Before Sunrise

Part 2:

Dave’s POV:
Just for one tiny second Dave had doubted that the other man would say yes. His lips stretched into a relieved smile. “Then hurry!” he urged Sean, pulling on the other man’s sleeve. “Before the train leaves!”

Frantically Sean grabbed the few items he had brought and hurried out of the train, closely followed by Dave. “And what now?” he asked, his eyes following the train that started rolling only a few moments later.

“I haven’t really had the time to think of that yet,” Dave grinned, turning around on his heels. He looked at his watch. “5 o’clock. It’s not that late. How about we stash these...” He lifted his bag and pointed at Sean’s luggage. “...somewhere and then just go and look what we find?”

Sean nodded, finding it surprisingly easy to join Dave in his happiness. “You ever been here before?” he asked.

Dave pulled up his brows. “No. It’s my first time in Europe actually, so I’ve never visited France before.” He shrugged his shoulders. “But I know that the Eiffel Tower’s here and the...what’s it? That famous painting, you know? That smiling chick...”

“The Mona Lisa, Da Vinci’s famous portrait,” Sean helped, starting to walk into the building of the station.

“Yeah! That’s her!” Dave snapped his fingers. He found a free locker and locked his and Sean’s luggage into it. Smiling he offered Sean his arm. “Come...”


~*~


Sean’s POV:
“What do you hate?” Sean asked, touching Dave’s shoulder tentatively with his hand. “Name something that totally pisses you off!” He smiled at Dave’s totally surprised face. “I’m trying to get to know you better,” he explained. “I always ask people questions like that!”

Dave shrugged his shoulders. “OK,” he replied. “But let’s agree on something, yeah? Let’s be totally honest to each other this night. You won’t probably see me again after tomorrow. So you don’t have anything to lose.” He offered Sean his hand. “Please. This is important to me... I won’t push you on anything. If you don’t want to talk about something you just have to say it and I’ll shut up!”

Sean grinned. He liked the other man. “No lies,” he promised in a low voice and grabbed Dave’s hand firmly. “But now answer my question.”

“Something I really hate...” Dave repeated thoughtfully, scratching his head. “You mean like character traits or just...things?” he asked after thinking for a while.

“Whatever comes to your mind...” Sean offered and stood up. “You want ice-cream?” he wanted to know. “I’ll give you some more time to think about it and buy us some ice-cream...”

“Sure...” Dave nodded absent mindedly. “Chocolate, please! I’m dying for some chocolate!” His eyes followed Sean lighting up when the other man came back. “Thanks...” he breathed, licking at the cold ice-cream. “Mmmh...”

Sean stared at Dave’s pink tongue snaking out. “Um...come up with something in the meantime?” he asked hastily, trying to get his mind on something else. Disappointedly he watched Dave’s tongue vanish between parted lips.

Dave nodded. “Yeah. I hate onions! People who claim that you won’t find them after cooking anymore piss me off. Onions don’t just vanish!” Dave shook his head, Sean laughing at the other man’s outburst. He enjoyed the happiness spreading inside of him. This is what he had needed so badly.

Confused, Sean lowered his gaze to the ground. He didn’t really know this man sitting next to him on a bench in the middle of Paris, but the other man just seemed to sense what was right for Sean. Without knowing it Dave had given Sean something precious the older man was holding onto tightly. Happiness. He felt really happy for the first time since Viggo had left.

~*~


Dave’s POV:
“May I ask you something in return?” Dave ripped the other man from his thoughts.

“Sure...” Sean nodded encouragingly, curious to hear what Dave wanted to know.

“What is the most stupid thing you ever did for love?” Dave grinned, catching a drop of ice-cream that threatened to fall to the ground with his tongue. “You strike me as the kind who would do something crazy.”

