2A/N: story rated for mild cursing and umm I guess thats it. I know there's some errors but whatever. This is a slashy story so if you don't like mentions of guy/guy pairings then don't read. Any hoo read and review
My friend Kitsune told me once I was a pessimistic meat sack set on this earth to make everything seem pitiful. Well she was a sex crazed cross dresser bent on converting every hot girl she sees into a lesbian so I think we balance each other out. All's fair in the name game.
But the reason Kitsune calls me pessimistic is because, well, I am. Every time I do something I think of all the bad things that will happen and even if something goes well I can point out everything that is still wrong. And she claims that's why I'll never get another boyfriend.
I glared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, give my reflection a quick smile then glare again because my smile is pathetic. Sure my clothes may have been nice and the eye liner Kitsune made me put on before I left the house was a nice accent to my dark brown eyes but all of it was cheap. I was still me and no amount of nice things could cover that. Not my new black button up shirt, my dark red under shirt, my classic black pants with an off black design or my bright red converse. None of that changed the person that I was.
It's like what my aunt says, "You can't dress up a bear and expect it to win the Miss America Pageant so just give up".
I was that dolled up bear and this club was that damn pageant. Everyone here was gorgeous, even the fucking bouncer outside. The bar tenders were gods and every single person on the dance floor were stars. What was I? The token ugly guy.
I notice a tall man walk into the bathroom, glance nervously around then enter the farthest stall. Not a second later a short guy with an eager grin strut pass me, winks when he catches my gaze and goes into the farthest stall. I hear a bit of whispering before the show starts and the bathroom is filled with muffled moaning.
Great, the one place I found to be remotely alone was now the one night stand fuck hole. Just freaking fantastic. I hear one of the guys ask the other for his name before I bolt out of there. Slightly disturbed I wander around the club and try to find a new hiding spot. Not that there are much. It's New Years and everyone within fifty miles is here. I could barely move and by the time I reach the farthest corner of the bar my ass had been grabbed six times. Ten feet and groped six times, that will never happen again as long as I live. This dim lighting must have made them think I was attractive. Or maybe they thought I was someone else.
A bar tender notices me and I order a beer, something simple unlike all the crazy drinks the rest of the patrons are ordering. The bartender smiles, takes my money and hands me my beer before he goes off to help the hundred other costumers trying to get drunk and make the night better.
I take a gulp of my beer not bothering with the taste and find an open wall to lean on. Why did I let myself get dragged here? The dull techno rings in my ears and I wonder how Kitsune convinced me to driver her here and then come in with her. Maybe she put something in my morning coffee. Crazy bitch, I wouldn't put it pass her to pull a stunt like that. But wait, I don't drink coffee.
I finish my beer before I realize it and head back to the bar for another drink. A bright pink shirt and fishnet catches my eyes and I notice Kitsune grinding against a girl much to the pleasure of the guys around them. Straight men and their fascination (or is it fantasy) of lesbians.
Not exactly my cup of tea to watch my friend getting eye molested by a bunch of guys so I turn around and continue my mission of getting a beer. The same bar tender approaches me and before I say a word he hands me a beer.
"Thanks." I say as I hand him some money and he gives me another smile.
"You should order something more than beer." He suggested but I shrugged.
"I'm not a big drinker."
He leaned forward and smirked up at me.
"How 'bout I make you something special? What do you say?" Did he wink at me? It must have been my imagination.
"I'm fine; don't want to lose myself before midnight." I tried to give him a polite smile but I think it came off as something different because he grinned… suggestively? How was what I said suggestive?
"I get off before midnight. How 'bout I find you somewhere?"
I made a fool out of myself and glanced around to see who the bar tender was addressing because it sure as hell couldn't have been me. He laughed at my naïve act and leaned back.
"See ya around."
"If you're lucky." Did I say that out loud? The way he grinned suggests I did so I walk off before he could say anything else.
