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narcasse2461 words. PG-13 for crass language. The follow-up to this University AU, because it's been sitting on my harddrive since last year it seems.
Universität - part 2
Disclaimer: Trinity Blood belongs to Sunao Yoshida, Gonzo and others.
++++++++++
Three am presents Dietrich with a problem; does he hope and pray that his flatmate is in and can cover the cost of a taxi when he arrives or does he accept Radu’s offer of spending the night in sweet suburbia? In the end he decides not to risk it, though that doesn’t explain why Isaak seems to have ended up in the taxi with them.
Isaak doesn’t look up from what appears to be a close examination of his tights. “I think I may have a ladder.” He announces squinting at the fishnets that somehow compliment the rather short skirt that goes with his uniform.
“Un huh.”
“Let me see that.” Radu leans across and eyeballs Isaak’s knee in the darkness of the taxi.
Dietrich flops back against the seat and closes his eyes, somehow certain that maybe a fetish night wasn’t the best idea. His behind is probably going to be bruised by morning from all the slapping and pinching and it occurs to him that perhaps it wasn’t just a fetish night at all.
“Why did nobody pinch your arse anyway?” Cracking an eye open in Isaak’s direction. “You’re the one wearing a skirt.”
Radu sniggers though he bushes Dietrich’s hair back from his face rather gently.
Dietrich frowns.
“You never, ever slap the behind of the girl with the whip.” Isaak nods sagely.
“Huh?”
“Rules, dear. One always obeys the rules at this sort of affair.”
“Oh.”
“And according to the rules you’re what we’d call…” Isaak pauses and glances at Radu.
“Fresh meat.”
“Oh. Nobody told me…” But he’s falling asleep again already and doesn’t wake until they reach their destination.
“Come on dear, get up or do we have to carry you in?” Isaak stands by the open taxi door while Radu presumably pays the driver.
Dietrich half tumbles out with Isaak’s help and blinks in surprise at the house they stand in front of. For someone who’s nearly always complaining about the state of his relationship, Radu seems to have done quite well for himself. Dietrich always pictured some sort of 60s style ‘new’ semi-detached instead of the elegant Edwardian townhouse they’re in front of.
The lights are out and Radu already has a lit cigarette between his lips as he makes his way up the path.
“It’s nice, isn’t it?” Isaak comments taking Dietrich’s arm.
“Yeah. Does… whats-his-face own this or are they renting?”
Isaak laughs his oh so polite laugh. “He owns several properties.”
“Really?”
“I hear he’s got a title too.”
But when Isaak winks Dietrich can’t tell if he’s joking or not.
They’re just taking their shoes off in the hallway when Dietrich looks up to see a large pair of eyes staring at him in surprise. They appear to belong to a teenager in Mixi pyjamas.
“Radu…”
“Shit- Ion, did you run away from home again?”
Ion doesn’t answer, seemingly taken with staring at Radu’s uniform, eyes fixed on the red armband.
“Ion? Why don’t you go sit down and I’ll make you some tea.”
Wide eyes are the only answer.
“Go on. You’ll catch a chill just standing in the hallway.”
After long moments that stunned gaze moves to Radu’s face.
“It was a fancy-dress party! Just… go sit down.”
Dietrich watches Ion shuffle back into what’s probably the lounge while Radu stalks off in the direction of the kitchen.
“I suppose I’d better go help.” Isaak follows Radu quietly.
Propping himself up against the doorframe, Dietrich watches the teenager huddled on the couch. “Hi, I’m Dietrich.”
“I… Ion.”
Somehow quite suddenly some part of Dietrich’s conscience attempts to claw its way back from the dead but as he lights a cigarette it decides it’s just not worth the trouble. “Good rally tonight.” He comments.
Ion’s eyes widen further, if that’s at all possible.
Stepping into the room, Dietrich takes a companionable seat next to Ion on the couch. “Ignore Radu; he just gets embarrassed easily. He’s really into his racial purity.”
“I… think I should go to bed… Mr Dietrich. Please excuse me.”
“Guten nacht!” Dietrich calls cheerily as Ion quickly vacates the room.
