bakerstreet | SECRET relationship;

SECRET relationship;

SECRET relationship;

The fact that you're in a relationship with this person isn't public knowledge. Actually, no one knows about it except for the people involved. Maybe you guys are just private like that; on the other hand, it may be a necessity to keep things a secret from others. Maybe you're both team mates, and others on the team would give you grief, or you're not suppose to be dating, or you're not the type to usually date and you're only testing the waters. Perhaps it's the combination of you two, possibly an odd couple, that would bring some controversy or some teasing. Or, you know, you could not want to deal with friends and relatives being busybodies. Your reasons are your own.

Are you content with stealing moments to be together as a couple? Do you want to make your relationship known and the fact that you can't drives you batty? Remember, there are lots of benefits to dating in secret. You can be yourselves completely, away from prying eyes, and get to know each other better as potential longterm romantic partners. In a way, it's ideal.

...still, do you ever wish you could scream from the rooftops how much you care for your significant other?

how to play.

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Play out stolen moments (◡‿◡✿), secret dates (◕‿◕✿), secret handholding (⊙‿⊙✿), and secret kissing ( /)w(\✿)!

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[In the water, Haru possessed a grace that many people had called beautiful. Even without effort, he had become an amazing swimmer, though that had a lot to do with a genuine love of water. It wasn't a pass-time for him, it was a passion, it was something that consumed him to ridiculous levels. Really, with the promise of water to swim in, he'd go almost anywhere.

But on land, he was less graceful. He was hardly a klutz, but he was a surprisingly slow runner. Somehow, swimming didn't really equal being athletic when it came to him.

It's Eric himself who captures Haru's attention, if unintentionally. Foreign languages are hard for the black-haired man, even the commonly learned language of English. So, when he hears someone yelling in...he doesn't know what, but he knows it's not Japanese, he looks up, looking at the muscular man that the words had come from. When he found eyes already in his direction, he pauses, eyes widening around the edges only slightly.

He doesn't know why he doesn't look away as quickly as he normally does. His nature made people often try to get his attention, knowing they couldn't get really do so. And yet, for a second, for two, for three, he looked forward instead of away. ]

[[Erik should stop staring, but now that he sees Haru staring back, he's not sure he wants to. He has been always bold to blur lines. A slow smirk surfaces onto his face and he intentionally flashes it towards the younger male. It's crafted to cause a reaction. Even if he gets brushed off, and it's expected, Erik can't help but try to provoke something. The interest is there, and it can be seen.

Erik knows several languages. German is the one he is most comfortable with. It's his mother tongue. Naturally he would gravitate to it and use it as a personal anchor. However, Japanese is becoming a favorite of his. He speaks it fluently and wants to walk over to Haru, get him to say his name. Have him say Erik's name.

It doesn't hurt to fantasize a bit. Or look. Since Erik is definitely looking. Haru will divert his gaze first, he predicts, mostly because Erik will not be the first to look away. He's soaking up the eye contact. He even lingers to give an appreciative once over. The pool area is loud, half full, and distracting. Yet, Erik tunes it out easily. Seconds, it took seconds, and now Erik peers at Haru here and there when he's closely potralling near him.]]

[Haru is the first to look away and while some of that is because of Eric being the more stubborn of the two, it's also because that's what Haru does. Normally it would have been much sooner so he's still not sure why it takes him as long as it does to look away; it's not just because of something else catching his attention. It's pointed, the way he looks away, looks down.

But why did he look so long? There was something about the man that seems... intense. He had a lot of passionate people in his life, all of them caring about their dreams, but something about the man seemed concentrated. For some reason, it reminds him of something Rin had once said.

I'll show you something amazing.

But that was ridiculous. He doesn't know this man. When the once over is given, Haru doesn't even notice, doesn't get any kind of deeper meaning there. He has his virtues, but logic isn't always one of them.

Shortly after, he jumps into the water, wanting to clear his thoughts. Around them, kids ran and laughed and played, but Haru swam. Powerful arms pulled him through the water with a grace not matched by many. Here, he could leave out all the confusing thoughts, he could ignore any nagging feel of those eyes because he has no reason to remember those eyes.

No reason.

He swims.]

[[Eventually he did have to look away, and conveniently when the young male had averted his gaze first, as predicted. Erik didn’t ponder on it, much. He did however wonder how it would be if he did give into his desires, despite the age difference. Erik didn’t look too much older, but it was clear he was closer to his middle age years than when he had first discovered there were other mutants besides himself. It was a huge step for him to even consider pursing a human.

There was something about Haru that made him forget about everything else going on in the world. It could be a produced fantasy by behalf of his broken years crumbling into what could be a middle age crisis. Except, Erik wasn’t discontent with what he had going on. He was as capable as any twenty-something-year-old, for the most part he could.

