Ah...Awkward

[Thomas Legrand II]

It was a Sunday night and Thomas was at a bar. This was somewhat unusual for him, as it happened, due to the fact that Thomas usually spent his Sunday nights working at the school or translating manuscripts he’d managed to get ahold of. But not tonight. He’d gotten tired of the quietness of his house and the headaches that the translations tended to cause. His friends were mostly busy, and he wasn’t inclined to bother them in any case. So instead he’d headed out to a bar and had promised himself he would have one or two drinks, take a cab back home, and not have any more incidents of jousting with streetlights or becoming a knight errant. Those two times had definitely put him off alcohol for some time.

Tonight he was at a new bar, just for a change of scenery. He’d greeted a few people, idly flirted with one of the waitresses, bought a round for some of the sorrier looking patrons, and then had settled by the bar with his scotchon the rocks to enjoy the people watching. So far no one had tried to approach him. That was fine. He also didn’t see anyone worth approaching. That was fine too. It was times like this, he knew, that he should be depressed and somewhat lonely. And hesupposed he was. But as that was a fairly normal state for Thomas, it had almost become a norm to him.

“Aren’t I a depressing old sod,” he muttered to himself, then eyed his drink. Empty.Well, he had said one or two. And there wasn’t any reason not to. He wasn’t driving. He didn’t have work early in the morning. And he wasn’t ready to go home quite yet. So he shrugged, nudged the glass to the side, and flagged down the young and not bad looking bartender. “Your pardon,” he said, “but I think I need another drink. Do you mind obliging me?” He smiled at him.No harm in being friendly.

[Henri Rosario]

Sober, why the hell was he sober? Oh, that's right, he was working. It was at one of the nicer bars he happened to work at, so he had to be sober. School had been hard that day as well and he needed the drink, luckily, his shift would be over soon and he'd be able to. Normally he'd be tending the bar when he first go to work, but tonight they had him start off by busing tables. Not the hardest job in the world, but getting occasionally groped was not exactly fun when he wasn't a little buzzed. Plus, he knew he'd be behind the bar soon enough, and his flirting charm could be put to good use. Maybe he'd get a phone number tonight, heck maybe more. He was leaving that up to the stars.

Someone in the bar that night had been catching his attention. A man that looked vaguely familiar. "Have a slept with him before?" Henri thought to himself as he started cleaning up to get behind the bar. "No, handsome faces like that I don't normally forget."  Now, from behind the bar, he got a better vantage point, even more so as he took the man's first drink order. Of course, he had other patrons to attend to and couldn't dwell on it at that moment. 

As he finished up with a young couple, he heard the man call for him. "Sure thing sir." Henri flashed him his sweetest smile and moved as close as he could to refill the man's glass. Oh, he definitely knew the man, but how. "So, what's a very handsome man like you doing in a place like this alone....Mister..." The realization hit him, he knew exactly who the man was and a smirk appeared on those lips of his. 
"Mister Legrand." He chuckled and doubted the janitor would remember him, but he sure remembered him. "Or do you still get called Mr. Janitor?" 

A little blush went to his cheeks as he thought about some decent things from the past. It wasn't stuff he normally thought of, maybe being sober wasn't all that bad.

[Thomas Legrand II]

Thomas’s brows raised at the compliment, and he offered the boy a smile. “I think you’re a little too young to be offering me that compliment, you know.” The boy wasn’t bad looking but he was quite a bit younger than Thomas. But he did like flirting, so no harm in that. He probably just wanted a tip from a wealthy older man.

Oh, God. It had happened. One of his students was finally old enough to be visiting—or working in—a bar. Thomas shouldn’t have been surprised, but he felt extremely old at the realization. And the boy was blushing. That was also an unusual reaction. Then again, he also wasn’t used to the students remembering his name. He wasn’t exactly the most outstanding of the staff, nor the most interesting. Students only tended to know him if they had rampant insomnia or got into trouble and assigned to janitor duty quite frequently. He’d given advice to a few students but not frequently. And he’d offered some tutoring in English but he didn’t think this was one of his students. Still, Thomas had a decent memory for names and he thought he could bring this one back. The boy was cute and fairly striking. He could think of this, couldn’t he?

“Henri,” he said, pronouncing it in the traditional French way with a smile. “Henri Rosario. That’s right. You went to the, ah, institute a few years ago. Good to see you again, even if it is in an interesting setting.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I wouldn’t have expected to find you here. Is this your work to get you through school?” It was better to talk about that instead of the fact that the boy was blushing. He couldn’t handle the blushing. He could handle just talking to him. And he wasn’t going to think about the fact that the bartender remembered the janitor’s name and had called him handsome. “And, ah, do you always flirt with the older patrons? Bet it helps with the tips.” He flashed him a cheerful smile to show it was a joke. Hopefully not one that would be taken the wrong way.”