"Oh," Kaye sighed as he stuffed his hands in the pocket of the hoodie he was wearing. Of course he knew that the conversation would eventually lead to that, though he didn't have a reason to give Simon yet. "I was looking for something and they didn't like that. I just ran into the wrong people," he explained with a loose shrug.
Simon senses his hesitation to tell the full story, but understood it. So, in answer, he merely gave a nod of understanding. He tugged absentmindedly at a blond curl fallen across his forehead. “Are we almost there?”
"Yeah, it should be right here," Kaye answered, trailing off as they approached a small lit up bar on the corner of the street. It appeared quaint and small, with it's brick exterior and blue marquee, though cigarette smoke and yelling could be heard from outside. He glanced over towards Simon, nodding his head towards the small bar before he stepped inside.
Simon followed, the heat of the bar hitting him in the face as soon as they entered, a stark contrast from the outside temperature. He breathed in deeply, the smell of nicotine wafting up his nose, which made him gag. Much more enticing was the sight of a bartender pouring golden liquid into a set of tiny glasses at the back.
Kaye's nose wrinkled lightly at the smell, though he was already used to it from coming to this bar for so long. A few people looked towards the pair as they walked in, though most didn't seem fazed by the bruises and cuts on his face. By now, they had seen plenty of that. As Kaye continued down towards the back of the bar and sat down at the long, wooden table, a familiar voice and face approached him.
"Kaye! Is that you?" A tall boy behind the bar called out, his messy, ashy colored hair falling across his eyes. A small smile replaced his usual scowl as he left the cloth he was using to wipe the tables down. "I could barely recognize you with all those cuts."
Simon stood to the side, electing not to socialize and instead glancing up at the drunks menu displayed on the screens above. He took in the atmosphere of the bar as he was doing so, calculating the risk for any potential fights, scouting out the most wasted of drunks, ensuring that nothing was going to go wrong.
Kaye laughed lightly, the first time this night as his friend, Ashley, made his way over towards the two. He glanced over towards Simon, noticing that the other had decided not to talk before he turned back towards his ridiculously tall friend. Ashley tilted his head towards Simon as well, his eyebrows raising in question, though he didn't say anything either.
"You two look like you could use a drink. What can I get you?" The man asked, fiddling with the small apron tied around his waist.
Simon finally turned towards the man, who seemed to be Kaye’s friend, shrugging lightly and faking a small smile. “Up to you, Kaye,” he invited. “Surprise me.” The bartender was cute in a messy sort of way, slightly uncoordinated, but attractively so. He wondered how hard he’d be to flirt with, but quickly shook away the thought, for now..
"Oh, let's see," Kaye answered, a small, casual grin crossing his face as he looked up towards Simon, his more joking side already coming out. For some reason, he liked the way his name sounded when the other man said it. "We'll have two Painkillers then, Ash," he announced, turning towards the bartender as he sat back down into his seat. Ashley laughed lightly, already walking off to get the drinks ready, his clumsy figure already bumping into a few things on the way.
Simon watched the bartender go, leaning against the wall with a lazy smirk crossing his features. “What’s his name?” he asked Kaye, eyes flicking back and forth between the two. “And what’s the ‘Painkiller’?”
(Simon you’re hitting on the wrong person)
(lmao, so true.)
"His name?" Kaye asked, frowning as he saw the way that Simon watched the other man walk off and the smirk that crossed their face. Does he like them? A small scowl crossed his face for a few moments at the thought of that, though that only left him even more confused as to why he was so protective over Simon already. "It's Ashley," Kaye answered, his response a little clipped off.
"And the Painkiller is like a twist on the Pinã Colada, from somewhere in the British Virgin Islands. It's more of a tropical drink," he explained after a few moments of thinking. "I thought we could use a painkiller anyway," Kaye added, trying for a weak joke to lift his mood somehow as he motioned to the bruise on his face.
“Ashley…” Simon’s smirk only grew when he noticed the look on Kaye’s face. Was he… jealous? Or perhaps just homophobic. Either way, he felt the strange urge to tease him. “And that sounds delicious. The Pinã Colada, of course. Do you come here often?”
Kaye pursed his lips as Simon's smirk grew when they repeated his friend's name, though he easily covered it up with a carefree smile. Instead, he busied himself with answering Simon's question so the other man wouldn't notice the small flicker of emotion that had just crossed his face.
"Yeah, I suppose. Ashley was one of my first friends here, so I'll swing by every once in a while," he explained, fiddling with the strings on his hoodie. "What about you? How long have you been here for?"
