Sweet As The Punch

Author's Notes: I'm so sorry I haven't updated this faster x.x. My grandmother passed away on the 17th so I was completely out of it. Expect a few days for the next chapter, but I'll eventually go back to post a new chappie every 2-3 days. ^_^

Sweet As The Punch
Chapter 05

Adam chuckled in the car as Mitch left in a hurry for the station. There was something charming about the younger man, even when he was running like a madman in order not to miss the next subway. He kept looking at Mitch's tall frame until he reached the doors of the Crémazie station, and could feel his pain as a wave of people exited. The subway had came in, but hopefully it was the one coming from the opposite direction. "Poor Mitch. I'll drive him around the next time" he thought out loud, starting the car's engine. He had to go back home to get a shower and feed the fish, then he'd go to the university.

Why go when he had no business there? Adam found himself easily distracted at home. With his father around and the fact his computer was in his bedroom, he had a hard time focusing on what needed to be done. The library was a nice place to work at, but if he wanted to talk to someone else or recieve a phone call, it was hell. And well, in the cafeteria, he'd have the chance to meet up with Jakob and his other friends.

His shower done, he went for the kitchen, opening cupboard after cupboard, searching for something to snack on. He brought two apples – one for himself and one for Mitch – and discovered the leftover canellonni from last night's dinner. He took the whole plate and headed outside, thanking his father for the meal.

And thus, the daily rite of teasing began. "No prob son. By the way, no sex last night? I was looking forward to test my new headphones and see if they blocked the noise".

Adam slapped his forehead, cringing. Really, his father had the weirdest timing ever. "No, we fell asleep after watching a movie" he replied as he got into the car. "I'm gonna go meet him anyways, I've got some work to do and being around you wouldn't help. You'd bug me every five minutes asking random questions, like "how many snakes should I put in the stew for dinner?"... so if I wanna get something done, cafeteria is the place to be."

Martin laughed and waved at Adam, who left with the Jeep.

~ ~ ~ ~

The cafeteria was almost empty – only a few students who did like Adam were in there. Some were having breakfast, some were behind piles of books or computer screen, and most were in small teams. At every few tables, there was a teacher or two, and Adam guessed that they might have been waiting on a few students who needed help. Not every teacher was always in class or at their office; some were more social.

He found the female Japanese teacher and took a few minutes to talk to her about his difficulties, asking if he could meet her some time this week. The woman agreed and gave him a time frame to see her back here Friday, and he went off his own corner to get working on a text.

The ideas slowly came to him; he was okay at descriptive text writing; he estimated he could finish it in a few days, if he worked an hour or two per day.

After half an hour of typing ideas over and over again, he decided to take a breather and fetched his MP3 player from his bag; hopefully music would inspire him. When he lifted his head from the black bag, there was someone in front of him.

Raelene.

"Well I didn't see that coming!"

"Hey!" the woman said, sitting in front of him. "How's it going Adam?" she asked, smiling widely.

"She remembers who I am? Geez it DOES work!" "Going good, just waiting on Mitch."

She looked thoughtully at the ceiling. "We had a test, he's still in there. He got in a bit later than usual but he's not gonna flunk it, was too easy. But since he started a bit later than me, I can assume if we do it at the same speed, that he'll finish after me. Right?"

Adam nodded, trying his best not to look at her too much, and focusing his attention on her eyes. He had to agree, however, that he was tempted to look at her breasts. "Yeah. ... He didn't get in trouble because he got in late no?"

Raelene shook her head and giggled. "No, not with the teacher we have. Someone even came in later and he got greeted with a smile."

"Damn, second year teachers sound cooler," Adam said, tapping the right side of his laptop, his mind slowly going back to the task at hand. As he noticed it, he stopped all movements and smiled shyly – was he really turning gay and not noticing what was in front of him? The girl of his dreams?

Then someone else got in his vision: a blonde man with black glasses walking towards them, his back slightly hunched from the backpack he was carrying. Adam's smile grew as he waved at his boyfriend.

"There you are!" Raelene piped in with a fake pout on her face. "Took you long enough, Mr. Clarke." She waited for his reaction, a you've gotta be kidding me look, then spoke again. "Seriously, how did you find it?"

Mitch sat besides Adam and dropped his backpack on the chair next to him. "Expected tougher, really. I didn't expect Adam being here though, what's up hun?" He hugged the older man and this time, his lips went for the others'.

Adam tried not to be shocked. "Been working on something, but I haven't done shit. I hate History homework."

"Bah, that's not so bad" Raelene added. "What's the topic you choose?"

"The war between the Minamoto and the Taira, how they gained power, fought with each other, the aftermath..." he replied. The Heian Period, so far, held his interest; the real story of what happened between the Genji and Heike families would be his focus in his text. "It's a 10-page assignment, if I do concise paragraphs it'll be enough."

