Fic: Imperfect
Title: Imperfect
Rating: For All Ages
Series: I Want to Go Home!
Disclaimer: Not Korman. Not intending to profit.
Summary:: Rudy wants Mike. Mike isn't interested. Rudy tries to fix this.
I liked this fic, but lorataprose helped make it better. Thanks for the contribution.
The problem with being good at nearly everything, Rudy found himself often thinking, was that the things he wasn't good at were that much harder. Rudy didn't work at anything, so when he found something he had to, the urge to ignore it entirely often overrode the desire to finish what he'd started.
It was why he didn't try to make friends; the effort in figuring out how to keep someone around was too much for Rudy to be willing to work at. It was, similarly, why he tried to stay out of the dating pool. The way girls tended to flock around him, he knew it would be easy to date, and probably close to that easy to get laid every now and then. But he doubted the payoff - a few moments of physical pleasure - would be worth the time, and pain of putting up with a human being he didn't like at all.
And the other goal of dating - a relationship - was a challenge so insurmountable Rudy couldn't imagine approaching, much less accomplishing, it.
At least, these arguments provided a comfortable barrier between Rudy and thoughts about his feelings. As long as he believed that it was simply too hard to tackle, he didn't have to admit attraction, or worse, yearning.
Attraction was, largely, easy enough to deal with. Rudy was adept at controlling his base desires; he was almost certain there were very few people who were aware he was capable of sexual attraction. So he could ignore the startled spark of heat when he caught sight of skin exposed, unintended. He could conceal the flush of arousal when a casual touch lingered longer than he was used to.
What he couldn't ignore was the moment when he realized how much he disliked every single person Michael Webster had dated. Even that, he could have chalked up to the fact that Mike tended to date people, which meant, statistically, Rudy was not going to like them. Except he'd started feeling annoyed when Mike told him about his dates, long before he met the individual unfortunate enough to have earned Rudy Miller's ire.
Four women and two men lasted longer than one meeting with Rudy; the woman Rudy affectionately thought of as Number Fifteen and-a-Half hung on for four dates and a month, and Number Thirty lasted nearly three months through sheer indifference to everything, including, as it turned out, Mike.
But as much as Rudy disliked them, he couldn't imagine making an effort himself. He might be able to talk Mike into sleeping with him; he was good at talking Mike into doing things he'd rather not. But after that - Rudy didn't have the first idea about how to make it happen again, and knew that if he screwed it up, he wouldn't get to see Mike at all. He had no experience, no knowledge, and the price of failure was too much for Rudy even to contemplate.
Nevertheless, Rudy almost felt guilty for the small thrill of satisfaction when, one stormy Friday night, Mike stormed into Rudy's apartment and announced he was through with dating.
Almost.
"Giving up?" Rudy demanded. "Frankly, I'm disappointed. I thought you really had something with Number Sixty-Three."
"I wish you'd stop referring to them by number," Mike sighed. He dropped onto Rudy's couch and slung his head back. "They're people, not experiments."
"When one of them sticks around long enough that it becomes necessary, I'll learn their name."
Mike let out a tired groan. "Fine. Whatever."
"But giving up? I thought I'd taught you better than that. What would have happened if you'd given up on that freshman chemistry course?"
"I would've gone to the St. Patrick's Day dance with eyebrows," Mike replied.
Rudy, who remembered Number Forty-Three's look of horror at Mike sans eyebrows, didn't smirk, but was almost certain Mike knew he was trying not to. He hadn't intended to burn off Mike's eyebrows, but he had a knack for making things work out in his favor even when he wasn't trying.
"True. But a true friend stands beside you, even when you've lost the hair from your forehead."
"If I recall, you laughed at me for twenty minutes," Mike said reproachfully.
"I don't laugh," Rudy replied, and Mike snorted.
"Sure. Whatever you say. What about you?"
Rudy's heart gave a sideways lurch. "What about me?"
"Do you honestly think I should keep dating?"
"I'm not your mother," Rudy retorted.
"Jeez, that'd be weird," Mike replied. "Come on; I know you've hated every single person I've dated-"
"That's not true. I thought Number Twelve was acceptable."
