FicWad

A/N: It's been about a week now. I know this is the first time I've gone 7 whole days without an update, but blame the anime I DLed... And the last scene was hard to decide on. I've really gotta write up a more comprehensible outline. All I've got right now is messy jot notes that are the basis of my planning currently... An outline would give me something more solid not to follow.

Disclaimer: The street names mentioned are real streets in Montréal, and the convenience store "Couche Tard" really does exist. I am in no way taking credit or making money off these things so don't sue me.

Reader Response:
Kt: Aww, your reviews are skillfully written too! You've got Ike totally right though. That is exactly how I meant to portray him, so I'm happy it came through that way for you.
Paige: Drag queens, terror, and love, yes yes, it's all good! Yes I would probably fall in love with Eddie too... Or I would hate him. Either way is fun. Well welcome to the Ivory reviewer void of sin! I hope you will come back! We could always use fresh souls! BWAAHA! No idea
Alisha Steele: Thank you, I'm rather proud of him. Anon: Thank you! Tyty: Let me know when you put it out! Multifacetedtune: Thank you for pointing it out.
Turtledonkey27: Yes, if everyone could be honest the world would be a better place... Or a worse place... But yes Dramatic is fun. As for why Lachlan isn't good... I think it's a little of both the attack and that he's got secrets of his own... Which you will be finding out within the next few chapters me thinks.
Ralyn Ambrose: Welcome new Ivory reader! Congrats on the account! Let me know if you post a fic on it. Yes Eddie was sweet about that. And I hope you continue to enjoy this story. I love my reviewers! ^_^
Semme: You're happy with me?! WOOO! My life has purpose now! Pie Jr. chokes on cookies? He's just like his daddy. So cute. Ok so since Ikey didn't get raped again, do I get the candy you would have refused me? I like candy... Although you could explain to me that bed thing a little more. Is a wonderfriend
Alosadone: Thank you! Yes I love Ciel too. I swear the scenes he's in are the most fun to write.
WhinnieRichards: I told you, I'm a ninja author! Sizzling! I like that. From now on I'm gonna aim for sizzling more often! Yakov will meet Ike's parents on Sunday, but I haven't decided yet whether that will be next chapter or the one after. Probably next. Mace with a crush on Ike?! Ya know, I considered that but I won't tell you my decision because I'm evil. IVORY LOVES YOU TOO!
Sheamaru: I've been waiting for you! Kinda! I had fun with Eddie's outfit. I went around to fetish clothing sites to find it! I love those sites... I think I need water...

IVORY

Chapter 7
Can I Ask You

--

After waking up alone in a motel, one would be forced to consider whether or not the previous night even really happened. Had Eddie really come back for me or was it all part of just a sweet dream. Come to think of it, my dreamland wasn't exactly the kind of place where wishes were made to come true. But the reality of last night was apparent with the note that Eddie left by the phone. He had left to do a promo for something.

The rest of my day consisted mainly of class, once I had called Denis and had him drive me to university of course. My Essay was returned, though I only got 69% on it. What is that, a D? It seemed the professor did not agree with my points, though I forgot what my argument was, and didn't care to read it over to see what he disagreed with. What mattered was Mace was friendly again, and didn't seem to even remember the mini fight we had. He forgot to be disappointed in me, or whatever had been the problem.

After class we headed home together. We sat down in the metro station, waiting on a bench for the subway to arrive. It was starting to get crowded, but that wasn't surprising. Rush hour was approaching.

"Maybe," Mace said thoughtfully, "If we water it, it'll grow."

We were in the middle of listing things not to say to a naked guy. We used to play this theme listing game a lot when we were younger, and yet as childish as it was, somehow we always ended up playing it when we had nothing better to do. I wrinkled my nose and said, "Ew, there's an inchworm on your thigh!"

"Will it squeak if I squeeze it?"

"So this is why you're supposed to judge people on personality."

I smiled as Haley came up and sat on the ground in front of me. She crossed her arms over my lap and rested her chin there, glancing between Mace and me. Her straight black hair was all messily pinned to her head, and falling in her face. As much of a bitch as she was, she was enough to make straight men go absolutely insane over her. It helped that she was known to be easy.