A few minutes later Radu appears in the doorway holding two mugs of tea. “Where-“
“Went to bed, poor kid.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll have that tea though.”
It’s two days later when Dietrich finally drags himself onto campus again, despite Helga’s offer to pick up any mail in his pigeonhole for him.
“Really, sweetie, it’s no trouble!” Helga stands over him holding a brightly coloured mug of coffee and managing to drape her today-blue-dyed hair over the bed.
Dietrich rubs his eyes. “So this knocking thing isn’t working out for you then?”
She lets out a huff and sits down on the edge of the bed. “Since when have we had secrets from each other, sweetie?”
“I could have had a girl in here.”
Helga’s giggle tells him just how likely she thinks that is.
“I’m serious. I could have been in here with my women.” He pulls himself up so that he’s leaning against the headboard of the bed and takes the mug from her.
“Your women? You mean that Radu girl and the other one?”
Dietrich slurps the coffee noisily in response.
“Where are your cigarettes?” Helga rummages around on the bedside table amongst the empty packets.
“Seriously. I could have.”
Having only managed to find a lighter Helga instead lights a clove that she seemingly had tucked into her hair for just that purpose. Taking the coffee back she offers it to Dietrich.
“Since when have you smoked?”
“Since when have you turned up on the doorstep at eight being frogmarched in by a pair of stormtroopers?”
“Fetish night.” They swap coffee and cigarette again.
“Fetish night?” Helga frowns. “You went to a fetish night?”
“Yeah, and?”
“Sweetie, is there something you want to tell me?”
“What? No. Huh?”
Helga’s expression suggests that she believes otherwise.
Taking a long sip of coffee Dietrich frowns back at her.
“Oh! Oh!” Helga’s hands fly to her mouth and she suppresses an evident squeal.
“Yuhuh?”
“Oh! Don’t tell me that- Oh, Dietrich. Dietrich, sweetie!”
“Good, that too.”
“Don’t be like that.”
“Like what? You’ve just squealed at me and I don’t know why and this morning you had a clove tucked into your hair. Who are you and what have you done with Helga? She doesn’t smoke and can speak in full sentences, you know. I kinda miss that.”
“Silly.” She patted his cheek and handed the cigarette back, taking what was left of the coffee for herself. “Now, you must tell me; did Sue go?”
“Huh?”
“Did Sue go last night?”
“Huh?”
“Dietrich, don’t be like that.”
“And I say again HUH?”
“Sue. You know.” She waved a hand as if that was expression enough. “Sue.”
“Who’s Sue?”
“Stop it.”
“I’m being serious; who’s Sue and why should I know about her?”
For a moment it looked like she was about to get cross but then her expression cleared. “You really don’t know, do you?”
“No, that’s why I’m asking.”
“Oh, well in that case-“ The ringing of Helga’s mobile interrupted them. “Shoot! I’m late already. See you later, sweetie!”
And she was gone.
Which was why he was currently stood outside the building smoking and waiting for the others. Maybe Isaak would know who Sue was… or something. From where he stood, Dietrich watched the staff carpark idly. There wasn’t anything interesting about it but it was that or the wall as his choice of view and there were only so many times that he could count brinks.
The suddenly blast of what sounded like Madonna hit him as someone pulled into a parking space. Though what followed was the more surprising part.
“Dude, you can drive?”
Radu strode over, smirking. “Like the car?”
“A Porsche? When did- how did- heck, that must have been a million dollar blowjob.”
“Nope. No sexual favours were traded in the purchase of that baby.”
“You kill someone?”
Radu’s grin was Cheshire cat wide.
“Three-eyed lobster? No, wait, you can’t do that.”
“I’m not even going to ask what that is. But no, it was really all an accident.”
“Yeah?”
Radu paused to light a cigarette. “You remember that night you decided to tell Ion that I was a Nazi?”
“Umm… yeah, kinda. I was kidding?”
“He went back and told his grandmother.”
“Oh. But that still doesn’t explain…”
“Mummy is, shall we say, really rather racist. And she loves her darling little Nazi foster-son.”
