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Late at night, deep into the hours of it being winter itself, it was like nobody was awake aside from a few people. At an open bar, middle of what seemed to be nowhere, it held two people. Aside from the bartender working late at night, there was nobody aside from the two - tired workers of Trenchtide Co. Karev, one of the two, already had a few drinks, starting a tab at first for the both of them as he lay his head in his arms, raising one hand to ask for another drink before one slid close to his head. Karev's head craned upward, grabbing the drink with a shaky hand as he tried to drink it, spilling a little as he coughed from how fast he drank. Marlo sat beside him, carefully watching him as he moved one arm around Karev's shoulders, pulling him up and grabbing the drink with one hand to pull it away.
Marlo started, "Karev-" before he got cut off almost instantly by the other.
"Marlo!" He reached for the drink but missed about five times before Marlo pulled the drink away.
"You are way too drunk for another one, I'm not sure that you need to have...however many drinks are in your system. I don't know how many you already drank!" He sighed quietly as he moved Karev to sit up once more. "I'm just worried, okay?" He looked at the other with a face that read " I'm not mad at you, just disappointed." Like a parent talking to their child about something they did wrong, but it was two people talking about drinks, and talking over drinks about...what was the conversation even about anymore? Neither of them knew, talking to each other made their voices feel natural again, they just rambled on without a care in the world.
The two had been talking for what felt like a few minutes but was, in reality, a few hours or so, they arrived at the bar at around 8 PM, and the clock placed on the wall read a clean 11:20 PM.
Drink after drink, after drink...Hours after hours, after hours. Now, there was one drunken man in the bar and the other a less drunken mess. Marlo hesitated, moving one hand to Karev's hand to lay on top of it gently. "We need to get you back to...anywhere but here. I don't think the best choice for you right now is to be inside a bar with just me and someone else..."
Karev loudly sighed, leaning into Marlo as he groaned loudly. "But Marlo! I just need one more drink, then I'll be done! Come on..." He exaggerated his words, leaning further into Marlo, looking up to the other with huge, puppy-dog-like eyes as the other paused, shaking his head as he put both hands on Karev's shoulders.
"No...We're getting out of here, okay? For real this time." Finally, Marlo firmly grabbed Karev and stood up, trying to lift him with fail as he dragged Karev out of the chair, the other stumbling around as Marlo held tightly onto Karev. "Come on..." He moved one arm around his neck, firmly holding him as he started to walk out with him in his arms.
"Marlooooo!"
"No...We're leaving."
Before, silence.
"...Karev, I just want you to be safe. So, just listen to me, okay?"
Even though Karev couldn't listen much, words blurring into nothingness he nodded along. All he heard was the voice of Marlo, slowly standing himself up a bit more as he hugged him tightly, before looking at him with those same puppy-dog-like eyes to give him a small kiss. It was gentle, surprisingly gentle for how drunk he was, but there was almost no hesitation from Marlo as he exhaled slowly to give a kiss back to Karev.
Gentle, just as the first was.