The Last Romantics

Men Go About It Differently

"Alright." I muttered, clearing my throat and blinking away the spots that seemed to emerge.
"Got your head spinning?" Victor wondered.
"I think so." I agreed quietly.
"Good. Ten minutes now." Victor sighed. "He'll probably come get us."
"And take us where?" I insisted.
"See that curtain there?" Victor muttered, pointing it out to me with an almost shameful finger. He seemed well acquainted with it, if nothing at all. I nodded; figuring nothing good could lay behind it.
"Those are the private rooms, Sherlock. And that waiter is a prostitute." He explained at last.
"A WHAT!" I exclaimed, clutching onto the tablecloth in great handfuls, even my now drunken mind not equipped to handle that word right now. No, no, I could not be going along with this any longer!
"Don't cause a scene, God Sherlock." Victor insisted, smacking at my hands in order to dull my nerves as best he could.
"How can I not cause a scene? I'm not going anywhere with him I'm...well I'm innocent! I don't want to be tainted by some...well by some cheap fellow in a suit!" I exclaimed.
"Well you don't have to do anything you don't want to do, but I suggest you get some experience before you go tumbling into a world you don't fully understand. You'll embarrass yourself, not to mention look like quite the fool in front of John Watson." Victor scoffed.
"As if he'd know any better?" I laughed.
"He's a sailor, darling. The only reason none of them are hanging around is because they can't afford to be here." Victor insisted, shaking his head as if that really was the honest truth.
"That doesn't mean anything." I muttered, a bit nervously at that.
"It just means they're someplace else." Victor assured. "I'm sure that your little John Watson will be twice as knowledgeable as you are at this very moment, Sherlock. And so even if you just want that waiter to answer your questions you can. There's no pressure, here. No pressure at all."
"This is absurd." I whispered. "Perfectly absurd."
"Oh well, the only way to navigate life is to live it. Come on then, I see him coming now. Oh good, that's a nice one he's got with him." Victor said with a little chuckle, getting to his feet and kicking at my feet to follow.
"William's mine, I assume?" the waiter muttered, smiling flirtatiously and grabbing at my shirt collar with his manicured fingers. I winced, almost swatting him away before realizing that might be considered rude. I'll tell him my hesitations just as soon as Victor wasn't here to make fun of me. He really wasn't being very supportive this evening, though I suppose he thought his silence to be much more helpful than the alternative. Evidently he thought this peculiar torture would be good for me.
"All yours, love." Victor agreed. "And treat him well, he's very nervous."
"I um, well I've never been in this situation before." I admitted quietly to which the waiter just laughed, allowing himself to stroke my exposed neck to his pleasure. I shivered at the unwelcomed touch, but kept quiet.
"Perfectly normal. You're still young, probably never knew you wanted a man until now." The waiter hummed, to which Victor nodded, allowing the arm of the other man to weave its way along his back and hold him closer. He seemed to appreciate the attention, though for now all three pairs of eyes were focused on my poor, blushing face. I really didn't know what to say, though at last I was spared the waiting time and began to be herded away from the comfort of our little table, off towards the private curtain. I wanted to cry, though I felt that might not be so manly at all. Instead I allowed myself to shiver, still with that man's strange fingers dancing along my neck, and I was the first to push past the curtain and into the hallway. It was a strange place; a hall filled with men and alight with the strangest sounds of pain and pleasure I could have imagined. The lighting was fairly dim, perhaps to spare the identities of the men who paraded about, and along each wall was a line of rooms covered by nothing more than a curtain. There were gaps wide enough to see inside, though I spared myself the horror. I knew better than to look too closely at anything going on in a place like this.
"Come along then, William. Victor will be just next door." The waiter assured.
"Victor you're leaving?" I whispered, almost wrestling away from my supposed captor so as to look at my host, the man who was now sporting a smile.
"I'm sure you don't want me to stay." He assured, leaning a bit more heavily into his stranger's chest, certainly ready to get on with it.
"We're not there yet, darling." The waiter whispered into my ear, sending unwelcomed shivers down my spine as his cold breath cut into my perfectly vulnerable skin.
"Oh...well okay." I whispered in agreement, figuring I was not in a position to beg Victor to stay. After all, he did seem to be a catalyst for this bad behavior. At last Victor was pulled behind one of the curtains and into one of the little rooms. From what I could see before they disappeared there was only a chair and a bed inside, something that turned my blood to ice.
"You're nervous, William. I can feel you trembling." The waiter chuckled, pulling open a curtain to display a room decorated just as incompletely as the one Victor had vanished into.
"Well yes." I agreed quietly. "Like I said this is new."
