Dinner Date [c]

He playfully shoved Fleck's foot back.

"maybe next time don't shove it in so fast? You don't have to worry about me stealing it. If anything I will probably give you food."

The pizza was still pretty big even it is was a small. He was determined to enjoy it though. Especially since this was one of Fleck's favourite restaurants and he spoke so highly of the food.

Delicately he cut into his meal with a knife and fork to take a small piece. He gently blew on it before eating it. He chewed slowly, tasting all the flavours that the food had to offer. While it was still pizza, it was good pizza. Really good pizza.

"Well, it is defiantly the best pizza I have had in a very long time."

"Force of habit." If you didn't eat food quick in Fleck's family, you didnt eat at all. With such a large family, even with so many of them not living at the house, sometimes they struggled to feed the entire family. On those dark weeks, food was a precious thing and fights broke out often.

It was just preflex to eat as fast as he could.

"Did you just-" Fleck looked at Dick with the most confused expression he ever thought he'd worn. "With a knife and fork?"

He raised an eyebrow at Fleck's confused expresion.

"Unless we are both hallucinating, yes. I don't like getting my hands dirty."

He was very grateful for the common use of cutlery and table manners. There was nothing worst then getting sticky hands eating. Besides they were at a restaurant, it was proper etiquette.

"But, it's pizza," he pointed out unneccessarily.

Pizza was made to be eaten with the hands. That's why there was a crust. If you ate it right, your hands wouldn't get sticky at all.

"Is this a strange thing that only some English people do?"

He'd never seen an Italian, or any tourist for that matter, eat pizza with a knife and fork. Was this just something that the higher class Englih people did to make a common thing less common?

Fleck's offence was hilarious and he couldn't stop the quirk in his lips.

"I guess it is."

He hadn't really taken much notice on how the English ate their pizza last time he was other.

He took another small bit of his pizza, making a show of using the cutlery with a grin.

Fleck shook his head slowly when Dick made a show of using his knife and fork.

"No family meals with pizza," he decided aloud.

Dick would be eaten alive if he ate pizza with a fork in front of his family. Fleck would protect him from teasing as bad as that, even if it meant not having pizza.

His stomach twisted at the mention of him meeting Fleck's family. The idea was nauseating but also exciting. A little extra hint that this was going in the right directing.

"Or anything that requires me using my hands. I will use cutlery to my dying day." He chuckled.

"We're going to starve." The majority of family meals were hand foods. It was easier that way.

Fleck tried the pizza again, biting into it.

It was far less hot now. At an edible temperature now.

Dick laughed.

"Why the we?"

To be honest that would work out better then him. As much as he enjoyed human food it just didn't agree with him any more - especially in large quantities.

"Why not the we?" he countered.

He took another big bite and chewed happily, licking a small smear of tomato sauce from his lip.

In his next bite, a string of cheese stretched between his mouth and the slice. He lifted his hand and made a quiet noise.

Dick's lips formed a straight line as the cheese stretched from the pizza to Fleck's mouth. It wasn't the most attractive sight.

Not wanting to be rude he easily turned his lips into a friendly smile. Fleck was enjoying his food and that is what mattered. Besides he should be focusing on his own dinner and not the other blond.

"You missed a spot."

Mirroring Fleck he pointed to his own cheek where the the tomato sauce would be.

"Oink," he muttered, cheeks flushing as he wiped at the sauce smear on his cheek. How had he even managed that?

"Sorry about that."

Finger foods was a regular style of food in his house, so he was usually pretty good at eating it cleanly. Today was apparently just a bad day for neatness for him.

He offered Fleck another friendly smile.

"It doesn't matter."

He placed his cutlery down in favour of drinking his wine. He placed it either side of his plate to make it seem like he is finished, when really he could only manage one more bite. He take that bite just before Fleck's is finished then offer the rest of the pizza to him.

"How have your, as you put it, zoo been?"

"The zoo's been the same as always."

A smile curled his lips, a happy, loving smile. The same smile that appeared every tie he talked about his family or his zoo.

"Keeping me busy, but I love every moment of having them all."

The smile that appeared on Fleck's face made him so handsome - he also did when he talked about of his pets. A vast difference to the look a minute ago.

"I am glad you are all doing well."

He took his final bite of the pizza before putting his cutlery together.

"That's me done. As good as it is it I can't finish it. Do you want the rest?"

There was just under three quarters of it left.

"Eating with a fork and not finishing it?" Fleck shook his head slowly with a teasing lilt of his lips.

Fleck took the last bite of his own pizza.

"I'll have some. We can box the rest up."

"Hopefully I haven't insulted to you too much." He laughed, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Will you be having a sweet? I might have another drink."

He had finished the glass and craved another. He didn't know the brand the restaurant used but it was good wine.

"I think I can find it in myself to forgive you for it."

Fleck licked a little bit of sauce from the corner of his lips, then took the last bite of the slice in his hand. He'd left a few slices on the plate. He'd ask for a pizza box later.

"Nah, I don't think my stomach would love me if I had much else."

He enjoyed his food, that was true, but he didn't often stuff himself like he had today. His stomach definitely wouldn't like him if he ate much more.

"Here I thought you would be able to demolish them." He grinned.

"I think I will get another glass in a bar then. There are a few nice ones along this road, isn't there?"

Other then the last few weeks he hadn't been out much. If he ever did it was always in the centre of Catania, making his night life knowledge limited.

"Today I am weak."

Fleck raised his arm to get the attention of the waitress and ask for a pizza box. With a smile, she disappeared off to get one.

"I dunno. I don't go out drinking much. I've only gone out a couple of times."

Fleck was much happier at home than in a bar. He knew very little about the local bars.

He thanked and smiled at the waitress aglong with Fleck.

"Then we can wonder until we find a nice one. I suspect they wont be busy today either as it is a week day. So we will be actually able to hear each other - unlike last time."

And unlike last time, he wont get horribly drunk and make an embarrassment out of himself. Again.

"You're a bad influence, trying to get me to drink when I have work in the morning." His words were spoken teasingly.

Fleck was sort of hoping that the night wouldnt go to booze. That's why he had picked this place; a place with limited alcohol and very little drinking environment.

Fleck was a firm believer that you dont need to drink to have a good time.

"Hey, I am not trying to make you do anything." He laughed.

Dick paused to turn to the waitress to thank her again as she brought the box over and left to take an order from a demanding table.

"There are not a lot of places to go in the evening though. And I feel a bit guilty if we sat here and don't order anything more... Maybe we go on a walk or something?"

He still fancied another glass of wine, but from the sounds of it, Fleck wasn't up for going out. He didn't wan't Fleck going away with the impression that he was a drunk.

"I don't know. The cute ones have their ways of making people do things without people realising it until its too late. Never trust the cute ones."

He dropped Dick a wink as he stood.

"Let me go settle the bill then we can decide what we're doing."

The tips of his ears turned pink and then red as Fleck gave him a wink.

It set a little bit of guilt in him. While he never wanted his way with Fleck, he still felt he was betraying Fleck's trust, not telling him the whole truth.

"No, don't. We will go halves."