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“An… all I’m sayin is, ‘s unFAIR that it all happens to me! Right?” Mike slammed one hand and the other forearm on the bar at the end of his declaration.
“Mhm… yeah, that sounds rough.” Paratata collected some empty glasses from the bar. “I’ll be right back.”
As the bartender went to the other side of the bar to take a few orders, Mike stretched his arms forward and shouted “No! Don’t leave me here!”
Empty glasses in the back, pour three drinks for the other side of the bar, slide them over. Looks like everything’s good. He walked back. “I’m not leaving you, I just have a job here and have to make sure everyone’s happy, you know?”
“I’m not happy. I miss happy.” Mike muttered into the table, then downed the rest of his drink and pointed to the empty glass.
Para mentally counted the number of drinks Mike had had already. “I think you should drink this first.” He filled a glass with water and set it in front of his drunk patron.
“Is it vodka?” Interest.
“No, it’s water. You should drink it.” Glass shoved closer.
“Don’t wanna.” Petulant glare.
Sigh. “Well I guess you aren’t getting any more drinks tonight then.”
His thought process was so slow that Para could watch the gears turning. “So… if I drink this… I get more?”
“Mm.” I’ve agreed to nothing. A bit rude of me, but he really should have stopped a little bit ago, so I think it’s warranted.
“Okay.” Mike drank it, albeit reluctantly. “Boring, water is boring, it tastes boring and it looks boring and it’s boring.”
“Hmm. Yeah, very boring.” Para began preparing a glass for another regular who’d entered a few moments prior, a woman by the name of Becky.
Mike turned at the commotion to his left (the “commotion” consisting mainly of Becky pulling up a seat and the stool squeaking slightly). After a moment of calculating faces to names, he stated, “Becky, water is boring right?”
“Um.” Becky gave Para the “please save me from talking to my drunk ex” look.
Para gave Becky the “Kathy’s working the other side of the bar, it was your choice to sit here instead” look.
“Yeah, water’s extremely boring. Mhm. I’m gonna just…” Becky slid off the barstool again, taking the drink with her to where Para had indicated her girlfriend was.
Para directed his attention back to Mike, who had finished the glass of water sometime during his complaints about how banal it was and had a hand around Para’s wrist. “Pleeease can I have more of the… ya knowww… you always know what I like… hmmm.” He hummed sleepily to himself.
Para forced himself to stop thinking about the fact that Mike was grabbing his wrist, or the way Kathy was smirking at him in the way she always did before shipping her coworkers with people.
“Ah- I think maybe you should stop for the night, hm? What do you think?” He knew Mike would disagree but it was only polite to ask anyway.
“But I want moreee…” Mike whined and held Para’s wrist tighter.
“Mike…” Why did his emotions do this? He’d be working the bar, and Mike would get increasingly mumbly and cuddly as the night went by, and Para’s heart would just…
Mike’s head was resting on the bar, about an inch away from where he had pulled Para’s hand to.
No customers need me right now, at least that’s something. Para cautiously reached forward and brushed a finger through his hair.
Mike immediately leaned into the touch, startling him. He continued to muss the other man’s hair as Mike got sleepier.
Somewhere on the cusp of unconsciousness, Mike muttered “I love you…”
“What.” Para half-stated, half-asked, probably a bit too loudly.
Mike opened an eye. “You’re nice… an funny… mmmake me happy. An you have a cool mustache.”
Well, he definitely heard right. He knew Mike was drunk out of his mind, but part of him desperately wanted to believe that a sober Mike would say the same (assuming he got over the self-consciousness and anxiety that drove him to drink in the first place).
“… I love you too.”
But Mike was already asleep. Para smiled sadly. Why did this guy own his heart?
The rest of the night passed uneventfully, all things considered. A bar fight almost happened but didn’t, a glass got broken and needed to be cleaned up, Becky and Kathy both ribbed him about the interaction (Becky from a Mike’s Ex perspective, and Kathy from a Teasing Coworker perspective). Normal evening, pretty much, though usually he didn’t accidentally make a love confession midway through the night.
As the last patrons left the premises and the outside lights got shut down, Kathy and Para began to lock the place up.
“You taking that one home again?” Kathy nodded in the general direction of Mike’s still-sleeping form. “I don’t get why you don’t just poke him awake and send him home when he starts nodding off like we do everyone else.”
“… I dunno really, it just doesn’t seem… right? He never shows up with any drinking buddies, and from talking to him he just sounds really lonely. I want him to… uh, know that someone cared enough to make sure he got home safely? Does that make sense?”
“So… you have a crush on him.”
“No..! He’s just sweet and sad and I care about him… he told me I make him happy tonight. Me, not the alcohol, or the setting. I don’t know why that made me so happy, but.”
“Yeah, definitely a crush. So was this before or after you said you loved him?” Kathy went closer to him to lock a cabinet, teasingly bumping into him on the way.
“I..! It seemed like what I was supposed to say!” Para turned away to very busily lock some other cabinets, hiding the blush that he was extremely aware of.
“ Suuure . Just… listen, be careful, alright? Becky told me about him a bit- not in a ‘ranting about ex red flag way’, just because he shows up at the place I work alot, you know?- Anyways, yeah, just don’t fall too hard too fast, I guess is what I’m saying?”
“Hah… either that’s nothing to worry about, or it’s a bit too late for that by now.” He laughed awkwardly, then desperately swerved into another topic. “Anyways, uhh, how are you and Becky doing?”
Kathy immediately perked up at this, and began excitedly detailing everything the two had done together in the past few days. Probably a bit too much detail, but Para didn’t really mind, because the subject was indeed well and truly changed.
Para knew where Mike lived. No, he wasn’t a stalker, it’s just that one time he asked where he lived, expecting a neighborhood, or something equally vague like “down the road a couple blocks” and instead got Mike’s entire address, postcode and everything. Since obtaining this info he’d had to use it several times, as Mike never seemed to stop at just a few drinks.
It was quite close to where Para lived, which was why it wasn’t too much trouble to take the man home.
Para gently shook Mike awake. The latter unfurled, recalibrated, and stood up unsteadily.
“Hey, I got you.” Para grabbed his shoulders and steadied him.
“Paraaaa…” Mike gave him a sleepy but genuine smile. “Hiiiii…”
“It’s time to go home, okay?”
“What if I… what if I jus stayed here with you..?”
“Sorry, can’t do that, haha. Cmon, I’ll get you home.”
“Mmmm ok.” Mike followed, tripping on his feet a bit. He really did get as drunk as his budget would allow tonight.
The two walked together, Mike muttering inaudible nothings and Para vaguely wondering what was being said, but not asking because he knew Mike could and would yell the answer and it was past midnight.
After a handful of minutes that neither bothered to count, they reached the front door of the apartment complex.
Para expected Mike to break off and go through the door as per usual, leaving Para to go the remaining few blocks to his own place.
Instead, Mike abruptly hugged Para out of nowhere and squished into him. “I love you I love you… so much…” He looked up at Para.
Para’s mind pretty much exploded. He was used to Mike being snuggly, but this was a whole other level of affection.
That said, he wasn’t complaining.
Para just held him and listened to him mumble love confession after love confession, struggling to find words to say.
Eventually, Para realized that Mike would absolutely fall asleep in his arms, and he lived on the second floor. Begrudgingly, he told Mike it was time to go inside and they could talk later, and practically dragged the smaller man into his apartment.
Para made it to his own home shortly after, still buzzing.
“Wow…”
Mike would remember none of it in the morning, of course, and what little he did remember, if any, would be a source of utter apologetic embarrassment.
But for now, all Para cared about was what Mike said, and what he said back.
I love you.