, and negotiate.”
-----
Negotiations seemed to involved making out furiously against the wall of Zach’s hallway. They involved pornographic amounts of tongue and some rubbing of clothed genitals before Chris backed up. Zach reached for him and he held his arms still, trying to get his breath back.
“Wait, wait - are we...are we just going to fuck and that’s it, or...do you like me?”
“I like you. A lot.”
“Okay, well then can we slow down maybe? I just want to get to know you a little first.”
Zach blinked. This was unexpected. “Sure. Of course.” He pulled Chris closer and rubbed their noses together gently, stroking his back and not letting his hungry hands drop beneath the waist.
Chris hummed, tipping his head to nuzzle Zach’s neck and give kitten licks to his earlobe. Zach felt him breathe in the scent of his skin, taste it, card eager fingers through his hair and stare deep into his eyes. He kissed like he ate, engaging every sense, savouring and making no secret of how good a time he was having, so why didn’t he dive in like he did with his dessert? Zach wanted to be made a meal of.
“You want a coffee?” Zach whispered, trying to distract Chris from taking him apart.
“No, I want hot chocolate, or tea, fruit tea, something nice.”
“I have white hot chocolate.”
“I adore you.”
Zach chuckled and led him by the hand to the living room. “You sit, I’ll make it.”
Chris took off his shoes and curled up on the sofa, hanging over the back to watch Zach. “Tell me about your store, why did you open it?”
“It was my grandfather’s. He opened it in the forties. My father had it, then me.”
“What was it back then, a malt shop or something?”
Zach grinned. He loved correcting people on this particular piece of misinformation. “Nope, it was a smoothie shop. The first American smoothie shops were called just that, and they were only on the West Coast. My grandfather was Italian born, fit as a fiddle, used to swim in the sea, eat fish five times a week, lots of olive oil. He used to say that was why the Italians lived so long, healthy food, sunshine and too much to do.”
“I never knew that smoothies were so old.”
“Yeah, they were health food. Easy access to lots of fruit too, I guess. Plus it’s hot all the time so people want cold drinks.”
“Even at 8 in the morning, a genius must have come up with that.”
“Ha very ha ha.” Zach took Chris his hot chocolate and snuggled up to him on the couch. “Did we really only meet yesterday?”
“I know right? I’m very charming and lovable, it’s really not fair on you.”
They sat in comfortable silence, slurping and humming at their drinks until Chris set his empty mug on the coffee table and leaned back, studying Zach. “So, you really do care about that place, you’re just clueless.”
“How dare you! Yes, exactly that, just clueless. I don’t wanna get all American Idol Journey Sob Story but my dad died unexpectedly, I think he was always planning on teaching me how to run the business but just....Anyway, I had to do the best I could.”
Chris was quiet and Zach wondered if he’d shared too much too soon. Suddenly Chris hugged him and Zach found himself having to hold back tears. It had been five years and at the time his hippy friends had rallied around him, hugging and bringing veggie lasagne and planting memorial trees, and though he appreciated it, they did the same when someone’s dog was sick, or when their favourite camellia stopped flowering. After a week or so they had moved on to the next hot problem, not because they didn’t care but because they cared too much. What was one dead father when the bees were mysteriously dying off and threatening the entire ecosystem? What was one man’s pain when human trafficking was still rife?
“I’ll help you.” Chris said quietly. “Let me see your books, your paperwork, if you trust me. I’ll help you with the business side, you can concentrate on being a fruit sorcerer and looking pretty in your apron.”
Zach squeezed back and sought out his gaze. “You’d really do that for me? You hardly know me.”
“We’re both third generation business people, we’re the future of retail in Silverlake. At least the bit between the end of Little Armenia and the place where the bus doesn’t stop anymore. We should stick together.”
“Okay. I trust you.” Zach jumped up, moved the cups from the coffee table and flipped the top open. He pulled out two bulging paper files held together with strained elastic. “This is my books and my paper work. Have at it.”
Chris took the bundles, shaking his head. “Oh my goodness. Well, let me see what I can do.” He stood and hugged the paper to him. “I should get going. Thanks for tonight, I had a wonderful time.”