“You mean something crazier than spending the night in Paris with some nutter I don’t know?” He lifted his arms in defense when Dave started to hit him playfully. “Okay, okay! I’ll answer your question if you bloody stop hitting me already!” He took breath in shakily. “When I was a kid I adored this little lass who lived next door,” Sean said in a low voice. “I sold my whole toy car collection to buy her a teddy bear as a birthday present... The crazy thing about this,” he added before Dave could protest. “The crazy thing is that only weeks later I realized that in fact I wasn’t straight. So I had given up all those shiny toy cars for nothing!” He glared at Dave who started giggling hysterically. “That’s not funny!” Sean growled. “Some of them would be worth a lot today!”

“Sorry,” Dave snorted, combing his hand through blond hair bleached by the summer sun. “Just the image of you standing there with this ‘Fuck, I’m not even straight’-look on your face...”

“Anyway,” Sean continued, trying to ignore Dave’s giggling. “The craziest thing I did as a adult person...” The smile vanished from Sean’s lips, being replaced by a look of sweet melancholy. “I dated this artist guy...this crazy artist. And he was obsessed with doing something modern for the opening night of the gallery his paintings were shown at. And well, long story short: I spent one evening of my life sitting nearly naked and painted dark green on a chair in said gallery, pretending to be a piece of living art.” He shook his head, remembering the happy gleaming in Viggo’s eyes when he finally had given in to the other man’s pleading. “The things we do for love...” he sighed, looking up at Dave again. “My turn!”

Dave pouted. “I’m not allowed to comment on that?” he asked, pouting even more when Sean shook his head.

“Not on this one, Dave. My question to you is, do you have a totally embarrassing nickname?” Sean pulled up his brows when Dave buried his face, groaning deeply. “That bad?” he wanted to know.

Dave nodded. “It’s Daisy,” he finally mumbled.

“Daisy...” Sean snickered. “You don’t have to blush Daisy...”

“That’s not funny!” Dave grumbled. “I guess you don’t have a nickname like that!”

“Beanie,” Sean replied with a smirk. “My friends call me Beanie...”

Dave frowned. “OK, my nickname is obvious, but why do they call you Beanie?” Dave scratched his head. “You must explain that to me...”

“It’s my name,” Sean explained with a small sigh. “Sean Bean.”

“Sean as in S-E-A-N?” Dave asked. “You really have strange parents, mate!”

Sean shrugged his shoulders. “I was born as Shaun Bean, S-H-A-U-N. But I use the S-E-A-N version for my writing. People tend to get it wrong anyway when they hear my last name...” He cleared his throat, painting little patterns into the ground with his feet. “So, Daisy...” Sean grinned when Dave shot him an angry glare. “What’s the one thing you’d never admit to anybody else?”

“The one thing that... Hey!” Dave exclaimed, poking Sean into his ribs. “I didn’t get to ask a question, it’s my turn!”

“I told you my nickname,” Sean reminded the other man tenderly and leant back on the bench, letting the last sunrays caress his skin. “Come on, Daisy...”

“But only if you stop calling me Daisy!” Dave mumbled, glaring at Sean. “You will die if you tell this anybody! My favourite movie is Titanic and it makes me cry every fucking time... There. Satisfied?”

“Totally!” Sean giggled, not being able to resist calling “Jack!” in a breathless voice.

“You think you’re really funny, eh?” Dave grumbled, mock hurt. “Same question, mate!”

“Hmmm...” He turned his head to look at Dave. “I only pretend to hate writing those kitsch novels. Actually it’s great fun and you get money for crap literature!” Sean chuckled when Dave tried to protest. “Really! I’ve never told that anybody before. Everybody else thinks that I only write them cause nobody will buy my poetry!”

“Still not fair!” Dave pouted. “That’s nothing I can tease you back with!” He tugged at Sean’s sleeve. “I’m a bit hungry actually, mate. How bout we grab something to eat and then take a closer look at the city?” he asked.

Sean nodded and stood up. “Sounds good,” he smiled. “You think they have English menues here?”


TBC...

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