Jason Kent ✈ James T. Kirk (setphasers) wrote in thereincarnates, @ 2017-12-15 22:35:00 |
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Entry tags: | benjamin wolcott, jace kent |
Who: Jace Kent and Benjamin Wolcott
What: Two friends getting a little deep over drinks
Where: Eddie's Pub (a few blocks from the Agency HQ) & then Ben's place in London
When: Late Friday night, December 15th 2017
Warnings: TBD? Nothing major.
Back when Jace had first started working for the Agency, he remembered it as being almost a nightly tradition of everyone getting drinks at Eddie's after a hard days work. Back then, Jace had a little bit more stamina for that sort of thing, he could go out drinking at the pub practically every night after work and still show up at the office the next morning bright eyed and bushy tailed. Not so much anymore, sadly, though Jace wasn't about to admit that out loud. He was having enough trouble coming to terms with his loss of youth, he didn't need to go around admitting to the fact that he no longer had the kind of stamina that he used to which allowed for staying out until all hours every night and bouncing right back for work the following day. But, since tomorrow was Saturday, they didn't have to worry about showing up at the office the next morning.
It used to be that the week leading up to the anniversary of his dad's death, Jace would barely be able to function normally. In his twenties he usually spent those days drinking like a fish and getting as much strange ass as he could to wile away the dull hours and keep his mind off more depressing things. Now in his thirties, Jace didn't feel as much of a need to avoid it completely or use more self-destructive coping mechanisms to deal with it, but there was a smaller, needier part of him that still yearned for company, even if that company was strictly platonic. The mark of maturity? Maybe. He also just selfishly enjoyed Ben's company, no matter the occasion, so he didn't feel the need to disclose why specifically he'd asked the other man to go out for drinks with him after work that evening. The reason behind it was honestly still at the back of his mind.
The fact that the date of his dad's death was fast approaching, only a few days away now, hadn't escaped him, even if he paid it a lot less personal energy than he used to. He used to carve out entire days around giving that particular date his entire, undivided focus and attention. Now it was more in the back of Jace's mind than anything else, which was probably healthier for him in the long run. You shouldn't spend all your time trying to live up to a dead man, that's the surest way to eventually drive yourself crazy. Jace was a bit of a masochist so sometimes the idea was still somewhat appealing, but lately, he hadn't been feeling as married to the painful parts of his past as he used to be. Maybe he was finally growing up a little. If so, it was about time. Jace was well aware how unattractive it could be to be a grown man and still running around the way he used to.
He still sometimes went out to let loose, don't get him wrong. Jace wasn't completely reformed, there was no way he'd already become that evolved. He still enjoyed the occasional late night and random hook up that someone who looked like him was always able to land, those nights had just become a lot less frequent recently. More and more often now, he actually found himself craving real company, and not the shallow, anonymous kind that he could always find in a bar any day of the week. The real kind that came with a good friend that Jace genuinely enjoyed being around. Somehow, that's exactly what Ben had become, and yes Jace was still only human, sometimes he couldn't help checking Ben out a little when his friend wasn't looking, but that's where it always stopped. Ben was more than just a potential conquest to him, a concept that was so new to Jace that he still didn't really know what to do with it, other than to just let it happen instead of trying to control it.
Jace was already on his third drink, which might be an indication that despite his personal progress, he was still mildly aware enough of the impending date that he was slipping back a little into old habits, but his mood was still relatively cheerful, as it usually was when he was around Ben. They'd made themselves comfortable in a corner booth towards the back of the pub away from most of the crowd and chatter, and neither of them seemed in any hurry to leave, which suited Jace fine. He was pretty content to stay here for as long as Ben would tolerate it. "So does lycanthropy come with any party tricks I don't know about yet? A greater tolerance to alcohol, maybe? I don't think I've ever seen you drunk."