"Wha-Rudy, she was a kleptomaniac!"
"She kept you on your toes."
"What about..." Mike trailed off, face contorting into a charming look of intense thought. After a moment, it shifted to an expression of irritation. "I can't remember her name! That girl with the piercings who thought you were hilarious!"
"Number Twenty-Two?" Rudy asked. "She was a nut."
Mike sighed and dropped to the courch next to Rudy. "That's exactly what I'm talking about. I think you scare most of them off." Rudy opened his mouth to give a half-hearted apology, but Mike plowed forward. "Don't say anything. I know you're not doing it on purpose-" Which showed how much Mike knew, Rudy thought, uncharitably. "But I can't dream of spending the rest of my life with someone who can't get along with my best friend. Really, it'd be a lot easier if I could just date you, but we know that's never going to happen."
Rudy's heart stopped. He scrambled to formulate a response, any response.
"What?" he choked out.
"I know, I know, you don't do touching, or...anything, really," Mike said. "I'm just saying that you're my friend, and...attractive, and..." His face paled, a look of panic replacing Mike's genial grin. "Oh god, I've got to go."
He bolted from the apartment with little more than an almost-inaudible whimper before Rudy could react, which was just as well, really. If Mike had stayed for a moment longer, Rudy might have done something stupid like kissing him.
It took Rudy nearly an hour to both calm down and convince himself why kissing Mike would be a bad idea. For one thing, Mike was convinced Rudy was asexual, which, given his history, wasn't an unreasonable assumption. Kissing Mike would undoubtedly confuse the other boy, and given that Rudy's goal was to get Mike totally on board with the kissing thing, confusing him would waste valuable time.
What Rudy needed was a plan.
Luckily, Rudy was good at plans.
*
As they approached the entrance to the restaurant, Mike half-heartedly struggled against the firm hand around his wrist.
"What is this about?" he demanded, scowling. Now that he was aware Mike actually thought of him as attractive, Rudy found it harder to ignore the urge to kiss him when Mike gave him that exasperated look.
"I thought I'd help you get back into the dating pool," Rudy replied.
"Back in - Rudy, I have no desire to engage in another futile exercise in trying to get someone to like me. And besides, you've got that plotting look. This has nothing to do with my well-being, does it?"
Rudy felt the flush wash over his face. Mike didn't do it often, but he had learned to identify enough cues to call Rudy on his attempts to bullshit. And he suspected that Mike was serious about this dating thing, at least for the time being; he didn't tend to accuse Rudy of lying unless he was too frustrated to make an effort of humoring him.
"Fine, you caught me. I was asking this girl out, and she wanted to know if I could hook up her friend up at the same time-"
"Wait. Asking a girl out?" If Rudy had been in a normal state of mind, he would have enjoyed the numb, shocked look that crawled up Mike's face. "You were asking a girl out? On a date?"
"No, I thought we could be anti-social together," Rudy replied, rolling his eyes. "Look, you'll like Diane. She worries all the time, just like you."
Mike shook his head, but half-heartedly, as if to clear it. "Fine. I can sit through a date for your sake. But since when do you date?"
"What? Just because you've given up on the fairer sex means no one else can try? Some might argue that you giving up simply means there's less competition."
Mike opened his mouth to reply, then shut it smartly, and then gave a curt nod. "Fine. Let's go."
Rudy frowned. That was not how this was supposed to go. Mike was supposed to laugh; it was the sort of comment that should have elicited at least a snicker.
Mike remained disturbingly quiet as they met the girls, Cathy all sharp comments and a penchant for excitement, and Diane, a more subdued but still dangerous woman. It wasn't the worst evening Rudy had ever had, but Mike's mood was a significant damper on the mood. And Cathy kept shooting him speculative looks that made him uncomfortable. She looked like she knew him, and that put Rudy on edge because there was only one person that knew him, and as far as he was concerned, only one person was allowed.
Mike left as soon as the check was paid, leaving Rudy alone at a table with two women and no idea what to say.
He must have made some excuse, because the next thing he remembered was walking slowly back from the restaurant on his own.
