to Berlin with love.

[runningred]

 From here

Jay opens the door into a quiet back alley that could belong to any city - the lingering scent of garbage and the miss-matched colours where graffiti has been washed off or painted over. In the mid-afternoon chill of early spring, he takes Emcee's hand and leads him out into the street, pocketing the key. The sunlight is thin but warm and picks out the green swell of buds in the branches. The tree lined avenue is quiet this time of day. Not lacking in people but without rush, a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Comments

[runningred]

When he comes out, he'll find Jay perched on the chaise lounge, checking through a box of paperwork with a critical eye. "These are yours too. I just wanted to make sure they were up to spec."

EU passport, birth certificate, drivers license, checkbook, bank card. All in the name of Errol Marcus Christoper.

"Sorry I didn't have time to check the name with you. I can get it changed if you hate it but I figured it gave you room to stay with EMC."

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee goes over to him and examines the birth certificate.

And he laughs.

It's not exactly a cheerful laugh, because the need for such documents is a very real and sobering one, but it is an amused laugh.

"It's funny, I used to give myself a whole variety of names, but I've never been an Errol."

[runningred]

"Name of an Australian born movie star in the forties. Famous for his virility and habit of seducing his co-stars."

He holds up a document, examining it against the light. "Oh, money. Pizza will be here soon." He hands Emcee a well worn wallet with cash, credit and debit card, library card, bus ticket, half stamped frequent coffee card. Everything you'd expect.

[i_am_your_host]

"Ah, well I look forward to seeing his films," he says with a smirk.

He takes the wallet and looks through its contents. Again, a sobering reality. And he goes quiet for a moment, staring at the library card before tucking it away.

"You've thought of everything."

[runningred]

Jay lowers the document and looks at Emcee, holding a hand out to him. "I'm sorry, I've had to do this myself a few time. I guess I've stopped thinking about weird it can be."

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee takes his hand and sits beside him, shoulders slumped, holding the wallet in his lap.

"It-- it is weird. I've never had an identity on paper. Nothing to declare that I exist. And now, I have an entirely new existence in this wallet, on those papers... I haven't thought about reinventing myself for quite a while, but this is certainly more thorough than just picking out another name."

[runningred]

Jay nods and puts an arm around him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to rush you. I just wanted to be sure you had everything you might need. If you wanted to make a life here."

He gestures to the box that all of it came out of. "I've got so many of those of my own, I guess I just tend to think of an identity as just a bunch of paperwork designed to fool other people."

[i_am_your_host]

He leans against him.

"No, it's all right, it's just very--" He exhales a breath. "--real. And I will have to deal with it. I understand that I would need all these things. I'll just have to have a little more time to-- figure out who this person is, before I decide if I want to-- be him. Without losing myself. In my time, who and what you are, are very much connected to what it says on your identification papers, and you don't want to be caught without them-- or to have the wrong kind of identity."

[runningred]

Jay nods, enfolding Emcee in a gentle hug. He presses a soft kiss to the top of his head. "Makes sense. Forget all this for now and let me show you the rest of the place. Then we can eat pizza and relax for a bit."

[i_am_your_host]

"All right," he sighs, nodding. "But thank you, though. All of this is incredibly thorough. I wouldn't know the first thing about getting any of this done."

[runningred]

"Which is a reason to have friends like me." Jay smiles jokingly, gently pulling Emcee to his feet, tucking everything back in the box.

"Now, the rest of the tour!" Two guest bedrooms and a study with a pretty view of the city. An even larger main bathroom. What the Americans might call a den but Jay has set up with a baby grand piano and a wet bar. Boring utility room with washing machine and all that.

And back to the lounge in time for door to buzz as the pizza arrives.

[i_am_your_host]

Yes, yes it is. Emcee smiles at that, because it's true.

The rest of the tour is, of course, punctuated with gasps of awe and Oh my gods. ("Oh, it's a party bathroom," he chirps at the sight of the main bathroom. He's thinking ahead here.)

After figuring out how to buzz the delivery guy in with the intercom, Emcee digs out enough money out of the wallet, rounding up for a tip. It's strange to not be using German marks, but well, euros are very pretty and colorful, they have that going for them.

Emcee opens the door, trying not to seem too excited about receiving his first pizza. The delivery guy is cute and friendly, and the transaction goes smoothly if a bit flirtatiously because Emcee can't help it.

