Lovely Bastards (BxB) (MxM)

Chapter 10 - Chemistry

"So, what do you like? B-D-" Zach enunciated each letter with exaggerated care, letting the tip of his tongue play against his front teeth,

"-S-M? Hm?"

Kit smiled, leaning forward and drawing his fingertip down the gleaming bartop.

"I like...bondage," he said, watching Zach's dark eyes. 

"And sado-masochism. Sure, I can play with dominance, but..." his eyes slid over to Charlie, sitting next to them, engaged in a tipsy conversation with a man Kit would have to shoo away soon enough. 

He wasn't listening to them.

"Pain is more my style. I don't care so much about gender - but, yeah, I might have a type."

"Type?"

"Tall, dark, and dangerous," he teased, sipping his bitter coffee, one corner of his mouth turning up.

After he made his deal with Charlie, Kit had started hanging out at the bar a lot. 

Every other evening for a few hours, while his uncle was quietly sipping his drinks, Kit kept an eye on him and did his homework, perched on top of a tall round barstool underneath the fashionable yellow lightbulbs suspended from the ceiling. 

You don't have to come with me, Charlie had protested when he started tagging along.

Kit had arched his eyebrow at him, and the older man had blushed. 

Fine. Come along then.

He needed to make sure Charlie stayed alive for two more years, Kit told himself. Might as well look after him. Just a little. 

This was only about convenience, for both of them.

Now, after a few weeks had passed, he'd almost started enjoying their new routine.

Flirting with Zach was an added bonus. The older boy didn't seem to take anything - his job, his customers, himself, or the world in general - very seriously, doing his tasks with an efficient disdain and being just handsome and charming enough to get away with it.

It was relaxing, chatting with someone who honestly didn't care whether he lived or died, would shrug at any story and smile at his sharp words. 

"Guys tend to go for me because of the way I look, but sometimes there will be a girl, you know..." Kit mused.

"Yeah, I know. I usually go for girls myself, but sometimes a guy catches my eye..."

Zach raised his eyebrows slightly, holding his gaze across the bar. 

"Pain, huh?" he continued.  "Giving or...taking it?"

Kit smiled, absentmindedly twirling a straw between his fingers. 

"I can play either way, but I have a pretty high threshold for pain, so I've been told I'm not much fun on the receiving end."

"Why?"

"Because most people just want to tease their partners a little and make them cry and beg. Me, I don't cry - and you have to go pretty far to get me to beg."

"Sounds fun."

"Does it?"

"I think I could manage."

"Is. That. So?"

"Mh-mhm. Maybe you should hang around after closing sometime, I'll take you out for dri - " he glanced down at the cup in front of Kit and changed tactics mid-sentence, " - coffee."