Chapter Text
"Mon chou, wake up. The sun has already risen. Open your eyes. It is Friday. We have plans, my love."
Hazel eyes blinked open, fluttering against the early morning sun. "Victor?" A low groan escaped Noah as he rolled over to properly look at his boyfriend. "Victor, God has blessed morning hours with coffee not just so you can wake me up with your insistent bugging!"
A warm laugh escaped the Frenchman. "It is bold of you to assume that I have not prepared coffee before waking you, mon petit lion. The sun is waiting to catch your beautiful eyes and so am I."
Noah rolled his eyes exasperatedly. "Vic, I love you. But you are incorrigible."
With a deep sigh, Victor swept his freckled lover into his arms. "You are a horrible, horrible person to be around before you had your coffee. You know that, right, mon chou?"
A vaguely confirmative huff from Noah was all the answer he got.
Victor dumped him onto a kitchen chair and placed a steaming cup of coffee in front of him. "Drink up, mon chou. The ‘business’ date with your dear graphic designer won't attend itself."
Hazel eyes lit up as Noah's head whipped around to look at Victor. "Shit. That's today! Oh Vic, thank fuck you woke me up. Holy..., Vic, we need to get ready! MOVE!"
Victor raised an eyebrow. "Were you not the one grumbling about being woken up just a minute ago? My dear Noah, you really need to get your morning attitude in check."
"Viiiiic, I wasn't even really awake then. Come on, babe, I love you but I want this to go well." Noah scrambled up and pulled his lover into a tight hug and kiss. He scrunched up his nose as Victor kissed a few freckles on his face.
"Noah, my love, you are too precious for this world. It will all go smoothly. I will be the ever-charming gentleman I always am and this poor boy is gonna fall to his knees and beg you to let him stay, mon chou." He threw a confident smirk at his boyfriend.
Noah chuckled in turn. "You are a disaster, Vic, but I love you. Please try to be civil, yes?"
"Viiiiiic! Come in here immediately and help me with my hair!" A defeated sigh left the Frenchman who had been seated on the bed for over half an hour after Noah had shooed him out of the bathroom.
"Don't look at me like that. I look stupid, Vic. Help me. Do your magic!" Warm hands settled onto his shoulders.
"Mon chou, you do not look stupid. Use the blow dryer. You look cute with... how do you say? Uh…, oh! Poofy hair!"
A soft smile grazed Noah's lips at Victor's problem with finding the right word. "If he hates it, I'm blaming it on you."
A dismissive snort was all the answer he got from his boyfriend who was already on the way back into the bedroom.
After the initial disaster with Noah's hair, it took him mere minutes to get ready. Black jeans, a red button-down and his poofy hair looked perfectly balanced between casual and fancy, at least that was what Victor told him.
Soft gray carpet lined the entrance area of the cozy café they had entered. Noah let his eyes sweep over the tables to see if his date was already there, Victor on his heels. Long, dark brown hair, equally dark beard, soft gray sweater and black pants, yeah, that was the cute graphic designer from OD one floor down. A smile and a soft blush graced his face as Noah made his way over to him.
Both Noah and Victor almost went flying when the latter crashed into Noah's back after he had stopped dead in his tracks without any notice. It didn't take Victor long to realize what had startled Noah into stopping so abruptly.
Right next to the graphic designer sat a young woman with dark skin and dark hair in a muted red dress. She was holding his hand and seemed to be softly talking to him.
"He is NOT serious. He brought a random girl with him? This is a DATE!" Noah's whisper was sharp and bordered on anger.
"To be fair to him," Victor cut in to stop Noah from talking himself into a frenzy like he was prone to do, "you are not alone either. Mon chou, maybe all is entirely different than it seems right now. Let's go over, introduce ourselves and see what comes out of this."
A frown on his face, Noah agreed with a defeated huff. "Fine. But if she is his girlfriend or something...."
Victor offered a consoling smile. With warm hands on his shoulders, he steered Noah through the café to the table.
"Noah," Benjamin smiled as he looked up at him, "who is that? I... you didn't come alone." Under the table, the young woman hit his thigh.
"Neither did you, as I see, Benjamin. This is Victor, my, well, he's my boyfriend." Noah's eyes were cold while he looked down at the other two.
For this exhibition of rudeness, he received a concealed elbow to the side from Victor. The Frenchman launched right into conversation. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Who do I have the pleasure with?" It was truly hilarious as Victor took the girl's hand and pressed a light kiss on the back of it.
She chuckled indulgently. "My name is Enya, I'm Ben's girlfriend. Lovely to meet you two. Please have a seat."
A cold silence fell over the table for a moment before Victor took a seat opposite of Enya and motioned for Noah to sit on his right. Hesitantly, Noah followed his boyfriend's silent directions.
"So, Benjamin, I heard you were a graphic designer? I am very fond of the arts myself." Trust Victor to always ignore the awkward atmosphere and just jump into conversation.
"Yes, uhm, I work at the same company as Noah. I'm in the Online Design department. Noah didn't exactly mention you, may I ask what you do for a living?"
A warm chuckle left Victor before he started talking again. "Of course you may ask. I work in theater. I am a," at this, he turned to Noah, "Noah, what did you say it was called? Uh, a décorateur de théâtre."
"Set designer, Vic, it's not that hard, you got to learn your job description." Noah rolled his eyes. Victor usually knew very well what his job was called. Either he was very tired and slipping between languages without noticing or, and Noah would bet his left leg it was this, he was trying to be charming and showing off his french roots to Benjamin and Enya.
