Do Not Cease To Drink (closed)

[Joshua Bernstein]

The bar was less crowded on a Wednesday night than it was on the weekends, which was probably for the best considering that Josh had forgotten to make reservations and there were enough of them that crowds would have entailed waiting. Had he still been in the City he would have expected at least half an hour wait, if not more, but they were in sleepy (relatively, though Cobalt insisted it was ridiculous) Pilot Ridge, and thus they were shown to a table almost immediately.

If they'd had fewer people he would have requested they sit at the bar, but they would be unable to hold any meaningful conversations with so many people if they did that.

And so he had trailed after the hostess, hands in his pockets, expression cheerful and relaxed, as it had been for weeks now. His mood had been indefatigably buoyant since reconciling with Sean, and he saw no low point anywhere on the horizon. Not even dealing with Vincent as intern or perilous weather cycles or hearing his mother express fervent belief that Greg had murdered his lover could put a damper on his mood. Besides, his parents had survived the hurricane, as panicked as he had been when he realized just how much devastation had been wrought, and just what danger they were in. But Pilot Ridge had remained unscathed, and his parents were safe, and all was well with the world.

"Well," He beamed at his companions as he slid into the booth they had been brought to, clasping his hands before him. "I'm glad everyone could come. How has everyone's week been?"

He was in too chipper a mood to ask if everyone's families had weathered the hurricane; but if they were all out drinking, then probably their loved ones were safe.

Right?

[Levente Cohen]

Levente had spent the last few days trying to reassure his mother that he was fine. Although she didn’t live anywhere affected by the hurricane, she had called him countless times to check that his power was still on ‘out there in the middle of nowhere’ or that he hadn’t been blown away by hurricane force winds. It was nice to know she cared, but after the twentieth call or so, it got to be a little too much for him.

So when Josh invited him for a night out with the boys, Levente was glad for an excuse to be out of the house. Therefore making him away from his phone as well.

He slipped into the booth across the table from Josh. The two had talked a few times, but never had much of a chance to hang out for very long. Still, Levente felt fairly comfortable around him, even if he didn’t know the other guys there as well.

“Well,” Levente said to answer Josh’s question. “I managed to avoid Dylan most of the week, so that’s always good.” He grinned and then realized that everyone might not know Dylan.

“So uh…should we order some drinks?” he asked.

[Mitya Makarov]

Normal. Mitya could be normal, or borderline normal, just for one day. His predisposition towards relative silence in the company of others was sure to come in handy, and his talent for diverting attention where possible would be a lifesaver, but maybe this was one of those occasions where neither attribute would be necessary for his survival. He was feeling somewhat confident about this, actually. The nervousness he often had to push through was at that point slight and easily waved away. Josh almost certainly had powers of some sort. Perhaps not in the sense that Mitya himself had powers. Still, there was that odd 'lucky charm' thing he had going on. Somehow, he just made the Russian feel relaxed, more like his old self. It was only because Josh had suggested he spend time in the company of absolute strangers that he’d said ‘yes’. So tonight, he was (quite secretly, obviously) Mitya's lucky charm. Or closer to a comfort blanket, without the blanket part.

As for the hurricane, he hadn’t any reason to be worried about it at all, and had decided that it really should only be brought up if someone else mentioned it first, though it had been on his mind. His parents hadn’t called, thankfully. Otherwise he’d be tensely awaiting the arrival of at least his mother or one of his sisters, most likely Aleksandra. They never failed to send the strict ones.

At the question of how their weeks had been, he immediately started chewing on his lower lip. He... didn’t really have much to say on the matter, and rather unfortunately, or so he felt, he couldn’t contribute much to any budding conversation about whoever ‘Dylan’ was. “Quiet,” he finally managed, idly scratching at the tip of his thumb with the nail of the other. “Well... quiet is not the right word. Normal? Uneventful. And yours?”

And for the briefest moment, he was pretty proud of himself for remembering the word ‘uneventful’. After that had passed, he murmured some positive remark about ordering drinks that probably sounded like little more than a vaguely interested buzzing.

[Josef Muller]

Josef had been fielding calls about the hurricane. Not for his sake. Most people who’d met Josef—with the exception of his divorce lawyer—tended not to worry about him. And he was fine with that. Worrying made him nervous. He didn’t know what to do about it, especially when directed at him. No, most of the calls had been about Harmony. Which was a shame, considering Josef didn’t know what to do about his niece and, as far as he’d known, nothing interesting had happened up at Hammel after the hurricane. So he’d managed to make polite noises and had left it at that, except that, to Helene, “that” was never enough.

