Blue Dream (Kreuzberg Dragonshifters Book 1) #Wattys2016

Blue Dream Part 5

"So, Paulchen, did you kiss him, then, last night?" Flake asked, looking over the rims of his glasses as Paul tucked a new consignment of comic books upon their corresponding racks.

It was the following morning, and both men were at Comic World, having left Richard back at their flat after breakfast. Breakfast itself had been vaguely rushed, yet still pleasant, and Flake had hidden plenty of smiles regarding the surreptitious glances that Richard and Paul stole of each other, often when the other man wasn't looking.

"What?" Paul asked, in sudden surprise, as he looked up and over at his friend.

"Richard," Flake repeated, a little impatiently, despite his continued, vaguely amused, smile. "Did you kiss him, last night?"

"Now why in all that is holy would I have done that?" Paul asked, turning partially away to hide his embarrassment. "We've only just met."

"Come off it, Paul," Flake said. "The way that you two were acting with each other, both last night and this morning, it was obvious to me that you were both practically gagging to get into each other's pants. I would have thought that something would have happened between you two. Why d'you think I left you to deal with lover-boy after he woke us both up, last night?"

"He's not lover-boy," Paul mumbled, with growing embarrassment.

"But you want him to be, I'll bet," Flake pointed out, undeterred.

"Yes, if it makes you happy, I do want to get to know him better," Paul replied, gruffly, with a snort. "Now, are you gonna leave it?"

"Not quite. It's about bloody time you showed interest in someone, Paulchen," Flake said, with affectionate relief.

"Yeah, I guess," Paul said, uncertain as to how he was even supposed to respond.

"Go for him," Flake said. "Don't let him go. In fact, by the by, he seems to be coming in to the store."

"What?" Paul asked, in sudden alarm, even as the door dinged open to reveal the bulky form of Richard shuffling in. "Hey, Richard."

"Hi," Richard said, as he grinned brightly at Paul.

He seemed almost not to have noticed Flake behind the counter, until the man pointedly coughed, hiding a grin behind his hand as he did so.

"Oh, hallo, Flake, I didn't see you there," Richard amended, with some embarrassment.

"I am kind of hard to see," Flake said, his sardonic grin growing.

Richard turned to Paul again, with a baffled expression upon his face and therefore missed the mimed blow-job gesture that Flake threw at Paul. Paul spluttered into a sudden surprised laugh, and turned the sudden noise into a cough, when Richard looked askance at him.

"Sorry; dry throat," Paul told him hurriedly. "Is everything all right?"

"Yeah, of course; you asked me to drop by the store, and so, here I am," Richard said, as he gestured to the racks of comic books surrounding them. "D'you have any recommendations?"

Flake coughed and for one moment, Paul thought he heard the word - bed - in amongst Flake's sudden bronchial explosions. Paul ignored his friend's lewd comment, yet he could tell that Richard had heard also and was pointedly ignoring Flake, too.

"Um, I don't know; I don't really know what you like," Paul said, as he placed his armful of comics down to gesture round at the store. "I mean, do you like, Marvel or DC? Or are you a 2000 AD man? Which characters do you like? Any favourite writers or artists?"