Moving Forward...Slowly

"Apparently they need about 15 minutes," Johnny told Peter after he hung up with Ben and put his phone on the coffee table.

Johnny had gotten up to pace during his phone call with Max earlier, before he had called Ben to give him the news about Carlson and Zhang. He sat down across from Peter.

Peter gave a sly smile and raised his eyebrows before responding with, "I wonder why? What could they possibly be doing in the middle of the day?"

"They do make it pretty obvious, don't they?," Johnny chuckled as he sat shook his head.

"Nothing wrong with young romance," Peter said, tilting his head to one side and smiling.

Johnny got up and came over to sit next to him and said, "Speaking of which, why don't we go out tonight? I can't remember the last time I went out on a normal date."

"Really?," Peter asked, a little surprised, both at the sudden date request and also at the revelation. When he thought about Johnny asking him out just now, it made him smile inwardly, as he realized it was probably because of what happened just a few moments ago before the phone call.

Earlier, when they had started kissing, Peter had initially felt himself start to be drawn in. Johnny's had lips felt so nice against his own and it had been a long time since he had felt that way about another man. But then, for some reason, he got scared. Maybe it was because of what happened last time, or maybe it was the usual fear of not knowing what his dates would expect of him, but he just felt that little fear creep in. Johnny must have sensed the hesitancy because he stopped and asked, "Are you alright?"

At that point, Johnny had one hand curled at the nape of Peter's neck and his other arm was around Peter's back. When they were kissing, Johnny felt a slight stiffening in Peter's neck and upper back. It was very subtle but enough to where Johnny could tell Peter's mind had gone somewhere.

"Yah, sorry," Peter replied, embarrassed. He looked down and Johnny lowered his forehead so that it was touching Peter's. It was not like the Peter he knew to show this type of vulnerability and Johnny thought it was very cute.

"It's okay. What's wrong though?," Johnny asked.

Peter shook his head, "I don't know. Nothing."

Johnny sighed, "Are you sure?"

"Yah," he responded, "It's just, you know, this is our second kiss and it's pretty intense like the first one, and we haven't even gone out on a date or anything. It just feels out of order, you know? I guess it's throwing me off a little. But it's okay, I'll adjust."

Max had called Johnny right after Peter said that, but now that Johnny had just asked him out on a date, Peter realized it was probably because of what he had said at that time. But then, Johnny had also mentioned not being in serious relationships before, so maybe that meant he didn't really go out on dates either. That would be a little sad if true and made Peter want to do something special for him.

"Then let's do that," Peter said, "Leave it to me. Just pick me up at 7. I'll leave you to whatever you need to do here, and you can just come get me then."

Johnny thought about that as he had expected Peter to stay and be involved in the conversation with Ben. He didn't know why he expected that though. It's not as if he had told Peter everything yet

"Sounds good. I'll walk you out," he said with a mischievous smile as they both stood up.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny," Peter responded with a wry smile. "I see what you did there," he continued, referring to earlier when they were originally going to part, and Peter was taken aback that Johnny wasn't walking him out.

Johnny reached for Peter's hand and gave it a squeeze as he led him back to the foyer. Peter had to look down as he was led through the house. Just holding Johnny's hand was making his heart beat fast and he was trying to calm himself down. What Peter didn't know was that the reason Johnny wasn't looking at him either was for the same reason.

"So, I will see you tonight then," Johnny said as they stopped by the door.

Peter looked at him with a smile and nodded, "Okay. Sounds great. Text me when you leave to come over."

Johnny replied, "I will" as he opened the door. Peter went through it, waving "good bye" as he said the words.

When Johnny closed the door, Peter immediately took out his phone and texted Lucy, "I seriously need to talk to you about what just went down with Johnny."

He didn't get a response until he was out of the elevator at which point he saw that Lucy had texted, that she was working and wouldn't get a break for another couple hours but that she'd call him then.

"Ugh, I need more friends," Peter thought as he made his way to his car.

Several minutes past the 15 minute deadline, Johnny heard a knock at his door. The first thing he said when he opened the door to Ben and Selene was, "You're late."

Ben glared at him while Selene said sweetly, "Sorry, it couldn't be helped. But I'm sure Peter has been keeping you company right?"

"He left a little while ago," Johnny answered as he gestured for them to come inside.