“Really?”
“Yup. The bitch is completely insane. Ion went charging home screaming that I’m racist so she bought me a new car.”
“That’s pretty fucked up.”
“She’s not even Middle-Eastern, not really.”
“Oh?”
“Czechoslovakian as far as I know.”
“Seriously fucked up.”
“But hey, I have a new car.”
“There is that. Probably the nicest car in the carpark too-”
The silver Bentley pulling up stopped them both in their tracks.
“Morning, all!”
They both waved dumbly back at Isaak as he stepped out of the car.
“Who did you kill?”
“No one.” Isaak glanced at Radu worriedly.
“Nice car is what he’s trying to say.”
“Oh, I suppose it is. I like the wooden dashboard; it’s terribly pretty.”
“Who…” Radu let the question trail deliberately.
“It’d one of William’s. I don’t normally drive and really, I don’t like to but it was that or be late today.”
“Un huh. Did you get out of your money bath late or something?”
“What is wrong with him today?” Hissed at Radu.
A shrug.
Dietrich ground out his cigarette and lit another one almost mechanically.
Watching yet another overpriced car pull up Dietrich idly fingered the buspass in his pocket. “Hey, how come you can park in the staff carpark anyway?”
But Radu was already half way across the carpark yelling abuse at the chap who’d just pulled up.
“And you can just sleep in your fucking car!”
Which just earned a smirk from the fellow in question before the building door closed behind him.
“I could live in his car.” Dietrich commented absently. “Isaak?”
Isaak had one hand held to his cheek and was seemingly staring at nothing.
Turning the direction of Isaak’s blank gaze Dietrich glanced at the closed door and shrugged.
“Fucking idiot.” Radu came back over seemingly in the mood to chain-smoke his way through the rest of his cigarettes.
“I think Isaak’s broken.”
“Isaak?”
Isaak let out a soft sigh.
Dietrich waved a hand in front of Isaak’s face.
Another sigh.
“Whatever it is, I think it’s airborne.”
“Isaak? Hey!” Radu snapped his fingers in front of Isaak’s face.
“Nobody ever told me he was that handsome.” Still with that dreamy look on his face.
“Who? The only people here are you, me and Dietrich.”
“Oh…” Dietrich glanced at Radu worriedly.
“What?”
“Umm, there was one other person out here… just now.”
“Who?”
“You told him to go sleep in his car…”
“Dicktastic von Obnoxious? Oh, fe- Isaak, snap out of it for goodness sake!”
“Radu? How could you be so cruel? He’s just so…”
“I know. Trust me; I know.”
“You know, Isaak knows and he knows too, right?”
“Got it in one, munchkin.”
“Knows what?” Isaak looked confused.
“That he’s the best looking thing that ever shipped out of Istanbul.” Radu sighed. “It was him or that other jackass.”
Dietrich thought about it for a moment before beginning hesitantly. “Maybe… I know this is gonna sound weird but maybe, just maybe…”
“What?”
Isaak sighed again.
“You ever think that maybe you just weren’t gay?”
That got Isaak’s attention as well as Radu’s.
“Sorry, just a thought that’s all.”
“Please, try to be a little more homonormative, Dietrich.”
“Yeah, sorr- wait a minute!”
But the other two were already laughing.
It had only been a thought but it was worth investigating and Dietrich had never been one to turn down following things to their logical conclusion. Picking up his mobile and glancing about to make sure that he was on his own in the empty lecture room he took a deep breath and dialled long-distance.
“Hi, can I speak to… Sister Esther?”
There was a negligible wait and then that familiar voice on the end of the line. “Hello?”
“Hi, Esther? It’s Dietrich.”
“What do you want?” That beautiful voice he remembered suddenly several degrees colder.
“I… look I know this is going to sound weird but when we were together…” He paused aware of the thundering of his heart. “Did you ever think that maybe I was gay?”
He hung up to the sound of ringing laughter.
“Fuck you, you… nun.”
A polite cough from the doorway curtailed further ire.
“I’m sorry but I couldn’t help but hear the tail end of your conversation.”
