((Fo' Sammie))

Ah, there's nothing like reading on your birthday.
Actually, Bo seems to have forgotten his own birthday: his cell phone is off, preventing Keye from calling or sending anything, and he is sitting alone in Jacobson's, with his nose pressed to the musty pages of Faust.

Alexander sort of wandered in here; he likes bookstores, and it's a quiet place to go when he doesn't have anything specific he wants to do, he wants to think, and he's not brooding.

And then he spots Bo, and isn't it a marvelous coincidence?

He's wearing sneaker type shoes, so his footsteps are quiet, and the bookstore seems to muffle sound anyways...

"I always liked Mephistopheles."

He doesn't look up. One hand, ring-bedecked and jingling very faintly, rises and points.
"The...the translation is over there..."
Thinking in two languages at once is still awkward.

Yes, I imagine it would be.

"I have multiple ones at home, actually."

He doesn't move away, though. Actually, his hand is rising, hovering over Bo's shoulder, as if he wants to put it on the hybrid. That would be a bit bold for Alexander, don't you think?

Considering the other, far more shocking things he's done with Bo? I'm not sure.

"Mmm. D--German's better."

He hasn't noticed that it's Alexander yet, by the by.

Yes, but those were under special circumstances. And usually it's Bo who has to start the touching.

"I don't speak German, remember?"

And there goes the hand, settling on Bo's shoulder and Alexander's leaning down next to his ear.

"You remind me of him, actually."

Mephistopheles, that would be.

"Mephistopheles?"
Bo looked up at him, at first confused and then irritated.
"Va--why? I do not think--I--why would you say a thing like that?"

"Because your very existence is a temptation to me, and if you asked for it, I have no doubt I would give you my soul."

He's smiling in a slightly mischievous way, but there's an underlying seriousness to what he's saying.

And then he kisses Bo on the lips, almost shyly. It's nothing like the desperate way he was reacting to Bo last time... Alexander is so strange.

"Heavens." he says, perhaps ironically, his expression softening. He kisses Alexander back.
"You're eloquent this evening."

"I am a writer," Alexander points out. "You seem to have the misfortune of always seeing me in the middle of a crisis. For tonight, that's not so."

Probably the next time they encounter each other, Alexander will be back to being broody and moody and generally difficult. It's a wonder that Bo managed to find someone to care for under all that.

And it's too bad that underneath the someone that one can care for is someone who's utterly ruthless and completely without morals.

"Well, that's a good thing to see." Bo kisses him again.
"I don't think anyone's ever spoken to me that way. Is there any occaision for such lovely prose, aside from lack of crises?"

Alexander shrugs a little, a small grin hovering on his mouth, probably largely due to the multiple kisses. (What? They feel good, and he likes it that Bo isn't trying to keep things 'cool' anymore.)

"Well, I did find out rather accidentally that today is your birthday..."

It still makes him feel old. And he's awfully conscious of the age difference between them, again. He's more than twice Bo's age.

"Today is--"
He frowns deeply in thought.
"Well. It is, isn't it? I'd forgotten. You're a dear."

Alexander shrugged.

"Keye was making a birthday card for you. I asked about it."

But he's absurdly pleased that Bo called him a dear.

"... I feel I ought to do something special..."

"Was he? That's sweet of him. I'll bet he's upset because I have my cell off; I wanted to disconnect, today."
He grins up at Alexander, fingers tapping on the edges of the book.
"Now, when you say special, what do you have in mind?"
His grin took on a teasing look, and he tapped Alexander's nose lightly.
"Special, by the way, would involve something we don't usually do."

"I honestly don't know. I haven't done anything of that sort for decades." Remember, Bo? You're his first romantic attachment since he was about eighteen.

I mean she.

I mean...

I really hate gender-pronouns in Alexander's past. Really.

"Is there something you had in mind?"

One can almost see the lightbulb going on over his head. It is an evil little lightbulb. His smile, however, is utterly sweet and innocent, and you will not regret giving me whatever I want.
"Let's go dancing!"

"..."

Alexander looks rather as though Bo whacked him with the book.

"I beg your pardon?"