So when Josh had offered to go out for drinks with a group of other men, he’d taken him up on his offer gratefully, because it meant a chance to get out with other normal men who he didn’t have to teach, who weren’t going to ask him about the health of one very annoying twelve-year-old, and who wouldn’t question him if he chose to drink just a little more than he should have.

However, he was pleasantly surprised at the sight of Levente, who he knew, and another man, who he didn’t know…quite so well. But he nodded to all of them when he arrived and introduced himself to the ones he didn’t know, then stayed quiet until Josh’s question.

“Quiet for me too,” he agreed. “Just have some interviews to do, uh, later.” He kept forgetting. Or, really, just kept getting busy. How ironic was that—he was too busy to hire an assistant to make him less busy. Of course. One of the men—Mitya?—had already asked about Josh’s week, so he glanced over at Levente, who’d asked about drinks. “How about just a pitcher of beer to start with? That should keep us going for a while.”

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh listened with genuine interest as the other men discussed their weeks. It seemed that none of them had anything particularly interesting going on, which of course wasn't a bad thing: interesting tended to mean things like best friends with concussions in the hospital, creepy Gestalt pairs in the woods, and mis-communicating with goat-owning midgets.

"I'm afraid I don't know who this Dylan is. Is he that bad?" He quirked an eyebrow at Levente; anyone that people went out of their way to avoid must have a sad, bitter existence. Poor Dylan. He hoped that nobody ever said such things about him.

"Mmm. My week's been fine. Sean and I spent the weekend cleaning up the yard. The intern kept his pants on all day today, so I consider that to be a success." He'd taken to spraying Vincent with a water bottle when he began dropping his pants. It wasn't the most secure method, but he couldn't very well staple pants to another human being.

He perked up at the mention of interviews from Josef. "What are you interviewing for?" That was certainly a topic worth discussing, and one with which he felt they would all be familiar.

He nodded at the comment about a pitcher of beer. "Any preferences before I flag down a server? I'm partial to Yuengling myself, but I'll drink anything."

As so many parties had proved.

[Levente Cohen]

“It’s about time you get some help ‘round that place,” Levente said to Josef. “I hear you’ve got some pretty rowdy students.” He gave the man a wink and laughed. He had a feeling that neither Josh nor Mitya would have a clue what he meant, unless Josef had complained to them about him and Mason. But he just couldn’t help himself.

“Count yourself lucky,” Levente said, turning to Josh. “I still wonder how anyone could allow him to work around children in good conscious.” He shook his head in disbelief. But it wasn’t really his place to hire, or fire, his co-workers. Even though he wished it was sometimes.

He was a little curious why Mitya was there. From what he knew of the man from bumping into him from time to time around the school, he was a quiet person. Not really the type to go out drinking with the boys. Not that Levente didn’t want him there. It pleased him to see the guy trying to enjoy himself a little. But he still found it curious.

“Sounds good to me,” Levente said with a grin. “I’ll drink just about anything.”

As so many parties had proved.

[Josef Muller]

Josef was also curious about this Dylan. He sounded interesting at the very least. He couldn’t picture Levente avoiding anyone. “That bad, huh?” he asked, brows rising farther at the man’s description. “Huh.”

But he was drawn back to the discussion of hiring people. He grinned, ruefully, at Levente’s wink, because he could still remember the lesson with him and Mason. He would freely admit that he’d never had adults so fixed on being a nuisance. They’d acted like they were five. But at the same time, he had to admit…it had been entertaining to watch them act like young boys, posturing and all. He clearly needed help. Or really, they did.

“I know, I know,” he said instead, waving it off. “I’m trying to hire an assistant. I’ve gotten three—four?—applications. So far, I think I’m going to hire three people. A filing clerk, a general assistant, and someone to specifically help with kickboxing, because that’s one of my more popular classes.” He sighed. “I wish I knew what I was doing. I’ve never been on this side of things. Definitely a new experience. In any case. Yuengling sounds great. Ah, Mitya?” He glanced over at the man who hadn’t said much yet. “How about you?” He hoped he’d gotten the name right. One would think with a name like Yo-zef, he would be better at this sort of thing. Well, he’d never claimed languages was his strong suit.

