Partners

Partners
Viva La Viveca

Disclaimer : I hate disclaimers more than I hate the fact that I can’t seem to find enough Lucia/Haru fics in the world… Which is a lot… I think you people get the point that I don’t own any of the characters that I would more than love to own and do my dirty deeds with… ^_^;

Chapter III :: Gay

I only had to spend one night in the hospital, mostly just to make sure I didn’t have a concussion or any serious brain damage. I wish I could say that it was at least quiet, but Elie and Catt freaked out over me until the nurses ushered them away saying that I needed my rest. A few other friends came through, but I really didn’t care. I just wanted to know what had happened to Lucia. I wanted to see his face, to get a few necessary answers out of him.

I got my wish about ten minutes after visiting hours were done. He popped his head in the room, his body following when he saw me sitting up and awake.

“Hey… I just wanted to check and see what brain damage hitting your head on the sidewalk caused,” he gave me a half-smile. It registered almost immediately that there was no arrogance in his smile, nor was there any sarcasm in his voice. He sounded more worried that he really had any right to be, if we were being sensible. “So, are you okay?”

I would have liked to smile and crack a joke, but instead I murmured: “I’ll live, but I wouldn’t have if you hadn’t saved me…” He sat down next to my bed and I stared at fidgeting hands in my lap. “I guess what I’m trying to say is thanks…”

“Welcome,” he shrugged, staring at the wall. We sat in silence for a few minutes before I finally thought of something to say

“Why did you bother to push me out of the way? You could have been killed!” I figured it was for some superficial reason, but I had to know. It wasn’t like he was the Superman-type, so I was sure he wouldn’t have just done it for the good of the people or anything. The curiosity had been driving me crazy since he made that smart-ass remark about Sociology class. I knew it wasn’t the real reason, though it easily could have been. I was starting to think he wasn’t as self-centered as I always believed.

Lucia thought for a moment before replying carefully, “I guess it was just a natural reaction, for the most part…” he crossed his arms and looked up at the ceiling. “I was leaving work early, and I saw the car coming at you. Next thing I knew, I was tackling you out of the out of the way without any concern for my own life.”

I smiled slightly. “I guess you’re not as big of an asshole as everyone thinks,” I told him. A mock horrified look crossed his face.

“Damn, I guess my reputation has been completely shattered!” he muttered with a smile, standing up. “Hey, look at it this way; if you die I’ll have no one worthy to compete against!”

I just watched him as he left, my mouth hanging open slightly. I was a little stunned by his smile. It was genuine, and on him, nothing short of beautiful. It took me another fifteen minutes to register his parting words. He had called me worthy to compete against, and for some reason that made me sit up a little straighter. It meant that he actually saw me as someone who was good competition, someone who made his life a little more interesting. It meant that even he thought I had the potential to beat him at something.

I didn’t sleep much that night with all that weighing on my mind, not to mention where my mind kept wandering, attempting to find some hidden meaning in his words. I didn’t really toss and turn, I just stared at the ceiling dreamily, refusing the nurse when she offered me something to help me sleep. It wasn’t like I was traumatized, and I really didn’t want to know what was waiting for me in my dreams. I already knew who they would be based around, and I much rather have control over any dream that included him. I had too much experience from early high school years of uncontrolled dreams of him. The results… well… It wasn’t like they hadn’t been pretty or anything, but I was very moody for a good two or three months from not getting a good night’s sleep.

They released me the next morning with nothing much to say other than to be careful, and a bunch of other things that I, being a normal guy, didn’t listen to. I knew I was fine, and it wasn’t like I was actually worried. I was determined to watch where I was going for the rest of my life, and even more determined not to daydream about Lucia anymore.

I decided to walk home, even though it was going to be a good mile-long walk. I didn’t feel like calling anyone to pick me up. I knew Musica wasn’t home, he had mentioned that he had some sort of date or something like that, and he never woke up before three in the afternoon on nights he went out. It wasn’t even close to noon yet. I wasn’t willing to deal with Catt, and Elie… well she wasn’t a person I ever wanted to have driving me home.

Everyone seemed to be out and about today, which was weird for a Tuesday. Normally everyone was at work or school. I sighed, not wanting to delve too deep into it, in case I almost got hit by another car. I took special care to stand and look both ways every time I went to cross a road. After a while I started to feel almost paranoid, and it was at that point I just glanced and hurried across the street like I always did.

