forget the caffe latte screw the raspberry iced tea / a malibu and coke for you, a g&t for me [open]

[torchwoodteaboy]

WHO torchwoodteaboy AND YOU
WHAT Meeting, drinking, taking care of a slightly melancholy Welshman. Your pic!
WHERE A bar. Any bar! Or on the streets! Or in the hallway of the CGM!
WHEN Saturday night
NOTES Ianto's already tipsy or more by the time you run into him
WARNINGS none so far

Comments

Random bar!

[alphaophiuchi]

Something about that night begged him to give Zero some space - for the first time that week, however reluctantly it had happened - and actually get some air. 'Some air' apparently translated to 'a drink', and Draco's feet led him to the nearest bar he recognised; it wasn't a huge place, but small and quaint and about as welcoming as anything in Bete Noire was.

That said, its size did lend itself rather nicely to being able to glance around and spy Ianto with limited difficulty. He hadn't been expecting to see anyone there he knew - the glance around was cursory, just to make absolutely sure that he wasn't in the wrong place; seeing his boss, of all people, was an unspoken invitation if anything was.

So that was how Draco found himself standing beside Ianto, wondering if he should say something or just keep standing there awkwardly.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto was pretty far gone at that point. Not too far gone that he didn't notice the feeling of a presence standing behind him, but too far gone to worry about whether he should worry about someone lurking behind him or not. He turned slightly, glancing over his shoulder, narrowing his eyes slightly before he recognized who it was.

"...have a seat, if you're staying," he said, motioning to an empty seat beside him. Misery loves company, after all, or so they said. Ianto was going to figure out first hand whether inviting Draco to join him there was a mistake or not in his own behavior as the night progressed, after all.

[alphaophiuchi]

The greeting wasn't a terribly good sign. Draco took the proffered seat, sliding in silently, eyes still locked on Ianto. "You alright?" He asked, brow furrowing slightly as he regarded his boss. A number of possible situations were already running through his head - none of them were good.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto shrugged in response to the other man, taking another swig of his drink. "I'm alive. I'm here," he said in response. But then again, that was part of the problem. He was there. He'd always be there. There was no option otherwise - he'd always be there, until he just disappeared one day, or if by some stroke of luck he managed to live out a full life there. That's if one could age in the city, he didn't really know. He wasn't sure if anyone knew. It scared him, how many unknowns there were in his life at that moment, and so. Hence the drinking.

[alphaophiuchi]

"You...don't really sound terribly pleased about that," Draco replied, tipping his head slightly to try and get a better glimpse of Ianto's expression. While he could more than likely understand the entire notion behind it all - at least, assuming Ianto was going to explain it at all - he wasn't precisely sure drinking his problems away was a good plan.

But really, like Draco could talk.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto saw that Draco was tipping his head to get a better glimpse of his expression, and so he turned to look at the other man. "I don't know whether I should be," he said. "I'm here. I'll... I'll always be here. My only option is here." He leaned heavily against the bar in front of him, gripping his glass and looking like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders in that moment.

[alphaophiuchi]

"Better here than somewhere else," he tried. He really was rubbish at making people feel better about anything - he couldn't take care of his own self, why should he be any good at caring for others? - but there was some sense of obligation niggling at him. There was no way Draco could just leave.

"I mean...you've got things here."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto shifted, blinking at the other man slightly. Maybe he did. What did Draco know about it, though? "What sort of things have I got here?" he asked. Not because he didn't know what he had going for him, but because he wanted to hear it from the other man's mouth and he was drunk enough to believe that that was a good idea.

[alphaophiuchi]

"Well, I," Draco started, shrugging. He honestly didn't know what all Ianto had - he couldn't claim to really know the other man in any kind of personal way. "You have a building filled with people who clearly don't hate you, seeing as we all work for you, and rarely is there a bad word uttered about you. You're bloody fantastic at making coffee."

He paused, realising that his argument was a tad weak; he flushed slightly. "You went with Scott to that Gala, didn't you?

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto tipped his head forward, smiling slightly at the mention. Well, he supposed that going with him to the Gala had been a pretty public statement, but he hadn't been sure if anyone'd noticed that or not. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah I did."

[alphaophiuchi]

"Exactly. So aren't those things? Though I suppose Scott's a person, but the point still stands." He waved the bartender over, ordering himself a drink that he could nurse for the duration of the conversation; Draco had a feeling he might need something for all this anyway.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto nodded. He supposed that Draco was right, to a point. He had things here to be happy with. It was just the fact that he had absolutely no choice in the matter... "I can't go home, whether I want to or not. I can't see my sister again. I can't talk to my friends. Everything that used to be familiar is now just a memory." He turned to look at Draco, shaking his head. "It may seem like I know what I'm doing but I'm just as lost as the rest of you. I've just been here for a year already." And what a year that had been...

[alphaophiuchi]

"Well, it's not like any of us really have those options. Apparently making do is sufficient." Draco realised after a moment that that probably didn't help, though; he snags the drink passed to him with a faint smile, taking a swig of it.

"At any rate, who knows. Maybe you'll be here another year, maybe you'll leave next month. But you make a damn good play at knowing what you're doing, even if you claim you don't. Far better than me, for example, who melts down at every buggered thing." A wry laugh, and he waved the bartender back to get another round for Ianto.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto nodded in thanks for the offering of a next round, pleased that Draco wasn't trying to cut him off or anything like that. "I've always been good at lying," he said, honestly. He turned to Draco, though, after a moment. "You sell yourself short," he said.

[alphaophiuchi]

Draco really saw very little reason to cut him off; it wasn't like Ianto was stumbling around yet. Maybe then he'd cut him off.

"How do you figure?" He asked, one brow arching curiously - disbelievingly. Somehow, he didn't find that Ianto was good at lying all that surprising - no one could run a business like he did and legitimately be content one hundred percent of the time. He didn't bother asking for an elaboration on that one.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto shrugged. "You're still here. You're living in the City of Sin, and you're not losing your top at every other thing that you come across. You work for Hellsing, for crying out loud. You don't 'melt down at every buggered thing', you just melt down when things that matter to you come into danger." He nodded to the bartender, accepting his next round from the other man and tossing back a swig like a professional drinker.