He brings the box to the kitchen and sets it down on the counter. It smells delicious, unlike anything he's smelled before, and when he lifts the lid, he inhales deeply.

"This is the most artfully beautiful food I've ever seen."

[runningred]

Jay hangs back, letting Emcee find his feet. (And very carefully doesn't laugh at the flirting with the pizza boy.)

Jay grins and pours them more drinks. "All that time in the bar and no-one introduced you to pizza?" He steals a slice, trailing cheese.

[i_am_your_host]

"No," he chuckles, as he gets comfortable on a stool. "I suppose that is a grievous failure on my friends' part."

He watches Jay take a slice, and does the same. For a moment he had expected him to use a knife and fork, but Emcee can do eating with his hands. The crust is just crisp enough, the cheese perfectly melted, and the other toppings round out the overall flavor.

"Mmmpf, this is marvelous. Is this a very popular dish?"

This particular pizza is a little high-end, to say the least, compared to the $1 slices one can get in New York City. Someone will have to introduce him to that kind back at the bar.

[runningred]

"Yeah, that's sadly true. Your friends are utter failures. Me included. All I've managed to introduce you to is top shelf gin."

Jay chuckles, munching on an olive that tried to escape. "In America, certainly but this is much better than average American pizza. No-one does it better than the Italians but then they claim to have invented it.

[i_am_your_host]

"Ah, now that was a very important introduction! I would never have gotten along without it," he insists with a laugh, stretching a bite of mozzarella cheese that refuses to break.

"So, an Italian dish is one of the most widely eaten in America. I think that's wonderful. I think it's wonderful that anybody can get any sort of food they want from almost every country. I saw some of those menus-- Indian? Ethiopian? Thai? That's unheard of in my time. The most foreign food we can get in Berlin is probably chop suey."

[runningred]

"For a friendship that started with sex before exchanging names, we've done alright." Jay chuckles.

"Love Ethiopian, the spices are so rich. South American's popular in Europe at the moment. Proper Mexican, not the American knock off stuff."

[i_am_your_host]

"Mm, indeed we have," he agrees with a grin and a twinkle in his eyes.

He then hops off the stool to tear some paper towels off the roll by the kitchen sink, and hands one of them to Jay. Eating pizza is a greasy business.

"I would love to try all of that, eventually. It's nice that we can get it at Milliways, but going to restaurants to experience the food would be much more enjoyable." He pops a stray olive into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully as he realizes he can do that. Here. Now.

"Speaking of Milliways, I should be able to find a door there from here, shouldn't I?"

[runningred]

"The bar's great but for me, it's the personality of little restaurants. Especially little family run ethnic restaurants. There's something loving that carries into the food."

Jay nods and wipes his hands, fishing the key out of his pocket. "Key to the apartment." he holds it up then flips to the little key fop, a silver oval set with a green and blue glass swirl. "Made from sand from the Caribbean Inlet. I'm told it will act as a door opener for Milliways."

[i_am_your_host]

He nods with a hum of agreement as he chews, thinking of the little mom-and-pop cafés in his neighborhood back home.

Reaching out to take the key, he examines it and runs the pad of his thumb over the oval of pretty glass.

"And if I use this key at Milliways, it will always bring me here? I don't think I've ever heard of someone using something to be brought to a world that wasn't their own."

[runningred]

"Once you accept that key, you own property here. You become a denizen of this world and this time. Kinda like having dual citizenship. The key will just identify to the door which place you want to be in."

The glass insert has a slightly concave surface and warms to the touch. Very tactile.

[i_am_your_host]

His eyebrows rise a little as he looks down at the key in his hand. It suddenly has a great weight to it. The weight of a whole new life.

"Dual citizenship," he murmurs thoughtfully. "So, I could still return to my own time if I wanted to? Like go back and forth between the two worlds, through Milliways?"

[runningred]

"That's the idea. You don't have to give up your world to be here. But you have the option of coming here whenever you wish."

[i_am_your_host]

After a few more moments of staring at it, and toying with it a little as if getting used to the feel of it in his hand, he holds it back out to Jay.

"Keep it safe for me. Please. Until it's time for us to go back. I don't want to lose it."

It's not a yes or a no yet.

[runningred]

Jay nods without pressing and tucks the key into a pocket.

He takes another slice and munches happily. "I don't think I realised how hungry I was. Good call on the pizza."