#{thread:righthere}

[peepingtoad]

@oc-lootcrate cont. {x}

Ari had never allowed himself to drink as much as he had tonight, and he was sure that he’d most certainly regret it in the morning. He never had been a lightweight or anything, but he does remember drinking without care when he was a bit younger and experiencing the worst hangover in his life that made him think twice about drinking without considering the consequences. To be honest, he thinks the only reason he had allowed himself to go so far was that it was Jiraiya with him. Maybe he wasn’t the best influence on him, but as Ari took another shot and grimaced at the slight burn in his throat he certainly didn’t mind.

He couldn’t help but look at Jiraiya out of the corner of his eye, noting that the sannin certainly looked much more relaxed and accustomed to a night on the town, sipping his sake from his ochoko and looking at Ari in amusement with a brow raised, looking almost as if he were biting back some witty comment on Ari’s appearance. 

A part of him wished he would, though.

Ari hesitated to order another drink, already feeling like he was floating and that his mind was jumbled, though that voice in the back of his head was telling him that he’d already gone far enough so why not go even further? With that, he gave the bartender another wave to indicate that he was willing to keep going only to hear Jiraiya’s amused chuckle at his side.

❝What’s so funny?❞ Ari couldn’t help but get a little red in the face as he watched his drink be poured, using it as a distraction to force himself not to look at Jiraiya. He eventually caved, of course, looking over just in time for Jiraiya to wave the thought away with that damn grin on his face. Why did he have to smile like that? 

❝I hate it when you do that!❞ All thoughts were out the window at this point, almost as if Ari was completely unaware that he was in a public area. Thankfully for him though, the bar was pretty full this night meaning that anything he said was most likely going to be ignored by anyone other than Jiraiya and the bartender who had focused his attention on another pair at the other end of the bar. ❝While you wave things off with that damn smile of yours like there’s nothing wrong, I get to sit here and think about it for the rest of the night!❞

The shot glass is once again in Ari’s hand as he tips his head back and swallows it all in one go, slamming it down on the table but thankfully not hard enough to shatter the thing. One arm rests against the surface of the bar while the other runs through his own hair, pulling the stray strands away from his face and tucking them behind his ear. 

❝God, sometimes I wish you’d just take me into the bathroom and fuck me until I can’t walk, but instead, I just sit here like... like an idiot!❞ Ari’s not even sure if he’s angry anymore, but he does know that his face is hot when he looks over at the sage again, debating whether or not he needs another drink, especially after a confession like that.

Nothing, absolutely nothing out of sorts had ever happened between them, and yet here Jiraiya was having convinced Ari to come out yet again, with his arm draped ever so casually over the backrest of Ari’s stool, while feeling very much afflicted by an acute case of déjà vu. Of course, if there was a certain been-there-before quality to the picture they currently painted, it was obviously completely and utterly imagined. After all, this was only the second time they’d decided to come to this particular bar, having made a habit of visiting the many other places Konoha had to offer at the behest of the busy Jōnin’s schedule.

One thing certainly stood out as new here though—that being that Ari had drunk much, much more than the sage had ever seen him drink before, and with no sign of stopping just yet either. The change in the man this seemed to bring about… well. 

It was pretty entertaining, to say the least. 

Seemed that alcohol had a way of revealing some of his rougher edges, which might have been just plain attractive if he wasn’t such a soft bundle of nerves the rest of the time.

So of course, that contrast made it just a little more funny than sexy, a fact that Jiraiya made very little effort to hide. Even less so when Ari decided to question him on it (and rather irritably at that), because it was all too satisfying to keep playing it smooth compared to… well, that. The fact the word ‘hate’ had come out of that mouth at all was telling of how far gone the man was getting, and it almost had the sage thinking he should quit enabling him. Almost.

But something he said plucked a chord of curiosity in him, which may have shown in the brief spark of his eyes, if Ari happened to be of the right mind to catch it. It was the part about thinking about it for the rest of the night, and Jiraiya couldn’t help but wonder exactly what sort of thoughts his amusement had provoked in the past, and when.

“Psh! I’ve got no idea what yer talkin’ about~” he said with a teasing lilt, watching as yet another shot was downed in one. He himself wasn’t exactly nursing them, having paced out the drinks just enough to keep from straying into ‘smashed’ territory, but it was undeniable that everything was starting to become tinged with that familiar hazy filter. All very relaxed, in contrast to the other.

... That is, until he said something that truly and genuinely surprised Jiraiya to his core, to which he drew back his head with a definite stiffness of the shoulders and neck, blinking repeatedly while he just… processed that. It took only a second for it to sink in, though, before he recognised the familiar rush of warmth throughout his body for what it was; a luxurious sensation that soon had his eyes darkening to a more sultry charcoal as his muscles relaxed, his body sinking forward to share a more intimate space with that embarrassed, agitated face now staring right at him.

“Really now, Ari…” he purred the name, a hint of canine showing through the smirk that teased the corner of his mouth as he canted his head coyly, leaning close enough that the man might feel his booze-sweetened breath on his skin. “We haven’t even kissed yet, and you’re thinkin’ about stuff like that?”

With no thought of sparing the man any mortification, he tutted softly while offering the barest shake of his head in pseudo-disappointment.

“Y’know, nothing’s ever stopping you from not sittin’ there like an idiot.” Nothing... except on those occasions where a certain someone makes a hasty escape after an awkward incident. That may well be a cause from some idiotic sitting… hypothetically. “I’m right here, Ari. There’s no invisible wall in the way or anything.”

Potential was a heavy and stifling presence between the two men, going largely unspoken, and very much danced around. And although Jiraiya recognised that fully and was playing it somehow rather cool, he wasn’t about to let anything happen right here and now. Not with so many people around, and not now that the reason for that déjà vu was being slowly acknowledged as reality (inwardly, granted, but at the same time finally).

“Aaaaanyway,” he said breezily, reverting to his usual, playfully melodic tone as he flashed a playful wink-and-grin at Ari. “M’goin’ to the bathroom!”

There was a definite, loaded gravity to those words despite his airiness as he pushed himself from his seat, and the hand curled around the back of Ari’s seat lingered for just a moment before sliding away with a feather-light brush of fingertips over his back.

The bathroom was empty, aside from him. 

Propping the window open was a two-by-four—or at least, that’s what it looked like at a glance, until closer inspection revealed it was in fact a red lacquered geta sandal that some moron had no doubt left there by 'accident’. But if all was right this time, there shouldn’t even be time to consider making a hasty escape. He was right here, like he’d said. All Ari had to do was not sit.