ekaterinn | Fic: Drawing Hearts On Lattes

Happy Valentine's Day! I come bearing fic! ...You can stop snickering now, I mean it, I actually wrote something! *g*

This is a story set in mine and

rue_du_hoquet's Bookverse AU, where John is a nearsighted librarian and Rodney owns a bookstore in Boston.

Their first date was on Valentine's Day, though, to be honest, John hadn't realised it was a date at the time. He didn't even know it was Valentine's Day, though after the first fifteen minutes of listening to Rodney rant about the commercialization of love in modern society and how it encourages neuroses and disgusting displays of public affection, he leaned over and told the barista to draw a heart on Rodney's latte just because. Rodney had muttered "jerk," and John laughed at him. Then he laughed again because he was so surprised at himself, at this ease with this red-faced sputtering gay science bookstore owner, so outside of the narrow tracks he's made for his life from his apartment to the library to the shelter where he volunteers.

At the end of that night, after they had talked - with Rodney ranting and John making snide remarks - for three hours and Rodney had given him a book, thrusting it into John's hands brusquely - after all that, Rodney had hugged him. John had almost stepped back, startled by the unexpected contact, but at the last moment, had leaned in instead, wrapping his arms awkwardly around Rodney.

Maybe he should have realised it was a date then, but he had been distracted by the memory of the last time he had been hugged - by Gretchen, who was sixty and smelled like cinnamon cookies, as she left the library for good, taking early retirement and going to Florida. She had hugged him and said goodbye in the same way that she had embraced him when he had first come to the library with his girlfriend gone and his mom dead, making fatalistic comparisons in his head to the way his glasses broke when he stepped on them and his life right now.

Rodney's arms tightened around him when John hugged back and his lips touched the tip of John's left ear, and really John should've realised it was a date then, but he had been so busy thinking about goodbyes that he'd nearly missed the beginning in front of him. It was only when Rodney had untangled himself from John and said, "I'll. Um. See you around?" that he noticed that his heart was beating like the flurry of wings on a tiny bird. John took a deep breath, and another, and looked at Rodney: crumpled shirt, brown wispy hair, hands clenched together nervously and eyes shockingly blue, even in the dim light of the streetlight. Then he smiled and replied, "Yeah. See you."

A year later, John finds himself standing in line at that same coffeehouse, killing time by watching the green-haired chick make out with the guy wearing Oxfords. Rodney's at the bookstore, cursing out Chuck for ordering more botany books, but John can almost hear him anyway, muttering darkly about disgusting displays of public affection and loudly whispering about how those two must be the most mismatched couple since Radek and his crazy, shrieking, fork-throwing ex-wife. He grins, and when the barista asks him what he wants, he tells her to draw a heart on Rodney's latte.

Summary: And really John should've realised it was a date then, but he had been so busy thinking about goodbyes that he'd nearly missed the beginning in front of him.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: R.E.M. - Nightswimming

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From:

bethynyc.livejournal.com

Oh this is lovely! I really like the idea of this AU--is there more wandering about or collected where it can be read easily?

(typo--last para: shrieking for shierking)

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Fic: Drawing Hearts On Lattes

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