Who: Lexi Branson and Grantaire When: Backdated: Friday, March 17th. Evening Where: A Bar What: St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly Status: Complete
When Lexi found out that St. Patrick’s Day was on a Friday night, she knew that they had to go out and as far as Lexi was concerned, the more the merrier, so she had made a post on Valarnet to try and recruit more people. One of the people who responded was R, who Lexi had gone out to get drinks with once before so she knew that he was bound to be a lot of fun on St. Patrick’s Day.
The night of the St. Patty’s Day bar crawl, that she had planned, she let everyone know the first bar they were starting at then made her way there with Stefan and Bubbles. Others showed up at random, including R. They spent some time at the first bar before moving on to the next. There, Stefan and Bubbles went straight to dancing while Lexi and R headed towards the bar to get drinks.
***
R followed after Lexi with a grin. There was a chance that he had been pregaming, but, well, most of his life could be considered pregaming. Either way, he was in a particularly good mood as he wove through the crowd. He had no clue what sort of themed drinks there were here but he trusted Lexi to get what they needed.
“Vos amis,” he said as they shouldered up to the bar. “They seem fun. Where do you know them from?” ‘Fun’ was a loose term - the man seemed a little threatening and seemed to loom and the girl was excessively bubbly, which made her name perfect. Did mean that R needed a few more drinks to deal with her, though. Which was why he was getting them instead of hanging out with the other two.
***
Lexi reached the bar, but didn’t try to get a bartender’s attention just yet, instead she turned towards R to respond to his question, “Stefan and I grew up together. Families have been friends forever and I’ve only known Bubbles for a few months. Since her and Stefan started dating.” Had R shared his impressions of them, Lexi probably would have agreed completely. Stefan could be a little looming at times, but once he loosened up and got to know someone he wouldn’t seem quite so intimidating and she didn’t think she’d ever seen Bubbles not extremely bubbly. It was an odd name, but one that fit her extremely well.
“So, green beer or something else to start with?” Not that they hadn’t already had green beer at the first bar, but it was St. Patrick’s Day; there was no limit on the number of green beers one could drink.
***
R hummed at the explanation. He didn’t quite understand - he didn’t have friends growing up so much as the children of his father’s associates, so he didn’t get that connection. But he understood the friendship that came from someone dating a friend, and how strange it could be. Bubbles, at least, was nice enough. He had heard of relationships ruining friendships. It was nice to know that it wasn’t always so, but he was still likely to take the cynic route when it came to that.
“Green beer, to start,” he agreed. “The liquor will come later.” The board behind the bar promised half-price Jameson and Car Bombs, and he intended to take advantage of that. “And you, you will drink the beer as well, or something else?”
***
“Of course I’m having some green beer. Like we’ve said before, we don’t get many opportunities for themed drinks.” Lexi smirked and turned to get the bartender’s attention. She ordered the drinks then waited for the bartender to place them on the counter before leaning forward a little further to make eye contact and used her compulsion to get them for free then turned back to R, holding out one of the glasses to him, “One of the perks of being a vampire.” She didn’t use her compulsion all the time to get things for free, but a free drink here and there didn’t really hurt anyone.
***
R took the glass with a grin, slinging an arm around Lexi’s shoulder. “Mon amie, you will have to show me how to do that. Or you will have to come with me to every bar that I go to.” Sadly his dreams imparted no such abilities onto him, only confusing gifts like oyster shells or a staggeringly terrific and terrible concoction that left him with a hangover for three days, as well as a staggering sense of loneliness for the friends that he had in the dreams. That wasn’t to say that he had no friends here - far from it, he was among friends even now - just that they did not have the same feeling as Les Amis de l’ABC, the revolutionary fervor that surrounded the lot of them (barring, of course, poor hapless Marius Pontmercy, who was mostly surrounded by the sensation of an oncoming headache), the easy compatriotism from all but Enjolras (who offered him only earned disdain, and occasional glances that fueled the fire of R’s desire for him, in any capacity). He felt, strangely, apart from both worlds, and lonely in a way that he’d never been before.
