Dinner Date [c]

Fleck laughed. He knew what that blush meant.

"I'll have to put some thought into what I want. And hope that this time I don't change my mind."

Fleck ran his tongue over his teeth as he put a vague thought to what he'd want as a design.

"Pizza place is just around the corner."

"Why not just bite the bullet and get on? If it has meaning and looks nice I am sure you wont regret it."

Not that he had much experience. If anything he was the worst to give out advice considering his was a drunken mistake.

"That was quick. Hungry?"

Now that Fleck mentioned it he could smell it. It was mouth watering.

"I'm a chronic mind-changer. I'll have a perfect design in mind, then change it an hour later."

He ran a hand over his tied back hair. "I just know that I'll get a design inked, then want to change it."

It was just the way he was.

"I'm always hungry for pizza."

Dick couldn't really sympathise. Once his mind was made up, it was made up.

"What is it with this generations obsession with pizza anyway? Not that it is bad or anything, it is good food, but... it's just pizza."

There was always one food that a generation would obsess over and this generation was pizza. he remembered back when everyone was loosing their shit over sugar.

"Dick, we're in Sicily."

They weren't just in Italy, they were in Sicily: a place where pizza was king.

"Anddddd," he drew the word out as he pushed open a door and held it open for Dick. "We're in kitchen of a real Sicilian pizza chef. How can I not be hungry for pizza?"

Fleck arched a challenging brow. "You taste this stuff and tell me it's just pizza."

He shoved Fleck playfully just before someone came and to seat them. Despite it being a weekday the place was still packed - a sign of a high quality restaurant.

"Okay, since you speak so highly of it, what do you recommend?"

He was going to just have a starter - that would of been enough for him - but with Fleck's challenge he had to have one now. He has tried many pizza places in Sicily and all with the same result: it is just pizza. He didn't expect it to be changed any time soon but he will let Fleck try.

Fleck greeted the waitress with an affectionate kiss on the cheek, which she returned just as happily.

"The traditional is always good."

The vinyl of the booth squeaked as Fleck dropped himself into it.

"I think I'm going to go for the meat feast pizzolo tonight, though."

Dick watched Fleck as he greeted the waitress. It was obvious that he knew that family here - he was pretty sure he mentioned it. A kiss on the cheek was a common platonic greeting, but that didn't stop the ever slight twang of jealousy.

"Traditional it is then."

He didn't bother looking through the menu now that he decided on his dinner.

"Meat feast pizzolo? I guess it doesn't take a lot of guessing to work out what is on that."

"Definitely no meat," Fleck replied.

The waitress flounced up with a smile. "What can I get the two of you?" Her smile brightened and she divided her attention evenly between the two men.

Fleck read off his pick, a side of onion rings and a drink of coke and the waitress scribbled them down and read it back to confirm.

After Fleck gave a nod, she turned her smile to Dick. "And you, sir?"

"Never took you for a vegetarian."

He turned his attention from Fleck and to the waitress, politely waited for Fleck to finish his order.

"I will just get a traditional pizza, small if you can and..." He quickly grabbed the drinks menu to scan the wine list. "A glass of Merlot please, medium."

He would of gone large but he wanted to keep it classy. Make up for the fact their first meeting was him drunk and acting anything but classy.

"Actually, I sort of am. My mom and Chai and Jay are all vegetarian. No meat in the house. I only get meat when I'm out of the house."

Fleck himself was content eating just about anything, meat or no, so when he was out of the house, he usually found himself eating something filled with meat.

The Italian arched a brow with a teasing smile. "Have I driven you to drink already?"

"So you eat meat when you can?"

Personally Dick never got the whole vegetarian, vegan or any other obscure diet. It was food at the end of the day. As long as it wasn't wasted, did it matter?

He snorted. "If you driven me to drink I wouldn't of ordered a glass."

Perfectly timed their drink were set on the table and he thanked the waitress.

"I doubt it would come to that either. I enjoy your company."