Dietrich rubbed his head almost absently. “Yeah, my ex.”
“Oh? I’m so sorry.”
“Nah, not a problem. Everyone has days, right?”
“I suppose they do.” The door idly pushed shut. “In fact, as a concerned senior member of staff, why don’t you tell me all about it, honey?”
Fifteen minutes of concerned enquiry later Dietrich came hurtling out of the room clutching his jacket around him for dear life, only to run head-first into a very irate Radu.
“Fucking piece of- Dietrich?”
“Help!” Squawked out.
“Oh, my. This is awkward, isn’t it?”
Radu stared first at Dietrich, then at the smirking figure in the doorway. “Dietrich…”
“What? I didn’t-“
“You son of a-“
And then Radu’s hands were around his throat and the light at the end of the tunnel suddenly didn’t seem all that far away.
“He was hitting on me!” Dietrich glared as Isaak lit his cigarette for him.
“Well, you know how Radu is.”
“No, no I don’t. I thought they hated each other.”
Isaak clucked his tongue, not unlike a concerned mother.
“What?”
“They really do love each other dearly.”
“Huh?”
“It’s just that Radu likes to get angry with everything and Süleyman likes to flirt with everything.”
“Really?”
“Really. They do make an odd sort of couple though.”
“I’ll say. I thought I was going to die.”
“Nonsense. But…”
“But?”
“Did you ever hear why Süleyman left Boğaziçi Üniversitesi?”
“The what now?”
“It’s one of the universities in Istanbul. Anyway, he got into a fight with another lecturer. Tried to throw the other chap off a cliff as far as I heard.”
“Why?”
“Guess.”
“Over Radu?”
“Exactly.”
“Wow.”
“Isaak?”
“Hmm?”
“I think… I think I’m jealous.”
“Of…?”
“You, Radu, everyone I guess. William really does love you right?”
Isaak put an arm round Dietrich. “Hush now, don’t worry so much, dear. You just haven’t met the right man.”
“I thought Esther was the right man.”
“Hey, who’s Sue anyway?”
And for some inexpiable reason Isaak started laughing.
++++++++++
Universität - part 2
Disclaimer: Trinity Blood belongs to Sunao Yoshida, Gonzo and others.
++++++++++
Three am presents Dietrich with a problem; does he hope and pray that his flatmate is in and can cover the cost of a taxi when he arrives or does he accept Radu’s offer of spending the night in sweet suburbia? In the end he decides not to risk it, though that doesn’t explain why Isaak seems to have ended up in the taxi with them.
Isaak doesn’t look up from what appears to be a close examination of his tights. “I think I may have a ladder.” He announces squinting at the fishnets that somehow compliment the rather short skirt that goes with his uniform.
“Un huh.”
“Let me see that.” Radu leans across and eyeballs Isaak’s knee in the darkness of the taxi.
Dietrich flops back against the seat and closes his eyes, somehow certain that maybe a fetish night wasn’t the best idea. His behind is probably going to be bruised by morning from all the slapping and pinching and it occurs to him that perhaps it wasn’t just a fetish night at all.
“Why did nobody pinch your arse anyway?” Cracking an eye open in Isaak’s direction. “You’re the one wearing a skirt.”
Radu sniggers though he bushes Dietrich’s hair back from his face rather gently.
Dietrich frowns.
“You never, ever slap the behind of the girl with the whip.” Isaak nods sagely.
“Huh?”
“Rules, dear. One always obeys the rules at this sort of affair.”
“Oh.”
“And according to the rules you’re what we’d call…” Isaak pauses and glances at Radu.
“Fresh meat.”
“Oh. Nobody told me…” But he’s falling asleep again already and doesn’t wake until they reach their destination.
“Come on dear, get up or do we have to carry you in?” Isaak stands by the open taxi door while Radu presumably pays the driver.
Dietrich half tumbles out with Isaak’s help and blinks in surprise at the house they stand in front of. For someone who’s nearly always complaining about the state of his relationship, Radu seems to have done quite well for himself. Dietrich always pictured some sort of 60s style ‘new’ semi-detached instead of the elegant Edwardian townhouse they’re in front of.
