A PERFECT RENDEZVOUS

Legumes

"What are you doing?" Harry asked as Zayn sat down beside him and the videotape he'd taken out of his briefcase began to run. Nervously, Harry teased, "I hope it's Dirty Dancing and not a sexy scene from one of your movies."

He put his arm around Harry and quietly said, "It's the tape I've watched several times today, the one the FBI confiscated of us in Mex—"

Harry shook his head wildly, trying to grab the remote controller. "I don't want to see that. Not tonight! Not ever again!"

"We're going to watch it together, Harry. You and I. After that, it won't be able to come between us or hurt us, and you won't have to be afraid."

"Don't make me watch this!" Harry said, shaking as the voices began to explode in the airport. "I can't stand it!"

"Look at the screen," he said implacably. "We were there together, but I never knew until today what you were doing while they were taking me into custody, and I have a feeling you don't have a clear recollection of it either."

"Oh, yes, I do! I remember exactly what they were doing to you! I remember that it was my fault!"

Zayn turned his face to the screen. "Watch you, not me. Watch and you'll see what I did—a man who was suffering more than I was." Harry dragged his gaze to the television set, staring blindly at a scene he only wanted to forget. Harry saw himself screaming at everyone not to hurt him, saw Louis yanking him back, shouting at him that it was "all over," saw Hadley walking up to him with a malicious grin and dropping the ring into his hand. Harry saw himself clutching the ring and weeping.

Zayn's voice was aching and tender, "Harry," he whispered, pulling him tight, "look at you, darling, and see what I see. It was just a ring, a piece of metal and stones. But look at how much it meant to you."

"It was the wedding ring you picked out for me!" he said fiercely. "That's why I was crying."

"Really?" he teased softly. "I thought you were crying because the diamonds were so small."

His mouth dropped open, and an hysterical giggle slid out even while he blinked back the tears from his wondrous eyes.

"Now watch this," he added with a grin, pulling Harry tighter. "This is my favorite part. Don't watch what they're doing to me," he said quickly when Harry started to jerk his gaze away from the Federales' raised clubs. "Watch what you're doing to Hadley on the right of the screen. That," he added admiringly, "is one hell of a right hook you have, baby."

Harry forced himself to watch and was slightly surprised and shamefully pleased to see himself attacking that particular human being. "I don't actually remember much of that," he whispered.

"No, but I'll bet Hadley remembered what comes next. When Tomlinson dragged you off and you couldn't get at Hadley with your nails or hands, you—"

"Kicked him!" Harry narrated, watching in shock.

"Right in the groin," Zayn said proudly with a laugh as Hadley doubled over, clutching himself. "Do you have any idea how many men there are in this world who've longed to do that?"

Harry shook his head in silence, watching the end of the film as a doctor rammed a hypodermic into his arm and Louis held him. Zayn let the VCR keep running and sobered as he looked at Harry. "I'm going to tear Hadley to pieces legally before I'm done. I have a meeting scheduled with the Texas Board of Criminal Justice week after next. When I'm finished with him, he'll be occupying one of his own cells."

"He's a devil!"

"And you," Zayn said somberly, tipping his chin up, "are an angel. Do you have any idea how I've felt every time I watched you on that film?"