Unable to answer his own internal conflict, he moved towards the end of the pool. The water rippled and soon a random kid was canon-balling into the pool. He sighed, a bit distracted by how well Haru swam. He was sure the younger was used to people staring. A bit longer wouldn’t hurt too much. He had been compared to a shark on many occasions, and now he couldn’t feel more like one.

Of course, trouble always found Erik and even in the mundane life he was attempting to have, chaos in the smallest fraction will still happen. The kids were far too reckless. They were throwing the balls all over the pool, so much that they were disturbing the casual swimmers. He saw a few thrown in Haru’s direction and as amusing as it could be, it tended to be annoying. Erik closed in, trying to get crowd control, near enough that he saw Haru swimming and a ball flinging his way. He motioned, yelling fluently in Japanese.]]

'Hey, watch out!' [[He’ll have to clean the mess eventually. Erik’s decision was rash. He dived into the water, pulling to the surface quickly and blocked the ball from hitting Haru by getting in his way. Blinking the water away, droplets dripped from his eyelashes as he got a clearer picture, probably looking ridiculous that he “saved” someone from getting hit from a hollow rubber ball. The ball had hit him instead, face enclosed into what could be distinguished as a grumpy expression. It didn’t stop the kids from throwing even more around, parents unable to control them properly.

Who the hell decided it was a good idea to let kids play with that many variety of balls? He should reconsider his weekend job. People skills were not for him. Erik mumbled in mostly a whisper.]]

Gören. (brats)

[In the water, the outside world disappears. While he knows it's not literal, it's almost like stepping into a portal where worries and troubles didn't touch him. Admittedly, he didn't really have a horrible life outside of that, but as someone who preferred ease as much as possible, it was nice to go somewhere that held complete ease. So he doesn't notice the balls. This pool usually did have a lot of kids, usually was crowded, which was why Haru didn't come often. He didn't dislike kids, per se, but if someone was in his way, how was he supposed to swim?

When he does find a body in his way, he doesn't expect it to be such a big one. Tiny, screaming bodies wouldn't have surprised him but the scream, followed by a body that definitely didn't belong to a child was enough to make him stop, even if he wouldn't have had to avoid said body.

There was a few things to take in. The first was that the lifeguard took his job very seriously. If that had been the only thing, Haru would have looked at the ball to see maybe there was something he was missing, but with the muttered word, he had lost Haru again.

Besides swimming, the teenager really was talented. He was a good cook, a good housekeeper, artistic, some found him good-looking, and he could even be a good friend, as deeply as that talent was buried. However, Erik just so happened to have found another of his shortcomings. Most others would have asked what, if they didn't understand. Some would have shrugged if off and continued on his way. Haru stared. Without word, without thanks for saving his life from the horrible rubber attack, he stared as if that was all it would take for Erik to explain what he had meant by that horribly strange word.

He also can't help but notice it's the same man from before, but first he has to get past this confusion.]

[[Rearing back to reality, Erik blinked the water away fully. A hand ran up along his wet hair strands to push them back until they stayed put for the moment. The water felt oddly comforting to be there along with, and he would have enjoyed it, if he wasn’t where he currently was, at the situation at hand. The impulse to talk purely in German came back, and it only happened in certain instances. When he got nervous for one, angry, or just annoyed. One out of the three stood more prominent. He decided to push the impulse away, finding the proper language to utilize.]]

‘I see you’re okay. Good.’ [[His accent seeped onto the Japanese. There were some things he couldn't get rid of. He attempted to speak again, unsure on how to handle his speech when Haru was in front of him. The youth’s stare was close to being like a void. He was looking at it, and he couldn’t look away. He held the same ineffable expression Erik always gave to the public. There was no knowing what emotion Haru was giving off unless it were to be intended to be given away.

Erik was sure he would scare him off if he didn’t say anything and just stared. Haru was much more handsome up in person.]]

‘Pardon my interruption. It should be a sin intruding on your swimming.’ [[Out of everything he could have said, he should have stopped talking after expressing his apologies and just moved on, except he didn’t want to. It wasn’t the first he was going to end up doing the opposite of what he should do. Another ball was thrown between them, the splash causing water to hit upon the side of Erik's face. He didn't even flinch. His concentration was focused somewhere else.]]

[It was this person, the same person that had caught his attention for far too long before he had gotten in the water. Even with the ball, he's not quite sure why he's there, especially since the ball didn't seem like it would have hurt him. Did he take his job that seriously? Makoto loved what he did and Haru was pretty sure his bigger friend wouldn't jump in front of a plastic ball for him.

He's staring way too long this time, too. He sort of has an answer, he has enough of one that it should be sufficient to nod and look away, to wait for his path to clear so he could go back to swimming. Worse still, he's not just looking at him but in his eyes, which were so intense, so strong that they demanded recognition.