Mace looked at the direction she came from and pouted a little. Of course he was looking for Ava, and was a little upset about his beloved being no where in sight. Men were so predictable when they were still in the wooing stages. I watched him, congratulating myself for not being like that over the men I liked. Well I couldn't be or else they'd all figure it out.

He looked down at Haley suspiciously, "Where is she?"

"Don't look at me like that, assface." Such a sweet vocabulary that girl had. Haley frowned at him, and wiggled slightly to get more comfortable. "She got a ride home with Liz. We ain't joined at the hip you know. Now what list were you doing?"

"Things not to say to a naked man," Mace answered. He yawned and glanced over to see if the metro car was coming yet, in case he was suddenly too deaf to hear it a mile away. "Maybe it looks better in natural light."

Haley giggled and focused her big brown eyes on the crotch of my pants. "All right! A treasure hunt!"

"Hey! You, me, and some play-dough baby! We can't go wrong!" I winked at her.

Mace groaned and got up, having heard the rumble of the approaching metro finally. Maybe his spidey senses had detected it after all. He helped Haley up, and gave me a playful glare. "And you wonder why you're still a virgin you fucking creep."

I laughed and slung my backpack over my shoulder before following them to the side of the platform and then into the metro car once it stopped, opened and let a few people out. It was still too crowded so we had to stand and were practically shoulder to shoulder, chest to chest with total strangers. I had to squeeze in if I didn't want to get caught in the doors. As said doors began to slide closed, I held onto my hair, always have been nervous about the possibility of having my beautiful frizzy hair stuck in something like that.

When the metro started moving, I watched out the window - since it was the only thing I could do - at the florescent green signs zooming past. They were a bit too fast to read but they probably listed the next station or the direction or something. Bored, I found myself counting them and thinking about tomorrow's classes. Oil painting... I loved oil painting, and there was going to be an extra seminar tomorrow on traditional Mongolian art. It would make me a little late for work but Denis had been informed, and told me that education comes first and that he'd want to know what I learned... Apparently he was an art fanatic. Who'd of thunk it?

At the next stop, a few people got out while a group of high school students rudely shoved their way in. I rolled my eyes with annoyance as I was pushed to the back, but I didn't really care. The other set of doors would be opening at the next terminal anyway. But then a young man with blonde hair moved passed me, and when I caught a glimpse of his face, and his hand brushed against my behind, I yelped with surprise, and fell forward as the metro jerked into motion again.

I apologized profusely to the big Haitian man whose lap I had fallen into as I got up again, and clung to one of the handlebars on either side of the doors. He didn't seem so bothered... More like amused. So I turned away to find that blonde again, and when I did, that blonde wasn't at all who he was a second ago. It was a totally different person just with the same haircut. A few people - including said blonde - were staring at me, a little confused by my yelp, but the look that bothered me the most was the one I was receiving from Mace, who was currently just a couple people away.

He pushed through the people until he was right next to me and frowned when I turned away to lean face first against the doors. He put his hand on my back and tried to ask me over the noise of the metro, "What's wrong with you? Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," After being able to settle down after that little scare - which basically means I could breathe again -, I realized my heart was beating really fast and strong, as if I had a panic attack or something. It hadn't been that serious... Just a mistake, and yet my body was showing signs of distress that I didn't expect. "I'm just a little jumpy. I didn't get much sleep last night, ya know."

Mace didn't say anything for awhile. It was so unnerving the way he acted like that. It always made me feel like he knew or it made me feel guilty or both. If he did know, it wouldn't be much of a surprise. He was a smart guy. He had always been far cleverer than me. Finally he sighed and leaned his back against the door beside me. "I think Haley is in love with you."

"Fuck you. You think everyone is in love me."

"Everyone is. It's not my fault you're cute," Mace teased, poking me in the ribs. "Only I'm happy to say Ava doesn't like you beyond that friend kinda like. I think she's into Liz."

