Together (1)

"Are you… moping?" the head tailor asked.

His codename was Ait, and he found Joshua and Harris consistently amusing- that was just about everything Joshua knew about the head tailor. Joshua didn't mind his teasing; he wouldn't come around the shop much if he did, and he came around pretty often. Still, he knew this visit had been a bit… excessive. He'd arrived nearly an hour before he was supposed to meet Harris, and he'd spent most of that time just staring at a selection of ties with his chin on his palm- but he was by no means 'moping.'

"You knew Cionus was going to be in the back all morning, didn't you?" Ait asked, frowning at Joshua.

'In the back' was a phrase that technically referred to the headquarters just beyond the human world. Harris was now functionally mortal, Joshua knew, but there were two things he could still do that no human could: he could see cupids and other beings that were impossible for ordinary people to keep in their minds, and he could visit headquarters. He did so once a week, speaking to his boss and getting briefed on the work he was expected to do that week to make things easier for the other cupids- booking rooms or ordering flowers or buying chocolates or what have you.

Harris had said that he would be done by noon or thereabouts if Joshua wanted to have lunch- which he did- and since Harris was often late and almost never early Joshua usually knew better than to show up so long before Harris had planned to arrive.

Joshua shrugged at Ait, who was still looking at him curiously. "Wanted to get things rolling, I guess," he said. "I'm trying to make today special, is all, and I'll go overboard if I let myself."

Ait glanced at the calendar on the wall. "What's special about today?"

"It's our anniversary. Kind of."

Ait's frown deepened. "I find it difficult to believe that Cionus wouldn't have moved heaven and earth to not be working on your anniversary."

Joshua laughed. "Probably, yeah- as long he was keeping track of time all right, at least. You know it ain't his strong suit. Anyway, that's what I meant by 'kind of'. It's not the anniversary of when we started officially dating or whatever- it's the anniversary of when we met."

"Ah."

"I'm not here to buy him a last-minute tie or anything like that, I already got plans, I'm just…" Joshua was at a loss to explain, so he shrugged again. "Just thinking."

He supposed the shop was as good a place as any for 'thinking', though in truth he had simply started walking and ended up there. Joshua really wasn't upset that Harris didn't realize it had been a year exactly since they met. There were probably records of it somewhere, but as far as Joshua knew Harris wasn't supposed to look at anyone's files now that he was a tailor- and since he and Joshua were together now Joshua's file in particular would be off-limits. Joshua could hardly blame Harris for not realizing back then how important the day they met would eventually be, and- again- keeping track of time wasn't Harris's strong suit.

Harris's strong suit, as far as Joshua could tell, was being really good to Joshua.

Joshua had come around, for the most part, to the idea that he deserved it, but he still wanted to… not pay Harris back exactly, but do the same. Harris had told Joshua enough times how happy Joshua made him already, just by being himself, that Joshua believed that too- but he still wanted to do something to show Harris how special 'he' was once in a while, and today seemed like the perfect place to start.

In Joshua's experience, it was sometimes hard to remember your first impression of someone in light of how much they meant to you later on. He and his friend Ryan, for instance, had really gotten on each other's nerves at first. Now that they were so much closer, now that he knew Ryan so well, Joshua couldn't recall what had grated on him so much at the beginning. Given how much Harris had changed his life, he would have expected Harris to be the same way- but actually Joshua could remember everything that went through his head as he and Harris had lunch that first day so clearly. That Harris was gorgeous without appearing to fully realize it. That he was awkward and a bit weird but also 'sweet.' That he, for some reason, thought Joshua was worth his time. Later- as he saw more and more of Harris- the fact that Harris was so patient, so willing to wait for Joshua to get used to him and to the idea of them together, went from necessary to heartwarming to frustrating as hell over a period of months. And just when Joshua had started to think that Harris had successfully waited him out, that he was done waiting for the other shoe to drop and ready to just be Harris's, the other shoe had finally dropped in a big way. That awful hour spent thinking he'd been wrong, that Harris really didn't see him that way … that was the moment Joshua couldn't remember very well. With time and distance, the thought that everything Harris had done for Joshua over the course of those six months had been to get Joshua ready, yes, but for a future Harris had never expected to share with him, had stopped being baffling and started to be something that just made Joshua love Harris more.

They had come so far since then- and yes, there had been some doubts, a few of which Joshua cringed to look back on now- and what Joshua wanted to celebrate today more than anything was the way even the hardest parts of being with Harris really did just make Joshua love him more. He could only hope that what he had planned would show Harris that.

