Devil's Nest, Monday Night

[texted3times]

"I do not want to see the pictures of the kid you and that barista had this weekend," Eric told Tiny. "Not even a little."

He took his vodka and sat down at the bar. Tiny, at least, would be more sympathetic if people were missing their hypothetical children tonight.

The Devil's Nest was open.

Comments

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio didn't drink to get drunk. In fact, that had always been a pretty solid standard he held himself to, but tonight, he was almost feeling tempted to make an exception. As if the last week hadn't been bad enough, dealing with his frustration about being stuck here, the island had to go dump right into his lap this whole alternate universe where he'd not only never been stuck here, but he'd never even heard of here, and more importantly, Noct was alive, the world had never gone to shit, they managed to beat Ardyn and the Nifs before they could destroy everything...

Yeah, drunk was sounding more appealing just about now as it had ever been, but, also, oddly, so was a sense of just....normalcy. Whatever that was. And, if he was honest with himself, really honest, he'd have to admit that shirtless at the Devil's Nest on a Monday night was probably as normal as his life was going to get these days, outside of shirtless at the Devil's Nest on a Thursday night, or Tuesdays somehow being the busiest day at the gym.

And all the Cup Noodle^TM sodas he could drink. There was that, too.

[texted3times]

Eric gave him a grin as he came in. "Gladio. Need a drink? Tiny's pouring heavy tonight."

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio huffed out with his faint grin back. "Well, how could I say no to that? Better make it a double, if that's the case."

[texted3times]

"Tiny, help this man out," Eric ordered, and Tiny lumbered around the bar getting Gladio's drink ready.

He added a gratuitous cocktail umbrella because he was an artiste.

[sword_chocobro]

And Gladio, who always had been a big supporter of Tiny and all his artistic endeavors, genuinely appreciated that little umbrella touch, and maybe even a little of how it pulled something more sincere out of his smile as he lifted the drink up with a nod of gratitude.

"Thanks, Tiny," he said. "You're a real one, man."

And then he plucked that umbrella out long enough to take care about half the drink before his attention shifted to Eric, and the inevitable, "So. How was your weekend?"

[texted3times]

"Spent in Shreveport," Eric admitted. "I skip out Prom weekends ever since I had a child show up named after an Ikea bookcase. Yours?"

[sword_chocobro]

"I should try and remember that," Gladio noted, not quite ready to answer that question even though he knew it would be volleyed back at him. "A bookcase, huh?"

[texted3times]

Eric nodded. "Billy. He thought it was hilarious."

[sword_chocobro]

Therein followed the long pause of a man actually not that familiar with Ikea furniture, apparently, but who also, honestly, didn't know what he had expected.

"That's a remarkably normal name for a bookshelf," Gladio pointed out.

[texted3times]

"It could have been so much worse," Eric agreed, sipping his drink. "Have you been to an Ikea? He could've been named Småland."

[sword_chocobro]

"You are talking to a guy pretty much named after a flower," Gladio reminded him, "but, yeah, Billy's not so bad. I don't think I'd even question it, but Småland would probably make me wonder."

[texted3times]

"Eric means 'eternal ruler,'" Eric said. "I don't think my parents intended my rule to be quite this long."

[sword_chocobro]

"Definitely way more than they bargained for," Gladio agreed with an amused grunt. "And, hey, that's pretty optimistic of them, too, slapping a kid with an expectation like that. Definitely suits you, though. So good work, Eric's parents."

And then, partially as a way try and avoid talking too much about his own weekend and because he honestly was kind of curious now, he tilted his head a little as he asked, "Do you remember much about them? Your parents? Or, really, much else about everything before...well..." A wave of his hand to indicate all the vampire stuff. "I imagine after a while, some things can get a little fuzzy. Or does the vampire thing help with memory, too?"

[texted3times]

"I'm not sure it's the vampire thing that helps with memory," Eric said, "because I've never looked into it, but I remember my life before, as well as my turning. My maker, Godric, was alive at the time of Christ but never met him."

[sword_chocobro]

"And how long before your time was that?" asked Gladio, who admittedly, really only had a passing knowledge of the general scope of Earth's big historic events.

[texted3times]

"About a thousand years," Eric said.

[sword_chocobro]

"Alright," Gladio looked momentarily impressed. "So he's been around for a while, too. And here I'm over here thinking 34's been kind of pushing it."

In his defense, though, it had been a particularly long last decade, at least.

[texted3times]

Eric laughed. "Well, you've had a very trying mid-30s."

[sword_chocobro]

"And those late-twenties weren't exactly a walk in the park, either," said Gladio, trying very hard to not think of how close those kids came to running circles around him at the gym yesterday, but he had gotten a little distracted once Nell dropped in, too.

[texted3times]

"That either," Eric agreed, finishing his drink and signaling for a refill.

[sword_chocobro]

And, well, while Tiny was getting refills, Gladio was just going to take a moment to drink down the rest of his glass, too, lifting it to request the same, with a nod of thanks, and just sort of sitting in a thoughtful silence after that. He'd been pretty prone to things like that, lately.

[texted3times]

Eric watched him thoughtfully. "You good?"

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio shrugged a little, the type of shrug that seemed to contradict his words.

"Yeah," he said. "I'm good."

Even he had to admit that didn't sound terribly convincing, though.

"Just a....weird couple of weeks, I guess."

[texted3times]

"You're at a bar. It's traditional to spill your guts here," Eric said. "Like therapy but cooler and with better alcohol. What's been so weird?"

[sword_chocobro]

"Arguably cheaper, too," Gladio added, with a lift of his next drink, and taking care of a good portion of it before he sighed, shook his head, sipped a little more, and relented. A bit.

"Kids showing up from an alternate sunshine happy ending future is pretty fucking weird, man, no matter which way you slice it."