Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 21:55:37 +0000
From: Mike Rich <gridlinked@gmail.com>
Subject: Con Artist, Chapter 2

Disclaimer:

The following story contains sexual content and deals with homosexual
relationships.
It is not for people under the legal age.
If you are offended by the contents of this story, or it is illegal in your
location to view this type of material, leave now

Any comments are welcomed and can be send to gridlinked@gmail.com


Chapter two - Enter Duncan


Niko had a good week. The dorm room had been easy enough to clean, he did
all the accounting for the month in the Cafe, his best friend seemed on the
road to end a very long dry spell and he had gotten a bonus after a year of
working for Michael. Well not exactly working, more like paying debt, he
did try to not accept, but as always Mike got his way. It was difficult to
go against him, and after awhile anyone would question themselves to why
contradict him at all. He had a way of being right most of the times.  It
was almost annoying.

Almost.

Yes all things considered, it had been a good week. He was crossing campus
to go to his dorm room, his new roommate was expected any moment now. The
only thing he hoped was that this one would be a little bit better than the
last one he had. Matt. How a person can eat, sleep, have sex and study all
in a bed filled with remains of all the things mentioned was beyond
him. This time he just wanted someone normal.  He got to the dorm building
and started going up the flight of stairs to his floor. In the long hallway
he could see that his room door was slightly open.

'He's here.'

He started for the room and stopped at the entrance. He could see the back
of a tall figure standing there, slightly bent, taking things out of a suit
case and sending them flying at a bed.

'Wait, that's my bed.'

"Hey, hum... that's my bed." At the sound of Niko's voice the young man
turned. Niko could only stare. The guy looked so much like a surfer
stereotype it wasn't even funny. He had blond hair to the shoulders, and
blue eyes a bit lost behind the hairs that were slightly covering his
face. He was built, not a lot, but some. Niko just kept staring, until he
actually noticed that that was all he was doing.

"Mate? You all right?" the guy asked in a thick accent.

'Oh god kill me, the man is Australian.'

"Mate, you there? I said sorry, i didn't notice that that was your bed, its
no problem, here" the guy said starting to take his things off Niko's bed
an putting them in his. "See, no problem." The way he was talking, it
sounded to Niko like he thought he was retarded.

'Well why wouldn't he? You are standing here saying nothing, with your
mouth wide open, oh my god, my mouth is wide open. Close it, close it,
CLOSE IT.'

"Yeah..." Niko finally managed to say "I'm sorry, hum... the accent threw
me a bit." He said hoping for an exit from the awkward moment.

"Ahh, right, I'm Australian I'm afraid. Just arrived actually, the name is
Duncan."

"Nice to meet you Duncan." Niko said extending his hand to shake Duncan's.

Duncan seemed to be looking him up, and Niko was doing the same, for
different reasons. Yeah he was definitely hot. His thoughts however were
interrupted by the Australian surfer stereotype standing in front of him.

"So, you didn't tell me you're name..." Duncan said looking slightly
amused.

Niko didn't respond right away. His name, now there was something that
always made things harder in his own head.  He had stopped using his family
name a little under a year ago. He knew that Michael knew how much he hated
being called Nickolas. Yeah, a year changed a lot of things.

"Mate? You alright, your spacing out on me again."

"Oh, sorry, I'm Niko, Niko Grange."

"Nice name, kinda goes with the hair." Duncan said smiling.

"Oh, yeah, that was a heat of the moment type of thing." Niko explained
wile brushing his hair with his hand.

"I like it."

"Thanks, so tell me" Niko started, determined to find out more about this
hunk that would be living with him "Why come here? To the US i mean, no
offence, but last i look, Bush was still president."

"Yeah, well, my parents, actually my father, got a very good job
opportunity and asked me and my mom, if we didn't mind moving."

"That's nice, i guess." Niko said wile he sat on his bed.

"I didn't want to come, to tell you the truth, but it was important to him,
so, what was i gonna do?"

All the wile, Niko was more focused on the guy's accent than in what he was
actually saying, it just sounded too good.

"Anyway" Duncan continued "Since we are going to live together, come on,
tell me about yourself."

This was the part he dreaded. He didn't want to hide the fact that he was
gay, if Duncan ended up knowing by someone else it would be worse. He was
just afraid of his reaction. Of any one's reaction really. Since he told
his family, he was usually afraid of what people thought about him.  He
knew why he had dyed his hair blue, it wasn't heat of the moment, it had
been affirmation.

"Well" Niko started to say wile Duncan sat down on his own bed facing
him. "I am 19, hum... i work at a Cafe near campus..."

