Retaliation: the beginning

Chapter 64: "Final affection"

************ Okay so this chapter is mainly about Shane and Aaron's date so if you don't feel like reading it you can skip it there's literally nothing here but fluff! ********************

"This was a bad idea no matter how I look at it." Aaron muttered digging his heel into the unyielding pavement outside the huge gates of the festival's makeshift entrance. The place was crowded without been packed as far as he could tell from where he was standing. The weather was in his favor too, the sun a shining star in a clear open sky, the cool air a cold contrast to its heat. It was the kind of day where staying indoor would be a crime in itself. He found himself smiling at a little girl in pig tails and a tiny black and pink dress holding hands with a male version of the same face. The twins were making a ruckus; their laughter carrying a heartwarming joy in it own and it help calm the thundering heart beating of Aaron. He was supposed to meet with his, well friend of a sort, Shane at exactly eleven thirty at this very spot. They'd been dragged, ordered really, by Elias to go out together.

Not that he particularly minded the order.

On the contrary, part of him was exalted.

A bigger part however was a nervous wreck.

A date, some would call it. It wasn't of course, Aaron reasoned for the hundredth time with himself. Ely might call it that, but Aaron knew better than to hope for that much. It was just a casual meeting between two acquaintances who on a regular basis didn't have much in common.

It'll be fun, he mused uncertainly.

Then again, what did he know of what hunters considered fun? He was pretty certain a hunter's entertainment evolved the demon gore. He wasn't sure Shane was an exception. No, scratch that, he was positive the other man would gladly partake in such torture if it meant he got to kill another of Aaron's compatriots. The moment he'd start thinking of Shane Tomson as safe would be the day he got Idiot tattooed on his forehead.

He'd been standing there for, a quick glance to the silver and black leather wrist watch on his right wrist, thirteen minutes waiting for Shane.

Among the myriad of out of thoughts that were swarming his head, he hoped Ely would keep it a secret. He didn't want the others to know about this. Not yet, anyway.

To say they had a noisy over attentive bunch of friends would be an understatement. And a 'date' between the reclusive Aaron and the demon-blood thirsty Shane was definitely what Kimberly would describe as 'juicy news'. He didn't want to be news. He didn't want to be anything but left alone.

He'd been a mental wrack all day. To the point of been aware that dress wise, he'd over done it. And it had been too late to change by the time he'd realize that he might look ether condescending in his entire glimmer or like he's trying too hard. Aaron paled at the heels of that thought. Shane didn't know him enough to know it had been the later. What if he thought Aaron was been haughty on purpose? Or worse that he was implying the hunter with his ragged and edged appeal was unpolished.

Oh for fuck's sake, snap out of it, he berated himself just in time to see a slender blond male approaching him in a languid stride that spoke of a man comfortable in his body.

Aaron tensed.

"Hello." Shane greeted him tentatively.

"Hi." Aaron replied, a small smile curving his lips.

"Am not late am I? It took me longer than I thought to dress. Kim's right, I do take forever...it's weird." the hunter explained in a self-deprecating voice, looking around them at the flow of pedestrians and then at the tall dark figure standing like a homing beacon aside.