He didn't ask Mike out on another double date, but he did continue to mention the dates he was having, making sure he didn't have more dates, on average, than Mike used to have. He didn't want to give Mike the idea that he was a sex fiend or anything. When, during Mike and Rudy's annual St. Patrick's Day bender, an unsteady man asked for Rudy's number, Rudy had done so without thought. It was only afterwards that he saw Mike's jaw clench, his eyes narrow, and then Mike was out the door in a blur.
Rudy paused only a moment, and then followed.
He found Mike viciously kicking the wall of a nearby alley.
"Mike?"
Mike whirled, and for a moment, there was such hate in that glare that Rudy's heart skipped a beat. And then Mike looked nothing more than miserable.
"You could have just said, you know," he muttered.
"Said what?"
Mike's face screwed up in anger. "God, you're the most passive-aggressive person I know!" He kicked the wall again. "I thought I knew you. And I thought I'd figured you out. You started dating all those girls because you wanted me to be very, absolutely clear that you're straight. I could get that. And then you-" He broke off, scowling. "You could have just told me you weren't interested."
Rudy didn't reply immediately, struck how for the first time he really had no idea how to talk to Mike, because they had ventured into the realm of feelings.
"You could have told me, instead of spending all this time showing me everyone that you'd rather have than me," Mike snapped. "I got why you were trying to show me you didn't like guys, but this is just - you're really an asshole, you know that, Rudy?"
Rudy was starting to feel cornered and panicked. The angry words cut at him, almost entirely because he'd screwed up so badly that Mike was hurt. He felt a suddent urge, a push to do something, anything to stop the words, to show Mike what was going through his head.
So he acted without thinking, grabbed Mike and kissed him.
He wasn't certain if he was any good or not; Mike struggled for a moment, but then fell quiescent. But he didn't join in, and when Rudy pulled away, Mike was silent and unmoving.
But for a brief moment, Rudy was free of fear; he'd managed to piss off Mike anyway, so kissing him couldn't make things much worse.
When Mike punched Rudy in the stomach, Rudy revised his opinion slightly. It could get a tad worse; the only question was whether he wanted to let Mike beat the hell out of him or not.
"What the hell was that?" Mike demanded.
"A kiss," Rudy wheezed. "I should have thought you'd have enough experience to recognize one."
"That's not-" Mike let out a wordless cry of annoyance. "Why did you kiss me?"
A hundred responses flickered through Rudy's mind; he tried to feel what would be the best, what he could say to fix this.
"Rudy?"
Rudy flushed under Mike's curious gaze, and settled for the simplest, and hardest, response. "I wanted to."
"Was this a one-time thing, or do you normally want to kiss me?"
"Most of the time," Rudy replied. "Except when you've been eating onions." That earned a presumably unanticipated snort of amusement from Mike.
"Then what the hell is all of this? Why are you suddenly dating anything with a pulse?"
"I haven't been dating more than you used to," Rudy replied defensively.
"I did-" Mike stopped mid-sentence, considering. After a moment, he jabbed a finger at Rudy. "You've been keeping track! What the hell is going on here?"
Rudy gulped. This was the really hard part. This was where he had to be right the first time around. "I wanted to make it clear that I'd be willing to go out...if someone asked me."
"Yes, you made that clear when you let that frat boy get your number!"
"Mike-" Rudy started, and then stopped. "I wanted to make it clear that I'd be willing to date someone...if. Someone. Asked. Me."
Mike's jaw slipped open. He snapped it closed, and then it fell open again. Finally, he closed it carefully, and closed the few feet between him and Rudy, eyes narrow and mouth set in a downward-turning line. Downward-turning was bad, was the only thought Rudy managed before Mike poked him in the chest. Poked him hard.
"You are a grade-A, utterly unrepentant, world-class TWIT!" Mike snapped. And then he grabbed Rudy by the shoulders and tugged him close. It wasn't quite a hug, but Rudy was pressed flush with Mike, and Mike's mouth was very close to Rudy's ear. "Did it ever occur to you that if you just told me you wanted me, I might take it well?"
Rudy just shook his head. He'd lost the ability to think coherently, and wasn't entirely certain what was going on anymore.