"Ah, yes, of course, set designer. I build the terrain for the stage."
Benjamin nodded smiling and looked over to Enya. "Well, the world is small. Enya is an actress. Maybe she has already played on a stage you designed?" Enya's cheeks took on a slight red tint.
"Maybe. Mademoiselle, what was the last play you took part in?" Victor turned his attention to Enya now.
She had a warm smile on her face when she answered, "The last play was an off-broadway production of Lés Miserables." Under the table, she squeezed Ben's hand to reassure him that everything was going fine.
Victor's face sank and he shook his head lightly. "Unfortunately I don't think I worked on that. But maybe you have seen some of my work. I worked on the broadway set of Wicked and In The Heights."
Enya and Benjamin grinned. "Yes, actually. We spent our fourth anniversary by wtaching In The Heights. The stage was impressive.”
Noah began coughing and looked at them. “You’ve been together for four years?”
Victor lightly slapped his back to make him stop coughing. “Now, now, Noah. Are you alright?” A soft nod was his only answer.
“Well, belated Congratulations. How did you meet, if I may ask?”
A sharp pain erupted from his right shin as Noah kicked him. Still, except for the twitch in his eyebrow and the dangerous glance he threw at him, Victor remained perfectly still.
“Ben has a thing for picking up colleagues. He worked for a theater I had a job at. He designed the marketing. But, like, enough of us. How did you guys meet?”
“Well,” Victor started, lovingly taking Noah’s hand and placing their joined fingers onto the table, “it was Halloween and a friend of ours hosted a party. I have to admit that we were all drunk that evening and I do not entirely remember what happened but Noah and I were very angry. And screaming turned to making out and in the morning he didn’t seem as terrible as the night before so we set a time for dinner.”
Little wrinkles appeared around Enya’s eyes while Ben seemingly tried to stifle a grin. The atmosphere was light-hearted, for a moment they all smiled together.
“Anyway, I think we miscommunicated a little about what today was gonna be, right, Benjamin?” Noah asked softly, sparing a little side glance at Victor.
An awkward cough was Ben’s first answer. “Well, yeah. Somehow I was under the impression that this would be, I don’t know, a date?”
“So was I,” Noah whispered, his voice tight and strained.
An excited yelp came from Victor. “Well, isn’t that just amazing? All of us had the intention of spending a date with someone and our datemate, quite possibly with the aim of having a polyamorous bond. The more the merrier!” The grin on Victor’s face was so pure they couldn’t help but stare at him for a moment.
“Actually,” Enya beamed, “that is a very good observation. We are obviously all okay with our datemate being with another person. I think I like you already, Victor.”
Benjamin and Noah looked incredulous. “En, babe, this was not …. I mean, this was not exactly planned.”
“You mean to tell me,” Enya inquired, “that you didn’t tell each other you were bringing us and just hoped for the best? Unbelievable!”
Both young men looked ashamed. Their gazes wandered from each other, away from the other’s apologetic eyes, only to look back up again.
“Would you like to join me at the bar for a moment, mademoiselle?” Victor was looking at Enya now, a soft smile gracing his features. “I think these two need to spend a few minutes alone for… le rapport… if you know what I mean. I am sorry, usually, I am not this bad at voicing my thoughts. It must be your lovely face that is confusing me today.” He had put on his most charming smile which immediately pulled an appreciative chuckle from Enya.
“Well, then, lead the way,” she replied, taking his hand and leaving the other two alone.
“Look,” Noah began, “I’m sorry. I guess I just wasn’t expecting you to be already in a relationship. I know it’s kinda weird but I’ve always been a bit jealous. Don’t get me wrong, though. Enya seems sweet and I’m really glad you are happy. It’s just that I thought we would show up, have the ‘we’re poly’-talk and either you’d be scared and angry and run or you’d be game and, like, join Vic and me.”
For a second, it seemed the world had stopped. The silence that ensued was suffocating. But then Ben sighed and looked at Noah.
“I see. I can’t really say I blame you. I thought basically the same thing. Maybe we both underestimated the importance of communication.”
The other nodded. “Yeah. But are you okay with… this? Do you want to, I don’t know, try to build something serious from this?”
Benjamin’s eyes trailed across the room to Enya and Victor, both a coffee in hand and badly concealing that they were watching their boyfriends while they talked.
“I liked you the moment you stumbled into the office like you hadn’t slept in a week. And I think En and Victor get along pretty damn well if the way they talk about us like school girls is any indication.”
Both chuckled, daring another glance over to their datemates.
“So we are going over there, tell them we talked it out like responsible adults and set a date for dinner or movie night or something?” Noah looked at Ben while he asked.
“Or,” Benjamin smirked sort of surreptitiously, “we could start making out and let them draw their own conclusions.”
“Teaming up already? I’m in. But we’ll still invite you for movie night, you are not getting out of this,” Noah clarified, already leaning over the table towards Benjamin.
“I hope you do. Victor is french, after this, I will take it upon myself to test if they really kiss that good,” he grinned while coming closer to Noah, too.
With his lips already against Ben’s, he added swiftly, “He does, you’re free to see.”
Enya and Victor had their coffees raised halfway to their mouth when they stopped in the motion. “Not to be that kind of girlfriend, but this is, like, really kinda hot.”
Victor simply nodded mutely.
“Seems they got over themselves. I think they owe us an explanation.”
“And quite possibly the date for the next dinner and movie night, if I know anything about Noah,” Victor added, slightly breathy.
She took his arm and gently pulled him over to their datemates.