"Actually that may be a bit broad" Mitch mentionned. "I'd choose one of them and it would be more than enough, or choose a side..."

Adam nodded. It would be easier and his research would be more focused. In the end, he'd probably get a higher grade for the paper. "Good idea." In return, he hugged the blonde man and kissed him.

Raelene giggled again, then spoke. "I could even help you. I had a good grade for a paper I did on the same subject. Why don't you drop by my place a few times this week?"

For the first time in his entire life, Adam was beyond speechless. Even when a girl had invited him over while he was in another relationship, there had been no hesitation from his part. He automatically accepted. But with Mitch in the picture? Mitch was a man... and men were prone to aggression sometimes. He knew better than to judge a book by its cover and determined that even if Mitch acted harmless despite his 80's hair band style, he could probably pack a hell of a punch...

"I'm thinking too far. Way too far. It's not like Mitch is going to get violent because I'm getting closer to my goal, we agreed to do it all for this..." "Sure, I'll go" he finally replied, once he saw Mitch's face – he had been given the go.

But now Adam was feeling bad for the other. "You gonna be okay Mitch?"

Mitch grinned. "Oh yeah. I've got a band practice anyways, so how about we meet at my place for supper? I feel like going to the restaurant tonight."

Adam concluded that it was a fair deal and accepted the offer. "Suits me, love." They exchanged another kiss before the brown-haired man got up, followed by the woman.

~ ~ ~ ~

So he was finally going to get to know her some more. She viewed him as a gay guy, so of course it had been easy to be invited at her place. Mitch's "he's gay, he's not going to hit on me therefore I can invite him over without getting raped" theory had been proven right.

Adam stopped the car a street before her apartment, located near the Verdun subway station. It was a bit far from university, so even further than home... he needed to get going before 4PM in order to be at Mitch's house before the afternoon rush hour.

"I don't think my roomate's gonna be in, she had a class this afternoon. She's in Philosophy... you should see the pile of books she has to read. But then again, if you're in Philosophy you like to read, and I don't think she views it as work. She finds in genuinely interesting. Personally I don't know how she does. I'd go nuts."

The hardest part of being gay, according to Adam, was listening to the girls instead of looking at them. Not because Raelene was boring, hell no. She talked a lot and he liked it, but it was hard standing there and listening to her. If he could show interest, he'd have brought her closer to him, would probably try to touch her – not too much – and would smile at her in a totally different way. But he had to stick with being friends. For now.

She changed topics. "So how about you and Mitch? You haven't been going out with him for too long and I can see you're pretty close. It's so cute. I'm sorry but I really gotta ask that question: who's the seme?"

Adam stopped in his tracks for a second as his face went blank. What the hell was she talking about?

She giggled and gave him the time to catch up to her. "Who's on top!? Tell me!"

He was thankful she hadn't realized he had no idea of what seme meant, yet gave an explanation anyways. It was a dirty question! Adam blushed just a bit and looked away; it would given him the time to think about answer.

They never had been that close. Then he remembered what Mitch had said to him when he was over at his house, a "I'll let you be the dominant one."

So Adam looked at her from the corner of his eyes and replyed. "I am."

Once again, she giggled – hard – and looked at him with her eyes wide open. "I knew it! He gives the impression he'd be the seme but in the end he's the uke. I knew it... it's so cute!"

Adam mentally slapped his forehead. It was obvious uke was the opposite of seme, and suddenly, the anime talk he'd hear coming from the girls in his classes made a lot more sense. Good thing or bad thing, he couldn't figure it out. It would certainly save his ass when he'd have to talk about anime...

... Did it mean he'd have to watch gay anime too?! He wasn't familiar with it, so faking interest in it would be hard. At most, he could say he wasn't much of an anime fan – which was the truth.

"Say, I'll have to leave early" he said as they finally reached Raelene's apartment, on the second story of a building near a school and a cornershop. "I don't want to get caught in the trafic while going to Mitch's."

"Oh sure, sure." The dark-skinned woman unlocked the door and peeked her head in. "Elaine? You home?" She turned to Adam. "Nope, she isn't. Even if she was it wouldn't matter. Come in."

Adam followed her inside. The apartment looked very tidy and neat; different pairs of shoes were lined on the rug at the entrance, and he could see a litterbox at the corner of what he guessed was the kitchen wall. The blue couch clashed with the white wall and the dark brown coffee table, where books were neatly stacked on each other.

The living room and the kitchen were separated at the right by a dark-brown counter-like table, and the cupboards were made of the same wood. If he looked left, he could see three doors; the girls' bedrooms and the bathroom, most likely.

"Well, that's my apartment. Elaine and I have shared it since college, we love it. We have a kitty too... Zorro..." she called, looking around the room. "It's probably in my bedroom. I'll go get it. It's so cute. It's small and furry.." She stepped out of the living room and into her room, coming back out with a black furrball – Adam thought the Persian kitten might not have been more than two months old. "That's Zorro. Isn't he cute?"