Potential jealousy? This was new.. Simon’s smirk continued to grow, taking his bravado with it. I wonder if Ashley’s gay… he wondered distractedly, another thought following. I wonder if Kaye is.. Drawing himself sharply back to the present, he tried to remember what Kaye had last said. “Uhh.. I don’t think I’ve been here before,” he replied, eyes flicking back to the direction of the bar. “To this bar, I mean. I’ve been in this city for…. two years? Three? I don’t remember.”
Kaye nodded, wondering what is was like to stay in a city for so long. He had never gone for more than one or two years before moving around again, which led him to having to start over quite a lot. After a few beats of silence, Kaye opened his mouth to say something else, though a loud clatter of two cups on the bar's wooden table cut him off as Ashley made his way back over towards them.
"Here we go. Two Painkillers," Ashley announced, pushing the cups towards the two before he already started on cleaning the counter next to them.
“Thanks,” Simon told him, lifting the glass to his lips and taking an experimental ship, his eyes never leaving the other man. The drink was delicious, fizzing as it went down his throat and burning as it settled in his stomach. “This is really good, nice choice, Kaye.”
"Thanks," Kaye answered with a small smile as he took a quick sip from his own drink, ignoring how it burned his throat as it went down. At this point, all he wanted to do was drink.
After a few sips, Kaye finally set the cup back down, noticing the way that Simon kept his gaze trained on Ashley. He opened his mouth to say something, or maybe distract Simon, but quickly shut it once again, disliking the way that this already seemed to make him jealous. He had just met Simon anyway.
Simon took another sip of the drink, savouring the taste and the burning sensation that came with. He was also savouring two other things; Ashley’s slightly disheveled appearance, and Kaye’s jealousy, but he pretended otherwise for the moment, trying to enjoy his last few minutes of staying completely sober.
“So, how long have you two been friends?” he asked, leaning back against the wall.
"A couple months, right?" Kaye said with a small sigh, tilting his head towards Ashley in question as if he were asking them for agreement.
"Yeah, I think so," Ashley answered as he ran a hand through his hair and turned around towards the two. "Kaye's the one that got me this job. So these were the best couple months of my life," he teased, leaning over the counter and ruffling Kaye's hair as the younger boy wrinkled his nose jokingly.
Simon watched them, amused. “Cool,” he replied with a smile that was slightly less forced, doing his best to keep his glances between the two even.
He racked his brain to think of a conversation topic— small talk had never been his strong suit— and ended up with what he hoped was satisfactory. “How did you two meet?”
"Oh, that's simple," Ashley started, hopping onto the counter across from the two as he swung his legs back and forth in thought.
"I had come here on the night that my ex-boyfriend had dumped me, so my obvious solution was to drink. Skip a couple hours and I had gotten in a fight with another man at the bar. Kaye here managed to get me and fix me up," he explained with a short summary that got the gist of their first meeting, though there were a few more details that he left out. Not that they were very important anyway.
So he does like guys…. This was a huge plus. Simon would never had guessed that his mindless wandering would lead to rescuing some guy from being beat up on an alleyway, then going to get a few drinks and bumping into a cute, queer bartender.
“That’s admittedly a pretty awesome way to make a friend,” he said, rubbing at his knuckles. “Other than the dumping part. Sorry about that. And the getting beaten up part. You know what I mean.”
"It's fine, don't worry about it. He wasn't a great guy anyway," Ashley answered with a loose, carefree shrug, as if he completely forgot about his past boyfriend in the first place.
Kaye hummed in agreement, taking a sip from his drink as he glanced over towards Ashley. He had also had his share of terrible boyfriends, most of them trying to take advantage wilder, impulsive, and naive behavior. He had moved on from them of course, but it still made him a bit wary for new relationships.
Simon finished off his drink, the effects of the alcohol finally setting in. It took a lot to get him drunk, but he still wasn’t completely unaffected, slightly off balance by now. The colours of the bar seemed to pop, as did the sounds, which he knew even in his ever so slightly tipsy stage would make for one hell of a headache.
He nodded in response to what Ashley had said, directing his next question to both guys. “So, are you both with someone now? Or single?”
"Well, I'm currently single, but Kaye has heard all about Smith," Ashley explained with a light chuckle and sigh, jabbing his finger towards a taller, dark haired boy towards the back of the bar who was currently serving a few drinks. The blonde boy had liked them for a bit but had never come to close to actually initiating a conversation.
"Single here too," Kaye added, quickly draining the rest of his drink before he set it back down. He had been alone for a while anyway, so he honestly didn't mind it all that much. "What about you?"