Zach took Chris’s head in this hands and kissed him good and deep, tasting chocolate and strawberry and flashing back to fifteen minutes ago when they first kissed. They stared into each others eyes as their lips parted and Zach couldn’t help but grin. “Thank you for helping me. Your smoothies are always on the house.”
Chris smiled back. “And so are your burgers.”
“Huh?”
“Uhm, you know, when we go to Alex’s for your personal special.”
Zach nodded, pecking Chris on the head as he bent down to get his shoes on. After he was gone Zach dumped their mugs in the sink and lay awake for a while smiling to himself. Something told him this was really the start of something.
On to chapter 4
Fandom : Pinto
Rating : Eventually NC17, this part, PG
Word Count : 2260
Summary : Zach owns a smoothie bar in Silverlake, but a new arrival in town might trouble his business, and his pants.
Chapters 1 2
Not wearing underwear was presumptuous, right? Zach stood with a towel around him weighing up the options. On the one hand, yes it looked presumptuous, but then unbuttoning someone’s jeans and seeing a jutting hipbone rather than a monogrammed waistband was guaranteed to make you moan, and if instead Chris looked scandalised he could always lie and say it was a hippy thing about feeling free and being closer to the air or some crap. No underwear then. Just those jeans with the worn patch about two inches below ass-line, that was like gay kryptonite.
He didn’t know where they were going so he went smart casual, finding his favourite leaf green shirt with the forest green detail on the cuffs. He slipped on the chucks that were the same exact colour as his grey jeans and looked himself over. One last touch, the wooden beaded necklace that Eliza had probably shoplifted for his birthday. It would lead Chris’s eye to his chest hair. One more glance in the mirror, a couple of practises of the smouldering glance, and yep, he was ready to go lure this hotty right out of the Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue and into his bed. Game on.
Chris was already outside the store as Zach rounded the corner. He looked great, wearing a ribbed,soft tshirt with a baggy cardigan over the top, the kind that made you want to slip your hands underneath it and give its owner a good cuddle. Chris smiled and squeezed his arm. “Hey Zach, you hungry?”
“Sure, where are we going?” Zach followed him as he walked past their stores and took a right.
“Alex’s. Say, did I just see your sales assistant walking an iguana on a leash?”
“Oh yeah, that’s Kerouac. Isn’t Alex’s a burger joint?”
“Blasphemy! They’re a barbecue joint, best in Cali, they’re amazing.”
“Uhm, okay, but I - “
“Does she need a permit for that thing? It was pretty big....”
Chris went about describing Kerouac’s habits, including the way he ran up trees without warning and ate cockroaches while Zach wondered how he was going to break it to him that he was a vegetarian. When they reached Alex’s, Chris ushered him inside and picked out his own booth, calling the waitress by name.
“You come here a lot?”
“Weekly, usually. I want to work my way through the menu. See anything you like?” Chris gave him that beautiful grin and Zach coughed.
“Uhm, I’m actually a vegetarian...” That got a laugh. Zach was relieved to see that he wasn’t being tossed out on his ear. “Do they have anything vegetarian?”
“Oh God no!” Chris smiled, “but don’t worry. Hey Lisa!”
The waitress came over, swinging her hips a little more than necessary. “Have you chosen gentlemen?”
“Yeah, I’ll have the pork and apple burger with swiss jack, a fried egg and a side of fries, and for my friend here...” He plucked her pen from her hand and scribbled on a napkin,only pausing to ask if Zach ate dairy and nodding sagely when he said he did. “Okay, give your chef that, tell him it costs whatever it costs, don’t worry about it. And I’ll have a root beer. You want a root beer? Two root beers.”
She wandered off with an amused look on her face and Zach stared at Chris. “So, are you going to tell me what I’m having?”
“Nope, it’ll be a beautiful surprise so long as you don’t ask me anything about it and promise to try it when it comes, deal?”
“Okay, deal. But if I don’t like it you have to take me to a weird smelling, incense ridden, dive where they serve eighteen different types of bean curd and the waitresses don’t wear shoes or deodorant.”