"Still thinking?" Ait asked quietly.

"Yeah," Joshua said. "Why? Do you need me to do anything?" Sometimes he helped out around the shop when they needed an extra pair of hands. He enjoyed it.

"No, I simply remembered that there was something I had been meaning to show you. I don't know what your plans for today are and if they're at all explicit I don't wish to, but I suppose now is as good a time as any. I think it might help you. And if it doesn't… mesh with whatever you had in mind you can just keep it in your back pocket."

Interested, Joshua made his way over to Ait's desk.

~oOo~

Harris showed up at the front of the shop about fifteen minutes after noon. That was pretty good, for him, and anyway to hear Harris tell it Venus and the others back at HQ were even worse at keeping track of time than Harris, so it wasn't completely his fault. Joshua was actually glad that Harris was running late; it had given him time to think about what Ait had showed him. It didn't mesh with what Joshua had been going for, not completely, and yet at the same time it 'did.' He had an idea of how to use it, anyway, and he was looking forward that evening, when he would.

By then Ait was with a customer- an older woman who had dragged her twenty-something son in to be fitted for a suit- and Joshua was sitting in one of the chairs by the fitting rooms, his ankle propped up on his knee and a magazine in his hands.

Joshua had been to the shop often enough, by then, not be self-conscious about sitting around in a tailor's shop in jeans- but he did notice the older woman giving him the occasional disapproving once over.

Her son's interest in Joshua appeared to also be aesthetic, but he was much less disapproving. Joshua buried a laugh in his magazine.

Around the time Harris arrived, the old woman left to buy a hat while her son had his fitting. Joshua could hardly blame the son for the way he stared at Harris when he walked in.

Harris looked amazing, wearing jeans and a slate grey jumper with a jacket and scarf slung over his arm. Joshua didn't often think about how much older Harris had looked when they first met- Harris always just looked like Harris to him, whether he had greying temples and wrinkles around his eyes or smooth skin and fluffy curls- but sometimes it was impossible not to notice. In a full suit or in casual clothes, and at any age, Harris always looked good- but that guy might not have stared quite so blatantly if Harris had been twice his age instead of… this.

Harris grinned when he saw Joshua, crossing to him quickly and leaning in for a kiss.

Joshua thought Harris was probably aiming for his cheek since he knew that Joshua preferred not to do more than that in public, even though Joshua had not yet told him why. Joshua turned his head at the last second to kiss Harris on the lips. He kept it quick and not too steamy, because he didn't want to cost the shop any business and because he really did prefer not to snog Harris in public.

Joshua could feel himself getting more demonstrative by the day- just as he had been since he and Harris met, since they first began to touch regularly- and he didn't think it would be too much longer before this didn't trouble him either. He just… he couldn't kiss Harris casually yet. He couldn't take it for granted. He had waited so long for Harris to kiss him- goodnight after an evening together, hello when they met for lunch or coffee, across the table over dinner, just any time at all- and now that Harris finally did Joshua found himself proprietary of it. They had been properly together for as long as not, now, but Joshua still sometimes thought of kisses as something they couldn't share with the world. Not yet.

The kiss might have been quick, but it was also not ambiguous. Joshua noticed out of the corner of his eye that it didn't make the guy look any less interested- which was fair, Joshua supposed, since he'd been sizing up both of them in the first place.

It didn't bother Joshua, exactly; he was a firm believer that as long as everyone involved was honest with themselves and each other and no one got hurt when it wasn't their thing, people had every right to get up to whatever they wanted. But, being honest with himself, the thought of anyone but Harris touching him did nothing for Joshua anymore, and if he was this slow to be comfortable sharing Harris's kisses, hell would probably freeze over before he was comfortable sharing Harris.

And as for Harris himself, well… if Joshua asked him about it later, he'd probably find that Harris hadn't noticed anything about that customer except that he was one.

Joshua did still enjoy staking his claim, a little. He was getting better about the jealousy thing. He kicked himself, occasionally, for how he'd reacted the first time he saw someone hit on Harris. It had just never really occurred to him, before, that someone might… not steal Harris away from him, but certainly try. That someone might come along one day that a little part of Joshua would think deserved to. He knew that Harris didn't want anyone else either, of course, but he still couldn't help pulling Harris in for one more kiss. Not to say 'back off he's mine' so much as to remind himself that Harris was his. That he was leaving to have lunch with Joshua right now, so they could celebrate that for a year now Harris had been making Joshua's world a better place.