"Oh great free coffee!" Duncan said smiling.

"Yeah, hum... i come from a family in Ohio, i am studying Marketing and i
don't like any kind of sports, except maybe golf."

"You just like Golf?" Duncan said surprised.

"Yeah, and not even that much." Niko said trying to sound as straight as
possible.

"So what about your family?"

Ahh the other bad question, what about them indeed...

"Well, my only family is my brother, he runs the coffee shop i work in."
Niko said deciding to cut the subject short. "What about you? What are your
interests?"

Duncan thought for awhile until he reverted his full attention back to his
new roommate "Well, i like to play soccer, i like a good book, i listen to
almost all kinds of music, i try to party a lot" He said grinning "and i
like making new friends, witch i suppose we are gonna become."

"Well i hope so... wait! No surf?"

"Oh, no" he said laughing "sorry to ruin the stereotype but not my thing."

"That's cool."

"So what can we do until classes start around here?"

"Well down under boy" Niko said grinning at him "since its almost dinner
time i could invite you to dinner at a cool restaurant near here and
tomorrow, if you don't mind having a blue haired freak for a guide, i can
show you around."

"That sounds good, blue haired freak and by the way dinner sounds great."

"Alright, well, are you ready or do you need to change?" Niko asked looking
one more time up and down the now seated form of the Australian non surfer.

"I'm good."

"OK, then lets go."

The two left the dorms and started their walk cross campus to an Irish Pub
not far from there. Niko was happy, this guy appeared to be clean, not like
Matt the slob, and he appeared to be nice.  Matt could have been disgusting
but he was OK with Niko being gay, he just hoped Duncan would be too.

They arrived at the restaurant 10 minutes later and were seated
immediately. They were lucky, classes hadn't started yet or the place would
be packed by now. They would probably have been assaulted by half a dozen
college quirky blond haired blonds with breasts the size of Connecticut
asking Duncan for his number. OK, so he had just met the guy and already he
was jealous of imaginary people. Great.  They ordered and went into talking
a bit more. The conversation was going well and both of them were liking
getting to know each other.  Niko was still afraid, but he soon turned to
logic.  it was still early, if Duncan turned out to be a homophobic son of
a bitch he could still find another room, it was best to find out now.

"I need to tell you something." He finally started, having made up his
mind. "Since we are going to live together i need to know that you are OK
with it."

"OK..." Duncan said not knowing what to expect.

"OK... well... I'm gay!"

Silence can be a funny thing. Sometimes it works to people's advantage,
when they need to concentrate like well, in golf. Other times it just comes
to make us feel small and very much uncomfortable not only with a certain
situation, but with ourselves.

He was definitely uncomfortable.

"OK, well i take that as a freaking out sign, i can change rooms..." Niko
started to say fast, he just wanted to get out of there, he couldn't take
another reaction like the one his parents had.

"No, wait, its no problem, i have no problem with it." Duncan said seeing
the frustration on his new friend's eyes.

"Are you sure?" Niko asked, not sure if he believed.

"Yes! Look, i have no problem if your gay. As long as you don't jump me,
its cool." Duncan said dismissing the subject.

But Niko knew it wasn't "cool", he knew.

The dinner went normally, after the gay thing, they moved to other topics,
but Niko could tell that Duncan was acting differently. They paid for
dinner and went back to the dorms. Niko still considered the option of
going to stay with Michael but he knew he had to face this problem
sometime.  They went into their room and started to undress.  Immediately
Niko noticed that Duncan was acting reserved. He wasn't even looking at
him.  After they were both down to their boxers Niko went closer to Duncan
to say goodnight when the guy just jerked around and paced backwards.  The
hurt on Niko's face must have been obvious because Duncan was soon
apologising.

"I'm sorry i..."

"Never mind!" Niko said with forced strength "I was just going to shake
your hand goodnight, just forget it."  He turned to his own bed and started
to go under the covers. He could sense that Duncan was still looking at his
back.  After a few seconds he heard the other man going under his own
covers and he felt like crying.  One more person who was freaking out about
him. Sure this one hadn't hit him, or screamed at him, but in away the
silent contempt was hurting a lot more.  The tears started to fall and he
made no effort to stop them. It took awhile, but after a few hours, he was
asleep. But he was the only one.




Duncan couldn't sleep. He was still looking at Niko who was sleeping, his
back turned to him.  Why had he freaked out? He wasn't homophobic, sure he
didn't knew a lot of gay people but as far as he knew his parents were OK
with them, and so was he.  He knew that Niko had been crying, and that hurt
him the most. He wanted to make friends, and Niko seemed like a great
guy. Now he had ruined things because of his own social inadequacy.  He
didn't know what to do. He couldn't just let the guy think he was a
homophobic bastard.