The lights are out and Radu already has a lit cigarette between his lips as he makes his way up the path.
“It’s nice, isn’t it?” Isaak comments taking Dietrich’s arm.
“Yeah. Does… whats-his-face own this or are they renting?”
Isaak laughs his oh so polite laugh. “He owns several properties.”
“Really?”
“I hear he’s got a title too.”
But when Isaak winks Dietrich can’t tell if he’s joking or not.
They’re just taking their shoes off in the hallway when Dietrich looks up to see a large pair of eyes staring at him in surprise. They appear to belong to a teenager in Mixi pyjamas.
“Radu…”
“Shit- Ion, did you run away from home again?”
Ion doesn’t answer, seemingly taken with staring at Radu’s uniform, eyes fixed on the red armband.
“Ion? Why don’t you go sit down and I’ll make you some tea.”
Wide eyes are the only answer.
“Go on. You’ll catch a chill just standing in the hallway.”
After long moments that stunned gaze moves to Radu’s face.
“It was a fancy-dress party! Just… go sit down.”
Dietrich watches Ion shuffle back into what’s probably the lounge while Radu stalks off in the direction of the kitchen.
“I suppose I’d better go help.” Isaak follows Radu quietly.
Propping himself up against the doorframe, Dietrich watches the teenager huddled on the couch. “Hi, I’m Dietrich.”
“I… Ion.”
Somehow quite suddenly some part of Dietrich’s conscience attempts to claw its way back from the dead but as he lights a cigarette it decides it’s just not worth the trouble. “Good rally tonight.” He comments.
Ion’s eyes widen further, if that’s at all possible.
Stepping into the room, Dietrich takes a companionable seat next to Ion on the couch. “Ignore Radu; he just gets embarrassed easily. He’s really into his racial purity.”
“I… think I should go to bed… Mr Dietrich. Please excuse me.”
“Guten nacht!” Dietrich calls cheerily as Ion quickly vacates the room.
A few minutes later Radu appears in the doorway holding two mugs of tea. “Where-“
“Went to bed, poor kid.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll have that tea though.”
It’s two days later when Dietrich finally drags himself onto campus again, despite Helga’s offer to pick up any mail in his pigeonhole for him.
“Really, sweetie, it’s no trouble!” Helga stands over him holding a brightly coloured mug of coffee and managing to drape her today-blue-dyed hair over the bed.
Dietrich rubs his eyes. “So this knocking thing isn’t working out for you then?”
She lets out a huff and sits down on the edge of the bed. “Since when have we had secrets from each other, sweetie?”
“I could have had a girl in here.”
Helga’s giggle tells him just how likely she thinks that is.
“I’m serious. I could have been in here with my women.” He pulls himself up so that he’s leaning against the headboard of the bed and takes the mug from her.
“Your women? You mean that Radu girl and the other one?”
Dietrich slurps the coffee noisily in response.
“Where are your cigarettes?” Helga rummages around on the bedside table amongst the empty packets.
“Seriously. I could have.”
Having only managed to find a lighter Helga instead lights a clove that she seemingly had tucked into her hair for just that purpose. Taking the coffee back she offers it to Dietrich.
“Since when have you smoked?”
“Since when have you turned up on the doorstep at eight being frogmarched in by a pair of stormtroopers?”
“Fetish night.” They swap coffee and cigarette again.
“Fetish night?” Helga frowns. “You went to a fetish night?”
“Yeah, and?”
“Sweetie, is there something you want to tell me?”
“What? No. Huh?”
Helga’s expression suggests that she believes otherwise.
Taking a long sip of coffee Dietrich frowns back at her.
“Oh! Oh!” Helga’s hands fly to her mouth and she suppresses an evident squeal.
“Yuhuh?”
“Oh! Don’t tell me that- Oh, Dietrich. Dietrich, sweetie!”
“Good, that too.”
“Don’t be like that.”
“Like what? You’ve just squealed at me and I don’t know why and this morning you had a clove tucked into your hair. Who are you and what have you done with Helga? She doesn’t smoke and can speak in full sentences, you know. I kinda miss that.”