I raised my brow in surprise and looked over at my friend. Of course he was just joking, but still I thought it would be funny if that were true. "Is that so? Does that mean you love me too, big boy?"

"Of course," Mace said in a high pitched fan-girl-like voice and made a kissy face at me, "You're like totally my type! Let's go make out in a library!"

"Haley's right. You are an assface."

--

It was time. After that little hallucination in the metro, for some reason I felt the need to find Lachlan. It wasn't hard to do. All I had to do was call Denis to ask him where Lachlan lived, and then I hopped on the metro and then on a bus, and there I was.

Indeed it was beat up place in a bad area of Montreal. The place was crawling with thug wannabes and little white boys who have watched way too many rap music videos. Probably a rather dangerous place but there was no doubt in my mind that Lachlan could defend himself. He was a strong guy despite his friendly sweet personality.

I made my way through the hallway, since the front door of the apartment building was open and the buzzers didn't work. I went down four steps into the basement floor and went to the door that apparently belonged to him. Just as I raised my hand to knock, something stopped me. Someone inside was cursing. And then there was a moan.

My eyes went wide and I pressed my ear to the door in disbelief. The sound of Lachlan's voice spoke such vulgar dirty things and there was the sound of a squeaky box spring. Could it be that he had a lover? No, that wasn't even a question. It was obvious that he had because he wouldn't be so obviously having sex if he didn't. So if he had a lover, why was he so willing to do that kinda thing with me?

Another man's voice grunted and mumbled, "Fuck... Fuck yeah... Take it all in you little slut."

"Ah... Faster! Come on, daddy, own me!"

Confused, and a little - otherwise known as a lot - upset, I turned right around and headed back up the steps and out of the building. The sun was going down, and even though normally wandering around in a bad neighborhood at night wouldn't bother me, but it seemed lately I was a bit easier to scare so once back out on the street I looked around for a convenience store or something.

Once I found one, I went to the side of the building and grabbed the receiver off of a payphone. Before the quarter could leave my fingers, something stopped me. Who was I going to call? Surely Denis had been bothered enough. Eddie was out of the question probably at work or something, and I didn't even know Ciel's number... Or did I? Maybe he gave it to me but numbers weren't my strong suit. My only option was... Mace. It may be a risky situation but since it wasn't le village, he had no reason to suspect...

So in went the quarter and the number was dialed. The first time the phone rang; there was only a touch of anxiety. It wasn't a problem. There wouldn't likely be an answer so soon so I had time to steady my nerves. The second ring was a little more bothersome. The feeling of trepidation was beginning to set in and I didn't even know why. It was just a phone call to my best friend. What was there to fear? But as the third ring came, I was beginning to tremble. I looked from side to side, scanning the street around me. I didn't know what scared me more, the possibility of not getting an answer of the possibility of him actually picking up. A group of guys walked by, startling me half to death, but they just continued on, joking and shoving at each other.

The fourth ring was interrupted the split second it began, and a voice came out on the other end, "Hello?"

"Mace?" I leaned against the wall beside the phone and sighed, trying to calm my nerves. "Are you busy? Can you come pick me up?"

"Pick you up? Didn't we just go home together an hour ago? Why can't you just take the metro?"

Ok maybe he was going to be more difficult. I didn't want to beg so instead of pleading, I groaned with annoyance. "Man, the bus doesn't come for another half hour, and the metro will be way too crowded and right now I don't want to put up with it."

"Stop being an ass and just... wait... Bus?" There was a pause as if Mace were trying to think of where I could have gone that I would need a bus to get to. Everywhere we hung out was within walking distance of a metro station. When he spoke again, his voice was almost a whisper and I guessed that either he had friends over or maybe Eddie was home after all. "Ok let me get this straight. As soon as I left you today, you got on the metro and hopped on a bus, and went somewhere and now you wanna go home? How long have you been there?"

I played with the metal phone cord. "Just a couple minutes. I came here to meet with someone but I changed my mind."

