Chapter Text
January 15, 1989. New Orleans
"Can I buy you a drink?"
James lifted his head from what could be described as an almost dirty wooden table and looked in the direction he thought the sound was coming from. A young, good-looking, and rather flirty man - perhaps a few years younger than himself - stared at James expectingly.
'He must have gotten the wrong impression.' thought James. He was just going to refuse the man when he was suddenly filled with doubt.
His bandmate Lars was a European fucker, and he kept going on and on about James' ignorance and talked a lot about how boring he was. Lars' words echoed in James' head. "You are too coward to have fun and you have some stupid morals, dude."
James personally didn't understand homosexuality. It was not normal for him. But showing Lars that he wasn't right was more important than his morality right now. 'What the hell' he thought. 'What's the worst could ever happen?' He looked at the man across from him again. If he did something wrong that James didn't want, he could easily knock him out. The man didn't look strong at all. Almost as light as Jason. He reminded him of Jason.
"Yeah, why not?" James said, suddenly unsure.
Smiling, the man quickly pulled himself a chair and put it on the side not too far from James, but not too close either.
"Elijah" Man took his hand out of his pocket to shake James' hand.
"James." He shook his hand and pulled his hand back to his glass a bit too quickly.
"Do you live in here?" Elijah asked as he raised his hand to call the waiter to his side for an order.
"No. We came here to throw a gig." James said, watching the waiter approach.
"Oh?" He raised his eyebrows in surprise. James muttered a quiet 'Yeah'
The waiter came and took Elijah's order. As soon as the waiter left, awkwardness collapsed on the table. James didn't really know how to do this.
"We?"
"What?"
Elijah chuckled. "You said 'we'. Where are the others then?"
"Oh, I don't know. They're probably in a museum or something. Nerds..." James smirked at him.
"I'll take that as you dislike history." He leaned back in his chair smirking back.
"Let's just say I prefer a bar..." James said.
"Does you, preferring a bar reduce my chances of taking you home then?" He said rather jokingly but it didn't prevent James from panicking.
He didn't know how to do this. He looked at his hands, finding them more interesting than answering. This wasn't how he was raised. What the fuck was he supposed to say back? This was bullshit. He wanted to get out of here right now.
Elijah must have noticed James being uncomfortable as he collected himself and said, "It's fine if you don't want to of course."
James looked at him again. He wasn't bad-looking at all. Almost feminine even. Hell, he couldn't go to his house with him but he sure found him attractive. And he looked like a good person. 'Maybe he would understand'...
"Look... I really don't know how to do this with a guy..." He wondered his hand awkwardly in the air. "This... the flirt thing. Let alone going home with you... So." He stared at Elijah for his reaction.
"It's fine, really. I get it." He said with sincere eyes. "Tell me what do you want to know."
"What do you mean?" James said raising his eyebrows with confusion.
"Well, no offense but you look a little uneducated on the subject, so... Ask me what you want to know."
James certainly did not feel 'uneducated' on the subject, as Elijah said. He looked at him as if he had said the most ridiculous thing in the world.
"Come on. I'm sure there is something you want to know." He said smiling.
James held up his hands in surrender. "Well then alright. You asked for it." He paused. "Why men? I mean why would you choose that?"
He chuckled and put both hands on the table. "Of course I didn't choose that, James. It's not about a choice. It's a feeling. I can't control it. You can't either."
"Why did you think I was that way?" James said with an unimpressed expression on his face.
"If not, why would you let me buy you a drink?" He said, keeping the eye contact going.
As soon as he mentioned the drink, the waiter arrived with 2 whiskey glasses. "Here you go. I'm here if you need anything else." Elijah smiled at the waiter and immediately turned his attention back to James.
James noticed his gaze and laughed. "I feel like prey, you know." He was definitely beginning to like this dude.
"As you should." Both laughed at what he said. "I can teach you. You know. Flirting with a guy. Kissing a guy..." His sentence was cut off with James' laughter.
"Hey, why are you laughing? I'm serious." Said Elijah with a smirk. James traced the features of his face started from his short black hair. His glance ended in his lips. He considered it for a second.
"I've never kissed a guy before."
"It's okay. It would be a practice... it's not really different from a woman but still..."
James' eyes were still on his lips. His thin but sculpted lips were absolutely inviting. He looked very confident.
"Well... Okay then. I think I can use a bit of practice." He said hopefully sounding sure.
Elijah got up from his chair with the biggest smile on his face and pointed at the back door of the bar with his head and moved to it. "Come on." James followed him to the door.
The frost of January hit James hard in the face, and it must have brought awareness with itself that James became aware of what he was doing at the moment. He was standing outside in a secluded corner to kiss a man. He didn't feel alone for a moment. It was as if someone was watching him going after Elijah stepping out with a 'we all know what you two going to do' gaze. What the hell they were going to do again?
James walked away from the garbage bin near the door and leaned against the wall opposite. Elijah followed.
James leaned his feet against the wall as he approached... as if preventing him from coming any closer. Elijah took James's hand with an understanding look on his face. James' heart was beating as if it were coming out of his body. Is it because of fear or excitement? It was a feeling he couldn't understand. "I promise it will be good." He said, getting his face closer to James'.
James felt his warm breath on his lips. He pinned their noses and waited. He gave James time to stop if he didn't want to do this.
With no adverse reaction, Elijah took it as yes and joined James' lips with his own. James' first thought was that they were softer than he expected. Elijah continued to kiss him slowly, being careful not to scare him.
James gathered his thoughts and put his hand on his waist to respond to the kiss. Taking strength from that, Elijah placed his own hands lightly on James's face. Soon after, tongues were involved. Unable to stand it, James, pushed him even more on himself. Elijah's hands roamed around James' neck and beard, trying his best kissing him to show that kissing a man was actually good.
As they parted apart to breathe, James' heart was still beating fast with tension. And he couldn't hide the fact that he was a little bit turned on.
"Not so bad isn't it?" He said, trying to breathe better.
James laughed awkwardly while still holding his waist. "No, not bad at all." And left his waist.
"Well, now you know that kissing a man is not as horrible as you think." He said as he walked away a little and straightened his shirt.
"Yeah." James said still out of breath. Elijah laughed at his reaction again.
"See you later then?"
"What? I thought you wanted to take me home." James said in surprise.
"Hmm, look who is so eager all of a sudden." He said with a burst of laughter.
"No, I didn't mean to say that, actually. I thought I did something wrong." James cleared a possible misunderstanding.
"No, no. It's just... you're too innocent for me." James smiled at that. Sure... innocent.
"See you later then." with that, Elijah left a very confused James with his own terrible thoughts in the dark corner.