Mike exhaled, causing a faint breeze to blow across Rudy's neck. He shivered at the sensation. "So. Rudy. I've been thinking. You're pretty attractive. And pretty much my best friend, ever. And did I mention really, really sexy? So. How about a date?"
"Ah..."
Mike pulled back, assessing Rudy's stance and expression, and then gave him a soft grin. It was so totally unlike Mike that Rudy almost pulled back again. "You know, you never worried about failing when we were trying to escape Alcatraz. You were always ready to try again." His grin suddenly turned into a smirk. "And you never worried about me not going along for the ride. Afraid you've lost your touch?"
Rudy didn't respond to the bait; instead, he almost pointed out how easily this could go wrong. He wanted to tell Mike to just forget it; they could just be friends. But Mike had nailed it; this was like Alcatraz. The pursuit could be just as much fun as the goal, and he could take pleasure in the little victories. Of course, he would prefer to suceed, but for now, the journey could be a hell of a lot of fun.
He nodded, curtly, uncertain if he could manage anything more complicated.
Mike grinned and closed the distance between their mouths, and kissed Rudy. It wasn't quite perfect; Rudy had far less experience, and neither of them had much practice with each other. But it was a promise of a sort, and it was Mike, so for the moment, it was about the best Rudy could hope for.
When Mike pulled back, he was still grinning. "So, you really wanted to do that?"
"Of course," Rudy replied, just a little annoyed. He was, admittedly, also feeling a little warm and cheerful. "If I didn't want to, would have I done it?"
Mike shook his head. "But I like hearing you say it. Maybe," he added, and leaning so his mouth was near Rudy's ear again, "we could head back to your place and talk about what else you want to do."
And that took the strange unreality that had coated the last few minutes and rooted it firmly in reality. Rudy was suddenly acutely aware of Mike's proximity to him, and what that did to him.
"Yeah," he replied. "Maybe get in a little practice."
Mike snorted. "You don't need any practice."
"Maybe. But I want to." And that made Mike flush and gave Rudy the satisfaction of seeing that whatever Mike did to him, he could do to Mike. So they were on equal footing, really. And there'd be mistakes, fights, and probably a few screaming matches.
But that was okay. No one was perfect.
Rating: For All Ages
Series: I Want to Go Home!
Disclaimer: Not Korman. Not intending to profit.
Summary:: Rudy wants Mike. Mike isn't interested. Rudy tries to fix this.
I liked this fic, but lorataprose helped make it better. Thanks for the contribution.
The problem with being good at nearly everything, Rudy found himself often thinking, was that the things he wasn't good at were that much harder. Rudy didn't work at anything, so when he found something he had to, the urge to ignore it entirely often overrode the desire to finish what he'd started.
It was why he didn't try to make friends; the effort in figuring out how to keep someone around was too much for Rudy to be willing to work at. It was, similarly, why he tried to stay out of the dating pool. The way girls tended to flock around him, he knew it would be easy to date, and probably close to that easy to get laid every now and then. But he doubted the payoff - a few moments of physical pleasure - would be worth the time, and pain of putting up with a human being he didn't like at all.
And the other goal of dating - a relationship - was a challenge so insurmountable Rudy couldn't imagine approaching, much less accomplishing, it.
At least, these arguments provided a comfortable barrier between Rudy and thoughts about his feelings. As long as he believed that it was simply too hard to tackle, he didn't have to admit attraction, or worse, yearning.
Attraction was, largely, easy enough to deal with. Rudy was adept at controlling his base desires; he was almost certain there were very few people who were aware he was capable of sexual attraction. So he could ignore the startled spark of heat when he caught sight of skin exposed, unintended. He could conceal the flush of arousal when a casual touch lingered longer than he was used to.
What he couldn't ignore was the moment when he realized how much he disliked every single person Michael Webster had dated. Even that, he could have chalked up to the fact that Mike tended to date people, which meant, statistically, Rudy was not going to like them. Except he'd started feeling annoyed when Mike told him about his dates, long before he met the individual unfortunate enough to have earned Rudy Miller's ire.
Four women and two men lasted longer than one meeting with Rudy; the woman Rudy affectionately thought of as Number Fifteen and-a-Half hung on for four dates and a month, and Number Thirty lasted nearly three months through sheer indifference to everything, including, as it turned out, Mike.