A popular techno song starts to play and waves of people come onto the dance floor leaving the seating areas deserted. I want to sit down and take my mind off the club but I don't. Instead I find a quiet place near a corner away from people and simply wait there till midnight.
It's ten thirty six so it shouldn't be a long wait.
Midnight passes and so does two in the morning before I find Kitsune and tell her I'm going home. She nods, slurs some words together and nuzzles the neck of some blond she found. I wave her off and leave without incident.
The night made me depressed, I mean it's not that I wanted the bar tender to find me and, I don't know, do something but time passed without any sight of him. So I walked over to my car, passed by more drunks then I could count and drove home.
Home was a cheap apartment in a nice area an hour away from the club. I would worry about how Kitsune would be getting home but knowing her she would bum a ride some time tonight or show up tomorrow with more stories than a gossip magazine.
I walk up the four flights of stairs because someone threw up in the elevator, fucking drunks and opened the door farthest from the stairs. Nothing had changed so far so I walked to my dinky room and fall asleep in my clothes. Kitsune would kill me.
By the time I wake up its two o' five and I felt like a mess. One shower and a change of clothes later and I'm back to my pathetic looking self. Go me.
I make a cup of lemon tea with honey to nurse the hangover I wish I had. Hangover meant you either had a very good time and you're paying for it or you had a really bad time and it's a reminder of what you were trying to forget. Either would have made me happy.
I let my mind wonder as the tea warms my hands and think about my new year's resolutions. I'll stick with the same ones I had last year. Lose weight, tone up, get a boy friend, become less of a stain on the fabric of life and buy bread before it runs out. I open the 'fridge and sigh. Not one of them done so far.
Reluctantly I leave the apartment, avoid the crazy grandma neighbor that wants to know everything about my sex life and get into my car. Why was my life such crap? Maybe I complain too much. That would explain a lot.
Kitsune once said I was a complainer and she would shove a blender down my throat the next time I said I wanted to get a haircut but couldn't afford it.
I park my car in the first spot I see which is rather far from the store and trek inside. No one gives me a second glance and I like it that way. Just ignore me and let me get on with my life and I'll let you get on with yours.
"Danny?"
Fuck.
"Danny. It is you. Happy New Year man, how are ya?"
Why is it when you want to be left alone you run into someone who acts like you haven't seen each other in years? Was I cursed? Did I kick a puppy in my past life?
"Happy New Year Brian." I scratch the back of my head and find my hair is still wet. Great, I bet I look like a drown cat.
"Hey man you look great. Did you lose weight or something?"
"No. I'm the same."
"Well you look different man."
Why does he keep talking to me?
"I'm still the same Brian."
"Wait I know what it is." Brain gets with stupid grin on his face before he nudges me. "You got laid."
I got…? What!?
"No I didn't."
"Yeah you did. You look like someone that had a fucking good night."
He must have been high.
"You're high."
"No man. I mean it. You look like a guy that got some good nookie last night."
I don't bother to talk to him anymore. I roll my eyes (I know it's a very childish thing to do but none of my New Year's resolutions had to do with acting my age) and walk away.
And my luck just kept getting better.
I ran into someone and not just anyone. Dark crimson hair with light rust color highlights, cerulean eyes, six inches taller than me, a cocky grin and a gorgeous body, yup, the bar tender.
"I was looking for you."
"Come on Danny. Tell me who you fu-" Brain came up behind me and stared at the bar tender who was staring at me.
"Danny?" The bar tender repeats as he smirks down at me.
"Dante, actually but Brian won't stop with the nicknames." I point back at Brian who waved at the bar tender.
"Brian?"
"Brian Ashman." He held out his hand and shook the bar tenders hand.
"Landon Hyde."
"Oh and this shy little bugger is Dante Flynn." Brian grabbed me around the neck and ruffled my hair as he introduced me to the bar tender… uh… Landon.
"Are you his boyfriend?" Landon asks Brian. I visible cringe. Gross.
Brian laughed and shook his head as he let me go.
