InsaneJournal

Hunter liked having hobbies. As a natural born athlete, his hobbies tended to be sports of some kind, both in and out of the water. Given that fact, it was surprising that he’d very seldom taken up hobbies that involved things such as target practice. When he found himself wanting to give a shooting range a try, however, he knew that he wanted to try it with Elle. It seemed right. In any case, it was her birthday and if that wasn’t occasion enough to try something new, Hunter didn’t know what was. It was almost uncanny how natural the gun had felt in his hands, and surprising the way he took to hitting his target just right so quickly. It left him in high spirits when they’d left the range and, before he could talk himself out of it, he was asking Elle to grab birthday drinks with him after her shift.

Having never been a big drinker--he’d subsisted on water and Gatorade for most of his adult life--but he’d found himself wanting to reach for an ice cold beer more frequently as of late. When he had the chance, meaning he didn’t have classes or training sessions the next day, he’d been happy to expand upon his knowledge of various cocktails, too. He wasn’t too concerned by his new inclination toward drinking--after all, for the first time in his life, he was able to live his life without having to measure his actions against his goals and aspirations. Hunter felt like he’d earned the right to loosen up a little, to not always be so straight and narrow.

Currently, he was sat at the bar waiting for the bartender, his arm casually draped over Elle’s leg and a slight, warm buzz going. He wasn’t surprised by how much he realized he’d missed her company while he was gone, and the opportunity to celebrate her birthday in any way she wished was one he was not about to be one he passed. “I’m not shitting you!” Hunter laughed, continuing the conversation they’d been on for the past twenty minutes. “I honestly didn’t try a single drop of Russian vodka while I was there for the Games. How many cool points did I just lose?”

Elle groaned loudly and shoved him playfully, her face screwed up in displeasure. “God. So many. Why do I even put up with you? What good is even going to Russia at all if you’re not going to take advantage of the situation?” The Hunter of those days was almost a different person in some ways, though, and Elle knew that. She’d liked him then, of course, when he was single-minded and focused on his goal of the Olympics, but he was more fun now, more willing to go along with her so-called bad ideas. He was even willing to come up with ideas of his own. Honestly, she didn’t blame him much then. She still didn’t. But she had no issue pretending there was a problem, especially with a few drinks in her system. No matter how much time passed, Elle still planned on teasing him like she had as long as they’d known each other. That was never going to change if she had any say in it.

She fixed her gaze on him, eyes narrowed. “You could have at least invited me along so I could, I dunno, try it for you. Since you were too busy being boring, one of us should have had fun.”

Holding up one hand in mock surrender, Hunter replied, “I know, I know! I’m the literal worst. Honestly, I’ve only made it this far in life because I’m just that damned good looking.” He grinned and then nodded in acknowledgement of the bartender who’d just delivered the next round. He passed a shot over to Elle and then wasted no time in knocking back his own. The scrunch of his nose as the liquor burned its way down his throat was less apparent now than the first time he’d done shots with her, but it was still there. In some ways, he hoped that feeling never actually went away. There was something satisfying about the burn.

“Clearly nothing of note happened in Russia,” he said, setting the shot glass back down on the counter with a clink and turning his attention back to his oldest friend. “I only learned one line of Russian, and didn’t smuggle any vodka back with me. The whole trip was a complete waste of time. If only I’d taken you with me.”

“Oh, yeah, total waste of time. You didn’t even place or anything.” Elle’s own shot glass had already made it back to the counter by the time Hunter’s did, and she signaled for the bartender to head back their way. She knew she should probably go slow and easy tonight, but it wasn’t every weekend she got to go out, especially not with Hunter. Besides, it was her birthday week, and she’d spent her birthday at work, so this was the next best thing.

“You really should have taken me with you,” she insisted. “I would’ve kept all those floosies off you.” She said it very seriously, and with a nod, which clearly meant business. She’d been off in California, then, scraping by, while he’d been off on adventures. Despite how proud of him she was, there was still a twinge of jealousy in her stomach when she thought about how different their lives were. That wasn’t to say her life had been horrible, or that she wasn’t successful, but when she looked at their lives, she couldn’t really figure out why he was sitting there with her now.

“Excuse me,” Hunter replied, “what if I wanted the floosies all over me? Since I had an otherwise abysmal time in Russia, maybe they were my consolation prize!”

It wasn’t true, though. He’d let himself indulge in a one night stand here and there--he was human, after all--but he’d never been really into the fans who’d thrown themselves at his fellow Olympians just for the sake of sleeping with an athlete. He preferred the women who wanted him because he was goofy, nerdy, fallible Hunter and those, unfortunately, had been more difficult to find. Not being surrounded by people who only saw him for his achievements was part of the reason he’d returned to Dunhaven. The people here had watched him grow up and there was something very grounding in that knowledge.

He smirked. “Floosies aside, I think we would have had more issues with my crew fawning all over you if I’d have brought you along. Such a distraction, Elle.”

