fandomtownies | Caritas; Wednesday [06/26].

When Summer came in and had to listen to Tino talk about his recent trip to Angerland, she thought maybe he was doing a whole obnoxious riff on her own trip to Ireland, but then she realized that, no, he was actually talking about some kind of anger management retreat, which lead her to having two questions:

1) When did he find time for this? and 2) He didn't seem like that angry of a guy, so why the retreat in the first place?

To which he gave the sort of eyeroll that would make her proud if it wasn't directed at her and simply explained that he, too, had a rich life outside this bar, you know, and that clearly, the fact that she even asked that was a good indication that the anger management was working.

And you know what? She could not refute those points.

She was going to attempt to refute that last one, though, by being ultra-annoying about showing off her Ireland pics now. Look at them, Tino! Look at every. single. one.

Featured Cocktail
Dublin Appletini

Featured Jello
Banana Split
Strawberry Jalapeño
Pomegranate Tequila Sunrise
Irish Rose Teacake

Caritas is open!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The narrative tried to come up with a play on words about bars but failed. Alas.

"Hi, Summer." Yes, Stark was going to lean across the bar for a kiss. Why not?

"Good day so far?"

"Hi, Stark," said Summer, and, you know what? There was once a time when the thought of greeting her with a kiss, much less one over the bar, would have probably caused Stark so much executive flailing that he'd cease to be able to even function, so, yeah, he could definitely make that a thing, and get a kiss back, and a grin.

"Good day so far," she confirmed with a nod. "You? Did you get sucked into shenanigans or does the paranoia grow even stronger still?"

"Still no shenanigans," Stark said ominously. "I'm still waiting to see what happens."

It was going to be really funny if absolutely nothing happened.

"I worry. We'll see. I'm sure he'll do something. Eventually."

Summer's mouth twitched a little, in an attempt to keep from smirking too much at that response. "You should just throw yourself into it now," she suggested, "and get it out of the way, and then he's got no leg to stand on. Confront your fears rather than cowering in them, you know?"

As she spoke, she started setting out Stark's jello shots, with a shrug of her shoulder.

"Besides, it's just shenanigans. What's the worst he could possibly actually do to you?"

"I'm not cowering," Stark protested. "I'm keeping myself out of a hostile environment. So far."

He reached for the banana shot.

"And I'm sure he could think of worse things than I can."

"My point," Summer said, quirking an eyebrow at him as she started to mix for him a cocktail, "is that it's a school-sanctioned function and there's a limit to how messed up it can get. I've probably put you through worse...or will, some day...than anything that could happen in that park, Stark. In fact..."

She trailed off a little, filling the dramatic pause with finishing and pouring and garnishing the drink with flair before setting it in front of him, leaning forward on the bar and grinning at him as she did.

"You might even have fun with it."

"I'm sure I'd have fun with things you planned for me."

Stark raised his glass in a silent toast and grinned at her over the rim.

"But what if he does things not in the park on a Wednesday? He's not limited to that. He knows where I live."

Brows lifted, Summer smirked from where her chin was now cradle in her hand as her elbow on the bar supported it. "You really think he's going to go that far out of his way just to mess with you?" she asked. "You know, for someone with such shit self-confidence, you sure do have a pretty high opinion of yourself, huh? He's not going to torment you in your home, Stark. His brand of maliciousness is much lazier than that."

"He might," Stark said stubbornly.

He almost certainly would not but oh well.

"I've known him a long time. Sometimes he does very strange things."

Stark, everyone knows that. They've met the man.

"But let's talk about something other than Anakin. Like what terrible things you might be thinking of doing to me."

"Well, I can't tell you that," said Summer with a snort. "That'll just ruin the surprise."

Besides, her brand of terrible may include plenty of premeditated awfulness, but she was kind of thinking about things more along the lines of 'oops our date to space Dave & Buster's turned into a Die Hard when you had to watch over the essentially comatose bodies of my family and almost got you shot' sort of situations...

"Although if you have any particular requests," her brow was quirked in a very different way now, "I might take them into consideration."

"It is my turn to be surprised, isn't it?" Stark asked. "I wouldn't want to ruin that."

He picked up the strawberry shot, looked at it thoughtfully for a moment before considering Summer even more carefully.

"I might have requests," he allowed. "For later?"

Summer's other eyebrow joined the first in lifting. "You?" she asked. "Requests?"

The hand under her chin dropped away toward the bar to find one of his.

"Well, now I'm definitely curious."

Stark's free hand squeezed Summer's hand on the bar once before his thumb started gently rubbing over her knuckles.

"Good." He flashed a grin, then leaned forward to whisper something in her ear.

Yes, the bar was very quiet tonight but he didn't want Tino overhearing his requests (which weren't at all terrible). He didn't want Tino knowing anything, really.

"After we go home?" he said, eye shining hopefully. "And maybe...maybe we could leave early."

Leaning in a little more to help Stark out, Summer side-eyed him while he whispered those requests in her ear, smirk slowly building as the whispers did. Before either of them pulled back,though, she turned her head to kiss his cheek.

"Guess we'll just have to see how the rest of the night goes."

Lucky Stark, the place was very likely to remain dead enough that they'd hardly require two bartenders...

Someday Stark would just vault over the bar. Someday. Maybe.

"I could scare away any customers who come in," he offered. "If you like."

"Pretty sure you'd be doing that because you'd like to," Summer pointed out.

Stark just grinned at her.
"We'd both like it, I think."

Caritas; Wednesday [06/26].

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