"Appreciated, I hope?" he muttered, leading me inside as he caught my hand in his own. I was pulled behind the curtain, and just like that was shut off from the outside world. I wasn't sure if I appreciated this privacy or not, however I was at least beginning to feel a bit more confident. I felt as though I could at least control this man, rather than the hopelessness I was constantly faced when I dared disprove of Victor's intentions.
"I'm not sure." I admitted. "I don't know, maybe we could just..."
"Talk?" the man assumed, all the while he was doing me the liberty of peeling off my jacket.
"Perhaps." I agreed, allowing him to pull the jacket off but cowering away when he wanted to go even to my shirt. I was still modest, really. Still afraid.
"Your friend Mr. Trevor paid good money for you to enjoy yourself." The man warned.
"And I'll enjoy myself perfectly well if you don't touch me anymore." I assured, nodding my head up and down with some urgency. The man simply chuckled, as if he had heard that one a hundred times over.
"I've never had a complaint." He assured.
"I'm sure you're perfectly accommodating, really I am. I'm just not too eager to give myself away to someone I don't even know." I whispered, now basically shaking in the effort to hold my own. I was wrong to assume I could control this man; he was just as relentless as was Victor, though he was the only one in a position to defile me. I couldn't allow it, whatever pleasures this room could hold I was determined to avoid. Was not the point of true love to experience all of this at a new level with someone you trusted, someone who you loved? If anything of this unholy sort was going to happen in my life it would be with John, the only boy I felt I could truly love any longer.
"You can know me if you want to. The first step to being properly acquainted is to get someone perfectly submissive...if of course that's how you want me." the man chuckled. "Come on then, William. We'll go real slowly, I'll show you the ropes."
"I don't want to." I said flatly, at last sitting down heavily on the bed and frowning. This act of his was not amusing, and instead of being at all excited I just felt sick. This was happening too quickly for me; here I was expecting a nice evening in my room, quiet and safe! And look where I was now.
"Well alright then." The man decided at last, his voice finally coming down to a normal octave as he sat down next to me, seeming thankful just for some time to be a normal human. "How do you know Victor anyways? Are you some sort of poet too?"
"Well yes actually." I agreed. "My name's not actually William."
"Afraid anyone here is going to snitch?" the man wondered, chuckling a bit as if that was a ludicrous thought. "This is probably the safest place in the world for guys like us. No one's going to snitch, not if they want their a*s thrown in jail for association."
"That's what he said, but I'm just afraid. That's why he brought me here, really. I've fallen in love with someone and I was all afraid to admit it, you know, I didn't want him to go telling anyone or making a scene. A woman is in love with him, my friend and a daughter of a big time army general. Well how am I supposed to go about confessing love when he's got friends in such high, dangerous positions?" I wondered anxiously.
"Well that's the beauty of love, isn't it? If it was easy no one would care to do it." the man assured. "We homosexuals just like to make our lives substantially more difficult."
"Indeed we do." I agreed with a sigh. "But I mean, it's worth it right?"
"It's always worth it." the man agreed. "Have you ever been in love before?"
"I thought I was, but I think I was wrong." I admitted with a small sigh.
"Well you'll know, there's no doubting it and there's no turning back. Once you've fallen for someone, properly, you won't know which way is up any longer. You'll get them, even if not by choice. William you're a beautiful boy, certainly anyone would be willing to accept a confession from you." He assured, patting my hand as if to calm my nerves a little bit. I still wasn't accustomed to this touch, though I went along with it all the same. Save for a little jump I tried to remain calm, and in the end I was able to endure it for some seconds longer.
"That gives me confidence at least." I admitted in a small voice, looking up to this philosophical stranger with some thanks. He was a kinder looking man now that he had stopped being all flirtatious. Surely each person here was just that, a person, and their job required them to put on a much different face.
"Confidence is key." The man agreed, "But knowing what to do is everything."
"I'll just tell him that I don't know; surely he'll still like me? He's a sailor; Victor said they know much more than anyone gives them credit for." I pointed out. Victor chuckled, nodding his head as if that was quite a safe assumption.
"Sailors are indeed a peculiar folk, but you can't count on them to know everything." The man chuckled.
"Well then..." I sighed, looking at him for lack of better words. "What can you tell me?"
"What can I tell you. Well, I'm sure I could tell you every little detail under the sun. It's sort of my job to know. But the basics, well the basics of romance are quite simple. I'm sure you know about the anatomy of it all, the birds and the bees and whatever your mother had to tell you." The man muttered.
"My mother died before I could know her." I admitted.
"Do you know where a baby comes from?" the man muttered, not seeming to want to describe all of this to me in so elementary steps.
"Yes." I whispered, though I was rather ashamed to admit it. I felt as though it was some forbidden knowledge, things that I was not supposed to understand just yet. "I won't be pregnant, will I?"
