Old Friends (Greg/Josh)

[Dr. Sean Neville]

The telepath shook his head and swallowed the food he’d been eating. “We do have non-meta staff; there are just certain jobs where they want metas because of the nature of the job, but you wouldn’t want those anyway. That said, you really don’t want to work at Hammel in a maintenance position because of how teenagers tend behave around maintenance workers and the general stress associated with the school.” Sean liked his job, but there were inherent dangers working at Hammel. Besides, he didn’t think the blond would be happy as a janitor.

Sean responded to Greg’s question with a quirk of his eyebrow; he knew that his friend was fairly far removed from the realm of pregnancy concerns, but it had played a heavy role in most of Sean’s relationships over the years. “I do advocate condom use both to prevent pregnancy and to prevent the spread of STIs,” the telepath agreed, lifting his fork to gesture vaguely. He then turned to look at Greg, “I’m just explaining why I haven’t had an orgy since 1979.” He turned to look at Josh then. “Since condoms aren’t full-proof, a modicum of restraint and limiting additional partners tend to act as brakes on extracurriculars. But I can call up some people and see if I can scrounge up something for a Saturday night orgy; but on short notice, I can’t guarantee the quality.”

Sean finished the wine in his glass and rose from the table, intent on refilling his glass and both Greg’s and Josh’s as well. “I think my travel agent friend could book anything for us that we wanted, as long as we give a price range and destinations.” He walked around the table, filling the glasses.

To that end...he turned to look at Josh when beside his partner as the younger man explained his desire to see Germany. Once he set down the glass, he patted the other man’s shoulder briefly, before he moved on. “Both Paris and Germany are fine with me.”

Sitting back down at his place at the table, the telepath took a moment to consider where he wanted to go. Having been to Europe before, he had fewer exploratory desires, although the most recent trips, as with all of his trips, had been work-related. “Ideally, I’d want to see Amsterdam and London, but if those don’t work logistically, they aren’t priorities.”

[Gregory Strickland]

“I just wanted to scare the kiddies a little bit, remember what it’s like to be that young, etcetera etcetera. I never saw myself as a teacher though,” he said with a soft smile. Greg was one of those people who knew exactly what they were talking about.

Greg chuckled to himself as the conversation kept going. He never would have guessed that they would be talking about such topics. Maybe a few decades ago he would have, but he wouldn’t complain. At least it was light hearted. “Thank you for the awareness ad Sean, someone should put that on TV straight away.” He spread his hands out in front of him. “I could see it now, Sean standing before the camera with a most blank expression while saying boldly, ‘I haven’t had an orgy since 1979, use a condom’.”

“I can handle anything Paris has to offer,” he said in a chipper voice. It didn’t really matter what they were doing there at this point. He wanted to go see Paris before life had other things in store for him.”No need to push Josh, you need merely to ask. Germany, Paris, Greece, Italy, we have quite the list. Anything else?” He asked, looking at Sean.

“I don’t have a price range,” he said. What he meant was there wasn’t a limit on where they could go or what they were doing. Between himself and Nathan, a lot had been saved, and the latter had a life insurance policy Greg had hoped he never had to use. But now he couldn’t think of a better way to spend it. Well some of it anyways. “Amsterdam ought to have the best price on all sorts of things, I think that should be a priority,” he said with a nod, letting Sean pour him some more wine before taking a sip from the glass.

“Well chaps, I think we have some new memories to make. To summer!” He said, holding out his already half empty goblet, a dopey smile on his face. “Huh, maybe the glass is half full.”

[Joshua Bernstein]

"Very well, if it won't be a quality orgy then don't bother." He sighed dramatically before returning his attention to the food. He had no useful suggestions as far as Greg's return to work went; he wasn't familiar enough with the local economy to know which positions were in demand. He only knew Pilot Ridge hadn't suffered as much as other areas of the country and so perhaps his friend stood a better chance at finding something to keep him occupied.

He noticed that when asking if there were any more suggestions for stops on their tour of Europe that Greg looked pointedly at Sean. Just because Sean was older (and calmer and more organized) didn't mean that he was the only one with ideas.

Granted, he had said he didn't care where they went so long as they went to Germany, but Sean had already given his input, and downplayed it at that.

At the toast he lifted his glass, shaking his head in amusement. "To summer! And to the snow bypassing us this winter."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

The telepath chuckled at the suggestion, as though it was an appropriate public service announcement. If I thought that would help with the matter, I would.” Of course, he didn’t think that public service announcements aimed at teenagers were particularly effective, which thus made them a less than efficient use of resources, time, and energy. He also had strong opinions about the focus of abstinence in sex-related public service announcement, which was another reason he would never be approached to design any. It was also why he preferred doing his annual lecture himself, rather than leaving it to someone else. At least he could trust himself to give practical advice without forcing teenagers to try to suppress their sexualities.

Sean shook his head in the negative. He’d covered his interests – England and Amsterdam – as well as jokingly about Greece. Greg had put in his bid for Paris, and Josh for Germany, and possibly Rome. That meant they had the makings of an around the continent trip come this summer. The telepath offered a smile. “You might be able to handle Paris, but the question is, can Paris handle you?”

While Sean understood the hope that snow would find a way to bypass them this winter, he had no hopes for that. Decades of living in Vermont had taught him better; the snow would come, and the hurricane in August only served as further foreboding of the winter weather to come. However, he didn’t want to focus on that, since it was only October, and it was clear outside tonight. That was what mattered.

The telepath lifted his glass as well, gesturing vaguely between the other two men in the spirit of the toast. “To summer,” he agreed, before bring the glass to his lips to take a sip. “And to whatever adventures find us across the ocean.”