“Silly.” She patted his cheek and handed the cigarette back, taking what was left of the coffee for herself. “Now, you must tell me; did Sue go?”
“Huh?”
“Did Sue go last night?”
“Huh?”
“Dietrich, don’t be like that.”
“And I say again HUH?”
“Sue. You know.” She waved a hand as if that was expression enough. “Sue.”
“Who’s Sue?”
“Stop it.”
“I’m being serious; who’s Sue and why should I know about her?”
For a moment it looked like she was about to get cross but then her expression cleared. “You really don’t know, do you?”
“No, that’s why I’m asking.”
“Oh, well in that case-“ The ringing of Helga’s mobile interrupted them. “Shoot! I’m late already. See you later, sweetie!”
And she was gone.
Which was why he was currently stood outside the building smoking and waiting for the others. Maybe Isaak would know who Sue was… or something. From where he stood, Dietrich watched the staff carpark idly. There wasn’t anything interesting about it but it was that or the wall as his choice of view and there were only so many times that he could count brinks.
The suddenly blast of what sounded like Madonna hit him as someone pulled into a parking space. Though what followed was the more surprising part.
“Dude, you can drive?”
Radu strode over, smirking. “Like the car?”
“A Porsche? When did- how did- heck, that must have been a million dollar blowjob.”
“Nope. No sexual favours were traded in the purchase of that baby.”
“You kill someone?”
Radu’s grin was Cheshire cat wide.
“Three-eyed lobster? No, wait, you can’t do that.”
“I’m not even going to ask what that is. But no, it was really all an accident.”
“Yeah?”
Radu paused to light a cigarette. “You remember that night you decided to tell Ion that I was a Nazi?”
“Umm… yeah, kinda. I was kidding?”
“He went back and told his grandmother.”
“Oh. But that still doesn’t explain…”
“Mummy is, shall we say, really rather racist. And she loves her darling little Nazi foster-son.”
“Really?”
“Yup. The bitch is completely insane. Ion went charging home screaming that I’m racist so she bought me a new car.”
“That’s pretty fucked up.”
“She’s not even Middle-Eastern, not really.”
“Oh?”
“Czechoslovakian as far as I know.”
“Seriously fucked up.”
“But hey, I have a new car.”
“There is that. Probably the nicest car in the carpark too-”
The silver Bentley pulling up stopped them both in their tracks.
“Morning, all!”
They both waved dumbly back at Isaak as he stepped out of the car.
“Who did you kill?”
“No one.” Isaak glanced at Radu worriedly.
“Nice car is what he’s trying to say.”
“Oh, I suppose it is. I like the wooden dashboard; it’s terribly pretty.”
“Who…” Radu let the question trail deliberately.
“It’d one of William’s. I don’t normally drive and really, I don’t like to but it was that or be late today.”
“Un huh. Did you get out of your money bath late or something?”
“What is wrong with him today?” Hissed at Radu.
A shrug.
Dietrich ground out his cigarette and lit another one almost mechanically.
Watching yet another overpriced car pull up Dietrich idly fingered the buspass in his pocket. “Hey, how come you can park in the staff carpark anyway?”
But Radu was already half way across the carpark yelling abuse at the chap who’d just pulled up.
“And you can just sleep in your fucking car!”
Which just earned a smirk from the fellow in question before the building door closed behind him.
“I could live in his car.” Dietrich commented absently. “Isaak?”
Isaak had one hand held to his cheek and was seemingly staring at nothing.
Turning the direction of Isaak’s blank gaze Dietrich glanced at the closed door and shrugged.
“Fucking idiot.” Radu came back over seemingly in the mood to chain-smoke his way through the rest of his cigarettes.
“I think Isaak’s broken.”
“Isaak?”
Isaak let out a soft sigh.
Dietrich waved a hand in front of Isaak’s face.
Another sigh.
“Whatever it is, I think it’s airborne.”
“Isaak? Hey!” Radu snapped his fingers in front of Isaak’s face.