Floosies aside,” Elle echoed with a matching grin. She didn’t really think he’d be interested in, anyway. She knew him well enough to know what his tastes were and that he valued other things over vapid, giggling fangirls. But they would have been all over him regardless, and she knew she still would have had to fend them off for him. That was what a best friend did.

She squinted a little, head tipped to the side in thought. After a moment, she nodded. “You’re right.” She patted the arm that was draped over her leg twice, and then left her hand there like it was the most natural thing in the world. “They wouldn’t have been able to resist my womanly charm. And then,” she paused for dramatic effect, “it would have been a huge scandal, because the press would’ve probably thought we were together, and I’d be causing strife between you and everyone else since they couldn’t possibly be responsible for not keeping it in their pants.”

Hunter wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or something else that made him lean closer, but he wasn’t too concerned with discerning the answer. He found himself far more concerned with his company and conversation. “And then we’d have to just give them reason to talk because if you were going to be my Yoko, it might as well have been worth it.”

“It would have been.”

Elle sounded confident -- and she was. She’d never been given any reason to doubt her abilities in that arena, so it wasn’t much of a stretch to imagine that it probably would have been fun, if they’d ever given into that. They never had, and Elle still had no idea why. It wasn’t a lack of interest on her part, though she hadn’t let her thoughts get away from her so much that she actually acted on it. Hunter had always seemed so far out of her league. They were friends, sure, but for all her bravado, there was a small, scared girl inside who thought she wasn’t good enough.

It was hard to ignore the tension in the air now -- or maybe that was just in her head. It was hard to tell. “You should have used that line back then. It would have worked.”

His friendship with Elle had always been the one thing Hunter had always refused to fuck up. Even when he was far away, she was the first person he emailed, or tagged on Facebook, or guilted into a midnight Skype chat because he couldn’t sleep. He’d always been afraid to acknowledge whatever interest he had in her outside of friendship both because of that need to protect their friendship and the assumption that she’d never unsee the goofy kid he’d been when they’d first met.

But now they were here and it was obvious that the attraction he felt wasn’t one-sided and the alcohol was making him brave enough to put a voice to the attraction he’d so expertly ignored for years.

“Would it work now?” Hunter asked, sparing no hesitation for any shame.

All of a sudden, any of the humor left in the conversation disappeared, and Elle was left floundering. She wasn’t often taken off-guard or left speechless, but this had her uncertain. They were in dangerous territory. The last thing Elle wanted to do was ruin their friendship, but…

But, she’d had enough to drink that her decision-making skills weren’t what they should have been, and he smelled so good. Elle searched his eyes for something, anything, that looked like doubt, but she didn’t find any. Instead of answering verbally, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, for once not caring about who was watching. That should make it clear enough, she thought. It was still probably an enormous mistake, but she was past caring about what future-Elle would say.

Sober, Hunter was pretty sure he would react in an entirely different way. There were other things to consider besides what he wanted in that moment, especially when the girl who was kissing him had been his best friend since they’d been kids. But Hunter was just inebriated enough to think it was a good idea to make bad decisions. As soon as her lips were on his, his hands were coming up to cup her face and he was kissing her back.

Vaguely, he understood that it was an even worse idea to be kissing anyone in a bar in Dunhaven--no doubt his actions could easily make it back to any one of his students or his students’ parents. His more immediate concern, however, was this kiss and he wasn’t even remotely interested in not kissing Elle now that he was doing it.

Someone cleared their throat nearby, and slowly, Elle pulled her head away from Hunter’s to see who it was. It was then she remembered that she’d flagged the bartender down, and he was standing right across the bar from them, struggling to hide his laughter.

She’d planned to order more drinks, but now -- Hunter was right there, his hands were still on her, fingers sending tingles all down her skin from where he was touching her, and the room seemed too small. She couldn’t believe they’d never done this before. That kiss was good. Was that what she’d been missing out on all these years?

She held a finger up at the bartender, gesturing for him to hold on one second, and then turned to look at Hunter again. “You wanna get out of here?” Elle asked, hardly believing the words that were coming out of her mouth were being directed at her best friend. She could hardly believe how serious she was about the offer, too. There was no way he could miss the intent behind her words; Elle was not someone who minced words, no matter who she was talking to. She meant what she said, even if it was currently being fueled by alcohol. “‘Cause I don’t think we can just make out at the bar all night.”

Some small voice in Hunter’s mind was saying Don’t do it, man, she’s your best friend, don’t fuck it up. More loudly, however, was his own voice that was saying, “Yes. Let’s go.” Because now that he knew what it was like to kiss Elle, it was hard to imagine listening to any voice that told him to stop, however rational that voice may be. He pulled one hand away from her to reach for his wallet and pulled enough cash to cover the tab and tips from it. Not taking his eyes off of her, he put the money on the bar and said, “Ready?”

Elle knew she had to get them out of there as soon as possible or she might back out, so she grinned at him and slid off her barstool. She reached for his hand to tug him towards the door, even though she knew he didn’t need any encouragement. “Hell yeah. Just hope you can keep up.”