"God no, no of course not. That's a women's burden alone. Men go about it rather differently." He admitted.
"Oh alright then." I whispered. Well considering I didn't know how to go about normal process I wasn't expecting to know the particular variations, and the rather lost look in my eyes evidently betrayed my confusion.
"Would you like me to explain it to you?" the man asked, obviously finding this all very amusing. I nodded my head, rather ashamed not only to be listening to this, but also to be listening to it in a place where it was supposed to be happening in person. I was probably the only one in this entire establishment that had no idea what was coming. Well he told me, he did me the liberty. I was rather expecting the worst, though in all honestly I wasn't fully prepared for what was coming. When at last the man had finished I realized I had been clutching his hand rather agressivley, almost as if to stop him talking by use of force. I didn't know what to do with that information, didn't know if I wanted to back out of all forms of romance for the rest of my life. All I could think of was just one word...
"Ouch." I whispered. The man laughed, at last collapsing into a fit of giggles and dropping his poor head onto my shoulder. This might have been a sign of affection, I really was not sure.
"No, no William it's not painful. Not all the time I suppose." He admitted with a shrug. "It's actually nice, some of the time."
"And that's what you do for a living?" I clarified with a blink.
"I'm also a part time waiter." He reminded me, to which I could only crack a smile. At least this man seemed to be human, now that I got him talking.
"I'm not sure if I'm brave enough for that." I admitted. "Surely I could never talk him into that, anyways. Perfectly barbaric."
"Oh you can talk him into it, I'm sure you can." The man chuckled. "If I've learned anything from being in business this long...well everyone wants it. Just a little."
"Alright then." I agreed.
"Alright." The man muttered, smiling at me before leaning forward, quite without my agreement. His first move was to kiss my cheek, a very soft kiss with some legitimate emotions behind it. I wasn't prepared for this, though my first instinct was not to run. I at least felt like I knew him a bit better now, despite never knowing his name. It was a nice kiss, followed up by another nice kiss along my jawbone, another simple thing that was meant to be affectionate at most. I took this one with some agreement as well, as his lips were very soft. With some realization I remembered I had never been kissed before, never properly at least, and this was a new experience I rather relished in. It felt very nice, even though the driving force behind it may not be entirely genuine. But the next kiss, well this one was rather invasive. This time I felt his lips along my neck, and while this produced an entirely pleasant feeling I began to feel uneasy. He was being gentle; he was going slow, though for now his lips wandered about my exposed skin, causing me to feel very unsettled. He was going too far.
"Sorry...sorry I don't think I want this." I interrupted at last.
"Just go with it, William. Lean in to me, feel it. You must feel it?" the man insisted, his hand now leaving mine and wandering towards my leg, gripping it rather tightly before getting much more bold. I jumped with the contact, finally pushing him away from me and getting abruptly to my feet. It was a good feeling, though it was not one I wanted right now.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry but I can't. I won't." I insisted at last. The man sat rather stupidly on the bed, crossing his arms along his chest and pouting a bit.
"Alright then, but don't waste my time any longer. Get your friend and get out of here, let me at least have some fun. Prude." He grumbled.
"Victor will get you your money. Your time's not wasted." I snarled in response, feeling all together attacked by this sorry man. He was in no position to mock me, considering the work he did for a living. I scooped up my jacket where it lay on the chair, not really wanting to say goodbye to him as I stormed out of the little curtained enclosure. Well I got what I had come for, armed I suppose with some information that would not be wasted. The feeling of his lips was still fresh upon my skin, though I had about enough of this strange club. It was time to leave. And so, being the oblivious thing I was, I decided to summon Victor to tell him of my intentions. In doing so I pulled open the curtain I knew him to be behind, which really wasn't one of my smartest ideas to date. Well whatever I hadn't learned from my own time with a prostitute I knew now...for there was my dearest host, pinned beneath some strange man and demonstrating just exactly how it's done.
"Sherlock!" Victor called out in protest, to which I gave a quiet scream and closed the curtain abruptly. I was immediately escorted out towards the other side of the curtain by a rather rough looking man, to the room I had once thought so crude but found to be, in comparison, actually quite tame. It was not five minutes before Victor joined me, his evening perhaps ruined by my intense stupidity. He was still doing up his tie when he arrived from behind the curtain, though that didn't seem to be a point of interest. Instead of saying anything he just grabbed me by the back of my coat, dragging me throughout the club for the whole crowd to see, perhaps intentionally shaming me. I didn't want to say anything, in fact I dare not, and we walked in silence the rest of the way home. Victor walked just behind me, as if to make sure I was on track, and as per his previous rules we never talked about it again.