But as much as Rudy disliked them, he couldn't imagine making an effort himself. He might be able to talk Mike into sleeping with him; he was good at talking Mike into doing things he'd rather not. But after that - Rudy didn't have the first idea about how to make it happen again, and knew that if he screwed it up, he wouldn't get to see Mike at all. He had no experience, no knowledge, and the price of failure was too much for Rudy even to contemplate.
Nevertheless, Rudy almost felt guilty for the small thrill of satisfaction when, one stormy Friday night, Mike stormed into Rudy's apartment and announced he was through with dating.
Almost.
"Giving up?" Rudy demanded. "Frankly, I'm disappointed. I thought you really had something with Number Sixty-Three."
"I wish you'd stop referring to them by number," Mike sighed. He dropped onto Rudy's couch and slung his head back. "They're people, not experiments."
"When one of them sticks around long enough that it becomes necessary, I'll learn their name."
Mike let out a tired groan. "Fine. Whatever."
"But giving up? I thought I'd taught you better than that. What would have happened if you'd given up on that freshman chemistry course?"
"I would've gone to the St. Patrick's Day dance with eyebrows," Mike replied.
Rudy, who remembered Number Forty-Three's look of horror at Mike sans eyebrows, didn't smirk, but was almost certain Mike knew he was trying not to. He hadn't intended to burn off Mike's eyebrows, but he had a knack for making things work out in his favor even when he wasn't trying.
"True. But a true friend stands beside you, even when you've lost the hair from your forehead."
"If I recall, you laughed at me for twenty minutes," Mike said reproachfully.
"I don't laugh," Rudy replied, and Mike snorted.
"Sure. Whatever you say. What about you?"
Rudy's heart gave a sideways lurch. "What about me?"
"Do you honestly think I should keep dating?"
"I'm not your mother," Rudy retorted.
"Jeez, that'd be weird," Mike replied. "Come on; I know you've hated every single person I've dated-"
"That's not true. I thought Number Twelve was acceptable."
"Wha-Rudy, she was a kleptomaniac!"
"She kept you on your toes."
"What about..." Mike trailed off, face contorting into a charming look of intense thought. After a moment, it shifted to an expression of irritation. "I can't remember her name! That girl with the piercings who thought you were hilarious!"
"Number Twenty-Two?" Rudy asked. "She was a nut."
Mike sighed and dropped to the courch next to Rudy. "That's exactly what I'm talking about. I think you scare most of them off." Rudy opened his mouth to give a half-hearted apology, but Mike plowed forward. "Don't say anything. I know you're not doing it on purpose-" Which showed how much Mike knew, Rudy thought, uncharitably. "But I can't dream of spending the rest of my life with someone who can't get along with my best friend. Really, it'd be a lot easier if I could just date you, but we know that's never going to happen."
Rudy's heart stopped. He scrambled to formulate a response, any response.
"What?" he choked out.
"I know, I know, you don't do touching, or...anything, really," Mike said. "I'm just saying that you're my friend, and...attractive, and..." His face paled, a look of panic replacing Mike's genial grin. "Oh god, I've got to go."
He bolted from the apartment with little more than an almost-inaudible whimper before Rudy could react, which was just as well, really. If Mike had stayed for a moment longer, Rudy might have done something stupid like kissing him.
It took Rudy nearly an hour to both calm down and convince himself why kissing Mike would be a bad idea. For one thing, Mike was convinced Rudy was asexual, which, given his history, wasn't an unreasonable assumption. Kissing Mike would undoubtedly confuse the other boy, and given that Rudy's goal was to get Mike totally on board with the kissing thing, confusing him would waste valuable time.
What Rudy needed was a plan.
Luckily, Rudy was good at plans.
*
As they approached the entrance to the restaurant, Mike half-heartedly struggled against the firm hand around his wrist.
"What is this about?" he demanded, scowling. Now that he was aware Mike actually thought of him as attractive, Rudy found it harder to ignore the urge to kiss him when Mike gave him that exasperated look.
"I thought I'd help you get back into the dating pool," Rudy replied.