After thinking for awhile he decided.  He got up from his bed and started
for Niko's. Slowly he entered the covers and laid himself down next to the
other boy. He put one arm carefully under him and the other one on top, he
then pushed Niko closer and spooned him. It was weird at first, doing this
with a guy but the way he figured it, it was like shock therapy.  This way
he would lose all his insecurities and Niko would find out in the morning
that he was perfectly OK with him being gay. Well, that or he would freak
out and probably kick his ass, but it was a risk worth taking.

He pushed Niko closer and, next to the young man, he finally managed to
fall asleep.




Niko woke up to realize that he was being embraced by someone.  First he
just though that he was still having a dream, then when the arms didn't
evaporate around him, he started becoming confused. He looked at one arm
that was draped over him and noticed the blond hairs that covered it.

'Duncan!'

His first instinct was to panic, throw the guy out of bed and start for the
door running. But then reality sunk in. They were in his bed, and he
remembered falling asleep without the hunk hanging on to him.

'What the hell is he doing spooning me? OK calm down Niko, think. They guy
was nice, he was fine until you told him you were gay, then he freaked even
though he wants you to believe he is fine with it, then he freaks some
more, and then you wake up with him in your bed. Yeah... this makes
sense. Damn it, OK, do i move or do i wait for him to wake up. WAIT! is he
awake? Damn it, i cant see with him spooning me, damn it. Now what? OK,
what would Michael do? Yes, lets go down that road... the man hasn't had
sex for four years Niko, he's practically a virgin again. OK, if i move the
guy might freak, was he drunk last nigh? Is that why he's here? Wait did we
drink with dinner? Oh my god! Did we have sex? No... no wait, I'm still
wearing my boxers. OK, wait a second, what...  oh no. Please tell me that
he isn't hard. Damn it. OK so he is definitely asleep. Do i move?'

"Niko?" Niko heard Duncan whispering in his ear. "You awake?" Niko couldn't
move, he was in panic now. "Come on mate, its OK, please, just forgive me
for yesterday."

It took awhile but Niko found his voice. "Did we... hum... do something?"
He heard Duncan laughing.

"No mate, i was just sorry for the way i treated 'ya and i just wanted you
to see that i was OK with... you know... the gay thing."

'Ahh yes this makes perfect sense.' "OK..."

"You're not mad are you?" Niko could sense the fear in his voice.

"No, no, not at all, could you just... hum... let me move?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry." With that Duncan took his arm from under the blue haired
guy and moved slightly backwards to give him space to turn.

Niko turned to face Duncan who was right there smiling sheepishly at
him. "So... you're really OK with it?"

"Yeah, no problem whatsoever." He said with determination.

"OK, good." Niko said smiling a bit.

"So, i was wondering" Duncan started again "is the tour offer you mentioned
yesterday still up?"

Niko smiled at the Australian boy again and just nodded.




Michael was seating in his living room, looking through the window. He had
spent his first night with Vincent, just sleeping. Well technical it had
been their second night, but it had been the first as boyfriends.
Boyfriend. Somehow the word still seemed an alien concept, it had been so
long. They both had agreed in taking things slowly, and so Michael wasn't
scared, but still one thing remained that bothered him. The fact that
sooner or later, he would have to tell Vince the truth about himself, and
he was still afraid of his reaction.

'I mean he's a detective damn it, leave it to you to pic a cop to date.'

Even though his past was just that, his past, he knew that Vince could find
it impossible to be with him if he found out about it. He knew he had to
tell him, and the sooner the better. He was falling for him, it wouldn't be
long until he would fall completely.  Vincent was still sleeping, they had
been talking almost all night so his man was tired. It felt good, to
Michael, to see a man that actually liked him, sleeping peacefully on his
bed.

He suddenly heard the phone ringing and he quickly went to answer to avoid
waking Vince up.

"Yeah, Grange here." He said into the phone.

First he didn't hear anyone on the other end of the line, but soon the
silence turned to a grave voice, a voice he had been trying to forget for
the last 4 years.

"Hello Pietro, i need you again."



Well that's it for the second chapter, hope you liked it, and i want to
apologise in advance for any typos but in my defense... well I'm
Portuguese... and, i write this at an ungodly hour. OK that should do it.

Any comments can be send to gridlinked@gmail.com

All the best

Mike