"When it takes my fancy. I like my meat, but there are times that I order something that takes my fancy that isn't packed full of animal."

What he ordered really depended on how he felt.

"It just so happens that today's a meat day."

Fleck grinned and leant his arm against the table, resting his chin on his palm. "Careful. Don't want to inflate my ego too much." He was certainly preening at the thought that Dick enjoyed his company.

Dick folded his arms and rested them on the table, leaning forward himself.

"I will try not too, but I can't promise anything."

Anything concerning Fleck he will tell the truth - especially if it was something good about the man. To be honest, he couldn't find anything about the man he didn't like.

"And since I am dishing out the compliments, the restaurant you took us too is nice. It defiantly has a charm."

"I'll try and keep my ego reigned in myself then."

For all his joking, he genuinely did appreciate the compliments that were being fired his way.

"It's nice, isn't it? This place has been here since my mom was a kid. It's been the family haunt for years when we could afford it."

"You must know the staff well then. It feels like you know the whole of Catania - the ladies from the caffe and now now here."

With a large family like Fleck's he guessed that he must have a lot of mutual friends through them. Plus, from the way Fleck spoke of his family, they sounded more like a close knit community that must spread onto their friends as well.

"I know a fair few people."

Fleck rubbed the back of his neck and gave a sheepish smile. "I actually know the waitress because we had a thing back when I was coming into myself."

Fleck had experimented a lot when finding out who he was, and his sexuality was one of those things that took a fair bit of experimenting with. The waitress had been one of the few girls he'd dated when trying to figure out what he liked in a partner.

So the slight jealous twinge earlier wasn't irrational.

He glanced over to the girl, who was serving another table with a smile on his face and then back to Fleck's sheepish face. Tense muscles relaxed and he smiled at the bleach blonde.

Just because they had a thing didn't mean Fleck was going to forget their date and go on one with her. It the short time he has known Fleck, Dick felt like he could be trusted.

"She is pretty. What would you say your sexuality is then?"

Flek raised his eyes to the ceiling as he thought on the answer.

"If I were to go with anything... Maybe homoflexible. It's rare that I really like a woman, but it has happened on occassion."

He definitely had a preference for men and he was more than comfortable admitting that.

"Homoflexible?"

He has heard of that term before, but couldn't remember what it meant. Although he could take a hazard guess.

"Good thing then. I was almost worried you were going to say straight."

"Well, with the way things were going, I didn't want to upset you. I was going to leave it until we at least got to third base before I told you," Fleck teased.

His head tilted and he looked up just as the waitress appeared with a pie in each hand.

She placed the two down side-by-side.

"Enjoy!" she chirped.

His skin was doing so well until the comment about first base. Now he was back to the same hue of the wine he was drinking.

"That would of made things pretty awkward."

He was glad as the food was presented in front of them to serve as a distraction. He thanked the waitress before she left.

The pizza smelt as good as it looked. Maybe Fleck was right, maybe they were not 'just pizza'.

The noise Fleck made was almost a purr as he carefully extracted a slice of the stuffed pizza from the round.

He supported the tip as he bit into it. He hissed and covered his mouth, breathing heavily as he did so.

The pizza was hot and he was burning his mouth to high hell, but he wasn't going to spit it out. He'd tough out the burn for this pizza.

Eventually it was cool enough to swallow, and he just about dove into his coke glass. "Shit, that's hot," he muttered after a few swallows. "Good, but hot."

Dick watched the spectacle in from of him, trying to hide his laugh behind his hand again.

"It it hot?" He asked between his laughs as Fleck breathed heavily. It was painfully obvious that his question was already answered.

What a dork.

"I am surprised you even tasted anything at all with it burning your mouth like that. At least I now know to give it a chance to cool down."

He nudged Dick's foot with his own under the table.

"My mouth is gonna hurt for days," he complained. "But I'm gonna enjoy every bite of that pizza."

His eyes flickered down to it. "When it's cool enough, that is."