"It's raining men. Hallelujah, it's raining men!"

[doctordefib]

Who: Ryan Bailey, Brad Watson, Beau Watson, and Austin Shaw (posting order)
What: Gay bar superstars?
Where: No Parking, Broadway, NYC
When: Saturday night

After the inevitable round of reunion sex once Brad got home from his business trip (thanks to Pat and Aiden taking Haydee for the evening), the couple found themselves in a bit of a deep-n-meaningful about Brad's little brother, Beau. He seemed bummed because his BFF and ex-boyfriend, Liam, had hooked up and went on a date, but Brad more thought it was Beau worrying he would be left out and be lonely if Liam was distracted elsewhere. Who could blame the guy? There was a lot of extenuating circumstances and factors at play, but the bottom line was that Brad wanted to help his little brother out some. Beau wasn't a fan of bars or clubs anymore. Not after what happened to Liam a year ago. The outcome of the chat was that maybe Ryan and Brad could go along with Beau to see if he could get out there a little and meet some guys so he wasn't moping about Liam. The only thing was, Ryan literally could not remember the last time he had been into a gay bar. Very early twenties, and that felt like a lifetime ago.

Once they were inside, all Ryan could do was stand at the bar with his beer feeling like a fish out of water. There were loads of younger bodies gyrated on the dancefloor or pressed up against each other all around then. He gave his other half a sidelong glance to see if he was feeling it too, but Brad seemed to be giving Beau some sort of pep-talk, whilst Beau stood there looking around skeptically as he nursed a Cosmopolitan. The kid brushed up really nicely, though, in tight hipster jeans and a very chest-hugging shirt. There was no way he wasn't going to get at least a few bites of interest tonight. As for Ryan, he was sort of hoping he was home in front of the TV in his boxers with a bottle of wine and his husband. Was he really this young once upon a time? "I'm scared I might fracture my hip if we try to dance," he joked to Brad with a smirk before swigging his beer.

Comments

[halfwaytoheaven]

Beau just gave a little shrug. "Most days, we do give people the worst new of their life. But the thing is, it's something I'm not desensitised to. I know what they're dealing with, and how it feels. I think that's what gives me a leg-up in the business. It might seem like a gamble, but there's nothing of a gamble about cancer. In fact, it's one of the most black and white things in life. You have it, or you don't. You don't, you should be grateful and never take your health for granted. You do, and you survive, you probably won't ever take anything for granted again. That's not just cancer, though. It's anything that knocks you out of your comfort zone and causes you pain."

His cheeks puffed out with a hint of a bored breath that he let out slowly as he listened to the guy defence. "Here's a hint. You want to proceed anywhere with me, it might be a good idea to stop reminding me how much sex you have, can get, where, and with whom," he began with a bored wave of his hand. The guy's sex life was the last thing Beau wanted to waste his time hearing about. So, he was a slut, he trawled for cock, and very rarely got turned down. So what? Was it supposed to be an epic turn-on? Because it really wasn't. He had got the message loud and clear as soon as the guy had opened his mouth, and it was labouring a point that Beau was already uncomfortable with. "Change the record, dude. Seriously. There's got to be more to you than a cock in tight pants or a mouth who likes to teabag. You're going to have to work harder, because a 'whore'," he said, curling his fingers into quotation marks, "isn't what I'm here looking for. I'm not a prude, I'm not a virgin, I've done the casual sex, even friends-with-benefits thing. Chalked it up to life experience and now I need more substance. And no, I'm not trying to change who you ultimately are, but if all you are is just a dick in leather pants, then this isn't going to work and we'd probably be better cutting our losses sooner rather than later."

[fraternalfashionista]

Austin couldn't fully understand what that was like, because he wasn't a doctor, and had no concept of what it would feel like to give someone news that was any worse than, "Your outfit clashes, and you look horrible. Try again." But he could remember being on the waiting end, not knowing whether or not he was going to get good news. Sitting in that clinic with AJ sitting next to him feeling for all the world like he was going to be sick or drop dead from the stress. And then the relief when he was told that he didn't have HIV. He'd never forget that day as long as he lived. And when he thought about what Beau was saying... maybe it was time that he, too, start thinking a little more about how lucky he was to be in good health... and what he was doing with it. "That's... It's no wonder you're not just here looking for sex... You spend every day dealing with people who live and breathe the concept of life's too short. You don't want to waste your time on random shit when that's not what you want for the long run. That makes a lot of sense. Why should you settle for less than what you want anyway?"