"Danny would only date me if I was the last man on earth and all the girls had herpes and their vagina had teeth."
Brian was annoying me for the second time so I walked away without saying a word.
"Where're you going Danny?" Brian asks as he follows me. Damn him!
"I need toast." I growl as I march down the aisle and magically find my bread. It wasn't really magic though, turned out I was down the bread and grain aisle anyways.
"Well we should hang out some time. You know, it's a new year so anything could happen."
I grab a loaf of bread and turn back to Brian who's doing that 'you know you love me' pose but it only makes me throw up a little in my mouth.
"If you're asking me out then my answer is no and will always be no."
"Aw come on Danny. You know you find me attractive. And I find you very attractive." Brian presses his chest against me back and semi humps me. What the hell!? We're in a fucking grocery store with people! Like old ladies, kids an' shit.
My reflexes tell me to elbow him in the gut so I do but he only staggers back and quickly recovers.
"That wasn't very nice Danny." Brian coughs a bit which makes me smile. He fucking deserved it.
"Well I'm not nice to people I don't want to date." I tell him before I try to walk off. Yes, try.
"What about people you do want to date?" Landon morphed out of nowhere and asked me. I stare up at him trying to think about something to say but I get interrupted by Brian.
"He lets them screw him into the ground." Brian says plainly, as if he didn't say something embarrassing about me in front of a guy that I might find attractive. Who the hell am I trying to kid. He's beautiful.
"So how about a date Danny boy?" Brian is too damn persistent. Can't he just take a no and leave me alone.
"No." I glare back at him.
"What about me?" Landon asks as he turns me around. Wow did his eyes get bluer or something since I last looked at them. They're cobalt now. Sexy.
Say yes you stupid poor excuse for a human.
"You don't want to date him." Brian cuts in. Damn him!
"Why not?" Landon asks Brian as he walks around me and stands between us. Damn he's blocking my view of the sex god! Not that I know he's a sex god but come on! Someone that gorgeous has to be good in bed. Or the back seat of a car, or the floor, or dining room table. Get your mine out of the gutters!
"Because Danny's only good for a few fucks and not much else after that. He has no personality, no charm, lacks humor, always thinks badly of himself so you have to pity him and he gets fat as the seasons change. He may be cute now which surprises me but once fall and winter rolls around he packs on the pounds. If anything, date him during spring and once summer ends find someone new."
Now you see why I hate Brian so much. Fucker acts like my friend when he wants to screw me. Any other time he uses me as the counter balance to his looks. Why talk to the butter ball when you can talk to Mr. Rock-hard-abs.
I don't want to hear the rest of what Brian can come up with so I walk around the two of them and go pay for my bread. That asshole won't stop me from enjoying my toast! The check out girl rings me up, gives me a bored smile and I give her my tired one. I pay for my food and leave as fast as my legs can take me without running. It turns out to not be fast enough.
"Dante wait." At least it was Landon instead of Brain. I wait and Landon gives me a goofy grin when he reaches me. "You sure walk fast." He says as he straightens up and looks down at me.
"Why are you talking to me?"
He blinks and laughs at me.
"Well I wanted to ask you out."
"Why?"
He laughed again and ruffled his hair.
"You're not going to make this easy for me are you?"
Easy?
"Just tell me what you want. I want to get home."
Landon sighed and touched my shoulder. My dainty, pitiful excuse for a shoulder that remains boney no matter how much I eat. But I guess I sort of like my shoulders so I sort of don't mind him touching them. Wow that was a girly thing to say.
"Look if this is what Brian said… Look I don't know what is going on between you two but I don't care. I- I want to talk to you. Fuck that Brian guy."
"I…" Wow. Mr. Beautiful-sexy- bar tender wants to talk to me. And he doesn't like Brian.
"Do you wanna grab a cup of coffee with me? I'll buy." He gave me a cute smile, like a puppy asking for some of your steak sandwich your mom made you so you would shut up about being hungry.
"I don't drink coffee." I blurt out.
