Romance Fan Fiction / Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Three's Company ❯ The Bookstore ( Chapter 1 )

ON WITH THE DISCLAIMERS:

The characters in this story I made up. All of them. I may have borrowed some characteristics, but they are not based off of anyone real. They are strictly imaginary. However, if it happens to resemble you or someone you know…can we talk?

Wallflower is written by Tomoko Hayakawa and E.S.—Eternal Sabbath is written by Fuyumi Soryo. They are real mangas that are referred to briefly in this chapter. I do not own them. They belong to their respective writers and publishers. The yaoi mangas referred to are made up out of the dark pit I call my mind.

I hope that covers it because I suck at summaries AND disclaimers.

I don't know if I love reviews because I've never received one. I won't mind flames for two reasons: they'll either help me improve what I'm trying to do OR I'll read it and think, `hmm…they've been hitting the bottle and the pipe a little hard today,' and go on about my business.

WARNING:

If you are a HOMOPHOBE, DO NOT CONTINUE! If you don't know what that word means, look it up!

If you are a MONOGAMIST, DO NOT CONTINUE! If you don't know what that word means…just look it up again I guess. I was going to say something else really sarcastic, but I changed my mind. Maybe next time.

THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING—EXPICIT SCENES WILL FOLLOW…just not in this chapter.

Thank you and enjoy!

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“Ooof!”

Alice gasped as she watched books that both she and the man whom she'd run into fall onto the floor. “Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I was reading and—“

“Not watching where you were going?” The man grinned making his good looks look even better. “We're both at fault then.” Alice nearly fell to the floor trying to pick up the books. “I can get that,” the man said and bent down along with her to do the same. Alice could feel the color leave her face.

“No! No, I got it! I—” but it was too late. Mr. Gorgeous Green Eyes had picked up the manga she'd been reading and was now looking at it with one raised eyebrow. She'd always wanted to do that, raise one eyebrow. It figured that he'd be able to.

“Uh, My Neighbor Wears Pink Underwear?” Okay, the title might have been strange, but she knew his question was regarding the two guys on the cover. Alice snatched the manga from him and hurriedly picked up the rest of them off the floor before he could get to them.

“I dunno. They might. I've never asked.” She mumbled, going for deliberately obtuse. His head cocked as he tried to read some of the other titles she had. And succeeded.

“Play With Me? A Toy's Story?” He looked up and met her glare with a very amused look. “You belong to an interesting book club.” The color had since returned to her face, and then some, as he read off the titles. She was surprised it didn't completely melt off her head.

“My choice of reading material is nobody's business but mine,” she ground out, embarrassment getting the upper hand as she stood and turned the books so that the covers didn't show. “Sorry again for running you over,” she mumbled, not meeting his eyes and, since the earth was not cooperating by opening and swallowing her as she'd silently begged it to, she turned and literally fled.

Amused, Finn watched her run. Her embarrassment was kinda cute, although he'd never understand why girls were so drawn to boy-boy love stories. Shit, living as a homo, even now in todays so called `enlightened' times, still wasn't easy. He watched her nearly trip over her feet going down to the lower level of the bookstore. Still, she was kinda cute in a wallflower sort of way.

Alice could feel his green gaze all the way down the stairs until she turned the corner. She nearly collapsed against the shelf of books, trying to catch her breath.

“Excuse me?” She looked up to an annoyed glare and jumped out the way.

“Sorry, didn't see you. Sorry,” she sighed and moved out the way, tired of apologizing to strangers, but still thinking about the green eyed one. So what? So I like yaoi? Lots of girls do nowadays. Well, at least he didn't give her a disgusted look. No he had definitely been laughing at her. Her eyes moved to the manga she'd been reading before she'd run into ol' green-eyes and felt her insides warm as she remembered where she'd left off. She pressed her legs together and remembered why she'd gone upstairs—it was where the bathroom was, not that she had to pee. Well, since her panties were already wet… She found an empty chair and sat, already deep into the story before her butt hit the seat.

============

“”W-wait! Stop! Setsuna!” Hidecki tried to slow down those quick hands, but Setsuna wasn't having it and let him know it by grabbing both of his hands in his one.

“No. I've waited for you to work through your issues, patiently! I'm not waiting any longer!” Setsuna paused.

“Setsuna—”

“Hidecki, are you afraid of me?” Setsuna held his breath. If he answered yes…

“What? No! Setsuna—” Setsuna's free hand moved to the front of Hidecki's jeans and began to unbutton them.

“Then let me pleasure you—let me make you feel the same thing I feel every time I—“”

 

“Jeez! It's like gay porn in cartoon form!”

The manga flew out of Alice's hands into the head of another patron nearby, almost. He caught it before it made contact.

“You're a jumpy one aren't you?” She made a grab for the manga, but he held it out of her reach and read the title out loud. “Love Me Tender.” He snorted, “You have got to be kidding me!”

“Shuddup and gimme my book,” Alice made another grab for it and he relinquished it. “And it's not porn!” She hissed. “There's a storyline and romance,” she paused, “although there are some pwp's out there, but that's not what I like.” She glared him, hugging the manga to her chest.

“What the hell's `pwp'?”

“Porn without plot.” He snickered and his green eyes twinkled at her.

“And you like porn with a plot. Now I get the difference.” She knew he was teasing, but she rolled her eyes anyway and turned to leave. “Wait! Wait,” he snagged her sleeve and moved so he was blocking her way out. “Seriously, though I have a question for you.” She gave him a hard look. The teasing was still there, but muted. Maybe his question was valid, but her personal needs were a bit more urgent.