"So you changed your mind and now you've decided that taking public transport is too much of a hassle so you want me to come bail you out? That's bullshit; you know how I feel about using the car. Unless you have a good reason, I don't want to pollute the air anymore needlessly."

He had a habit of dismissing my acts of nonchalance so well. I glanced at the sign on the corner that listed the street name. "It's getting dark, and I'm on Rue du Trianon by a convenience store." I glanced up at the building. "It's called Couche Tard. Please come get me, Mace... all these thugs walking around are a little freaky."

"Rue du Trianon? That's in...? What the heck are you doing in that area, you dumbass?" The sound of him tossing something was heard, and a moment of annoyed silence. The jingle of keys soon followed and he mumbled to someone else in the room, telling them to go home before speaking to me again. "Give me ten minutes. I'll come get you, and when I do, I expect a better explanation, understood?"

"Uh huh... I'll go in the Couche Tard then."

--

It was maybe 20 minutes later. Mace had been a little late. We were in his car at that point on our way back to my place. At first we traveled without talking, just listening to music on the radio that we both hated. It was strange how one day we could sit quietly so comfortably, and the next it was enough to make me implode with worry.

After staring out the window for a few minutes, my eyes began to follow the squares of florescent lights steadily passing along the dashboard. It was enough to put me to sleep, so I turned my focus to the glowing numbers of the radio station instead. It was a pop station with really annoying peppy DJs, or whatever you call the people who announce songs and ramble about nothing on the radio. But now that I was off the street, I couldn't stop thinking about what I heard from Lachlan's apartment. Hopefully Mace would say something to get my mind off it.

Of course even when he did talk, it didn't really help much. "What was this about?"

"I told you on the phone. I came here to meet someone and then I changed my mind."

He didn't buy it. It seemed Mace rarely believed anything I said, but to be fair, he was usually right about what not to believe. Still it was frustrating knowing I couldn't successfully ever lie to him and yet the lies kept coming. Maybe he was a little too observant for my own good. But the real issue was really how much I could trust him.

For a while he didn't say anything else. A whole song went by, and we were almost to my house before he spoke again. "It's not like you to come this far just to turn around and change your mind. You're an idiot, and over-dramatic, and do a lot of stupid things, but your pride wouldn't allow indecision like this. And I know you wouldn't have called me if you weren't desperate. Ike, what's going on?"

"I guess I've been a little easy to scare lately." I gazed out the window again, amazed at how quickly it got dark. "I don't know why. Maybe it's what I said on the metro earlier... Not enough sleep."

"You're lying to me again."

"Fuck you! Since you know everything, why don't you just tell me what the truth is?" I glared at him, trying to be angry that he would accuse me of lying when I really was lying. "I really didn't get enough sleep you know, and I really was scared! Is that so hard to believe?"

Mace kept his eyes on the road, reasonably more calm this time, which was good considering he was behind the wheel. "I believe that. But you do know why you're jumpy and can't sleep, don't you?" He sighed and glanced at me briefly. "I've been thinking about this a lot, Ike, and it's frustrating that you can't even tell me whatever the fuck is going on, but if you don't want me to know, so be it. You can continue lying to everyone else if you need to but you don't need to lie to me. Just tell me that you don't want me to know, and I won't push it as long as you stop feeding me bullshit."

"I do want to tell you but you'll think I'm fucking weak and filthy!" I shut up suddenly, the last word that escaped my mouth making me think of Ciel immediately. It was so confusing. What was going on in my head?

"No, dumbass, let me decide for myself what I'll think. Don't tell me the truth then, just don't tell me anymore lies. That's all."

I stared down at the shadows of my hands, wondering if maybe I should have called someone else. "Fine. I don't have a girlfriend. You were right. I just said that so my parents wouldn't get suspicious. But I won't tell you where I go every weekend. And I couldn't sleep last night because I had a nightmare but I won't tell you why."

He hesitated and waited until he was parked outside my house before turning to me and speaking again. "Alright. Can I ask you something else then?"

"I don't care. What is it?"

"Did you have sex with my brother last night?"

TBC... ... ... ...