Welcome to Gaia! ::

For a couple of people who had as many complex and riveting emotional issues as they seemed to, they could argue about the stupidest things in the world.

The nice thing was that Grayson was a listener, which meant that he very rarely interrupted, even when he wanted to. He did shoot Jude varying looks that he thought adequately described his thoughts throughout the speech, but he felt like they were potentially wasted on him.

As much as things had changed between them, they'd stayed the same in just as many, if not more.

"Peyton Manning would look very good in black and silver." The implication of that hung on the air a moment, just because Grayson was imagining it. He watched football for the game first, the men a distant second, but he was a healthy young man who happened to be more attracted to men than he was women. He was going to notice an exceptional body, especially when it was showcased so nicely in a pair of tight pants.

He was only human, all right.

"Actually, he would look really good." And his eyes went a little distant as he pictured it. He probably had a mild celebrity crush on Manning, but he assumed 90% of Indianapolis fans did, including the straight men. It was just difficult not to have a man crush on a quarterback that good.

He was intrigued enough by his mental picture of Peyton Manning that his voice had no bite in it, not even play-bite. "And you try eating a loaded hot dog and not getting it all over you. It's not as easy as it looks."

Had Grayson not been used to Elke jumping on him unexpectedly, he would have probably fallen over. Thankfully, his reflexes were good and his balance was better, so he swayed, but didn't topple over.

And, surprisingly, he laughed. "If I saw a Tom Brady youma, I'd wonder where Randy Moss was." Not that they were inseparable, but they seemed to be most of what the Patriots had going for them -- when they were performing, anyway. He'd seen that game against Baltimore. Ouch.

He was also used to giving Elke piggyback rides, though Jude weighed a good bit more than her. Briefly, he wondered if this would count toward his Saturday Morning Fight Club requirements, and then he felt very awkward when he recalled who led those. Hero.

Er, awkward, considering he had her ex boyfriend on his back.

Even more awkward when he thought of it that way, damn.

Had it been anyone else in the world, Grayson would have been less than impressed. If it was someone he wasn't interested in, he would have feigned innocence, possibly asked them something like Do I have something on my face? just to appear a lot more dim than he was. Actually, even though it was Jude, he was still a little irked.

He liked the physical contact. Grayson was a very physical man. He was pleased to find that Jude wasn't shy in that respect, though considering this was a first date and he was being yanked around more than anything, he supposed he would have to bide his time and see how Jude really felt about being affectionate with a member of the same gender. He'd never thought there would come a day where he could say he initiated the first kiss, no matter how chaste it had been, and he hoped that he didn't have to set the ball rolling on the next one.

He didn't think he was a particularly bad kisser, but Jude had mentioned it. And yes, he'd been teasing, but Grayson couldn't help but feel slightly insecure about it. Okay, more than slightly; this was Grayson and this was Jude. He was probably not going to initiate another kiss for a very long time.

Part of it was laziness, though even he wasn't that lazy. The truth was, most of it was just apprehension. What if he really was bad at kissing? It wasn't like he'd had a great deal of practice, and of all the kissing he'd done in his life, the most recent ones had been brief and barely classified as kisses.

Benny, moments before they died. Then Jude, in the middle of emotional anguish.

He was probably going to suck at kissing.

All of this was running through his mind as he stared at Jude, stared long enough that he remembered the silly Three Second Rule, and then pondered if it still applied.

He also briefly considered punching Jude in the gut.

"Your breath smells like hot dogs," he settled for instead, expression very serious.

If Jude wanted to be a tease, he could be a bit of an a** himself. Not too much, because he was still Grayson, but enough.

Grayson would have appreciated a copy of the rule book. He was thoroughly confused, but that was nothing new when it came to Jude, so it didn't actually unsettle him much. He figured it would take him a very long time to figure out exactly what sorts of mental roundabouts composed the bluenette's thinking process, but he didn't really mind. He'd lived with being frustrated and baffled by Jude for as long as he could (and couldn't) remember, so he decided he could hold out longer. Patience, the virtue that balanced his terrible sin of sloth.

"I do prefer hot dogs to smoke." He wasn't a fan of cigarettes himself, and he was less of a fan of Jude blowing smoke into his face, but he figured everyone had something about them that made others appreciate them a little less. Smoking was not only an expensive habit, it was bad for his health, but trying to tell Jude Lawson to stop doing something because it was bad for his health was like trying to bleed a rock.

He might've been patient and mildly persistent, but he wasn't interested in starting an argument the he couldn't see himself winning. So, he would just be concerned for as long as Jude decided to smoke, and if he was ever asked, he'd share his opinion on it.

Also, he'd tell Jude to stop blowing smoke in his face eventually.

"It is getting late." He appreciated the forehead buss, and it earned Jude a small smile. "I'm still not convinced I'm the one attracting youma, though."

Well. Maybe sometimes he started arguments he probably wouldn't win.

Tristan wasn't the only one watching for the arrival of Jude and Grayson, but he was the only one to flip him off.

Van was quite disappointed that he'd missed meeting the young man that Grayson was apparently going out with, even more disappointed that it turned out to be the man he'd not-so-secretly seen Grayson punch not that long ago. He expressed all of this to Arthur as his husband hid behind the newspaper, and then finally settled for doing laundry when it seemed that he was getting no where with his complaints.

Grayson, however, was largely satisfied with the day. Jude had actually showed up, which could not be discounted, and had gotten along with his Dad. He was pretty sure his Pop would like him based on the sole fact that he was getting Grayson out of the house, and though they'd gone looking, they hadn't found a youma. Things could have been a little better, but they could have been a lot worse. Considering they were a mixture of inexperienced (in Grayson's case) and out of practice (Jude's) with dating in general, it hadn't been so bad.

He'd been kissed in two places that weren't his mouth, but he could live with that as well. Simply because he was attracted to men didn't mean he was prepared to go from pining for a just-friend to snogging his brains out on a dime, after all.

So, he said good bye to Jude and headed to his porch, watching his beat-up truck disappear around a corner with a faint smile on his face. For all his dire predictions, things really weren't that bad.

He could get used to things turning out better than he thought they would.