“Look I'll answer whatever, just hold these,” she shoved her arm full of books—not all yaoi, at him, “and I'll be back in a minute.” She turned and jogged up the stairs to where the bathrooms were.

-

Finn watched her run from him again, this time there was a possibility of her coming back. He looked around for a place to sit and found an empty table where he dumped all her stuff on it. He'd passed her an hour ago, something about her pinging in his memory. It wasn't until he saw her reading the manga just now, that he recognized her as the girl who ran him down the week before.

He sat and began to look at her book choices—they said a lot about a person. She had books from Piers Anthony, C. J. Cherryh, James Patterson, Dean Koontz…and then came the comic books. He snickered. There was actually a series called Wallflower? There was also, E.S.—Eternal Sabbath (this one looked interesting) and of course the gay porn. He shook his head and sat back to wait and see if she actually did come back.

 

Alice hated damp underwear and was digging through her back for a panty shield to solve her problem. It didn't matter what the story was about, if it was yaoi and had some romance in it, she always ended up like this. Hi! My name is Alice and I'm a yaoi addict. Right. She wondered if ol' green-eyes was still waiting for her. Well, she'd go back, if for nothing else, to see if he was still there.

He was. Slouching at a table. With all her books, the yaoi right up on top. She took a deep breath and moved forward. He saw her and sat up, those green eyes smiling as she got closer.

“Wasn't sure you were coming back.”

“Wasn't sure you'd still be here.” She sat down and rearranged the books so the yaoi manga was buried. He noticed and called her on it.

“If you're so ashamed of it, why do you read it?” It would be useless to pretend she didn't know what he was talking about and she squirmed a bit under his gaze.

“I'm not ashamed of it, per se. It's just that,” God, how could she explain it. She eyed him, “shouldn't we at least know each other's names before baring our souls here?” He grinned.

“Is that what we're doing, then? Finn Montgomery.” He stuck out a hand. It was pretty big. She resisted looking at his feet, but only just.

“Alice. Grayson,” his hand was warm and strong. Her inside warmed up. Whoa! Cool your jets, girlie! He's fine, yeah, but that's no reason to…well, hell, it is, but don't.

“Pleased to meet you, Miss Grayson.” Dammit all if he didn't just kiss her hand! She caught herself staring at it and jerked back into her lap. This was not helping her insides calm down. “Just how old are you Miss Grayson?” She gave him an annoyed look.

“What's with all the formality? I'm Alice and you're gonna be Finn. It's not polite to ask women their ages. Do you always kiss girl's hands?”

“Do you always speak with pauses optional?” He watched her blush before he added, “And you never answered my question—either one, actually. The last I asked it to make sure I'm not breaking any laws here—you look kinda young.”

“I'm twenty! As of last week!”

“I meant no offense. It's good to look young, I've been told. I'll be twenty-two next month.” Alice was quiet for a long time.

“You seem older. I don't know why, though.” He just shrugged and she took a deep breath. “So, what was your question?” He watched her brace herself and realized he no longer wanted to tease her, at least not right away.

“I suppose there's two parts to it. It's obvious you like the gay porn—”

“It's yaoi, for Christ sake!” She hissed at him in an angry whisper, checking around to make sure no one heard.

“Tomato, tomahto. But, to keep you from going ballistic, we'll stick to your terminology. Anyway, you like yaoi, but you're embarrassed about it. So, why do you read those kinds of books if you're so embarrassed about it?”

Alice looked down at her pile of books. She didn't know this guy. She wasn't obligated to tell him or explain anything to him. If he'd been a troll, she'd have shut him down and brushed him off like a dead mosquito. But he wasn't the troll in this scene, she was. And he was talking to her. So, she was going to answer just to keep this scene going a little longer. Still, she found her self floundering for an answer that would make sense enough for him to understand.

“People tend to see me a certain way. So, if they were to see me doing anything out of character, so to speak, it could cause problems for me.” He frowned.

“Then you're lying to them.”

“What?”

“Do your best friends know about your tastes in yaoi?”

“No! I make sure of it.”

“How can they be your best friends then, if they don't really know you?” She stared at him silent. “C'mon, you know I'm right. Friends—the best ones, know all your character flaws and foibles and love you anyway. I have two like that. They know almost everything about me that is embarrassing or that I don't want public and vice versa. We could be brothers.”

He saw her face change. “You have brothers and sisters that don't know either?” The color that filled her face was answer enough. “How do you do it?”

“Do what?”

“To keep parts of you a secret like that, you have to have an extraordinary memory and a safe with a lock, otherwise how do they not trip over your yaoi or how do you not let a reference slip?” She looked down at her hands for a long time before answering.

“I'm very, very, very careful,” she said quietly. He was right, she always had to hide herself, her true self from everyone—her family, her friends. He was someone she'd just met and he probably knew more about her than most people who thought they knew her. She looked up into that lovely face and those green, green eyes.

“So why weren't you disgusted or grossed out when you saw the manga I was reading?” He looked at her questioningly. “I mean, even people who don't know me would've seen A Toy's Story, dropped the book in my hands, looked at me like I'm some sort of perv and walked off. But you didn't. Why?”

He looked away for a minute and then back at her as if coming to some sort of decision.

“Because I'm bi.”