Beau wasn't playing games anymore. He wasn't going to humor Austin. Which, Austin had to admit, was fair enough. Why sit there and listen to this if you weren't in the least bit interested? But the fact he was listening meant that he was giving Austin a chance to prove something... And so far, all Austin had done was to prove the exact opposite. He was a mantart, but that didn't mean that was all he was, or all he could be. And what Beau wanted was to see if that side of him existed or not, because if it didn't, there was no point in continuing any of this conversation. "Okay, no. I'm not just a cock in leather pants. And I'm capable of discussing more than just sex. It's just... been a really long time since I met a guy who wanted that. It's sort of a habit now, but that doesn't mean I can't go a different direction. This isn't all of who I am, Beau. And it's not who I want to be forever, either. Of course I want to have something more than this some day. I know a lot of these guys don't, but I do. My parents are still in love after years and years of marriage, and most people don't get that lucky. I know what that looks like, and sure, it's something that I want someday. But I just don't have... I don't have a lot of experience talking to someone like you around here. So can we maybe try again?" He paused, ever the drama queen, and backed away from Beau several steps before walking back toward him again with a friendly smile and saying, "Hi... I'm Austin. Do you want to dance?"

[halfwaytoheaven]

Sure, that... and the fact he had nearly died from it himself, and that his best friend had been raped closely followed by a very real suicide attempt. Those things definitely weren't something Beau was just going to casually drop into a conversation on the first meeting of a guy. It wasn't that he would hide his past history of cancer by any means. If someone outright asked him about it, he would tell them. He wasn't ashamed, it could just had that hit or miss of veering a conversation into awkward moment territory. He usually liked to get a feel for someone before he shared those personal details about himself. So, he just shrugged. "Sex doesn't really do it for me unless there's something more behind it." Austin could make of that what he will. It was the truth. Beau liked a connection with someone, and it was why he and Liam could ultimately remain best friends once they realised a relationship wasn't working with them. If they just had each other there for sex, they would probably barely remember each other's names anymore.

If they were sitting at a table right now, Beau would be drumming his fingers on it with borderline disinterest. Austin had a small window and it was ready to slam shut. It wasn't his fault, not by any means. It was all Beau, and he would take complete blame for that. He hadn't wanted to be here to start with, so he wasn't open to any of this random bullshit environments like this usually invited. Austin had just drawn the short straw on who he had zeroed in on with his bad pick-up lines that probably would have worked on about twenty of the dudes surrounding them. He held up his hand and gave a small shake of his head. The pleasantries could wait for the practicalities. "Okay, first, I have a couple of questions for you. One, when was the last time you had a sexual health screening? And two, how many regular lays do you have? Because I'm not even going to let you put your hands on me unless you can answer the first with an adequate window of time. As to the second, I know a lot of people like you have dudes as fallbacks if you can't pick up. Open relationships, or whatever. If you're into that, then denim dude really is more your prospect because I don't share."

[fraternalfashionista]

Austin looked over Beau's face quietly, even as the music thumped on around them. There was no doubt about it, the two of them were epically different, with very different ideas about relationships, dating, sex... all of the things that generally brought people to a club like this one. But the fact was, different though it may have been, there was no question that what Beau was saying was making sense to Austin. Not to say that sex didn't do it for him if it was casual, because it very much did, and had for a long time. But there was something in Austin that did wonder what it would be like to make love with someone that you truly cared about as opposed to being fucked senseless in the back of a club like this one. Granted, he'd dated once, and while it had been fun, it had been short-lived because Austin wasn't ready for anything like that, and honestly, neither had his ex been. He and Rhett remained good friends, even to this day. But they had both been a little off the mark maturity wise to ever make a relationship work between the two of them.

Beau stopped Austin in the middle of his little spiel, and asked two very serious questions right off the bat. Again, questions Austin couldn't really blame him for asking, and he thought very quickly before giving an answer on either of them. "My last sexual health screening was... last month. I try to have one every month, just for the sake of safety, and..." Well, and because of his past history with a major fuck up that could very well have ended him, but that wasn't something that Beau needed to be told about just yet, either. He was trying to land a date with the guy... not to share with him all the sordid details of his past mistakes. "I don't really do regular lays," he admitted. "I always figured if I had a boyfriend, I'd have a boyfriend, but in the meantime, I didn't want anything to get complicated by having regular sex with anybody. It's not my thing. You're either dating, or you fuck whoever you want whenever you want. I don't judge other people who have those kinds of relationships, but it's not really me."