But that didn’t matter now. There was a glass of terrible beer sweating in his hand, a beautiful woman to spend some time with, and loud music and lights surrounding him. He held an arm out to Lexi and said, “We will go find your friends now, non?”
***
Lexi smirked before taking a sip of her beer so that it wouldn’t spill over when they started moving, “If I could, I would, but it’s a vampire thing. One of our many abilities.” In her dreams there were quite a few vampires who overdid it with the compulsion and used it to their own advantage any chance they got, but Lexi tried to do most things by the book. “But a free drink every now and then is something I can do.”
When R suggested they go find Stefan and Bubbles, she nodded, “Oui.” It might take them a little while to find them, but Lexi didn’t mind spending more time with R while they did.
***
“It is a shame,” he sighed. “But that means that I will have to take you out ‘every now and then’, n’est pas?” He winked, the sort of over-exaggerated wink of someone who is clearly hamming it up for laughs. It was what he was good at.
R led her to the edge of the dance floor, intending on just sort of wandering until they found Stefan and Bubbles by chance rather than trying to wade into the thick of it with a tray of drinks. That seemed that it could only end in disaster. “Tres bien!” he said with a laugh. “Cette mademoiselle parle la belle langue! Oh speak again, fair angel!”
***
As they reached the edge of the dance floor, Lexi set down the drinks on a nearby empty table and pulled out her phone to send Stefan a quick text to tell him where they were so that when him and Bubbles got thirsty they could find them. “Juste un autre avantage de rêve. Visited France a couple of time during my three hundred and fifty years in my dreams.” She had also taken French in High school, but she had never been able to speak it quite as well as she could now. “Waking up and being able to speak a whole new language was pretty cool.” She could also speak a little Italian as a result of the dreams as well. “And I certainly wouldn’t mind going out with you again.”
***
Ah. A better plan than his, then, but that wasn’t unusual, most plans were. R toasted her ingenuity and then drank deep and settled against the table. It was comforting to hear his native language spoken by someone he had no relation to, even if it was the result of the strange dreams that overtook the citizens of Orange County. He was a beggar and he knew the phrase about them being choosers. “You may have been there for our little revolution, then, if you were there in 1832. Perhaps our paths have crossed before.” He chuckled and drank again.
“Non? Then we will go out again.” R hadn’t often heard those words before, but since coming to this strange place, they weren’t so unusual - usually friendly, yes, but he would take friendship over loneliness. “I will buy the drinks the next time, it seems that it is only fair to treat you as you have treated me.”
***
“So your dreams take place during the French Revolution? Those have got to be some pretty depressing dreams.” Lexi took a sip of her beer as she watched R. She knew of Les Miserables, but she hadn’t put two and two together yet and even if she had, she wouldn’t have told him that what he dreamt about was actually a fictional book/show/movie, because unlike Damon, Lexi didn’t spoil things for people just to be an asshole. “I look forward to it.” She smiled over at R and took another sip of her beer.
***
R shrugged. “One of them, oui, we like to revolt. It is our national hobby, I think.” He drank as well, huffing out a laugh at her comment. “They are not so bad. I have my friends and they have their beliefs. They are stupid and I am sure that they will not end well, but for now they are happy that their revolution is happening. They seem to think that it will succeed. I hope for their safety that it does. Perhaps they really will change the world?” He chuckled again, though it wasn’t nearly as happy, and drank to wipe away the bitterness in his mouth at the thought. The dreams seemed to happen in another world, almost universally; there was a chance that the world of his dreams was different from the one that he lived in today, where he knew that most of the rebellions failed. He was not the type of person who thrived on hope, but sometimes he could find it within himself to try.
He smiled at Lexi as well and raised his glass in a toast. “To our future as drinking partners.”
***
“Who didn’t like revolting back then? Viva la France,” Lexi said, smirking as she held her glass out. She too knew that most of the revolutions didn’t work out too well, but there was no telling what universe R’s dreams took place in. After all, her own dreams took place in the universe where vampires, werewolves and magic existed. So, as far as she was concerned, anything was possible.
She smiled again at his toast and held her glass up again, “I think we’re going to be very good drinking partners.”