[Mitya Makarov]

Mitya suddenly regretted asking how Josh's week had been and simply raised an eyebrow, his expression confused and questioning as much as he would have liked to pretend that he wasn't at all interested. Actually he was just going through all the different combinations of those words in his mind, wondering if he'd missed an obscure expression somewhere along the way about pants. Absolutely nothing came back but those sentences in the way they were spoken, and that concept was... a word he didn't yet have in his vocabulary in any language he knew. He seriously, seriously hoped he was just being far too literally minded, but then, as he had already learned, here anything was possible. Anything at all.

Finally, he simply muttered; “Do... I want to know... what you’re talking about?”

Realising that the drink had pretty much been decided upon, and that he was being spoken to, he came out of his ‘blue screen’ and sheepishly rubbed at the side of his neck. He’d totally been listening and not trying to dispose of the images in his head. Absolutely.

“Oh, apologies,” he said, smiling. “That sounds good to me, too.”

Actually, this really wasn’t his thing at all. He wasn’t much of a drinker, but he wasn’t against one (or more) now and again. He had come out, however, because he had been asked, and he did need to try to make connections with people. Only time would tell how good an idea it was, though. Still, he was feeling calm, which was a very, very good start.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh gave an embarrassed shrug at Mitya's question regarding his intern. "I ahhhh may have made a bit of a mistake in not having interviews." He admitted ruefully. "The intern is not fond of keeping his pants on. Or doing the work assigned to him without adding poorly spelled sexual innuendos." He grimaced; Vincent caused more work rather than less. "Just make sure you actually interview your applicants." He warned Josef grimly. "It was stupid of me not to."

He was curious about Dylan now. He didn't remember Sean discussing anyone by that name. Someone allowed to work with the kids, huh? "Is he a teacher? I don't believe Sean's mentioned him before. Is he new?"

As Levi expected he didn't get the reference, instead assuming that Josef's students must be rather like Vincent. That wouldn't be a surprise; Sean complained about enough students for Josh to know that there were plenty he wouldn't want to teach.

"Your students give you a lot of trouble? What age are you teaching?" He asked, titling his head curiously.

Once everyone was in agreement upon the beer he flagged down the waiter, ordering a pitcher of Yuengling along with a plate of nachos.

Maybe he should have asked everyone if they were okay with nachos, but the beer had been far more important. They could order food later if they liked.

"I don't think I'm cut out to be a teacher, I admire those of you dealing with students." He included Levi in that; he worked for a school and therefore he surely had to deal with the students sometimes.

[Levente Cohen]

When the waiter returned with a pitcher and snacks, Levnete poured himself a large glass and helped himself to some nachos. He was very okay with Josh ordering nachos. “Dylan,” he said to answer the men’s questions. “Is the other janitor. So sadly, I am forced to see a lot of him.” He took a large drink from his glass. “He hates everyone, and has no problem with letting everyone know it. I would hate to think of him as a teacher.” He shuddered thinking of the poor students. It would be even worse if Dylan was a trainer.

Levente smiled as Josh asked Josef about his students, but decided he’d let Josef address that topic if he wanted. He would have to bring it up at their next lesson though.

“It’s not all that hard,” Levente said, although admittedly he didn’t actually work directly with the students. “I imagine adults have issues of their own.” He laughed and caught Josef’s eye again.

[Josef Muller]

“You didn’t interview?” Josef smiled in spite of himself at the…interesting description of Josh’s intern. “I can’t comment. I got a fair share of jobs when people didn’t interview. But I can see where that would get you into trouble. I’ll do my best, then.” He raised his mug in a silent toast to the other man, then took a sip. Mitya still looked awkward. He wondered how to help the man, but decided the best thing to do was ignoring the awkwardness and just addressing him as normal. That’s what he had needed, in that awkward stage after he had just divorced William. Ben and Josh had helped him through it. The least he could do was return the favor.

“That bad, huh?” His brows rose at the description of Dylan. He sounded terrifying. “How did he get a job at Hammel, then? Although I admit, he sounds…uh, easier to deal with than your intern, Josh.”

And now more questions. He met Levente’s look with one of his own, and a smile. “They do, but they’re more entertaining about it. And I teach students of all ages, Josh.” He glanced back over at the lawyer. “Including really young ones. Although that’s more just making sure they don’t hurt themselves.” He still didn’t do well with kids. At least he wasn’t an intimidating figure. “What about all of you? How’s work been?”

((I. Am. So. Sorry.>.>))