Chris lost it laughing and almost knocked over his root beer which had appeared from the stealthy Lisa. “You got it, I’ll even start the drum circle, how’s that?”
“I don’t live in a teepee or anything, vegetarianism is totally mainstream now.” Zach took a drink of his root beer, and hummed contentedly. Carbonated things were taboo in the world of the smoothie.
“Oh I know, I just don’t know why you would close yourself off from all that flavour, juices and tender flesh - you see these?” He tapped at the tip of a sharp incisor. “They’re for tearing flesh, that’s their purpose.”
“I’ve bitten my share of tender flesh, but I like it to be attached to someone who’ll appreciate it.”
Chris giggled, his eyebrows taking up residence somewhere in his hairline as Lisa appeared with their food.
“Okay, one pork and apple with swiss, egg and fries, and one Greasy Hippy.”
“Hey!”
Lisa laughed “Chef’s idea, nothing to do with you, I swear. Enjoy gentlemen!”
Zach looked suspiciously at the burger. “You swear this has no meat?”
“Uhv morse bo” Chris said through a mouthful of pork.
Zach took a deep breath and bit down. “Mmm my Goh”
“Hmm!!!”
“Mmmmmm.”
The ‘burger’ was slices of fried pineapple with thick wedges of pepperjack cheese, an egg fried hard, lettuce, tomato and onions with what tasted like chipotle all on a toasted bun. There was grease from the egg and the cheese, but it made the juices from the pineapple flip between sweet and savoury. The textures were phenomenal and the flavours intense and Zach wondered why the hell that burger wasn’t on the menu.The meal lasted about four minutes, which was obscene. They both sat, wiping their mouths and staring at their plates as if the food had just disappeared with no help from them.
Zach sat back, defeated. “That was amazing, where have you had that before?”
“Had what? Your burger? I made it up. It was good, right?”
“You made it up?! Man, you have missed your calling.”
Chris smiled and nodded and picked the menu up again. “So, dessert,they do a sharing sundae, yes?”
Zach laughed as Chris shrugged ‘what?’ “Sure, okay, you win. Your pursuit of food is almost Dionysian”.
“I say you should indulge in pleasure at every opportunity. Life is too short for salads.”
“Well I am a convert to your version of the veggie burger, I hate nut cutlets and curds, they’re revolting.”
“You’re preaching to the choir. I’m going to order a chocolate fudge sharing sundae with strawberries and lime, okay?”
“Oh my good Lord...”
----
Twenty minutes later Chris let him have the last strawberry, but stopped short of nudging it across the table with his nose like the dessert version of Lady and the Tramp. There was definite flirting going on, there was spoon sucking, bedroom eyes, giggling, and drips of ice cream and chocolate sauce, which Zach had done on purpose. Chris insisted on taking care of the check, saying that Zach could ‘get the next one’. All in all it was kind of 1950s and cute, and Zach felt a little slutty remembering that he was only a thin layer of denim away from a severe health code violation.
Outside the restaurant they started to wander back towards their stores, their conversation awkward as the elephant in the room followed them, prodding them with its huge,throbbing trunk. Zach decided to bite the bullet, or shoot the elephant, whichever metaphor fit best. “So, would you like to come back to my place?”
Chris stopped dead and looked at him. “Your place? What for?”
“Sex?”
Chris doubled over laughing, which set Zach off and, okay, they were standing in the street laughing at nothing, which was kind of adorable. Finally Chris straightened up, and put a hand on Zach’s shoulder. “Ok, let’s go back to your place, and negotiate.”
-----
Negotiations seemed to involved making out furiously against the wall of Zach’s hallway. They involved pornographic amounts of tongue and some rubbing of clothed genitals before Chris backed up. Zach reached for him and he held his arms still, trying to get his breath back.
“Wait, wait - are we...are we just going to fuck and that’s it, or...do you like me?”
“I like you. A lot.”
“Okay, well then can we slow down maybe? I just want to get to know you a little first.”
Zach blinked. This was unexpected. “Sure. Of course.” He pulled Chris closer and rubbed their noses together gently, stroking his back and not letting his hungry hands drop beneath the waist.