I sat down on a bench after about half a mile. I was tired, which could probably be explained by the fact I hadn’t slept well that night and I still had to eat. Trust me, hospital food is not the greatest thing in existence, and I tried to avoid eating it if at all possible. I look up at the clear blue sky. It was a nice day for being in the middle of autumn. Of course, the area around the city was pretty much desert and we never really saw any snow. Normally at this time of year it was just cloudy and got a little chillier.

After a few minutes I stood back up and continued on my way home, though I went at a slower pace, just enjoying the day in general. “You know, there’s such a thing called public transportation. It’s probably easier than walking all the way from the hospital to your apartment,” the very person that had haunted my every thought since last night fell into step with me. I glanced over at Lucia.

“Are you stalking me now or something?” I asked jokingly, a small grin on my face. Some part, deep down inside of me, was actually happy to see him. How had so much changed in a little over 24 simple hours? Oh, that’s right… he saved my ass from being flatted by someone’s shiny red car.

“Nah, I just saw you walking down the street and I figured I’d stop and ask you if you needed a ride… You live on the other side of town don’t you?” Lucia pointed his thumb at a black Porsche with a dragon decal on the side. It was a beautiful car, that was for sure.

“A few blocks away from the university, actually,” I inwardly damned myself from giving him that information. He’d probably use it to his advantage somehow, and that worried a small part of me. I owed him my life after all, though I was sincerely hoping he wouldn’t think about that until… well… the end of time, maybe?

“Well, do you want a ride, then?” he raised his eyebrow, watching me eye up his car like any other red-blooded male would. I never felt the need for a car; my workplace and the university were both close by, and even if I did need a ride, Musica normally could drive me. In other words, I didn’t have the money to buy a car because I was too busy paying for bills and food. That’s the main reason I had him move in, because then we could share responsibility, and a car. I looked at Lucia for a moment.

“I really don’t want to be a bother-”

“I’m on my way to work anyways… I work right across from the school, and I’m sure you can manage the few blocks from there if you’re really determined not to make me go out of my way,” he cut me off with a look that didn’t really allow room for a ‘no’. I sighed and nodded, following him back to the car. The leather seats were soft and comfortable beyond belief, and the interior of the car was just as black as the exterior. Lucia grinned as he got into the driver’s seat. “I spent just about my entire life savings on this thing. I works good and I haven’t had any problems the year and a half that I’ve had it, so I guess it was worth it,” he said, turning the key in the ignition.

“It’s definitely nicer than most of the cars I’ve been in… My sister’s is a piece of junk that you couldn’t pay me to drive. Musica’s is nice and reliable, but he freaks if there’s even a fingerprint on the dashboard. And I’m still not sure how Elie’s survives her driving it,” I said, shaking my head. Like I said, she’s not exactly the person I want driving me home. She pays more attention to her hair and gabbing with people in the car with her than actually watching where she was going.

Lucia chuckled. “Why do you date her anyways? I mean, don’t get me wrong, she’s a good-looking girl, but she doesn’t really seem to care much about you,” he asked, glancing at me as the car lurched away from the curb and onto the road. I sighed, this not being a subject I thought I’d be discussing with him of all people.

I shrugged. “Honestly, there are many times I wonder about that myself… There are times when it’s so awkward to be around her, and there are other times when she can actually be fun and lovable,” I replied. It was true after all; originally I was just using her to shake off the gay rumors about me, but I had gotten used to us being a couple. I figured that eventually we‘d figure things out and it would work. “She’s crazy and unpredictable, but she’s always been a good friend, so I guess she was the only real choice at the time. Every other girl in school thought I was gay.”

“Hmph,” was the reply I received from the blond. I glanced over at him, then turned to look out the window. It was strange how comfortable it felt talking to him, almost like we had been friends forever. Maybe because we had been rivals for so long, I sort of figured he could relate in some way. I wasn’t really sure what the reasoning was, but I wasn’t going to complain about it. Sure, I could easily talk to Musica or Let, but neither of them could relate as well; Musica normally switched from girl to girl on his own accord and Let had been with Julia since the beginning of time. Or so the story went.

