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“Let’s go back to your place, mine isn’t exactly… people friendly.”
Marco almost choked on his sangria, glancing down at his watch.
He’d only been chatting up this man for a little under an hour, and that was if you counted the amount of times they had to repeat themselves over the loud electric dance music in the club.
“What are you, a serial killer?” He chose to laugh out instead, ignoring the burn of alcohol going down the wrong pipe.
The blonde, Armin was his name, downed the rest of his margarita. It was at least his third drink tonight, or at least the third one Marco had bought for him.
“Are you really asking me that?” Armin smiled, wiping the remaining salt off his lips with a finger.
Did he prefer a sugared rim? Maybe he should have asked. Then again, he didn’t look like he cared.
“Kind of rude of you, don’t you think? I think you owe me another drink.”
Marco blinked at the suggestion, unsure if Armin was serious.
“How about a water?”
Just because it was the third drink Marco had gotten him, didn’t mean he hadn’t had half a dozen earlier.
“That sounds great, actually.” Armin pulled his phone out of his pocket, giving it a long look before returning it.
“You have water at your place, right?”
The wanton look in Armin’s eyes was tempting, but….
“If taking you home means you’ll have a glass of water, sure .”
Armin pulled his phone out again, “Lovely. What’s your address?”
Marco’s brows furrowed, “...My add--”
“ For the Uber .”
He laughed, drank the rest of his overpriced, watered down sangria, and signaled the bartender over.
“You don’t need to pay for one of those; I live five,” He thought about how much Armin already drank. “ Fifteen minutes walk away from here.”
Armin didn’t put his phone away, but lowered it with a more dissatisfied look on his face. “Oh? Are you sure you want to walk the streets at night alone with a serial killer ?”
Marco smiled, ignoring the comment as he paid his tab.
“I’m sorry, really.” He looked back to Armin, an apologetic frown on his face.
“It’s just… such an odd thing to say, I wasn’t sure what to say back.”
Armin put his phone away again, giving a little smile back. “It’s alright. I’ll forgive you.”
Marco looked confused now, leaning in to ensure they heard each other properly.
“You will forgive me?”
Armin gave a nod, “You have condoms at home, or am I going to have to hope we’re the same size?”
Marco laughed again, genuinely shocked and a little bit impressed.
He didn’t understand it; Armin was attractive, and younger than his choice of conversation earlier would have let on. It was almost 2 a.m., and Marco was meant to believe that no one else had offered to sleep with him yet?
“Let’s, erhm, get you that water.”
Marco slid out of his stool, and offered his hand.
Armin took it gladly, and followed his new target through the thundering crowd and into the nighttime air.
Marco was relatively pleased to find that on the short walk through the soon to be quieting streets, that Armin was not the kind of giggling, tripping, screachy type when forced to function past sitting still while intoxicated.
Walking in a straight line wasn’t quite the simplest task, but, Marco had his fair share of drinks throughout the night, too.
“So, do you go to that bar often?”
Armin gave him a coy glance. “That cheesy line? You were supposed to ask me that two hours ago.”
Marco nodded sheepishly, realizing the cliche of it.
“ God , that’s… embarrassing. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. I’m, sure I’m plenty a mess after all those margaritas. But no, I don't really go there much. I’m not like, hmhm! Like this all the time.”
Marco helped Armin keep his balance as they turned a corner, stepping off a steeper, rougher curb down a side street.
“Like… how?”
Armin leaned in, giving Marco a rough tap on the chest. “ A dumb slut .”
Marco smiled again, and in the back of his mind lamented that, like many nights like these he’d had in the past? He wouldn’t get to spend time with Armin again. Probably not, anyway. One night stands rarely turned into anything else.
“You’re a smart slut, judging by the conversation I interrupted earlier.”
Armin had been having a very eloquent ‘discussion’ about the economical consequences of some such gentrification in the city before it had become such a popular place for tourism; Like the club they’d been in.
Marco had been very rude to put his two cents in, and apologized by offering Armin any drink he wanted.
“Well…. I’m usually different.” Armin concluded quietly.
“How different?”
Armin chuckled this time, but didn’t look at Marco. “Just… different. You’ll see.”
Marco didn’t make any comments, reminding himself that Armin was, regardless of how intoxicated or how little? Still drunk. These were all just words, at the end of the day.
They finally stopped in front of an older apartment building, like the kind Armin had previously talked about being torn down and renovated for fancier ‘modern’ purposes.
“Mmm, you live here? It is close. I like the, the ambience . It’s very fitting.” Armin noted, lazily giving their surroundings a look.
There was a tighter squeeze that he gave to Marco’s arm, turning and giving him the same piercing, wanton stare from before.
Honestly, it almost startled Marco. But at the same time, he kind of liked it.
“Is this more, what was it you said? ‘People friendly’?”
Armin laughed, turning around and yanking Marco forward, forcing them to collide. “I, I actually like you, I think.”
He would miss it.
“I’m sorry,” Marco said quietly, giving a short, languid kiss to Armin’s neck.
“I shouldn’t have led you on like this, but, I’m really not interested in sleeping with you.”
Armin hummed, leaning further back into Marco’s embrace. “That’s… hmmh . I’ll live.”
Marco chuckled, arching Armin’s head to the side, “No, actually, you won’t.”