Chris hummed, tipping his head to nuzzle Zach’s neck and give kitten licks to his earlobe. Zach felt him breathe in the scent of his skin, taste it, card eager fingers through his hair and stare deep into his eyes. He kissed like he ate, engaging every sense, savouring and making no secret of how good a time he was having, so why didn’t he dive in like he did with his dessert? Zach wanted to be made a meal of.
“You want a coffee?” Zach whispered, trying to distract Chris from taking him apart.
“No, I want hot chocolate, or tea, fruit tea, something nice.”
“I have white hot chocolate.”
“I adore you.”
Zach chuckled and led him by the hand to the living room. “You sit, I’ll make it.”
Chris took off his shoes and curled up on the sofa, hanging over the back to watch Zach. “Tell me about your store, why did you open it?”
“It was my grandfather’s. He opened it in the forties. My father had it, then me.”
“What was it back then, a malt shop or something?”
Zach grinned. He loved correcting people on this particular piece of misinformation. “Nope, it was a smoothie shop. The first American smoothie shops were called just that, and they were only on the West Coast. My grandfather was Italian born, fit as a fiddle, used to swim in the sea, eat fish five times a week, lots of olive oil. He used to say that was why the Italians lived so long, healthy food, sunshine and too much to do.”
“I never knew that smoothies were so old.”
“Yeah, they were health food. Easy access to lots of fruit too, I guess. Plus it’s hot all the time so people want cold drinks.”
“Even at 8 in the morning, a genius must have come up with that.”
“Ha very ha ha.” Zach took Chris his hot chocolate and snuggled up to him on the couch. “Did we really only meet yesterday?”
“I know right? I’m very charming and lovable, it’s really not fair on you.”
They sat in comfortable silence, slurping and humming at their drinks until Chris set his empty mug on the coffee table and leaned back, studying Zach. “So, you really do care about that place, you’re just clueless.”
“How dare you! Yes, exactly that, just clueless. I don’t wanna get all American Idol Journey Sob Story but my dad died unexpectedly, I think he was always planning on teaching me how to run the business but just....Anyway, I had to do the best I could.”
Chris was quiet and Zach wondered if he’d shared too much too soon. Suddenly Chris hugged him and Zach found himself having to hold back tears. It had been five years and at the time his hippy friends had rallied around him, hugging and bringing veggie lasagne and planting memorial trees, and though he appreciated it, they did the same when someone’s dog was sick, or when their favourite camellia stopped flowering. After a week or so they had moved on to the next hot problem, not because they didn’t care but because they cared too much. What was one dead father when the bees were mysteriously dying off and threatening the entire ecosystem? What was one man’s pain when human trafficking was still rife?
“I’ll help you.” Chris said quietly. “Let me see your books, your paperwork, if you trust me. I’ll help you with the business side, you can concentrate on being a fruit sorcerer and looking pretty in your apron.”
Zach squeezed back and sought out his gaze. “You’d really do that for me? You hardly know me.”
“We’re both third generation business people, we’re the future of retail in Silverlake. At least the bit between the end of Little Armenia and the place where the bus doesn’t stop anymore. We should stick together.”
“Okay. I trust you.” Zach jumped up, moved the cups from the coffee table and flipped the top open. He pulled out two bulging paper files held together with strained elastic. “This is my books and my paper work. Have at it.”
Chris took the bundles, shaking his head. “Oh my goodness. Well, let me see what I can do.” He stood and hugged the paper to him. “I should get going. Thanks for tonight, I had a wonderful time.”
Zach took Chris’s head in this hands and kissed him good and deep, tasting chocolate and strawberry and flashing back to fifteen minutes ago when they first kissed. They stared into each others eyes as their lips parted and Zach couldn’t help but grin. “Thank you for helping me. Your smoothies are always on the house.”
Chris smiled back. “And so are your burgers.”
“Huh?”
“Uhm, you know, when we go to Alex’s for your personal special.”
Zach nodded, pecking Chris on the head as he bent down to get his shoes on. After he was gone Zach dumped their mugs in the sink and lay awake for a while smiling to himself. Something told him this was really the start of something.
On to chapter 4