Then he speaks again and the emphasize on 'your' is enough to do something nothing else has: make him self conscious. People had openly admired his swimming before, and he had shrugged it off. It was nothing because he didn't swim for other people.

Nothing. Something with this man. He should look away. He should speak.]

I'm okay. [He could stop there, but he keeps going, which was even more unusual for him.] It was just a ball anyway.

[[Erik did not take his job seriously, at the most he found middle ground with it. He didn’t care for it much. It was just a job that gave him extra money. He didn’t make the effort unless it was deemed necessary and prominent. That is why if anyone knew Erik, they would be surprised at his sudden need to take the job seriously. He was still trying to figure out what had grappled him to even try. It was probably the slight interest he came to terms with once he saw the way Haru’s blue eyes were reflective of the water’s color.]]

You can never be too careful. [[Keeping afloat, Erik studied Haru’s aloof stance. Usually people like that tended to have him at bay. There was more to what they showed, therefore he was used to prying to dig up the true nature of a person. He had to force himself to not do it, and revaluate his habit. Instead of focusing on his dexterous urge, he made the effort to lift the corners of his lips upwards, ever so slightly. Something rare on Erik's behalf.]]

Let me take you out for some tea? An apology for the disturbance being caused. [[It came out before he could even blink twice. Driven by partly his desire, and partly curiosity, Erik had done something out of what he normally wouldn't do. He attempted to be social. Somehow it was already set to be doomed, but he wasn't about to back out. The worst that could happen would be Haru rejecting him. Then he can finally move on from the silly infatuation he had been forming since he caught a glimpse of the younger male.]]

[No. That would have been Haru's answer, should have been, even for some of the people he knew. This man wasn't someone he knew, he was just a man that had jumped in front of a completely harmless ball to 'save' him. That was weird enough in itself, but he seemed prepared to stay there for possible future assailants.

Something about him keeps him silent for that answer to dissolve. Not only is he commanding, which isn't necessarily a good thing for Haru, but he's interesting. His body looked impressive; was he also a swimmer? What kind of swimming?

Why did it matter?

He didn't know. He doesn't even know why he's answering the way he answers, only that somehow, agreeing to tea would be easier than the endless curiosity that came after if he declined. Easy. That was all he wanted. Something about this wouldn't quite let him believe in any sort of ease.]

...Yeah. [That doesn't mean he can look at him.] We can go out for tea.

[[Out of all the scenarios, he did not envision the one where Haru would consider to even say yes. It wasn’t an option, just an idea he had been playing around with. Now that it had become a reality, he wasn’t sure how to respond. He did smile, keeping it light. His thoughts were racing, becoming jumbled as he tried to find the proper response after what he just got. He couldn’t even pull out of his old tricks. Someone had rendered him speechless.]]

Erik. That is my name. [[Simple, straight to the point. An angle he utilized and if he had any chance of keeping Haru’s attention or even making sure he didn’t change his mind. He decided to keep their encounter short, for now.]]

My shift is almost done. Meet me at the entrance at six, and then you can tell me yours? [[It was barley a question disguised. He was subtly giving Haru another way out, to see if he would take it. Of course, he didn’t have to humor Erik, since he was having a hard time believing he even got a yes. He slipped into a lop-sided grin, edging into hidden deviousness as he purposely leaned down to briefly invade Haru’s personal bubble. Well aware the other was avoiding his gaze, it only fueled him more. It was entertaining. Haru is getting a preview of a shark like no other if he decided to go through with their tea date. Good thing the lad can swim. He’ll need it with how Erik set his mind.]]

See you then. [[He didn’t give his stay much longer, leaning back just as quickly as he had leaned, only lingering a bit. Erik swam backwards before turning around to move towards the opposite edge, his strong arms lifting him up onto the platform with one singular push upon the surface of the tiles.]]

[A first name? Well, the man was foreign, that much was clear, and the Japanese was trained well enough to switch it around a bit when it came to that. Haru wasn't the most equipped for that, as somehow English continued to evade him, but he did know it was more common to go by first names in a lot of places.

He doesn't know what just happened. Before he could reply, agree or disagree (he would have agreed), Erik was gone. He didn't want him name yet? How would he introduce himself? Haru? Haruka? Nanase? Why did it matter? That was never a question he'd had before, and now, instead of looking away, the speed of the encounter had his eyes changing direction. Instead of looking away, they followed the other man. What was it about him that managed to do that?

Eventually, he has to get out. He has to tell Makoto that he would be going on ahead. That would have been so much easier if his friend hadn't seen him with Erik, hadn't asked questions about it. Luckily, Makoto was a nice enough guy and even if he was surprised, the most he asked was to actually pay attention to his cell phone.

Which was how he ended up redressed and dry standing at the entrance of the activity center. Was this a dumb idea? Haru usually didn't even accept invitations from those he didn't know well enough, nevermind from strangers.]

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