"Back in - Rudy, I have no desire to engage in another futile exercise in trying to get someone to like me. And besides, you've got that plotting look. This has nothing to do with my well-being, does it?"
Rudy felt the flush wash over his face. Mike didn't do it often, but he had learned to identify enough cues to call Rudy on his attempts to bullshit. And he suspected that Mike was serious about this dating thing, at least for the time being; he didn't tend to accuse Rudy of lying unless he was too frustrated to make an effort of humoring him.
"Fine, you caught me. I was asking this girl out, and she wanted to know if I could hook up her friend up at the same time-"
"Wait. Asking a girl out?" If Rudy had been in a normal state of mind, he would have enjoyed the numb, shocked look that crawled up Mike's face. "You were asking a girl out? On a date?"
"No, I thought we could be anti-social together," Rudy replied, rolling his eyes. "Look, you'll like Diane. She worries all the time, just like you."
Mike shook his head, but half-heartedly, as if to clear it. "Fine. I can sit through a date for your sake. But since when do you date?"
"What? Just because you've given up on the fairer sex means no one else can try? Some might argue that you giving up simply means there's less competition."
Mike opened his mouth to reply, then shut it smartly, and then gave a curt nod. "Fine. Let's go."
Rudy frowned. That was not how this was supposed to go. Mike was supposed to laugh; it was the sort of comment that should have elicited at least a snicker.
Mike remained disturbingly quiet as they met the girls, Cathy all sharp comments and a penchant for excitement, and Diane, a more subdued but still dangerous woman. It wasn't the worst evening Rudy had ever had, but Mike's mood was a significant damper on the mood. And Cathy kept shooting him speculative looks that made him uncomfortable. She looked like she knew him, and that put Rudy on edge because there was only one person that knew him, and as far as he was concerned, only one person was allowed.
Mike left as soon as the check was paid, leaving Rudy alone at a table with two women and no idea what to say.
He must have made some excuse, because the next thing he remembered was walking slowly back from the restaurant on his own.
He didn't ask Mike out on another double date, but he did continue to mention the dates he was having, making sure he didn't have more dates, on average, than Mike used to have. He didn't want to give Mike the idea that he was a sex fiend or anything. When, during Mike and Rudy's annual St. Patrick's Day bender, an unsteady man asked for Rudy's number, Rudy had done so without thought. It was only afterwards that he saw Mike's jaw clench, his eyes narrow, and then Mike was out the door in a blur.
Rudy paused only a moment, and then followed.
He found Mike viciously kicking the wall of a nearby alley.
"Mike?"
Mike whirled, and for a moment, there was such hate in that glare that Rudy's heart skipped a beat. And then Mike looked nothing more than miserable.
"You could have just said, you know," he muttered.
"Said what?"
Mike's face screwed up in anger. "God, you're the most passive-aggressive person I know!" He kicked the wall again. "I thought I knew you. And I thought I'd figured you out. You started dating all those girls because you wanted me to be very, absolutely clear that you're straight. I could get that. And then you-" He broke off, scowling. "You could have just told me you weren't interested."
Rudy didn't reply immediately, struck how for the first time he really had no idea how to talk to Mike, because they had ventured into the realm of feelings.
"You could have told me, instead of spending all this time showing me everyone that you'd rather have than me," Mike snapped. "I got why you were trying to show me you didn't like guys, but this is just - you're really an asshole, you know that, Rudy?"
Rudy was starting to feel cornered and panicked. The angry words cut at him, almost entirely because he'd screwed up so badly that Mike was hurt. He felt a suddent urge, a push to do something, anything to stop the words, to show Mike what was going through his head.
So he acted without thinking, grabbed Mike and kissed him.
He wasn't certain if he was any good or not; Mike struggled for a moment, but then fell quiescent. But he didn't join in, and when Rudy pulled away, Mike was silent and unmoving.
But for a brief moment, Rudy was free of fear; he'd managed to piss off Mike anyway, so kissing him couldn't make things much worse.
When Mike punched Rudy in the stomach, Rudy revised his opinion slightly. It could get a tad worse; the only question was whether he wanted to let Mike beat the hell out of him or not.
"What the hell was that?" Mike demanded.