“Personally, I don’t think high school should account for much of anything… I only dated one girl during freshmen year and then broke up with her because she was as annoying as fuck, yet I was never called gay,” he said with a shrug, not seeming to really care much. “Yet any other guy who didn’t date a girl or only dated one girl for whatever reason was automatically labeled a faggot… It kind of made me sick.”

I nodded, having a hard time believing that I was agreeing with him on everything. The day was just getting stranger and stranger, yet I found I didn‘t mind too much at all. “Yeah, but I guess people were just kind of afraid of you,” I said, looking at him. “You never were the friendliest bastard in the bunch, not to mention you probably could have ripped most people’s heads off. It scared everyone so they didn’t mess with you.”

“You never seemed afraid of me,” he murmured, sounding almost appreciative of it. I shrugged and watched the university come into view.

“Why should I be afraid of you? We’re like, blood rivals or something like that. You were better than me at a lot of things, but I beat you at just as many… I guess I felt like I kind of understood you in some weird, screwed up way,” I replied, looking back at him. “You were always so dark and quiet, though you were MVP of the Year in football, and one of the best looking guys in school… Every girl would probably have been swooning at your feet if you didn’t glare at them every time they came near you. I had lots of friends and I liked it that way. We had a lot in common, yet we were like dark and light when it came to stuff like that. I liked having that there. Plus, it gave me someone to blame random crap on.”

He chuckled, shaking his head. “I never had the energy to go through the whole dating process… and the one person I was interested in would never have given me a second glance if I had ever bothered to confess,” he shrugged, putting the car in park in the parking lot of one of the area’s quieter cafes. It would be a short jaunt to the apartment, which would be nice. My mind was buzzing with questions on things Lucia had said, and I was hoping the fresh air would clear my head. “Well, we’re here, unless you want a ride all the way to your apartment?”

“No, thanks for the offer though,” I said, getting out of the car and stretching. Lucia turned off the car and got out as well, staring at me for a minute, before turning his head to look at the cream-colored wall of the building. I smiled. “Oh, hey, about getting together for that project… I’m pretty much open except for tonight, Friday night and most of next week… Thursday sound good?”

He thought for a minute, before nodding. “Sure, I don’t have any Thursday classes, so we can get together any time, anywhere,” he said, tilting his head. “We can figure out specifics during class… I think he said he would give us the last half of class to work on the surveys and the subjects we might want to do…”

I grinned a little more and nodded at him. “’Kay, sounds good to me! See you in class then?” I shoved my hands back into my sweater pocket.

“If you don’t get hit by any cars before then,” he waved as he walked into the restaurant. I stuck out my tongue at his back, heading toward home. I was going to eat and take a nap as soon as I got into the apartment. Sad as it sounded, that was my current goal in life.

I was glad there was cold pizza left in the refrigerator from the other night, because I couldn’t cook worth a damn and I really didn’t feel like throwing anything in the microwave. I grabbed my food and my Coke and headed back to my bedroom. It was quiet, and from the looks of things Musica wasn’t even home, which I was honestly glad for. The quicker I got to take my nap, the soon I would get up, shower and head off to my classes.

I was surprised by how hungry I was after I ate my pizza, but I grabbed out clothes that I could put on later when I woke up and laid down on my soft bed. I could always eat later on my way to school. I cursed myself for not letting the nurse give me those sleeping pills now; the moment my head touched the pillow I could feel my eyes closing, almost of their own accords. My first dreams were quiet and normal; a weird dream about Catt’s wedding turning out to be a disaster and that Shuda was really a mass murderer out to kill us all (which was a frequent dream and one of the reason I hated having him around), another dream about me and Elie and one of our failed attempts to have sex. It wasn’t something I was ready to do yet with her, and I had carefully explained that to her, but she still seemed upset when I’d push her away and try to make my point again.

Then my mind started wandering. The next thing I knew, I was running my hands through Lucia’s hair and his mouth was trailing kisses along my inner thigh. It was definitely one of my more erotic dreams. His lips grazed along my stomach and legs, teasing and yet completely avoiding the one place I wanted him to touch most. His hair was disheveled and tiny rivers of sweat ran down his body onto mine as he positioned himself above me. In my dreams I was never afraid of being with Lucia, it seemed so natural.

