Chapter Text
Ronin saw Dareth standing still at the bar behind the counter watching the TV sleepily; the only thing making noise in the quiet building until he opened the doors.
The tired bartender looked to the entrance to see him and his usual cheesy grin appeared on his face as he sat down.
"Hey, am I happy to see you!" he said with energy Ronin still didn't understand how he could have at this hour.
"You're quite eager to see me, that's unusual." He responded, resting his head on his hand. Dareth's attitude made him want to smile; it was infectious to him at times. "Do you wanna know if the ninja need you?" Amusement clearly shone through as he said it. Dareth stopped in his tracks, but then collected himself. "No! I don't! I'm fine here! In my.. empty bar."
The smile on his face faded, and Ronin felt bad.
"Hey, no, I'm here, so it's not empty. I guess I'm here to, uh.. keep you company tonight."
Dareth at first looked unconvinced, but then he just looked in Ronin's eye and his face softened into a smile.
The more they looked at each other, the more Ronin felt like the world went quiet, if he had to find the words for it. He didn't understand why that happened in the moment, and he wasn't going to risk figuring that out now. Dareth also looked like he was sucked into a vortex looking at him, but broke away as he blinked a couple times before looking up at the TV and turning it off.
Before Ronin could ask about it, Dareth went under the counter and grabbed two glasses, quickly making boba for the both of them.
"Oh, thanks."
The glass slid Ronin's way and he caught it in his hands, looking down at it, then looked back to see Dareth holding a bottle of alcohol and pouring some into his own glass.
"Since when did you do that with your drinks?"
"Oh, I don't do this normally in the day for customers. I just do it for myself." He finished pouring and closed the bottle, then drank his concoction.
Ronin looked down at his drink again. "..You think you could pour me some of it for my drink?"
Dareth looked at him for a second, chuckled, and poured some in. Then, Ronin took a sip of it.
"..Damn Dareth, this is great."
He rapidly slurped the whole thing in a couple seconds.
He was then poured another cup (though at this point it was just alcohol) at his request, and quickly drank it also.
And then he grabbed the bottle, poured himself one more, and downed it quicker than the last two.
When he put the empty glass down, a content smile was slapped on his face.
"You're a fast drinker, huh?" Dareth sounded shocked and honestly impressed by what just happened.
"Yep, I mean this wasn't a lot so it was pretty easy."
Without thinking, Ronin laid his hands on his, leaning over the counter to reach his face; close enough to where his breath could touch it when he talked.
"Never thought I'd say it, but you're a genius."
He watched Dareth's face become red.. and Ronin felt his face go hot also.
Both of them backed away from each other's faces, Dareth turning away, hiding his expression.
Ronin felt an immense amount of guilt. "..Sorry. I don't know why I did that." He turned his body away from him and the bar feeling awkward.
Why did this happen to him? When he was tired and/or drinking or something and ended up hanging out with Dareth, feelings about him always got involved. But not just regular feelings, different feelings. Feelings that he usually doesn't pay much attention to normally because they're not a pretty high priority to him.
He wanted to start saying word garbage to make up for the moment they just shared, but Dareth opened his mouth before he could.
"You're alright, Ronin! Don't.. don't worry about it."
He slowly turned back around at his voice to see his face, still kind of red, looking at him with a confusing look Ronin couldn't figure out.
"..You sure about it? I don't know what came over me, and-"
"Yes, you're fine!" He said it stronger that time and looked to be throwing on a smile, and Ronin felt himself wanting to pray to that spin-magic-master guy that's so important to hold him back from spilling his guts, and only responded with a nod.
Then the room fell silent. Dareth grabbed the two glasses and turned to the sink to wash them out, the only noise now being the constant ffwwishh of the water.
Ronin was itching to talk, and started to speak aimlessly.
"..I really don't know why I did that. I guess I just.. think differently when I'm with you? I do things that I wouldn't do with anyone, and," he trailed off, then picked back up again. "..I feel more comfortable, and I end up feeling like you do; all carefree, smiles, confidence.. yeah, I'm like that all the time, but when I'm with you it feels so.. genuine; it doesn't make sense to me."
He looked up at Dareth when he finished, and he looked to be frozen in place; his eyes were wide and stuck looking down at the water and his face had gone red again. It made Ronin feel oddly warm inside, the feeling was kicking at him. He watched as Dareth snapped back to reality and turned the water off.
While Dareth came back to the bar counter drying his hands, Ronin got up to leave.
"Wait! Ronin, don't go."
His words stopped his train of thought, making him freeze in place. As much as he didnt want to, his gaze moved automatically to him.
"Listen, I should.. I should go. I need to sleep this off."
At first, Dareth looked like he was going to protest, but he just nodded, and tried to act like everything was fine.
"Alright, that's... that's good with me."
Ronin heard him keep up the facade by chuckling as he got to the door, then heard a faint sigh as he walked out.
He knew he was going to sleep off this moment, as every other time. It's how he got over these things.
But deep down, he never wanted to get over it.