"Oh," she said, disappointed. "I was hoping we could all hang out afterward." She looked at Johnny expectantly, hoping he would reveal how things went with Peter.

Instead, he said, "You've never been here before, right Selene?"

"Right," she answered.

"Let's go to the office for now, and then I can give you a tour later," Johnny offered.

Ben nodded, "Sounds good, let's go."

They were all seated in Johnny's home office, which was in a more old-fashioned style with dark wood furnishings of the type one might find in an English manor. Johnny began, "As you know Ben, but I'm not sure Selene does, Max got a call from Carlson a few days ago asking to have lunch, which they did on Friday. He didn't say much at first, but then went on and on about needing cash for some 'family issues' that had come up, yah right, and wanting to see if the offer to buy UniTech's stocks was still on the table. Of course, Max played along. Said we could sweeten the deal if he could bring Zhang on board. Played the buddy-buddy card that maybe since Zhang is 'such good friends' with him that maybe he'd do Carlson this favor, yada yada yada."

"Right," Ben nodded.

Selene was fascinated with the machinations.

Johnny continued, "So Max called right before I called you to say that Carlson is in. He wants to sell and he got Zhang to agree as well. Of course, since it's them coming to us, we have more of the upper hand and don't have to pay as much as we were offering before so now we can negotiate better."

"Looks like the ploy worked like we wanted," Selene said in awe.

Ben rubbed his chin, "Seems to be. We have to be careful though. We have to keep it going for a little while even after we buy their shares so they don't get suspicious." He turned to Johnny, "Selene called talked to Yakov and the university to let them know about the meeting with Hybrid."

Selene cut in, "And for some reason, Yakov was not happy. I've never seen him so agitated. I don't know if it's because I didn't tell him first or what. But it really surprised me. He said he wants to be in on all future meetings."

Johnny's eyes squinted as his eyebrows furrowed. "Hmm," he mused. "Do you think he'll be a problem?"

"I'm not…sure," Selene answered and looked at Ben.

Ben nodded and then reached over to pat her hand. "Let's finish this part and then we can talk about that. Finally we have a positive development so let's focus on that for now. This was the last piece. We'll have bought everything back we could. With these shares, we will now have control over all of the companies."

"And that means we have the power to move further into their territories," Johnny explained to Selene.

Selene's eyes widened as she asked, "What does that mean?"

"Remember how I was explaining about the different phases of our plan?," Ben asked.

"Yes," she answered.

Ben continued, "We need this power so that we can control what decisions and deals can take place. We already have various deals in Greece and Europe ready to go. Once we start those, it's only a matter of time before my parent's group follows our bidding. This will all ultimately destroy Drakos."

"But I thought you said they are part of the mafia," Selene asked worried, "What about that?"

Johnny smirked, "That only comes into play when they want to play dirty. They can't actually do anything without money as that is where their power comes from. Once they lose that, they have nothing."

"Hmm," Selene thought out loud. "It's all so strange and surreal to me. I remember Victor mentioned something about being nobility to me. But they're just mob bosses. He is so twisted." She shook her head in both disgust and a little bit of pity.

"Nobility?," Ben asked as one eyebrow cocked up suddenly. "That's the first I'm hearing of him use that word."

"Me too," Johnny said as they both looked at each other with knowing looks.

"What?," Selene asked, not knowing what the look they were exchanging meant exactly.

Ben looked at her and explained, "It might be nothing, but that's a very specific word to use, especially among people who have ancestors that come from the old country. An old country that say would have actual nobility."

Johnny nodded, "I'll look into it."

"Like I said, it could be nothing. Or it could be something we could use," Ben reiterated. "Okay, let's get Max on the phone and go down the list of all the meetings we need to set up, assuming we get the shares from Zhang and Carlson."

Johnny picked up his phone as Selene said, "Maybe I don't need to be here for this part."

Ben smiled, "Leaving all the boring details to us, is that it?"

"Something like that," she said as she got up, smiling.

Ben got up and walked to her to outside the office where he gave her a kiss beyond Johnny's view. Selene smiled and said, "I'll see you in a bit."

"See you," Ben said before heading back inside.

Before Ben even sat down, Johnny asked, "Okay, so what aren't you telling me about this Yakov character?"