Bo pretends to be miffed and goes back to his book.
"You don't have to look like that, it's not as if I asked for your soul."

He's only playing. If he gets the feeling that he's hurting Alexander, he'll stop. And he'll quit begging for dancing, too, if Alexander really, really (there will have to be a lot of reallies) doesn't want to go.

"I seem to recall saying I would give that to you," Alexander responds, putting a hand in between Bo and the book and still with that peculiar dumbfounded look.

"I just... I haven't been dancing for years, and I'm quite certain that it's changed a good deal since..."

By which he means he has absolutely no idea how to go about it.

Bo took his hand and kissed it (he does a lot of kissing in...erm...a lot of places).
"I was joking. I can always teach you...but if it makes you uncomfortable, that's quite all right and we won't go."

A-hem.

Alexander strokes Bo's cheek thoughtfully, getting that distant, pensive look on his face that he sometimes gets. (The one without the undercurrent of anger/depression/what-have-you.)

"... it's your birthday..."

That means 'Yes.'

"Are you sure?"
He's already standing up, his eyes gleaming eagerly.
Look at it this way, Alex: it won't be a fruitless night of humiliation. There's a reward at the end.

"I... suppose..."

Alexander is not sure, actually. In any way, shape, or form. But he offered, and gave Bo the choice of what to do, and he would feel bad about backing out, before they'd even done anything.

"... where to?"

"Well, Dark's always a good place. Crowded, too, nobody will notice you. But..."
An evil little smirk plays about his lips. It's a lovely evil little smirk, which is done on purpose, of course.
"You have to look less...academic."

"How do you mean?"

Alexander's getting a bit wary.

... Bo's going to make him wear something completely outrageous, isn't he.

"There are a couple of shops I know..."
Bo is thinking vinyl, chains...
Poor Alex.
Then he reaches up with two fingers and smoothes the grey streaks at Alexander's temples (it's odd, because they really highlight the age difference, but Bo loves those).
"Does dye take on grey?"

"You are not dying my hair."

And that's final.

He'll wear whatever incredibly insane outfit Bo picks for him, tonight only, but he's not going to make a semi-permanent change to his appearance in order to go dancing.

And, by the way, dye does take on grey.

Pout.
"Not permanent dye. Just the stuff that only lasts for one shampoo. Not even really dye. Color gel."

Alexander has difficulties resisting the pout.

"I have no idea if it would take or not, and I don't mean to find out."

Because he doesn't want to look 'less academic.' He'd be fine with just putting on stark black, which is the most he ever does to blend in at places like Dark.

He's weakening, Bo...

"...well, you can come with me and get some clothes, anyway. There's a store I know...I'm friends with the manager, he'll let you 'rent' some things."
He takes Alexander's hand and begins skipping.

Alexander refrains from asking 'what kind of friends?' because he doesn't want to know the answer. He doesn't know what it is, and he'd prefer to keep it that way, thanks much.

"What kind of clothes?"

He's getting just a tad nervous. Just a tad.

"Dunno."
Grin.
"Never shopped anywhere but the short people section."

Well, at least if any of his students see him, they probably won't recognize him. Vinyl and chains?

"I suppose it's too late to back out?"

He doesn't really mean that. Honest.

Bo stops abruptly, letting go of Alexander's hand.
"Well...no. That's fine."

Now he's hurt Bo's feelings.

Alexander closes his eyes and shakes his head briefly.

"... just promise me that there are going to be no pictures."

That would be the icing on the cake, wouldn't it.

Bo sighs irritatedly at him.
"If it makes you that uncomfortable, we won't go. I don't mind, really. We can find something else to do."

Alexander shakes his head.

"I'm just... It's taking me a while to get used to the idea, all right? You asked me to take you dancing, and I'm going to."

He'll survive. Somehow or other.

"But..."
He frowns, lacing his fingers together.
"Doing something that you don't like won't be any fun, and that ruins the whole point."

"I won't know if I like it or not until we do it," Alexander points out.

Someday, Bo, you're going to have to teach me how to get people to argue against what they actually want.

It must have something to do with the face.