Oh my god. He looks like I just told him I wanted to run over his pet goldfish with my car. No, that's not what I want to do!
"But um," He looks at me with a hint of hope in his eyes. His pretty cobalt eyes I can't stop staring at. "If we go to Café Juliana's then I won't complain. I mean I like their tea and the owner knows me so she gives me the messed up looking apple hand pies when they come out of the oven for free. I think she saves them for me and she knows my order before I ask but then you'll have to order something too and…" I'm rambling but I don't ramble. At least not out loud. In my head I ramble away like there's no tomorrow.
"I like Café Juliana's." He smiles.
We hop into my car because he ends up living three blocks away from the grocery store and he walked there. It's a quick drive for us and we stuck up a small conversation to avoid the awkward silence.
"So how'd you get into bar tending?" I ask as I drum on the steering wheel with my thumbs. It's a nervous habit so leave me alone!
"My dad owned a bar and didn't want to hire employees so he made my brother and I work there. I was at the time sixteen in case you were wondering." He grinned. He has such a nice grin.
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-six. And you?"
"Twenty-four."
"Really? You look a lot younger."
"I know. People think I'm eighteen."
"Bet you get carded all the time."
"You have no idea."
We get to the café a few minutes later, its walking distance to my apartment so I park in the parking complex and we walk together.
Landon holds the door open for me when reach the door and he smiles as I walk through the door. He follows close behind me and we approach the counter. The girl working the counter saw me, looked up at Landon, did the whole 'wow he's hot' look then smiled at me.
"Anna! Mouse is here!"
Oh fuck. I forgot about that.
"Mouse?" Landon asks but I don't look up. Instead I watch as a middle aged woman pokes her head out of the kitchen and sees me. A smile spreads across her face and she bursts out with her arms open.
"Mousey!" She says in the voice a grandmother would use on her favorite grandchild on Christmas. "How have you been Mousey? Happy New Year! Oh look at you, so skinny. Have you been eating enough?"
"Happy New Year Anna." Is all I say.
"He has a friend Anna." The girl behind the counter, oh, Cam's her name, says. She's new so I have trouble remembering her name.
"Oh, and what a friend." Anna says as she looks up at Landon. She sighs and touches her face wistfully. She gets flour on her face but doesn't seem to care. "If only I was twenty years younger."
"And a man." I glance over and it's Sarah, Anna's niece. The human manifestation of all that is unholy or at least that's what she tells me she is. She scares me most of the time.
"So who's your friend?" Anna asks before I can tell Sarah off.
"Landon. Landon Hyde." Landon supplies. He shakes Anna's hand and they both laugh at the flour that now covered his hand. Anna pulled a towel out of nowhere and handed it to Landon as she began to question him.
"I've never seen you before. Are you a new friend or an old acquaintance?" Anna asks. I hear Sarah snort and turn to me.
"She's asking if he's a one night stand or an old fuck buddy."
"Sarah!"
Sarah laughs and retreats to the kitchen. Anna drops all her questions and turns to Cam who's counting the tips in the tip jar.
"Cam dear, whatever Mouse wants is free ok?"
"Sure ma'am."
She gives me an apologetic look and then turns to Landon.
"I'm sorry about Sarah. She's been a bit, snippy, lately."
"You mean always." I mutter under my breath. Anna sighs and nods before she fiercely shakes her head.
I turn back to Landon who appears amused and motion toward the counter.
"I guess coffee's on me."
We ordered and as Cam started to make my tea Landon turned me around and smiled down at me.
"There was something that I wanted to do last night but I didn't get a chance to."
"What's that?"
Landon bent down and pressed his lips to mine.
"Happy New Year Dante."
Kitsune told me once when we were drunk that the first person you kiss at midnight on New Year's becomes the most important person in your love life. I laughed and told her to pass me the vodka before I started feeling sober.
But I guess she could be right.
Or at least I hope she is. Does the kiss count if its fifteen hours pass midnight?