tampered | (no subject)

(no subject)

When; Monday February 4th, evening
Rating; PG-13?
Characters; Lee Nicholas

killerdimples and Tony Foster

darkest0knight
Summary; It's Tony's birthday, and Lee owes him.
Log;

When Lee bought the TV, he had to take a huge advance out on his paycheck. It was huge - a lot bigger than he thought when the guy at the store told him it was five feet.

The trick was to keep Tony out of the house while they delivered it. He walked next to the other man as they went into the restaurant for dinner and calculated it in his head. They needed an hour to deliver it and another twenty-five to set it up. Dessert was at home (Lee had baked a cake) so he would have to delay dinner.

...and then there was the matter of the issues, so it was no idea how long Tony would want to be out.

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It felt just a little awkward to be on a date so soon after the almost-destruction of their relationship. Awkward, weird, kind of surreal. But it was Tony's birthday, and he wanted to spend it not thinking about anything, and pretending everything was normal.

He could do that for just one day, right? It was permitted? Fuck it, it was his birthday. He could do whatever he wanted. And he wanted to hold Lee's hand like nothing ever happened between them.

"Booth?" He bumped his fingers against Lee's as they walked to their table.

He smiled and nudged him into the booth for two. It was almost claustrophobic, but with the both of them alone it felt fine. He pressed a kiss against Tony's fingers. "Booth works," he said softly.

He opened a menu but even though he looked through it, it seemed so blank. Whatever he got would taste like guilt anyway. "Do you know what you want?" he asked, looking up at Tony. "Your birthday, you get whatever it is you like."

He skimmed the menu, chose something at random. He wasn't really hungry, hadn't been hungry for days although he ate anyway.

"Roast chicken and potatoes." And water to drink. The wine Vicki had sent would be at the apartment by the time they went back, and he'd have a celebratory drink then. Maybe two.

...Maybe three.

Lee nodded and ordered a burger for himself and turned to Tony.

How could a date be so awkward? He had spent the day yesterday holding him. He really wanted things to be back the way they were, when their dates were laughing over work or someone they knew or...who knows what else.

"Ho-" he began, then changed his mind. "So the thaw is soon." He paused. "You want to ride with me?"

Tony fiddled with his fork and thought about it. The bike was something Lee had in common with him, not with Tony. Would he be able to ride behind Lee, arms around his waist, and not think about that or them together?

"...Ask me in a little while," he said slowly. Putting things off until he felt less muddled seemed like a good idea.

He reached for Tony's hands to still them and nodded. "We got a wedding invitation today. For our boss's wedding."

He smirked a little. "You want to go with me, or do you want to find another date?"

He meant it to be a joke.

He gave a small smile back, fork abandoned beneath his fingers.

"We both have to go anyway. Might as well go together." Light and easy. He could do this.

"Will you wear a suit?" He asked, grinning. "Maybe we can get one that's tailored to you." He tightened his grip around Tony's fingers. "I'll get one too. Though I may have to work for part of it," he added with a grimace.

The drinks came, and Lee sipped his water. "But you don't think I look good in suits, right?"

"It's a wedding. I can't wear jeans," he pointed out, matter-of-fact. "I don't need a tailored suit. I'll just ask Saya if she can take in the waist of my blue one."

He took a long swallow of water, and pressed the cool glass to his cheek for a few seconds. It felt good against the bruise there. Numbing.

He quirked a brow at Lee's last remark. "Don't fish. You know you look good in anything."

"Not true," he said, thinking about it. "I look really bad in a clown outfit."

An actual grin. "When did you ever wear a clown outfit?"

This was a story that Lee rarely ever told, with good reason.

"So when I was twelve, I was just getting started, right? And my mom took out this ad for me as an entertainer in our towns newspaper, nothing came of it. Well, when I got big, right before you started working for us, the daughter of the editor found the ad."

He smirked.

"So she called my mom and my mom thought it would be great if I did her birthday. Only what she didn't tell me or the girl was that she had made my outfit...and guess what."

He squeezed again.

"I was a clown."

He couldn't help it: he laughed. "Red nose, poofy hair, big shoes, the whole deal?"

He couldn't picture it. "I hope your mom took photos."

Lee remembered that day clearly. "Yep. Try saying no to my mom. Impossible." He grinned. "She got photos, and if I'm lucky they'll remain back in the album with Lee's 'I'm a big boy and potty training' pictures."

It was good to hear Tony laugh. He had missed that sound so badly.

"Oh no," he grinned back. "She needs to bring those in to the studio. Amy needs a new target."

Lee laughed. "No no no, I'm not letting Mason see those," he said with a smile, then reached into his pocked to pull out his wallet.

"Although it's not me as a clown," he stated softly, and drew out a picture to hand it to Tony. "That's me as a gawky teenager. Before I was on any soap."

Tony took the picture, fingers tracing the boyish face wistfully. "You don't look very gawky," he said. He looked...young.

"Better skin than most guys that age," he teased. "You must have been a health nut early."

Lee smiled. "You want to keep it?"

He thought about his teenaged years very briefly. "No, not really," he said. "My mom was a little, I guess. When I was really little, we didn't have a lot of money, so she made all our food."

"Can I?" Tony flipped open his own wallet.

He didn't have any pictures in his. A business card from Vicki, with Celluci's number scrawled across the back "just in case". Ticket-ends from a movie night with Henry. The number of the City Hall representative he was supposed to remember to call about a road closure, way back before he got stuck in the City.

He tucked Lee's picture in under Victory's card. "At least she was a good cook?"

"It's all yours."

He closed his own wallet and tucked it back into his pocket and nodded. "Better baker, but she was a good cook, too. I guess I always think of my mom as good at everything, though. When my dad worked, she was always around." He scratched his beard. "I guess I monopolized her, though. My brother's not as close to her."

"Mom hog." Tony watched the movement of Lee's fingers and smiled.

"You need a shave," he said.

"Mm, probably," he agreed. He was usually clean-shaven for the show, but he hadn't found the time recently. "You don't like me with a beard?" He didn't make it fishing, but a genuine question.

He moved back when the waiter came by with their food.

Tony didn't mind beards (otherwise being with Zev would've been hard). It was just weird seeing Lee with one.

"I'm just used to you being...smooth," he confessed. "It's not a big deal."

He stabbed a roasted potato with his fork and placed it in his mouth.

Lee shrugged and ate, then muttered, "I'll shave tonight," he said. "Just hasn't been the foremost thought in my mind."

He went silent as he ate. Damn it. Why couldn't he make this less awkward?

"If you want to," Tony said quietly, eyes on his plate. He hadn't meant it like an order.

He picked at his food, working the best he could with it. There was probably a cake waiting for him back at the apartment, and he wanted to make sure he could eat at least a small piece.

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