“Nobody ever told me he was that handsome.” Still with that dreamy look on his face.
“Who? The only people here are you, me and Dietrich.”
“Oh…” Dietrich glanced at Radu worriedly.
“What?”
“Umm, there was one other person out here… just now.”
“Who?”
“You told him to go sleep in his car…”
“Dicktastic von Obnoxious? Oh, fe- Isaak, snap out of it for goodness sake!”
“Radu? How could you be so cruel? He’s just so…”
“I know. Trust me; I know.”
“You know, Isaak knows and he knows too, right?”
“Got it in one, munchkin.”
“Knows what?” Isaak looked confused.
“That he’s the best looking thing that ever shipped out of Istanbul.” Radu sighed. “It was him or that other jackass.”
Dietrich thought about it for a moment before beginning hesitantly. “Maybe… I know this is gonna sound weird but maybe, just maybe…”
“What?”
Isaak sighed again.
“You ever think that maybe you just weren’t gay?”
That got Isaak’s attention as well as Radu’s.
“Sorry, just a thought that’s all.”
“Please, try to be a little more homonormative, Dietrich.”
“Yeah, sorr- wait a minute!”
But the other two were already laughing.
It had only been a thought but it was worth investigating and Dietrich had never been one to turn down following things to their logical conclusion. Picking up his mobile and glancing about to make sure that he was on his own in the empty lecture room he took a deep breath and dialled long-distance.
“Hi, can I speak to… Sister Esther?”
There was a negligible wait and then that familiar voice on the end of the line. “Hello?”
“Hi, Esther? It’s Dietrich.”
“What do you want?” That beautiful voice he remembered suddenly several degrees colder.
“I… look I know this is going to sound weird but when we were together…” He paused aware of the thundering of his heart. “Did you ever think that maybe I was gay?”
He hung up to the sound of ringing laughter.
“Fuck you, you… nun.”
A polite cough from the doorway curtailed further ire.
“I’m sorry but I couldn’t help but hear the tail end of your conversation.”
Dietrich rubbed his head almost absently. “Yeah, my ex.”
“Oh? I’m so sorry.”
“Nah, not a problem. Everyone has days, right?”
“I suppose they do.” The door idly pushed shut. “In fact, as a concerned senior member of staff, why don’t you tell me all about it, honey?”
Fifteen minutes of concerned enquiry later Dietrich came hurtling out of the room clutching his jacket around him for dear life, only to run head-first into a very irate Radu.
“Fucking piece of- Dietrich?”
“Help!” Squawked out.
“Oh, my. This is awkward, isn’t it?”
Radu stared first at Dietrich, then at the smirking figure in the doorway. “Dietrich…”
“What? I didn’t-“
“You son of a-“
And then Radu’s hands were around his throat and the light at the end of the tunnel suddenly didn’t seem all that far away.
“He was hitting on me!” Dietrich glared as Isaak lit his cigarette for him.
“Well, you know how Radu is.”
“No, no I don’t. I thought they hated each other.”
Isaak clucked his tongue, not unlike a concerned mother.
“What?”
“They really do love each other dearly.”
“Huh?”
“It’s just that Radu likes to get angry with everything and Süleyman likes to flirt with everything.”
“Really?”
“Really. They do make an odd sort of couple though.”
“I’ll say. I thought I was going to die.”
“Nonsense. But…”
“But?”
“Did you ever hear why Süleyman left Boğaziçi Üniversitesi?”
“The what now?”
“It’s one of the universities in Istanbul. Anyway, he got into a fight with another lecturer. Tried to throw the other chap off a cliff as far as I heard.”
“Why?”
“Guess.”
“Over Radu?”
“Exactly.”
“Wow.”
“Isaak?”
“Hmm?”
“I think… I think I’m jealous.”
“Of…?”
“You, Radu, everyone I guess. William really does love you right?”
Isaak put an arm round Dietrich. “Hush now, don’t worry so much, dear. You just haven’t met the right man.”
“I thought Esther was the right man.”
“Hey, who’s Sue anyway?”
And for some inexpiable reason Isaak started laughing.
++++++++++