"A kiss," Rudy wheezed. "I should have thought you'd have enough experience to recognize one."
"That's not-" Mike let out a wordless cry of annoyance. "Why did you kiss me?"
A hundred responses flickered through Rudy's mind; he tried to feel what would be the best, what he could say to fix this.
"Rudy?"
Rudy flushed under Mike's curious gaze, and settled for the simplest, and hardest, response. "I wanted to."
"Was this a one-time thing, or do you normally want to kiss me?"
"Most of the time," Rudy replied. "Except when you've been eating onions." That earned a presumably unanticipated snort of amusement from Mike.
"Then what the hell is all of this? Why are you suddenly dating anything with a pulse?"
"I haven't been dating more than you used to," Rudy replied defensively.
"I did-" Mike stopped mid-sentence, considering. After a moment, he jabbed a finger at Rudy. "You've been keeping track! What the hell is going on here?"
Rudy gulped. This was the really hard part. This was where he had to be right the first time around. "I wanted to make it clear that I'd be willing to go out...if someone asked me."
"Yes, you made that clear when you let that frat boy get your number!"
"Mike-" Rudy started, and then stopped. "I wanted to make it clear that I'd be willing to date someone...if. Someone. Asked. Me."
Mike's jaw slipped open. He snapped it closed, and then it fell open again. Finally, he closed it carefully, and closed the few feet between him and Rudy, eyes narrow and mouth set in a downward-turning line. Downward-turning was bad, was the only thought Rudy managed before Mike poked him in the chest. Poked him hard.
"You are a grade-A, utterly unrepentant, world-class TWIT!" Mike snapped. And then he grabbed Rudy by the shoulders and tugged him close. It wasn't quite a hug, but Rudy was pressed flush with Mike, and Mike's mouth was very close to Rudy's ear. "Did it ever occur to you that if you just told me you wanted me, I might take it well?"
Rudy just shook his head. He'd lost the ability to think coherently, and wasn't entirely certain what was going on anymore.
Mike exhaled, causing a faint breeze to blow across Rudy's neck. He shivered at the sensation. "So. Rudy. I've been thinking. You're pretty attractive. And pretty much my best friend, ever. And did I mention really, really sexy? So. How about a date?"
"Ah..."
Mike pulled back, assessing Rudy's stance and expression, and then gave him a soft grin. It was so totally unlike Mike that Rudy almost pulled back again. "You know, you never worried about failing when we were trying to escape Alcatraz. You were always ready to try again." His grin suddenly turned into a smirk. "And you never worried about me not going along for the ride. Afraid you've lost your touch?"
Rudy didn't respond to the bait; instead, he almost pointed out how easily this could go wrong. He wanted to tell Mike to just forget it; they could just be friends. But Mike had nailed it; this was like Alcatraz. The pursuit could be just as much fun as the goal, and he could take pleasure in the little victories. Of course, he would prefer to suceed, but for now, the journey could be a hell of a lot of fun.
He nodded, curtly, uncertain if he could manage anything more complicated.
Mike grinned and closed the distance between their mouths, and kissed Rudy. It wasn't quite perfect; Rudy had far less experience, and neither of them had much practice with each other. But it was a promise of a sort, and it was Mike, so for the moment, it was about the best Rudy could hope for.
When Mike pulled back, he was still grinning. "So, you really wanted to do that?"
"Of course," Rudy replied, just a little annoyed. He was, admittedly, also feeling a little warm and cheerful. "If I didn't want to, would have I done it?"
Mike shook his head. "But I like hearing you say it. Maybe," he added, and leaning so his mouth was near Rudy's ear again, "we could head back to your place and talk about what else you want to do."
And that took the strange unreality that had coated the last few minutes and rooted it firmly in reality. Rudy was suddenly acutely aware of Mike's proximity to him, and what that did to him.
"Yeah," he replied. "Maybe get in a little practice."
Mike snorted. "You don't need any practice."
"Maybe. But I want to." And that made Mike flush and gave Rudy the satisfaction of seeing that whatever Mike did to him, he could do to Mike. So they were on equal footing, really. And there'd be mistakes, fights, and probably a few screaming matches.
But that was okay. No one was perfect.