I started awake, looking around. The room was empty, and it was almost four o’clock. I ran to the shower, turning it as cold as I could stand it, trying to wash up and calm my body down after that dream. I knew I was going to be late for class, and I really couldn’t afford it. I ran back to my room, still attempting to dry off and pull on my only clean pair of boxers. I was frustrated when I almost fell over and then realized I had both of my legs in one leg of my baggy cargo pants. “Dammit! How could I oversleep like that?” I murmured as I shook the water from my hair and pulled on my favorite black t-shirt. Somehow, I was always late for every class. Today was no exception. I grabbed another Coke as I zipped my pants up and headed out the door. Elie had volunteered to take my book bag the night before from the hospital, and I was really thankful for that. At least Sociology was my only class tonight, and I got to see Lucia again. Somehow, that brightened my outlook on the class by a shade or two.

Despite waking up late and getting ready in such a hurry, I managed to make it to class with a few minutes to spare. Elie greeted me cheerfully while she chatted with her partner about different things on the survey. I sat down in my seat, grabbing my backpack from under Elie’s desk and rummaging through it for a notebook and pen. I knew I was going to have to take notes, as much as I hated to have to. I normally just doodled on my paper or something, I wasn’t big on note taking. No matter how hard I studied notes I never remembered enough to really help when a test came. I was better at just going over chapters then taking the test.

Normally I wouldn’t have noticed people walking in or out of the room, but I was aware of every person that walked through the door, mostly because I was waiting for Lucia. I tried not to be too obvious about it though; it would be awkward explaining it to Elie. He was one of the last ones to enter, taking his place at his desk without even looking at me. He wouldn’t want to ruin his image by suddenly paying attention to the one person in the world he’s supposed to hate most.

It was a dull day, Sieg pretty much reading out of the text book, though I couldn’t have told you what about for the life of me. I drifted in and out of my dream world, trying to avoid the visions of Lucia that I had had earlier and focusing more on the upcoming wedding.

If it weren’t for the fact that my sister would kill me, I probably wouldn’t be in the wedding party. I didn’t like Shuda much, as I mentioned before, and I honestly didn’t think he was good enough for my sister. Then again, I didn’t think any guy was good enough for Catt; she was sweet and honest, not to mention hard-working and stubborn as a mule. After our mom had died from cancer, she pretty much took care of me. Dad had taken to traveling around the world, though he never actually came back home. It was like he wanted to avoid the house where he had lost his only love. We had gotten used to him never being around, and I wondered if he would even bother to be there for his only daughter’s wedding.

“Okay, everyone. Get together with your partners for the last fifteen minutes and try to get as much of this done as you can!” Sieg’s voice broke through my train of thoughts. I sighed, as Elie waved to me with a pitying look on her face. Lucia sat down in the chair she had just occupied, setting down to sheets of paper with multiple questions on it. I still really didn’t want to do this project, even though Lucia and I seemed to be getting along versus our norm. I was never a project type of person anyways.

“Wow… that’s a lot of questions we have to answer…” I murmured out of the blue, looking at the three pages of questions we had to fill out.

“We’re supposed to fill them out about each other either asking the questions directly or just off of observation,” Lucia replied, pointing to the directions at the top of the first page. I sighed. I could have read that, but then again I probably wouldn’t have because I normally had Elie to do that for me. “So. Question one. What’s you’re name?”

“Haha, funny dumb-ass…” I glared at him, scrawling his name on the line that his name was supposed to go on. Was I really expecting him to be any less annoying than he ever was? He wasn’t going to change completely just because we had a level of understanding, after all.

“Male or Female?” his eyes twinkled with amusement. I gave him a nice view of my middle finger and marked down Female for him, just to piss him off. He gave me an evil grin. “You want to confirm that?”

I shook my head. “No thank you, I’m sure none of our classmates would be too happy if you took your pants off… Most of us might be scarred for life,” I replied, shaking my head again. I was glad no one was watching us bicker back and forth like this. It almost made us seem like friends, and honestly it almost felt like it as well.

“Okay, favorite color? Mine just happens to be blue, for future reference,” he blinked, looking up at me as I wrote it down. This might be easier than I thought.

“I like silver… I sort of matches my hair,” I scratched my head with a shrug. “Actually, no, it’s black. I’ve always liked black. Except for when it’s ninety degrees out with a burning sun, then black isn’t so friendly.”