It was ironic and Adam loved irony. Such a small furry animal had the name of an incredible swordsman. "That's adorable... must've cost a fortune."

"But it was so worth it!" Raelene chirped, hugging the kitten. She then put it down and pet it gently before moving to the bookcase, beside the television. "Anyways, about your topic, I've gotten a few books on the Heian period. You may find them useful. Here's one..." She pulled a large book from the bookshelf and dropped it on the couch. "And another... ooh this one's about the Fujiwara family, might help you on what happened... and then there's this Genji Monogatari analysis..."

Adam was about to tell her that he didn't need so many books, but he didn't think she'd have listened anyways. Instead, he petted the cat as well and waited till she was done picking up books.

"I think that's all. But if you need more information I have websites and the teacher's Powerpoint presentation somewhere on my computer..."

Intelligent, pretty, heplful, with an attitude... he was sure he'd love her. "Wow, I'm really thankful for all of that. How come you have so many things on that topic?"

She sat down on the couch and patted the seat beside her. "I killed two birds with one stone – Genji Monogatari analysis and oral presentation in Literrature last year, plus the History final text. I was well prepared."

"With all of that, no kidding..."

From where he was, he could smell her. She wore a spicy perfume; it suited her like Mitch's cologned suited... him... why was he thinking about Mitch? He frowned.

"Anything wrong Adam?" she inquired, seemingly worried.

He came up with a decent excuse, however. "Yeah, I don't think I'll do a very good job anyways. I'm not exactly confident in my writing skills."

Raelene laughed. "That's my strength! Finding information is easy, then writing comes along... if you want to start working on it right now, let's do it. Don't expect me to do it all for you." When he gave her an apologetical look, she continued. "But don't worry, I've helped more than one guy. Actually Mitch needs some stuff for his homeworks as well, I've helped him a few times."

"Sure, thanks."

~ ~ ~ ~

When he exited Raelene's apartment, Adam groaned. He probably would've gone further if he hadn't been pretending to be gay! On the other hand, if he had never done it, he wouldn't have spent a part of his afternoon with Raelne either.

Nonetheless, he had developped a friendship with Mitch. Of course it was more than a friendship, and he found himself wondering about it all as he got back into his car. He wanted to meet up with Mitch and take him out to the restaurant.

Once in the car, he closed his eyes. Did he just admit that he wanted to spend time with Mitch more than with Raelene, or was his mind playing tricks on him? "I told him I was going with him, well I better honor my part of the deal. I'd hate leaving my boyfriend all alone while I'm with another girl..."

He had to admit it. He had taken quite a liking to Mitch.

Adam drove up to the blonde man's house and parked his car on the side of the street, given there was no more room for his SUV. Mitch came out of the house within ten seconds and ran up to him, smiling widely. "Adam, Adam! Hun, guess what!"

"Hm... you love me!"

Mitch was obviously excited. He still had his guitar hanging from his torso and he jumped up and down. "Duh. But come in the garage! We were rehearsing when my aunt came in with... Just come look!" He got a hold on Adam's hand and dragged him to the garage – Mitch's strength was strangely surprising.

The couple got inside using the door on the side of the garage. It was bigger than what Adam thought it had been, but it wasn't the only surprising thing.

In the middle, stood a bright yellow convertible. "Dude I got that for my birthday! In more than a month! It's amazing!!" Mitch screamed – he was going bonkers about the car. "It's a 2008 Saturn Sky, my aunt got the paint job done and the seats changed especially for me, she knows I love bright cars. It's amazing isn't it?!" he continued, still going up and down, under his friends' looks. "She says that it's 'cause she's not gonna be around in October and she wanted to give it to me before... she's leaving in a few days for a trip in Europe. I think I'm gonna add flames to it!"

Adam looked at Mitch's friends, chuckling at the other man's behavior. Mitch looked like a child in a candy store.

"Hun, do me a favor. When we go to the restaurant, drive the thing so I can do something else than focus on that!" Mitch suddenly calmed down and glanced at his pals. "And yeah, that's my new boyfriend, Adam." Then he suddenly elbowed Adan. "Say hi, dumbass."

The brown-haired man waved at the other men in the garage, somewhat surprised they didn't all look like rock stars. "Hey... nice meeting you guys." They waved back at him and smiled; they had been most likely aware of Mitch's homosexuality for a long time, and used to see the different boyfriends the man had.

"He likes it rough!" the small one with short blonde hair shouted, inducing more laughs from the other guys. "By the way, if you go out tonight, wanna get one more song done then you can get a shower?"

"Sounds good to me. Stay here!" Mitch ordered to Adam. "And watch this. We're good!"

~ ~ ~ ~