The Kitty Cat's Mates (ManxMen)

36| Low-key Date?

After guessing whichever stray paths they'd take next, King and Zacharias somehow ended up seeing smart lives once again. They have landed in a town of vividly splendid variety of colors, a living rainbow on land.

King's brows went up. "Wow," he slowly mouthed. "Brasov. Lucky us." He stared at Zachary, amused at his theory that this guy might be a walking lucky charm.

Zachary chuckled, tenderly pressing his tongue against the inside of his cheek while he stared at the now lively streets around them. "I guess it's much better than taking a wrong turn and seeing cannibals running around." Zach grasped King's interest like a bear trap, and the latter's eyes glinted.

"You watched that?"

"I did," Zachary replied, unbuckling his belt, which thumped against the hard car frame. He turned his head, stared at King straight in the eyes, and smiled. "Apparently, it's my cup of tea."

King's eyes widened and his lips pulled slightly apart.

"You don't believe me?" Zach pursed his lips and opened the door, slipping outside before King could have thrown his reply. King followed out immediately. He narrowed his eyes at the sudden change of contrast, and crossed his arms over the vehicle's roof, pinning his sights back at the man who locked the car. The wind was a bit chilly this time around, and King was distracted to wonder if it was the time for the annual change in seasons.

"You just don't look like the type to fancy gore and horror," King said to Zach.

Zacharias' head swiped up. With narrowed eyes, he looked back at King, crossing his much broader arms over the roof as well. His Tissot watch glinted and glared like a miniature sun. He smiled again, and King felt like there was an out-of-context meaning behind it this time. However, Zacharias moved away before he could decipher the cause of the pull on his lips.

"Where are we going?" King asked.

"Where do you want to go?" Zach asked back, walking around the car. King slightly lifted his chin to look at his eyes. Slightly.

"I don't know. Where do you want to go?" said the slightly annoyed King. Heights never fail to annoy someone in this world.

Zach paused, depositing his hands inside his white pants, and did not answer. King had taken that as an alternative to the common "I don't know". His eyes, on the other hand, slowly swiped down from Zach's styled hair to his striped white-dark blue rolled sleeves, ended in the tan shoes he'd see definitely see in one of the countless magazines out there, and rewound back to his face. Was this what stroll meant for him?

Suddenly, King's eyes drove past from Zach to where rows of similar bicycles lined up in metal docks. Under a booth, a man, around the ages of forty, with a small straw hat above a sprouting hair was guarding the two-wheeled vehicles. Propped up in the roof was a sign:

Bike Rental.

"Hey, look at this." King moved towards the bike-sharing booth. Zacharias leaned back at his car and crossed a leg against the other while he watched and curiously examined the lad who poked through the red bikes.

King darted his head to where the staff sat, whose legs stretched to the stand and looked like he wouldn't even care if someone shot a person dead in front of him. "How much would it be for an hour?"

The man stared back at him with bored eyes. "Huh?"

"How much is an hour?"

"Huh?"

"... How much is an hour?"

"Oh," mumbled the man. He picked his nose. "7 lei."

King was speechless. Not because of the price.

Zacharias pressed a closed hand against his curled up lips, holding back from cracking up. He cleared his throat, pushed himself to straighten up and walked towards them. "Do you want to?" he asked King.

King's eyes widened. After a month of not being able to ride any of this baby, he admitted, he was tempted to. He forgot he had no wallet, and that he was with Zacharias, and that the man would probably treat him if he said yes. And he wasn't allowing that. He still knew modesty, even if he's stubborn. "N-no. I was just curious," he said.

The man guarding the booth scoffed as he heard it, laid his head back on the chair, and settled to ignore them. No business? Then get the hell out. He shoved a finger deeper into his nose instead to get his load out.

"How much are the rates?" Zach asked, darting his eyes at him. He didn't sway at what he saw.

Still on his own business, the man patted around the stand and pulled out a leaflet. He handed it out to them and King clenched his jaw. "We offeh' four access," he said, not bothering to add any more information, letting the little bright green leaflet do the job instead.

Zacharias stared at the paper and the pricing listed on it. He then folded the leaflet and picked up his Montblanc trifold wallet inside his pocket. King's eyes widened when he saw the bulging leather belly in Zacharias' hand. And he didn't feel so bad now after all.

"A 24-hour access card then," Zach said, handing a 500 lei bill. A bike access card costing 20 lei wouldn't kill the other fats he had in that leather.

The man in the booth groaned, drawing his finger out of his nose to scramble to his work.

"What about you?" King asked Zach, unconsciously throwing in a slight frown. He wouldn't lie; his man's pride was grated a bit by that leather thing that the werewolf drew back in his pocket.

"It's all right. I'm not really good with bikes," Zach replied.

King raised a brow. "Not good?"

Zacharias averted his blue eyes, and King knew his answer.

The man in the booth came back and drew out a brilliantly green and yellow plastic card with both his hands. "'Ere's your card-"

King snatched the card immediately, and Zacharias' brows went up when he circled around him with a determined look on his face. Zach's eyes drew wide the next when, for the first time, King touched him on his own by wrapping a hand against Zach's arm. The alpha, shocked, even got a little freaked out when sparks exploded from where he touched him.

King was clueless. He just led Zach to the bike and gestured at him. "All right. Get in."

"What are you doing?" Zach scowled. Inside his chest, there was a current state of mental and physical disaster.

"Get in." King patted the bicycle's saddle.

"Wait, what?"

"Get in the bike, dude."

"Hey- No. I told you, I don't know how to ride a b-"

"Come on, trust me," King persisted.

"No. Just no," Zacharias fought.

"Trust me."

"No."

King unwittingly used the ultimate weapon. Zacharias stared at him, futilely struggling not to give in. He failed, sighed, and pasted a hand on his face that slowly slid down. The eyes were just too hard to resist.

"... You really are an alarmingly troublesome individual, do you know that?"

King flashed a smile. "I hear that a lot. Although, I get the less formal version."

Zacharias sighed again. He chuckled to himself, knowing he had an alarmingly troublesome individual as his mate. Oh, Moon Goddess.