We continued on like this for a few minutes until the question that had been buzzing in my mind since we had parted ways earlier in that day threatened to burst out of my mouth. Everyone was getting up to leave the room when I told him, “Hey, I have a question for you…”

He looked up, grabbing his bag and the survey had had been filling out about me. “Sure, ask it…” he said, tilting his head to the side a little bit. I willed my courage up a bit. I was curious, but I was worried he would see it as trying to pry into his life or something. I hated when people did that to me, though more often then not I found myself spilling the information out anyways.

“Earlier, in the car… You said that the person you liked wouldn’t have even given you a second glance even if you had confessed… I mean, it’s not like there was a girl in school that would have taken the chance to be with you… Why-”

“Because it wasn’t a girl…” he cut me off quietly, looking around as the last couple people left the room. He seemed a bit nervous about something, which I felt was totally un-Lucia-like. He was always so confident in everything he did. “I don’t go for girls…” he took a big breath before saying in a quiet voice: “I’m gay…”

I felt my eyes widen a bit and my jaw drop even more. That hadn’t been the answer I was expecting. He looked at his feet. “Sorry, I guess that would surprise anyone… I can go tell the instructor that you want a different partner if it creeps you out… Sorry…” he turned to walk away, muttering something that I couldn’t comprehend. It was almost like a dream come true to me; all of my dreams and fantasies weren’t completely unrealistic… I ran after him as he left the room, only stopping to grab my book bag.

“Hey, wait, Lucia!” I grabbed his arm pulling him toward a rarely used hallway. I didn’t want to lose probably the only chance I’d have at ever getting to know him, especially since we already made it to this point without really trying. Being with him was easy, talking to him seemed so natural. I felt like something could come of this, even though I didn’t know what and I didn’t exactly know what I wanted from this. “No, really, it’s fine… I don’t need a change of partners.”

He looked at me like my face had just warped into that of some strange alien. It would have been comical if not for the fact that this was a serious subject. I knew how coming out could be a delicate situation. “But you’re face back there in the classroom said otherwise…” he said quietly, tilting his head again. He looked so much like a kitten when he did that.

“I was just, really, really surprised is all… Honestly it’s not that bad!” I said, knowing that if I didn’t stop talking now I’d end up rambling like an old fool. It was a bad habit of mine.

“But why aren’t you, like, freaking out? I mean doesn’t it creep you out knowing your partner’s gay?”

“Not really… I’m not exactly straight myself…” I said with a smile. “Those rumors about me being gay, back in high school… Well, they were partially right. I never dated any guys or anything like that, and I’m attracted to girls as well, but I wanted to shake the rumors completely because I was getting sick of them.”

He nodded, shock clouding his eyes for a moment. “Wow… I never would have guessed, really…” he said, his surprised look turning into a small smile. “Well… I guess this kind of changes everything, doesn’t it?”

I shrugged. “I don’t really see how, other than we know something about each other that nobody else knows. This information is strictly classified by the way! There is no way in hell Elie or anyone else can find out about it! Mostly because they’d go tell my sister and she’d freak out thinking I need mental help or something,” I said, waving my hands in the air at random.

He chuckled, nodding his agreement. “I completely agree with you on that… So are we still going to be meeting on Thursday then?” he asked, looking a little more comfortable than he had in a while. I felt like I had gotten something off my chest that I had needed to for awhile now. It felt good, I felt relieved.

“Sure, that’s fine with me… You can always come over to my apartment so we can work… I have classes until three, we can get together after that…” I replied, trying to remember my class order for that day.

“I actually have to work until five that day… I can be over at, like, six or something like that… if it works for you, of course,” his eyes were wandering over to the main hall, as if he was watching to see if we were being watched. I felt myself doing the same thing. It wasn’t normal for two well-known rivals to be talking in the hallway without fists being involved after all.

“Yeah, that works better, just give me a call and I can give you directions?” I wrote down my phone number on a scrap sheet of paper and handed it to him. He nodded and waved.

“I have to get going to my next class… I’ll see you Thursday, if not before then,” he said, rushing toward the crowd and blending in without another goodbye. I was sort of disappointed. I would have loved to have talked a little more with him. There was one thing I was sure about:

I was going to have one hell of a dream tonight…

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AN: 5-12-2010 :: I added nearly a full page to this today, this is pretty much the re-edited version of this chapter. I’m doing the same for the rest, editing and adding where I see fit. I hope everyone enjoys it!