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Taako and Lup stumbled out of the bar, laughing and hanging onto each others’ shoulders. They were a little drunk and jazzed up on adrenaline after their gig. Deafening music blared behind them for a few seconds until the door swung shut.
They shivered in the cold night air, their matching red leather jackets not doing much to keep the chill off their sweaty skin.
“Fuuuck, Lup,” Taako drawled, wrapping his arms around himself to keep warm. Too bad there was nothing to be done about his freezing legs, his short shorts and fishnets were doing absolutely nothing to help. His only comfort was that Lup was in the same situation. “I’m hungry.”
Lup sighed. “Taako, please. We can’t keep doing this.” Her voice was as hoarse as Taako’s, after all the singing and screaming on stage. She flexed her fingers and rubbed absently at the blisters she got from beating on her drum kit for almost an hour. Taako was fiddling similarly, his fingertips sore from plucking at the strings of his guitar.
“But I want fries, Lulu.” He whined and turned his puppy dog eyes up to full blast to entice her. Lup just rolled her eyes at him. She had been immune to his tricks ever since they both hit puberty and stopped being cute.
“I’m calling Barry to give us a ride. You have until he arrives, then I’m dragging you out of here.” Taako yipped happily in response and started to prance towards the smell of greasy food; the food truck parked on the opposite side of the street.
“French fry! Heaven! Now!” Taako chanted as he stumbled and ended up grabbing hold of the small counter in front of the truck’s open window to stay upright. He looked up. “Oh, hey Kravvy!”
“Taako.” Kravitz greeted with a long-suffering sigh but smiling fondly. “What can I do for you today? Or, tonight, I guess.”
“Well, whatcha got for me, handsome?” Taako gave a flirty grin.
“You say that every time Taako, and every time you end up ordering fries with extra ketchup so I really don’t see the point,” Kravitz said with a shake of his head before squinting at Taako suspiciously. “Are you drunk?”
“Just a liiittle ,” Taako held two his fingers close together to signify a small amount and giggled. “Me ‘n’ Lup, we played reaaaally good tonight and the crowd was ah-mazing so we had a coupla drinks after.” He swayed a little.
“A couple, huh,” Kravitz said, amused. Taako just smiled dreamily at him.
“Uh-huh.”
Someone cleared their throat. Taako blinked and turned slowly to look behind him. There was a line slowly but surely forming and a rather big guy was standing behind Taako, glaring at him with his arms crossed.
“Can I help you, homie?” Taako asked mock sweetly, smiling.
“Yeah, you could make your order and uhh, fuck off?” The guy slurred and it was apparent that he was as drunk as Taako, if not even further gone. “There’s a line here, shithead.”
Taako was still smiling. “Your momma didn’t teach you to wait your turn?”
“You-! You shut the fuck up about my mother!” The guy growled, his fists clenching by his sides. “There are people in line, asshole. So maybe you could shoot the shit with your fucking boyfriend some other time?” He spat and Taako bristled, blushing violently.
“He-! He’s not my-!” He sputtered out, missing the way Kravitz’s face was also flooding red behind him.
“What-the-fuck-ever! You’re done.” The guy said as he roughly shouldered past Taako who stumbled back a few steps before he caught his balance.
“You BITCH!” Taako screeched, feeling even more hot-headed than usual thanks to the alcohol. “No cutting in line!”
The guy just snorted and turned to confused-looking Kravitz to make his order. Taako took a deep, furious breath, pupils dilating. He had made approximately zero melee attacks in his life but he knew how to throw a punch, in theory. So he pulled his fist back and grabbed the guy’s shoulder.
“Hey!” He yelled, and as the guy turned to face him, he punched him right in the kisser. It didn’t really do much damage but the guy was caught off-guard so he went down. Unfortunately, Taako hadn’t thought of letting go of the guy after the punch so he went down with him. He cracked his skull on the pavement and was out like a light.
“Oh my fucking-!” Kravitz yelled, grabbing his hair, at a loss for words as he scrambled to get outside and help Taako. The guy Taako had punched was helped up by his friends and they were quick to disappear out of fear of dealing with the cops. Every other bystander was also quick to disperse as Lup ran over across the street, fuming and cussing up a storm.
“What the fuck Taako! It hasn’t been even ten minutes and you’re throwing down just to get some fucking fries?!”
Kravitz was hovering nervously over Taako’s prone body, moving his hands anxiously but not daring to touch. Lup kneeled down next to him. “Take it easy dude, Taako’s got a thick skull.” She patted Kravitz’s arm in an attempt to calm him down but Kravitz was too frazzled to take notice. His eyes were glued to Taako’s face.
Lup reached over to gently slap Taako’s cheek. “Hey, you alive, bro?”
Both she and Kravitz sighed in relief when Taako’s eyes fluttered open. He smiled dopily at Kravitz as he noticed him.
“Krav... you got such wonderful eyes…” He mumbled and Kravitz’s head snapped up to look at Lup, his eyes wide in horror. “He’s lost his mind!”
Lup resisted the urge to facepalm. “Just lift him up dude, I need to check his head.”
Kravitz gently eased one of his arms behind Taako’s shoulders to raise him slightly. It would have been romantic if Taako hadn’t just gloriously messed up a punch and Kravitz wasn’t in his work apron, smelling like deep-fried everything.
“Kravitz…” Taako mumbled and Kravitz was quick to grab one of his hands to hold.
“Yes, Taako?” He said and Lup rolled her eyes at the drama of it all.
“You wanna-- wanna go on a date, sometime?”
“I’d love to,” Kravitz said gently and then they were smiling at each other dazedly. Lup almost gagged. Taako’s head seemed fine, though she decided that they were going to head over to the emergency room, just in case he had a concussion.
The boys were seemingly lost in each other’s eyes so Lup decided to take the initiative.
“For fuck’s sake. Kravitz, was it? Gimme your phone.” He blinked, but obliged, getting his phone out and unlocking it before handing it over to Lup. She added a new contact and tapped in Taako’s number, one of the few she had bothered to memorize.
“There.” She handed the phone back. “Now you have Taako’s number. Call him tomorrow or whatever, we gotta get going.”
To her immense relief, she saw Barry’s car pulling over not too far from them and she waved. Barry seemed to catch on quick and he got out of the car and jogged towards them, bless him.
Lup maneuvered Taako’s arm over her shoulders with the help of Kravitz, adjusting her grip to make sure her brother wouldn’t fall. “Okay. Catch you later, lover boy. Say buh-bye Taako.”
“Bye Taako!” Taako said happily and waved at Kravitz as Lup started to walk them away, Barry meeting them halfway to the car.
Kravitz was left standing alone in the night, but he looked down at his phone and smiled.